Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'economics'

March 17, 2026

What Exactly Are the ‘Common Goods’?

At some point in their economics curriculum, every undergraduate will learn the “guns and butter” model of trade. The idea is simple: Countries have limited resources and can devote them either to military production or to consumer goods. Continue Reading...
February 10, 2026

We Can’t Afford to Ditch the Rich

Why Democracy Needs the Rich by John O. McGinnis arrives at a moment when public discourse treats wealth less as a social fact and more as a moral pathology. Consequently, McGinnis writes into an atmosphere thick with slogans, suspicion, and ritual denunciation. Continue Reading...
August 06, 2025

Hobbesian Horrors and Walmart Wonders

Have you ever felt like the fate of the world was riding on one assignment? In the 1989 comedy Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, high school students Bill S. Preston (Alex Winter) and Ted Logan (Keanu Reeves) didn’t know it, but the fate of the world was riding on their report. Continue Reading...
July 31, 2025

The Myth-Busting, Poverty-Curing Power of Free Markets

In their new book, The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism, former Senator Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux, George Mason University professor of economics, challenge seven widely held but false views of capitalism and markets, which fuel an overreliance on government. Continue Reading...
June 05, 2025

The Curious Task of ‘Abundance’

In their new and highly anticipated book, Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, both journalists and bestselling authors who align ideologically with the political left and American liberalism, refreshingly advocate for growth and abundance. Continue Reading...
April 02, 2025

Economics According to St. Matthew

Michael Pakaluk, a Harvard-trained philosopher and professor of political economy at the Catholic University’s Busch School of Business, has written a new book, Be Good Bankers: The Economic Interpretation of Matthew’s Gospel with a Fresh Translation. Continue Reading...
August 20, 2024

Why I Slept on the Streets for a Year

Poverty has always been part of my life. First, in my own family: we were considerably poor, and I spent my entire childhood surrounded by poverty. Over the years, while pastoring a church and training new pastors at seminary, I became involved in relief projects for those who were even poorer than I was. Continue Reading...
August 06, 2024

Four Economic Lessons from Plato’s Republic

When we consider the origin of the fundamental principles of economics, most of us think of Adam Smith and his Wealth of Nations. Smith arguably pioneered economics as its own discipline with this groundbreaking articulation of the workings of the free market. Continue Reading...