Front Porch Republic » Economics & Empire

There is No Such Thing as a Bank Loan

John Médaille — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:16:11 +0000

“Dexia” is not a word familiar to most Americans, and if told that it is a French bank in need of a fresh bailout, the knowledge would likely elicit no more than a yawn. Interest might increase, however, if they…

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A Doomsday Cycle Increase regulations or remove the safety net? ...
Aristotle and Aquinas, Bank Regulators But if there is one thing that both Democrats and...
A Tale of Two Banks He discovered that he could solve the dependence on...

The Closing of the Republican Mind (A Séance)

Elias Crim — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:30:58 +0000

Lucky me, to be invited to try the beta version of Google’s newest and coolest app — Séance! After a quick download and install, I wasted no time in launching my first “collaboration,” picking three figures from the spirit world:…

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The Closing of the Conservative Mind? No fan of Frum am I, but this is disturbing....
Closing the Circle: An Economy of Values, and Where to Look for It It is no surprise that many of us connected with...
And the Jays Have it (Republican Bunning Hazards the Impolitic) As one of literary bent and so frequently guilty of...

Democracy and Coercion

Mark A. Signorelli — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:30:43 +0000

Like other readers here at FPR, and across the web, I have been following the Great Salyer/Carter Debate of 2012 with much interest. I thought Mr. Salyer’s original article was outstanding, and in reply, Mr. Carter voiced a number of…

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How the Bar Jester Would Fix America (Warning: It Involves Coercion) The underpopulated farm and the crowded casino remain for me...
Civility and Democracy Alexandria, VA… In the wake of the tragic shooting in...
The Future of Democracy in America This week I have been lecturing at the Ignatianum Academy...

In Beauty We Should Damn Well Trust

D. W. Sabin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:34:37 +0000

Washington, Ct.… The recent contretemps between the blessedly described “liberal conservatives” at the First Things web site and our own clutch of barking mongrels here at the homespun Porch revealed that the First Things folks might consider the important arena

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Beauty and Other Transcendentals Devon, PA.… The penultimate installment of “Art and Beauty against...
Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic Devon, PA. …During the next few months, I shall...
The Recovery of American Beauty Holland, MI… The present age remains haunted by the...

Friends and Strangers: A Meditation on Money

John Médaille — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:06:03 +0000

I start my meditation with a true story that will serve as a parable. On his 21st birthday, the nature writer Francis Thompson was presented by his father with a bill for all the expenses of his upbringing including the…

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Making Money Chances are that unless you’re a total financial wonk, you’ve...
Pining For the Fleshpots of Reagan? What a country!...
Friends Abroad: Vandana Shiva LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY. …One of the structural evils of our two-party...

In November, None of the Above

Jason Peters — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:34:29 +0000

There is no one worth spending a vote on.

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Flowers (Potatoes?) in November? The Southern Tier Efflorescence The dank and drear of Election Day and its...

Agrarian Hypocrisy and the Evils of Distributism

Mark T. Mitchell — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:52:01 +0000

One thing that has amused me in these first three years of FPR’s existence is the tendency of some readers to single out one or two articles and lament that FPR was once a promising venture but has now taken…

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Wendell Berry and the New Urbanism: Agrarian Remedies, Urban Prospects The problem is a result of the underlying specialization—not of...
Agrarian Politics: Why I Care Interest in agrarian politics can start in childhood. As feminists...
On Feeling “Forgotten”: Agrarian Aspirations in the Andes “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” ...

Gas Bag

Patrick J. Deneen — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:32:50 +0000

George Will has penned an end-of-year pick-me-up for conservatives, counseling them that the likely prospect of Republican Presidential electoral defeat in November (given their sad slate of potential nominees) ought not to get conservatives down in the mouth. Rather, things…

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More of the same old energy policy Obama's energy initiatives offer little change, and less hope. Large...
Against the Environment Alexandria, VA …The other night I happened to catch the...
The Long Run Alexandria, VA …It has become a commonplace to observe that...

