Dr. Ninos Pierre Malek Email: ninosmalek@hotmail.com "But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to  to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without  commiting a crime." Frederic Bastiat "Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government." Milton Friedman "Economics deals with society's fundamental problems; it concerns everyone and belongs to all. It is the main and proper study of every citizen." Ludwig von Mises
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About Me: I teach Principles of Macroeconomics and Principles of Microeconomics at San Jose State University and     De Anza College. I also teach Government/Economics and Advanced Placement Economics at                  Valley Christian High School in San Jose, California. My previous experience also includes teaching introductory economics at George Mason University. I hold a B.A. in Economics (minor in Speech-Communications) and an M.A. in Applied Economics from     San Jose State University and a Ph.D. in Economics from George Mason University, where the faculty included Nobel Prize winners Dr. James Buchanan and Dr. Vernon Smith. I also had the privilege of being the student of Dr.Walter Williams. My Ph.D. field exams were in Austrian economics and Public Choice economics and my dissertation focused on economics education. My dissertation committee included economists Dr. Donald Boudreaux (chairman) and Dr. Peter Boettke. My father is Assyrian (from Iran) and my mother is from Ecuador. I was born in San Jose, California on August 23, 1971. I speak Assyrian and Spanish and I speak some Italian after having studied the language at San Jose State University. My parents are Roman Catholic, so I was baptized as an infant in the Roman Catholic church. I also received my First Communion at Holy Family Catholic Church in San Jose when I was in elementary school. However, my parents enrolled me in a conservative Baptist school (Liberty Baptist) in San Jose where I attended from the first grade until my sophomore year in high school (I transferred to Santa Teresa High School my junior year and graduated in 1989). Today, I can best describe my views on fundamental theological issues as conservative, non-charismatic, evangelical Protestant but I am not legalistic in my views on some "liberty issues" where Christians can disagree. Politics fascinated me since I was a young boy starting with Ronald Reagan's presidency. I registered as a Republican when I was 18 years old. However, as I matured and continued my studies in economics, my views became more closely aligned with the  Libertarian philosophy. So, my political philosophy can best be described as conservative/libertarian (depends on the issue). To be clear, even though my positions on some public policy topics are philosophically Libertarian, this does not mean that I support the morality of the issue at hand. In other words, I agree with the conservative perspective on the morality of some issues but not the role of government regarding those issues (with some exceptions). While at San Jose State,  I was a member of Theta Chi Fraternity, the Speech and Debate Team, and student government as Interfraternity Council President in 1993. I graduated  with my B.A. in 1995. At first, I wanted to be a stockbroker after watching the movie Wall Street. However, after working at Merrill Lynch as an intern one semester, I realized that a career involving sales was not for me. I decided that I wanted to pursue law school and a career as a JAG officer in the United States Marine Corps. I went to              United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia in the summer of 1993 in order to receive an eventual commission as a Second Lieutenant. However, because of a medical discharge, my training was cut short and, due to subsequent major shoulder surgeries, I was disqualified from future military service. Instead of attending law school, I entered the graduate program in Applied Economics at SJSU. It was during this time, and specifically after reading a book entitled Economics on Trial by Mark Skousen, that I appreciated free-market economics even more (my first exposure to classical liberal/free-market thought was Frederic Bastiat's The Law which was given to me by a teacher when I was a young teen) and it was in this book that I was introduced to Austrian economics. I later studied Austrian economics during summer programs (1996, 1998, and 2000) at The Ludwig von Mises Institute, located at Auburn University, and at New York University (1997, 1999). I am also an alumnus of the Institute for Humane Studies summer programs (1997) and I have participated in two Liberty Fund meetings. After receiving the M.A. in Applied Economics in December 1997, I worked for a major law firm in Palo Alto working in information technology support. After four months of this, I decided to enter the teaching profession. After a short time of substitute teaching, I started teaching full-time at Valley Christian High School in San Jose in April 1998. At the beginning of the fall 1999-2000 academic year I also started teaching  economics during the evenings and weekends at San Jose State University and De Anza College. I did this until I left in August 2003 to pursue the Ph.D. at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. My interests and activities include reading (mostly nonfiction books dealing with theology, public policy, communication, and economics), writing opinion articles, working out at the gym, some sports (however, I am not into "X-games" related activities such as snowboarding, wakeboarding, motocross, mountain biking, etc., nor am I a "thrill-seeker" into activities like skydiving or bungee jumping), attending my church (Venture Christian Church), going to the movies, grilling, watching TV (especially certain shows on  Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel, Travel Channel, Food Network, UFC, and football--primarily the Dallas Cowboys), and keeping up with the political scene. I also enjoy traveling. I have seen most of the United States from our major cities to the middle of nowhere--especially since I completed a cross-country drive from Washington D.C. to San Jose (going through Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada) in April 2006.  I also have been to Fairbanks, Alaska in early 2012, where not only did I have the chance to lecture at the University of Alaska but I also went dog sledding. In addition, I have travelled throughout Europe on four separate occasions (fall 1997 and summers 2001, 2002, and 2003) doing the backpacking, train, and hostel routine. I have been to Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. I have also been to Ensenada, Mexico on a cruise  and  twice to Nassau in The Bahamas.