Alex Chafuen’s Forbes article on “champions of innovation,” which Michael Miller blogged here recently, is now one of the top features on the contributors page at The Blaze. Here’s an excerpt: When Adam Smith wrote his famous “Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” he helped shift the terms of the discussion. Centuries earlier, work focused on different aspects of poverty. Jurists and city authorities analyzed whether the poor should be allowed to beg freely and...

Too many regulations: that’s the judgement of Fred Deluca, founder of the Subway restaurant chain. In an interview with CNBC, Deluca said he couldn’t start his business in today’s economic climate. The Subway founder pointed to a number of government regulations that are degrading the business environment for entrepreneurs. Examples include the Affordable Care Act, an increase in the minimum wages and the end of the payroll tax holiday. The Affordable Care Act, often referred to as “Obamacare,” is “the...

There is one thing certain about picking a new pope: there is nothing certain about picking a pope. While there are predictions that the conclave could begin as soon as tomorrow, it likely will take longer for the cardinals to start the sealed process. The Rev. Robert Sirico, President of the Acton Institute, believes the process will moved quickly once it begins. Sirico, who is traveling to Rome this week, said he expects the process to move swiftly. “I will...

In 2002, the Justice Policy Institute released the report “Cellblocks or Classrooms” in which they claimed, “Nearly a third more African-American men are incarcerated than in higher education.” Since the report was issued a broad range of people—from NBA star Charles Barkley to President Barack Obama—have repeated the claim. But as Howard University professor Ivory A. Toldson explains, the statistic is based on inaccurate and plete data: “Today there are approximately 600,000 more black men in college than in jail,...

I have yet to read a moral argument for why the taxes collected from working men and women should be redistributed to businesses. It’s called “corporate welfare.” This is the odd state of affairs where, business pete for government funding rather than peting for customers in the marketplace. In fact, many of the biggest recipients of corporate welfare are the same businesses that hire high-priced lobbyists to help write laws in Congress that protect them petition. Why, then, do voters...

Should Catholics be concerned about the looming budget cuts? The National Catholic Register asked several Catholic leaders and thinkers, including Acton’s Samuel Gregg, for their response to the sequester: Re-establishing fiscal discipline and welfare reform are ponents to securing mon good, a key principle in Catholic social teaching, said Samuel Gregg, author of the new book ing Europe: Economic Decline, Culture and How America Can Avoid a European Future. Gregg, director of research for the Acton Institute for the Study...

At The American Spectator, Jackson Adams reviews Samuel Gregg’s new book, ing Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future: “Europe” is a concept Europeans are still getting used to. It should not, therefore, be surprising that it took a book written primarily for Americans to determine the sort of morass into which Western European social democracies have stepped. In his new ing Europe, Samuel Gregg provides a detailed dissection of Europe’s economic climate and the...

With an elegant white papal helicopter swirling over our heads, Benedict XVI flew into Castel Gandolfo for a final word to faithful living in the diocese of Albano Laziale—my adopted Italian home—and summer residence of popes since the early 17th century. At about 5:45 pm Rome time, I was personal witness with a few thousand others as he delivered a final public address, which lasted no more than a minute.Completely off the cuff, Benedict spoke with great personal affection and...

Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal that every conservative should read—and heed: Conservatives are fighting a losing battle of moral arithmetic. They hand an argument with virtually 100% public support—care for the vulnerable—to progressives, and focus instead on materialistic concerns and minority moral viewpoints. The irony is maddening. America’s poor people have been saddled with generations of disastrous progressive policy results, from welfare-induced dependency to failing schools that continue to...

In a story about looming budget cuts associated with the federal sequestration, Acton Research Fellow Kevin Schmiesing was called on by Aleteia to suggest “ways Catholic social teaching might be used to guide the cuts.” Schmiesing pointed out that the “cuts” are really “only a slow-down in the rate of growth in federal spending.” More: “Much more dramatic cuts and/or revenue increases are needed to reach a position of fiscal responsibility,” he said in an interview. But the principle of...