“President Donald Trump’s continued embrace of tariffs spells danger for Michigan,” says Tyler Groenendal in an op-ed for the Detroit Times. Groenendal, the foundation relations coordinator at the Acton Institute, says though Trump is noted for his “America First” refrain, his call for tariffs will ultimately hurt America the most: Michigan is particularly vulnerable to the consequences of protectionism. According to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau of Economic Analysis, imports and exports accounted for 38.9 percent of the Michigan’s...

In a fascinating debate hosted by Reason Magazine, development economists William Easterly and Joseph Stiglitz discuss how to best fight global poverty, responding to a simple question: “Which is a better approach, freer markets or increased government action?” Easterly, a professor at New York University and author of the popular book, The White Man’s Burden, highlights the importance of freer markets, arguing they provide better incentives, better mechanisms for sharing knowledge, and, most importantly, better rights. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate...

“During the seven-decade political struggle in the Netherlands to allow parents to select schools corresponding to their religious convictions, Abraham Kuyper articulated a concept of “sphere sovereignty” that translates, in policy terms, into principled structural pluralism,” says Charles L. Glenn in this week’s Acton Commentary. “That Dutch experience, and its resolution in the “Pacification” of 1917, is highly relevant for the present situation in the United States.” Popular schooling is often a primary focal-point for attempts to make effective the...

As pletes its transition into the Age of Information, economists are struggling to identify the drivers and develop their predictive models accordingly. Alas, as businesses continue to grow and evolve more rapidly, and as the corresponding systems continue to increase plexity, many economists still view individuals and businesses as mostly static and reactionary. “Mainstream economists treat the firm as if it were an inorganic particle that does nothing but react to forces around it,” writes economist Arnold Kling in National...

Today is Constitution Day, a holiday celebrated in America every year on September 17, the anniversary of the day the framers signed the document. The U.S. Constitution is arguably one of the most important legal documents in the history of the world. Because of this venerated status, though, many people assume that you need to be a Juris Doctor (J.D.) and an expert on recondite Constitutional law to understand how to read the document, much less interpret the Constitution. But...

Hurricane Florence has struck the Carolinas, dumping massive amounts of rain that could trigger catastrophic floods inland. Here are five facts you should know about these types of deadly storms: 1. A hurricane is a form of tropical storm that form over warm ocean waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Caribbean Sea, southern Atlantic Ocean, and Gulf of Mexico. When the winds of a tropical storm are less than 38 mph, it is called a tropical depression, and when the...

Note: This is post #93 in a weekly video series on basic economics. In his 1973 book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, economist Burton Malkiel made a controversial claim: a blindfolded monkey, throwing darts at the financial pages, could select a basket of stocks that would do just as well as a set chosen by the pros. Economist Alex Tabarrok explains why that is true and why the first rule of smart investing is “ignore the expert stock pickers.”...

In a recent speech, the Archbishop of Canterbury likened Amazon executives to leeches and ancient Aztec rulers who “ate the flesh of human sacrifices.” However, in reality Amazon has generated such prosperity for its shareholder, the Church of England, that it has financially built up the body of Christ. In a harsh address to the Trades Union Congress last week, Welby said that Amazon “leached off the taxpayer,” since its low tax bill proves “they don’t pay for our defence,...

The full-house at Paris Story theater brought together many ranks of French leadership from economics think tanks, businesses, human rights advocacies, and the Catholic Church. From left to right: David Briend (publisher), Rev. Robert Sirico (author), Emmanuelle Gave (interpreter), Jean-Philippe Delsol (IREF president), Charles Gave (preface author and president of Institut des Libertés) Recently, on September 6, Acton’s president and co-founder Rev. Robert Sirico launched his first trade press book in French Catholique et Libéral. Les raisons morales d’une économie...

Hurricanes always leave two things in their aftermath: broken windows and articles endorsing the broken window fallacy. As economist Don Boudreaux wrote six years ago, “Americans will soon be flooded mentary that assures us that the silver lining around the destruction caused by hurricane Sandy is a stronger economy. Such nonsense always follows natural disasters.”The Atlantic, wanting to get a jump on being wrong, published an article that same day arguing that Hurricane Sandy would “stimulate the economy” in two...