Everyone “knows” that big businesses collude in order to raise consumer prices – and the larger the business, the more it can demand. In that case, what is everyone to do with the merger of two UK supermarket titans, Sainsbury’s and Asda, which is forecast to lower food prices for British families? The merger would see number-two supermarket Sainsbury’s purchase petitor Asda, which is currently owned by Walmart. The £7.3 billion ($9.9 billion U.S.) “tie-up” (which consists of £3 billion...

The great British political thinker Edmund Burke regarded what some call “liberalism” today as prehensible, unworkable and unjust in the absence of mitment to natural law.A similar argument can be made in our own time, says Acton research director Samuel Gregg: Without natural law foundations, for instance, how can we determine what is and isn’t a right other than appeals to raw power or utility, neither of which can provide a principled case for rights? Or, on what other basis...

In the Age of Information, much of our work now takes place in the realm of the “intangible”—creating and trading products and services that can feel somewhat obscure or abstract. Even still, in our technological, data-driven world, we should remember that we are cooperating withnatureandco-creating with our Creator. From the social-media giants to the sawmills, from the blockchain banks to the barbershops, we are using our God-given intellect and creativity to transform a mix of matter and information into something...

On the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth, his hometown unveiled a new statue donated by the Chinese government. The event drew praise from EU and German politicians, as well as outrage from pro-liberty thought leaders across Europe and around the world – especially those who had lived under Communist regimes. The president of the European Commission praised Marx’s “creative aspirations,” while anti-Communists called his decision to attend the event “deeply worrisome and outrageous.” What is the new Karl Marx...

Ray Dalio is a fascinating character. Founder of the“world’s richest and strangest hedge fund,”he’s been dubbed the “Steve Jobs of investing” and “Wall Street’s oddest duck.” He’s currently #26 on Forbes list ofrichest people in Americaand Time magazine once included him on their list of the world’s 100 most influential people. In 2011, Dalio outlined his personal philosophy on life and business in a self-published 123-page PDF called “Principles.” (It was re-released as a book in 2017 and e the#1Amazon...

On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Dan Hugger, librarian and research associate at Acton, speaks with Robert Whaples, research fellow at the Independent Institute and professor of economics at Wake Forest University on Pope Francis’ views on capitalism in a preview of Prof. Whaples’ ing Acton Lecture Series talk. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks to author, musician, and poet Robert Hudson, on the connections between the singer Bob Dylan and writer Thomas Merton. Check out...

In our climate of heightened racial tensions, many evangelicals have sought to openly affirm human dignity and join the fight against racial injustice. For a recent example, one can look to the ERLC’s recent event on the 50thanniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, during which 4,000 evangelicals joined together to “reflect on the state of racial unity in the church and the culture.” Yet amid such efforts, we’ve also seen a range of critiques from progressive evangelicals, claiming that...

Have Catholics sacrificed the integrity of their faith tradition by allying with conservative evangelicals (like me)? Matthew Walther, a national correspondent at The Week, thinks so. Walther claims the alliance between Catholics and evangelical Protestants was born of supposedly shared values. “In fact, few shared values exist,” says Walther. Seemingly in exchange for the cooperation of evangelicals, conservative American Catholics have abandoned one of the great jewels in the crown of the Church, her modern social magisterium, the tradition that...

Many people acclaim Adam Smith as the father of economics. Others trace the origins of economics to the eighteenth century Physiocrats, while others look back far asAristotle. “The real founders of economic science actually wrote hundreds of years before Smith,” wrote Lew Rockwell at Mises.org. “They were not economists as such, but moral theologians, trained in the tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas, and they came to be known collectively as the Late Scholastics.” These thinkers, who were associated with Spain’s...

Note: This is post #77 in a weekly video series on basic economics. When es to understanding economic growth, says Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution University, institutions are often critically important. When economists talk about institutions, they mean things like laws and regulations, such as property rights, dependable courts and political stability. Institutions also include cultural norms, such as the ones surrounding honesty, trust, and cooperation. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them...