Acton Unwind

This week, Eric and Dan are joined by Philip Booth, professor of finance, public policy, and ethics at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, England, to discuss his essay in the Fall 2023 issue of RELIGION & LIBERTY, "Creating an Economy of Inclusion.” 

Catholic Social Teaching has, for decades, provided both guidelines and cautions for market economies that exclude marginalized populations. The question is, however, are those populations excluded by markets or from markets? Eric and Dan then discuss the alleged surge in popularity for Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” on TikTok. Is this justification for the 9/11 attacks really as pronounced of a phenomenon as it was made out to be? Or were the people expressing horror and outrage about the trend helping to boost it into a bigger problem than it originally was?Is there a case to be made to ban the TikTok app? And finally, a number of American CEOs gathered in San Francisco to celebrate Chinese president Xi Jinping. How should we think about the interplay — and the apparent inextricable link — between the American and Chinese economies?

Creating an Economy of Inclusion | Philip Booth, RELIGION & LIBERTY

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Videos About Bin Laden’s Criticism of U.S. Surge in Popularity on TikTok | New York Times

How Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ reached millions online | Washington Post

When Product Markets Become Collective Traps: The Case of Social Media | University of Chicago

Dinner with Xi in San Francisco: A Who’s Who of America’s Beijing-Friendly Elite | Jimmy Quinn, National Review

This week, Eric, Dan, and Noah discuss the philanthropic efforts of MrBeast, the YouTube star with more than 200 million followers, in building wells in Kenya, which has come in for some criticism. Are MrBeast’s efforts making a positive impact, or are they worthy of the criticism they’re receiving? Or both? And what could he and other people with high profiles who seek to do good do differently? Next, the panel discusses the report from the pro-Israel outfit Honest Reporting about freelance photojournalists working for the Associated Press, Reuters, the New York Times, and others being embedded with Hamas on October 7. What questions about ethics in journalism does this raise? And finally, the University of Austin is open for business. But how successful will it be at attracting students and building a different way of providing higher education?

MrBeast builds 100 wells in Africa, attracting praise – and some criticism | CNN

Broken Borders: AP & Reuters Pictures of Hamas Atrocities Raise Ethical Questions | Honest Reporting

Israel Accuses Freelance Photographers of Advance Knowledge of Oct. 7 Attack | New York Times

Media watchdog says it was just ‘raising questions’ with insinuations about photographers and Hamas | Associated Press

Watchdog accepts news orgs weren’t tipped off about Oct. 7: We just ‘raised questions’ | Times of Israel

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board gives first go-ahead to new University of Austin | Austin American-Statesman

University of Austin Board of Advisors

This week, Eric, Dylan, and Emily work over the news that WeWork, a company that provides flexible office workspace, will file for bankruptcy this week. Was it a victim of the pandemic? A creature of a low-interest-rate economy and a venture-capital mentality that said they’d figure out how to be profitable at some point that never arrived? Both? Next, legendary and controversial college basketball coach Bobby Knight passed away last week at the age of 83. What does Knight’s ends-justify-the-means success tell us about civic, economic, and church life? And finally, nearly 3,000 former Morehouse College students had their student debt erased without any government action. Is it true that debt relief is yours if you want it, whether or not Washington intervenes?

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WeWork plans to file for bankruptcy as early as next week, source says | Reuters

Monetary Policy Is Working | Dominic Pino, National Review

Legendary basketball coach Bob Knight dies at 83 | ESPN

The Bobby Knight Problem | “The Rise & Fall of Mars Hill,” Christianity Today

The Last Days of Knight | ESPN 30 for 30

These former HBCU students owed their college nearly $10 million. The debt was just erased | USA Today

Student Loans and the Sin of Usury | James Caton & Dylan Pahman, Acton Institute

This week, Eric, Dan, and Emily discuss the decision to melt down the statue of Robert E. Lee that was at the center of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Is removing statues of Confederate generals erasing history? What is the proper way to memorialize the Confederacy, if there is one? And how should we think about and remember Robert E. Lee? Then the panel turns its attention to engagement farming on X (formerly known as Twitter) and Elon Musk’s announcement that posts with community notes correcting factual inaccuracies would no longer be eligible for the platform’s ad-revenue-sharing program. Is this a good way to fight misinformation online? Or will it just be gamed the same way ad revenue sharing is? And finally, was the Catholic Church's Synod on Synodality really, after all, just the friends we made along the way? How are we to interpret the 21,000-word report from the Synod? And what are we to make of its release coinciding with the news that a (briefly) excommunicated Jesuit priest accused of abuse has been returned to ministry?

