Acton Institute Director of Research, Samuel Gregg, wrote a piece for The Catholic World Report yesterday talking about Catholics in an age of secular moralism. Often times, Catholics fall into a trap of reducing their faith to various political, economic, and social agendas, losing sight of what is at the core of true Catholicism. This is what Gregg calls secular moralism. Gregg explains this “new morality:” Moralism, however, isn’t limited to the Christian realm. It has many secular counterparts. Prominent...

As I note every month when reporting on the latest unemployment data, 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. In fact, a new study finds that for marriages formed after 1975, a husbands’ lack of full-time employment is...

Note: This is the thirdpost in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. The supply curve seems like an easy enough concept to understand: it’s a graphic representation of the relationship between the quantity of product that a seller is willing and able to supply at a particular price. The implications for how this affects the supply of goods and services, though, is more profound than we often realize. For example, as this video from Marginal Revolution University shows, the...

Given the overpopulation of American jails and prisons, it would stand to reason that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump be pressed to explain how they would dismantle the unfortunate relationship between low-performing schools and the criminal justice system. Last February, The American Bar Association (ABA) released a report in the school-to-prison pipeline. According to the ABA, the pipeline is a metaphor for how the issues in our education system facilitates students leaving school and ing involved in the criminal...

In last night’s presidential debate, Donald Trump said that NAFTA was the worst trade deal the U.S. has ever signed, and that it continues to kill American jobs. Here is what you should know about the perennially controversial trade agreement. What is NAFTA? NAFTA is the initialism for the North American Free Trade Agreement, an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that reduced or eliminated trade barriers in North America. (Since the U.S. and Canada already had...

Humans have a tendency to daydream about a day or a place where work is no more, whether it be a retirement home on a golf course or a utopian society filled with leisure and merriment. But is a world without work all that desirable? In a recent lecture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, the question is explored by Dr. Hunter Baker, winner of the Acton Institute’s 2011 Novak Award and author, most recently, of The System Has a Soul:...

“Religious liberty exemptions should be given as long as _____________.” How would you fill in the rest of that sentence? Most Americans (who are somewhat sympathetic to religious freedom) would say as long as “they don’t harm third-parties.” But is that the right standard? Thomas C. Berg has an analysis of the question in the Federalist Society Reviewin which he argues that harmful effects should not automatically be a reason to deny exemptions: The chief assertion of this article is...

How should Christians address predatory lending that takes advantage of the poor when they are in dire straits? As I’ve argued before, I believe a helpful first step is to get churches and other faith-based organizations involved in providing short-term loans and financial counseling. But sometimes education and sacrificial generosity is not enough to solve the problem, munities have to pursue other measures. A prime example is found in Texas where several groups—including an alliance of Baptists and Catholics—worked to...

The Reformation in the 1500s was more than a movement started by Martin Luther. He played a crucial role, but there was more to it. Samuel Gregg recently reviewed a book for the Library of Law and Liberty that explains the historical significance of Catholic and Protestant reformations. According to Gregg, Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650 written by the Yale historian Carlos M.N. Eire “is likely to e one of the definitive studies of this period.” The year 1517...

pany Mylan recently spurred a flurry of outrage after raisingthe price of their lifesaving EpiPen by 400%, leading many to decry “corporate greed” and point the finger at capitalism. Unfortunately, such angerroutinely fails to consider the systemic reasons as to why Mylan can charge such prices, resorting instead to knee-jerk calls for fresh tricks by the FDA and new layers of price-fixing tomfoolery from Washington. Yet the problem, as detailed by Rep. Mick Mulvaney in a new video from FEE,...