Note: This is post #70 in a weekly video series on basic economics. GDP is the market value of all finished goods and services, produced within a country in a year. But what does “market value” mean? And what defines a “finished good”? In this video, Marginal Revolution University helps us make sense of this important economic indicator by explaining how GDP puted. You’ll learn whythe eggs in your homemade omelet part of the GDP, but the eggs your baker...

In a recent Acton lecture, Greg Forster highlights the work of Whittaker Chambers, the former Soviet spy who converted to Christianity and became one of the most influential public voices in the fight against Communism. Chambers’ most famous and enduring work, Witness, is an astounding personal memoir and a literary treasure. It transcends genres, mixing the thrills of espionage and political intrigue with quiet spiritual reflections and jaw-dropping forays into moral philosophy, all in the service of a simple but...

“South Africa’s institutionalized national sin of radical and often violent racial segregation, officially known as Apartheid, ended in the early 1990s. Changes in law, however, do not necessarily mean that there is immediate social transformation,” says Trey Dimsdale in this week’s Acton Commentary. “The deep civic wounds that this dark period inflicted on the nation still fester, as evidenced in a March 1 vote by the National Assembly to confiscate white-owned land pensation.” A national policy as thorough and systematic...

“Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man” – Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski played by Jeff Bridges. ‘Jeff Bridges speaking at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California’ by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 3.0 Elizabeth Bruenig, columnist for the Washington Post, yesterday published an opinion piece entitled, ‘It’s time to give socialism a try’. The title is a bit misleading as the piece makes no positive case for socialism but rather chronicles her own and...

The UK government has crafted an educational mandate for religious schools that Sohrab Ahmari at Commentary calls “Orwellian.” Under the proposal, all schools would be required to teach children from age 4 and up “age-appropriate” content that includes information about same-sex marriage and transgenderism. Catholics, evangelicals, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and others with traditional views on sex and gender would have ply. No exceptions. He notes that a senior government adviser stated it is “not OK for Catholic [or other religious]...

‘A statue of Adam Smith on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile’ by Zenit CC BY-SA 3.0 At this year’s LibertyCon Byran Caplan, Economist at George Mason University, and Elizabeth Bruenig, columnist for the Washington Post, debated the perennial question of ‘Socialism vs. Capitalism.’ Both Caplan and Bruenig have posted their opening statements and it is an interesting and engaging exchange. Caplan is charitable, well-reasoned, and clear and Bruenig is both gracious and an engaging storyteller. Bruenig’s story while superficially plausible makes many...

Many of us thought it was empty rhetoric or that an advisor who had read an economics textbook would talk him out of it. But yesterday President Trump announced he’ll keep his campaign promise to start a trade war by slapping tariffs of 25 percent on foreign-made steel and 10 percent on aluminum. On Twitter, the president followed up with the bafflingly, ment that, When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country...

Last night, Coco joined the elite group of animated films to win a “grand slam”: the Golden Globe, BAFTA, theAnnie Award,andan Oscar. Neither of the victories at last night’s 90th annual Academy Awards came as a surprise – fans have dubbed the Best Animated Feature Film category “the Pixar award” – but the blockbuster’s plot touches on how the free market rewards or rebuffs unethical practices, how technological progress brings justice, and the eternal significance of vocation and memory. The...

Soon after Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the church door at Wittenberg (if he even did), Protestants began to be blamed for unleashing many of the destructive influences of Western Civilization. As a Baptist, I thinkthe criticisms are overstated (and thatthe good of the Reformation far outweighs the bad) but they aren’t wholly without merit. There is more than a grain of truth that anunintended effect of the Protestant Reformation was to increase the rapid expansion of secularization....

Journalist and Harvard alumnus Philip F. Lawler is no stranger to spotting inconsistencies in the Catholic Church. After the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse crisis unveiled in 2002, Lawler released his highly researched book, The Faithful Departed, tracing the Church’s history of corruption while maintaining an “attention to facts” and a “calm tone.” Lawler’s latest book addressing the Catholic Church tackles problems starting in the papacy. In an article written for The Catholic World Report, Samuel Gregg, Acton’s Director of Research, unpacks...