The flames that consumed the spire of Notre Dame and burned the 856-year-old church to its foundations could have been doused by the tears of the faithful. If France heeds calls to rebuild the cathedral as a reflection of what modern “French people want,” the new structure may be flooded by their tears. The fire, whose origins remain under investigation, was initially reported to have left little more than medieval stones, rose windows,and – make of this what you will...

In an age of rapid industrialization and ever-accelerating technological change, many have grown fearful of environmental neglect and impending natural catastrophe. Such concerns tend to be based in a pessimistic view of economic opportunity, through which more individual ownership will surely lead to more reckless exploitation. Yet the bigger story of our newfound economic freedom and prosperity would seem to paint a different picture—one in which the expansion of economic ownership is actually helping us better protect and preserve our...

Julián Castro is running for the Democratic nomination for president. Castro was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under president Barack Obama, and before that he was mayor of San Antonio, TX. He is currently polling at a little over 1%, and he reported raising $1.1 million in campaign funds in the first quarter of the year. As a Mexican-American, Castro is currently the only Latino candidate. As such, it is not surprising that he has put immigration at the...

“Christians ended slavery. Do you think that’s a conservative simpleton’s mock-worthy bombast, embarrassing the rest of us with his black-and-white, unapologetic caricature of American history?” asks John B. Carpenter in this week’s Acton Commentary. “No. It is the considered conclusion of a Nobel laureate, a munist, a secular Jew, and arguably the foremost scholar on American slavery.” The moral question: If Southern slavery was profitable, even providing for the slaves a relatively decent material life, then why is it evil?...

Rod Dreher is once again exasperated. He is frustrated by a rumor that George Weigel hasn’t bought the tireless promotion of his ‘Benedict Option’: A few months ago, Weigel appeared atan event in Providence, RI, to discuss the Benedict Option. I had a couple of Catholic friends in the audience that night. One said Weigel sneered at the Benedict Option, and just wanted to talk about all the good things going on in the Catholic Church now. The other, a...

As the old saying goes, “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” But how much time do you have to do if mit a crime? Probably not as long as you’d imagine. The Bureau of Justice Statistics recently released a report—Time Served in State Prison 2016—that reveals how long prisoners serve for a variety of criminal offenses. Here are seven figures from the report you should know: 1. The average time served by state prisoners released in...

On this episode of Acton Line, host Caroline Roberts is joined by Acton’s director of research, Samuel Gregg, to touch on the historical and religious significance of Notre-Dame in the wake of the fire that consumed much of the cathedral this past Monday. After that, research associate Dan Hugger sits down with Acton’s president and co-founder Rev. Robert Sirico to discuss current issues in education, including some of Betsy Devos’s policies. Check out additional resources for this podcast: France’s churches...

Samuel J. Abrams’ article Think Professors Are Liberal? Try School Administrators published by the New York Times last October was a turning point in his life. Abrams, a political science professor at Sarah Lawrence College, has been living through a hellish backlash that involved “a national media storm in which I was slandered and defamed, my family’s safety was threatened, and my personal property was destroyed on campus.” His sin? He called our attention to the fact that administrators of...

Graduation season is upon us, and with it is sure e a flurry mencement addresses crammed with platitudes about self-actualization, self-indulgence, and self-fulfillment. Though panied by occasional urges to “change the world” and “make a difference,” all will still fit neatly within a much broader cultural aim: “finding ourselves,” “trusting ourselves,” and “being true to ourselves.” “It’s about living the life you want,”Oprah says, aptly capturing the spirit of the age, “because a great percentage of the population is living...

Note: This is post #119 in a weekly video series on basic economics. The U.S. Federal Reserve controls the supply of money—which gives it a huge influence on the world economy. But as economist Tyler Cowen notes, how the Fed does this has changed since the Great Recession. In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Cowen explains how the Fed can change the federal funds rate—the overnight interest rate for when banks lend money to each other—and how that influences...