For decades, economists and central bankers have relied more on the Core Consumer Price Index (CPI) than the headline CPI because Core CPI excludes volatile food and energy prices; this permits a clearer read on long-term inflation trends, which is critical for setting interest rates and guiding economic policy. Think of it like steering a...
Vietnam, a nation that still languishes under the thumb of a government with an avowed communist ideology, intends to become Asia’s next “tiger economy.” Ravaged by the civil war that split the country in two, and drew the United States into the sort of regional conflict that it had long sought to avoid, in 1975,...
Dr. Timothy G. Nash, Vice President, Emeritus, and Director of the Northwood University Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, recently shared helpful insight about the function of the Federal Reserve and the recent firing of Fed Governor Lisa Cook. Dr. Nash’s expertise was captured in the following interview with Mike Austin on...
Artificial intelligence is here. It is learning fast, and it is already changing the ways we live our lives. For a lot of people, that change causes a lot of uncertainty when it comes to their careers. There is talk that AI is eliminating jobs, but that statement avoids the true impact: Artificial intelligence is...
This Independence Day, America’s Free Enterprise University marked an exciting milestone: Learners who complete The Philosophy of Free Enterprise, Northwood’s complimentary, self-paced online course, can now earn a Certificate of Completion. Launched in 2022, the course now offers 18 engaging lessons featuring easily digestible lectures about timeless free-market concepts, including the importance of limited government,...
The 2025 Northwood University Freedom Seminar will survey the two alternative paths that humanity tried over the past century: the road to serfdom and the road to freedom. The first was examined by the Austrian economist F. A. Hayek, who chose it as a title to a book that exposed the economic bankruptcy, political dangers,...
There is growing interest in socialist ideas, especially among college-age Americans. To be precise, 62% of young Americans between 18 and 29 years old have a favorable view of socialism, according to a 2025 survey by Cato Institute and YouGov. This makes Friedrich A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, a critique of the dangers of...
As a business professor, I strive to teach sound principles and practices, focusing on the benefits of productivity and value creation. I want my students pursuing business careers to be proud of their chosen profession. While business ethics is a topic worthy of classroom coverage and discussion, I do not view my role as one...
Tim Friede let venomous snakes bite him roughly 200 times, suffering anaphylactic shocks, and spending four days hospitalized in a coma. But this wasn’t a suicide attempt. He was seeking immunity to all snake venom, so that his blood could be used to create a universal antitoxin. The Centivax startup reports promising results from an...
The idea that people have an unalienable right to pursue their own happiness is a very radical idea. Prior to the eighteenth century, almost no one in the world believed it. Even today, only a small sliver of humankind agrees with it. Equally radical is the idea that the only purpose of government is to...
Last month, like many, I went to see the newly released Superman movie by James Gunn. As a kid, I loved the 1978 Superman film with Christopher Reeve and the scene when he takes Lois Lane for an evening flight is one of my favorites. Margot Kidder portrayed Lane as smart and quirky — and...
It’s a poorly-kept secret that Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) has faced crisis after crisis. But the latest scandal over 3 million “unseen patients” may be its worst yet. In fact, this omnicrisis is worsened by the fact that barely anyone is speaking about it. Throughout the 2000s, headlines warned of an overwhelmed and underfunded...
Northwood University will launch its 2025 Freedom Seminar on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, with a keynote address by Professor Daniel J. Smith, a Northwood alumnus and Director of the Political Economy Research Institute at Middle Tennessee State University. Smith will explore the continuing relevance of Nobel laureate F.A. Hayek’s critique of socialism and its application...
After 47 years of Superman movies, James Gunn’s 2025 film offers a poignant take on the values Superman has always embodied: truth, justice, and the American Way. Through his origin story as an alien adopted and raised in Kansas, Superman symbolizes the hope and idealism that define the American Dream: that through hard work and...