Yuval Levin, a former White House staffer and a scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, has launched a quarterly print journal titled National Affairs. While not the most original title for a journal, I would argue, the debut issues promises an excellent contribution to the conversation.
My Examiner colleague Michael Barone has a piece in the issue (you need to subscribe to get his), as does Leon Kass. Closest to my heart, though, is a piece by U. of Chicago professor Luigi Zingales, titled “Capitalism After the Crisis.” An important passage as we look forward:
In most of the world, the best way to make money is not to come up with brilliant ideas and work hard at implementing them, but to cultivate a government connection. Such cronyism is bound to shape public attitudes about a country’s economic system. When asked in a recent study to name the most important determinants of financial success, Italian managers put “knowledge of influential people” in first place (80% considered it “important” or “very important”). “Competence and experience” ranked fifth, behind characteristics such as “loyalty and obedience.”
These divergent paths to prosperity reveal more than a difference of perception. American capitalism really is quite distinct from its European counterparts, for reasons that reach deep into history.
