The American coal industry is facing serious challenges. In states like West Virginia, the effects have been particularly painful, causing munities to struggle under a projected 23% decline in related jobs and leading vast numbers of residents to leave the state altogether. This is the story of Bluefield, a West Virginia coal-mining town facing decades-long economic decline, with the population of the surrounding county dwindling from 100,000 in the 1980s to less than 20,000 today. Thankfully, for the churches and...

[Note: This is the second post in a series highlighting some of the financial aspects and broad economic lessons of Frank Capra’s holiday classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. You can find part one here.] George’s Life Savings in a Life Insurance Policy George attempts to secure a loan from Potter based on his life insurance policy. He says it has a $15,000 face value and a $500 cash value. Why is his life insurance policy worth cash? George has atype...

“Eat your broccoli,” our mothers would say. “Think of the starving children in Africa!” It’s a moral claim we’re all familiar with. If some of our food goes to waste, someone, somewhere, will face imminent harm and the environment will go to the dogs. Indeed, it’s the central message of the popular new documentary, Wasted!, which claims, for example, that one-third of all food produced is never eaten, that 40% of that same food goes to waste, and that 90%...

What is behind the cryptocurrency Bitcoin’s phenomenal rise in values, from $800 last year to $17,000 today? Is this a bubble or a durable value, and what are the ethical implications behind using a currency that may aid such causes as organized crime and North Korea’s nuclear program? What is Bitcoin, anyway? Philip Booth answers these questions in a new essay for Acton’sReligion & Liberty Transatlantic website. In a fascinating look at the new frontier of currency, Booth examines whether...

Today is Bill of Rights Day, memoration first established byPresident Franklin D. Rooseveltto cherish the ‘immeasurable privileges which the charter guaranteed’ and to rededicate its principles and practice.” Here are five facts you should know about the Bill of Rights: 1. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, George Mason of Virginia said that he “wished the plan had been prefaced by a Bill of Rights,” because it would “give great quiet” to the people. A motion was made that mittee...

Theresa May began this week by meeting with her Brexit cabinet to determine whether to embrace a “soft Brexit” (with maximum access to mon market and a heavy regulatory regime imposed by Brussels) or a “hard Brexit” (triggering EU protectionist policies but freeing the UK to pursue economic dynamism). But thinking about the European Union should be more fundamental, re-examining its drive to build a secular utopia through ever-more-burdensome supranational government. In a new essay for Acton’s Religion & Liberty...

As the most widely observed cultural holiday in the world, Christmas produces many things—joy, happiness, gratitude, reverence. And numbers. Lots of peculiar, often large, numbers. Here are a few to contemplate this season: $74.70– Average amount U.S. consumers spent on real Christmas trees in 2015. $98.70– Average amount U.S. consumers spent on fake Christmas trees in 2015. 34,500,000 – Number of real Christmas trees sold in the U.S. each year. 10,000,000 – Number of fake Christmas trees sold each year....

“Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall,” says Rev. Robert A. Sirico in this week’s Acton Commentary, “but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.” In 1776, there were fewer than one billion people on Earth. A vast majority of them were poor, and living under tyrannies. Just over two centuries later, there are more than seven billion human beings. Rapid medical discoveries and inventions have helped to double the average lifespan, vastly reduce infant mortality,...

On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Fr. Ben Johnson, Senior Editor at the Acton Institute, speaks with Alex Chafuen, President of the Atlas Network and as of January 1, 2018, Acton’s new Managing Director: International, on his past and ing work with Acton. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker hosts a roundtable discussion with Acton staff on the recently released Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics: Learn more...

Upon it’s initial release in 1946, Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life was something of a financial flop,failing to reach the break-even point of $6.3 million. Although it was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, it wasn’t until subsequent decades that it became recognized as one of the greatest Christmas films ever made.* The movie is long overdue for another reappraisal, for it’s also one of the best films ever created about economics and financial services. In a...