Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Business and Society

December 07, 2010

Seven Fund Announces New Competition

The Seven Fund has announced a new Breakthrough Innovation Grant competition. The Breakthrough Innovation Grant (BIG) of up to USD $20,000 will be given to the most innovative business ideas that will have an impact on poverty alleviation in the Philippines. Continue Reading...
November 08, 2010

Innovation Challenge Grant Announcement

I got news of a new innovation challenge grant from our friend Andreas Widmer at the Seven Fund. Seven is partnering with the Fisherman Foundation and Hapinoy Stores to promote innovative ways to use enterprise as a solution to poverty. Continue Reading...
October 28, 2010

‘Springfield’s Only Choice’

President Obama, Vice President Biden to Announce $8 Billion for High-Speed Rail Projects Across the Country DOT Awards $2.4 Billion to Continue Developing 21st Century High-speed Passenger Rail Corridors “You’ll be given cushy jobs!” Continue Reading...
October 27, 2010

Make Work Your Favorite

Very often it is difficult to see in any concrete way how our work really means anything at all. The drudgery of the daily routine can be numbing, sometimes literally depending on your working conditions. Continue Reading...
October 18, 2010

Culture and Poverty

Here is an interesting article by Patricia Cohen in the New York Times about the role of culture in poverty: ‘Culture of Poverty’ Makes a Comeback While it is obvious to most observers that culture plays an important role in shaping norms and habits, and thus would have impact on poverty–discussions of culture have not been within the domain of polite conversation for the last several decades within many academic circles. Continue Reading...
October 12, 2010

Faith and Prosperity

Here is a link to a good summary of McKinsey’s report on business and Africa that can be found at Acton’s good friend Andreas Widmer’s blog Faith and Prosperity. Andreas is a former Swiss Guard turned high-tech entrepreneur who is now focusing on promoting enterprise solutions to poverty throughout the developing world. Continue Reading...
October 12, 2010

Marketplace Revolution

Last week several colleagues and I had the opportunity to attend Partners Worldwide conference: Marketplace Revolution: Fighting Global Poverty through Business. Acton was delighted to be one of the sponsors of the event The conference had 400 people from all over the world and promoted enterprise solutions to poverty. Continue Reading...
October 12, 2010

Of Miracles and Means

Last week I linked to Joe Carter’s On the Square piece, “What the Market Economy Needs to be Moral,” challenging his view that we need a “third way.” He has since clarified his position, and noted that what he wants is not really an alternative to the market economy but an alternative grounding, view of, and justification for the market economy. Continue Reading...
September 28, 2010

Questions on Work and Intellectual Development

Carl Trueman has a lengthy reflection and asks some pertinent and pressing questions on the nature of work and human intellectual development. Recalling his job at a factory as a young man in the 1980s, Trueman writes concerning those who were still at their positions on the line when he had moved on: Their work possessed no intrinsic dignity: it was unskilled, repetitive, poorly paid, and provided no sense of achievement. Continue Reading...
September 21, 2010

Work as if It Mattered

The conversations over the last few weeks here on work have raised a couple of questions. In the context of criticisms on the perspectives on work articulated by Lester DeKoster and defended by me, commenter John E. Continue Reading...