Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg is quoted in yesterday’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial on Goldman Sachs: The most shocking moment in Tuesday’s Senate hearing on Goldman Sachs wasn’t Sen. Carl Levin’s repeated use of the big investment house’s scatological description of its own dubious offerings. No, it was when one of Goldman’s high cluckety-clucks actually said that it has no ethical responsibility to tell clients that it is betting against the same investments it mends. That really is (expletive deleted). Samuel...

I’m a little slow getting to this–some readers have doubtless already seen media reports–but if you weren’t yet aware of the Obama Administration’s actuaries’ study of the probable effects of Obamacare (released last Thursday), you should be. Our friend, Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute presents the lowlights at NRO. Among the predictions: Tens of billions of dollars in new fees and excise taxes will be “passed through to health consumers in the form of higher drug and devices prices...

There have been many published articles lately about school curriculum, school performance, school choice, and the Obama dictates that are aimed at pumping more money and asserting more control of an already mediocre performing public school industry. In The Wall Street Journal, University of Dallas professor David ments on a revised Texas school’s U.S. History curriculum that has been proposed and awaits approval. It’s caused a stir among the educrates but that’s partly due to a longtime feud between academic...

James 1:27 states: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Last week I had the chance to meet up again with Tom Davis, CEO of Children’s Hope Chest. Hope Chest works with orphans in various countries around the world including South Africa, Swaziland, and Russia. There mission is to advocate a munity munity” partnership model. While many great...

In a new column on Sojourners, Prophet Jim Wallis reveals that Wall Street financiers ing to him for confession, sometimes skulking along darkened streets to hide their shame: e like Nicodemus – a religious leader who came to talk to Jesus in private – at night. Many have felt remorseful about what happened on Wall Street and how it has hurt so many people. They describe the behavior in their profession with words such as “greedy,” “risky,” or “reckless.” These...

Background on the next Acton Lecture Series event: Join us on Thursday, May 6 to hear Mr. Joseph Morris’ lecture Alinsky for Dummies: His Persistent Influence and Its Meaning for American Society and Politics. Saul Alinsky might be called the “anti-Acton.” As Lord Acton warned that power corrupts, Saul Alinsky — the father of modern munity organizing” — rejoiced that corruption empowers. Decades after Alinsky’s death his ideas and teaching continue to shape the American political and social landscape. Barack...

Acton Media’s second documentary makes its public television debut Sunday, May 2, with a 3-4 p.m. airing on Detroit Public Television (HD channel 56.1). The film trailer is here. Update: Michigan PBS stations WCMU and WFUM have scheduled the documentary for broadcast on Thursday, June 17, from 10-11 p.m. ...

This week’s Acton Commentary from Baylor University economics professor John Pisciotta: Americans have less confidence and trust in government today than at any time since the 1950s. This is the conclusion of the Pew Research Center survey released in mid-April. Just 22 percent expressed trust in government to deliver effective policies almost always or most of the time. With the robust expansion of the economic role of the federal government under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the Pew poll...

News reports today on the Greek debt crisis are packed with scary terms like “implosion” and “financial doomsday” and “ebola” and “contagion.” The anxiety has ratcheted up considerably this week, and not just for EU heads of state but also for President Obama. He should be worried. As I pointed out in a previous post, “Die Hard — The Welfare State,” the United States awaits its own day of reckoning for the sins of mounting government debt, a bloated public...

U·to·pi·a [yoo-toh-pee-uh]- noun – an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. The word was first used in the book Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More. The opposite of dystopia. ORIGIN based on Greek ou not + tóp(os) a place Last Exit to Utopia by Jean-François Revel Note, dear reader, the origin of the term “utopia”: the Greek root indicates that utopia is, literally, nowhere. It is not a place. It does not exist. Sir Thomas...