David Michael Phelps

Posts by David Michael Phelps

March 02, 2006

Economic advice pro Bono

An interesting piece in Tuesday’s Financial Times (registration req.) by Jagdish Bhagwati, economist at Columbia University. In the form of a letter to U2 front man Bono, Dr. Bhagwati offers a (I think) stinging criticism of attempts to save Africa through appeals for more governmental spending. Continue Reading...
March 02, 2006

A swiftly tilting economics

I was waiting for the shuttle this morning when it struck me–an idea, I mean, not the shuttle. We talk a lot here at the Acton Institute about how economics needs morality and morality needs economics; or, as Fr. Continue Reading...
February 28, 2006

Beginning “The End of Poverty”

Although I am a year behind here, I have just started reading Jeffrey Sachs’s The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, paperback just released by Penguin (with a foreword by Bono!). Continue Reading...
January 31, 2006

What was that saying about power?

From the Washington Post, a snippet from Hugo Chavez, discussing Bolivia’s recently elected president, Evo Morales: “We have to create, one, two, three Bolivias in Latin America, in the Caribbean,” [Chavez] said echoing a quotation from Argentine hero Ernesto Che Guevara. Continue Reading...
January 25, 2006

‘The look of love’

If I may, I’d like to highlight one more section from the Holy Father’s new encyclical that has particular relevance to the work here at Acton (although, I agree wholeheartedly with Kishore below: one really must read the whole thing–it’s fantastic): Love of neighbour is thus shown to be possible in the way proclaimed by the Bible, by Jesus. Continue Reading...
December 20, 2005

Petrol-socialism

Predictions, anyone? Chavez continues to flex his socialist muscles as he has now given ExxonMobil an ultimatum: either give him the controlling interest in their company, or lose their Venezuelan operation altogether. Continue Reading...
December 07, 2005

R&L Autumn issue features Winter

For those of you looking for some holiday reading, check out the new issue of Religion & Liberty. The issue features an interview with Ralph Winter, producer of such films as X-Men, X-Men 2, X-Men 3, The Fantastic Four, a Star Trek here and there, and a host of other films. Continue Reading...
November 14, 2005

To counter social ills…

The separation of church and state–that slippery topic–was dealt with recently with simplicity by the Holy Father. In speaking to the US Ambassador to the Vatican regarding ethics in politics, he said: “The disturbing spread of social disorder, war, injustice and violence in our world can ultimately be countered only by renewed appreciation and respect for the universal moral law whose principles derive from the Creator himself.” Continue Reading...
November 11, 2005

Physician, whom dost thou serve?

An interesting piece in the new New Atlantis, The Moral Education of Doctors. …the transformation of doctoring in the image of science may also obscure, in important ways, the real character of the medical vocation. Continue Reading...
November 10, 2005

18, clumsy, and shy, I went to Hillsdale and I…

God Bless America. 18-year-old Michael Sessions was elected mayor of Hillsdale, MI, on Tuesday in a write-in campaign. Aside from having a great addition to his college applications (Float Committee; Football; Honor Society; Mayor), Sessions has shown not only what the power of initiative can achieve in a free society, but the importance of individual involvement in politics, involvement that helps keep that society free. Continue Reading...