President Trump and the American Piggy Bank

By |2018-06-13T12:37:11-05:00June 13th, 2018|Categories: American Republic, Donald Trump, Foreign Affairs, Pat Buchanan, Political Economy, Politics|

At the G-7 summit in Canada, President Donald Trump described America as “the piggy bank that everybody is robbing.” After he left Quebec, his director of Trade and Industrial Policy, Peter Navarro, added a few parting words for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in [...]

Viktor Orbán, George Soros, & the Battle for Hungary

By |2019-12-03T17:16:09-06:00June 12th, 2018|Categories: Europe, Foreign Affairs, Government, Political Economy, Politics, Viktor Orbán|

Many Hungarians clearly perceive their way of life and their country as under threat and sense that influential individuals like George Soros would like them fundamentally transformed. This is a fight between nationalists and anti-nationalists… The victory of Viktor Orbán and his party Fidesz in the Hungarian elections last month elicited the predictable flurry of [...]

Cultural Debris: Two Conferences & the Future of Our Civilization

By |2021-04-29T12:49:09-05:00May 20th, 2018|Categories: Culture, Economics, Political Economy, RAK, Russell Kirk, Western Civilization|Tags: |

There still are men and women enough among us who know what makes life worth living—enough of them to keep out the modern barbarian, if they are resolute. If they are not resolute, and if they cannot make common cause, the garment of our civilization will go to the rag-bin, and the cultural debris of [...]

On Straussian Teachings

By |2023-07-27T09:10:10-05:00October 6th, 2017|Categories: Economics, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Leo Strauss, Neoconservatism, Paul Gottfried, Political Economy|

The nexus between the Straussians and neoconservatives has been overstated for partisan ends, but it is still nonetheless there. Sociologically and culturally, the two movements are largely indistinguishable… The Truth About Leo Strauss by Catherine and Michael Zuckert (University of Chicago Press, 2006). In The Truth About Leo Strauss, Catherine and Michael Zuckert, both professors holding [...]

Decadence, Free Trade, & Mercantilism

By |2023-07-27T09:13:27-05:00February 11th, 2017|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

That boredom, sexual perversion, consumerism, and the general malaise of the West are to a great extent the fruits of past economic growth is long record­ed… “Conquest or superiority among other powers is not, or ought not ever to be, the object of republican systems.” —Charles Pinckney of South Carolina The Rise of Neo-Mercantilism.   [...]

Humane Economy or Romantic Utopia? The Vision of Wilhelm Roepke

By |2019-09-05T11:56:02-05:00February 11th, 2016|Categories: Books, History, Political Economy, Wilhelm Roepke|

June 20th, 1998, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the German “economic miracle.” Of course, there was nothing miraculous about it. Germany’s success was not due to the hard-working character of her people, or to foreign aid, or to any other special reason. It was the natural outcome of a market economy and currency reform. And yet [...]

The National Debt: Betraying Our Ancestors & Our Children

By |2016-01-16T13:01:00-06:00December 14th, 2015|Categories: Bruce Frohnen, Economics, Featured, Federal Reserve, Government, Political Economy|

The national debt has surged more than half a trillion dollars in the last three weeks, as the suspension of the debt ceiling in late October has allowed the government to borrow as much as it wants. — Report in The Washington Examiner America’s national debt is approaching $19 trillion, and has surged over the least [...]

Jeffersonian Political Economy

By |2020-05-17T01:06:07-05:00September 11th, 2015|Categories: Clyde Wilson, Economic History, Economics, Featured, Political Economy, Thomas Jefferson|

Our Southern forebears did not practice economics. They practiced political economy—which is concerned with human well-being. Those old-time Southerners did not assume that man is to be understood wholly or chiefly as an economic being. Economics, as practiced today, is a utilitarian and materialistic study. It is concerned with maximizing profit, with describing the actions [...]

The False God of Economic Growth

By |2020-01-14T11:42:36-06:00May 23rd, 2015|Categories: Economics, Featured, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

Let us be clear on one point: the usual defenders of the free market—the Friedmans, Hayeks and Mises—are not primarily concerned with private property or liberty. They are firstly concerned with economic growth which mainly means continuous economic, technical and social change. For example, when airplanes became popular, air travel would have been very difficult [...]

A New Take on Economic Substitution

By |2019-04-02T16:01:47-05:00May 3rd, 2015|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Wilhelm Roepke|

The concept of “substitution” is a familiar one in economics. Many products are used as substitutes for others such as margarine for butter and tea for coffee. If the price of one becomes too high the other product may be used even though it isn’t perfect. Economic substitution provides people with alternative options which make [...]

Roepke and von Mises: The Difference

By |2019-07-18T11:08:48-05:00April 25th, 2015|Categories: Economics, Ludwig von Mises, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

Some writers link the names of Ludwig von Mises and Wilhelm Roepke as if there were no important differences between them. Roepke is co-opted into the camp of more or less libertarian thinkers whose position is further enhanced by whatever weight or prestige his name may give. Since Roepke was an Austrian economist and former [...]

Taming the Beast of Economics and Trade

By |2019-07-23T14:02:23-05:00April 10th, 2015|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

Wilhelm Roepke The brass mouth trumpeting the virtues of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is Ben Wattenburg. His views display the kind of thick-headedness that Wilhelm Roepke fought against so valiantly. What’s this impenetrable cloud made of that compels him and his kind to stumble along like the proverbial blind [...]

Did the Tariff Really Make America?

By |2020-01-14T11:43:11-06:00December 11th, 2014|Categories: Brian Domitrovic, Economic History, Economics, Political Economy|

Every nation has its “founding myth,” as we are apt to hear from post-modern quarters. But is this ever true when it comes to our economic history. In curricula from K-12 to history graduate school, it is staple fare that as a new nation in the early nineteenth century, the United States nurtured its “infant [...]

“The Struggle against Scarcity:” Arthur Lovejoy and Wilhelm Roepke

By |2019-09-12T13:52:11-05:00December 28th, 2013|Categories: 21st Amendment, Economics, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

During World War II, philosopher Arthur Lovejoy tried to explain the reasons for the international crisis and the totalitarianism in Germany. According to his view, the roots of the trouble could be found in the German Romantic period which ranged approxi­mately between the years 1780 to 1830. During this time certain relatively new ideas took [...]

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