Despite persistent caricature, corporate titans do not always view government regulators as enemies; they often see them as unwitting collaborators. Big business and the regulatory state go hand-in-hand, according to Michael Gove, a Conservative Party Member of the UK’s Parliament. Large corporations sometimes support – and occasionally help write – regulations that they can keep, but that petitors cannot. By setting the regulatory bar just out of reach, they use the lever of government to artificially petition in their favor....

UPDATE:Andy Puzder withdrew his name from considerationyesterday, so we’re updating and reposting this article with the information for the new nominee, Alexander Acosta. Note: This is the fifth in a weekly series of explanatory posts on the officials and agencies included in the President’s Cabinet. See the series introductionhere. Cabinet position:Secretary of Labor Department: United States Department of Labor Current Nominee:Andrew Puzder Succession:The Secretary of Labor is the eleventh in the presidential line of succession. Department Mission:“To foster, promote, and...

“Acton’s ideal of the historian as judge, as the upholder of the moral standard, is the most noble ideal ever proposed for the historian,” says Josef L. Altholz in this week’s Acton Commentary, “and it is an ideal that has been rejected, perhaps with grudging respect, by all historians, including myself.” We workaday historians can have no higher ideal than Acton’s second choice, impartiality or objectivity. In this sense, as also in his relative lack of publications, Acton was somewhat...

Despite the predictable flurry of sugary clichés and hedonistic consumerism, Valentine’s Day is as good an opportunity as any to reflect on the nature of human love and consider how we might further it across society. For those of us interested in the study of economics, or, if you prefer,the study of human action, what drives such action — love or otherwise —is the starting point for everything. For the Christian economist, such questions get a bit plicated. Although love...

February 14 is the chosen birthday of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), one of America’s greatest champions of individual liberty. Here are five facts you should know about this writer, orator, statesman, and abolitionist: 1. Douglas was born into slavery in Maryland circa 1818. (Like many slaves, he never knew his actual date of birth and so chose February 14 as his birthday.) He was given the name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey but decided to change it when he became a free...

Upon the announcement of President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, originalists quickly came to a warm consensus, hailing Judge Neil Gorsuch as a strong defender of the Constitution and a fitting replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia. In addition to the wide-ranging, bipartisan testimonials testifying to his character, intellectual heft, and various credentials, Gorsuch has demonstrated mitment to the Constitution and the freedoms it seeks to protect, whether in weighing issues of executive power, regulatory overreach, or, quite literally,...

Theologian, public intellectual, and close friend of the Acton Institute, Michael J. Novak Jr., passed away last night on February 17, 2017. Acton Institute President Rev. Robert A. Sirico reflects on the passing of his friend and mentor Michael Novak, who through his writings influenced scores of scholars and theologians to recognize the potential of the market economy and the centrality of the dignity of the human person. His final speaking appearance at Acton was on June 17, 2016. You...

St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg is one of the tens of thousands of churches seized, shuttered, or destroyedfollowing theBolshevik Revolution of 1917. Instead of leveling it – the fate of so many other houses of worship – muniststurned the architectural wonder into a Museum of Atheism, then a museum in its own right. It has e a UNESCO World Heritage Site visited by 3.5 million people last year. In January,Governor Georgy Poltavchenko announced that he would transfer ownership of...

To really serve God, a Christian should go into ministry, right? That’s what Greg McEvilly thought. But then he founded Kammok, an outdoor adventure pany. ...

Michael Novak died last night at the age of 83. Novak was a theologian and thinkerwho cared deeply about liberty and wrote persuasively about what isnecessaryto preserve freedomfor future generations. In honor of his passing, here are six quotes by Novak on freedom and institutions: Michael Novak / Catholic University of America On truth and freedom: “The most critical threat to our freedom is a failure to appreciate the power of truth.” On the future of liberty: “During the past...