Month: November 2012

November 15, 2012

Want to Lower Poverty Rates? Increase Entrepreneurship

The Goldwater Institute has released a new study showing that states with a larger share of entrepreneurs do a better job at reducing poverty than states with fewer entrepreneurs. There is a strong connection between a state’s rate of entrepreneurship and declines in poverty. Continue Reading...
November 14, 2012

The Contending Realities of Progressive Economics

We need to trim government programs today in order make way for bigger government tomorrow. That seems to be the message former treasury secretary and Obama economic advisor Larry Summers delivered today at the Washington Ideas Forum: “If we want to have the same kind of society we always had…you may see some upward drift in government,” he said. Continue Reading...
November 14, 2012

Acton Commentary: The LBJ Curse on the Black Vote

Anthony Bradley, commenting on the preference black voters showed for President Obama, points out that Lyndon Baines Johnson’s War on Poverty policies “introduced perverse incentives against saving money, starting businesses, getting married, and they discouraged fathers from being physically and emotionally present for their children — resulting in generational welfare dependence — black voters are lured to choose dependence over liberation.” Continue Reading...
November 13, 2012

Bastiat on My Mind

One night during either my sophomore or junior year of college, while delaying the doing of homework by walking around the upstairs of Taylor University’s library looking for embarrassing books I could hide in friends’ backpacks so the alarm would go off when we walked out together and they’d have to sheepishly present them at the front desk, I stumbled upon a little treatise called The Law by some French dude named Frederic Bastiat I had never heard of.  Continue Reading...
November 13, 2012

Dorothy Day and the US Bishops’ Conference 2012

I will not indulge in any sort of “what would Dorothy Day do” when it comes to thinking about the current US Catholic Bishops’ Conference taking place in Baltimore.  However, it is interesting to ponder this woman who exemplifies so much of 20th century Catholicism and the bishops’ agenda, especially as the bishops discuss cause for her canonization, while on the same day failing to pass a pastoral message on economics. Continue Reading...
November 13, 2012

Free Market Morality

In this entertaining video Walter Williams, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, explains why the free market is morally superior to other economic systems. My favorite part comes near the beginning when Williams explains that money is a form of “certificate of performance” that serves as proof of having served our neighbors. Continue Reading...
November 12, 2012

2013 AU Registration Opens Thursday Nov. 15

Registration for 2013 Acton University, scheduled for June 18-21 at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, Mich., will open Thursday November 15. Stay tuned to Acton’s homepage and the AU website for further news and announcements. Continue Reading...
November 12, 2012

At the Bleeding Edge of Marketplace Ministry

In the November issue of Christianity Today, Dr. Amy Sherman, senior fellow at the Sagamore Institute has published an article entitled “The Cutting Edge of Marketplace Ministries.” In this article Sherman describes “holistic ministry” being done by a variety of businesses. Continue Reading...