Last week in Rome, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich invited think tank leaders, journalists, and human rights advocates to the private colloquium “Stand Together to Defend International Religious Freedom.” Among the many experts giving brief testimonies and talks were Msgr. Khaled Akasheh, secretary of the Pontifical Council of Interreligious Dialogue, Sr. Clare Jardine from Our Lady of Sion Congregation and Dr. Roberto Fontolan, chairman of the StandTogether digital platform which received promotional attention at the event. Cardinal...

Mark Zuckerberg has finally admitted he needs help. From the government. After years of shady dealing, data collection, and intentionally designing addictive technologies, Zuckerberg has asked the government to regulate tech. And who do you think will help write all the regulation that “regulates” all these tech firms? Bureaucrats in Washington won’t have enough knowledge, of course, so they’ll have to get it from experts in the tech industry. Lucky tech industry. Now that Facebook and Google, et al., have...

Note: This is the latest entry in the Acton blog series, “What Christians Should Know About Economics.” For other entries inthe series seethis post. What it means: The Earned e Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable federal tax credit available to eligible workers earning relatively low wages. (Tax credits provide a dollar-for dollar reductionof your e tax liability.) The Explanation: As the Congressional Research Service (CRS) points out, the EITC has evolved from a relatively modest tax benefit to a...

Today is Tax Day, the day when individual e tax returns are due to the federal government. Here are five facts you should know about e taxes and Tax Day: 1. The first national e tax in the United States was in 1861 soon after the outbreak of the Civil War. Congress approved a national e tax, signed into law by President Lincoln on August 5, 1861, which provided for a flat tax of three percent on annual e above...

Alejandro Chafuen, Acton’s Managing Director, International, writes today in Forbes with his annual analysis of think tanks’ use of social media. While social media stats shouldn’t be our only or even primary measure of success, no one can deny the prevalence of social networks in today’s world, and many groups expend considerable energy in their efforts in this field. The prehensive ranking of think tanks is produced by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania....

Prime Minister Theresa May has extended the date the UK will leave the European Union yet again, this time to October 31. The eight-and-a-half month delay inspired some cheeky Brits to give the interminable process anthropomorphic qualities: the “Halloween Brexit” monster. The endless stalling is “slowly destroying the opportunity of liberty which leaving the EU offers,” writes Rev. Richard Turnbull in a new essay for Acton’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic. Rev. Turnbull, who is the director of the Centre for...

In the wake of rapid globalization and widespread consolidation, many have grown weary of human institutions, whether in business, religion, politics, or beyond. Threatened by their structure and slowness, we have tended to detach ourselves, opting instead for more “organic” approaches to human interaction. These “bottom-up” countermeasures surely have their value and necessity, but our modern resistance has also created a certain societal vacuum. Indeed, as our culture continues to fragment—increasingly defined by social isolationandpublic distrust—it is the places with...

Socialism’s appeal is largely moral, not economic – not just because it doesn’t work economically, but because few people find pelling. Among their exaggerated claims, socialists argue that redistribution of wealth will create more moralpeople, not merely better living conditions. “We must develop among Soviet people Communist morality,” said Nikita Khrushchevin 1959, “at the foundation of which lie … the voluntary observation of the fundamental rules of munal radely mutual help, honesty, and truthfulness.” But does socialism make people more...

Yesterday a short video, originally posted by Forbes a few months ago, popped up in my browser. Called “Finding Meaning Through Travel,” it discusses several people who have supposedly found their calling in a life of travel and exotic pursuits. I love traveling too, and having lived abroad for three years I am convinced of the value of contact with other cultures, but I have to say that the narrators’ quasi-mystical view of travel struck me as misguided. Ben Saunders,...

Both The Hill and The Washington Post reported this week that the Trump Administration has decided to dismantle the Office of Personnel Management. Unless you work for the Federal Government, you are unlikely to have heard of this particular bureaucracy. But until now, its prime responsibility has been to manage the Federal Government’s civilian workforce. But what is interesting about this move is the way it is being reported. The Hill, for instance, stated that “the OPM would be the...