Charlottesville’s Lee statue meets its end, in a 2,250-degree furnace | Washington Post

Removing statues won’t erase the past, could mar the future | Dan Hugger, Acton Institute

Elon Musk on monetization on X | X (formerly known as Twitter)

The Internet of Beefs | Venkatesh Rao, Ribbonfarm

Synod report proposes ways to foster synodal Church | The Pillar

Pope orders Vatican to reopen case of priest accused of adult abuse but allowed to keep ministering | Associated Press

This week, Eric, Dan, and Dylan discuss the Speaker of the House of Representatives, or more specifically, the lack of one. What does this situation say about how well-functioning, or not, our system of government is right now? What does it say about a possible decline in civic virtue in the United States? Then the guys turn their attention to the Israel-Hamas war and the Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza that killed 500 people that turned out to not be an Israeli airstrike, that didn’t hit a hospital but its parking lot, and that didn’t kill hundreds of people. What does the way this story evolved reveal about modern media—and the prominence of social media in the news-gathering ecosystem? And finally, Ozempic is a drug that was developed for treating diabetes but is frequently used off-label for weight loss. Is it a miracle? Or should we be more skeptical about something that delivers incredible results without much work on the part of the person taking it?

House GOP speaker race balloons to nine candidates | Axios

NYT admits error in Gaza hospital report | Politico

It's easy to screw up on breaking news. But you have to admit when you do. | Nate Silver

The Dream of Scalable Democracy | Dylan Pahman, Law & Liberty

What Is Ozempic and Why Is It Getting So Much Attention? | New York Times

Desperate Indians want Ozempic on prescription. Huge shift from traditional drugs, say doctors | The Print

How Weight Loss Drugs Stopped a Danish Recession | Apricitas Economics

This week, Eric, Dylan, and Emily examine the purportedly pro-Palestinian rallies and campus protests that took place in the wake of the slaughter of Israeli Jews by Hamas terrorists. How surprised should we be by people chanting “gas the Jews” in Sydney, Australia, or by members of student organizations at Harvard University claiming that “the Israeli regime is entirely responsible for all unfolding violence”? What should be the consequences, if any, for people who have openly supported or defended the murder of Israelis by Hamas? Should universities and corporations end the practice of publishing a statement on every major issue? Then the panel reviews the awarding of the Nobel Prize in economics to Claudia Goldin for her work contributing to a better understanding of women’s participation in the labor force. And finally, is Bigfoot real, and did a couple vacationing in Colorado capture it on video? Probably not. But it’s fun to imagine. A Weekend on the Brink | The Morning DispatchAustralian pro-Palestinian protesters chant ‘gas the Jews’ as police warn Jewish people to stay away from area | Fox NewsCollege campus protests erupt across US ahead of anticipated Israel operation in Gaza | Fox NewsNYU law student group moves to oust president who cheered Hamas attack | New York PostAOC knocks ‘bigotry and callousness’ of Times Square rally for Palestinians | PoliticoA Stanford University instructor has been removed from the classroom amid reports they called Jewish students colonizers and downplayed the Holocaust | CNNStar of David is graffitied on Jewish homes in Berlin after Hamas attacks on Israel — in chilling echo of anti-Semitic persecution of the Jews under the Nazis | Daily MailWhy do some people hate the Jews? | Acton Line PodcastCollege Free Speech Rankings | Foundation for Individual Rights and ExpressionClaudia Goldin Is the Ideal Academic Researcher | Victor V. Claar & Angela K. Dills, Acton Institute‘Feels like a hoax’: Purported Bigfoot video from Colorado attracts skeptics, believers | USA Today

