Although not everyone see its, technological progress has meant progress in human flourishing, notes Dylan Pahman in this week’s Acton Commentary. To answer the Luddites, first of all we must acknowledge that there is truth to what is seen. People see workers losing their jobs due to technology. When that happens (and it does), Christians and other people of good will should not be indifferent. However, not all people plain about the loss of manufacturing jobs see even this. The...

Throughout ourdebates over foreign policy, trade policy, immigration policy, andotherwise, the 2016 election has seen increasing concentrations and divides between nationalism and globalism, each blind in its own way. Those who promote a (supposedly) “America first” agenda, ignore the impacts to our neighbors across the globe, each created in the image of God and deserving of the same rights and freedoms we enjoy. Meanwhile, the globalists ignore the benefitsof munity and nationalsovereignty, promoting inclusion to the detriment of distinction. This...

When we think of the intersection of work and calling, many of us think immediately of our long-term career aspirations. Despite most of usbeginning our careers in some sort of menial labor, these are not the types of services or stations our culture deems significant or inspired. Yet for the Christian, economic transformation begins where creator and producer meets neighbor, no matter the product or service. Our fundamental calling is to love our neighbor, and that begins the moment we...

Almost a decade has passed since the start of the Great Recession of 2008 and yet many of us are still confused about what caused the financial crisis. We know financial intermediaries like Lehman Brothers played a part, though we’re often unclear on the details. In this video, economist Tyler Cowen explains the role of the “shadow banking” system and how the incentives led to them to take on too much risk and leverage. ...

Today at The Stream I provide some analysis of Donald Trump’s speech earlier this week at the Detroit Economic Club. As I conclude, “The trouble for Trump’s promised future lies in the impossibility of reclaiming a bygone era.” In Trump’s campaign there is a mix of both nostalgia and optimism, which bookend serious critiques of America’s more recent past and the legacy of his political opponents in particular. This approach is appealing to an important, and often overlooked segment of...

Popeyes CEO Cheryl Bachelder Questions about what makes a good or a bad leader dominate many conversations as we approach the 2016 presidential election. Real leadership happens all around us, not just in the Oval Office. As we pulled together the various pieces for this Summer 2016 issue of Religion & Liberty, the informal theme of leadership seemed to connect all the content. For the interview, I was able to sit down with the CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Cheryl...

Note: This is the secondin a series examining the positions of several minorparty and independent presidential candidates onissues covered by the Acton Institute. A previous series covered the Democratic Party platform (see here and here) and the Republican Party Platform (see here and here). Although minor parties —often called “third parties” to distinguish them from the dominant two — have always been a part of American politics, the dissatisfaction with the Republican and Democratic parties in the current election season...

If you’ve attended Acton University in the past few years you’ve probably had the good fortuneto take the required foundational class “Economic Way of Thinking” from Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse. Morse became a leading economist of the family a few decades ago after discovering an assumption made by Adam Smith: The economy depends on the intact family raising children. Morse brought mon sense observation into direct contact with economic analysis in her seminal work Love and Economics, first published in...

Unlike some colleges, McDonald’s does not have “safe spaces” or “trigger warnings.” Instead, they have a requirement that employees put the concerns of the customers ahead of their own. Olivia Legaspi, an undergraduate at Haverford College and former McDonald’s employee, says that expectation helped her learn an important lesson about work and life: serving es first. ...

Radio Free Acton is back for a conversation with Acton Institute Research Fellow Kevin Schmiesing, who served as the editor for Acton’s newest publication,One and Indivisible: The Relationship Between Religious and Economic Freedom. It’s hard to ignore the fact that in recent years, there has been a significant erosion of support for and understanding of religious liberty in western nations. More and more people think of religious liberty only as the right to worship as you please, but not the...