Note: This is post #70 in a weekly video series on basic economics. GDP is the market value of all finished goods and services, produced within a country in a year. But what does “market value” mean? And what defines a “finished good”? In this video, Marginal Revolution University helps us make sense of this important economic indicator by explaining how GDP puted. You’ll learn whythe eggs in your homemade omelet part of the GDP, but the eggs your baker...

A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which they customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips, according to the Department of Labor. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that bined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage. If the employee’s bined with the employer’s direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly...

On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Rev. Ben Johnson, Senior Editor at Acton, speaks with Philip Booth, Professor at St. Mary’s University in the UK about what’s missing from the 2015 Papal Encyclical: Laudato Si’. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks to British jazz legend Norma Winstone about her contribution to Jazz and her newly released album: ‘Descansado – Songs For Films.’ Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics: Read “Property rights and...

Journalist and Harvard alumnus Philip F. Lawler is no stranger to spotting inconsistencies in the Catholic Church. After the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse crisis unveiled in 2002, Lawler released his highly researched book, The Faithful Departed, tracing the Church’s history of corruption while maintaining an “attention to facts” and a “calm tone.” Lawler’s latest book addressing the Catholic Church tackles problems starting in the papacy. In an article written for The Catholic World Report, Samuel Gregg, Acton’s Director of Research, unpacks...

“Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man” – Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski played by Jeff Bridges. ‘Jeff Bridges speaking at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California’ by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 3.0 Elizabeth Bruenig, columnist for the Washington Post, yesterday published an opinion piece entitled, ‘It’s time to give socialism a try’. The title is a bit misleading as the piece makes no positive case for socialism but rather chronicles her own and...

‘A statue of Adam Smith on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile’ by Zenit CC BY-SA 3.0 At this year’s LibertyCon Byran Caplan, Economist at George Mason University, and Elizabeth Bruenig, columnist for the Washington Post, debated the perennial question of ‘Socialism vs. Capitalism.’ Both Caplan and Bruenig have posted their opening statements and it is an interesting and engaging exchange. Caplan is charitable, well-reasoned, and clear and Bruenig is both gracious and an engaging storyteller. Bruenig’s story while superficially plausible makes many...

“South Africa’s institutionalized national sin of radical and often violent racial segregation, officially known as Apartheid, ended in the early 1990s. Changes in law, however, do not necessarily mean that there is immediate social transformation,” says Trey Dimsdale in this week’s Acton Commentary. “The deep civic wounds that this dark period inflicted on the nation still fester, as evidenced in a March 1 vote by the National Assembly to confiscate white-owned land pensation.” A national policy as thorough and systematic...

The UK government has crafted an educational mandate for religious schools that Sohrab Ahmari at Commentary calls “Orwellian.” Under the proposal, all schools would be required to teach children from age 4 and up “age-appropriate” content that includes information about same-sex marriage and transgenderism. Catholics, evangelicals, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and others with traditional views on sex and gender would have ply. No exceptions. He notes that a senior government adviser stated it is “not OK for Catholic [or other religious]...