The Bible as Agrarian Textbook

By |2024-02-27T20:06:17-06:00February 27th, 2024|Categories: Agrarianism, Bible, Economics, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Timeless Essays, Wilhelm Roepke|

Whether Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or orthodox Protestant, the Bible is the basic book of the Christian faith. One may well ask if it has anything to say about how we should live, not only about the fruits of salvation, but about what kind of government we are to have or what kind of economy? [...]

A Masterpiece of Cultural History: Jacques Barzun’s “From Dawn to Decadence”

By |2024-01-09T18:18:32-06:00January 9th, 2024|Categories: Books, Classics, Culture, Economics, Political Economy, Robert M. Woods, Timeless Essays, Virgil|Tags: |

In the annals of writing history, there are a handful of volumes that have become established as models due to tone, insightful content, and excellence of style. The most recent historical work by Jacques Barzun is such a work. It is a cultural history of the highest standard. As a historical volume of such scope, [...]

The Humane Economy of Wilhelm Roepke

By |2023-10-09T18:57:48-05:00October 9th, 2023|Categories: Economics, Featured, Political Economy, RAK, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays, Wilhelm Roepke|

Wilhelm Roepke was the principal champion of a humane economy: that is, an economic system suited to human nature and to a humane scale in society, as opposed to systems bent upon mass production regardless of counterproductive personal and social consequences. Today I offer you some observations concerning Wilhelm Roepke, a principal social thinker of [...]

Wilhelm Röpke’s Magnetism of the Garden

By |2023-08-29T19:38:17-05:00August 29th, 2023|Categories: Economics, Family, Political Economy, Timeless Essays, Wilhelm Roepke|

Wilhelm Röpke grew mesmerized by population growth projections which counted 300 billion inhabitants on the Earth by the year 2300. In such an anthill existence, he asked, what would happen to those “unbought graces of life”: “nature, privacy, beauty, dignity, birds and woods and fields and flowers, repose and true leisure.” Wilhelm Röpke was an [...]

Return to Order: Organic Remedies and Upright Spontaneity

By |2023-07-20T17:19:04-05:00July 20th, 2023|Categories: Books, Christendom, Economics, John Horvat, Political Economy, Timeless Essays, Virtue|Tags: |

Counting upon God’s grace, we must recognize and respect the organic nature of man, full of vivacity, spontaneity, and unpredictability. This is the essence of a truly organic—that is, living—society. An element of organic society involves the manner in which remedies are found. In searching for solutions, we must carefully observe the fact that organic [...]

Romantic Nationalism, Trade, & Moral Contingency

By |2022-10-10T19:42:49-05:00September 20th, 2022|Categories: Adam Smith, Conservatism, Donald Trump, Economics, Free Markets, Free Trade, Nationalism, Pat Buchanan, Political Economy, Wilhelm Roepke|

It is the perennial task of the conservative to disentangle the truth from the weeds of confusion which keep growing up around it. Samuel Francis and Patrick Buchanan have greatly contributed to the present resurgence of conservative elements rising up in America. Whatever political victories may come of their work should certainly be celebrated. “Go [...]

Manzoni’s Political Economy

By |2020-10-06T11:19:30-05:00October 5th, 2020|Categories: Christianity, Community, David Deavel, Economics, Europe, Literature, Political Economy, Senior Contributors|

Alessandro Manzoni’s gift for seeing the humorous, pathetic, and anger-making aspects of a world in which justice is difficult to find ought to be more recognized. But it is no wonder that what attracts people are the faith, hope, and love that are both the hidden foundation and crown of political and economic life. Alessandro [...]

Why Adam Smith’s Critique of Mercantilism Matters Today

By |2021-03-08T16:18:20-06:00July 1st, 2020|Categories: Adam Smith, American Republic, Capitalism, Economic History, Economics, Free Markets, Free Trade, Political Economy|

Adam Smith, the father of the discipline we now refer to as economics, was a moral and political philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment and contemporary and acquaintance of Edmund Burke. Long heralded as a proponent of self-regulating markets, limited government, and free-market “capitalism,” Smith is often invoked by proponents of corporate capitalism as an archetype [...]

The Journey Home: Wilhelm Röpke & the Humane Economy

By |2020-10-27T03:22:41-05:00March 29th, 2020|Categories: American Republic, Economics, Political Economy, Roger Scruton, Timeless Essays, Uncategorized, Wilhelm Roepke|

Wilhelm Röpke asked how to address the problems of social fragmentation and the loss of community feeling, in a world where the market is left to itself. Röpke’s own idea was that society is nurtured and perpetuated at the local level, through motives that are quite distinct from the pursuit of rational self interest. Two [...]

The “Price Gouging” Myth

By |2020-03-27T09:21:40-05:00March 27th, 2020|Categories: American Republic, Coronavirus, Economics, Political Economy, Politics|

The economic ignorance makes me want to gouge my eyes out. With the coronavirus pandemic upon us, and the topic of 24/7 media coverage, attention has been given to so-called “price gouging.” Webster’s dictionary defines the term simply as “charging customers too much money.” In the context of the current coronavirus panic, the term most [...]

Freedom vs. Free Trade

By |2020-02-10T15:41:27-06:00February 10th, 2020|Categories: Adam Smith, American Republic, Civilization, Economics, Free Trade, Joseph Pearce, Political Economy, Senior Contributors|

Can “free trade,” as understood by Adam Smith, bring peace among nations? Or does it just allow the strongest nations to become imperial powers? In answering these questions, we must keep in mind that Smith was an economist and not a prophet. In all normal civilisations the trader existed and must exist. But in all [...]

A Balanced Position on Tariffs and Protectionism

By |2020-01-05T21:38:41-06:00January 5th, 2020|Categories: American Republic, Economics, Free Trade, Morality, Political Economy, Virtue|

The trade war has ignited debate on the merits of tariffs and the need to protect the nation’s manufacturing base. Battle lines are drawn between an exaggerated localism that stresses self-sufficiency and a bloated globalism where products transit the Earth unhindered and markets alone rule. […]

May We Root for Recession?

By |2019-09-04T01:16:37-05:00September 3rd, 2019|Categories: American Republic, David Deavel, Economics, Political Economy, Senior Contributors|

Will we have a recession in the next year or so? I don’t know. As an old joke has it—one that I’ve seen several times in the last week or so—many were those smart enough to have predicted seven of the last three recessions. My question, moral rather than strictly predictive, is whether we may [...]

Discussing “Capitalism”

By |2019-06-17T15:19:38-05:00December 16th, 2018|Categories: Capitalism, Economics, Free Markets, Free Trade, Government, Joseph Pearce, Political Economy, Senior Contributors|

Speaking personally, I’d rather discuss many things during this joyful season of Advent than “capitalism.” And yet Matthew Summers’ recent essay “In Defense of Capitalism” for The Imaginative Conservative has prompted me to comment on the topic, albeit briefly. […]

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