The progressive shareholder activists over at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility have made it one of their core missions to panies in which they invest away from fossil fuels – and bankrupting them if necessary. To achieve this goal, according to their website, ICCR members seek to panies along a “hierarchy of impact” that will gradually reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and advance their progress towards greater sustainability. Understanding its importance in driving the energy transition, ICCR members...

When es to economic stewardship, Christians are called to aframe of mind distinct from the world around us. Thoughwe, like anyone, will sowand bear fruit, ours is an approach driven less by ownership than bypartnership, a collaboration with a source of provision before and beyond ourselves.This altershow we create, manage, and invest as individuals. But it mustn’t end there, transforming our churches, businesses, and institutions, from the bottom up and down again. In some helpful reflections from the inner workings...

“Majority of U.S. public school students are in poverty” That was the headline of a Washington Post article published almost exactly a year ago. The main pointof the article was that, “For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school e from e families, according to a new analysis of 2013 federal data, a statistic that has profound implications for the nation.” The claim is overblown and misleading (for reasons I explain here) but...

Corporate leaders are working to mon ground with the Roman Catholic Church when es to ethics and global business. A recent conference in Rome brought together the Pope, Vatican leaders, and global business executives. The purpose was to improve the relations between the two groups after some of Pope Francis’ ments on finance and capitalism. Francis X. Rocca recently wrote about the meeting for the Wall Street Journal: At the two-day meeting organized by the Global Foundation, an Australian nonprofit...

Some people will try to tell you that the Star Wars saga is about the conflict between the light and the dark sides of the force, between the Jedi and the Sith. Some will defend the Jedi as virtuous warrior monks. Others will try to tell you that the whole story is about bad parenting. Star Wars is really about family, but it is too easy to blame the parents and the Skywalkers in particular. The films in fact illustrate...

Extreme poverty—defined as living on less than $1.25 a day—has declined by half since 1990, and could theoretically be eliminated across the globe in the next few decades. But there are three countries—Colombia, Georgia, and Swaziland—where a single resident billionaire could eliminate extreme poverty altogether, for at least 15 years. In six other nations, that goal could be achieved by having all the countries billionaires pool their resources. That’s the finding in an intriguing article by Laurence Chandy, Lorenz Noe,...

While many politicians tend to avoid the labels “liberal” or “progressive,” Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders proudly self-identifies as a “socialist.” While at the University of Chicago in the early 1960s, Sanders joined the Young People’s Socialist League, the youth affiliate of the Socialist Party of America, and has remained a outspoken advocate for socialism ever since. But exactly what kind of socialist is Sanders? Faced with the prospect, albeit unlikely, that an avowed socialist may actually...

In this week’s Acton Commentary, I take a look at “The Moral and Economic Poverty of the Lottery.” I take a look at the main parties involved: the winners, the players, and the government, and conclude, “Far from a force for good, lotteries are a danger to society.” The problems with lotteries and gambling more generally are various and sundry. But Gerda Reith captures a fundamental aspect when she writes that “the state-sponsored fantasy of the big win turns the...