I’d like to join in the chorus of Russell Kirk memorials that have graced the PowerBlog these past few days memorate Kirk’s 100th birthday. Over at The Federalist today, I can only hint at the significant contributions Kirk wrote on behalf of conservatism, sound economics and Christian humanism. Herewith a brief excerpt: [H]e was so much more than a Cassandra ceaselessly caviling against Communism. More to our great fortune, Kirk scoured the world’s great literature, philosophy, and political theory. From...

The value of money is determined by how much (or how little) of it is in circulation. But who makes that decision, and how does their choice affect the economy at large? Doug Levinson looks at the role of the U.S. Federal Reserve efforts to affect inflation and deflation affects the value of our money. ...

This is the fifth in a series celebrating the work of Russell Kirk in honor of his 100th birthday this October. Read more from the serieshere. During the twentieth century, one man in particular took it upon himself to make a project of defining and perhaps re-invigorating an American conservatism which the prominent cultural critic Lionel Trilling dismissed as “a series of irritable mental gestures.” I remember picking up a copy of Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mindmany years ago. As...

Virtually all poverty es from economic growth and migration—not redistribution or philanthropy. That’s how economist Bryan Caplan summarizes a fascinating new working paper by Lant Pritchett of the Harvard Kennedy School and Center for Global Development. To make it easier to get the gist of the argument (without having to read all 32 pages), I’ve taken the liberty of “interviewing” the paper. All questions are my own and all answers (with the exception of the parts in brackets) are exact...

The following article is written by Angel Fernández Álvarez and translated by Joshua Gregor. Juan de Mariana This October 31, I will give a conference entitled The Spanish School of the XVI and XVII Centuries at Harvard University, in order to explain in detail the “institutional framework” and the principles of growth upheld by the late Spanish scholastics. In the conference, organized by the Harvard Real Colegio Complutense, I will explain the importance of Christian humanism, which spread especially from...

On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Dan Hugger, Research Associate at Acton, speaks with Larry Reed, President of the Foundation for Economic Education, about the question that seems to be cropping up everywhere nowadays: Was Jesus a socialist? Then, Bruce Edward Walker talks to James Matthew Wilson about his new volume of poetry and on why poetry is important today. Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics: Read “Jesus would have voted socialist, says Germany’s Left”...

This is a guest post for the Acton PowerBlog By Kevin Brown Imagine asking a diverse group of rich, poor, attractive, unattractive, intelligent, unintelligent, white, non-white, educated, and non-educated — what makes a society just. Do you think you would get the same answer? Neither do I. Diverse individuals have diverse experiences, values, and contexts — and our varied backgrounds will inevitably color our perception of what is just, fair, and equitable. Given this, how can we as a society...

Tocqueville determined that the one defining factor in the United States was equality of condition, says John Wilsey in this week’s Acton Commentary. Tocqueville noticed that Americans apparently had the singular ability to prevent equality of conditions from yielding democratic despotism. Through voluntary associations, vigorous local government, a pursuit of self-interest rightly understood, and laws that were based on an accepted moral structure taught in disestablished church bodies, Americans were able to strike that critical balance between private interests and...

The fact that something is political does not mean that it is not religious, says Paul Marshall. Instead of describing something as political, not religious, we might should describe it as the political manipulation of religion, or the insincere use of religion: This stress that events are not religion but politics can lead to misunderstanding the nature of both religion and politics. It can be akin to saying that a table is not round but red. But tables can be...

Why do young people throughout the West have an increasingly positive view of socialism? The answer has been ferreted out between the lines of a survey recently conducted for the Charles Koch Institute. Young people’s infatuation with socialism remains one of the most lamented (or celebrated) facts of the cultural landscape – but both sides agree, it is an undeniable fact. Americans under the age of 30 hold a more favorable view of socialism than capitalism, according to a Gallup...