Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'financial crisis'

May 13, 2010

Debt, Credit and the Virtuous Life

This week’s Acton Commentary: Our economic life is concerned with more than just the objective exchange of goods and services. Far from being morally neutral, it is an expression of how we understand our dependence on God and neighbor and is the means by which we fulfill, or not, our obligations toward them. Continue Reading...
April 30, 2010

Top 10 Reasons to Rely on Private Sector Markets

This week’s Acton Commentary from Baylor University economics professor John Pisciotta: Americans have less confidence and trust in government today than at any time since the 1950s. This is the conclusion of the Pew Research Center survey released in mid-April. Continue Reading...
April 30, 2010

Editorial: Where’s the morality?

Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg is quoted in yesterday’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial on Goldman Sachs: The most shocking moment in Tuesday’s Senate hearing on Goldman Sachs wasn’t Sen. Carl Levin’s repeated use of the big investment house’s scatological description of its own dubious offerings. Continue Reading...
March 10, 2010

‘Man is man’s greatest resource’

LifeSiteNews.com recently asked me to comment on statements made by Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, president of the Vatican bank, about the economic effects of demographic decline in Western industrialized countries. Tedeschi told the Zenit news service that the “true cause” of the financial crisis is the low birth rate in these countries. Continue Reading...
February 24, 2010

Joseph E. Stiglitz: An Economist in Freefall

In this week’s Acton Commentary, I review a new book by economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy. Text follows: A rare growth industry following the 2008 financial crisis has been financial crisis commentaries. Continue Reading...
November 19, 2009

The Financial Crisis: What We (Still) Haven’t Learned

It’s over a year now since the 2008 financial crisis spread havoc throughout the global economy. Dozens of books and articles have appeared to explain what went wrong. They identify culprits ranging from Wall Street financiers overleveraging assets, to ACORN lobbying policy-makers to lower mortgage standards, to politicians closely connected to government-sponsored enterprises such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae failing to exercise oversight of those agencies. Continue Reading...