Regardless of the obvious failures of Karl Marx’s utopian agenda, many believe that alleviation to poverty and social ills are found in the promise of big government, redistribution of wealth and regulations. Rev. Robert Sirico, co-founder and president of the Acton Institute, would say otherwise. “One need only trace the causes for the collapse of the USSR more than 25 years ago to observe the extreme ings of centralized planning,” writes Sirico in his article titled “Despite evidence, myth of...

The Bolshevik Revolution was one of the epochal events of modern history, continuing to affect the world in which we live 28 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Modern governments and systems of economics were created in imitation, or opposition, of its fundamental tenets. Too much of the memoration of its centenary last week consisted of celebration by its intellectual heirs. However, lovers of liberty across the transatlantic sphere also paused to reflect upon the occasion. On October...

The Acton Institute will be continuing its Mini Grants on Free-Market Economics program for 2018. The program is intended to enhance the effectiveness in the research and teaching of market economics for faculty at colleges, universities, and seminaries in the United States and Canada. With new application requirements and a simplified application process there is plenty of time to prepare your ponents and apply by the deadline. The application is currently open for submissions and applications must be received electronically...

According to the international media, Poland’s March of Independence this weekend portends a growing threat of fascism in Eastern Europe. However, the media accounts may not be entirely accurate, and Polish young people fervently reject the underpinnings of fascism – because of their support for the free market. Polish writer Marcin Rzegocki explores international media coverage of this weekend’s Polish Independence Day march in a new essay forReligion & Liberty Transatlantic. He finds that “Poland’s March of Independence was not...

On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Caroline Roberts talks with Rev. Ben Johnson, Senior Editor at the Acton Institute, about the Religion & Liberty Transatlantic publication. They discuss the publication’s purpose, goals, as well as the spirit and struggles that Americans and Europeans share. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker, Caroline Roberts, Daniel Menjivar, and Jordan Ballor hold a roundtable discussion on Marvel’s latest movie release, Thor: Ragnarok. Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast...

“Occupational licensing laws harm workers, as well as consumers who purchase services from professionals that require licensure,” says Tyler Bonin in this week’s Acton Commentary. “This harm is disproportionately placed on economically disadvantaged populations. Thus, when examining the effects of excessive occupational licensing in the U.S., it es apparent that these laws present an undue burden on one’s right to livelihood.” In the U.S., the number of occupations requiring licensure from state governments rose by nearly 25 percent between the...

Economist Deirdre McCloskey’s transformative trilogy on the “Bourgeois Era” has already shifted the paradigm of popular thought on what, exactly, spurred the rise of capitalism and fostered our newfound freedom and prosperity. According to McCloskey, the Great Enrichment came not from new systems, tools, or materials, but from the ideas, virtues, and rhetoric behind them. “The modern world was made not by material causes, such as coal or thrift or capital or exports or exploitation or imperialism or good property...

The current era of globalization, with all its opportunities and challenges, is not the first time that the Church has had to grapple with economic changes on a global scale. In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, Catholic theologians explored the moral, political, and economic implications of merce and trade routes across the globe – to India, China, Africa, and, of course, the New World. Many of these theologians and moralists were members of the recently founded Society of Jesus....

On October 18 2017, United States Secretary of Education and former member of the Acton Institute board of directors Betsy DeVos addressed an audience of nearly 1,000 people at Acton’s 27th Anniversary Celebration at the DeVos Place convention center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. DeVos has been one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial appointees to his cabinet, and her appearance in Grand Rapids attracted protests similar to those she has encountered at other speaking engagements across the country. In conjunction...

The 2017 American Family Surveywas designed to understand the “lived experiences of Americans in their relationships and families” andprovide “context for understanding Americans’ life choices, economic experiences, attitudes about their own relationships, and evaluations of the relationships they see around them.” Here are seven figures you should know from this recently released survey: 1. Most respondents believe economic issues are one of the core challenges facing families. People who had experienced an economic crisis in the past year (41 percent),...