Today is World Refugee Day, an annual observance created by the United Nations to memorate the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees.” Here are five facts you should know about refugees and refugee policy in the United States. 1. The U.S. government defines “refugee” as any person who is outside any country of such person’s nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and...

Fatherhood is a wild ride, yet in my own personal reflections on and around Father’s Day, I’m routinely reminded that amid and alongside all the adventure, the challenges of fatherhood mostly play out in the small and intimate moments of daily life. Those daily struggles and weekly rhythms are profound and important, but they can also feel excessively monotonous and mundane. Much like the challenges we face in in our daily work and economic action, finding flourishing in the family...

Note: This is the latest entry in the Acton blog series, “What Christians Should Know About Economics.” For other entries inthe series see this post. The Term: ‘The Economy’ (aka Gross National Product) What it Means: When people refer to “the economy” they are usually referring to a particular idea—Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—which is itself simply an economic metric. GDP is often used as a single number that “measures” the economy. Imagine you wanted to put a price tag on...

Note: This is post #38 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. What happened to the cleanliness of your clothes after the U.S. Department of Energy issued new washing machine requirements? The requirements — which require washers to use 21% less energy — mean that washers actually clean clothes less than they used to, says economist Alex Tabarrok. In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Tabarrok considers whether mand and control” is an efficient way to achieve the desired...

Just after midnight local time on Monday, June 19, a man deliberately ran an oversized van into a crowd of pedestrians in London, seeking to crush out as many lives as possible. The scene has e familiar, from Jerusalem to Berlin to London’s seat of power in Westminster. This time, though, it was a British driver targeting Muslims exiting a mosque after Ramadan prayers. An elderly man had collapsed outside the Muslim Welfare House, not far from the Finsbury Park...

How are we to live in a fallen world under Christ the King? In partnership with the Acton Institute, Lexham Press has now released Pro Rege, Vol. 2: Living Under Christ the King, the second in a three-volume series on the lordship of Christ (find Volume 1 here). Originally written as a series of articles for readers ofDe Herault (The Herald), the work serves as plement to Kuyper’s three volumes on Common Grace, focusing on Christ’s claim that “All authority...

“The answer to the healthcare conundrum is not be found in Congress or in the White House, or in any draconian centre of usurped power,” says Joseph Pearce, “it is to be found on our own doorstep, in our own homes and in the homes of our neighbors.” Put simply, the principle of subsidiarity rests on the assumption that the rights of munities—e.g., families, neighbourhoods, private associations, small businesses —should not be violated by the intervention of munities—e.g., the state...

This morning, Queen Elizabeth II opened a new session of the UK Parliament by delivering her 64th “Queen’s Speech.” This event, which contains ceremonial elements dating back centuries, lays out the government’s vision for the ing legislative session. The 2017 Queen’s Speech focused primarily on Brexit and enhancing trade with the rest of the world, as well as terrorism, the Paris climate agreement, and NHS funding. This year’s speech differed from previous years in a number of ways, notably its...

“Deadbeat Dads”—absent fathers who don’t provide financial support for their children—are one of the most significant factors contributing to child poverty in America. So why do some single women have children outside of marriage when they know they will receive little to no support from the child’s father? A 2014 study from the University of Georgia and Boston College attempts to answer that question. The authors created an economic model to simulate a scenario in which every absent father was...

Samuel Gregg, director of research at the Acton Institute, recently published a review of Maurice Cowling’s 1963 book Mill and Liberalism,in which Cowling warnsof the tendency towards“moral totalitarianism”inJohn Stuart Mill’s “religion of liberalism.”Gregg acknowledges fifty-four years after Cowling’s warning, “significant pressures are now brought to bear on those whose views don’t fit the contemporary liberal consensus.” The book’s analysis “provides insights not only into liberal intolerancein our time but also into how to address it.” Mill was not the “secular...