Between a summer heatwave in the United States and Europe and a recent speech by President Trump, the topic of climate and environmental policy and conditions has been even more prominent than usual lately. Having spent most of the past year as a Fulbright postgraduate scholar in Australia, including a very hot summer during which the Green New Deal proposal was announced, I’ve been recently reminded of a conversation I had with another scholar on the topic of climate and...

Economics is often dismissed as ideological, reductionist, and mendacious. In the United States we see these criticisms increasingly from both the political left and right. This e as no surprise as the lessons of economicshave implications for the prudential decisions that make up much of our political life. Ideologues of all parties chafe at constraints. Carl Menger, one of the driving forces behind the marginal revolution in economics, was no stranger to these sorts of criticism. His essay, ‘The Social...

What just happened? The White House Office of Management and Budget recently released a forecast that the federal deficit would exceed $1 trillion this year. As Fox News points out, this would be the first time since the four years following the Great Recession that the deficit reached that level. What is the federal deficit? The term federal deficit refers to the federal government’s fiscal year budget deficit. Such a deficit occurs when total outgoing expenditures (such as for buying...

The United States faces significant challenges when es to prisoner rehabilitation. According to a recent study, more than 700,000 prisoners are released annually from federal and state prisons. Unfortunately, “within three years, 40 percent will be reincarcerated.” To curb that trend, we’ve seen a range of efforts to improve correctional education and find better ways of supporting prisoners in their journeys toward social reconnection. Yet one of the most effective and inspiring examples is found in a country not typically...

Populism is gaining traction, both abroad and in the United States. In 2017, the Swedish libertarian think tank Timbro and the European Policy Information Center released their “Authoritarian Populism Index,” showing that populist parties have gained the highest percentage of the vote in nine countries, including Hungary (65.2%), Poland (46.4%) and Greece (45.1%). Zoltán Kész, co-founder of the Free Market Foundation in Budapest said in 2015 that “Populists are especially dangerous enemies, because they are strategizing in the terms of...

Since Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy for president in the 2020 election, he has brought a seemingly disastrous and looming problem to the attention of the American people, much like he did in his 2016 run: e inequality panied by the tyrannical rule of the elite 1%. Why did someone who seems to be so radical have such a big influence on the Democratic primary in 2016, and have such support in this new race? It’s because he took something...

While eating lunch at an Israeli Kibbutz last winter, I learned firsthand about what used to be a self-contained, munity. I was struck by the local guide’s positive view of socialism, believing it to produce munal life and economic prosperity. The guide’s praise only echoes A.I. Rabin and Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi from Michigan State University who wrote that “[t]he most successful attempt at building a mune has been the Israeli Kibbutz.” The optimism expressed by these observations is not without cause...

Boris Johnson, a champion of free trade and lower taxes, will serve as the next prime minister of the UK beginning on Wednesday, July 24. Officials announced on Tuesday that Johnson won 66.4 percent of the Conservative Party’s popular vote, besting rival Jeremy Hunt 92,153 votes to 46,656. In his victory speech, Johnson thanked his opponent, Jeremy Hunt, for being “a font of good idaeas, all of which I propose to steal,.” He also praised outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May...

The federal debt is a risk to our future. The nation’s growing debt will weaken our economy and threaten our safety and security. Unfortunately, politicians either avoid the issue or suggest reforms that sound good but can’t solve the problem. However, there is a way forward if we act soon, note John Cogan, Daniel Heil, and John Raisian. ...

The Acton Lecture Series resumed on July 18 with a lecture by Bruce Riley Ashford, provost and professor of theology and culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, speaking on the subject of how to maintain respect for religious liberty in a rapidly secularizing culture. The West has been going through a process whereby all references to God must be stripped from the public square, and religion itself is increasingly seen as implausible or obsolete. Ashford tackles the tough question of...