trade

March 09, 2016

Working for Our Neighbor: A Lutheran Approach to Vocation and Economic Life

“If you are a manual laborer, you find that the Bible has been put into your workshop, into your hand, into your heart. It teaches and preaches how you should treat your neighbor.” Continue Reading...

March 08, 2016

How American Protectionism is Like a Foreign Naval Blockade

The evening news reports there has been a complete blockade of the U.S. On the East Coast of the United States, Russian forces have instituted a naval and air blockade, similar to the one being imposed by China on our West Coast. Continue Reading...

February 29, 2016

The New Aristocrats: ‘Conspicuous Authenticity’ in the Free Society

Under the feudalistic societies of old, status was organized through state-enforced hierarchies, leaving little room for the levels of status anxiety we see today. For us, however, status competition ranges wide and free, leading to multiple manifestations and a whole heap of status signaling. Continue Reading...

February 12, 2016

I, Rose: Networks of exchange and the love they deserve

In Leonard Reed’s famous essay, “I, Pencil,” he marvels over the cooperation and collaboration involved in the assembly of a simple pencil — a complex coordination that is quite miraculously uncoordinated. Continue Reading...

December 09, 2015

Aslan’s Song of Stewardship

When we think about “stewardship,” our minds tend to revert to the material and the predictable. We think about money or the allocation of resources. We think about growing crops or creating goods or financial investment and generosity. Continue Reading...

November 16, 2015

Bourgeois Equality: The Modern World Can’t Be Explained By Material Causes

Economist Deirdre McCloskey is set to release the long-anticipated conclusion of the Bourgeois Era trilogy sometime next spring. The book, Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World, will build on her thesis that our newfound prosperity is not primarily due to systems, tools, or materials, but the ideas and rhetoric behind them. Continue Reading...

November 03, 2015

Welcome to Cuba: Where doctors earn less than taxi drivers

In Cuba, taxi drivers earn far more than doctors, raking in more money in one day than a doctor will make in an entire month. The reason? Unlike most of the Cuban economy, taxi licenses are privately held and wages are not set by the state. Continue Reading...

October 30, 2015

Front Porch Economy: The Power of Simplicity

The global economy is ever-growing in its complexity and interconnectedness, leading to a range of positive and transformative effects. Yet even as this web of human relationships expands and intensifies, many of the latest innovations are prodding us back to the simple and personal. Continue Reading...

October 07, 2015

In the Quest for Globalization, Let’s Not Forget About ‘Internal’ Free Trade

“Globalization must do more than connect elites and big businesses that have the legal means to expand their markets, create capital, and increase their wealth.” –Hernando de Soto When assessing the causes of the recent boom in global prosperity, economists and analysts will point much of their praise to the power of free trade and globalization, and rightly so. Continue Reading...

September 30, 2015

How ‘Buy-One, Give-One’ Models Can Dilute Charity and Hurt Local Economies

The highly popular “buy-one, give-one” models — as epitomized by the popular TOMS Shoes brand — have long held the attention of Western do-gooders. It’s quick, it’s easy, and hey, people like the shoes. Continue Reading...

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