I recently participated in a student seminar at a large state university. We were discussing readings by Adam Smith, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and others. One student appeared to have a fairly strong attachment to Marxist and socialist ideas. I found myself grateful to him because his participation vastly improved the conversation. At one point, he ventured a critique about the different amounts of money people receive as pay for their work. “What one human being can do is not...

The 8th of April is a wonderful day. Surely, it is not a special day for everyone. But for me it is. Full disclosure: April 8th is the undersigned PowerBlogger’s birthday and he is not alone. It is also the birthday of some amazing people, among which are Betty Ford and German philosopher Edmund Husserl. April 8th is even said to be Buddha’s day of birth. It is certainly no Christmas, but at least this day has left me with...

The endless drama of Brexit – which last week wrote yet another act with Parliament rejecting all possible options – should make many wonders about the future of representative democracy and the dynamics of power in modern society. Does representative democracy – or its almost interchangeable synonyms like democracy or people’s sovereignty – have a future? The short answer is no, it does not. However, this question has many more nuances than a careless mind might notice. All political regimes...

The international Left extols the European Union, because they see its “ever-closer union” as the prototype of a supranational government with a centrally planned economy. Former President Barack Obama expressed this sentiment this weekend, saying the EU represented the “pinnacle of human well-being.” Hetoldan audience in Berlin: We live in uncertain times. We’re confronted by big questions about how to organize munities and our countries and the international order. Here in Berlin we have to recognize that this moment is...

Sean Ryan, a Buffalo, New York Assemblyman, wants to control what you eat. Last week, the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport nixed plans to open a Chick-fil-A after Assemblyman Ryan took to Twitter to call out the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) for allowing this “discriminatory” corporation to open inside the “taxpayer-funded public facility.” It took just one-day for the NFTA to respond, saying that they would, in fact, scrap plans to bring Chick-fil-A to the airport. NFTA cited Chick-fil-A’s past funding...

Note: This is post #118 in a weekly video series on basic economics. What happens when you deposit money in a bank? Because of government requirements, the bank must keep some but it allowed to lend out the rest. So if you deposit $10 dollars, they can lend out $9. This practice is known as fractional reserve banking. These types of deposits can have a huge impact on these supplies. As Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution University says, this is...

Series Note: Jobs are one of the most important aspects of a morally functioning economy. They help us serve the needs of our neighbors and lead to human flourishing both for the individual and munities. Conversely, not having a job can adversely affect spiritual and psychological well-being of individuals and families. Because unemployment is a spiritual problem, Christians in America need to understand and be aware of the monthly data on employment. Each month highlight thelatest numberswe need to know...

Henry Lee III, besides being the father of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, may be best known for his masterful eulogy of George Washington. “To the memory of the Man, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” was Lee’s most memorable line about the first American president. In “Light-Horse Harry Lee,”(Regnery History, 434 pages, $29.99), historian Ryan Cole offers up prehensive portrait of the oft-forgotten Lee whose rapid rise as a brilliant military...

In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul affirms that Gentiles have the law “written on their hearts” (Romans 2:15). Since then there has been a constant debate about what constitutes the natural law (i.e., a body of unchanging moral principles regarded as a basis for all human conduct) or whether it even exists. A new study finds confirmation for the natural law and identifies seven of these laws that are related to cooperation. Oxford University researcher Oliver Scott...

Fr. Robert Sirico was recently interviewed by Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J., on The Catholic Current. Their topic: ‘Socialism & Venezuela: What Can Catholics Learn?’ The conversation was wide ranging. It begins with a consideration of the disastrous mitment to central planning and its present fruit of shortages, starvation, and totalitarianism in Venezuela. The role of profits, rule of law, and morality in the market economy is also explored with an in depth discussion of the unique contributions of Catholic social...