Note: This is post #127 in a weekly video series on basic economics. In the early 2000s, Argentina’s debt reached 150 percent of GDP, leading to what was the largest government default in the history of the world. How does this happen? Why makes a country take on too much debt? In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Alex Tabarrok explains some of the dangers of fiscal policy. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d...

The British economist John Kay made a powerful argument in his 2011 book Obliquity: Why our goals are best achieved indirectly that the best way to achieve plex of broadly defined goal is indirectly through a gradual process of risk taking and discovery. Means help us to discover ends, and thus our journeys through life are an integral part of our destinations. We see this in our ordinary lives all the time as chance encounters, casual conversations, and even moments...

We are in the midst of a surge of academic interest in the historical relationship between religion and business in America. Notable recent studies include those by Timothy Gloege, Darren Grem, Sarah Ruth Hammond, and Amanda Porterfield. To this growing body of literature James Dennis LoRusso has contributed Spirituality, Corporate Culture, and American Business. The book appears in Bloomsbury Academic’s series Critiquing Religion: Discourse, Culture, Power, a series that explicitly regards religion as “just another cultural tool used to gerrymander...

Every summer, as I prepare for much needed vacation, I am reminded of my favorite book, Josef Pieper’s Leisure: The Basis of Culture. It was written by the neo-Thomistic philosopher who condemned a world of “total work.” The context in which Pieper’s masterpiece was authored is his native Germany in the late-1940s during a furious rebuilding of Europe after the Second World War. He argues for making time for not just rest, recreation, and the arts in our day, but...

The Democrats had their first presidential primary debate last week, and immigration was a central focus both nights. Poor conditions of refugees and others detained crossing the southern border have been in the news all year. The influx of immigrants in the last year has been so constant that detainment facilities are grossly overcrowded, to the point that the Trump administration has had to fly people to facilities in other states, according to one report this May. Indeed, while details...

Walmart agreed last month to a $282 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, resolving charges of bribing foreign officials. pany mitted themselves to “acting ethically everywhere we operate,” reports indicate that Walmart allowed third parties in China, Mexico, India, and Brazil to make payments to government officials. Of course, while a $282 million settlement would ruin many corporations, it will barely dent the over $100 billion in profits that Walmart brought in last...

On June 29, violent riots between alt-right groups and Antifa broke out in Portland, Oregon, leaving several people with severe injuries. Portland is ing a hotbed for violent, left-wing groups. Who is Antifa and what are they protesting? Rev. Ben Johnson, senior editor at Acton, joins the podcast to explain the events of the protest and Antifa’s objective. After that, Craig Bruce Smith, professor of history at William Woods University, joins the show to bring attention to an increasing dismissal...

“Conservatism,” wrote Russell Kirk, “is the negation of ideology.” Kirk’s tradition rejects ideology, because “[t]he ideologues who promise the perfection of man and society have converted a great part of the twentieth-century world into a terrestrial hell.” The same view shaped one of the great canons of modern literature: Fyodor Dostoevsky’sThe Brothers Karamazov, writes Mihail Neamtu in a new essay for the Acton Institute’sReligion & Liberty Transatlantic website. As an added bonus, the essay is panied by a video of...

Early on in Ma Jian’s new novel the main character has a vision: I saw elderly men and women smashing rocks against the ground under the steely gaze of teenage Red Guards. Among the sweat-drenched faces caked in dust, I saw my father looking up at me. There are many anguished recollections in the book but this one carries a special poignancy. It is central to a story that shows how the personal (with a hint of parricidal guilt) and...

Tomorrow, for the 243rd anniversary celebration of Independence Day, President Trump will give a speech on the National Mall. As with all such addresses in the modern age, Trump’s remarks will pared to the presidential gold standard for Fourth of July speeches—Calvin Coolidge’s speech on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Coolidge was so famous for his taciturnity that he earned the nickname “Silent Cal.” But when he did speak he could be moving and profound. Such was...