Karl Marx's "On the Jewish Question"
July 30, 2014
To begin a close reading of one of Karl Marx’s most important early works, “On the Jewish Question”, Hoover Institution fellow Peter Berkowitz identified two kinds of emancipation Marx is concerned with. The first is political emancipation, or liberal democracy. But Marx sees that kind of freedom as insufficient; what is needed is “human emancipation.”
Read MoreWhat Does Judaism Think of Capitalism?
July 22, 2014
The Gospels proclaim that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, meaning Christian doctrine holds that salvation is more difficult for the wealthy man. Judaism doesn’t seem to have the same antipathy toward wealth. But wealth is […]
Read MoreThe Impoverished Debate on Inequality
July 18, 2014
Is there an acceptable level of inequality for a society to maintain? This was one of the questions addressed by economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin during the course of Tikvah’s advanced institute on “The Israeli Economy: A Strategy for the Future.” As became apparent during the discussion, this a debate often mired in envy for the wealthy, […]
Read MoreThe Case for Competition
July 17, 2014
American Enterprise Institute scholar James Pethokoukis argues that corporations—unlike citizens who might deserve a social safety net—must be spurred by the ever-present fear of failure. Without the possibility of failure, innovation, efficiency, and growth are impossible. In many ways, crony capitalism, government protection of incumbent businesses, and other anti-competitive policies have led to the recent […]
Read MoreIrving Kristol's Capitalism
July 16, 2014
To understand Irving Kristol’s defense and critique of capitalism, National Affairs editor Yuval Levin breaks down Kristol’s 1970 essay “‘When virtue loses all her loveliness’—some reflections on capitalism and ‘the free society’”. Kristol celebrated how capitalism offers prosperity and freedom, but reserved applause for capitalism as a stand-alone moral system. Famously, Kristol gave capitalism only two cheers, not three. […]
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During our Advanced Institute, The Future of the Israeli Economy, we were honored to have Ambassador Ron Demer join us. Dermer, a close adviser for many years to Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the Prime Minister’s role in enacting free market reforms and other policies that have promoted exceptional growth. He also discussed both the moral case for capitalism and the relationship of the free market to Jewish values. Watch Ambassador Dermer’s speech to the institute participants here.
Watch the video here.Economic First Principles Kristol’s Three Promises of Capitalism Yuval Levin began his session on morality and the welfare state by drawing the group’s attention to the writings of Irving Kristol. When it came to the free economy, Kristol argued that capitalism as a system recommends itself to society with three promises, but the question remains; […]
Read MoreOn the Political Stupidity of the Jews
December 3, 2013The novelist Saul Bellow is fond of recalling a political incident from his youth. Saul, then an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, was, like so many of us in the 1930s, powerfully attracted to the ideologies of socialism, Marxism, Leninism and Trotskyism, as well as to the idea of “the Revolution.” He and a […]
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