I was working at Acton University in June, helping speakers with their audio/visual needs in the lecture rooms, when I was approached by conference attendee I had never met before. His name was Clinton W. Abbott and he had learned earlier during the conference in Grand Rapids that there was an Albanian working with Acton. That girl was me. This is not so unusual at Acton U. because it is a very international gathering. But Abbott shared a story with...

“Old Whig” isn’t a political term that trips off the tongue these days. The phrase itself was coined by Edmund Burke in his August 1791 pamphlet An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs in which he sought to explain to some of his erstwhile colleagues why his rejection of the French Revolution was entirely consistent with Whig principles rather than a betrayal. The pamphlet has many effects, one of which was to help split the Whig party on...

On Monday, the leadership of the anti-austerity populism passed definitively to Matteo Salvini of Italy, as Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in as the prime minister of Greece. Mitsotakis, the son of former Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, displaced Alexis Tsipras of the left-wing ruling party, Syriza (literally “the Coalition of the Left”), on a platform of lower taxes, deregulation, and unleashing the free market. Mitsotakis’ center-right New Democracy Party won a landslide in Sunday’s elections, securing an outright majority of 158...

Climate change is a prominent and contentious topic in our current political sphere. Pope Francis offers a perspective on the issue, but church leaders have expressed differing opinions. As Christians, how should we approach environmental concerns? WABE, a radio station in Atlanta, Georgia, and an affiliate of National Public Radio, published an article titled, “Atlanta Seen as a Leader in Catholic Response to the Pope’s Environmental Message”. In the article, several Catholic leaders respond to Pope Francis’ Laudato Si, the...

The Democratic presidential candidates are in agreement on a proposal to eliminate 1.3 million jobs nationwide. That’s not the way they would frame the issue, of course. Saying that you will eliminate over a million jobs held by the poorest people in America is not exactly a winning message. Instead, they frame it as a pay increase—a doubling of the federal hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 by 2025. Will Americans be fooled? The Congressional Budget Office(CBO), an independent,...

Christians have long struggled to fully understand and embody our position of dual citizenship—being in the world but not of it. Torn between faulty, formulaic approaches to cultural engagement, it can be hard to keep the faith, let alone allow our faith to fuel our earthly actions. In Wisdom’s Work: Essays on Ethics, Vocation, and Culture, recently published by the Acton Institute, J. Daryl Charles explores these tensions, seeking a path toward a broader and richer cultural faithfulness. Rather than...

On June 14, an International Coalition for Religious Freedom in North Korea was launched, consisting of almost 200 activists, including Thae Yong-ho, a North Korean diplomat and defector to South Korea. President and co-founder of Acton Institute, Rev. Robert Sirico joins the podcast to talk munism in North Korea as well as his hopes for the coalition. On the second segment, Bruce Ashford, professor of theology at Soueastern Baptist Theological Seminary, addresses the relationship between family and state, plus ways...

Note: This is post #128 in a weekly video series on basic economics. Effective fiscal policy has to be timely, targeted, and temporary. But how the central bank, businesses, and consumers respond to fiscal policy also plays a role in how effective it is, says economist Alex Tabarrok. In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Alex Tabarrok considers how about how businesses and consumers might respond to expansionary fiscal policy. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow,...

In the past three years New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts have announced plans to build offshore wind farms that would generate hundreds of megawatts of power. Massachusetts and New Jersey have already awarded building contracts to panies and New York is in the process of reviewing bids. With an energy sector that is facing more and more pressure to decarbonize, the expansion of offshore wind is likely. But there is a major hurdle in the way. One rarely discussed...

The newest season of Netflix’s sci-fi horror series Stranger Things released on July 4, and I’m happy to report that season 3 has a new hero, and her name is Erica. (This post focuses entirely on episode 4 of the new season, so anyone who hasn’t watched up to that point yet should beware of spoilers.) Erica is the younger sister of Lucas, one of the four D&D-playing boys at the center of the series. This isn’t her first appearance...