Acknowledgements

I'm getting close to the publication of my book, Gambling with Borrowed Chips.

I recently composed an acknowledgements page.  Since that also makes for sort of a neat little bio, I'll include it here.

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Acknowledgements

I’ve dedicated this book to Hans Schroeder, because it was through my involvement with his baby, The Pragmatist, that I first became part of the discussion of the great public issues of most concern to me. That magazine, the result of collaboration between Schroeder and estimable Jorge Amador, was dedicated to the proposition that liberty works, in concrete and demonstrable ways, and that coercion fails. The way to advance the cause of liberty, then, is to explain how and why it works. That simple insight has carried me forward ever since.

I’d like to thank Lee Miringoff, of Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, who gave me some practical experience polling, back in the late 1970s, at the start of what has since become the Marist Institute for Public Opinion.

I thank Myrna Gans, Steve Leo, and Susan Glass. I retain my memories of their comradeship in a suite of law offices in Bridgeport, CT in the 1980s as among my few pleasant memories of what was, for me, an unhappy experiment.

I thank Robert Katz, also a friend in that place and time, for doing his best to turn me into a practical politician, hopeless though that cause proved to be.  

I thank Associate Justice Clarence Thomas for citing an article of mine in his concurring opinion in 44 Liquormart v. Rhode Island (1996). It was a signal honor and, as a result, I have since flattered myself that I played a small role expanding the scope of first amendment protections. I also thank whatever clerk drew that article to Justice Thomas’ attention.

I thank Henry Cohen, who encouraged and advised me in the course of writing that article and many others over many years.  

I’d also like to acknowledge Kristin Fox, Johann Wong, and everybody who did the heavy lifting to bring HedgeWorld into existence as the Clinton years came to an end. Because of their efforts, I had the opportunity to cover and learn about the issues that I discuss in this book in greater depth than would have been possible by any other route – and to do so while pulling down a salary and calling my discoveries work.

Thanks are due to the great figures of the econoblogosphere, the loners sitting at their keyboards in their pajamas who have created a cyberspatial haven for intense debate over how markets work. I have in mind especially the late Greg Newton, of “Naked Shorts,” who was able to scan a 280 page court filing on the demise of the Plus Funds and find the one newsy nugget.

Gary Weiss, Roddy Boyd, Tracy Coenen, have all made their marks on my understanding of these issues and on this book, as has that discreditable felon, Sam Antar.  

I thank Christopher Holt for founding AllAboutAlpha, and Kristin Fox – yes, the same one thanked above! – for carrying on as the AlphaFemale there.

I thank Rosalie Schultz for a long and stimulating correspondence. I am sorry that I let it lapse, and hope she forgives me that. 

I thank Cicily for much, but in particular for suffering with me through Oliver Stone’s second “Wall Street” movie, a crucial moment of inspiration.

Other debts will become obvious within the body of the text. Still others probably won’t. But all those to whom I owe debts know who they are, and to all: Thank you.

Oh, and if it isn’t obvious: No one mentioned above should be held responsible in any way for the opinions or the blatant mistakes of what follows.