One podcast that I enjoy is called “Marketplace” from NPR. It reviews the day’s economic numbers – e.g., inflation rate, jobless rate, consumer price index – as well as providing on-site interviews with small business owners, corporate managers, and everyday workers. It is a good reminder that the economy includes people with real needs and hopes and dreams. One of the oldest principles of the Judeo-Christian tradition is that the goods of the earth are destined for all, without exception or exclusion. The U.S. has a “mixed economy” in which both private and public institutions have roles to play.  Private businesses and competition create goods while providing work and encouraging innovation and personal initiative. But the right to private property is linked to a duty to provide for the needs of all. Thus, public institutions (government) exist to ensure that the basic needs of all its citizens are being met. In a free market, private businesses exist to make a profit while providing the best goods possible. But if allowed to run free without constraint, much damage can be done. For example, monopolies can form and drive up prices of goods to their benefit. The production of goods often produces water and air pollution which adversely affects all citizens. Businesses can also be discriminatory in hiring practices and can create wealth inequality by placing the profits in the pockets of a few at the top. The bottom line is that the common good is the proper domain of government. As Pope St. John Paul II wrote: “The market should be appropriately controlled by the State so as to guarantee that the basic needs of the whole of society are satisfied” and, especially, the needs of the most poor and vulnerable. Catholic social teaching on the economy doesn’t offer policy, but it gives general principles to be followed. It reminds us that, behind the numbers, there are real people. – – – Fr. Jim