Perhaps nothing sums up the situation in socialist Venezuela quite like the photo below. Within just a few feet of a grocery store, people dig through a garbage truck in desperation looking for food. We’ve written quite a bit about the crisis in Venezuela over the past year and today, we’re pleased to bring you a report straight from Caracas. Acton co-founder and president Rev. Robert Sirico interviewed Ricardo Ball, an entrepreneur and financial advisor about what is happening on...

The new Brazilian government’s czar for economic affairs is bringing in the right people, straight from the Austrian School, says Silvio Simonetti in this week’s Acton Commentary. Presidents and prime ministers often resort to the appointment of “czars” to handle a crisis or plex policies when a show of urgent political engagement seems in order. But these modern day czars, unlike their autocratic namesakes, are often short termers with greatly constrained powers and, by the very nature of plex problem...

Adult illiteracy is one of the most overlooked socio-economic problems in America. Illiteracy can increase unemployment and povertywhile lowering family stability munity flourishing. Here are five facts should know about adult illiteracy in America: 1. Illiteracy is the inability to read or write. plete illiteracy is relatively rare among native English speakers in the U.S., a significant percentage of Americans are functionally illiterate. A person is considered functionally illiterate when they cannot engage in all those activities in which literacy...

Note:This article is part of the ‘Principles Project,’ a list of principles, axioms, and beliefs that undergirda Christian view of economics, liberty, and virtue. Clickhereto read the introduction and other posts in this series. The Principle:#2 — God’s Word is the foundation for all knowledge. The Explanation:“Christianity,” as Charles Colson once claimed, “is the explanation for everything.” As Tom Gilson explains, “Of course [Colson] did not mean that everything is explained in the Bible, but that the Bible reveals the...

A review of “The Point of It All: A Lifetime of Great Loves and Endeavors” by Charles Krauthammer, edited by Daniel Krauthammer, Crown Forum, NY, 2018, 360 pp., $28. Among the many voices of contemporary quiet reason in the public square, Charles Krauthammer most certainly ranked in the higher echelon. When he announced his impending death in June 2018, it was assumed correctly that his silence would be deafening. Who else could so passionately yet so remarkably rise to persuade...

Our cultural environment has e increasingly defined by social isolation and public distrust, aggravated by a number of factors and features, from declines in church munity participation to concentrations of political power to the rise of online conformity mobs to the corresponding hog-piling among the media and various leaders. Yet as public trust continues to fragment and diminish across society, there’s one institution that appears to be making eback: private employers. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual study...

On Thursday, Senator Elizabeth Warren announced on Twitter that she will institute a wealth tax if she is elected president in 2020. Here are the facts you need to know: Warren tweeted her plan on Thursday afternoon. We need structural change. That’s why I’m proposing something brand new – an annual tax on the wealth of the richest Americans. I’m calling it the “Ultra-Millionaire Tax” & it applies to that tippy top 0.1% – those with a net worth of...

Note: This is post #108 in a weekly video series on basic economics. Most people do not like when prices rise so most people do not like inflation. But there is one sector that sometimes finds inflation beneficial: government. In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Alex Tabarrok explains why governments sometimes use inflation to their benefit—and how inflation can e like a drug. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5...

In 1982, Venezuela was the richest major economy in Latin America. Now, it’s the most dangerous country in the world, behind Afghanistan and war torn South Sudan. This is socialism. Venezuela’s downturn is the result of decades of political upheaval and implementation of socialist policies from Hugo Chavez and now to Nicolas Maduro. Today, Venezuelans are taking to the streets to march in what many think will be the largest anti-government demonstration that has taken place in the past few...

The sinister and irreparable nature of gossip is memorably illustrated in the penance St. Philip Neri once gave to a woman who had confessed it to him. He told her to walk through the streets of Rome plucking a chicken. Humbled, the woman accepted the penance. When she returned to him and reported she pleted the penance the saint told her to now go and collect all the feathers she had plucked. “But Father Philip,” the woman is reported to...