In every stage of my formal schooling – from high school to college to graduate school – I’ve taken courses in economics. Yet with all that education I still struggle to understand a seemingly simple question: How does the economy actually work? Sure, I can still draw supply and demand curves or give the equation for GDP (Y = C + I + G + (X − M)). But when es to picturing a reasonably functional model of how it...

In today’s Wired, Microsoft founder Bill Gates shares his thought on how busines, government and philanthropy can make positive changes in the world. Gates makes it clear that he is pro-capitalism: I am a devout fan of capitalism. It is the best system ever devised for making self-interest serve the wider interest. This system is responsible for many of the great advances that have improved the lives of billions—from airplanes to air-conditioning puters. However, Gates also sees a role for...

‘Unbroken’ is a must read book about the survival, suffering, and redemption of World War II veteran Louis Zamperini. Zamperini, a former Olympic runner, served as a bombardier in the Pacific Theatre of the war. During a search and rescue mission, his B-24 crashed in the Pacific. Zamperini, battling starvation, sharks, and Japanese Zeroes, drifted in a life raft with two others for thousands of miles. But that was just the beginning of his epic battle for survival. He was...

[The contest is now closed. The winners are Juan Callejas, Jacqueline Isaacs, and Jeff Wright. Congratulations! Please send your mailing address to [email protected]] John Bolt’s new book, Economic Shalom, is now available from Christian’s Library Press. The book, which is the final in a four-part series of tradition-specific primers, offers a Reformed approach to faith, work, and economics. To celebrate, CLP will be giving away three copies of the book.The rules are listed below, and you ment on this blog...

In a wide-ranging discussion of the Progressive Era in her new biography of Calvin Coolidge, Amity Shlaes quotes a striking excerpt from a little-known speech by President William Howard Taft. Given in the middle of the 1912 election, in which peted (poorly) against Woodrow Wilson and former President Teddy Roosevelt, the speech focuses on the predominant themes and schemes of his opponents, handily highlighting their limits. In a particularly snappy swipe at Roosevelt, who had just recently split from the...

The Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is meeting Nov. 11-13 for their General Assembly. Out-going USCCB President, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, gave the opening address today, focusing on religious freedom. He began on a somber note, stating that Christians are killed for their faith at the rate of 17 an hour, every day around the globe, and that more than a billion people live under governments that actively suppress their religious beliefs and expressions. Calling the Middle East the...

The Apostle Peter and Cornelius the centurion The most recent issue of the Journal of Markets & Morality (16.1) features an updated translation of “The Moral Organization of Humanity as a Whole,” the last chapter of the Russian Orthodox philosopher Vladimir Soloviev’s major work on moral philosophy The Justification of the Good. Writing in 1899, Soloviev offers an insightful reflection on the centurion Cornelius, the first Gentile convert to Christianity (Acts 10), regarding the military vocation and the kingdom of...

Carroll Ríos de Rodríguez, professor of economics and politics at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala, recently reviewed Samuel Gregg’s latest book, Tea Party Catholic in her column at ContraPoder. She begins by discussing the incorrect assumption that redistribution of property and collectivism are inherently mandments stating that the concept of individual freedom actually stems from Christianity. No sólo es posible, sino natural, esbozar una postura católica en favor del gobierno limitado, el mercado libre y el progreso, afirma Samuel Gregg...

James O’Keefe with Project Veritas, the videographer who brought about the end of ACORN, has now turned his attention to the folks who are supposed to help sign us up for Obamacare: the “navigators.” In Texas, O’Keefe and his crew went to a navigator site run by the Urban League. There, navigators instructed people to lie about their e, their health status, told them their personal information would not be shared with any other organization, and that the program was...

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks at the Acton Institute, hosting a number of events here in Grand Rapids including a couple of Acton Lecture Series presentations. The first of those came on October 15, as we ed John Blundell, Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs. His talk was titled “Ladies for Liberty: Women Who Made a Difference in American History,” and provided a fine overview of a the...