Not one of Benjamin Franklin’s better-known works, but one worth reading nonetheless, is a brief 1751 essay called Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c. Franklin covers a lot of ground in just a few pages, and brings up quite a few ideas menting on, but I wanted to highlight one paragraph and its relevance for the “birth dearth” we see in the West today. Franklin explains, “Home Luxury in the Great, increases the Nation’s Manufacturers employ’d...

There are few men who define an era, a school of thought or anything of the sort. There are even in smaller numbers those who, once dead, give us a feeling that along with them a whole es to an end. It seems to me that this is the correct reading of the death of the 41st president of the United States (1989-1993). With George H. Bush, we have lost not only a man but a style and a special...

Why would a lay Dominican woman from the so-called “dark ages” have any lasting relevance in today’s world? For one reason, Catherine of Siena, was no ordinary woman. And she eventually became no ordinary saint. She was the saint of “burning love” for her passionate sense of service, reform and justice. It was St. Catherine who famously said: “Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.” Her infectious magnanimity and heroic life of...

In the days after Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and all the rest, the Christmas shopping season is well underway—and with it, a peculiar blend of hyper-generosity and hyper-consumerism. Surely there is much to celebrate, and not just in the social and spiritual glories of human exchange and gift-giving. Such activity is also creative and productive in an economic sense, serving to bolster businesses, boost employment, and accelerate economic growth.But amid the opportunities for creative service and extravagant peting temptations of...

President George H.W. Bush died on Friday at the age of 94. Bush became a war-hero and earned a degree in economics from Yale before entering into a career that made him one of the greatest statesmen ofthe twentieth century. Throughout his life Bush was a champion of freedom—for individual, for markets, and for nations. Here are six of Bush’s most important quotes onfreedom and economic liberty: On the misuse of the terms freedom and liberty: “No terms have been...

In an extremely disturbing video, a two year old girl is run over by a truck in a China. Shortly after being run over, three strangers walk past the girl and do nothing. Eventually, a street cleaner picks her up and transports her to the hospital where she later dies. Utilitarian philosopher, Peter Singer, uses this real world example in a TEDTalk that has now received over 1 million views to make a point about our global charity and aid...

As protests for a $15-per-hour minimum wage continue torage across the country, cities likeSeattleand Minneapolis and states likeCaliforniaandNew Yorkhave begun to adopt such schemes, leading to a range of unfortunate case studies in economic destruction. Despite the popular narrative that such laws will benefit the most vulnerable and put the powerful in check, the negative consequences have tended to be most severe for small businesses and low-skilled workers. Take New York City’s car wash industry, a sector known for its...

Would you like the federal government to implement a policy that would reduce GDP, increase unemployment, benefit almost every country in the world except for the U.S., and cost you $915 a year? If so, you’re in luck! Those are just some of the impacts of current and proposed US trade actions under Section 232 and 301 of US trade law, aka, the Trump tariffs. A new missioned by Koch Industries and conducted by consulting firm ImpactECON, looked at the...

As our Acton Institute prepares for its Rome conference tomorrow, December 4, on the Dominican contribution to “Freedom, Virtue, and the Good Society”, extraordinary men and women from the Order of e to mind: Albert the Great, Catherine of Siena, and perhaps the most famous of all, the Angelic Doctor, Thomas Aquinas. Together these medieval stalwarts of the faith, truth, and justice laid the groundwork for modern science, modern learning, and even modern politics. The great Dominican heritage may have...

What just happened? Earlier this week the U.S. Congress voted unanimously to support HR 309, the “Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2018.” The purpose of the bill is to provide relief for victims of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes who are members of religious and ethnic minority groups in Iraq and Syria, for accountability for perpetrators of these crimes, and for other purposes. The bipartisan bill, first introduced in 2017 by Representatives Chris Smith...