Year: 2013

December 11, 2013

Inflation and the Minimum Wage

In yesterday’s edition of The Transom, which I highly recommend, Ben Domenech included a discussion that places the debates over raising the minimum wage within the broader context of the effects of inflation more generally. Continue Reading...
December 11, 2013

Why Max Weber was wrong about capitalism

Sociologist Max Weber famously associated Protestantism with capitalism. Although widely accepted by many, that claim is theologically dubious, empirically disprovable, and largely incidental, says Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg: Even when we consider modern capitalism’s emergence, a direct connection between this event and Protestantism is very open to question. Continue Reading...
December 10, 2013

Redeeming the DIA

Most commentators, apart from Virginia Postrel and the like, seem to think that it would be tragic for the city of Detroit to lose the art collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) in the city’s bankruptcy proceedings. Continue Reading...
December 10, 2013

What Should a Pope Say About Capitalism?

Pope Francis’ recent comments about economics has raised concerns among conservatives and libertarians. But at National Review, James Pethokoukis says free marketeers shouldn’t take the critique so personally: If you are a free marketeer offended by Pope Francis’s Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”) — in which he critiqued “deified” market capitalism and attacked income inequality — ask yourself: What should the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church say about economics in 2013? Continue Reading...
December 10, 2013

The Hypocrisy of Requiring Business to Abandon their Conscience

Mary Ann Glendon makes an excellent point about the outcry for more corporate responsibility while government is simultaneously stripping away the rights of religious conscience of businesses. In The Boston Globe, Glendon notes, The simple truth is that if we want businesses, incorporated or not, to be responsible for their actions, they must be treated as having some moral agency. Continue Reading...
December 09, 2013

Sophia Institute 2013 Annual Conference

This past Friday, I attended the Sophia Institute annual conference. I am a fellow of Sophia and presented a short paper there on Orthodox Christian monastic enterprise. The theme of the conference this year was “Monasticism, Asceticism and Holiness in the Eastern Orthodox World.” Continue Reading...