Christianity and Capitalism by Richard Doster It’s been a rough couple of years for free-market capitalism. In Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life, theologian Michael Novak wonders if capitalism is “spiritually empty and corrosive of virtue.” The evidence, perhaps now more than at any time in the past 70 years, may tilt [...]

April 1, 2010 by Bob Veres Economic forecasters sometimes describe the investment markets as a leading indicator, which means that they believe returns can anticipate good or bad economic news.  Share prices fall when investors expect a recession, and rise when a recovery is expected–and last year’s stock market growth seems to fit that pattern.  [...]

The Conference Board, a private research group, has released its statistics for November. The index of Leading Economic Inidicaters rose 0.9% last month, up from 0.3% in October making this the eighth consecutive month for positive results in the index. November’s numbers actually outperformed the 0.7% expected by many economists. The positive performance came from [...]

Larry P. Arnn, the twelfth president of Hillsdale College, received his B.A. from Arkansas State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School. From 1977 to 1980, he also studied at the London School of Economics and at Worcester College, Oxford University, where he served as director of research for [...]

By Dan Jamieson – Investment News The United States will avoid a “double dip” recession, with real gross-domestic-product growth topping 2% next year, according to Standard & Poor’s Corp.The research firm is estimating a 1.7% annualized growth rate in the fourth quarter, and a rate of 2.4% by the end of next year, Sam Stovall, [...]

NABE Outlook: Recession Is Over, but a Muted Recovery to Follow SUMMARY: “The Great Recession is over,” according to NABE’s latest survey. “The survey found that the vast majority of business economists believe that the recession has ended but that the economic recovery is likely to be more moderate than those typically experienced following steep [...]

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke came close to declaring the recession over Tuesday, but warned that economic growth will remain too sluggish to quickly restore the nearly 7 million jobs lost since 2007. He made the remarks as a string of positive economic news helped lift stock indexes to new highs for the year. [...]

James L. Davis, Vice President, Dimensional Fund Advisors Investors are concerned about inflation, and rightly so. Average annual inflation in the US between 1929 and 2008 was nearly 3.3%. A dollar at the end of 2008 had about the same purchasing power as eight cents did at the beginning of 1929. Protecting the purchasing power [...]

Many people are concerned about potential inflation in the not too distant future. This story indicates that, at least, Mr. Bernanke has some steps in mind to battle inflation while still attempting to encourage the economic growth we need to produce more jobs. July 20 (Bloomberg) — To keep interest rates at a record low, [...]

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner today sought to downplay the idea of a second economic stimulus plan, saying the need for another program is a decision the administration “can’t really make” now. In an interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” Geithner also was asked about reining in federal borrowing, whether tax increases would be needed [...]