Series Note: Jobs are one of the most important aspects of a morally functioning economy. They help us serve the needs of our neighbors and lead to human flourishing both for the individual and munities. Conversely, not having a job can adversely affect spiritual and psychological well-being of individuals and families. Because unemployment is a spiritual problem, Christians in America need to understand and be aware of the monthly data on employment. Each month highlight the latest numbers we need...

Note: This is post #36 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. What are externalities and what are the different kinds of costs? And what does this have to do with the rise of “superbugs”? In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Alex Tabarrok introduces externalities, including the concepts of private cost, external cost, and social cost. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You...

“The poor will always be with us, but such a sobering reality does not free us from an obligation to work to alleviate the ravages of poverty,” says Trey Dimsdale. “On the contrary, Jesus’ statement only serves to remind us that every generation will face the question of how best to fulfill our holy obligations to them.” It is clear that many in the present generation have taken notice of the plight of the poor and are moved by passion...

The Acton Institute Mini-Grants on Free Market Economics program accepts proposals from faculty members at colleges, seminaries, and universities in the United States and Canada in order to promote the scholarship and teaching of market economics. This program allows for collaboration between faculty from different universities, as well as help future leaders to emerge, strengthen, and expand the existing network of scholars within economics. Entrants may submit proposals in two broad categories: course development and faculty scholarship. Here is plete...

Today is World Environment Day, the United Nations’ “most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment.” Though we may disagree on policy solutions, we here at the Acton Institute share the UN’s concern for the environment. In 2007 we published Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition as our primary source for religious thought on environmental stewardship. The following piled by Elise Hilton, gathers information from “A Biblical Perspective on Environmental Stewardship,” an essay...

In a recent visit to a steel factory in Italy, Pope Francis said, “One sickness of the economy is the gradual transformation of entrepreneurs into speculators.” “The speculator doesn’t love his business, doesn’t love the workers, but only sees the business and workers as the means to make profit,” the pontiff added. But the pope doesn’t seem to understand what speculators do, says Luanne Zurlo. What Francis blames speculators for doing, says Zurlo, is not speculating but rather engaging in...

When the benediction is offered at the conclusion of a church service, it can be easy to nod in agreement even as we neglect or forget the actual implications for everyday life. As we exit the walls of the local church and engage with the rest of the world — economically, socially, or otherwise — how do we shine our light with both love and distinction? In a recent lecture at the Oikonomia Network’s Karam Forum, Vincent Bacote encourages us...

On Sunday, I attended the wedding of a wonderful young couple I’ve known most of their lives. (Weddings in the Orthodox Church are usually held on Sundays, rather than Saturdays, so that the newlyweds will not be tempted to begin their married life by skipping church.) While I’ve had the joy of performing the marriage ceremony, this time as I stood among the friends and well-wishers, a single sentence stood out to me. In the translation of the ceremony used...

President Ronald Wilson Reagan passed away 13 years ago today, but his legacy of advancingfreedom continues to be appreciated around the world. Deep in the heart of the former Soviet bloc, in Bulgaria’scapital city, officials have unveiled a new monument to Reagan. The bust of America’s 40th presidenthas significance beyond the already weightytriumph of democracy over oppression, or capitalism over socialism. Sofia’s South Park was the battleground for religious liberty in 1989, just as munism was about e crashing down....

Pope Leo XIII, writing in the midst of social crisis at the end of the nineteenth century, wisely observed: “When a society is perishing, the wholesome advice to give to those who would restore it is to call it to the principles from which it sprang.” For the American experiment in ordered liberty, this means in large part going back to the Anglo-American tradition represented by Adam Smith and Edmund Burke. Thus I argue in “Fountainheads of Fusionism” that “fusionism...