In the Age of Information, we face an overwhelming barrage of high-minded studies and reports that claim to offer the final word on this or that. As it relates to matters of economic policy, we are pressed to lend ever increasing amounts of trust to the power of statistical analysis and the reliability of research from a variety of academics and economic planners and soothsayers. In a video seriesfor the Hoover Institution, economist Russ Roberts seeks to illuminate the limits...

Poland may soon ban shopping on Sundays. On Friday, November 24, the lower house of the Polish legislature (the Sejm) approved a Sunday shopping ban, 254-156. The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) Party has presented this as a way to uphold the nation’s Catholic character, but some on the ground warn there is more to merce ban than meets the eye. It’s true that Poland’s Catholic Bishops Conference lobbied hard for the measure, which would gradually phase out Sunday shopping...

On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Dylan Pahman, Research Fellow and Managing Editor of theJournal of Markets and Moralityat Acton, speaks with Samuel Gregg, Director of Research at Acton, about the prolific economists Wilhelm Röpke and John Maynard Keynes, who they are, what they did, and why we should care. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks to author and musician Robert Dean Lurie about the 50th anniversary ofRolling Stonemagazine. Check out these additional resources on this...

If you’ve been stuck at the mall listening to a song about ten Lords a-Leaping and eight Maids a-Milking you can blame the Jesuits. Rumor has it they invented the Twelve Days of Christmas song as acatechism in codefor persecuted Catholics in 16th-century England. The claim is that each of the items has a coded meaning (Old and New Testaments are the two turtle doves; three hens are the Wise Men; the Evangelists are the four calling birds; five gold...

The Acton Institute is now accepting applications for the 2018 Novak Award. The deadline to apply is March 15, 2018 and the nomination requirement has been removed. The award, named after distinguished American theologian Michael Novak, is open to current doctoral candidates or those who have received a doctorate in the past five years. Applicants should have studied theology, religion, philosophy, history, law, politics, economics, or related fields. The Acton Institute will select one winner to receive the USD $15,000...

Series Note: Jobs are one of the most important aspects of a morally functioning economy. They help us serve the needs of our neighbors and lead to human flourishing both for the individual and munities. Conversely, not having a job can adversely affect spiritual and psychological well-being of individuals and families. Because unemployment is a spiritual problem, Christians in America need to understand and be aware of the monthly data on employment. Each month highlight the latest numbers we need...

Note: This is post #60 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. While the probability of an asteroid hitting the planet is very low, its effect would be disastrous for all of us. Who then should pay for asteroid protection? As Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution University explains, public goods like asteroid defense have some unusual properties that challenge markets. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times...

Despite his work as an apologist and essayist of the highest order, C.S. Lewis’ most famous work is the Chronicles of Narnia. The Silver Chair, the fourth novel published in the series, provides a good framework to understand the state of the European Union, writes Stephen F. Copp in a new essay for Religion & Liberty Transatlantic: The seductive power of evil and the difficulties of regaining self-determination once lost are well illustrated theologically in C.S. Lewis’sThe Silver Chair. Rilian,...

Over the next decade, automation will increase, changing the nature of the way we work. While this will lead to more jobs in the long-run it could also lead to an occupational shift on a scale not seen since the transition of the labor force out of agriculture in the early 1900s in the United States and Europe. Those are some of the findings ina new report by the McKinsey Global Institute.Here are some of the highlights from the study:...

After frenetic all-night talks, the UK prime minister and the president of the EU announced early Friday morning that the first round of Brexit talks had made “sufficient progress” to go forward. What does that mean for the UK, EU, and the future of economic liberty, deregulation, and reclaiming national self-determination? What are the two rounds of Brexit talks? In a national referendum last June 23, a majority of British citizens voted to leave the European Union. After a UK...