Rule of Law

May 20, 2019

Why looting is the worst kind of theft

The Mongol ruler Genghis Khan once asked his generals, “What is the greatest happiness in life?” When they answered that it was going hunting on a spring day while riding a beautiful horse, Genghis said they were wrong. Continue Reading...

May 15, 2019

Should credit-card interest be capped at 15%?

Democratic presidential primary contender Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have unveiled a plan to cap credit-card interest rates at 15%: Under the “Loan Shark Prevention Act,” the annual percentage rate applicable to any extension of credit would not be allowed surpass 15% on “unpaid balances, inclusive of all finance charges” or “the maximum rate permitted by the laws of the State in which the consumer resides.” Continue Reading...

May 10, 2019

Global poverty reduction slows – but there’s a fix

For the past many years, the news about extreme poverty around the globe has been extremely encouraging. The number of people living on $1.90 a day (2011 PPP), which the World Bank defines as extreme poverty, has been falling for decades. Continue Reading...

May 09, 2019

Rev. Robert Sirico on ‘The Late-Scholastic and Austrian Link to Modern Catholic Economic Thought’

As Acton’s librarian I can’t help but be immersed in the history of the Institute. I regularly stumble upon thought-provoking material from well before I began my work here in the late 2000’s which is itself a continuing education. Continue Reading...

April 24, 2019

Should the Boston Marathon bomber get to vote?

During a CNN town hall on Monday, a student asked Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris whether they would allow felons in prison to vote: You have said that you believe that people with felony records should be allowed to vote while in prison. Continue Reading...

March 19, 2019

Finding common grace in a Ugandan refugee camp

Every day we receive innumerable blessings from God. We receive these blessings apart from our individual standing before God or our membership in any faith community. These blessings are rooted in God’s creation itself. Continue Reading...

January 28, 2019

From the streets of Caracas, Venezuela

Perhaps nothing sums up the situation in socialist Venezuela quite like the photo below. Within just a few feet of a grocery store, people dig through a garbage truck in desperation looking for food. Continue Reading...

January 11, 2019

A call for harmony — and a demand for truth

Pope Francis’ recent Christmas message, ‘Urbi et Orbi’, was a meditation on the roots of fraternity in the incarnation: What does that Child, born for us of the Virgin Mary, have to tell us? Continue Reading...

July 30, 2018

When it comes to plastic straw bans, won’t somebody please think of the children?

Twenty years ago on The Simpsons, Helen Lovejoy gave us one of the most ubiquitous rallying cries in politics: Homer: Mr. Mayor, I hate to break it to you, but this town is infested by bears. Continue Reading...

July 16, 2018

The Left’s populist pushback

Simply defined, populism is the rebellion of the common man against the outsiders. This vague definition reflects the reality that there are populists of numerous different political persuasions; at its heart, populism is a strategy, not an ideology. Continue Reading...

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