“In modern times, more and more Americans have unwittingly relinquished their freedoms and self-determination to career politicians,” says Daniel Garza, president and chairman of The LIBRE Institute. “Millions have ceded their fate to a raft of government programs and entitlements administered by a powerful central government.” Fighting poverty through work, generated by a free market economic system, is essential to sustain a free society. Ours is the only system the world has ever known that so effectively improves the human...

Confusion about economics is rampant both among elected officials and the electorate. Fortunately, as Jay Richards says, it doesn’t take an advance degree to understand how innovation and free markets lead to flourishing. All it takes is dispelling a few economic illusions: 1. Can’t we build a just society? In seeking a more just society, we must avoid the “Nirvana Myth,” that paring the market economy with an unrealizable ideal. hough the kingdom of God is already present in some...

This weekend Saturday Night Live had a sketch that set the Internet abuzz and had Slate asking whetherthe skit was the “most astute analysis of american politics in 2016.” The setup was “Black Jeopardy!”,a recurring bit on SNL that normally pits two lower-class black contestants against a wealthier and/or well-educated white contestant who is clueless about African-American perspectives on race and culture. Thistime, though,the white guy is a working-class (presumed)Trump supporter named Doug(played by Tom Hanks)—who isn’t as out of...

Many of America’s immigrants fled nations that were ruined by corrupt politicians and failed government policies. So why, asks Gloria Alvarez, “do you support the same policies in the U.S. that caused you to flee your home country?” Alvarez, Project Director at the National Civic Movement of Guatemala, says that what makes the United States different from her home country of Guatemala is the “unique American belief in limited government” that leads to greater individual freedom and personal responsibility. This...

During her presidential campaign, Sec. Hillary Clinton has repeatedly said she’d implement a tax system in which the wealthy “pay their fair share in taxes.” Expecting the rich to pay what is “fair” is not asking to much of them. But one question that is rarely considered is, “What if they already do pay their fair share?” Before we can determine whether the rich pay enough we have to first ask what would be “fair.” How much of total tax...

A new interactive tool shows that men, women, and families from around the world have a lot more similarities than differences. With the U.S. presidential election, confusion over Brexit, and seemingly crumbling international relationships, 2016 feels like it’s been months and months of anger, resentment, and disharmony. Americans—and non-Americans too—are feeling like we have nothing mon with anyone anymore. It’s worth taking a moment to look at the data and realize that just isn’t true. Gapminder recently launched a new...

John Nunes John Nunes has made history as the first African American president at Concordia College. On October 22, 2017, the Acton Alumnus and long-time Acton friend was installed as the ninth president of Concordia College-New York. Nunes is the only African American college president serving at an orthodox Christian college in the United States. An ordained pastor in the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod), Nunes was most recently the Emil and Elfriede Jochum Chair at Valparaiso University and prior to...

Last night, more than 800 men and women attended the Acton Institute 26th Annual Dinner at the J.W. Marriot in downtown Grand Rapids. The evening was highlighted by the presentation of the 2016 Faith and Freedom Award to the late Justice Antonin G. Scalia, but one person in attendance took note of Father Sirico’s special remarks on the crisis of liberty and the despair it has created. David Bahnsen, a faculty member of Acton University and longtime friend of Acton,...

On this edition of Radio Free Acton, Jordan Ballor – Acton Research Fellow, Director of Publishing, and Executive Editor of the Journal of Markets and Morality – talks with Benjamin Domenech, publisher of The Federalist, about the current populist moment in American politics, the roots of American populism, and what the possible es of the current populist uprising may be for the United States. For more from Ben Domenech, be sure to check out The Federalist Radio Hour, and subscribe...

Does the work of a coffee buyer have an impact that stretches on into eternity? Does coffee tasting matter to God? In a new video from Chapel Hill Bible Church, coffee taster and buyer Jeff McArthur shares how he came to see the deeper meaning of his work, both in the day-to-day trades and exchanges with his customers munity and in the relational ripple effects that reach on into the broader economic order. “I feel like sometimes God has us...