John Couretas is Director of Communications, responsible for print and online communications at the Acton Institute. He has more than 20 years of experience in news and publishing fields. He has worked as a staff writer on newspapers and magazines, covering business and government. John holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in the Humanities from Michigan State University and a Master of Science Degree in Journalism from Northwestern University.
Posts by John Couretas
October 16, 2019
In this week’s Acton Commentary, Victor Claar looks at the work of the three economists awarded the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences. Claar, associate professor of economics at Florida Gulf Coast University and an Acton affiliate scholar, says “economists are quite divided on this year’s prize” given to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer.
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October 14, 2019
A Christian missionary working in Turkey, J.K. Marsden, described the roundup of Armenians in the town of Merzifon in the summer of 1915:
They were in groups of four with their arms tied behind their backs and their deportation began with perhaps one-hundred or two-hundred in a batch.
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September 18, 2019
In this week’s Acton Commentary, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg looks at how “scientism” treats the scientific method as the only way of knowing anything and everything. Without dismissing the real achievements of modern science, he notes that “one side-effect of these triumphs was that some began treating the empirical sciences as the
only form of true reason and the primary way to discern true knowledge … ”
Notwithstanding these serious flaws with scientism, its acceptance has two effects on a society.
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August 23, 2019
For nearly eight years, Senior Editor Joe Carter has been a mainstay of the PowerBlog. Not only have readers come to expect his daily PowerLinks but Joe’s numerous contributions (let’s enumerate: 4,400 posts!) on just about every topic we tackle here have been unfailingly helpful.
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August 08, 2019
A really interesting chat about the Roman Empire on this week’s podcast with Samuel Gregg and Larry Reed (register for Reed’s talk today here). Gregg helped expand the scope of the discussion by noting that the Roman Empire actually lasted for more than 1,000 years — in the East.
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July 12, 2019
Economist and Aquinas College Executive V.P. Stephen P. Barrows has been named Managing Director of Programs at the Acton Institute. Barrows, who also holds the titles of Provost and Dean of Faculty at Aquinas in Grand Rapids, begins his work at Acton on July 30.
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July 01, 2019
Early on in Ma Jian’s new novel the main character has a vision:
I saw elderly men and women smashing rocks against the ground under the steely gaze of teenage Red Guards. Continue Reading...
June 26, 2019
Update (Aug. 6): Writing at
The National Interest, Gordon C. Chang says “it’s now a revolution.”
In an especially tone-deaf press conference Monday, Lam, standing next to eight grim-faced ministers, made no further concessions, either symbolic or substantive, as she struck all the wrong notes if she was trying to calm the situation in her embattled city.
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May 22, 2019
In the U.S. edition of
The Spectator, Rev. Ben Johnson looks at how President Donald J. Trump eased tariffs on North American and European trade partners so he could ratchet up pressure on China.
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May 01, 2019
When you come across a think piece so catastrophically wrong as David Bentley Hart’s April 27
New York Times column, “Can We Please Relax About ‘Socialism’?” you marvel at the effort, intentional or not.
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