Janus is the Roman god of beginnings and endings, comings and goings, and time. As we enter January 2011, we sense that time is speeding up. Perhaps this feeling is a sign of age, but likely it is related to the increased connectivity of our lives. The word “surge” has, well, surged to popularity in […]
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I used to enjoy Sunday morning TV interview shows. Important government and political leaders would take partisan stands, but sometimes struggle to avoid the implications of intelligent and pointed questions. But those days are gone. Now, everyone who appears on TV interview shows seems to have taken the standard course in media training. Novices are […]
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Last month the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment conducted a program for seminary professors and religious leaders on “Our Environment: Economics, Ecology, and Ethics.” The conference was designed to further FREE’s mission, which is to “assist judges, religious leaders and other community leaders and scholars by conducting seminars that provide tools and […]
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The free market is a wonderful device for coordinating our productive activity to maximize the satisfaction of our needs. It encourages people to cooperate both with those they know and with strangers. Since markets foster both prosperity and personal liberty, communism has been consigned to the dustbin of history except in places like North Korea. […]
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Of the things that determine a community’s level of wellbeing, possibly the most important is social capital. The more involved individuals are in voluntary networks, and the more trust people have for others, the more productive, and happier they and their community are apt to be. In many parts of the world people distrust others […]
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With increasing acceptance of the reality of global climate change, interest groups of all stripes clamor to get in on the act. Some want to do good. Others want to do well, or to impose their notions of virtue on others. Our challenge is to devise sensible responses to global warming, while blocking “solutions” benefiting […]
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