Capitalism

The Economy of Communion in Africa

by David W. Lutz

Africa is a continent of great spiritual and cultural wealth, but also of great material poverty. The way forward for African economies is not aid and development assistance, but prudent business management that enables African workers to attain higher levels…

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Economics: The Cheerful Science

by Mark W. Hendrickson

Chances are, you’ve heard economics referred to as “the dismal science.” That unflattering description is glib and catchy; it is also 100 percent wrong. Let me set the record straight and explain why economics—far from being dismal—is cause for hope,…

Dawson’s Usura Canto

It gives me no pleasure addressing Christopher Dawson’s views on economics. I learned much from Dawson in my formative years, reading The Sundering of Christendom and The Crisis of Western Education back in high school, and many of his other…

Catholics and “Usury”: A Tragic History

by Jeffrey Tucker

This piece is paired with another view of usury from a distributist perspective, also running today. What makes “social teaching” different from the faith-and-morals magisterium of the Catholic Church? Most of the latter was settled early in Church history,…

Another Sin We Don’t Want to Hear About

by Dale Ahlquist

This piece is paired with another view of usury from an Austrian economics perspective, also running today. The Catholic Church is always condemned for condemning sins. Since we are all sinners, sin is the last thing we want to…

Free Enterprise and the Church: The Morality of Business and Work

by Rev. John Flynn LC

The recent note from the Vatican on financial markets, along with the outbreak of protests in many cities against what is seen as the failures of capitalism, has once more brought up the question of what it is exactly that…

A Misguiding Note from the Vatican

by Rev. Michael P. Orsi

The recent Note issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, “Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority,” has liberals jubilant and conservatives apoplectic with its call “to create some form…

Profits are for People

by Walter E. Williams

The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are demanding “people before profits” — as if profit motivation were the source of mankind’s troubles — when it’s often the absence of profit motivation that’s the true villain. First, let’s get both the definition…

Cooperation: A Free Market Benefits Everyone

by Jeffrey Tucker

The following will explain the most important idea in the history of social analysis. The notion (actually, it’s a description of reality that is all around us but rarely noticed) has been around for many centuries. It was first discovered…

Free Enterprise Looks to the Future

by Michael Barone

Two years ago, in June 2009, the American economy emerged from recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. But as this week’s Economist noted, with typical British understatement, “The recovery has been a disappointment.” And maybe not a…

Not Whether to Help the Poor, But How

by Rev. Robert A. Sirico

The debate over the application of the core teachings of the Christian faith began when Jesus was presented with a Roman coin containing Caesar’s image. In that moment, the Lord drew both a limitation to the legitimate power of the…

A Love Letter to Capitalism?

So here I am in the Holy City for a week, to attend a family wedding and restore my shattered nerves. Too many months spent teaching Great Books in rural New Hampshire is enough to reduce a civilized man to…

Common Sense Versus Nonsense

by Walter E. Williams

William J. McGee, the consumer advocate on the Department of Transportation’s Future of Aviation Advisory Committee wrote “Forcing the F.A.A. to Fly Blind” in The New York Times (April 9, 2011), where he laments Congress’ cut in the FAA budget,…

There Is No Third Way

by Jeffrey Tucker

Catholic discussion of economic policy usually takes place on a ridiculous level of abstraction. What is fairness, and can the market accomplish that? Shouldn’t the civic order bear responsibility for the health and well-being of its members? How can we…

Slaves to Words

by Thomas Sowell

We could definitely use another Abraham Lincoln to emancipate us all from being slaves to words. In the midst of a historic financial crisis of unprecedented government spending, and a national debt that outstrips even the debt accumulated by the…

Five Things Every Catholic Businessperson Must Know

by Dawn Carpenter

A few years ago, I had an interesting conversation with one of our country’s most well-known and respected business leaders. It started as I was chatting with the man’s wife, and she asked me what I did for fun. I…

More Ammo for the Anti-Capitalists

by Laurance Alvarado

As if we needed another reminder of the fruits of avarice, the business press is on fire with the news of the conviction of Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of the hedge fund Galleon Group, on all 14 charges of…

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