If you want to work in international development, says Charles Kenny, go work for a big, bad pany: Kids today — they just want to save the world. But there is more than one way to make the planet a better place. Here’s another option: Get an MBA and go work for a big, bad pany. Consider this: Over the past decade, foreign direct investment in Africa topped foreign aid — and in 2011 alone, by $7 billion. And unlike...

Brett M. Decker, editorial page editor of The Washington Times, recently interviewed Rev. Robert Sirico, president and co-founder of The Acton Institute, in response to Rev. Sirico’s latest book, Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy. In his answers, Rev. Sirico addresses the market’s moral potential as well as the present state of the nation. Excerpt: Decker: Your new book is about the moral case for a free economy. What is the morality of the marketplace...

Libby A. Nelson at Inside Higher Education reports on the latest trend in clergy training: Dual degrees for seminary students aren’t entirely new. For decades, some seminaries and their nearby or affiliated colleges have graduated students with masters’ degrees in both divinity and social work. bination of a master’s degree in divinity with a master’s in business administration is newer, but growing, says Dan Aleshire, executive director of the Association of Theological Schools, an accrediting body. In the past five...

Ismael Hernandez responds to President Obama’s “You didn’t get there on your own” speech with a piece titled “Obama’s Assault on Entrepreneurship: An Economic Roadmap to Nowhere,” on Crisis Magazine’s website. Hernandez, founder of the Freedom & Virtue Institute and regular Acton lecturer, employs Catholic moral teaching to determine just how much credit the government deserves for an entrepreneur’s successes. The President’s statements, Hernandez reasons, fail to account for the freedom of the individual to make sound economic and moral...

One of the nice things about being asked to write an endorsement for books is that you often get plimentary copy. My copy of Political Thought: A Student’s Guide arrived earlier this week, and it is the latest offering from Hunter Baker, my friend, sometime PowerBlog contributor, and last year’s recipient of Acton’s Novak Award. My endorsement is as follows and mend the book to you: Hunter Baker provides an accessible and insightful primer on the various streams of thought...

In an interview in Our Sunday Visitor, an official with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association said refugees from Syria into Lebanon are increasing “tremendously” because of the military conflict. Issam Bishara, vice president of the Pontifical Mission and regional director for Lebanon and Syria, told OSV about the “perilous situation in Syria and how the local and global Catholic Church is responding.” OSV: What has life been like for local Christians in Syria? Bishara: Christians or non-Christians, they are...

The fall semester is fast approaching. Why not look for ways to introduce your students to Abraham Kuyper in interactive ways? Kuyper has a perspective that is relevant to today’s student and their reality. The On Call in Culture University and Seminary Resource Kits are designed to provide you as an instructor with some simple ways to integrate Wisdom & Wonder, the first book in the Common Grace Translation Project, into your curriculum. Our hope is that your students will...

Call for Papers: “Our Entrepreneurial Future: East, West, North, and South” The Association of Private Enterprise Education Annual Conference, Maui, Hawaii, April 14 – 16, 2013. “Our Entrepreneurial Future: East, West, North, and South.” The Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE) invites the submission of papers for its 38th International Conference in Maui, Hawaii, April 14-16, 2013. The Association posed of scholars from economics, philosophy, political science, and other disciplines, as well as policy analysts, business executives, and other educators....

The “fixed pie” fallacy in economic thinking, as expressed by writers such as Hilaire Belloc, has served the class warfare crowd well despite lacking any basis in reality. “The historical reality of entrepreneurs gives the lie to two of Belloc’s assumptions: that the wealthy can maintain luxurious living standards by sitting on their wealth, and that capitalism prevents the poor from working their way up the economic ladder,” writes Charles Kaupke in the latest Acton Commentary (published August 8).The full...

French President François Hollande has promised a 75% tax rate on those in his country who earn an annual salary above one million euros ($1.24 million). Not surprisingly, this number has struck fear into the hearts and wallets of quite a few of France’s top earners, including some who are contemplating leaving and taking their jobs with them. The New York Times has the story: panies are studying contingency plans to move high-paid executives outside of France, according to consultants,...