Few questions loom as large for parents and students these days as the question of how to afford a college education. College costs have been rising for decades, and alltoo often, students rely heavily on student loans and graduate with significant debt loads that they spend years paying off. Alex Chediak, professor of engineering and physics at California Baptist University, has tackled this question and provided parents and students with an invaluable guide in his bookBeating the College Debt Trap,...

“Why are you going to business school?” my friend asked, with some concern, “It seems like such a waste of your time. Why not study history or philosophy or the Great Books or something you’d enjoy.” It was a good question. I mitting myself to spending two years going to school full-time (while working full-time) to get a degree in a subject—business administration—in which I didn’t feel particularly passionate. But I felt that God was calling me to go to...

In their defenses offree trade, advocates routinely focus only on the long-term, economic benefits, and understandably so. The overall expansion of trade in recent years has led to greater economic growth, innovation, and prosperity for all, including America. Protectionist policies may offer immediate relief and security, including a host ofshort-term political and economic solutions and benefits for particular industries or corporations. But on the whole and in the long run, politically directed tariffs and taxes are more likely to spur...

Acton Institute Director of Research – Samuel Gregg Jorge Bergoglio, the Argentine Pope, has led the Catholic Church for four years. He released two encyclicals, Evangelli gaudium(2013) andLaudato si’(2015). Samuel Gregg recently sat down with Anthony Gill of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion for an in depth discussion on Pope Francis’ encyclicals among a few other topics such as Argentina and how Juan Perón may have inspired the Pope on his views of economics. You can listen to...

Note: This is the third postin a series on developing a Christian mind in business school. See alsoPart Iand Part II. As I mentioned in the last post, when in this series I talk about developing a Christian mind in b-school I’m referring primarily to learning how to think Christianly about things as they are symbolized, things as they are known, and things as they municated. That is, how to think Christianly about the three business arts taught in business...

The modern world has introduced a wide array of fruits and freedoms, yet it also brings with it new tensions and temptations. Whether in family, business, education, or government, the expansion of opportunity and choice require heightened levels of individual wisdom, discernment and intentionality. In a recent talk for the C.S. Lewis Institute, Os Guinness laments the influence of these effects on the Western church. “It isn’t ideas which have caused the main damage to the church,” Guinness says. “Modernity...

“It’s not good manners to begin the year with dire predictions,” says Kishore Jayabalan in this week’s Acton Commentary, “but with continuing Islamic terrorist attacks, increasing concern over Russian aggression, and the general fecklessness of its leaders, we have many reasons to worry about the future of liberty in Europe.” Italian and German anti-terrorism officials were fully aware of the threat posed by Tunisian national Anis Amri and still could not prevent his driving a truck through a Christmas market...

Note: This is the secondin a series on developing a Christian mind in business school. You can find the intro posthere. When people ask me what business school was like, I’m tempted to say, “A lot like a medieval university.” Unfortunately, parison makes people think b-school is dark, musty, and full of monks—which is not quite what I mean. In medieval universities, the three subjects that were considered the first three stages of learning were the trivium: grammar, logic, and...

Note: This is post #16 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. Ten years ago this week, Apple unveiled the iPhone. It’s a product that was designed in California and produced by thousands of people all over the world. How exactly is that process coordinated? How do those people now how much of each part to make? In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Alex Tabarrok explains how voluntary coordination and markets make possible such modern-day miracles as...

Does the theological conservatism of a church help or hinder its chances for growth? And what, if any, impact might that have on its social and political witness? In a new research study, sociologist David Haskell and historian Kevin Flatt explore the first of these questions. Using survey data from 22 mainline Protestant churches across southern Ontario, the study concludes that “the theological conservatism of both attendees and clergy emerged as important factors in predicting church growth.” “Our data demonstrate...