Today is the unofficial first day of the holiday shopping season. Here are five facts you should know about BlackFriday. 1. The term “BlackFriday” was coined by the Philadelphia Police Department’s traffic squad in the 1950s. According to Philadelphianewspaper reporter Joseph P. Barrett, “It was the day that Santa Claus took his chair in the department stores and every kid in the city wanted to see him. It was the first day of the Christmas shopping season.” Barrettt first used...

By now the Pilgrims’ disastrous experiment with collectivism in Plymouth, Massachusetts, is well-known, in free market circles if not among the young. The story has been printed and popularized – Rush Limbaugh even recites it annually on his radio program. However, trade merce played another, lesser-known role in the first Thanksgiving – and America’s founding, history, and self-definition. Public schools still teach the familiar history of Thanksgiving: that American Indians taught starving Pilgrims useful practices like fertilization. A grateful Governor...

In the immediate aftermath of the vote forBrexit, conservatives were quick to cheer Britain’s decision, hailing it as a win for freedom, democracy, and subsidiarity. Others, however, were just as eager to claim it was a move driven by fear and protectionism. Standing in the midst was Daniel Hannan, the British Conservative MEP, who insisted that the causes of national sovereignty and free exchange needn’t conflict. “Being a nation means that we are not just a random set of individuals...

Your Thanksgiving dinner this year may cost less than a meal at your local fast food restaurant. According to an informal price survey conducted by theAmerican Farm Bureau Federation(AFBF), the average cost of this year’s Thanksgiving meal for ten people is $49.12—less than $5 per person. “For the second consecutive year, the overall cost of Thanksgiving dinner has declined,” says AFBF Director of Market Intelligence John Newton. “The cost of the dinner is the lowest since 2013 and second-lowest since...

In a survey of local charities and nonprofits in the West Michigan region, WZZM TV found that the Acton Institute topped 45 other organizations. David Bailey, an investigative reporter for the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based ABC affiliate, used data from the Charity Navigator nonprofit watchdog organization pile his ranking. You can see a full list of the West Michigan charities and nonprofits at the WZZM website. Here’s a transcript from Bailey’s report: At the top of our rankings is the Acton...

Free market economics is a subject worth repeatedly visiting, to examine its merits and question its possible drawbacks. The idea of free markets has e under fire by some conservative thinkers, including editor of First Things magazine, R. R. Reno, prompting a response in defense of free markets from Rev. Robert Sirico, co-founder and president of the Acton Institute. On November 7 and 8, Reno and Sirico were given the chance to discuss and defend their position on free markets....

On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Bruce Edward Walker talks with Ray Nothstine, Opinion Editor of the the North State Journal and Editor at the Civitas Institute, on the alternative country music genre. Then, Caroline Roberts interviews Jordan Ballor, Senior Research Fellow and Director of Publishing at the Acton Institute, on the link between Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Abraham Kuyper, and Thanksgiving. Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics: John Mellencamp official site Carlene Carter official site Lillie...

What just happened? Yesterday the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a draft of the ‘Restoring Internet Freedom Order,’ a plan to roll back some of the ‘net neutrality’ regulations implemented by the Obama administration. What is net neutrality? Net neutrality (short for “network neutrality”) refers to both a design principle and laws that attempt to regulate and enforce that principle. Thenet neutrality principleis the idea that a public information network should aspire to treat all content, sites, and platforms equally....

Despite being surrounded by unprecedented levels of opportunity and prosperity, we live in a profoundly anxious age, fearful of economic disruption even as we resist the pull to idolize status, wealth, fortability. When observing the vices that persist amid economic freedom and abundance, many are quick to proclaim, “The market is not enough!” And they’re right. We also need gratitude. “We should bow in gratitude to God for His many favors,” said President Calvin Coolidge in his 1925 Thanksgiving Proclamation,...

Today’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic features a biography of the forgotten architect of perestroika, Alexander Yakovlev (1923-2005). Born to Communist parents, rising to e the head of propaganda in the Soviet Union, Yakovlev came to embrace freedom and expose the horrors of Marxist-Leninist rule – not least, the persecution of people of faith. In the pantheon of late figures who contributed to the fall of Communism, Yakovlev deserves more notoriety than he receives, argues Kaetana Leontjeva-Numaviciene in her essay. Although...