Generally, the topic of inflation is considered dry and uninteresting, but it is one that has garnered much attention and debate over the past year. There are competing narratives as to what inflation is and why it matters, and even whether the U.S. Continue Reading...
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December 15, 2021
Advent lifts the veil of judgment and mercy in the divine economy
One of the more disturbing aspects of the way the market economy works is the ability of, at least some, participants to avoid responsibility for their decisions and actions. The manner in which this works is through the concepts of corporate personality and limited liability. Continue Reading...
December 14, 2021
Hong Kong drops 62 places in “press freedom” by country
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released this year’s World Press Freedom Index, ranking countries based on press freedom, from the most to the least press. In 2002, for example, Hong Kong was ranked 18th. Continue Reading...
December 14, 2021
China and Russia don’t know why they were excluded from the “Summit for Democracy”
Presidential summits tend to focus on PR rather than substance. The Biden administration’s “Summit for Democracy” looks no different.
Its objectives were worthy. As the State Department explained it, President Joe Biden planned to “bring together leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector to set forth an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal and to tackle the greatest threats faced by democracies today through collective action.” Continue Reading...
December 13, 2021
The social responsibility of business is still to its business
Most people have intuitions about moral issues of consequence, but we often find it difficult to put these intuitions into words. Something seems to us to be right or wrong, but we struggle to express our ideas accurately and to explain why our intuitions are reasonable and compelling. Continue Reading...
December 11, 2021
Pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai found guilty over Tiananmen Square Massacre vigil
Hong Kong media tycoon and outspoken pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has been convicted for his involvement in a vigil commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
On Dec. 9, Lai, along with two other prominent Hong Kong activists, Gwyneth Ho and Chow Hang Tung, were found guilty of incitement and taking part in unlawful assembly. Continue Reading...
December 11, 2021
What the Kyle Rittenhouse trial taught America about assumptions, keeping peace
On Nov. 19, Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges related to the fatal shooting of two men and the wounding of another on the third day of widespread rioting and civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August last year. Continue Reading...
December 09, 2021
When bookshops were miraculous, romantic places
I began a series of essays on Christmas movies last week with The Bishop’s Wife (1947), a story about church, the community of the faithful, and spiritual responsibility. This week, I’m writing about a less lofty subject, the community of the workplace and the life of commerce, but a much better movie, The Shop Around the Corner (1940), one of the classics of old Hollywood, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as shopkeepers who fall in love over Christmas. Continue Reading...
December 08, 2021
Christmas 1991: The birth of freedom in the death of the evil empire
“You can have a very quiet Christmas evening,” wished Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to American President George H. W. Bush. “I am saying good-bye and shaking your hand.”
It was a long-distance handshake, done via telephone. Continue Reading...
December 07, 2021
The problem of the atheist economist
There is much in the classical liberal economist that I find attractive. By classical liberal, I do not mean the sort of political liberalism that defaults to certain presumptions of big government. Continue Reading...