Zhao Xiao, a government economist in China, on the differences between market economies with Churches (like the U.S.) and market economies without churches (like China): Is it not integrity that you are pursuing? Then you ought to know: places with faith have more integrity. For China’s crawling economic reforms, this ought to be an important inspiration. Market economies with churches are different in another respect from those without: in the former, it is much easier to establish monly respected system....

Kirk Cameron, actor and Christian, is touting his newest production, the documentary Monumental. The aim of the film, according to its website, ( is to follow Cameron’s journey “as he seeks to discover America’s true ‘national treasure’ – the people, places, and principles that made America the freest, most prosperous and generous nation the world has ever known.” This is a fine proposal. The majority of Americans would agree that we live in the freest, most prosperous and most generous...

In a world in which experience and reality drove political decisions on the economy, the claims made in the recent op-ed by Sen. John Kyl would be considered too obvious to warrant publication. Unfortunately, we don’t live in such a world, which is why it’s important to have politicians willing to point out the obvious: At a fundamental level, reducing poverty requires policies that reward hard work and merit. People are more successful and industrious when they get to keep...

Sam Gregg’s response to President Obama’s latest invocation of the “my brother’s keeper” motif brings out one of the basic problems with applying this biblical question to public policy. As Gregg points out, the logic of the president’s usage points to the government as the institution of brotherly love: But who is the “I” that President Obama has in mind? Looking carefully at his speech, it’s most certainly not the free associations munities that Alexis de Tocqueville thought made 19th-century...

Don’t blame the culture wars for the recent debates about contraception, says Phillip W. De Vous in this week’s Acton Commentary (published Apr. 4), the real culprit is statism.The full text of his essay follows. Subscribe to the free, weeklyActon News & Commentaryand other publicationshere. Leviathan, Civil Society and National Morality byPhillip W. De Vous Political campaigns in every era have included talk of morality and moral principles in general. They rarely shy away from discussing even very specific moral...

I found this video on NPR’s ‘Planet Money’ intriguing. A young woman reflects on the cost of her wedding dress, which she’s obviously worn once. She recognizes that there is enormous emotional attachment to this garment, but there is something going on in terms of how much she spent; she just can’t quite put her finger on it. She eventually finds out that she probably over-paid by about $1200. She believes she has been ripped off. There are a few...

I came across this news story via Catholic World News. And this intriguing passage about President Carter’s disagreements with Pope John Paul II: Carter wrote that he exchanged harsh words with the late Pope John Paul II during a state visit over what Carter classified as the Pope’s “perpetuation of the subservience of women.” He added, “there was more harshness when we turned to the subject of ‘liberation theology’.” I haven’t read the book, so I’m awfully curious to know...

Reporter Carol Glatz of the Catholic News Service has a story on the new Vatican document titled “Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection” aimed at educators, entrepreneurs and business people. Glatz interviews Kishore Jayabalan, director of Acton’s Rome office, who praised the document for its pastoral approach: “It’s trying to encourage and inspire business people” and prompt them to “think about how to incorporate their faith more into what they do,” Jayabalan told Catholic News Service. It shows that...

Here are some events worth noting next week: On Wednesday, April 11, Victor Claar will join us for an Acton on Tap. Victor Claar is a professor of economics at Henderson State University in Arkansas, and previously taught for a number of years at Hope College. I’ll be introducing Victor and the topic for the evening, “Envy: Socialism’s Deadly Sin.” We’ll begin to mingle at 6pm, and the talk mence at 6:30, followed by what’s sure to be some lively...

Jon Erwin, director of the pro-life October Baby movie, was recently interviewed by National Public Radio and, in the background article that panied the audio, the network reported his view that Christians didn’t feel very e in Hollywood’s munity. This provoked a lot ment by NPR listeners about what, really, a Christian is. The title of the NPR article, “‘October Baby’ Tells A Story Hollywood Wouldn’t” probably had something to do with that. Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos followed up the interview...