Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Books on the Financial Crisis
Books on the Financial Crisis
Feb 11, 2026 8:42 AM

David L. Bahnsen, a good friend of Acton, has begun a series of reviews of books on the financial crisis. No doubt, he’ll have many to review in the months ahead.

Here’s from Bahnsen’s latest, a review of Greenspan’s Bubbles by William Fleckinstein:

When someone in the position of authority and reputation as the chief central banker of the world decides to preach the new paradigm of eternal productivity, he encourages others to join particular sides of trades that may be wholly inappropriate. That influence is not e. Greenspan has done a lot to tarnish his legacy, but I believe the “age of bubbles” Greenspan reigned over should be known as the era in which the Federal Reserve chairman decided to take on the role of economic deity in our society. He was not good at it, because it was not his proper role. Our markets function better without central bankers playing the role of cheerleaders.

Bahnsen, a financial planner and investment manager, serves on the Blackstone Faculty of the Alliance Defense Fund, and is a Cooperating Board member of the Center for Cultural Leadership, where he is the Senior Fellow of Economics and Finance.

David describes himself as …

a disciple of Milton Friedman, a lover of Ronald Reagan, and a “National Review kind of conservative.” His writings strive to reflect an ideology of freedom principles integrated with transcendent truths. His hero is his late father, Dr. Greg Bahnsen, but he is pretty fond of John Calvin, Abraham Kuyper, F.A. Hayek, Winston Churchill, C.S. Lewis, William Buckley, Margaret Thatcher, George Gilder, Steve Forbes, and Larry Kudlow as well. When he is not being so serious, he also admires Tiger Woods and Pete Carroll.

Also, take a look at his musings on “Marketplace & Calling.”

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
How I Solve the Crisis in Underemployment and Student Loan Debt for Liberal Arts Majors
In his article today Anthony Bradley asks, “When Did College Education Reduce To Making Money?” Our country’s narcissistic materialism has created a neurotic obsession with disparities between the es of individuals resulting in an overall devaluing of the learning goals and es of what colleges exist to plish. There is a major disconnect here. I wonder if this explains why many parents do not want their children studying the humanities in college. While pletely agree with Anthony about what the...
Jordan Ballor in Washington Post on Amazon Sunday Deliveries
On Monday, Amazon announced that it would immediately start offering Sunday deliveries. This new initiative will not only satisfy consumers who do not want to wait all weekend for something to arrive, but it will also give the cash strapped U.S. Postal Service revenue as they will be making the Sunday deliveries. This might be good news for the USPS and impatient consumers, but it effectively makes Sunday another weekday. Cecelia Kang, a reporter for the Washington Post, interviewed Acton...
U.S. Catholic Bishops Issue ‘Special Letter’ on HHS Mandate
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a “special letter” regarding the Obama administration’s HHS mandate. The USCCB, meeting this month in Baltimore, passed the letter unanimously. Calling the HHS mandate “coercive,” the bishops state that they have tried to work with the current administration, to no avail. Beginning in March 2012, in United for Religious Freedom, we identified three basic problems with the HHS mandate: it establishes a false architecture of religious liberty that excludes our...
Conservatives Need a Credible Alternative to ObamaCare
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Yuval Levin and Ramesh Ponnuru argue that conservatives now have a prime opportunity to offer a “credible alternative” to ObamaCare that would not only solve the serious problems of the healthcare system but would prevent a further lurch to the left if the current law fails: Seeing the pileup, Republicans might be tempted to step aside and let ObamaCare continue to disappoint and infuriate Americans. After all, the GOP doesn’t have the power to repeal...
Mark Perry: ‘The College Textbook Bubble is Starting to Deflate’
The educational cronyism of textbook publisher cartels ing to an end as digital alternatives are on the rise, or so says AEI’s Mark Perry in a recent article. “Hear that hissing sound?” he writes, “It’s the sound of the college textbook bubble starting to deflate. . . . The era of the college textbook cartel and $300 college textbooks is ending.” I have written on this subject in the past for the PowerBlog (here and here), mentioning Perry’s coverage of...
Principles for Executive Stewardship
Over at Desiring God blog, Sam Crabtree offers 16 simple principles, each panied by Scripture, to help reorient our thinking about the work of our hands, particularly among those in executive and administrative roles. Highlighting our persistent human tendency to neglect our Creator, Crabtree cautions against the subtle temptation to begin operating “as if we really can execute on our tasks all by our lonesome, without the constant help of our God.” What distinguishes a distinctly Christian executive? Some examples:...
Feisty Nuns’ Pipeline Battle Cute but Wrong-Headed
There are days when policy conflicts appear to be clear cut. Such is the case with the nuns and monks protesting a proposed pipeline across their Kentucky land. As a property rights advocate, I agree wholeheartedly that the Sisters of Loretto and monks of the Abbey of Gethsemani are well within their rights to protest running a pipeline across their property. I disagree vehemently, however, with the rationales behind the protest – namely the religious’ ill-advised environmental opposition to fossil...
‘Tea Party Catholic:’ Applicable To Orthodox In America
Tea Party Catholic, the latest book by Acton’s Director of Research Sam Gregg, continues to garner attention. Fr. Gregory Jensen, at his Koinonia blog, reviews Gregg’s work in light of the experience of Orthodox Christians in the U.S. For the American Orthodox Christian, patriotism, “the love of the true good of one’s country” is the core of the Church vocation relative to the larger culture. We cannot evangelize, as I’ve said before, those we don’t know, but we don’t truly...
Richard Weaver on Liberty and Christianity
Richard Weaver, one of the great intellectuals of the 20th Century, and author of Ideas Have Consequences, published an essay in the early 1960s on Lord Acton (pdf only). Much of Weaver’s essay is worth highlighting, but one excerpt in particular reminds us of the central significance of Christianity in the battle for freedom. It reminds us too of the dangers of secularism and where our indifference to God is inevitably leading us. It was inevitable that, lacking one vital...
How Can Businesses Fight Human Trafficking?
The Business as Mission movement, writes Elise Hilton in this week’s Acton Commentary, is creating alternative and wholesome sources of e while offering ‘restoration’ for survivors: Human trafficking feeds on the vulnerable, and that includes the poor. Children are especially at risk, as they can be sold by parents into slavery and have little or no education or means of self-support. For the Business as Mission movement, this means intentionally focusing on areas that are economically depressed and unstable. Businesses...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved