A growing number of conservatives have said the behavior of certain Ivy League colleges demands that the federal government seize their endowments. But will confiscating this source of nonprofit funds give the government a legal justification to do the same to tax-exempt churches? Continue Reading...
Latest Posts
May 01, 2020
Why I worked this May Day
Today, I am working from Rome. It is Labor Day here–La Festa dei lavoratori–one of those many guaranteed Italian holidays which we are not supposed to spend in the office. Continue Reading...
May 01, 2020
‘Planet of the Humans’: Michael Moore goes off the (ideological) grid
Imagine you have just wrapped up another Earth Day celebration at your church (online only this year) and as long time chair of the Creation Care committee, you reflect on all the accomplishments: banning Styrofoam coffee cups and plastic bottles; mandating locally sourced and sustainably farmed organic food at all hospitality events; convincing your pastor to offer sermons and “climate blessings” provided by the mother church’s Social Justice office. Continue Reading...
May 01, 2020
Markets, populism and a fading American dream
The political divisions that started erupting across America in 2015 are about many things. These include the meaning of national sovereignty, the sense of a growing chasm between the political class and everyone else, and angst about what many believe to be unwarranted accelerations in wealth and income inequalities. Continue Reading...
April 30, 2020
Acton Institute proclaims the failure of universal basic income to French speakers
The Acton Institute is helping popularize a left-leaning professor’s stark criticism of the universal basic income among the world’s 275-million Francophones. A new French language translation of “Marx vs. the universal basic income” recounts the findings of Ive Marx, a supporter of income redistribution. Continue Reading...
April 29, 2020
‘Mrs. America’: How Hollywood rewrites history
In an interview about her creation of FX’s new Hulu miniseries, Mrs. America, Dahvi Waller tells Esquire magazine that the idea for the series was born out of her childhood home. Continue Reading...
April 29, 2020
Acton Line podcast: COVID-19 and job loss: Where do we go from here?
The United States has been in a state of emergency since mid-March as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. In order to slow the spread of the virus, states have implemented various measures, including shelter-in-place orders, forcing millions of Americans to stay at home. Continue Reading...
April 29, 2020
Alejandro Chafuen in Forbes: Latin America’s coronavirus situation
Last month Alejandro Chafuen, Acton’s Managing Director, International, published a piece on Forbes.com detailing Latin America’s response to and preparedness for COVID-19. He recently followed up with a new post that brings his analysis up to date and highlights the situation’s relationship to the rest of the Americas. Continue Reading...
April 28, 2020
J.D. Vance and the politics of resentment
Resentment is a complicated emotion, a curious mix of disappointment, disgust, anger, and fear. The villainous court composer Antonio Salieri in Miloš Forman’s Academy Award-winning film Amadeus is a study in resentment. Continue Reading...
April 24, 2020
A free-market agenda for rebuilding from the coronavirus
On June 18, 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill steeled his people for the Battle of Britain with a stirring speech in the House of Commons that concluded: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’” Continue Reading...