March 2016 Archives

March 07, 2016

Donald Trump and Milton Friedman Debate Free Trade

If it wasn’t for Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump would win the title of most economically illiterate presidential candidate in the short history of the twenty-first century. A prime example of why he’d earn this ignoble title is Trump’s opposition to free trade — a position which, not surprisingly, he shares with Sanders. Continue Reading...

March 07, 2016

Explainer: U.S. Finally Bans Imports of Goods Produced by Slavery and Child Labor

What the story about? Last week the Senate passed, and President Obama signed into law, a bill that would block imports “made with convict labor, forced labor, or indentured labor.” The new law is enforceable under Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping multinational trade pact affecting 40 percent of the world’s economy. Continue Reading...

March 04, 2016

The hockey stick of human prosperity

Since the era of Adam Smith economists have been asking, “What creates wealth?” One key answer is specialization and trade. On a timeline of human history, the recent rise in standards of living resembles a hockey stick — flatlining for all of human history and then skyrocketing in just the last few centuries. Continue Reading...

March 04, 2016

Unemployment as Economic-Spiritual Indicator — February 2016 Report

Series Note: Jobs are one of the most important aspects of a morally functioning economy. They help us serve the needs of our neighbors and lead to human flourishing both for the individual and for communities. Continue Reading...

March 03, 2016

Why Cultural Capital Is Necessary for Economic Flourishing

Western activists and foreign aid experts often pretend as though material redistribution is enough to elevate the world’s poor. All we must do is give people the “tools” to do their work, they’ll say, and developing nations will take it from there. Continue Reading...

March 03, 2016

Rev. Sirico on ‘Spotlight’ and Hollywood Hypocrisy

The film “Spotlight” won 2016 best picture and original screenplay Oscars but Acton Institute co-founder and President Rev. Robert A. Sirico “eviscerated the Academy for embracing ‘Spotlight’ while it celebrated a child molester in its own ranks,” according to the Hollywood gossip site TMZ. Continue Reading...

March 03, 2016

7 Figures: U.S. Religious Groups and Their Political Leanings

Pew Research Center recently looked at the data from their 2014 Religious Landscape Study to highlight the affiliations, demographics, religious practices and political beliefs of various religious groups in the United States. Continue Reading...

March 02, 2016

Religious Shareholder Activists Promote Energy Poverty

Your humble writer takes no pleasure in reminding readers that he told them so, but a post from last December now seems prescient. The post began: In the wake of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, or COP21), so-called “religious” shareholder activists are intent on ruining investments, crashing the economy and doubling down on their efforts to promote energy poverty throughout the world. Continue Reading...

March 02, 2016

Will Millennials—Like Boomers—Neglect the Church for ‘Public Service’?

Despite the widespread complaints about the attitudes, ethics, and attention spans of millennials, it can be easy to forget the failures of generations gone by. Not unlike the baby boomers of yore, we millennials were raised in a world of unparalleled prosperity and opportunity. Continue Reading...

March 02, 2016

Pope Francis, Donald Trump and the Problem of Populism

“What would happen when these populisms collide at the first Francis-Trump summit?” asks Kishore Jayabalan in this week’s Acton Commentary. “We may shudder at the thought, but if Catholicism and strident nationalism are indeed so opposed, we may be left waiting for another St. Continue Reading...