Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Acton Occasional Series

May 23, 2016

5 Facts About Genetically Modified Crops

In a massive new 420-page report, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Genetically Engineered Crops summarizes their findings on the effects and future genetically engineered (GE) crops. Continue Reading...
May 20, 2016

Explainer: What is Going on in Venezuela?

What’s going on in Venezuela? Because of high inflation and unemployment, Venezuela has the most miserable economy in the world. The country currently has an inflation rate of 180 percent, but that’s expected to increase 1,642 percent by next year. Continue Reading...
May 19, 2016

Explainer: Obama’s New Overtime Rule

What just happened? On May 18, the Obama administration announced the publication of a new Department of Labor rule updating and expanding overtime regulations. Why did the overtime rule change? Since the 1930s some white collar jobs (i.e., Continue Reading...
May 18, 2016

How Does the Economy Actually Work?

In every stage of my formal schooling – from high school to college to graduate school – I took courses in economics. Yet with all that education I struggled to understand a seemingly simple question: How does the economy actually work? Continue Reading...
May 16, 2016

Explainer: Supreme Court Punts on Little Sisters Religious Liberty Case

What just happened? The Supreme Court avoided issuing a major ruling today in a combined religious liberty case, Zubik v. Burwell. In a unanimous decision, the justices wrote that the Court “expresses no view on the merits of the cases” but were instead sending the case back down to the lower courts for opposing parties to work out a compromise. Continue Reading...
May 09, 2016

6 Quotes: Friedrich Hayek on economics and freedom

Yesterday was the 116th birthday of the late Austrian and British economist Friedrich Hayek. Throughout his life the Nobel-winning philosopher defended civil liberties and political freedom and warned against the Keynesian welfare state and of totalitarian socialism. Continue Reading...