ABSTRACT
Economics is the principal engine that drives The Wanderer, establishing its priorities, imparting a sense of urgency to its crusades, and explaining why the American nation always plays a malignant role in world affairs. The Wanderer's economic thread is even longer and more serpentine than its view of American foreign policy. The Wanderer did not attempt to explain how Distributism, Social Credit, or the theories of Gertrude Coogan might relate to each other. The anti-socialism of classical Catholic social doctrine is balanced by a condemnation of unrestrained free-market capitalism and acquisitive competitiveness. It advocates an economy governed by moral considerations, especially a "just price" and a "just wage". Neither liberals nor conservatives, as those terms are understood in the modern United States, represent classical Catholic social teachings. Economics therefore explains why The Wanderer has sometimes deemphasized the abortion issue, as when a reader insisted that only those who were economically secure had the luxury of making abortion the paramount issue.
