Last week, PowerBlogger Andrew Knot and I wrote posts about American sugar policy and farm subsidies, respectively. Now, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as the Catholic Relief Services and National Catholic Rural Life Conference, e out with a joint letter on the 2012 farm bill that just passed the Senate. Among other things, they urge Congress to reduce agricultural subsidies, and limiting crop insurance to small and medium sized farms. In 2010, the government gave out...

The Preacher says that God “has set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV). This is within the broader context of his discussion of the paradox of exploring the wonder of God’s creation and the vanity of human striving in a fallen world. But the more immediate context is a discussion of work. In verse 9 he asks, “What do workers gain from their toil?” A bit earlier he discusses the meaningless of work, but concludes that “a person...

This week we feature an interview with Diane Paddison, Chief Strategy Officer for Cassidy Turley in Dallas, Texas. She is the founder of non-profit 4WORD and author of the book Work, Love, Pray; Practical Wisdom for Young Professional Christian Women. For resources and to get connected into munity, follow her on Twitter @4wordwomen and Facebook. Diane Paddison is something of an expert. Sure she can negotiate multi-million dollar deals for fortune panies, but that is not what I am talking...

Andreas Widmer joins Rev. Robert Sirico on WORLD Magazine’s best business books of 2011-2012 list with The Pope & the CEO: John Paul II’s Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard named as a top five book in business. Widmer is an Acton Research Fellow in Entrepreneurship and a 2012 Acton University lecturer. Here’s what David Bahnsen, senior vice president at a leading financial firm, had to say about Widmer’s book: Many evangelicals are writing and reading about character in...

The issue of tax avoidance is plex, notes Philip Booth. Not all avoidance is illegal or immoral—some is even encouraged by the government. So how, Booth asks, do Catholics determine what is acceptable? Evasion involves illegally not paying tax that is due. This includes not declaring £10 received for babysitting and multi-million pound schemes by professional criminals. Evasion is wrong and it is also wrong to aid and abet somebody else in evasion, for example by paying a tradesperson cash...

Under the policies and leadership of the Obama administration, the economic lives of struggling blacks are now worse, not better, than they were three years ago.“If the president were to give an account of his administration’s advancement of African Americans he would be hard pressed to describe anything significant beyond funneling redistributed wealth into government bureaucracies, atraditional pathto the middle class for blacks,”says Anthony B. Bradley in this week’s Acton Commentary (published July 11).The full text of his essay follows....

Rev. Robert Sirico, Acton Institute president and co-founder, released Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy, in late May and the book has been no stranger to critical acclaim ever since. The latest? Defending the Free Market cracks WORLDMagazine’stop five business books of the past year. Sirico’s book is critically necessary for 2012 says David Bahnsen, senior vice president at a leading financial firm: Attacks on Mitt Romney’s time at private equity firm Bain Capital are...

At the most recent Acton University, American Enterprise Institute president Arthur Brooks gave a brilliant and paradigm-shifting speech on why advocates of free enterprise need to explain why it is the most moral, most fair, and most helpful system for alleviating poverty. You can download it here. (It’ll be the best 49 cents you spend this week.) I was thrilled to discover today that AEI has created an animated video that covers much the same material as in his lecture....

“The most dangerous enemies of capitalism today are capitalists,” says Timothy P. Carney. “This is ing clearer every day to mitted to free markets.” The conservative and libertarian grassroots came to deeply distrust big business after the Wall Street bailouts and Obama’s stimulus and health care bills, both of which had big-business backing. Tea Party ire focused on subsidy-suckling businesses as much as at big-spending politicians. Beltway conservatives have also joined in the fight against corporatism. Last spring, the Club...

In the current issue of Books & Culture,artist, writer, speaker, and cultural influencer Makoto Fujimurahas written a review of Wisdom & Wonder: a fresh translation of the last 10 chapters of Volume 3 in the Common Grace set. Volume 1 is slated to be released in early 2013. Fujimura begins the review expressing his indebtedness to Kuyper whose experiences cover a variety of areas reminiscent of Fujimura’s upbringing and are still very much relevant today though they were written more...