is director of research at the Acton Institute. He has written and spoken extensively on questions of political economy, economic history, ethics in finance, and natural law theory. He has an MA in political philosophy from the University of Melbourne, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in moral philosophy and political economy from the University of Oxford.
Posts by Samuel Gregg
March 12, 2020
This article first appeared on February 24, 2020, in Law & Liberty, a project of Liberty Fund, Inc., and was republished with permission.
In many peoples’ minds, economics and economists remain locked in a world of homo economicus—the ultimate pleasure-calculator who seeks only to maximize personal satisfaction from the consumption of goods and services and whose occasional displays of seemingly altruistic behavior really only function as a means of self-satisfaction.
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March 03, 2020
It’s almost two months since the death of perhaps the twentieth century’s most important conservative philosopher, Sir Roger Scruton, but discussion of the significance of his work and life continues to occupy a great deal of space in journals, opinion pieces and on the airwaves.
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February 20, 2020
February 2020 marks the third anniversary of the death of the American Catholic intellectual and the 1994 winner of the Templeton Prize in Religion, Michael Novak. Perhaps most famous for his 1982 book, “The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism,” Novak’s ideas were immensely influential for several decades in American public life, numerous faith communities and the world of political economy.
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February 14, 2020
It’s hardly news to say that Argentina is in deep economic trouble. With only a few exceptions, that has been a given for decades. But recent developments underscore just how much it is the responsibility of Argentine populist politicians and, to be blunt, those who persist in voting for them.
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February 03, 2020
Since 2015, I have spent more time than I could ever have imagined debating the issue of whether free markets are more optimal for the United States (or any other country) than the various policies usually grouped together under the phrase “economic nationalism.”
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January 30, 2020
Inequality is one of those topics that is sure to spark quick and intense debate, wherever and whenever it is raised. In any such discussion, however, facts matter. That’s one reason why my attention was recently drawn to an article published in early December at Real Clear Markets, titled “Inequality Is Decidedly Not the Problem In the U.S.”
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January 16, 2020
In 2019, the mighty German economy, the economic powerhouse of the European Union, grew a mere 0.6 percent. That’s right. It grew just over half a percent. In 2018, Germany grew 1.5 percent.
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January 09, 2020
There’s more depressing news from China. Its Religious Affairs Office has announced that, not only must all religious organizations get state approval for any activity they undertake, they are also expected to “spread the principles and policies of the Chinese Communist Party.”
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December 16, 2019
The inauguration of modern Catholic social teaching that occurred when Pope Leo XIII published the first modern social encyclical
Rerum Novarum in 1891 marked a new stage in the Catholic Church’s engagement with the modern world.
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December 09, 2019
The world of medieval history suffered a great loss on November 30 with the death of Professor Brian Tierney. Widely recognized as a leading scholar of medieval Western Christianity and how church law and institutions affected the broader culture of Europe, Tierney wrote widely but also deeply on topics ranging from the origins of papal infallibility to how religion shaped the development of constitutionalism.
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