AmP Publishers Group » Economics

Economics and the Moral Order

doug — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:48:49 +0000

This succinct but illuminating book defends the free market, while criticizing a narrowly economistic understanding of man and society. Baldacchino argues that a sound economy has ethical and cultural prerequisites that are integral to its survival. Includes an introduction by Russell Kirk.

From the Introduction:

“Any society’s moral order develops from its religion, its philosophy, its humane literature. The discipline of political economy, little understood until the latter half of the eighteenth century, is no independent creation: what economic views one holds must depend upon one’s apprehension of human nature. An economic system indifferent to morality will not long endure. For proof of these theses, read with attention Baldacchino’s succinct study, the work of a sound scholar endowed with a philosophical habit of mind.”–Russell Kirk

Joseph Baldacchino is the President of the National Humanities Institute and Editor of the academic journal Humanitas. For many years he was a Washington reporter and editor, in which capacity he addressed most aspects of national policy and politics but with particular emphasis on ethical and cultural issues. Baldacchino is editor of Educating for Virtue and, with others, the author of Irving Babbitt in Our Time. His present writing project, with others, is a constitutional history of the United States entitled Who We Are: The Story of America’s Constitution.

What They Are Saying:

“Baldacchino has raised many of the important issues on which we economists and historians of economic thought need to get busy”–William F. Campbell, Jr., Louisiana State University

Eureka!: The Way to Fix California

doug — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:30:29 +0000

COMING IN MARCH 2012

One needn’t be an economist to know that California’s economy is in crisis. By a number of very important measures, California is failing. Especially considering the state’s status as a bellwether for the rest of the nation, California cannot allow this downward spiral to continue unchecked. It must be reversed—and sooner rather than later. Eureka! is a prescriptive book will provide a true economic roadmap for the rehabilitation of California through actionable solutions. Laffer also looks at other states to endorse practical policies that have resulted in strong economic growth.

Distinguished as “The Father of Supply-Side Economics” for his economic acumen and influence in triggering a worldwide tax-cutting movement in the 1980s, Arthur Laffer was a member of President Ronald Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board during both of Reagan’s terms. Laffer served as a distinguished professor at the University of Southern California and at Pepperdine University, and was also a member of the board of directors at Pepperdine. Previously, he was a professor at the University of Chicago and a consultant to Treasury Secretary William Simon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Treasury Secretary George Shultz, under whom he was named the first-ever Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget. He received his B.A. from Yale University and his M.B.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University, all in economics.

For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture

doug — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:15:59 +0000

Signed by sixty-six scholars and cosponsored by eight leading think tanks, For a New Thrift describes the growing polarization in today’s financial landscape between two very different kinds of institutions. Pro-thrift institutions serve well-off Americans and provide a broad array of tax-advantaged savings plans and financial services. Anti-thrift institutions serve Americans who are stuggling to live paycheck to paycheck with short-term loan at usurious interest rates. For a New Thrift calls for efforts to rebuild broadly democratic, pro-thrift institutions that will serve and reward the “small saver.”

The Commission on Thrift is a project of the Institute for American Values in partnership with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, New America Foundation, Public Agenda, Demos, the Consumer Federation of America, and the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions.

Love & Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village

doug — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:30:55 +0000

In Love and Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village economist Jennifer Roback Morse explains how the economy, which appears to a series of impersonal exchanges, is actually based upon love. Morse also shows how the political order—Hillary Clinton’s “village”—depends upon the prior existence of loving families.

Drawing on the experience of neglected orphans, Morse argues that mothers create the basic attachments that lay the groundwork for the development of conscience. Furthermore, only the family can socialize children to use their freedom responsibly. No social program can take the place of mothers and fathers working together as a team. Unfortunately, stay-at-home mothers are often denigrated by feminists and always squeezed by the economy. Love and Economics defends the economic value of motherhood and outlines a better economic way forward.

