Acton Line

How can leaders respond to discouragement in their work? Noah Gould sits down with Peter Greer, President & CEO of HOPE International, to discuss his latest book, The Gift of Disillusionment. In this conversation, they explore the responses of cynicism and idealism, and how leaders can move forward through extreme trials and disappointments.

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The Gift of Disillusionment | Amazon

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In 2016, Nick Eberstadt’s book “Men Without Work: America's Invisible Crisis” brought to light the grim reality that millions of working-age men were retreating voluntarily from the labor force. Although this trend was widely overlooked for decades, Eberstadt’s searing analysis finally made it impossible to ignore.

Today, six years and one catastrophic pandemic later, the male exodus from work has not only intensified but has spilled over into new demographics, including women and workers over the age of 55. By most reports, America now has something on the order of 11 million open jobs yet millions of men and women sitting jobless on the sidelines.

Now, in the newly re-released “Men Without Work: Post-Pandemic Edition,” Eberstadt marshals recently released data to explain how this sad state of affairs came to be, what it means for American society, and what it portends for the country’s economic future.

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Men Without Work: Post-Pandemic Edition | Amazon

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Common economic perceptions pervade our discourse on policy. Dr. Caleb Fuller’s latest book, No Free Lunch: Six Economic Lies You’ve Been Taught and Probably Believe, sets out to dispel these myths. Acton’s President Emeritus, Fr. Robert Sirico said of the book, “Anyone who wants a well-rounded education will not want to be without the knowledge this book contains.”

This week on Acton Line, Noah Gould, Alumni & Student Programs Manager at the Acton Institute, sits down with Dr. Fuller to discuss the book and some of the most pervasive examples of economic myths.

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No Free Lunch | Amazon

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One of America’s greatest success stories is its economy. For over a century, it has been the envy of the world. The opportunity it generates has inspired millions of people to want to become American.

Today, however, America’s economy is at a crossroads. Many have lost confidence in the country’s commitment to economic liberty. Across the political spectrum, many want the government to play an even greater role in the economy via protectionism, industrial policy, stakeholder capitalism, or even quasi-socialist policies. Then there is a resurgent China bent on eclipsing the United States’ place in the world. At stake is not only the future of the world’s biggest economy, but also the economic liberty that remains central to America’s identity.

But managed decline and creeping statism do not have to be America’s only choices, let alone its destiny. In his latest book, “The Next American Economy: Nation, State, and Markets in an Uncertain World,” Dr. Samuel Gregg insists that there is an alternative—and that is to become a vibrant Commercial Republic grounded in entrepreneurship, competition, and trade openness, as envisioned by the founding generation.

In this episode, Dylan Pahman, executive editor of the Journal of Markets & Morality and a research fellow at the Acton Institute, sits down with Dr. Gregg, Distinguished Fellow in Political Economy and Senior Research Faculty at the American Institute for Economic Research and an affiliate scholar at the Acton Institute, to discuss the book and the economic, political, and moral complications of our increasingly globalized world.

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The Next American Economy | Amazon

The Next American Economy Is Cause for Hope

“Globalization,” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Adam Smith on the Benefits of International Trade

Dylan Pahman, “Fiat Currency, the Euro, and Greek Default”

Samuel Gregg, “Rethinking Free Markets in an Age of Anxiety”

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American conservatism appears to be coming apart at the seams. What, if anything, can bring the various factions together to fight the much greater threat of an illiberal, intolerant left? Perhaps plain common sense. In this episode of Acton Line, George H. Nash sits down with Noah Gould to discuss his article "Conservatism and Its Current Discontents: A Survey and a Modest Proposal" which appeared in the Winter/Spring 2022 issue of Religion & Liberty.

George H. Nash is a Senior Fellow of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal. He is author of The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 and several scholarly volumes about the life of Herbert Hoover. He writes and speaks frequently about the history and current direction of American conservatism. He lives in western Massachusetts.

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Conservatism and Its Current Discontents: A Survey and a Modest Proposal | Religion & Liberty

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Alexander Hernandez Romanowski is a crypto research analyst at Tribal.  Formerly a blockchain research analyst at the Mcnair Center for entrepreneurship at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, Romanowski focuses on how blockchain technology can improve access to capital for small businesses and entrepreneurs.  Stephen Barrows, Acton’s Chief Operating Officer, sits down with Romanowski to examine a research report entitled “Accelerating Small Business with Blockchain Technology.”  Romanowski explains how blockchain technology is evolving, how its adoption is increasing, and what the implications are for decentralized finance and small businesses.

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(99+) Alexander Hernández Romanowski | LinkedIn

Accelerating Small Business with Blockchain Technology | Houston, Texas USA (bakerinstitute.org)

McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth | Baker Institute

Tribal Credit | A Corporate Card Built For Growing Businesses

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5G. Microchips in vaccines. Crisis actors. Chemtrails. 

It seems that tales of conspiracy theories are in the news, and on social medial, constantly. But conspiracy theories have been with us for a long time.

Black helicopters. 9/11 trutherism. The JFK assassination. And, anti-semitism is arguably the oldest conspiracy theory there is.

Are conspiracy theories more prevalent now than they have been before? And what attracts people to believing in them? 

In this episode, Eric Kohn, Acton’s Director of Marketing & Communications, talk with Dr. Aaron Pomerantz, assistant professor of psychology at University of St. Thomas Houston, about his research into the psychology of conspiracy theories.

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Philip Booth is professor of finance, public policy, and ethics and director of Catholic Mission at St. Mary’s University explores all aspects of free trade and globalization.

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About Philip Booth

Catholic Social Thought

America's Trade and Regulatory Policies Have Contributed to the Baby Formula Shortage | Reason

Globalization, Poverty and International Development

Catholic Social Teaching and the Market Economy Revised Second Edition

A leading economist analyses what the Pope's new encyclical really says about markets

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Rabbi Mitchell Rocklin serves as the president of the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty and is also a resident research fellow at the Tikvah Fund has a wide ranging conversation on Judaism and Markets.

How does religion in general speak to the market economy? Does Judaism’s covenantal self-understanding foster a unique perspective? Where do the perspectives of Christianity and Islam overlap with Judaism and how do they differ? What is the historical contribution of the Jewish community to economic dynamism? How does this relate to anti-Jewish attitudes and prejudice?

What are contemporary attitudes toward the market in the United States and the larger Jewish world?

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Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty

Are American Jews Shifting Their Political Affiliation?

Race and Covenant

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In The Rise of the New Puritans, Commentary Magazine associate editor Noah Rothman explains how, in pursuit of a better world, a relatively new and fervent strain of progressivism, in a “burst of moral enthusiasm” is ruining the very things which make life worth living by attempting to craft a society full of verbal trip wires and digital witch hunts. Football? Too violent. Fusion food? Appropriation. The nuclear family? Oppressive.

As the social scientist Yuval Levin wrote in a review of the book, what’s interesting about this New Puritanism is that “it is not rooted in a Christian ethic, at least not explicitly, and therefore that its worldly severity is not moderated by humility before the divine.”

In response to this phenomenon, Rothman encourages us to spurn a movement whose primary goal has become limiting happiness. The book uncovers the historical roots of this war on fun and reminds us of the freedom and personal fulfillment at the heart of the American experiment.

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Rise of the New Puritans | Amazon

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