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February 05, 2016

Property Rights Vital for Empowering the Poor

On Jan. 27, Acton’s Rome office sponsored a presentation of The International Property Rights Index at the Dominican-run Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. The private seminar was a premier event in Rome for the index’s publisher, introducing data and case studies sampled from 129 industrialized and developing nations. Continue Reading...
February 04, 2016

No, Jesus was not a socialist

The resurgence of socialism in America, especially among the young, seems to be based on a widespread form of wishful thinking and historical ignorance. Most people who support Bernie Sanders, for instance, do not realize that most of his ideas have been tried already—and discarded as unworkable. Continue Reading...
February 04, 2016

Does capitalism reduce violence?

It’s been said before, but it’s certainly worth saying again. Not only does the free market lead to material wealth, but it reduces violence. On a recent episode of the podcast “Question of the Day,” co-host Stephen Dubner reads a question from a listener: Why haven’t humans evolved as a species away from aggression? Continue Reading...
February 03, 2016

Religious Shareholder Activists: Enemies of Debate

From the time your writer opted to publicly proclaim his policy opinions in a variety of forums that are privately funded, he has incurred estrangement from ideologically opposed friends and family members, as well as receiving threatening emails and even frightening phone calls from complete strangers. Continue Reading...
February 03, 2016

Lessons of the Flint Water Crisis

“As all the media attention attests, the sad story of Flint is not limited to itself,” says Kishore Jayabalan in this week’s Acton Commentary. “The entitlement mentality is like a drug ruining not just American cities but spreading to the country as a whole. Continue Reading...