CZAR Cass Sunstein: Who is he?

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

I'm hearing rumors about this new czar. I know he was a Harvard Professor. I found his wiki page. However i'm hearing some other stuff about him that concerns me, i'm trying to find more information about it though.

I hear he likes behavioral economics and that he is fond of the government trying to use psychology to control our economic habits.

Supposedly he is also ok with individual posters, such as those of us on this forum, being able to be sued by people over what we may say. I also heard he wants to hold those that host message boards accountable to what the posters in the forum say. Opening up the doors to sue for liable for anyone posting or hosting one of these forums.

These claims i heard bother me and before I jump off the bridge bitching about it I would like to get some more info. I'm reasearching the man now and hope some of the Liberals and Conservatives will join me so i get a FULL picture of who this power weilding CZAR is.

 

[Ringel05]

I'm hearing rumors about this new czar. I know he was a Harvard Professor. I found his wiki page. However i'm hearing some other stuff about him that concerns me, i'm trying to find more information about it though.

I hear he likes behavioral economics and that he is fond of the government trying to use psychology to control our economic habits.

Supposedly he is also ok with individual posters, such as those of us on this forum, being able to be sued by people over what we may say. I also heard he wants to hold those that host message boards accountable to what the posters in the forum say. Opening up the doors to sue for liable for anyone posting or hosting one of these forums.

These claims i heard bother me and before I jump off the bridge bitching about it I would like to get some more info. I'm reasearching the man now and hope some of the Liberals and Conservatives will join me so i get a FULL picture of who this power weilding CZAR is.

I'm still trying to learn more about him also, and the more I read the more concerned I become about him being involved in government. Much of what he purports is "interesting" at best and sheer lunacy at worst. And this guy is supposed to be a highly regarded contitutional lawyer. That's scary.

 

[Sinatra]

Here you go...

Obama’s Shadow Cabinet | Newsflavor

 

[Polk]

For all the bitching about "czars", most of the positions people are bitching about are positions that have existed for years.

 

[PixieStix]

He wants PC, taken to a whole new "progressive" level

Market place of ideas has no place in America

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkRWs6RsEIY]YouTube - Glenn Beck: August 31, 2/7[/ame]

 

[PixieStix]

Cass, is an ass who thinks we owe our liberty to taxation

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px0P9T2N8p8"]www.youtube.com/watch?v=px0P9T2N8p8[/ame]

 

[pete]

For all the bitching about "czars", most of the positions people are bitching about are positions that have existed for years.

Under the name czar with radical, communist/socialist backgrounds wanting to change America to the extreme left?

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

For all the bitching about "czars", most of the positions people are bitching about are positions that have existed for years.

I'm not bitching about there being CZARS i'm just trying to find out more information about this czar as I heard some sketchy 1984 style stuff about him.

I'm trying to verify or disprove what I heard, do you want to help or troll?

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

i found out he was named the 2003 Harvard Law School Oliver Wendell Holmes lecturer.

Cass Sunstein to Deliver 2003 Holmes Lecture

I heard a quote by him today too...i'll find it shortly.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

In protecting safety, health, and the environment, government has increasingly relied on cost-benefit analysis. In undertaking cost-benefit analysis, the government has monetized risks of death through the idea of "value of a statistical life" (VSL), currently assessed at about $6.1 million. Many analysts, however, have suggested that the government should rely instead on the "value of a statistical life year" (VSLY), in a way that would likely result in significantly lower benefits calculations for elderly people, and significantly higher benefits calculations for children. I urge that the government should indeed focus on life-years rather than lives. A program that saves young people produces more welfare than one that saves old people. The hard question involves not whether to undertake this shift, but how to monetize life-years, and here willingness to pay (WTP) is generally the place to begin. Nor does a focus on life-years run afoul of ethical limits on cost-benefit analysis. It is relevant in this connection that every old person was once young, and that if all goes well, young people will eventually be old. In fact, a focus on statistical lives is more plausibly a form of illicit discrimination than a focus on life-years, because the idea of statistical lives treats the years of older people as worth far more than the years of younger people. Discussion is also devoted to the uses and limits of the willingness to pay criterion in regulatory policy, with reference to the underlying welfare goal and to the nature of moral and distributional constraints on cost-benefit balancing.

