How high is our national debt? $19 trillion (and climbing). While that’s an unfathomably high number, no one seems to be particularly concerned about it. No stranger to debt himself, wannabe-president Donald Trump has an idea how to tackle the nation’s financial woes. His hypothetical plan would be to “re-negotiate” with creditors or print more money, because, after all, it’s impossible to default when “you print the money.” In a new piece for The Stream, Samuel Gregg has some issues...

From your writer’s experience covering religious shareholder activism the past few years, the phrase “enlightened engagement in the capital markets” is a trigger warning for a whole lotta hollow slogans to follow. Therefore it wasn’t a surprise to read on the website of Arjuna Capital that the aforementioned “enlightened engagement” is about “sustainability” and “social equity” – euphemistic buzzwords for an agenda that typically threatens hundreds of thousands of pany and shareholder profitability, and drives up costs for consumers. Such...

What is it with nuns crusading against corporate lobbying? This fad of recent years has grabbed headlines as orders such as the Sisters of Mercy and the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia gravitated toward political actions as members of shareholder activist group the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. Seems there’s nothing alternately cuter pelling than a nun “speaking truth” to corporate power as the ICCR nuns do each year in their campaign against lobbying and donations to nonprofit organizations such as...

The monwealth of Puerto Rico is struggling under a massive $72 billion debt and a decade-long economic recession. Here is what you should know about the ongoing financial crisis: How did the debt crisis happen? During the Spanish-American War in the late 1890s the U.S. military invaded the Spanish-owned island of Puerto Rico. After the war ended, the U.S. retained control, making the islands an unincorporated territory and the residents U.S. citizens. In 1917, Congress passed the Puerto Rican Federal...

The faith and work movement has grown significantly over the past decade, yielding a range of researchers and institutions that seek to explore the intersections of work, economics, and the Christian life. Each year, Acton University offers a unique center of gravity for these intersecting voices, and now, in a new special report from the Washington Times, the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics has sponsored a similar symposium of thinkers, each tackling a unique angle on economic flourishing and...

Expansion. Contraction. Repeat. For almost 200 years, we’ve recognized this boom-and-bust pattern as the business cycle, the downward and upward movement of gross domestic product (GDP) around its long-term growth trend. But while we all know what it is, we don’t always agree on what causes the business cycle. In the following series of four videos, economist Tyler Cowen briefly explains four different theories —Austrian Theory, Keynesian Theory, Monetarist Theory, and Real Business Cycle Theory —and highlights some of the...

The new Marvel film Captain America: Civil War examines the conflict between conscience and coercion, says Jordan Ballor in this week’s Acton Commentary. The latest superhero blockbuster Captain America: Civil War opened to a huge box office as well as to critical acclaim last weekend. The basic dynamic of the film focuses on conflict between authority and responsibility. The film could well be understood as an extended reflection on Edmund Burke’s observation: “Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon...

[Note: This is the secondin 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 seriesI explained that the key to understanding Donald Trump’s economic policies is the recognition that, for him, policy and principle are secondary to process. The overriding concern for Trump is not money or wealth but deal-making. “I don’t do it for the money . . . I...