Five years ago today, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina was elected as the 266th pope of the Catholic Church. Here are five facts you should know about Pope Francis on his fifth anniversary. 1. Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires in 1936. His father, an Italian immigrant, was an accountant and his mother was a homemaker. He had two brothers and two sisters.Chosen at the age of 76, Francis is the ninth oldest pope of those elected...

Note: This is post #71 in a weekly video series on basic economics. “Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago? What about 40 years ago?” These sorts of questions invite a different kind of query, says Alex Tabarrok: what exactly do we mean, when we say “better off?” And more importantly, how do we know if we’re better off or not? To those questions, there’s one figure that can shed at least a partial light: real...

Since the first successful use of vaccinations in 1796, vaccines have saved hundreds of millions of lives. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that vaccinations will prevent more than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children born in the last 20 years alone. And the World Health Organization calculates that immunization currently averts about two to three million deaths every year. A new study published in the journal Health Affairs finds that along with preventing diseases, vaccines prevent many...

“In 1989, Communismfinally collapsed,” writes Mihail Neamţu, a Romanian thinker and public intellectual, in this week’s Acton Commentary. “On our first official munistChristmas holiday, my family was hoping that the political landscape of Eastern Europe would quickly be shaped by healthy democratic institutions, secure private property and free trade, petition, as well as a robust sense of personal responsibility.” Nearly 20 years later, the anticipated reforms have been abandoned, the economy sputters, and Romanian society remains stubbornly statist: State monopolies...

Modern Europe faces a future of economic stagnation and demographic decline brought on by the hollowing out of its self-confidence. These impending calamities reached the crisis point at precisely the moment the continent faces an unprecedented influx of migrants who share none of its leaders’ epistemological angst. Furthermore, some of the newest citizens are mitted to co-existence nor averse to advancing their religion through taqiyya or, increasingly, jihad. Samuel Gregg, Acton’s research director, recounts Douglas Murray’s argument in his review...

‘Anno Szilvásvárad’ Reformed school, lesson by Globetrotter19 CC BY-SA 3.0 Once upon a time I was a teacher. A regular ‘according-to-Holye’ teacher of English, History, Government, and Economics in public high schools. The reasons I am no longer a teacher are relatively simple and boring. I couldn’t find a full-time position in the place that I grew up in and that I loved. This other Eden… demi-paradise… this precious stone… set in the silver sea of this earth, this ground…...

Series Note: Jobs are one of the most important aspects of a morally functioning economy. They help us serve the needs of our neighbors and lead to human flourishing both for the individual and munities. Conversely, not having a job can adversely affect spiritual and psychological well-being of individuals and families. Because unemployment is a spiritual problem, Christians in America need to understand and be aware of the monthly data on employment. Each month highlight the latest numbers we need...

On this episode of Radio Free Acton, John Couretas, Director of Communications at Acton, talks to Phil Sotok, management consultant with DPMC, examining purpose, fulfillment and ethics in the workplace. Then, on the Econ Quiz segment, Caroline Roberts speaks with Aquinas College professor of economics, Dave Hebert on the newly proposed steel and aluminum tariffs. Finally, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker discusses the beat poets with Robert Inchausti, professor of english at California State Polytechnic University. Check out...

Elizabeth Bruenig, columnist for the Washington Post, yesterday published an opinion piece entitled, ‘Let’s have a good-faith argument about socialism’ responding to some critics of her earlier piece, ‘It’s time to give socialism a try’. She accuses a number of them of responding in bad faith, In the case of my column, this meant many interlocutors taking socialism to mean something along the lines of munism or the Venezuelan system, genocides, calamities, disasters and all. I don’t think anybody actually...

As free traders continue to struggle with President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, it can be easy to focus only on the immediate or surface-level effects, whether we’re fretting over a spike in consumer prices, a slowing of economic growth, a decrease in dynamism at home, or a strain on foreign relations abroad. Those are legitimate concerns, to be sure. But in addition to any threats to material wellbeing or national security, such protectionism also inhibits...