Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Acton Commentary

August 23, 2017

Our economic age of anxiety

“Developed nations are increasingly haunted by doubts about the legitimacy of their economic structures,” says Victor V. Claar and Greg Forster in this week’s Acton Commentary. “This paralyzing anxiety crosses all lines of ethnicity, religion, class, party and ideology.” Continue Reading...
August 02, 2017

The moral hazard of fuzzy contracts

“You may already be aware that many state and local public pensions are in trouble,” says Victor V. Claar in this week’s Acton Commentary. “By one estimate, the nation’s state, county, and municipal governments face a combined funding shortfall of about $5 trillion. Continue Reading...
July 26, 2017

Finding ‘the lost tools of learning’

“If you were to read Dorothy Sayers’ The Lost Tools of Learning and thereafter read the curriculum of Veritas Classical Academy,” says Elizabeth Yeh in this week’s Acton Commentary, “you would find that the “lost tools” have been found in the small town of Marietta, Ohio.” Continue Reading...
July 12, 2017

Saving Charlie Gard

“The case of 11-month-old Charlie Gard continues to garner international attention and pleas for his life from Donald Trump and Pope Francis,” says Anne Rathbone Bradley in this week’s Acton Commentary. Continue Reading...
July 05, 2017

What if there were no profits?

Like many oth­ers, Pope Francis fails to see the good of profit, says Dylan Pahman in this week’s Acton Commentary. There is a false dichotomy here between profits and poverty. Stock markets measure company value, which is related to profit but not the same, and people can idolize that. Continue Reading...
June 30, 2017

Reining in the EPA’s regulatory overreach

President Donald Trump turned heads and drew criticisms for his efforts to curb the regulatory reach of the Environmental Protection Agency. With the appointment of Scott Pruitt to lead the agency, Trump has vowed to create a leaner bureaucracy by requiring agencies to repeal two regulations for each new regulation enacted. Continue Reading...
June 28, 2017

Why Seattle’s minimum wage law is now destroying wages

“The city of Seattle has the highest minimum wage in the United States,” notes Dylan Pahman in this week’s Acton Commentary. “While economists and policy-makers continue to debate the issue, a recent working paper from researchers at the University of Washington (UW) raises serious questions about the effectiveness of minimum wage hikes.” Continue Reading...
June 14, 2017

The cooperative magic of work

“When people work together,” says Dylan Pahman in this week’s Acton Commentary, “they are able to multiply the fruits of their labors far beyond what they could each do alone.” “Work,” wrote the Reformed theologian Lester DeKoster, “is the form in which we make ourselves useful to others.” Continue Reading...