Note: This is post #23 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. If you’re over 40 you may remember back in the 1970s having to wait in long lines to buy gasoline. Some days you were only allowed to buy gas on alternate days (based on whether the last digit of your license plate number was an odd or even number). Why did this happen? As economist Alex Tabarrok explains, when price ceilings were imposed on gasoline, people could...

Public domain.) As a setback in the House of Lords leaves the UK debating how best to plish its departure from the European Union, perhaps the most neglected question is the moral one. Rev. Dr. Richard Turnbull, the director of the Centre for Enterprise, Markets, and Ethics (CEME) and also an Anglican minister, asked that leaders focus less on arguments based strictly upon metrics than upon Brexit’s deeper impact upon individual persons in a speech before the Oxford Union:...

In a recent article for The American Spectator, Acton’s Samuel Gregg tackles the tensions in French politics and addresses the uncertainty that the French people have for their ing Presidential election. French politicians have failed to address impending economic issues such as an inefficient government and a growing national debt, but they also seem unable to address a growing concern: Radical Islam. Gregg says: Plenty of Muslims in France are well integrated into French society, and they are just as...

A disturbing new report from Freedom House shows how widespread religious persecution is in China. Titled “The Battle for China’s Spirit,” this report looks at “religious revival, repression, and resistance under [General Secretary of the Communist Party of China] XI Jinping.” The report reveals that “under Xi Jinping’s leadership, religious persecution in China has increased overall.” Despite this intensificationof persecution, the Chinese religious have remained resilient. “Religion and spirituality have been deeply embedded in Chinese culture and identity for millennia,”...

Protesters oppose President Trump’s refugee policy outside 10 Downing Street, London. (Alisdare Hickson. CC BY-SA 2.0) On Monday, President Trump signed a new executive order barring refugees from six majority-Muslim nations that have strong ties to terrorism. This executive order differs from the last one by removing Iraq from the banand eliminating the preferential option for the area’s persecuted Christian minority. Regardless of whether one sees this as a violation of Christian charity or a prudentially wise decision to stem...

Terminator 2: Judgment Day poster / TriStar Pictures I oppose implementing Skynet and increasing minimum wage laws for the same reason: to forestall the robots. It’s probably inevitable that a T-1000 will return from the future to terminate John Connor. But there is still something we can do to prevent (at least for a time) a TIOS from eliminating the cashier at your local fast food restaurant. For example, Wendy’s is adding customer service machines to at least 1,000 restaurants,...

On this edition of Radio Free Acton, we e back John Wilsey – Assistant Professor of History and Christian Apologetics and Associate Director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary – and hand over the reins of the podcast to him as he talks with author and social theorist James Poulos about his new book,The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us from Ourselves. Poulos shows how Alexis de Tocqueville’s insights...

The faith-work movement has spurred many churches to begin seeing the bigger picture of God’s design and purpose for economic activity. Yet the church’s role and responsibility in economic discipleship doesn’t end with a basic shift in our thinking. Once we receive the basic revelation of God’s plan for our work and the broader economic order, where do we go from there? Such revelationopens the door to a range of new challenges, whether wrestling with practical questions about work and...

Embed from Getty Images Last night Congressional Republicans released two bills (here and here) which together constitute the current plan to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Here’s what you should know about the legislation known as the “American Health Care Act” (AHCA). Does this legislation “repeal and replace” Obamacare? Yes and no (but overall, not really). No, the AHCA does pletely repeal Obamacare in toto and it merely replaces some aspects of the current law. But...

In a recent article for Crisis Magazine, Samuel Gregg, Acton’s director of research, reflects on Pope Paul VI’s social encyclical Populorum Progressio. He criticizes it for faulty “time-bound” economic ideas and international approach to charity efforts, but praises the work it for its openness to variety in how to address social and economic problems as well as its affirmation of the differing roles of clergy and the laity. In his criticism, Gregg challenges the protectionist ideals put forth in Populorum...