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1. St. Homobonus, Patron Saint of Business People

   March 30, 2009 by Stephen J. Haessler

   Thanks to my Catholic economist friend John Larrivee (see Dr. Larrivee’s guest post on fair trade here) for teaching me about St. Homobonus. St. Homobonus is the patron saint of business people. He was a wealthy textile merchant in Cremona, Italy during the late twelfth century, sometimes depicted with a bag of money in his hand. (more…)

   Tags: Common Good, Freedom | Comments (2)

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2. Governed by Emotion

   March 20, 2009 by Stephen J. Haessler

   By a vote of 328-93, the US House of Representatives ignored the U.S. Constitution and allowed their emotions to guide their decisions. The House measure places a 90% tax rate on bonuses received by managers at AIG and other bailed out firms. The problem is this emotionalism is illegal. (more…)

   Tags: Common Good, Taxes | Comments (0)

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3. The Dignity of Freedom

   March 16, 2009 by Stephen J. Haessler

   There is a challenging editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal by Shelby Steele. In it he explores why, for minorities, liberalism frequently has had more appeal than conservatism. (more…)

   Tags: Freedom, Human Dignity | Comments (0)

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4. President Fails Economics

   March 12, 2009 by Stephen J. Haessler

   President Barak Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received their report cards. They both failed economics, according to a survey of economists conducted by the Wall Street Journal. And when asked in an interview with Pajamas Media what President Obama ought to do, economist Thomas Sowell replied, “Resign.” Oooo, ouch. (more…)

   Tags: Economic Literacy, Hope | Comments (0)

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5. Mankiw-Krugman Wager Over Growth

   March 11, 2009 by Stephen J. Haessler

   My money’s on Mankiw. The bet was offered by Harvard economist Greg Mankiw over the projected growth of the United States economy between 2008 and 2013. The growth rate the Obama administration is using is 15.6%.  Earth to Obama administration. (more…)

   Tags: Multiplier Effect, Stimulus Package | Comments (2)

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6. The “Science” of Killing Tiny Ones

   March 10, 2009 by Stephen J. Haessler

   Civil libertarian Nat Hentoff  views the pro-life stance as an extension of the fight for human rights, in this case for the really, really tiny ones yet to be born. Yesterday’s reversal of the ban on federal funding of fetal stem cell research was claimed to be above politics and ideology. How can elected officials, or their official activities while in office, ever be above politics? Reminds me of the implied madness in the lyrics of Thomas Dolby song, “She Blinded Me With Science!” (more…)

   Tags: Abortion, Federal Subsidies, Valuation | Comments (4)

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7. Visualizing Trillions

   March 6, 2009 by Stephen J. Haessler

   When I teach macroeconomics, we cover national income accounting and use lots of large numbers. I’ll ask students what they think the difference is between a million, a billion, and a trillion seconds of time, for a comparison of how these amounts might be related in dollar terms. The difference is jarring. A million seconds is about 11.5 days. (more…)

   Tags: Fiscal Policy, Stimulus Package | Comments (2)

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8. Brophy Students Respond

   March 3, 2009 by Stephen J. Haessler

   Welcome theology and economics students at Brophy College Preparatory from Phoenix, Arizona! Brophy was founded in 1928 and is a Catholic, Jesuit, secondary school. When I looked at the school’s inspiring philosophy, one statement stood out. It mentioned that Brophy “encourages dialogue between Christian faith and contemporary thought.” It is fitting then, to have some of Brophy’s students engage a question involving faith and economics in this month’s student forum. (more…)

   Tags: Preferential Love of the Poor, Stimulus Package | Comments (122)

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9. Catholic Economists on Stimulus Package

   March 2, 2009 by Stephen J. Haessler

   There’s an important article in the recent Our Sunday Visitor by Joseph O’Brien titled Catholic Economists Take Issue with Federal Stimulus Package. The article highlights some economists’ concerns with the recently passed stimulus package, or Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Both liberals like Alan S. Blinder and conservatives like John Mueller are concerned about the package, though for different reasons. (more…)

   Tags: Justice, Stimulus Package | Comments (4)

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Recommended Reading

Click each cover for more info and a short review.

Pope Benedict XVI

Charity in Truth: Caritas in Veritate

This is a test review.




Thomas Sowell

The Housing Boom and Bust

I’m only on page 15 but this is an awesome book. It is the clearest explanation of the proximite cause of the current recession I’ve seen so far. One of the most important things I’ve learned is housing prices in California, the hottest real estate market leading up to the housing bust, was driven largely by political restrictions on land use. In San Mateo County for example, half of the land was designated off limits for housing. This artificial, political land shortage drove up the prices of even modest homes to mansion-like levels. Must continue reading.




Mark R. Levin

Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto

This is a good book. I especially like how Mr. Levin ties opposition to growing statism to our founding principles and documents. I was shocked by the description of Mass v. EPA (2007) that declared carbon dioxide a poison to be regulated. Absurd. Statism has imposed unfunded ponze schemes like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

The weakest chapter was chapter 9 on immigration. I counted 11 paragraphs in this chapter that dealt with the economics of immigration, none of which mentioned the fact of positive net benefits overall of immigration. I posted on this issue on 25 May 2009.

