Economics

Center on Wealth & Poverty

The Miser versus the Entrepreneur

Why is Ayn Rand so popular today? “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal,” Jesus commanded his disciples, “but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven … For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Some take this biblical passage and others like Read More ›

Bernanke Versus the Austrians

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced Wednesday that he is stepping into the path of Ben Bernanke’s nomination to a second term as Federal Reserve chairman. If Sanders sticks to his guns, Bernanke’s supporters will need 60 Senate votes to confirm the nomination. Good for Sanders. We need a robust Senate debate about Bernanke’s policies, since they helped to create the Read More ›

Israel, Capitalism, and Human Exceptionalism

This article, published by The Jewish Press, provides a review of Discovery Institute Senior Fellow George Gilder and his book The Israel Test: George Gilder’s latest book, The Israel Test (Vigilante Books), is so unabashedly pro-Jewish and pro-Israel that it would make many Jews blush. The rest of the article can be found here.

Photo by Annie Spratt

World Magazine Recommends Money, Greed and God

Many of us have had flu shots this fall, but what about an inoculation against the hate-America economics that many colleges teach? Money, Greed and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and not the Problem, by Jay Richards (Harper One, 2009), undercuts myths that students might otherwise accept as facts.

Book cover of Money, Greed, and God by Jay W. Richards

Among the myths Richards demolishes: The Nirvana Myth (contrasting capitalism with an unrealizable ideal rather than with its real alternatives), the Piety Myth (focusing on good intentions rather than results), and the Materialist and Zero-Sum Game Myths (believing that wealth is not created but simply transferred).

Richards, one of that rare breed with a theology doctorate but an understanding of economics, also points out the errors of the Greed Myth (believing that the essence of capitalism is greed), the Usury Myth (that charging interest on money is immoral), and the Freeze-Frame Myth (that what’s happening now regarding population, income, natural resources, or so on, will always happen).

After knocking down the concept of Christ against capitalism, Richards summarizes proven ways to alleviate poverty: Teach that the universe is meaningful, thrift is good, and the rule of law is essential. He discusses the importance of delaying gratification, establishing property rights, and building stable families. An appendix helpful to libertarians shows why “spontaneous order” in economics does not argue against Intelligent Design in biology.

Another new defense of free markets, Guy Sorman’s Economics Does Not Lie(Encounter, 2009), lacks Christian understanding but shows how economic freedom has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty: He notes that our goal now should be “to secure and protect the system that has served humanity so well, not to change it for the worse” because it is not perfect.

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100 Notable Books of 2009

Each year, the New York Times Book Review publishes its list of ‘100 Notable Books’. This year, the list features The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn, by Louisa Gilder, daughter of Discovery Institute Co-Founder and Senior Fellow George Gilder. The book is available for purchase here. To view the original article, and the full list of book recommendations, Read More ›

Congress is on a Health-Reform Path that will Raise Premiums

Health-care reform is necessary, but what is unfolding in Washington, D.C., is the wrong solution to a legitimate problem. Legislation currently on the table will result in dramatically higher premiums based on costly, above-market minimum benefits and a weak requirement that people purchase and maintain coverage. Both of these policy choices by Congress would mean more expensive premiums for consumers. Read More ›

Who Will Pass the Test?

It wasn’t the author’s intention, to be sure, but George Gilder’s new book, The Israel Test, may infect some Jewish readers with a bad case of WASP envy: only a Protestant patrician with no hint of Hebraic background would dare to write so positively about Israel and the Jews. To those who seek to explain murderous hostility to Israel with Read More ›