Ten years have passed since the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. It was the worst financial panic since the Great Depression. Now it seems that some of the lessons learned back then are being forgotten. Growing debt burdens in emerging markets are igniting new fears of a crisis that could shake economies everywhere. This time the … Read more
“There is no God in this book.” Thus reads the provocative first sentence of Jonah Goldberg’s latest release, The Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy. This declaration is perhaps an unintended summary of the book about the crisis in the West. From it, … Read more
When money becomes the primary concern, it creates a dynamism of its own by empowering banks and other financial institutions to expand the money supply.1 This rule encourages many financial institutions to develop complex new financial products, credit innovations, and speculative instruments that enable them to profit from a tense climate of boom or bust. … Read more
There are those who confuse freedom with choice. They do not realize that freedom is the ability to choose the means to a determined end perceived as good and in accordance with our nature. It is not the choice itself. When a person makes a bad choice or chooses a bad end, the result is … Read more
A good friend of mine was commenting on a local business luncheon with the town mayor that reveals something of the state of the economy and the nation. He reported: “There are no pre-determined topics. Attendees can discuss any issue they like concerning challenges to their business and/or governmental issues that they would like to … Read more
A review of Nothing is Free: The Price Only Business Leaders Can Pay to Protect Free Markets by Dave Geenens (Atchison, Kans.: Inhance Press, 2013). * * * Modern economics tends to reduce what happens in business to numbers and formulas. The human element is taken out, and all is left dry and lifeless. It … Read more
The modern economy of frenetic intemperance often resembles a pendulum. There are periods of extreme productivity followed by crashes and collapse. A classic example of this was the “dot-com” bubble in the spring of 2001. Huge amounts of venture capital had entered the market creating an enormous amount of excitement and spectacular profits. When the … Read more
Occasionally one comes upon a book that presents simple truths in a plain and delightful way. Such books are commentaries based on the experience of life that ring true to the reader. One such book is a slim collection of essays titled simply Ye gods. Originally written and illustrated by Ed Willock in 1948, the … Read more
by Jacob Weymier What is the problem with the Internet and how can it hurt you? Nicholas Carr provides the answer in his book called The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. He talks about how the brain works and how the Internet makes the brain have shallower thoughts rather than deep concentration. … Read more
As the author of the book, Return to Order, I am constantly looking for examples of organic solutions for today’s complicated problems. It is one way I can practically illustrate so many of the ideas found in the book. I look for spontaneous expressions of culture that are often destroyed by today’s mass standardization. I … Read more