Despite one weak chapter, the book is a must read for anyone interested in an intelligent defense of freedom and prosperity.




Gregory Clark

A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World (Princeton Economic History of the Western

One of the most astounding claims in this fascinating book (though I’m still not convinced the industrial revolution’s take-off is explained by the survival of the richest) is the admission that a key, maybe the key insight in economics is based on faith and reason. Hmmmm…. You see the importance of faith?

The context of the claim is Clark’s description of Robert Solow’s model of growth as based on a simple equation involving four variables: labor, capital, land, and innovation. This last factor plays a decisive role. And yet:

“Note, however, that when we arrive at this final truth as to the nature of modern growth we have lost all ability to empirically test its truth. It is a statement of reason and faith, not an empirical proposition. Physical capital can be measured, as can the share of capital income in all income in the economy. But the generalized spillovers from innovation activities are not in practice measurable.” (p. 204)

I think this insight makes the dismal science much more interesting because now vulgar materialists and simplistic empiricists might actually have to believe in entrepreneurs without knowing exactly how much they contribute! “…we know they’re important; just not how important…”




Russell Roberts

The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance

This is a wonderful novelized principles textbook. Basic economic concepts are revealed through the dialogues between a high school economics teacher and his English teacher fiancee. When I taught high school economics at Marquette and my wife taught English, I was amazed how closely art resembled life, or was it the other way around?




Barbara Frale

The Templars: The Secret History Revealed

This is a great book. I have a mini-library on the Knights Templar and this is the best of the bunch. Barbara Frahle discovered the Chinon Parchment or trial transcripts of the Templar leadership from the early 1300’s. What I learned from her narrative was that Pope Clement V was not quite the scoundrel as other authors have made him out to be. In fact, he cleared the Templar of heresy, though did find that some of their initiation rites were out of line. In any case, he does not come off like Philip IV who positively salivated at the prospect of expropriating Templar wealth and was willing to use any excuse to enrich himself. May he reflect on all this during his time in Purgatory.

I also learned that the Papacy’s long, long struggle for independence from the monarchical governments of Europe created space within which detailed understandings of human freedom grew. In fact, the divine right of kings may be connected to Philip the (Un)Fair, who made a claim dating back to Clovis that the crowned princes, not the Popes of Rome, had responsibility for protecting the Church on earth. Ominous, most ominous.




Burton W. Folsom

The Myth of the Robber Barons

Short read that rescues the reputation of some American business heros from the muckrakers. Should be read by all teachers and students of American history.




Amity Shlaes

The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression

The quote from William Graham Sumner’s lecture explains the title of this first rate history of the New Deal:

‘As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X. Their law always proposes to determine … what A, B, and C shall do for X.’ But what about C? There was nothing wrong with A and B helping X. What was wrong was the law, and the indenturing of C to the cause. C was the forgotten man, the man who paid, ‘the man who never is thought of.’ (p. 12)




Thomas Sowell

Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One

My favorite part is Dr. Sowell’s exchange with his teacher, Arthur Smithies of Harvard. Sowell explained his strong feelings in class for a given policy proposal. Dr. Smithies asked, “And then what will happen?” (p. 4) Smithies kept asking this question after each answer, illustrating a key skill of economic analysis in going beyond first stage thinking to consider costs. benefits, and unintended consequences of well-meaning policies like affordable housing, anti-discrimination, or income equalization policies. This is the principle of considering secondary effects.




David Schmidtz

Person, Polis, Planet: Essays in Applied Philosophy

Here is a wonderful quote from p. 176 quote: “In turn, citizens internalize responsibility when they face the world of tangled joint causation as it is, and do not rely on courts to save them from themselves.” Amen. No thanks, Nanny State. Give me personal responsibilty.




Steven D. Knope

Concierge Medicine: A New System to Get the Best Healthcare

This is an important book by a doctor who wants people to take responsibility for their own health and by doing so become healthier.




Diana Wood

Medieval Economic Thought (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks)

Chapters 7 and 8 contain illuminating dicussion of usury. This from p. 205: “Leo X [1515] canonized the attitude that ‘Usury and trewe interest be thinges as contrary as falshed is to trewth,’ in effect, admitting that the Church had come to terms with economic practice …. Paradoxically it was the Protestants, with their biblically based faith, who kept the usuary debate alive by returning to the traditional scholastic attitudes.”

And this from p. 204: “[Pope Leo X] had undermined most of the foundations of the usury doctrine. By accepting the charging of interest by the montes from the beginning of a loan he had denied that loans were free, and also, by implication, suggested that time could be sold. By suggesting that a profit could be made, provided that it involved labor, cost, or risk, he was sanctioning the main extrinsic titles to interest, and so hinting that barren money could be made fruitful by the application of any of these three.”

And of course, a fascinating few pages on ‘clerical usury’ and papal lending practices and the understandings thereof, beginning on p. 171.




Clayton M. Christensen

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns

Predicts online delivery and differentiated instruction are waves of the schooling future.




Robert William Fogel

The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100: Europe, America, and the Third World (Cambrid

The free economy has contributed hugely to the material foundations of the common good. This book presents an empirical assessment of the “technophysio evolution[ary]” basis of this development, and an “optimistic view of the course of changes in health and longevity during the twenty-first century.” (p. 109)