The rich get richer when they use government to marginalize the poor.
The role of the laity will be crucial.
“If it matters, measure it.”
Or is it already too late?
If we fail to preserve the institutions of the republic, the American dream will be in grave danger.
I don’t know who they are, but I’ve got to hand it to them. I’m too cynical to do what they do! I speak of the Americans who, every year, donate money to pay down America’s national debt. The Bureau of the Public Debt — part of the Treasury Department — began allowing such donations […]
“Am I creating wealth, or am I engaging in rent-seeking behavior?” If this question would be asked during a course of business ethics at George Mason University (GMU), few would be surprised. “Rent-seeking” is a term used often in “Public Choice” economics, and GMU has been the home of an academic center with that focus. […]
Paul Ryan says it’s going to happen, the sequestration, that is. One can hardly imagine any alternative scenario, in which Democrats and Republicans work it all out, and come out singing Kumbaya with a deal to avert the workings of the automatic cuts, share and share alike, to domestic and defense discretionary spending. Certainly, it would be better a) […]
Welfare has become a characteristic of President Obama’s domestic policies. There has been a surge in American citizens on welfare over the last four years, including a 50-percent increase in people on food stamps (from 32 to 47 million). It is a form of “welfareship.” As a citizen of France, I know such a society […]
Thomson Reuters’ latest survey of Wall Street analysts’ expectations about next quarter’s corporate earnings has prompted some to wonder whether the canary in the coal mine is beginning to feel lightheaded. According to the Wall Street Journal, those in the know are expecting decreased earnings in the third quarter, the first quarterly decline since the […]
On Tuesday evening, I had the honor of attending the State of the Union address as the guest of Congressman Mike Kelly (PA-03). Here are my impressions in abbreviated form: The address seemed more like a rewrite of previous speeches than an original work. Sure, there were new anecdotes and fresh twists on old policy […]
Lately, there has been the labeling of government officials, and Obama in particular, as socialists, and decrying government interventions as socialist per se. Now, I will not deny that Obama is probably a socialist of some sort at heart, and that he has many of the aberrant moral ideas as the socialists. However, the characterization […]
The Occupy Wall Street movement has yet to define itself, and remains in a state of flux and complexity. Commentators attempting to stereotype OWS, and reduce it to a simple formula, might consider Albert Einstein’s maxim that “politics is more complicated than physics.” Our local chapter of OWS is called Occupy Seattle. Let me offer […]
The important piece of news out of Rome today is that the Vatican has allegedly called for a “central world bank” in reponse to the continuing speculation and instability in the world financial system. I say “allegedly” because the text in which this call appears is not by Pope Benedict, but by a Vatican office, […]
The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace issued a document today titled, “Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority.” Commenting on it is Catholic League president Bill Donohue: There has been much hyperventilation from some quarters over the release of this document. All of it is unwarranted. […]
Two historic countries, moving in opposite — and unexpected — directions. “Sweden” isn’t the first word that normally crosses our minds when we hear the expression “free market.” But if President Obama, Paul Krugman, Warren Buffett, and other progressives want to find ways out of America’s seemingly-intractable economic crisis, they might consider looking to the […]
The country has just passed through a long debate to reach a doubtful end. Indeed, it is not really an end at all, but a mere postponement of the fight, a fight that will last through the next elections at least. Hence, we will spend the next year and a half witnessing a debate over […]
President Obama’s tour through the Midwest in a coal-black Darth Vader-mobile begs comparison with past presidential excursions. I’m thinking of those made by presidents Harry Truman and Woodrow Wilson. First, the president repeated his Trumanesque mantra about his version of a “do-nothing Congress,” dominated by a minority who put the good of the party above […]
As we all know, the end of the world is coming soon. No, I don’t mean the eschaton, the final event in which the Son returns all things to the Father. That will be, by all accounts, a very cinematic event, full of all sorts of special effects. It will be, no doubt, very entertaining […]
As the August 2 deadline for a debt-ceiling deal drew near, many expected a big deal that would significantly change the direction of federal fiscal policy. After weeks of tumultuous negotiations, partisan bickering, and impassioned histrionics, the agreement that finally emerged was, to put it bluntly, no big deal. Ironically, the most accurate assessment I […]
With […] a growing consensus that federal spending at current levels is unsustainable, political support for farm subsidies is waning fast. What’s more, high crop prices and clear injustices are building bipartisan support for significantly cutting agricultural subsidies in the 2012 Farm Bill. The New Deal introduced an enormous number of agriculture subsidy programs paved with good […]
Religious progressives are often quick to condemn those who extol the virtues of market economies for focusing too much on material concerns. This charge of materialism is, in fact, a core and valid insight contained in most critiques of consumerism, a phenomenon in which people tend to equate their own value and meaning with the […]
A 1961 Reader’s Digest piece called it “America’s shame on the South Seas.” American Samoa remains relatively impoverished compared to the rest of the United States to which it is attached. Recent efforts to invigorate its economy offer a lesson in government planning and unintended consequences that those who seek to help the poor would […]
As the European Union’s financial crisis continues to unfold across the old continent, many young Europeans are belatedly realizing their economic future looks rather bleak. Unfortunately, the tens of thousands of young Europeans who have taken to the streets of cities such as Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Athens, and Paris in recent months to express their […]
