Acton Institute Powerblog

Promoting free societies characterized by liberty & religious principles

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...

The ‘Good Food Now!’ Olive Garden Crusade

Your writer lives beyond the outskirts of Midland, Michigan, a small Midwestern town that is buoyed fortuitously by a Fortune 50 company. It’s a nifty place: Population around 50,000, a plethora of parks and bike trails, three rivers converging west of town, relatively low crime rate, and plenty of establishments of both the local and national variety in which to dine out. Continue Reading...

Understanding Trump: The Deal-Maker as Redistributionist

[Note: This is the second in an occasional series evaluating the remaining presidential candidates and their views on economics and liberty. You can find the first article here.] In the previous article in this series I explained that the key to understanding Donald Trump’s economic policies is the recognition that, for him, policy and principle are secondary to process. Continue Reading...

The Disabled Deserve the Dignity of Work

Last week, Hillary Clinton became the first major presidential candidate to ever recommend paying all disabled workers the minimum wage. While its seems like a reasonable proposal, I explained why the effect would be to put workers with severe disabilities, such as those with Down syndrome, out of work. Continue Reading...