Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'bailouts'

Deutsche Bank’s work-from-home tax is economic insanity

As if 2020 could not get any worse, this week intellectuals unleashed another pandemic: a new proposed tax. Deutsche Bank suggested that the government lay a 5% “privilege” tax on employees who work from home, on the grounds that they “disconnect themselves from face-to-face society.” Continue Reading...

Bailouts, moral hazards, and the scapegoating of the taxpayer

If pandering is the politicians’ pastime, then we owe a special debt of gratitude to those who resist this seemingly irresistible force. Today, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that he refused to extend a £150 million government bailout to prevent Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel agency, from going bankrupt. Continue Reading...

The Complexities of Paul Ryan

Some proponents of limited government understandably yearn to see Mitt Romney’s recently announced running mate, Paul Ryan, as something like the pure intellectual descendent of Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. Some on the left, meanwhile, will be tempted to portray him as a heartless monster who only wants to enrich the 1 percent. Continue Reading...

Audio: Acton People On The Air

Three tasty morsels of Acton commentary goodness for you today: Last week Jordan Ballor joined Paul Edwards to discuss the recently concluded Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization and the broader ecumenical movement. Continue Reading...

The Financial Crisis: What We (Still) Haven’t Learned

It’s over a year now since the 2008 financial crisis spread havoc throughout the global economy. Dozens of books and articles have appeared to explain what went wrong. They identify culprits ranging from Wall Street financiers overleveraging assets, to ACORN lobbying policy-makers to lower mortgage standards, to politicians closely connected to government-sponsored enterprises such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae failing to exercise oversight of those agencies. Continue Reading...

PBR: A Cautionary Tale

AS NYT columnist Frank Rich observed earlier this week, it’s hard to find much sympathy for Rick Wagoner. “Sure, Rick Wagoner deserved his fate,” writes Rich. “He did too little too late to save an iconic American institution from devolving into a government charity case.” Continue Reading...

PBR: President Obama Responds

President Obama took time out over the weekend to respond to this week’s PBR question: “Let me assure you in the days ahead my administration intends to do to every industry in this country exactly what we are doing to the automakers.” Continue Reading...