Amidst the economic crisis, new book defends morality of free market
(Vatican Radio) European stocks rose early on Thursday, echoing gains overnight in
the United States as law makers there offered hope that a deal would be struck to
avert enormous automatic budget cutbacks at the end of the year. Global markets have
been suffering since the economic crash in 2008, with some analysts citing the free
market economy as a major contributing factor to the crisis. Offering an alternative
perspective to the reasons behind the current economic crisis, Fr Robert Sirico, co-founder
of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
met with journalists on Wednesday to introduce his latest book entitled: Defending
the Free Market: The Moral Case for the Free Market Economy. In it, Fr Sirico
makes the case for a free market economy, outlining the difference between fundamental
human rights and privileges. Speaking with Vatican Radio’s Ann Schneible, Fr Sirico
highlighted his objectives in writing this book. Defending the Free Market,
he said, was written “with the intention of making accessible economic ideas that
I thought were important in general terms; but, in particular, especially for religious
people, to understand there is what we call a normative or moral dimension to economic
activity.” “It’s not just, live by the Ten Commandments and open a store,” Fr Sirico
explained, but he wanted to demonstrate “that there’s something more internal to the
whole dynamism of a market economy that makes sense both economically and morally.” Listen
to Ann Schneible’s full interview with Fr Robert Sirico: