Acton Line

The Beatles will go down in history as one of the most prolific music acts of all time. Their music is still played in our homes and around the world and has influenced pop culture on a global scale.

In this episode, Eric Kohn, Acton's Director of Communications, sits down with Samuel Staley to discuss his new book The Beatles and Economics: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and the Making of a Cultural Revolution. 

Book | Beatles & Economics 

Pope John Paul, George, and Ringo on the harms of high taxes  

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Music contained in this episode:

Getting Better | The Beatles | 1967

I Want to Hold Your Hand | The Beatles | 1963

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | The Beatles | 1967

Here Comes the Sun | The Beatles | 1969

Everything in its Right Place | Radiohead | 2000

Come Together | The Beatles | 1969

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) | The Beatles | 1965

Tomorrow Never Knows | The Beatles | 1966

Strawberry Fields Forever | The Beatles | 1966

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds | The Beatles | 1967

Revolution | The Beatles | 1968

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“Crisis” is a catch-all phrase used in modern rhetoric typically attached to any movement or belief that aims to point out an issue. However, it is as important as ever to rationally conclude what constitutes a crisis, and to what extent eras of “crises” defend government intervention.

In this episode, Acton Institute’s research associate and librarian Dan Hugger sits down with participants of Acton’s Emerging Leader program, Grace Hemmeke, Ben Luker, and Jeremy Ward to discuss their Capstone project on the rights and responsibilities of government action in times of crisis.

The three Emerging Leaders discuss the ordered role of the United States government during times of crisis through the Acton Institute’s framework of a free and virtuous society, characterized by individual liberty, and sustained by religious principles. Their research was prompted by the government’s role in the COVID-19 crisis, and is extended to practical judgement in both historical and current analysis of catastrophic periods.

Are crises an agent in government force and control? And how will American society return to normalcy if and when this Coronavirus crisis is ever over?

COVID-19 bailout unleashed a pandemic of fraud

Is big government a near occasion of sin? 

COVID-19: the tyranny of experts 

Acton Line | Covid relief bill’s side effects on our future economy 

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The events of 9/11 are forever etched in the hearts of all Americans. Most of us still remember exactly where we were when it happened. In this episode, Acton’s Director of Communications Eric Kohn sits down with Niels Jorgensen, a retired New York firefighter, who shares his story of what happened at ground zero that day. 

As we approach the 20th anniversary of September 11th, let us reflect on the bravery and courage that took place those two decades ago and to be especially thankful for all that God has given us.

20 for 20 podcast: 20 Stories for 20 Years Since 9/11 

The Gift of a Second Chance 

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In this episode, Nathan Mech, program outreach project manager here at the Acton Institute, sits down with Ali Salman, co-founder of Islam & Liberty Network, to discuss his new book, Islam & Economics.

Islam offers three moral principles of economic organization: ownership, wealth creation, and wealth circulation. Based on these principles, Islam and Economics derives a framework of operational institutional tenets for the economic organization of a society. It addresses all important business, policy, and equity issues that any economic system should resolve and broadens the discussion on the modern discipline of “Islamic economics.” 

In this conversation, they delve into the most contentious issue within Islamic economics, which is charging interest. They cover how Islamic banks have answered the Qur’anic prohibition on usury, and how Salman sorts through this problem. Next, they explore the Islamic view of taxation, and Salman  made an Islamic argument that the only two permissible forms of taxation are wealth taxes and land use taxes. Based on his view of taxation, Salman built an Islamic case for a limited government.

Islam & Economics: A Primer on Markets, Morality, and Justice 

Islam & Liberty Network 

On Islam available for first time in English

Islam and Markets

Islam and Freedom   

Bio | Ali Salman 

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This week on Acton Unwind, Sam Gregg, and special guests Dan Hugger and Michael Miller discuss the ongoing developments in Afghanistan as we approach the 31st deadline. Then, they discuss the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill and how we can look to C.S. Lewis for guidance on how to respond. What is human infrastructure? Is the United States a civilization-building nation? Is all truth subjective? 

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Biden’s ‘stimulus’ for a growing economy is all about central control 

Afghanistan I fought for lacks foundation for freedom 

A Taliban 9/11 - William McGurn 

Bio | Michael Miller 

Bio | Dan Hugger 

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For the first time in more than 6 decades Cuban citizens are protesting in the streets against their communist government regime. 

In this episode, Dan Hugger, Librarian and research associate here at the Acton Institute sits down with a Cuban priest Fr. Alberto Reyes to discuss the horrors of communism in Cuba, the revolution, and how Christians should respond to it.

As a quick note, in this interview, Fr. Reyes speaks in his native tongue, Spanish and we have translated his answers to English.

The Tragedy of Communism in Cuba | Acton Vault

Cuba Libre: Protestors call for an end to communism and oppression 

The crumbling façade of Cuban communism 

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About Fr. Reyes:

Alberto Reyes Pías was born in Camagüey, Cuba, on May 26, 1967. He grew up in Florida, Camaguey, where he studied until finishing high school. At the age of 18 he entered the University of Medical Science in Camagüey. At the end of his third year of medicine he decided to leave university and start his ecclesiastical studies. He studied humanities and philosophy at the seminaries San Basilio Magno, in Santiago de Cuba, and San Carlos and San Ambrosio, in Havana. For his theological studies he was sent to Rome, to the Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum.

After completing his studies, he was ordained a priest in his hometown of Florida on December 12, 1996. After a few months serving provisionally in the parishes of Guáimaro and El Cristo, the latter in the city of Camagüey, he was sent as pastor to the area of Esmeralda, where he remained for six years. He was then sent to the Pontifical University of Comillas, in Madrid, to do a degree in psychology. Upon returning, he was assigned to the parish of Guáimaro, where he remained for six years.

He decided to take a sabbatical in which he makes a pilgrimage on foot from Rome to Jerusalem. Upon returning he is sent as a volunteer to the parish of Maisí, in the easternmost tip of Cuba. Two years later he was appointed trainer of the San Agustín Seminary, in Camagüey, where he worked full-time for a year. Currently, he continues as a trainer of the Seminary of St. Augustine, as a spiritual father, and at the same time attends the parish of Esmeralda. He has published "Do my will. (History of a resistance)". A book that relates his vocational itinerary but is at the same time a reflection on how to find the meaning of one's life.

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This week on Acton Unwind, Eric Kohn, Sam Gregg, and special guest Mustafa Akyol discuss the latest developments in Afghanistan, as the United States works feverishly to get Americans out of the country. How many refugees should the United States accept? What will rule by the Taliban look like? Have they changed at all, as some people have suggested? Then, Eric and Sam discuss the FDA’s final approval of the COVID vaccines, the lockdowns in Australia and New Zealand and the resistance they have produced, and whether our elites and civic leaders are more incompetent than they were in the past, or whether the velocity and availability of information just makes it seem that way.

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Mustafa Akyol

Reopening Muslim Minds with Mustafa Akyol - Acton Line

Welcoming the stranger: The dignity and promise of Afghan refugees - Joseph Sunde

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In this episode, Nathan Mech, program outreach project manager here at the Acton Institute, sits down with Mustafa Akyol, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, to discuss his new book, Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance. 

In his book, Akyol dives deep into Islamic theology, shares lessons from his own life story, and reveals how Muslims lost the universalism that made them a great civilization in their earlier centuries. 

Values often associated with Western thought like freedom, reason, tolerance, and science were historically part of Islamic philosophy but in recent generations have been cast aside to reach political ends.

Mustafa Akyol | Bio  

Islam and Freedom

Islam and Markets 

Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance 

Mustafa Akyol on the prospects for liberty in the Islamic world  

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This week on Acton Unwind, Eric Kohn, Sam Gregg, and Dan Hugger discuss the collapse of the Afghanistan government as the United States withdraws from the country nearly 20 years after September 11th and the beginning of combat operations there. We were told a collapse might happen in a year. Instead, it took days. What lessons should be learned from this? And how are we to trust our institutions when they’re constantly shown to be either wrong or lying to us? August 15 marked the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon taking the United States off the gold standard. How much of the economic turbulence in the decades since can be blamed on this decision? And, what role can cryptocurrencies play in the future of monetary policy?

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“Why, as a Muslim, I Defend Liberty” by Mustafa Akyol

“Islam and Economics: A Primer on Markets, Morality, and Justice” by Ali Salman

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As of May 2021, prices increased 5% over the course of one year – the sharpest increase in inflation since 2008. Inflation poses a palpable threat to the economic prosperity of America. Its prevalence is perpetuated by political institutions, corporations, and personal opinions. Big corporations and moguls will not necessarily suffer through significant change with a 5% increase in prices, the common citizen is more likely to be presented with financial hardships in their daily purchases.

Guest Peter Jacobsen, Assistant Professor of Economics at Ottawa University and the Gwartney Professor of Economic Education as well as a staff member at the Foundation for Economic Education, sits down with Director of Communications, Eric Kohn, to discuss the problems inflation proposes to America’s economic processes. In this episode, Peter Jacobsen also speaks further on his newest article, “No, Higher Wages are Not a ‘Silver Lining’ of Inflation,” and the false notions that the general public has on inflationary trends.

Understanding the escalation inflation undergoes due to COVID policies, the Federal Reserve’s reaction, and modern monetary theorists is timely and necessary in pinpointing solutions. The U.S. economy is in a difficult economic position, but by presently understanding the potential threat inflation poses, necessary steps can be taken to ensure a sound economic future.

No, Higher Wages Aren’t a 'Silver Lining' of Inflation | Peter Jacobsen 

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