True North Ideas | True North

Rebutting Claims in ‘State of Labor is Nothing to Celebrate’ Op-Ed

We appreciate Dave Clark’s heartfelt Labor Day reflections in the Midland Daily News on September 1, 2025, “State of labor is nothing to celebrate.” Working families deserve more than slogans; they require a clear understanding of what drives wages, opportunities, and dignity at work. Northwood University’s philosophy — which values individual freedom, personal responsibility, and...

By Dr. Timothy Nash, Anthony Storer

Protestant Institutionalism and Christian America

Beginning in the 1970s, American Christians sensing a cultural shift engaged in a war of polemics with secularists like Madalyn Murray O’Hair over whether America was founded as a “Christian nation.” Over the last few years, this continuing controversy has diversified into something more niche: a debate over the threat, or promise, of “Christian nationalism.”...

By Dr. Glenn Moots

Core vs Headline: What Really Drives Inflation Calculations

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...

By Dr. Timothy Nash

Tiger on the Mekong?

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,...

By Dr. Jake Scott

Northwood Free Enterprise Center Director Discusses Fed Governor Firing

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...

By Kate Hessling

The Rise of AI: Redefining the Job Market, Not Replacing It

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...

By Payton Schafsnitz

Free Enterprise Deserves Champions; Become One

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,...

By Kate Hessling

2025 Freedom Seminar to Explore Road to Serfdom and Path to Freedom

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,...

By Dr. Dale Matcheck, Dr. Alex Tokarev

The Foundational Role of Private Property

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...

By Daniel J. Smith, Dr. Gabriel Benzecry

Doing Good by Doing Well

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...

By Kimberlee Josephson

One Man’s Poison Is Another Man’s Cure

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...

By Arthur Diamond

Pursuit of Happiness: The Growth of a Radical Idea

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...

By John C. Goodman

Sneaking Snacks into Movies and the Mystery of Social Order

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...

By Kimberlee Josephson

The Collapse of Britain’s National Health Service

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...

By Dr. Jake Scott