Touché

For a succinct article on governmental processes versus private processes, see this nice little report by Bill Steigerwald. It focuses on responses to Hurricane Katrina by private companies and by the city, state, and federal governments. Continue Reading...

Through rain, sleet, and privatization

Any predictions on how this will turn out? All eyes should be watching Japan, whose legislature just approved the privatization of their postal service. (It is important to note that the Japanese postal service is markedly different from ours here in the States.) Continue Reading...

Harriet miers and proper jurisprudence

Acton President Rev. Robert A. Sirico appeared yesterday on Your World with Neil Cavuto on the Fox News Channel and discussed the president’s nomination of Harriet Miers to replace Sandra Day O’Connor as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Continue Reading...

Natural justice, eminent domain, and corporate welfare

A man’s home is his castle, unless of course government officials need his property for a new strip mall or a hotel. Since June, when the U.S. Supreme Court dramatically expanded government’s eminent domain powers, some three dozen states have formulated measures to protect property owners from the Kelo v. Continue Reading...

Church-backed international development

In between dire warnings from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) about the evil neo-liberal economic order and calls for more money from its member denominations, this gem arrived today via Ecumenical News International: Church bank says its loans are at forefront of anti-poverty fight Utrecht (ENI). Continue Reading...

Ethical ‘Super Speculation’

This interview with Charles Sandmel, a veteran of the municipal bond market, gives us some insights into current trends in the ethical investing movement. Some key points: The leading market sectors over the last few years are in areas that “most of them [ethical investors] avoid, such as energy.” Continue Reading...

Afterthoughts on the aftermath of the New Orleans flood

Eric Schansberg ponders the lessons that we can learn from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One of Schansberg’s biggest questions in light of the government’s failure to effectively manage the disaster is this: if the government, both local and federal, failed at all levels to deal with Katrina before, during, and after it made landfall, shouldn’t we be looking for other options rather than trying to depend more on a system that obviously failed? Continue Reading...

The poor suffer most

Also from last week’s McLaughlin Group, Mort Zuckerman from U.S. News & World Report makes the important point that rising costs of gasoline greatly impact the poorest and most vulnerable populations. Continue Reading...