Jennifer Roback Morse is a renowned marriage and family scholar. She is the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-Long Love in a Hook-up World and of numerous major academic and public policy articles for journals ranging from the Journal of Economic History to Forbes, Fortune, and the Wall Street Journal.

The Birth of Freedom

doug — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:30:20 +0000

The Birth of Freedom examines freedom in the light of perennial observations and questions about the human condition. People are separated by enormous differences in talent and circumstance. Why would anyone believe that all men are created equal? Why would any nation consider this a self-evident truth? How is freedom born? (Separate study guide also available)

The Acton Institute is an ecumenical think-tank dedicated to the study of free- market economics informed by religious faith and moral absolutes.

The Call of the Entrepreneur

doug — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:30:43 +0000

This film tells the stories of three individuals: a farmer in rural Michigan, a banker in New York, and a refugee from China. Why do their stories matter? Because how we view entrepreneurs—as greedy or altruistic, as virtuous or vicious—shapes the destinies of individuals and nations. Rev. Robert Sirico joins Michael Novak, George Gilder, and other experts in exploring how entrepreneurs shape our world. (Separate study guide also available)

The Acton Institute is an ecumenical think-tank dedicated to the study of free- market economics informed by religious faith and moral absolutes.

The State of Our Unions 2009: Money & Marriage

doug — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:40:05 +0000

The State of Our Unions 2009 seeks to answer the following questions: How is the Great Recession affecting the institution of marriage, as measured by changes in marriage and divorce rates in the United States? How do family finances—especially credit card debt and family assets—shape the quality and stability of contemporary married life in America? What does evolutionary psychology and the contemporary study of finance have to tell us about the best division of financial labor for husbands and wives? Is the Great Recession likely to foster egalitarian relationships between husbands and wives?

W. Bradford Wilcox is director of the National Marriage Project and associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands. Elizabeth Marquardt is the director of the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values, and author of Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce.

The State of Our Unions 2010: When Marriage Disappears

doug — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:55:46 +0000

The State of Our Unions 2010: When Marriage Disappears finds that shifts in marriage mores, increases in unemployment, and declines in religious attendance have played a particularly important role in driving the retreat from marriage in middle America. This retreat from marriage is placing the American Dream beyond the reach of many in our society, imperiling the social and economic welfare of children from middle America, and opening up a social and cultural divide in our nation that does not bode well for the American experiment in democracy.

The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing: First-Ever Estimates for the Nation and All Fifty States

doug — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:38:15 +0000

This study provides the first rigorous estimate of the costs to U.S. taxpayer high rates of divorce and unmarried childbearing both at the national and state levels. Based on the methodology, we estimated that U.S. taxpayers were affected at least $112 billion each and every year, or more than $1 trillion each decade.

Benjamin Scafidi is an associate professor of economics and finance at Georgia College and State University.

Thrift or Debt: Which Direction Is Right for Texas?

doug — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:16:53 +0000

In this appeal to the Texas Legislature, the Texas Thrift Coalition (a nonpartisan, volunteer group of leaders and organizations) promotes thrift and encourages saving as a path to family prosperity and financial security for Texans. Drawing on the “2010 Survey of Texas Savers,” the report presents five major findings, including: 1. Texas families face a savings crisis; 2. Anti-thrift institutions, such as payday lenders, are trapping Texas families into debt; 3. Texans see danger in the rise of anti-thrifts; 4. Texans oppose the expansion of state-sponsored gambling; and 5. Texans want to save more. The report concludes with six recommendations for change.

Barbara Dafoe Whitehead is the Director of the John Templeton Center for Thrift and Generosity. Her books include The Divorce Culture: Rethinking Our Commitments to Marriage and the Family (Knopf, 1997) and Why There Are No Good Men Left: The Romantic Plight of the New Single Woman (Broadway Books, 2003). Charles E. Stokes is the Roy Bergengren Fellow at the John Templeton Center for Thrift and Generosity. Stephen Reeves is the Legislative Counsel of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.