Weston Hicks responds to my post on Joyce Appleby’s book on the history of capitalism: “The state used to be a tool of the powerful to entrench themselves and press their advantage, but Christendom transformed it into an arbiter of fair play, unleashing the . . . . Continue Reading »
Joyce Appleby begins her The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism with a discussion of the definition of her subject. Is capitalism an expression of a basic, immutable human nature (Smith: everyone exerts “uniform, constant, and uninterrupted effort . . . to better his . . . . Continue Reading »
Kinneging points out the ambiguous relationship that traditional conservatism has often had with the market: “No conservative will deny that a system of mutual provision of services, based on a range of evil affects residing within man - which are further inflamed by the unrestricted . . . . Continue Reading »
In the “how other people live” category: Hernando de Soto ( The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else ) argues that the key obstacle to Third World prosperity is the invisibility of their assets, and the assets are invisible because property . . . . Continue Reading »
Over the past sixty years, writes Dambisa Moyo ( Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa ), Africa has received over $1 trillion in aid. Study after study concludes that it has had minimal, or even negative effects on Africa’s economies: One study finds . . . . Continue Reading »
Gifts blind the clear-sighted and subvert justice (Exodus 23:8). In context, that’s statement about bribery, and the word used for “gift” here is almost invariably used for bribes of one sort or another (Deuteronomy 10:17; 16:19; 27:25; 1 Samuel 8:3; 1 Kings 15:29; 16:8; . . . . Continue Reading »
Henri Pirenne, in his Economic and Social History of medieval Europe, describes the regulation of economic life in medieval towns during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Pirenne is admittedly old news, and perhaps more recent studies have corrected some of his claims. The town government had . . . . Continue Reading »
Ha-Joon Chang argues in Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism that highly developed economies impose unfair and hypocritical demands on developing economies. In particular, the nations that control the international trade and monetary agencies require . . . . Continue Reading »
A discussion this morning concerning the economic impact of the gospel got me to thinking about Byzantium. What kind of economic system did the Eastern Christian empire, with its centralized state and luxurious capital, have? I found some help in Angeliki Laiou and Cecile . . . . Continue Reading »
David L. Baker’s recent Tight Fists or Open Hands?: Wealth and Poverty in Old Testament Law is a thorough and judicious introduction to the Pentateuch’s teaching on economics. The book has a limited scope. Baker largely ignores the contemporary economic situation, and gives . . . . Continue Reading »
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