great depression

October 23, 2014

8 Lessons on Work and Stewardship from Disney’s ‘Silly Symphonies’

Teaching our children about the value and virtues of hard work and sound stewardship is an important part of parenting, and in a privileged age where opportunity and prosperity sometimes come rather easily, such lessons can be hard to come by. Continue Reading...

June 25, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: 9 of 12 — Berry vs. Salatin

[Part 1 is here.] Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, details how the growth of government-corporate cronyism during the past 120 or so years has been largely a phenomenon of the socialist left. Continue Reading...

May 28, 2014

‘Timothy Geithner is a Moral Hazard’

Acton’s Director of Research, Samuel Gregg, recently wrote an article at Aleteia about the recent Great Recession and Former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s book, Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises. Continue Reading...

April 02, 2014

Longing For The Good Old Days Of The Great Depression

. Sure, times were tough, but at least people were more sensitive and caring. And our government was much better at taking care of people. Not like now when people are losing government hand-outs left and right. Continue Reading...

March 21, 2014

Visualizing ‘The Forgotten Man’

In November of last year, we had the privilege of welcoming bestselling author Amity Shlaes for a visit here at the Acton Building while she was in Grand Rapids to speak about Calvin Coolidge at Grand Valley State University’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. Continue Reading...

January 08, 2014

The Bond of Fellowship

I was reading an essay that I found in an old book I bought in Vermont. Dr H.J. Laski (Oxford and Yale) wrote, “The less obvious the differences between men in the gain of living, the greater the bond of fellowship between them.” Continue Reading...

October 29, 2010

What Would Röpke Do?

As America and Europe continue to wrestle with the question of how best to address their respective economic crises, many are looking back to the lessons of history and how they might be applicable to today. Continue Reading...

January 26, 2010

Bernanke bad for limited government and the little guy

This week’s reappointment vote for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has created some strange bedfellows in Washington. A muddled middle of Republicans and Democrats supports the Keynesian’s reappointment, but the real odd couples are among the opposition. Continue Reading...

December 07, 2009

Bernanke Versus the Austrians

My essay in today’s American Spectator Online looks at why Ben Bernanke should not be confirmed to a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve: Two planks in Bernanke’s recovery strategy: Expand the money supply like a banana republic dictator and throw sackfuls of cash at failed companies with a proven track record of mismanaging their assets. Continue Reading...

February 16, 2009

PBR: Do We Need a New New Deal?

In response to the question, “What are the moral lessons of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)?” Perhaps the most effective historical trope in pushing through the massive stimulus package on Capitol Hill has been the notion that if only the New Deal of the 1930s hadn’t had to wait more than three years for the election of FDR, the Great Depression might have been avoided. Continue Reading...