The Memoirs of Jack Powelson

14: Land Seizure in Cali, by Jack Powelson

"As Luigi and I toured the slums of Cali in his Volkswagen, we found ourselves at a dead end before a large ceibo tree. Ahead lay a field, about a mile long and half a mile wide, dotted with what seemed like tents in a campground..."

15: Kenya: A Turning Point, by Jack Powelson

"Kenya may have been the turning point, but it was only the culmination of a long-growing suspicion: Was my career as advisor to Third-World governments doing more harm than good? ..."

16: My Ten Years in Marxistland, by Jack Powelson

"My first looking-glass world was Bolivia in 1960. There I taught for one year, whenever the students were not on strike, in the University of San Andres. The students — almost all Marxists who disliked my world — were lively and friendly..."

20: The International Monetary Fund, by Jack Powelson

"Back in 1950, the gag was "How do you get to Washington?" Answer: "Go to Harvard and turn left." So I did just that..."

39: What is Economics? by Jack Powelson

"I have always been part of the family I will call 'progressives,' because I love them and feel at home with them. Progressives are people who care about the environment, who want to improve conditions of the poor, and who want a more just world. My problem is, that most of the progressives that I know and love have never studied economics..."

90: There Will Always be an England, by Jack Powelson

"I looked around me. Where only an hour ago the streets had been bustling, now there was no one. I was all alone in a deserted, darkening downtown London..."

96: Conscientious Objector in World War II, by Jack Powelson

"I took my physical exam in 1943, to see if I was fit for civilian public service as a conscientious objector. I presented my papers to the receptionist sergeant..."

97: My Spiritual Journey, by Jack Powelson

"Gandhi insisted that if his people wanted independence, they had to start acting like they were free and take responsibility for their own lives, their own local communities, and their own local, concrete issues of poverty..."

98: The Brown Cushion, by Jack Powelson

"This was the first of many lessons Cindy taught us on how to learn, how to live, how to love, and eventually how to die..."

99: How I Learned Economics, by Jack Powelson

"One day in 1938 I marched in a parade down Boylston Street in Boston, singing 'Solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong.' I may not have known what I was singing, but the union people were very friendly, and I felt sure I was promoting a cause. It was the Roosevelt era, and our great leader was piloting the country out of its worst depression ever — or so I thought..."

100: Lille 1948, by Jack Powelson

"How would you like to lead a group of economics students to France?" Donald Watt asked me. He was the founder of the Experiment in International Living..."

102: The European Union, by Jack Powelson

"In 1948-49, as I was tootling back and forth between Frankfurt and Paris, friends on both sides of the border were talking about a "United States of Europe." They had in mind something like the "United States of America," but they had no idea how difficult that would be..."

103: Land Reform 1965, by Jack Powelson

"Covey Oliver, the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, had a great idea, which he explained to me in the car on the way from Bogotá to Girardot..."

105: The Balkans, by Jack Powelson

"There is no country that I know literally 'nothing' about, but on many I come pretty close. Romania and Bulgaria are among them..."

162: Jack Powelson, 1920–2009, by Jack Powelson

"It seems strange to be writing one's own obituary, but that's the way life and death go. When I was in college I chauffeured an elderly retired judge who wrote his own obituary for the newspaper. The least I can do is write mine for The Quaker Economist, the journal I founded eight years ago. Yes, this is an obituary. I died on January 1, 2009, after a brief illness. I had a good life, and it had to end sometime...." [3 Jan 09]