Latest Posts

August 15, 2018

10 things political scientists know that we don’t

“If economics is the dismal science,” says Hans Noel, an associate professor at Georgetown University, “then political science is the dismissed science.” Most Americans—from pundits to voters—don’t think that political science has much to say about political life. Continue Reading...
August 14, 2018

What do stock markets do?

Note: This is post #89 in a weekly video series on basic economics. A company can raise money and create new investment by selling shares through an initial public offering (IPO). Continue Reading...
August 13, 2018

The Parable of the Long Spoons explains free markets

“How can we explain this emporiophobia—a fear of markets—given the overwhelming evidence that such institutions provide the greatest wealth, health and happiness for humankind?” When economics professor Paul Rubin asked that question he answered by saying that we need to shift the metaphor of markets from “competition” to “cooperation.” Continue Reading...
August 13, 2018

James V. Schall on Islam and the West

Pope Benedict XVI made an uncomfortable claim in his 2006 Regensburg address: contemporary Muslim terrorism may owe something to Islam’s conception of God. A year later, Father James V. Schall SJ wrote a book about the address which, as Acton Director of Research Samuel Gregg says, placed it in the wider context of a set of religious and philosophical challenges that many Westerners still can’t bring themselves to address: Over the past sixteen years, Schall has written numerous articles on this more general topic, the most important of which have been gathered together in his latest book, On Islam: A Chronological Record, 2002-2018. Continue Reading...
August 10, 2018

Chafuen on ‘The vocation of the think tank’

Alejandro Chafuen – the Acton Institute’s Managing Director, International – received the prestigious 2018 “Premio Juan de Mariana” award from the Intituto Juan de Mariana earlier this year. Today at Acton’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website, we have posted the full text of his acceptance speech. Continue Reading...
August 09, 2018

The financial crisis is over, but markets still need moral attention

With the financial crisis nearly a decade behind us, and with the latest figures showing 4.1 percent economic growth, the economic woes of yesteryear feel increasingly distant in our past. Even still, it’s hard to avoid the sense that something remains amiss—that beneath the material successes and encouraging metrics about unemployment rates and Gross Domestic Product, our society continues to lack the moral fabric necessary for sustained and holistic economic flourishing. Continue Reading...