Month: May 2012

May 25, 2012

A Liberal Wolf in Communitarian Clothing

The problem with communitarianism, claims Bradley C. S. Watson, is that it views religion as an instrumental good and individual virtue as destructive: Communitarianism comes to sight as a movement that sees, far more clearly than liberalism, that the private sphere and private goods are rooted in, and in turn have an effect on, public goods. Continue Reading...
May 25, 2012

Q&A with Stephen Grabill

Are you attending the 2012 Acton University conference? If so, I can only hope that you are as excited as I am about all of the wonderful things we have planned for the event. Continue Reading...
May 24, 2012

Fr. Z Reviews “Defending the Free Market”

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf has reviewed Defending the Free Market: The  Moral Case for Free Economy at his popular blog, “What Does the Prayer Really Say”. This is a timely book, given that we are in a crucially important election cycle in the USA.   Continue Reading...
May 24, 2012

What Does the Bible Say About Income Inequality?

Income inequality has been around as long as humans have had incomes, yet over the past year it has been presented as one of our economy’s greatest injustices. With so much shoddy zero-sum reasoning being presented, it’s refreshing to find an economist who can apply both sound economic and Biblical thinking to the topic. Continue Reading...
May 23, 2012

Media Blackout Regarding Catholic Lawsuit

Prominent Catholic leaders, including Acton President and Co-founder Fr. Robert Sirico, are speaking out against the deliberate withholding of news regarding the Catholic lawsuit versus the Obama Administration.  ABC World News and NBC Nightly News have given the lawsuit no coverage, and CBS Evening news had 19 seconds of coverage, according to NewsBusters.org. Continue Reading...
May 23, 2012

Acton Commentary: Contagious Community

In this week’s Acton Commentary, “Contagious Community,” I look at the positive as well as the negative aspects of coordination and cooperation between human beings on a global scale. The film Contagion provided the occasion for these reflections, and I argue that while the film is clear about the dangers of globalized human relationships, it also teaches a more subtle lesson. Continue Reading...
May 23, 2012

The Daily Caller Interviews Rev. Sirico

Over on The Daily Caller, Jamie Weinstein has an interview with Rev. Robert A. Sirico, President of the Acton Institute, about his new book, Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy: What is the moral case for capitalism? Continue Reading...
May 23, 2012

Valuing Innovation, Not Smallness

Back in February I argued that since bias is inherent in institutions we should encourage the government to be biased toward entrepreneurship and away from corporatism. The result of such a bias would be to favor newer—and presumably smaller—businesses over more established—and presumably larger—ones, thereby reducing the levels of regulatory capture and crony capitalism (at least in theory). Continue Reading...
May 22, 2012

What Happens When ‘Free’ is Unaffordable?

As I noted yesterday, I’m in Montreal for the next couple of weeks, and today I had the chance to see some of the student protests firsthand. These protests have been going on now for over three months, and have to do with the raising of tuition for college in Quebec. Continue Reading...
The Right to Education