“If you printed out and stacked up every piece written about the dispute between First Things contributor Sohrab Ahmari and National Review writer David French, it wouldn’t quite go up 68,000 miles—that would be the $22 trillion national debt, stacked by ones—but it would be towering nonetheless,” says Matt Welch. For those who are late to the debate and want to catch up, I’ve collected a reading list of articles related to the controversy. I’ve included the original essay by...

Note: This is the latest entry in the Acton blog series, “What Christians Should Know About Economics.” For other entries inthe series seethis post. What it means: The economy shifts from periods of increasing economic activity, known as economic expansions, to periods of decreasing economic activity, known as recessions. This is known as the business cycle and includes four phases: expansion, peak, contraction, and trough. An expansion is a period between a trough and a peak, and a recession is...

Last week’s elections for European Parliament swept a bountiful harvest of Euroskeptic thorns into the EU’s side. Among them are the Sweden Democrats; Trey Dimsdale has interviewed successful SD candidate Charlie Weimers for the Acton Line podcast, and Weimers contributes a book review of Kasja Norman’s stirring book Sweden’s Dark Soul: The Unraveling of a Utopia to Acton’s transatlantic website. The book’s evocative opening leads to probing questions of Sweden’s searing self-doubt. Weimers writes: Norman starts the book depicting hundreds...

Danish elections are usually not high on the list of must-watch political contests but the ing election on June 5 is one that I think worth watching. As this Guardian article illustrates, it is distinguished by the fact that the Danish Social Democrats—the main center-left party in Denmark—have revisited and substantially changed their approach to immigration. Under the leadership of Mette Frederiksen, the Danish Social Democrats have broken with the reigning consensus on the European left, essentially adopting many of...

The only thing that can e the stupidity of modern-day progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the 24 people contending for the 2020 presidential nomination of the Democratic Party is an understanding of the price—and the consequences — of the policies that they preach. Progressive policy is expensive, very expensive, and a wise person should be extremely reluctant to spend other people’s money on utopian schemes like the Green New Deal. But people are not wise, and that is why America...

Last week the Mackinac Center — a think tank that focuses on public policy in Michigan — published a new study: “Workforce Development in Michigan.” The study, authored by Hope College economics professor, Acton research fellow, and Journal of Markets & Morality associate editor Sarah Estelle, examines the wide variety of skills-training and employment programs in the state. As the Mackinac Center put it in their press release, The government has been actively involved in job training since the 1960s,...

Note: This is post #123 in a weekly video series on basic economics. “If you think through all of the variables that shape a country’s economy, it’s no wonder that monetary policy is difficult,” says economist Alex Tabarrok. “It should e as no surprise that the Federal Reserve doesn’t always get it right. In fact, sometimes the Fed’s actions have made the economy worse off.” In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Tabarrok shows what happens when the Fed promotes...

Last year, in collaboration with the Abraham Kuyper Translation Society, the Acton Institute and Lexham Press teamed together to publish On Islam. The latest in the 12-volume series Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology details Kuyper’s observations while traveling in the Mediterranean. At Providence magazine, Tim Scheiderer reviews On Islam and considers Kuyper’s Christian advice for foreign policy: In the bookOn Islam, the Acton Institute has translated into English for the first time portions from Abraham Kuyper’s larger work,Om...

Last week the Heritage Foundation hosted an event featuring Samuel Gregg, the Acton Institute’s director of research, in which he highlighted the importance of providing not only an economic justification for capitalism but also a moral justification. At Juicy Ecumenism, Mia Steupert considers Gregg’s talk in light of the recent debate among conservatives: Gregg discussed this topic in the framework ofAlexis De TocquevilleandMichael mentary on the moral justifications of capitalism. Gregg mainly focused on outlining Novak’s views on the connection...

In case you missed it, the final episode of the highly acclaimed five-part HBO miniseries “Chernobyl” aired last night. When the credits rolled, I let out a pent-up breath that I didn’t know that I was holding in and slumped back in my seat, finally able to relax. The show was over, but the weightiness of its message and atmosphere lingered on, sticking with me even as I laid down to sleep. “Chernobyl” dramatizes the events leading up to and...