Over at World Magazine, Lee Wishing cites a speech by Rev. Robert A. Sirico, president and co-founder of the Acton Institute, on the subject of putting our faith in God and our own abilities instead of the government to manage economies.He quotes Rev. Sirico: “Many thinkers throughout the ages have noted that we face a choice between holding a robust faith in God or putting faith in man and institutions such as the state.” In such tough economic times, we...

Liberty is something we have valued for years in the United States, and the recent events that have occurred in Iran and Honduras demonstrate there are many people throughout the world who wish they were blessed to live in a country that protects and values liberty. As we get ready to celebrate the Fourth of July, Kevin Schmiesing, research fellow at the Acton Institute, writes a very mentary on liberty. Schmiesing explains the delicacy of freedom and how it can...

According to the Catholic News Agency, an Italian newspaper claims to have acquired some parts of the ing Caritas in Veritate encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI. Some of the quotes published by Corriere della Sera are claimed to be from the encyclical and align with the predictions that the Pope will be advocating for morality to be the basis of solving our economic crisis. Here is a quote: Without truth, without trust and love for what is truthful, there is...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says that “the world needs a new moral architecture.” He also has a clear idea of what that morality ought to look like. Speaking at a conference on socialism in May of this year, he said that “every factory must… produce not only briquettes, steel, and aluminum, but also, above all, the new man and woman, the new society, the socialist society.” If Chavez manages to convince enough people that socialists are a new breed of...

The Heartland Institute and Consumers for Health Care Choices are sponsoring Health Care Roundtables across the country. Earlier this week, Acton development associate Charles Roelofs attended a roundtable and offers this report: The event was co-sponsored by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Americans for Prosperity – Michigan. According to event organizers, over 100 people registered for the event. Participants included, local and national health care experts, medical and insurance representatives, current and former elected officials, and concerned citizens....

A recent NBER working paper, “Internationalization of U.S. Doctorate Education,” takes a look at trends in doctoral degrees awarded by American institutions in the physical sciences, engineering, and economics. From the abstract, “The representation of a large number of students born outside the United States among the ranks of doctorate recipients from U.S. universities is one of the most significant transformations in U.S. graduate education and the international market for highly-trained workers in science and engineering in the last quarter...

Last week I took Friday afternoon off and did the yard work. I’d been listening to radio broadcasts about the vote in Congress on HR 2454 – what some of us call the “cap and tax” climate bill. You know, the one none of the members had read before the vote? Yes, I know, there’s more than one bill that they haven’t read prior to voting. Yard work is good for my psyche. In two hours I can make a...

Pope Benedict XVI’s much anticipated economics encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, is scheduled to be released early next week, according reports. For a good sense of this pope’s thinking on economics, we offer an article the then-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger presented in 1985 at a symposium in Rome. The Acton Institute published it under the title “Market Economy and Ethics.” As indicated by the following quote, the pope believed in integrating morals into economics in order to have sound and successful economic...

In a blow to international relief work, the Spring Lake-based International Aid has announced that it is ceasing operation, effective immediately. CEO Dr. Gordon Loux cited a “perfect storm” of fiscal hardship: “We have tried to turn it around and we’ve sent out a number of appeals,” he said. “But because of the West Michigan economy and because of donor fatigue of most organizations trying to raise funds, we’ve got the perfect storm.” In May, longtime CEO and president Myles...

Acton University has been over for almost two weeks now. A testimony to what a great experience it is can be found on a blog, A Voice in the Wilderness, by R.J. Moeller. Moeller was a student at Acton University this year and provides great insight to the experience he had. If you are curious about Acton University or even Acton Institute please read his blog post. He gives a great description about both that is very well written. ...