Book of the Day: Hailed as the guide to capitalism when it first appeared in 1981, Wealth & Poverty is one of the most famous economics books of modern times. In it Mr. George F. Gilder argues that supply side economics and free market policies are the answer to decreasing America’s poverty rate and increasing her prosperity. He also presents arguments for the moral superiority of free-markets. Mr. Gilder goes on to suggest that supply side economics is more effective at decreasing poverty than government-regulated markets. In this new and updated edition, Wealth and Poverty: A New Edition for the 21st Century, Mr. Gilder compares America’s current economic challenges with her past economic problems, particularly those of the late 1970s, and makes the case that President Obama’s big-government, redistributive policies are doing more harm than good for the poor. [Read more...]
Conservatism Needs Less Ayn Rand, More Flannery O’Connor
by Andrew Bacevich
How to revive the flagging fortunes of the Republican Party might matter to some people, but it’s not a question that should concern principled conservatives. Crypto-conservatives aplenty stand ready to shoulder that demeaning task. Tune in Fox News or pick up the latest issue of National Review or the Weekly Standard and you’ll find them, yelping, whining, and fingering our recently reelected president as the Antichrist.
Conservatives who prefer thinking to venting—those confident that a republic able to survive eight years of George W. Bush can probably survive eight years of Barack Obama—confront a question of a different order. To wit: does authentic American conservatism retain any political viability in this country in the present age? That is, does homegrown conservatism have any lingering potential for gaining and exercising power at the local, state, or national levels? Or has history consigned the conservative tradition—as it has Marxism—to a status where even if holding some residual utility as an analytical tool, it no longer possesses value as a basis for practical action? [Read more...]
Sensible Economics: What Would Hayek Do?
by Stephen Masty
An audience of more than a thousand, mostly young people, came to the London School of Economics on February 18th to hear Professor Eamonn Butler deliver a talk entitled “What Would Hayek Do to Sort Out This Mess.” You can listen to the audio here.
In context, Butler’s talk is part of a recent series of LSE lectures and debates between Keynesians and their (usually free-marketeer) critics; some notable Keynesian academicians were said to have been woefully ill-prepared and in either case were routed in every contest. Youth attendance was considerable and overwhelmingly anti-socialist. [Read more...]
Forgotten Conservatives in American History: Featured Book
In Forgotten Conservatives in American History Brion McClanahan and Clyde Wilson trace conservatism from the country’s beginnings, and discuss central conservative principles of sound money, light taxes, low debt, states’ rights, and decentralization. Grover Cleveland, the last conservative president; John Taylor, the best political thinker of the Jeffersonian tradition; and Sam Ervin, the last constitutionalist, and others are presented as American conservatives. Through the words and actions of these men, readers will find an understanding of American conservatism from the founding generation to the present. An important book for all who wish to understand our conservative American heritage.
For this and other books by Brion McClanahan and Clyde Wilson visit The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore. [Read more...]




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