Italy’s coalition government seems ready to break apart, with Matteo Salvini of the League (who is seen as the country’s real leader)calling for new elections to force the Five Star Movement out of his alliance and Five Star trying to form a new coalition with the Democratic Party in order to oust Salvini. In an engagingnew essay for Acton’sReligion & Liberty Transatlantic website, Italian journalistStefano Magni writes about the unexpected role played in this electoral crisis by the Vatican. How...

The Book: Milton Friedman: A concise guide to the ideas and influence of the free-market economist by Eamonn Butler The Gist: As the subtitle suggests, this short book provides a concise overview of the ideas and influence of the late economist, Milton Friedman The Quote: “[T]he supporters of tariffs treat it as self-evident that the creation of jobs is a desirable end, in and of itself, regardless of what the persons employed do. That is clearly wrong. If all we...

The sight of teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg setting sail today for the United States has dominated global headlines. The 16-year-old, who is taking a year off school to demand a radical reorganization of the global economy, plans to attend the UN’s climate action summit in New York on September 23. As she prepared for the two-week cruise, she warned ominously, “There are climate delayers who want to do everything to shift the focus from the climate crisis to...

If you wonder why there are so many mass shootings in America lately you might start by asking why you don’t know the name of Leo Johnson. Seven years ago today, Johnson, the operations manager for Family Research Council (FRC) was temporarily manning the front desk at the organization’s Washington, DC headquarters when a terrorist entered with a handgun and 100 rounds of ammunition. As the shooter drew his weapon and began firing, Johnson charged the man. Although Johnson was...

When nations rejected the European Union out of fear it would not be accountable to EU citizens, politicians unveiled a new proposal: a citizens’ initiative known as the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI). When a broad cross-section of EU citizens support an issue, they can bring it to politicians’ attention through a successful ECI – unless those politicians ignore it, as the European Council just did to an ECI intended to rein in EU spending on controversial causes. Roger Kiska analyzes...

Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization. Samuel Gregg. Regnery Gateway. 2019. 192 pages. Reviewed by Rev. Ben Johnson. Next to his ubiquitous quotation about the corrupting nature of power, Lord Acton’s best-known aphorism may be that “liberty is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization.” In his newest book, Samuel Gregg plunges deep into the roots that nourish the ecosystem of human freedom. Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization explores how ratio et fides– reason and...

The Venezuelan people continue to struggle and suffer under the weight of severe socialist policies, facing economic collapse, widespread poverty, and mass starvation. In response, socialism’s critics are quick to focus on the external features, noting how all of this could have been easily avoided with a basic respect for property rights, free exchange, free prices, and so on. But while the economic drivers and indicators deserve plenty of emphasis, we should also be mindful of the deeper effects of...

In his influential 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom economist Milton Friedman promoted the position of shareholder primacy by declaring that a corporation has no real “social responsibility” to the public, since its only concern is to increase profits for the shareholders. Social responsibility would be the responsibility (or not) of the shareholders. Since then this “shareholder theory” has became the dominant view of the purpose of the corporation. But in 1984 the philosopher and business professor R. Edward Freeman wrote...

It has been a topic of much dispute in the last century or so of Protestant theology, but the status of natural law, and particularly its connection with the doctrine mon grace, continues to be of significance. Nathaniel Gray Sutanto, who has done a great deal of work on the Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck, points to a fascinating passage in Bavinck’s newly translated Ethics, vol. 1, that provides, as he puts it, “a crystal clear statement mon grace … as...

“Space,” proclaimed the memorable opening to the original Star Trek series, is “the final frontier.” The image of the frontier, and its historic importance to Americans especially, has been part of our national discourse since at least historian Frederick J. Turner’s famous essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” I reflected on the significance of Turner’s thesis for space travel, and Martian colonization in particular, in an essay a few years ago on the hit film The Martian:...