John Médaille is a businessman in Irving, Texas, and also an Instructor in Theology at the University of Dallas, where he teaches a unique course on the Social Encyclicals for Business Students. He is the father of five, grandfather of two, and husband of one. He is the author of The Vocation of Business: Social Justice in the Marketplace and is finishing up another book, Equity and Equilibrium: The Political Economy of Distributism. John also blogs at The Distributist Review.
John Médaille
Articles by John Médaille
Scientia and Sapentia, or, What the Schoolmen Knew
Modern science has given us modern miracles, like iPhones and atom bombs and Chrysler cars, but has not given us the wisdom to use them.
The Cost of Everything
Without proper accounting, there can be neither honest pricing nor clean water.
Neo-Feudalism and the Invisible Fist
So how did we get to a situation where the “freedom of markets” has come to mean “servility” and corporate control?
Wendell Berry and the Great Economy
Economics has become a totalizing system claiming the power to explain all things. It is as much a religious system—by another name—as is Berry's Great Economy.
Naive Experts: Economists and the Real World
If your doctor had this same track record of diagnosing and treating disease, you’d be dead by now.
The Armani Exchange
Due to the vagaries of the weather and the incompetence and indifference of Delta Airlines, I found myself homeless in New York City for 24 hours. Although the airline caused…
On Not Asking the Right Questions
In 1954, the Bell system (at the time, THE phone company) decided that a technical background was not sufficient, and sought to give its rising young executives an intensive course…
Lethal Loyalties: Dulce et Decorum Est
What if the nation-state was not the cure but the cause of the wars that we term “religious”?
Doing God’s Work at Goldman’s
Regulation, as we all know, was merely a demonic attempt by closet communists to deprive us of our liberties. And the markets, being made of of sophisticated buyers and sellers…
Hurray for Hellman’s
I am not quite sure what Hellman's gets out of this, but it's the best public service spot I've seen. Watch their "Buy Canadian" commercial. Hat tip to Grace Potts.
The New “New Liturgy”?
Suitable for Eester and Krustmas: Sunday's Coming! Hat tip to Brennan Hartley
Revenge of the Weeds
"“It is the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen,” said Andrew Wargo III, the president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts." Farmers Cope With…
Small is Beautiful–and Profitable
In 1983, Jack Stack led a group of employees to buy-out a division of International Harvester, the Springfield Remanufacturing Company (SRC). But Stack and his associates where not just interested…
We Are All Goldman Sachs
I should not eat Snickers Bars in the afternoon. While it is not yet illegal, and probably not immoral, it is certainly fattening. But I like the veneer of chocolate…
Aristotle and Aquinas, Bank Regulators
But if there is one thing that both Democrats and Republicans agreed about in the 90's, it was that these “monstrosities” didn't need to be regulated.
The Evangelization of Business
For our readers in the Oakland area, who have nothing in particular to do next Saturday, I will be speaking at the Manhattan Forum at St. Margaret Mary Church, 1219…
The Closing of the Conservative Mind?
No fan of Frum am I, but this is disturbing. The AEI has fired him for deviations from the Party Line.
Plutonomics, Citibank, and the Doom Cycle
And what is the CLEW, you may ask? It is the Cost of Living Extremely Well, which measures such essential items as the price rise in Beluga caviar or a…
A Tale of Two Banks
He discovered that he could solve the dependence on loan sharks in one village with a mere $27 in capital. For a man who was used to working in millions…
Obama Agonistes
The President who promised change could not even change the Chairman, not even one who had failed so badly, and who continues to fail.
Welcome to the Plutocracy
This will not last. Greed consumes everything, until it finally consumes itself.
The Politics of Ingratitude
Here is the great secret of my generation: What our parents gave us as a gift we have received as an entitlement. No one is not grateful for an entitlement.…
The Lost Decade
Here are some interesting numbers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in October of 1999 there were 109,487,000 non-farm, private-sector jobs in the United States. 10 years later, there…
The Economic Stork
The answers we get are dictated by the questions we ask, but there was one question which always grated on my wife's nerves, no matter who frequently she was asked.…