Most consumers have heard of fair-trade coffee, but have no idea how fair-trade actually works. In this video, economist Victor Claarcovers the basics of the fair-trade model, and explores whether fair trade can deliver on its promises to help the poor. Fair trade can also be used to vividly illustrate many key concepts in a principles of micro class, note s Claar, such as price elasticity and monopoly power. ...

In his many addresses to the nation, President Calvin Coolidge made a point of routinely redirecting the country’s attention to the “things of the spirit.” In his Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, he encouraged the country to reorient its vision of abundance, progressing not only in material prosperity, but also “in moral and spiritual things.” In hisreflections on the Declaration of Independence, he reminded us that ours is a liberty not meant for “pagan materialism,” which would surely turn our prosperity into...

This past Saturday, Pope Francis celebrated his 80th birthday and in an opinion piece for The Detroit News on the same day Acton Director of Research Samuel Gregg expressed his primary criticism of the Holy Father. Gregg thinks that “rather than presenting the Catholic faith in all its fullness as the source of truth and true happiness, he focuses almost exclusively on the theme of mercy.” Gregg explains himself: Mercy is certainly central to the Christian Gospel. As a priest...

Note: This is post #14 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. What’s the difference between a wage subsidy and a minimum wage? What is the cost of a wage subsidy to taxpayers? Economist Alex Tabarrok looks at the earned e tax credit and how it affects low-skilled workers. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video...

[Note: This is the finalpost in a series highlighting some of the financial aspects and broad economic lessons of Frank Capra’s holiday classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. You can find part one hereand part two here.] Economist Don Boudreaux recently outlined ten foundational lessons that should be learned in every well-taught principles of economics course. Examples of nearly all of the ten lessons can be found in Capra’s Christmas classic, but for the sake of brevity I’ll merely highlight two...

As the most widely observed cultural holiday in the world, Christmas produces many things—joy, happiness, gratitude, reverence. And numbers. Lots of peculiar, often large, numbers. Here are a few to contemplate this season: $50.82– Average amount U.S. consumers spent on real Christmas trees in 2015. $69.38– Average amount U.S. consumers spent on fake Christmas trees in 2015. 33,000,000 – Number of real Christmas trees sold in the U.S. each year. 9,500,000 – Number of fake Christmas trees sold each year....

It has been just over a week since a suicide bomber entered the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in the Coptic Orthodox plex in Cairo, killing himself and making martyrs of 27 Egyptian Christians. They were mostly women and children attending the Sunday morning service. Two months before, the Anglican Archbishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, addressing a conference in Cairo, had called for Christians to be “ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Christ.” This has certainly...

“Succumbing to despair is by definition never a winning strategy, which is why the story of Giorgio Vasari’s painting, ‘The Last Supper,’ resonated so strongly with me when I read it had been successfully restored,” says Rev. Robert A. Sirico in this week’s Acton Commentary. I’ve loved Vasari since discovering his “Lives of the Artists” when I was in college, and the restoration of his work (not to be confused with the more famous Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci)...

Every year we hear the same laments about Christmas presents. Economists are fond of saying gift-giving is inefficient and wasteful, while many plain that it is driven mercialism. But how did the tradition start? How did the idea of gift-giving at Christmas move from the marketplace to the home? In this short video, Ryan Reeves explains the history of Christmas presents. ...

On this edition of Radio Free Acton, we speak with David LaRocca,director of a new documentary calledBrunello Cucinelli: A New Philosophy of Clothes. Brunello Cucinelli is an entrepreneur based in Solomeo, Italy and a rising star in the world of high fashion. While that may be interesting in and of itself, what is far more interesting are the ideas that animate Cucinelli and shape the way he conducts his business and relates to his employees, customers, munity. LaRocca’s documentary reveals...