Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'economics'

Are billionaires evil?

Criticizing billionaires has become a popular cultural trend, based on anti-rich sentiment that was recently exacerbated by a ProPublica report that leaked the tax returns of the 25 wealthiest Americans. The report’s findings were interesting but not particularly surprising, mostly confirming the long-held speculation that the ultra-rich don’t pay taxes proportional to their levels of wealth and frequently use legal avenues to shield their earnings from the government’s fingertips. Continue Reading...

The moral deficit of inflationary spending

Spending! Relief! Infrastructure Investment! Build Back Better! These are words and sayings that have been bandied about throughout the past year. Anyone with a basic interest in the news cycle is bound to have heard that the federal government has proposed plans to spend trillions of dollars. Continue Reading...

The Suez Canal blockage: a metaphor for our economy

A team of engineers and an unusually high tide freed the Ever Given, the container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for six days, on Monday. Obstructing the canal that facilitates 13% of world’s maritime trade not only educated Americans about the international dimensions of our economy, it also served as a metaphor for the artificial constraints, taxes, and regulations that block so many people from participating in our economy. Continue Reading...

Walter Williams, RIP

The world has lost a voice for logic, liberty, and love of the U.S. Constitution. Economist Walter Williams died overnight at the age of 84. Williams worked his way out of grinding poverty in the Philadelphia housing projects to chair George Mason University’s economics department, author 10 books and more than 150 publications, and become one of the most recognized commentators of the last four decades. Continue Reading...

Do economists agree?

Listen to politicians or cable news, and you will get the impression that economics is merely a thin veil for partisanship, the greatest mercenary discipline for justifying any policy. You can seemingly find at least one economist to agree with you; liberal economists favor liberal policies, while conservative economists favor conservative policies. Continue Reading...