Does Anybody Understand This Stuff?: Part 4, Medieval Economics – A Thumbnail Sketch of 4,000 Years of Economics

Read Part One Here Read Part Two Here Read Part Three Here Read Part Five Here Medieval Economics (500-1200 A.D.) Medieval European economics are generally divided into 4 parts: Early Medieval Economics The Influence of Aquinas Late Medieval Economics The Influence of Bodin Early Medieval Economics There are five major expressions of Early Medieval economics: 1. Feudal System* 2. Guild System 3. The power...

The Reality of Truth

Do you want to know the truth of things? Or are you happy with the prevailing status quo? Do you want to know the truth of things, even if it goes against the status quo or proves you wrong? This can be a real dilemma of conscience —to be unafraid to discover...

Attention Span: Our National Education Crisis, Part One

Click Here For Part Two   I have a number of different topics to cover over the next couple of months.  I will post most of these in the form of series.  Sometimes, as these series can be multi-parts (as many as ten), I will introduce a new series before a given...

Does Anybody Understand This Stuff?: Part 3, Greek and Roman Economics – A Thumbnail Sketch of 4,000 Years of Economics

Read Part One Here Read Part Two Here Read Part Four Here Greek and Roman Economics (700B.C.-400A.D.) Although modern economics are generally discussed from four polarizing positions; Radical, Keynesian, Neo-Liberal, and Austrian (all of which we will cover later), virtually all aspects of our modern discussion of economics were first articulated by the Greeks,...

Does Anybody Understand This Stuff?: Part 2, Biblical Economics – A Thumbnail Sketch of 4,000 Years of Economics

Read Part One Here Read Part Three Here Don’t do it!  Don’t turn your brain off at the sight of the word “Economics”! Give me a chance to explain this in such a way that I promise—economics will be exciting. Our modern understanding of economics comes from a long-term developmental process, albeit, most...

Thanksgiving: A Proclamation

How many of us know the origin of Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving celebrations began as early as 1541 along the eastern seaboard of North America. Most of us relate to the celebration at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. The Pilgrims, having survived their first winter (during which about half of them died), invited their local...

Does Anybody Understand This Stuff?, Part One: Deflation

  Read Part Two Here This is one of several blogs in a series called Does Anybody Understand this stuff?, concerning economics and our future. There is no way to honor the blogging rule of 600 word posts when we are talking about the economy, so I will try to keep them...

People Who Live at the End of Dirt Roads: Monte and Laura Bledsoe – Quail Hollow Farm, CSA

Six years ago one of my former mentees decided to try growing vegetables on a tiny patch of ground.  She thought, “what a nice little hobby I will create for myself.”  Her vision was to grow and provide a little food for a few other families. She was not willing to...

Why Hebrew?: Part One

Contributing Author - James Malmstrom, Monticello College Faculty CHOMRONG VILLAGE, Nepal - 2011 – I was sitting in the courtyard of Chomrong Cottage, a charming lodge and the second stop of a 10-day trek into the Annapurna mountain range. The towering snow-capped Himalayan peaks in the distance guarded the gateway to our final destination, a...

Montesquieu: Luminary of the Enlightenment

 (Please excuse any errors.  I am writing on the fly from New York and time is limited). Marcus Tullius Cicero Cicero said, "To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child." To paraphrase, he who only knows his own generation is an unwitting slave to those who have a knowledge of the...