How Christianity Redeems Consumer Entitlement
You’ve seen it happen. Maybe you’ve done it yourself. You’re in a restaurant and the waiter is doing a less than superb job. Perhaps it’s near the end of his six-hour shift, or he’s covering more than...
View ArticleWasted Land, Wasted Opportunity
Walk through any major city and you will see weedy lots, fenced-in squares, and derelict developments that many of us try to ignore. Many of these places sit in the middle of the densest, most...
View ArticleAfter 5 Years of Dodd-Frank, “Too Big to Fail” Is Bigger Than Ever
This week marked the 5th anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Financial Protection Act—a piece of legislation supposedly designed to hold big banks accountable and protect consumers...
View ArticleFriday Five: Minimum Wage and the Death of the Summer Job
On Fridays we bring you the week’s best from around the web. This week’s collection includes commentary on the minimum wage, a case for political optimism, and more. “The Right Way Forward for...
View ArticleWoes of a Well-Intentioned Living Wage
Three months ago, Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price announced he would cut his own wages to give all employees a $70,000 wage. This decision earned Price instant acclaim, but it also had its costs. While...
View ArticleFriday Five: How the ‘Netflix Effect’ Is Changing the U.S. Economy
On Fridays, we bring you the week’s best from around the web. This week’s collection includes commentary on the first GOP presidential debate, examples of creative destruction in today’s economy, and...
View ArticleLet Them Eat Capitalism
Clive Crook, a columnist at BloombergView, recently challenged what he calls the “Aspen Consensus,” a set of unquestioned assumptions by the Intellectual Class that capitalism is a “morally tainted...
View ArticleWhen It Comes to Entrepreneurship, Culture Matters
“Culture is one of the most precious things a company has,” said Herb Kelleher, the founder of Southwest Airlines. So it is with countries and cities looking to foster entrepreneurship. A recent study...
View ArticleAuthoritarian Capitalism: Here to Stay?
In 1962, Milton Friedman questioned whether “democratic socialism” could exist. His answer was no—at least not in a sustainable way. Today, with the economic rise of countries like China and India that...
View ArticleRobots Won’t Take Your Jobs, But Government Will
What will destroy our civilization? Overpopulation? Climate Change? One popular source of fear is the idea that technology will replace our jobs, leading to massive social unrest. A recent study blasts...
View ArticleLost in Translation: Pope Francis’ Message on the Economy
Pope Francis’ address to Congress this Thursday will be the first ever by a pope, and many Americans are anxious over what he might say about the global economy. Some expect he will give a rousing...
View ArticleNobel Prize Winner Offers Valuable Insight on Development
When the initial reports came in saying that a professor at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs won the Nobel Prize for Economics, I was not surprised. Wilson is of...
View ArticleRegulation Not the Answer for the Unbanked
A little-known government agency that is virtually unstoppable is tightening its grip over banks and lending institutions, taking away new innovative options from people who are already struggling to...
View ArticleGrowth at Home, Uncertainty Abroad
Last month’s Federal Reserve announcement and global debt troubles prompt an interesting discussion on national institutions and their responsibilities. In December, the Federal Open Market Committee...
View ArticleGiving More on a Limited Income, Part 1: Financial Security
“Your generation doesn’t tithe,” my boss drily remarked to me as we discussed efforts at getting my friends to financially join our mission. “Don’t expect much from them.” I immediately began to think...
View Article“The Big Short”: Funny, But Misleading
Adam McKay’s “The Big Short” achieves a surprising feat—making an economics film funny. And by funny, I mean hilarious. Nevertheless, it minimizes the true story of the 2007-2008 financial crisis by...
View ArticleEconomic Lessons from ‘Star Wars’ Planet Jakku
In “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”—which at this point I’m sure most of us have seen—we are exposed to some fundamental principles of economics. In this post I would like to examine three principles:...
View ArticleHow the China Bubble Is Wrecking the Global Economy
Don’t let President Obama’s rosy last “State of the Union” distract you—the global economy is in crisis. The stock market has taken a huge plunge in recent weeks, and the price of oil continues to...
View ArticleBusiness as Usual: Challenges to Entrepreneurship in Mexico
In 2011, Mexico ranked as the hardest working industrialized country in the world; its workers averaged 45 hours per week, an additional 519 hours annually more than the typical American worker....
View ArticleDodd-Frank: Repercussions on Community Banks and Local Lending
The circulation of liquidity in an efficient financial system is undoubtedly one of the primary pillars of economic progress. For the ever-changing dynamic of the current United States economy, a...
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