Acton Institute Director of Research Samuel Gregg joined host Al Kresta on Ave Maria Radio’sKresta in the Afternoon last Thursday to discuss the ongoing crisis of populism in LatinAmerica, and the Vatican’s perspective on the region’s economic and social unrestunder Pope Francis. Gregg notes that while institutionally, the Catholic church in Latin America has largely maintained itsinstitutional integrity, regional leaders–and indeed Pope Francis himself–have an affinity for what is known as “teología del pueblo” – a “theology of the people”...

The Atlantic published an article by Dylan Walsh about the growing fight in many states for the right to legal counsel. This article focuses on the state of Louisiana, and looks specifically the Concordia Parish along the Mississippi river. Like many poor, rural areas of the country the Concordia Parish suffers from drug problems and the local courts see a high volume of cases involving illegal substances. The district’s chief public defender’s office handles around 3,300 cases per year, three...

What just happened? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the U.S. government’s consumer protection agency, has proposed new regulations that would affect payday lending in an attempt to end payday debt traps by requiring lenders to take steps to make sure consumers can repay their loans. What loans would the new regulation apply to? The proposed regulations would cover two categories of loans. The first is loans with a term of 45 days or less. The second is loans with...

Have you ever watched HBO’s Last Week Tonight? It’s a show where edian John Oliver reads a teleprompter explaining to Americans what is wrong with our country. It’s also a show where smug, self-satisfied progressives who miss John Stewart can be entertained while thinking they are watching “smart” content. In reality, Last Week Tonight is frequently one of the dumbest shows on cable (in the sense that watching it makes you less informed about the world). And yet it is...

Series Note: Jobs are one of the most important aspects of a morally functioning economy. They help us serve the needs of our neighbors and lead to human flourishing both for the individual and munities. Conversely, not having a job can adversely affect spiritual and psychological well-being of individuals and families. Because unemployment is a spiritual problem, Christians in America need to understand and be aware of the monthly data on employment. Each month highlight the latest numbers we need...

Note: Please forgivethe self-promotion, but since my new book — the NIV Lifehacks Bible — is being released today, I thought I’d provide an excerpt from Genesis. Sold into slavery, Joseph is put in charge of Potiphar’s household. Potiphar “entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph” (Genesis 39:4-5). The word es from...

This past weekend a child fell into pit with a gorilla. To protect the child, the animal had to be killed, a tragic but necessary e. The reaction to the news, though, has been unbalanced and excessive. While no one (that I’ve seen) thinks it would be better for the child to have died than the ape be killed, hundreds of thousands of people have expressed their outrage on social media. In many ways, this likely reflects the distorted values...

Federalism may be out of fashion (at least when es to state’s rights), but the effect of individual state policies on the lives of individual citizens remains as relevant as ever. Consider, for example, the case of Puerto Rico (which is technically a territory, but has many of the functions of a U.S. state). Financial mismanagement by the territorial government has led to a humanitarian crisis. Those who can afford to leave — such as doctors and scientists — are...

Despite both being deeply dedicated to protecting Americans from tyranny, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson disagreed on a great deal. In a new review of Hamilton versus Jefferson in the Washington Administration: Completing the Founding or Betraying the Founding, Samuel Gregg calls the founders’ rivalry, “stark, but intricate.” Gregg discusses Carson Holloway’s new book in a recent article for the Library of Law and Liberty. It’s easy to idolize the founders, but Gregg reminds us that they were “given to...

All Christian ethics can be summed up in mand: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). And within mand is the provision, as the Apostle Paul said, “Love does no harm to a neighbor” (Romans 13:10). This is why the Christian approach to public policy should begin with a simple standard: Because we love our neighbors, we should not support policies that we suspect will cause them harm. Unfortunately, while the rule is simple to state it can be difficult...