Note: This is post #75 in a weekly video series on basic economics. While there have always been inventors and innovators, that number exploded after the eighteenth century. Why has innovation grown so rapidly? Some claim it’s because of institutions such as property rights and rule of law, while others say it was because of a a change in attitude—ordinary people who once celebrated conquerors and kings began to celebrate merchants and inventors. In this video by Marginal Revolution University,...

Is there a Christian view of economics? If so, what makes the economic approach different for the Christian? Dr. Victor Claar joined the recent edition of the Christian Libertarian podcast to talk about those issues. ...

French President Emmanuel Macron wants Catholics in his country to be more involved in public life. Samuel Gregg, Acton’s director of research, wonders if France’s secular settlement could be under threat: For a few days this month, France experienced a relapse into the type of anti-Catholic rhetoric that, 100 years ago, would have thrilled half the country and infuriated everyone else. Laurence Rossignol, the former Socialist government minister, denounced Catholics for trying to restrict access to IVF and abortion, and...

During even the first century of its founding, America had produced the world’s “largest capital driven economy.” How was such a young country able to outrun many of its petitors? Founding Father Alexander Hamilton is perhaps the primary figure to have kick-started America’s successful economic landscape. In an article written for The Online Library of Law and Liberty, Samuel Gregg, Acton’s Director of Research, reviewsAlexander Hamilton on Finance, Credit, and Debt, and gives readers a historical glimpse of the financial...

‘A view of Blanchard Hall in Wheaton College’ by Liscobeck Public Domain Mark Labberton, President of Fuller Seminary, recently addressed a meeting of Evangelical leaders held at Wheaton College and has released a reconstruction of his remarks. It is an interesting address which spends four paragraphs explicitly addressing questions of economics and economic policy. This section begins by rightly noting that, “It is very hard to read the Bible and ignore God’s heart for the poor and the vulnerable.” In...

Today is Patriots’ Day, an annual observance of the anniversary of when the American colonies first took up arms against the British Crown on April 19, 1775. Patriot’s Day has e a forgotten holiday, due in part to the fact we Americans have a peculiar relationship to the term “patriot.” To question someone’s patriotism is considered an insult, while to praise their patriotism is (usually) pliment. Yet strangely, the only people who refer to pletely without irony or qualification, as...

Psychologists and philosophers speculate that religion developed out of primitive man’s fear of the unknown. Being surrounded by a multitude of hostile predators and unknown forces, he dreamed of a cosmic protector to deliver him. Sigmund Freud theorized in this way; so, too, did Bertrand Russell, who wrote in “Why I Am Not a Christian”: Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown, and partly … the wish to feel...

A review of Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy by Jonah J. Goldberg, Crown Forum, 2018, 442 pp., $28. Suicide of the West is intended as a “serious” work, which it is indeed. But in my opinion it rests snugly on the shelf withGoldberg’s two previous books, Liberal Fascism and Tyranny of Clichés. All three present serious topics in a thoughtful and well-researched manner, but his most recent is...

Given the rise of social media and our expansive interconnectedness from globalization, one would think that our social bonds would be stronger than ever. With such an abundance of ways to connect and engage, trade and exchange, how could it possibly be otherwise? But amid the countless blessings of modernity, our expansion of freedom and prosperity has also been panied by new idols of individualism, leading many to pair forts and conveniences with a materialistic or hedonistic focus on the...

Although theCuban people continue tosuffer and struggle under the weight munist rule, many have been encouraged by even the slightest of Raul Castro’sincremental changestoward private businesses. Out of a total population of roughly 11 million, the number of self-employed Cubanshas risen from 150,000 to 500,000in recent years. Although the state still controls the press, the internet, and most of the “formal” economy, a small portion of the Cuban population is gaining a bit of breathing room to innovate and create...