Some mental images are especially vivid. One phrase stands out in the war of words preceding the brewing U.S.-EU trade war. “Global trade is not a gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” said French finance minister Bruno Le Maire last Thursday, after President Trump imposed new tariffs on steel and aluminum. The most famous shoot-out in the Old West has been immortalized in the 1957 film of the same name, as well as numerous other Hollywood vehicles. To my mind, none...

On this remastered episode of Radio Free Acton, we revisit an interview we had with John Stonestreet, President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. We examine the major contributions of Christianity to western culture, try to figure out if there’s a reasonable system of thought that could replace it in our society, and explore a bit of what the secular left has replaced Christianity with. Spoiler alert: it’s sex. Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics:...

Note: This is post #81 in a weekly video series on basic economics. How did Germany and Japan achieve record economic growth following World War II? A primary reason is physical capital. In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Alex Tabarrok explains two specific concepts that deal with physical capital and the success of Germany and Japan. The first is the iron logic of diminishing returns which states that, for each new input of capital, there is less and less...

A recent study concluded that members of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the second-largest church in Christendom, are likely to support left-wing economic policies. But that does not mean, says Krassen Stanchev in this week’s Acton Commentary, that Orthodox Christians are naturally statists: It is probably true that historically Orthodox countries (the study lumps in believers and non-believers alike) would fall into the group of those supporting greater government intervention in the economy. This has been the case in the last...

Earlier today the Supreme Court handed down a ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the most important religious freedom case of the year. Despite being a win for the bakery and its owner, Jack Phillips, the future implications of this case for religious liberty are rather narrow in scope. “In this case the adjudication concerned a context that may well be different going forward in the respects noted above,” said the Court. “However later cases raising these...

“Someone who has never won an election is now prime minister of the government,” said outgoing prime minister Mariano Rajoy, as he turned over his office to the head of the nation’s Socialist Party, Pedro Sánchez. After Rajoy’s center-Right party, the People’s Party, had been caught benefiting from kickbacks, Sánchez called a no-confidence vote. Under Spanish parliamentary laws, instead of calling a new election, the party introducing the no-confidence vote names the prime minister’s successor within the motion. Pedro Sánchez...

Late last week, President Donald Trump announced he would impose steel and aluminum tariffs against U.S. allies across the transatlantic sphere. Here are the facts you need to know: President Trump applied a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum against the European Union, as well as NAFTA trade partners Canada and Mexico. The tariffs, originally targeting China in March on the grounds of national security, contained an exemption for U.S. allies. Last Thursday, Trump...

Last week, Congress passed and the president signed into law the “Right to Try Act,” legislation President Trump had touted in his previous State of the Union address. Here is what you should know about the new law. What is “Right to Try”? Right To Try is the concept that terminally ill Americans should be able to try medicines that have passed Phase 1 of the FDA approval process and remain in clinical trials but are not yet on pharmacy...

As the church continues to navigate the challenges of the modern economy, we’ve seen a renewed recognition of the “earthiness” of our God-given callings—embracing the mundane and material aspects of our daily work and rejecting the “sacred-secular divide.” Yet in our earnest efforts to e more “earthly minded” for heavenly good, we face new temptations toward a different sort of lopsidedness. In an article for FULLER Studio, Vincent Bacote reminds us of this risk, recognizing the need for balance and...

From the perspective of well-being, is it better to win $100 or to not lose $100? If you assume that winning is obviously better, you’ve probably never been in a casino. Almost anyone who has gained and lost similar sums of money gambling knows that losing hurts more. Humans seem to be hard-wired for what is called loss aversion. Loss aversion, a concept in cognitive psychology first identified by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, can be summed up as “losses...