It seems like a talking out of both sides of your mouth statement here. I could be wrong.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=421341

 

[veritas]

I hear he likes behavioral economics and that he is fond of the government trying to use psychology to control our economic habits.

It's more of a study about markets than individual buying habits. It's an arcane subset of economics that resurfaced late the last century. You hear all the time about "sentiment" and mood" from financial talking heads. Somebody studies these things, and he is one.

So don't get your BVD in a wad, k?

 

[L.K.Eder]

i would never trust someone with a first name like "cass".

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

I hear he likes behavioral economics and that he is fond of the government trying to use psychology to control our economic habits.

It's more of a study about markets than individual buying habits. It's an arcane subset of economics that resurfaced late the last century. You hear all the time about "sentiment" and mood" from financial talking heads. Somebody studies these things, and he is one.

So don't get your BVD in a wad, k?

No need to act like a twit when someone actually questions statements they hear about a guy in attempt to find out if they are true or not.

 

[Oddball]

For all the bitching about "czars", most of the positions people are bitching about are positions that have existed for years.

Good thing this president isn't a status quo kind of guy, huh??

Hopey Changey strikes again!

 

[Oddball]

I'm hearing rumors about this new czar. I know he was a Harvard Professor. I found his wiki page. However i'm hearing some other stuff about him that concerns me, i'm trying to find more information about it though.

I hear he likes behavioral economics and that he is fond of the government trying to use psychology to control our economic habits.

It's known as social engineering.

It's a favorite pastime of ivory tower Marxsists, who've never had to earn buck out in the real world.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

This guy has some ideas that I would not like to see in practice.

The theories and ideas make intellecutal sense. It just leaves me with that "wrong" feeling when i think about them being implimented. Social engineering sounds like a bad idea IMO.

 

[veritas]

In protecting safety, health, and the environment, government has increasingly relied on cost-benefit analysis. In undertaking cost-benefit analysis, the government has monetized risks of death through the idea of "value of a statistical life" (VSL), currently assessed at about $6.1 million. Many analysts, however, have suggested that the government should rely instead on the "value of a statistical life year" (VSLY), in a way that would likely result in significantly lower benefits calculations for elderly people, and significantly higher benefits calculations for children. I urge that the government should indeed focus on life-years rather than lives. A program that saves young people produces more welfare than one that saves old people. The hard question involves not whether to undertake this shift, but how to monetize life-years, and here willingness to pay (WTP) is generally the place to begin. Nor does a focus on life-years run afoul of ethical limits on cost-benefit analysis. It is relevant in this connection that every old person was once young, and that if all goes well, young people will eventually be old. In fact, a focus on statistical lives is more plausibly a form of illicit discrimination than a focus on life-years, because the idea of statistical lives treats the years of older people as worth far more than the years of younger people. Discussion is also devoted to the uses and limits of the willingness to pay criterion in regulatory policy, with reference to the underlying welfare goal and to the nature of moral and distributional constraints on cost-benefit balancing.

It seems like a talking out of both sides of your mouth statement here. I could be wrong.

SSRN-Lives, Life-Years, and Willingness to Pay by Cass Sunstein

I think he's trying to suggest a new way to express/calculate a variable that will later be plugged into an equation to determine feasibility. An analagous form of this would be employees to man hours.

 

[Polk]

For all the bitching about "czars", most of the positions people are bitching about are positions that have existed for years.

I'm not bitching about there being CZARS i'm just trying to find out more information about this czar as I heard some sketchy 1984 style stuff about him.

I'm trying to verify or disprove what I heard, do you want to help or troll?

What's funny is this guy was criticized by environmentalists when he was appointed because of his conservatism on regulatory issues.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

I saw some glenn beck clips where he quoted this guy and played audio of him talking.

I'm trying to find the audio in full context just in case beck pulled a beck with it.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

So now that people were listened too with the Van Jones resignation do you think people will continue only with another czar? Maybe this guy