Economics & Empire 369
Possessive Individualism: Can We Really Own Ourselves?
The bedrock principle of all Liberalism, whether of the Right or the Left, is Locke’s assertion that “every man has a Property in his own Person.” If is from this…
An Imaginary Conservatism: The Realists vs. the Romantics
Reprinted from Ethika Politika Michael Hannon has made a serious attempt to deal with the disputes between the “capitalist” and “anti-capitalist” conservatives, and such a serious attempt deserves a serious…
The Rhetoric of War Powers
I suppose we have the Constitution we deserve--but we could fight for the one we had.
Nourishing America
In a recently popular documentary, Rosie, a 5th-grader from a small town in Colorado, describes how she often goes to bed with an empty pit in her stomach. Sometimes the…
Holy Days, Holidays and the Weekend, or: Are we all Proletarians Now?
Archduchess Maria Theresa, wife of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Franz Stephan of Habsburg-Lothringen, is on the way to her desk. She is about to enact another of…
Economic Smackdown!: ‘Porchers’ vs. ‘Austrians’
Earlier this month, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute held a summer program for college students in Louisville, Kentucky. Titled "Arguing Conservatism," the event featured faculty lectures followed by student debates on issues…
What Health Insurance Does to Prices
Last summer, my youngest son was on a church trip on the other side of the country, when he hurt his hand. A deep gash on his middle finger required…
Independence Day Discord
As some prepare to don the stars and stripes in all tasteless manners of irony, and speak sarcastically and casually about concepts such as freedom; and as others, who opt…
Seemliness and Scale
The terms ‘seemly’ (conforming to accepted notions of propriety or good taste) and ‘unseemly’ (not proper or appropriate) describe behaviors which are not, strictly speaking, moral or immoral, legal or illegal,…
The Localist and the Big Box Store
Hidden Springs Lane. Should a localist shop at Home Depot? Or Walmart? The question, as I’ve stated it, should taste slightly off, like milk that is just on the verge…
Food Stamps and Krazy Glue
On a recent Monday morning, an officemate and I were discussing the current financial state—always a cheery subject on a Monday. Mark, a financial planner, said that many believe we…
What Then Must We Do?: Worker Ownership Redux
The following is an excerpt from from Gar Alperovitz's What Then Must We Do? (Chelsea Green, 2013) and is reprinted with permission of the publisher. Learn more about the book here. By the way, and…
Capital Offense
Washington, DC I’ve been spending my semester in exile in our nation’s capital. My apartment is in Arlington, on a ridge overlooking the city. From that spot I have a…
U.S. ‘Intervention’ in Syria Unlawful
Proponents of Syria “intervention” did not seem to notice any irony as Secretary of State John Kerry, on the one hand, chastened Iraq for letting Iran use its airspace to…
Democracy Is A Racket
War and Democracy by Paul Gottfried Arktos Media Ltd 170 pp., $21.00 In this slender volume Paul Gottfried addresses everything from the influence of ancient Greek thought on Oswald…
In Defense of President Obama’s Syria Policy
Myriad calls have been made for intervention in Syria. President Obama has been blamed with everything from “feeble paralysis most foul” to subcontracting “foreign policy to the likes of Qatar”…
Filibustering the Filibuster
Washington, Connecticut. As I watched Senator Rand Paul slurp his dripping candy bar, a sinking feeling set in. This does not diminish his determined stance but one should rightly be…
What Does the Boss Really Do? Business Education and the Liberal Arts
An address given to the Ciceronian Society at Mount St. Mary's University, March 3. At the start of each semester, I ask my MBA students, “What are you here for?…
The Journey Home
If you had told me, a happy and professionally satisfied D.C. lawyer living on Capitol Hill, just over a year ago, that I would be back someday soon living in…
Exurban Dream? What Exurbs and Suburbs Have in Common
When in 1967 my parents were the thirteenth family to move into newly minted Columbia, Maryland, I was three months old. The American dream at that time generally took the…
The Budget Redux
So I’ve recently written about the GAO’s overview of the US Economy. The CBO has just released its own report projecting economic activity and the budget for the next ten…
The Budget: A Citizen’s Guide?
The Department of the Treasury recently released its “Citizen’s Guide to the 2012 Financial Report of the United States Government.” At 246 pages of relatively dense economic analysis I’m guessing…
Free to Share
When SueAnne Bassett learned that she had stage four cervical cancer eight years ago, her doctors gave her a 20 percent chance that she would live five years, and that…
Barack Obama: Socialist?
Washington DC When President Obama took office in 2009, many friends of capitalism were concerned that he would socialize our economy. Yet corporate profits have hit record heights…