Why should we care about human dignity, creativity and flourishing? Why value human creativity? Why even believe that human beings possess dignity and rights? As Rev. Robert Sirico writes in the Washington Times, the free market system assumes, rather than defends, the value of all these things—something easy to miss because most of us share these sentiments. The religious foundation with which I was imbued as a child, and to which I returned after a spell in the wilderness of...

Rev. Robert A. Sirico, President of the Acton Institute, joined host Neil Cavuto on Fox News Channel’s The Cost of Freedomthis morning to discuss the ments about conservative Catholics and Evangelicals by Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta and other campaign staffers in a recently released batch of hacked emails from Wikileaks. You can watch the interview below. ...

Hurricane Matthew e and gone, but it has left one country, Haiti, in ruins. Just like in the aftermath of many disasters, we will see a flood of emergency aid and disaster relief pour into this country; Many have good intentions and a strong desire to help. This is a good thing. It’s important that people rally around each other in times of need. The problem arises when this es the permanent model. This is the core theme of a...

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation recently released its annual report on U.S. attitudes towards socialism. Here are seven figures you should know from the survey: 1. The percentage of millenials who are unfamiliar with: Mao Zedong (42 percent), Che Guevara (40 percent), Vladimir Lenin (33 percent), Karl Marx (32 percent), Vladimir Putin (18 percent), Joseph Stalin (18 percent). 2. Among those familiar, at least a quarter have favorable impressions of Guevara (37 percent), Marx (34 percent), and Lenin (25...

Over at the Libertarian Christian Institute, Jamin Hübner engages my reflection on taxation and Sam Gregg’s book, For God and Profit, with his sed contra: “But what if the ‘taxation is theft’ creed is consistent with both Christian and libertarian ideas, and that all things considered, taxation really is theft? And what if we’re simply misreading or misappropriating the New Testament? This wouldn’t be fortable or popular conclusion to draw, but it might be the case nevertheless.” Hübner accuses me...

Note: This is the sixthpost in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. Last week we took a deeper look into the demand curve, examining how to read the demand curve, how demand curves shift, and consumer surplus. This week we want to take a closer look at the supply curve and what it reveals to us. And in this next video from Marginal Revolution University we consider the factors that shift the supply curve. How do technological innovations, input...

On October 13, the fall 2016 Acton Lecture Series continued with a timelyaddress from Benjamin Domenech, publisherof The Federalist and host of The Federalist Radio Hour, who spoke on the rise of Americanpopulism. Domenech looks at the history of populism in America, from Andrew Jackson toWilliam Jennings Bryan, and traces that strain in American politics straight through to the rise of Donald Trump.According to Domenech, the roots of the current populist uprising in America can be traced to the failure...

“No one in America should be working 40 hours a week and living below the poverty level,” said Joe Biden last year, “No one. No one.” That’s a sentiment I share with the vice president. And the good news is that almost no one who works 40 hours a week lives below the poverty level. That’s the finding of the latest report on e and poverty from the Census Bureau. For those aged 18 to 64 who work full time,...

The implosion of Donald Trump’s campaign is a reminder that at the end of the day, character matters more than professional success or mitments. At the beginning of the second presidential debate Donald apologized again for the ments recorded during a private discussion with Billy Bush in 2005 in which he boasted of romantically pursuing married women and groping others. In his apology, he referred to that discussion as regular “locker room talk.” In other words, Trump believes he is...

Many Christians assume that the Bible has nothing at all to say about economics, says Albert Mohler. But a biblical worldview actually has a great deal to teach us about economic matters. Mohler notesthat while the Christian worldview does not demand or promote a particular economic system, there are several principles that should guide our thinking: 6. A Christian economic understanding rewards initiative, industry and investment. Initiative, industry and investment are three crucial words for the Christian’s economic and theological...