“The Bailout Economy: A House Built on Sand”

by Rev. Robert A. Sirico - November 19, 2008

Rev. Robert A. Sirico looks at the various bailout proposals designed to solve the economic crisis through the lens of Jesus' parable of the houses built on rock and sand. "The lender who made possible the house on the rock does not need a bailout," Rev. Sirico writes. "That which lent money to the builder who built on sand is getting assistance from taxpayers. How does this constitute a just solution?"

“Unemployment and Social Cohesion”

by Anthony B. Bradley - November 12, 2008

Anthony Bradley looks at the social dimension of rising joblessness, and the minimum wage laws as a barrier to putting people back to work. "The way out of this recession should include establishing the conditions for companies to negotiate wages freely with current and potential employees," Bradley writes. "The most essential need from unemployed workers is a job."

November 2008

• Acton Weighs in on Economic Crisis
• Acton Attends Heartland Event
• Acton and Globalization
• Dr. Gregg Lectures on Economy
• Acton Staff Participates in and Sponsors GodBlogCon

Volume 18, Number 2 • Spring 2008

Featuring:

“Turkey: Islam's Bridge to Religious and Economic Liberty?,” an interview with Mustafa Akyol

Mustafa Akyol is a Turkish Muslim writer based in Istanbul, Turkey, where he is currently the opinion editor and a columnist for Turkish Daily News, the nation's foremost English-language newspaper. He also writes a regular column for the Turkish national daily, Star. Akyol's articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, The American Interest, First Things, and The Weekly Standard, among others. He has a book in Turkish titled, Rethinking The Kurdish Question: What Went Wrong? What Next? (Dogan Publishing, 2006). Akyol is currently working on a book in English on the future of Islam and the Islamic world. His columns are collected on the website, The White Path (www.thewhitepath. com), which is the English translation of his name. Akyol spoke at the 2008 Acton University in Grand Rapids on the subject of "Islam, Markets and the Free Society." He was interviewed in Grand Rapids by Religion & Liberty executive editor John Couretas.

Volume 11, Number 1 • Spring 2008

With this issue of the Journal of Markets & Morality, we introduce a new semi-regular feature section, the Status Quaestionis. Conceived as a complement to our Scholia, the Status Quaestionis features are intended to help us grasp in a more thorough and comprehensive way the state of the scholarly landscape with regard to the modern intersection between religion and economics. Whereas the Scholia are longer, generally treatise-length works located in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, the Status Quaestionis will typically be shorter, essay-length pieces from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. The first installment of the Status Quaestionis will feature an essay by Sergey Bulgakov (1871–1944), a renowned and influential Russian Orthodox theologian. His essay included in this issue, "The National Economy and the Religious Personality," first published in 1909 and translated here by Krassen Stanchev, represents the first and in many ways most lasting Orthodox Christian response to the Weber thesis.

Also in this volume, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo considers "The Importance and Contemporary Relevance of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth." Marek Tracz-Tryniecki explores "Natural Law in Tocqueville’s Thought." Christopher Todd Meredith examines "The Ethical Basis for Taxation in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas." José Atilano Pena López and José Manuel Sánchez investigate "Smithian Perspective on the Markets of Beliefs: Public Policies and Religion." Surendra Arjoon discusses ethics in the corporate culture with "Slippery When Wet: The Real Risk in Business." Gregory Mellema expounds on "Professional Ethics and Complicity in Wrongdoing."