August 2010 Archives

August 05, 2010

Chinese Politics: Power, Ideology, and the Limits of Pragmatism

Chinese Communism is no longer about ideology. Now it is about power. I reached this conclusion on the basis of six months spent in China and extensive conversations with my Chinese friend and fellow Acton intern Liping, whose analysis has helped me greatly in writing this post. Continue Reading...

August 05, 2010

Europe’s Surviving Farmers Show True Entrepreneurial Spirit

Are the Old Continent’s farmers showing that they have a real entrepreneurial spirit and serving as role models of courage and innovation during the Great Recession? Surely not all of them, but there are some inspiring examples to be found in Central and Southern Europe. Continue Reading...

August 04, 2010

Health Care Subsidiarity in the UK and the US

A recent New York Times story reports that the new British government plans to “decentralize” the National Health Care system as part of its new austerity measures. Practical details of the plan are still sketchy. Continue Reading...

August 04, 2010

Manuel F. Ayau (1925-2010): A Life for Liberty, Justice, and the Truth

Those who love freedom were saddened to learn this morning of the passing of one of the most significant contributors to the cause of liberty and individual responsibility in Latin America, Manuel F. Continue Reading...

August 04, 2010

Rome’s Graffiti and Bastiat’s Broken Windows

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a nice piece about the problem of graffiti in Rome and the obstacles to cleaning it all up. While the graffiti are certainly an eyesore in an otherwise beautiful city, there is also great economic damage done, which leads to impoverished understandings of private property and general urban decay. Continue Reading...

August 03, 2010

Here I Stand: Marketing and Remembering the Reformation

I just couldn’t pass this one up. Below is an ENI story on the installation of 800 “colourful miniature figures of the 16th-century Protestant Reformer Martin Luther” in the market square of Wittenberg. Continue Reading...

August 03, 2010

Ralph Raico on Religion, Lord Acton, and Classical Liberalism

One of the charges sometimes leveled against classical liberal thought is that it opposes all authority; that it seeks to reduce society to an amalgamation of atomized individuals, eliminating the role of religion, community, and vibrant social institutions. Continue Reading...

August 02, 2010

An Open Letter from Alexis de Tocqueville to President Barack Obama and the American People

I think that the oppression threatening democracies will not be like anything there has been in the world before…. I see an innumerable crowd of men, all alike and equal, turned in upon themselves in a restless search for those petty, vulgar pleasures with which they fill their souls…. Continue Reading...

August 02, 2010

Salary and Significance

During a recent conversation, a Chinese friend of mine commented on the lack of political involvement that she has observed in her peers, especially in comparison to American college students. She attributes this lack of involvement to the fact that the Chinese do not believe that political action can change the policies or even the identities of their leaders. Continue Reading...

August 02, 2010

Italy, competition and the problem of guilds

Last Saturday’s New York Times contains an entertaining, edifying but ultimately sad tale on what ails the Italian economy. Entitled “Is Italy Too Italian?“, the Global Business article seeks to explain why Italy often tops “the informal list of Nations That Worry Europe” economically. Continue Reading...