Occupy Food! (And Other Simple Things)

Russell Arben Fox — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:22:38 +0000

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] As Christmas and the end of 2011 approaches, I find myself thinking gratefully about what Leroy Hershberger has enabled my students and me to learn this year, and what that learning has meant to me.…

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Technique and Food: Why our Local Food System does not Feed Us Here are the local puzzle pieces that we somehow need...
“On the Grid”: When Electricity (and Other Things) Came to the Countryside “Come in and look,” Quintín urged me, as he disappeared...
The Connection Between Food and Fairies It turns out locally-produced food is not only good for...

“Even mainstream Democrats have no time for Mr. Paul . . .”

James Matthew Wilson — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:26:13 +0000

Devon, PA.… We face only two feasible policies in America’s engagement with the world. We can seek to be a bomb-throwing hegemon until the money, and the credit, and the bodies, run out, and can identify American national interest with our sitting

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Talkin’ Pauken At last, true localist and traditional voice from the land...
President Obama’s Afghanistan Speech Erie, PA.… Presidential speeches are evaluated in two basic areas,...
The Best Foreign Policy is No Foreign Policy Or, Domestic policy is the only policy....

Occupy Oligarchy!

Emil Kramer — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:09:17 +0000

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has proved to be significant in its appeal – a majority of Americans support the movement, even though it has been less than articulate in delineating its positions. Why is that? I suspect it’s because…

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Who Says College Isn’t Transformative? “In 2000, 56 percent of entering college students backed it....
Pining For the Fleshpots of Reagan? What a country!...
Occupy Food! (And Other Simple Things) [Cross-posted to In Medias Res] As Christmas and the end...

Compensation: The Cultural Contradictions of Philanthrocapitalism

David Bosworth — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:33:51 +0000

… Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess. — Ralph Waldo Emerson It is appropriate that Robin Rogers begins her informative essay on the state of philanthrocapitalism with a very large number — the 600 billion dollars in charitable

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Contracepting Cultural Memory R.J. Snell writes, "Contraception is already so normalized in our...
Person of the year? I don’t look to any of the MSM for enlightenment,...

Cars, Individualism, and the Paradox of Freedom in a Mass Society

Ted V. McAllister — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:28:56 +0000

The automobile squared perfectly with a distinctive American ideal of freedom—freedom of mobility.

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Cars and Freedom "Here's a couple of things America got right - cars...
The New “Freedom” Claremont, CA…. Becka flew into my office, so excited...
Philanthropic freedom, freedom of association, and CLS v. Martinez I hope that a Porcher will react at length to...

Global Warming, Local Farming, and Naomi Klein: A Trip to the Land Institute

Russell Arben Fox — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:28:05 +0000

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS… A couple of weeks ago some fine intellectuals, political figures, journalists, and activists associated with this blog gathered together to talk about localism, and specifically how one might discover in our local communities

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Distributism and Global Warming Not a Single Cube of Ice In November of 2008,...
It’s the Land, Stupid I'll take the old gal with a few well-earned wrinkles...
Defending Local Prohibitions Since Caleb wants to argue about it, I will comply....

A Question for David Brooks

Patrick J. Deneen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:01:31 +0000

Alexandria, VA … On Monday night of this week, New York Times columnist David Brooks spoke at Georgetown University at the invitation of the program that I founded and direct, “The Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy.” A large

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David Brooks on Phillip Blond David Brooks offers an unstinting positive assessment of Phillip Blond's...
David Brooks Does (In) Edmund Burke SOUTH BEND, IN.… Edmund Burke’s reputation has suffered much among...
David Brooks, Internationalism, and the Coaxing of America After reading David Brooks’ “The Rugged Altruists,” which romanticizes the “giving”...

On the Use of a Grim Joke and a National Elegy

Jason Peters — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 04:57:44 +0000

Until then you’ll welcome into your homes the talking heads who, loving an abstraction, spread a pestilential hatred.

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An Elegy for Tobacco Henry County, Kentucky.… What holds a community together? Or rather,...
An Elegy for South Bend Devon, PA.… Some years ago, early in my graduate...
No National ID Tags for Buttercup–Yet Since the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) has been discussed...