Nominations for the leadership of the Conservative Party – and, thus, to e the next prime minister of the United Kingdom – closed at 5 p.m. London time (noon EDT). The list of successful candidates was released by the 1922 Committee an hour later. Under new Tory rules, a candidate needed the support of eight Members of Parliament, up from two, in order to advance to the first round of voting. The 10 candidates running to succeed Theresa May as...

“Red, white, and gray: Population aging, deaths of despair, and the institutional stagnation of America” is a new essay by American Enterprise Institute Adjunct Fellow Lyman Stone touching on pressing demographic and policy issues in the United States. While the paper uncovers the bleak condition of some American institutions, it presents a hopeful horizon and strong call for action in our social life. As the title suggests, Stone opens by describing the American population’s increasing age, due in part to...

Two weeks ago the Department of State announced its intention to create a Commission on Unalienable Rights. The stated purpose of the Commission will be to “provide the Secretary of State advice and mendations concerning international human rights matters. The Commission will provide fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights.” An unalienable right is a right that cannot be bartered away, or given away, or...

Time is running out to apply for the Acton Institute’s Calihan Academic Grants! These awards are designed to support seminarians and graduate students in theology, philosophy, politics, economics, or related fields as they engage in serious study on the relationship between religion, liberty, theology, the free market, and the virtuous society. If you or someone you know is interested in applying, go to the Calihan Academic Grants page, where you can apply now or learn more about eligibility and application...

John Stossel says, “Yes,” at least according to a recent video at Reason. In the video, “Don’t Be Scared of Designer Babies,” Stossel interviews Georgetown University Professor Jason Brennan, who offers the following unhelpful and patronizing strawman of anyone who objects to the idea of using gene-editing technology to engineer one’s offspring however one wants: When you have any kind of intervention into the body that’s new, people think it’s icky. And they take that feeling of ‘ickiness’ and they...

When a market is mentioned, buying, selling, and everyday business activities e to mind. Economists Rachel M. McCleary and Robert J. Barro have a broader focus in their new book, The Wealth of Religions: The Political Economy of Believing and Belonging. Building on over a decade of work considering religion and economic growth, the authors approach religion as an economist would study any market characterized by demand and supply. The Wealth of Religions develops insights into economic and social situations...

Note: This is post #124 in a weekly video series on basic economics. What is fiscal policy? As economist Tyler Cowen explains, it’s a government’s policies on taxes, spending, and borrowing. But how it’s practiced is a little plicated. Fiscal policy can be used in an effort to mitigate fluctuations in the business cycle so as to soften the effects of booms and busts. In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Cowen discusses expansionary fiscal policy and explains the “fiscal...

The life of the late British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm is subject of Richard J. Evans’ newest book Eric Hobsbawm – A Life in History (2019). Evans is a scholar of Nazi Germany and like Hobsbawm, a former professor at Cambridge University. Before I start to analyze Evans’ book, I must make a personal note: My attachment to Hobsbawm’s work is not only intellectual but emotional. The first substantial book on history read by me was his The Age of...

The New York Times has obfuscated about the reality of Communism since the days of Walter Duranty. An op-ed published on Tuesday titled, “The World Is a Mess. We Need Fully Automated Luxury Communism” adds another chapter to this decades-long trend. The article is a lengthy excerpt from Aaron Bastani’s ing book, Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto. The phrase “Fully Automated Luxury Communism” is another example of the Left’s ongoing campaign to affiliate socialism with … anything except real-life...

Last week Joe Carter helpfully gathered many of the contributions to what John Zmirak has called ‘The Iran-Iraq War Among Conservatives’. This at times heated exchange is largely between liberal and illiberal American conservatives and it is an important and lively one. I’m squarely in the liberal conservative camp believing, with Lord Acton, that freedom is the highest political good. It would be wrong, however, to dismiss the very real concerns and anxieties of the illiberal conservatives. The best articulation...