I am not now nor have I ever been a helicopter parent. With five kids, I often depended on them to keep an eye on each other. They had the usual share of bumps, bruises, stitches and lowered grades because of forgotten homework that I refused to bring to school (failure is a good teacher.) Since they’ve all reached adulthood or near adulthood, I believe my husband and I followed the right path. But helicopter parenting (you know, those moms...

John Teevan’s recent profile of Bob Woodson and the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE) reminded me of a profoundly impactful tour I took of George Wythe High School in Richmond, Va., which was led by Mr. Woodson as a case study of CNE success. The tour was part of a seminar with the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, and was intended to showcase effective solutions to social problems. In this, it greatly succeeded, highlighting that any such solutions...

Students attending Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government have a new mandatory class: Checking Your Privilege 101. This is, in part, a response to the conversation started by Princeton’s Tory Fortgang, who wanted to be known by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin (which happens to be white.) Reetu Mody, a master’s degree student is thrilled by the Harvard’s new class and describes it thus: The substance of the training, while still under discussion, is...

The gorilla-whale is back. And he’s here to stimulate the economy. On Friday, theaters across the country will be debuting the fourth American remake of Godzilla (the name is a romanization of the original Japanese name “Gojira” — which is bination of two Japanese words: gorira (‘gorilla’) and kujira (‘whale’). Over its opening weekend the film is projected to earn $78,000,000, and cumulative revenues of over $240,000,000. While that could be a generous stream of e for Hollywood, it’s a...

You’ve probably never heard of Tony Castillo. Even if you live in West Michigan and have eaten at one of his three McDonald’s franchises you probably don’t recognize the name. But an inspiring profile of Castillo by MLive provides a number of lessons about economics and business that everyone should learn from this entrepreneur. Lesson #1: To be a successful business owner you should care about your stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, etc.) Ask Tony Castillo what he loves about owning...

“All that exists is God’s gift to man, and it all exists to make God known to man, to make man’s munion with God…God blesses everything He creates, and, in biblical language, this means that He makes all creation the sign and means of His presence and wisdom, love and revelation.” -Alexander Schmemann, from For the Life of the World In Episode 1 of For the Life of the World, a new series from the Acton Institute, Evan Koons discovers...

This is only one powerful and horrific story that highlights the severe problems with Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. Unfortunately, there are easily thousands of stories like the one experienced by this veteran. Kay Daly sums it up well in the article from the American Thinker, Fighting a bureaucracy the size of the VA leviathan is not only physically exhausting, it is soul crushing as well. My brother was literally losing his will to live. That’s what I saw in the...

The revitalization of cities has e a significant focus among today’s Christians, with many flocking to urban centers filled with lofty goals and aspirations for change and transformation. Last summer, James K.A. Smith expressed concern that such efforts may be overly romanticizing certain features (community!) to the detriment of others (government), concluding that “farmer’s market’s won’t rescue the city” but “good government will.” Chris Horst and I followed up to this with yet another qualifier, arguing that while both gardens...

The Acton Institute Mini-Grants on Free Market Economics Program accepts proposals from business and economics faculty members at Christian 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 allow 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...

The rich get richer and the rest of us…well, we struggle along. Shouldn’t those with more money be spreading it out a bit more? My coffers clink with spare change; I sure could use some of that money. It only seems fair, right? Peter Morici, at Breitbart News, tackles the truth of e inequality. Those of us in the “rest of us” category are getting crushed by monopolies, unjust taxation, and political corruption. That, Morici says, is the truth of...