We’re continuing to round up clips of Acton involvement in the media coverage of the recent papal conclave and the election of Pope Francis, and today we present two clips from across the pond that our American readers likely haven’t seen yet. First up, Istituto Acton’s Kishore Jayabalan joins Father Thomas Reese, former editor ofAmerica magazine and current fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, DC, to discuss the conclave process as it progressed; the interview took place prior...

“What’s a crony? It’s like having a best friend who gives you other people’s stuff.” ...

Lady Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, has passed away from an apparent stroke at the age of 87. In 2011, the Acton Institute presented Lady Thatcher with its “Faith and Freedom” award which “recognizes an individual who mitment to faith and freedom through outstanding leadership in civic, business, or religious life.” Thatcher served as Prime Minister for eleven years, during which time she struggled to reform and stabilize Great Britain’s economy. However, she...

From an economics perspective both getting a college degree and getting married are beneficial for one’s earning potential. So why do economists promote the college wage premium while downplaying or ignoring the marriage wage premium? As Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry says, In contemporary societies, there is a strong college wage premium. That is to say, people who go to college make more money on average than people who don’t. While a minority of economists (including Cowen) have questioned why this premium should...

A recent report by the United Nations states that out of the world’s seven billion people, six billion have a mobile phone, but only 4.5 billion have a modern toilet. In India, there are almost 900 million cell phone users, but nearly 70 percent of the population doesn’t have access to “proper sanitation.” Jan Eliasson, the UN Deputy Secretary General has called this a “‘silent disaster’ that reflects the extreme poverty and huge inequalities in world today.” Despite the lack...

Many of us function under the assumption that our role as stewards of God’s creation is to to leave things as we’ve found them. Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. would disagree. A significant error of environmentalists is the assumption that the purpose of man on this earth is to keep it in the same condition that it was when man first appeared. Behind this theory is a subtle denial of the whole issue of the resurrection of the body. Man’s...

I have a hearty appreciation for jokes about first world problems. The fries are too cold. The Brita filter is too slow. The phone charger is all the way upstairs. That sort of thing. Consider this round-up: But although it’shealthy to poke fun at some ofthe pampered attitudes e with widespread prosperity and convenience, plenty of real problems have also emerged. (“Pampered attitudes” are somewhere on the list.) Focusing on a recent trip to Hong Kong, Chris Horst of HOPE...

In case you missed it when it came out, I thought it’d be worth posting a reminder that the Acton Institute recently partnered with the Christian History Institute to produce an issue of Christian History magazine. The issue (which you can download as a free PDF) examines the impact of automation on Europe and America and the varying responses of the church to the problems that developed. Topics examined are mission work, the rise of the Social Gospel, the impact...

In a world apparently dominated by Christian footwear, a pany e to the rescue of atheists. Atheist Shoes boast a line of footwear that proudly announces the wearer’s lack of faith. The soles of the shoes (not to be confused with “souls”, mind you) state “Ich bin Atheist” (“I am an atheist”). pany thinks the world needed a “nice, understated way for people to profess their godlessness”, and the founders of pany wanted to help atheists proclaim their unbelief, especially...

I have corrected an error of mistaken identity publishedas an audio post (now corrected here) and reposted with transcript content here. In these posts, I was relating a personal experience I had in meeting then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio some 12 years ago at the University of Dallas Rome Campus. This I have now verified as incorrect. I had actually met a different Argentine Cardinal who came to speak at the Dallas Rome campus with the exact same first and similar...