Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Acton Commentary

August 14, 2018

What do stock markets do?

Note: This is post #89 in a weekly video series on basic economics. A company can raise money and create new investment by selling shares through an initial public offering (IPO). Continue Reading...
August 01, 2018

Why we need virtue education

“The wider culture needs virtue education, because a free society relies on certain bedrock moral principles being inculcated and incarnated,” says Josh Herring in this week’s Acton Commentary. We need business men, doctors, lawyers, plumbers, electricians, and grocers who act with the honesty which allows the free market to thrive. Continue Reading...
July 25, 2018

Justin Welby reimagines a poorer and less free Britain

“Christian leaders are often guilty of ‘souping up, the common good,” says Noah Gould in this week’s Acton Commentary. “Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, is no exception. In his latest book, Reimagining Britain: Foundations for Hope, Welby sets out to create a new social and political vision for the United Kingdom based on the common good.” Continue Reading...
July 18, 2018

The learned Dane and the harmony of natural law

Roman Catholics and Protestants alike have forgotten that Protestants had a natural law theory, says E. J. Hutchinson in this week’s Acton Commentary. To be sure, the work is of historical interest, as a testimony to Melanchthonian and, more broadly, Protestant thinking on natural law in the 16th and 17th centuries. Continue Reading...
June 06, 2018

Are Orthodox Christians naturally statists?

A recent study concluded that members of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the second-largest church in Christendom, are likely to support left-wing economic policies. But that does not mean, says Krassen Stanchev in this week’s Acton Commentary, that Orthodox Christians are naturally statists: It is probably true that historically Orthodox countries (the study lumps in believers and non-believers alike) would fall into the group of those supporting greater government intervention in the economy. Continue Reading...
May 30, 2018

Are the culture wars unique to our times?

Culture wars are incredibly complex with overlapping conflicts that are often confused and conflated, says John D. Wilsey in this week’s Acton Commentary. For the past five decades, Americans have waged what has been commonly referred to as a “culture war.” Continue Reading...
May 23, 2018

The economics and morality of infinity

In this week’s Acton Commentary I take on Thanos’ zero-sum economic worldview as manifest in Avengers: Infinity War. In the classic debate over positivity and normativity in economics, Thanos is definitely not a value-free figure. Continue Reading...