“Until we bring the rule of law back into business and instill expectations of strong ethical and moral behavior by business (as corporations and individuals leaders) our economy and country will suffer. I hope this book will provide a framework on how business success, profit, and benefit to society can be brought into a sustainable … Read more
The idea of craftsmanship has long languished as the standard of quantity has prevailed. Products are more often judged by how many can be produced in a given time rather than the quality of the product and the excellence of the skills employed. Sociologist Richard Weaver writes that it was the concept of perfect execution … Read more
1. The right way to start the day: After waking, read or reflect on something that lifts your mind to the higher aspects and realities of life. It should be something that captivates your unique personal aspirations— something that gives you food for lively and refreshing thoughts throughout the day. You can begin with a … Read more
According to legal historian Harold Berman, modern law is based on three elements that come from medieval roots: 1. The discovery of the legal writings compiled under the Roman Emperor Justinian and other Roman codes served as the foundation upon which to build a legal system. It provided the basic legal vocabulary. 2. The scholastic … Read more
One of the problems with the program Common Core is that it places little emphasis to the body of Western literature that has endured over the ages. Rather, it favors what it calls “informational” texts that contain neither moral judgments nor beauty. The great conservative writer Russel Kirk summarizes well why a literary tradition is … Read more
I received an interesting email from an Australian reader regarding my book, Return to Order. She correctly notes that the book deals with many errors that America has helped spread throughout the modern world. One of these is the spirit of frenetic intemperance which is criticized in the book as a source of economic unbalance. … Read more
In dealing with today’s economic problems, it should be remembered that the plague of mass unemployment is a modern phenomenon. At the height of Christian civilization during the Middle Ages, unemployment was rare for reasons that were social rather than economic. Economist Joseph Schumpeter notes that, in principle, medieval society provided for all its members. … Read more
No method of payment changed the buying habits of Americans more than that of the installment plan. The idea of making regular payments as one uses the product caught the imagination of the nation in the early twentieth century. Starting with sewing machines, farm machinery and automobiles, the practice soon embraced almost every line of … Read more
Throughout the Middle Ages, monopolies were regarded with universal disapproval. Julius Kirshner lists three reasons: 1. By enhancing the price, monopolists sold something for more than it was worth, which was against the idea of equality underlying commutative justice. 2. Exploitation in whatever form was against the precept of charity and brotherly love. 3. … Read more
The ability of huge companies to secure massive government contracts through lobbying and cronyism is not a development of the free market but a distortion of it. It is a kind of corporate welfare that ends up redistributing wealth not creating it. Scholar Samuel Gregg explains that crony deals redistribute “risk in a given society … Read more