This week, Eric, Dan, and Dylan are joined by Rachel Ferguson—director of the Center for Free Enterprise and assistant dean and professor of business ethics at Concordia University Chicago and an affiliate scholar at the Acton Institute—to discuss her essay in the most recent issue of RELIGION & LIBERTY, “Saving St. Louis One Block at a Time.” How did St. Louis end up in the state it’s in? How does neighborhood stabilization work? How is investing in single city blocks more effective than a panoply of government-initiated anti-poverty programs? How important is trust between citizens and law enforcement to these ends? Then the guys discuss the terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel over the weekend. What will come next? What does this mean for efforts at peace accords between Israel and countries like Saudi Arabia? What should we make of the people pouring into the streets of American cities in support of the Palestinian cause, if not the actions of Hamas?

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Saving St. Louis One Block at a Time | Rachel Ferguson, RELIGION & LIBERTY

A ‘Black Day’ in Israel | The Morning Dispatch

Today Is Israel’s 9/11 | Noah Pollack, The Free Press

Iran Helped Plot Attack on Israel Over Several Weeks | WSJ

This week, Eric, Emily, and Dylan tackle the Catholic Church Synod on Synodality taking place starting this week at the Vatican. What is the Synod on Synodality all about? What issues facing the Church—the ordination of women, the blessing of same-sex couples, married priests, and more—are on the table? What power does the Synod actually have? And could this Synod have just been an email? Next, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, is up for renewal, and there are some conservative lawmakers who don’t want to renew it because of concerns over potential funding of abortion. Are those concerns valid? And if so, are they valid enough to scuttle what is largely agreed to be one of the most successfully public health programs in recent memory? And finally, California has raised the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour. What could go wrong? Quite a few things, actually. Say hello to your friendly new robot burger chef!

Vatican Assembly Puts the Church’s Most Sensitive Issues on the Table | New York Times

A Public Health Setback | New York Times

Poverty, Inc.

PovertyCure

How to Have a Great and Holy Council | Dylan Pahman, Religion & Liberty Online

New California law raises minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour, among nation’s highest | Associated Press

The social responsibility of Chick-fil-A is to make delicious sandwiches | Dylan Pahman, Religion & Liberty Online

Marvin Olasky joins Eric and Noah this week to discuss his feature essay in the new Fall 2023 issue of RELIGION & LIBERTY, entitled “The Thrill and Chill of Compassionate Conservatism,” in which Marvin revisits two of his books: The Tragedy of American Compassion (1990) and Compassionate Conservatism (1999). What has transpired in terms of poverty intervention and amelioration on the federal, state, and local levels since their publication and the welfare reforms of the 1990s? Where are we doing now to address effectively issues of poverty in America? How has conservatism itself, and its expression through the Republican Party, changed since the compassionate conservatism days of George W. Bush’s first term? Next, the guys examine Sen. Josh Hawley’s proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 18%. How many unintended consequences would this produce if it were enacted? And finally, the headlines about a Canadian study on cash transfers claim it “debunks stereotypes of homeless people’s spending habits” and that cash transfers “reduce homelessness” and will supposedly enable them to save money. Are they sure about that?

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The Thrill and Chill of Compassionate Conservatism | Marvin Olasky, Religion & Liberty

Subscribe to Religion & Liberty and get 4 issues for $29.99/year

The Law of Conservation of Welfare—And What Energy Source Can Transform It | Marvin Olasky @ Acton University 2023‘

Americans are being crushed’: Sen. Josh Hawley wants to cap credit card APR at 18%—here’s his plan to help ‘working people’ | Yahoo Finance

Unconditional cash transfers reduce homelessness | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Payday Loans and Predatory Politicians | Eric Kohn, Foundation for Economic Education

This week, Eric, Dan, and Dylan discuss the United Auto Workers strike. Are the demands from the UAW reasonable? How should we think about trade unionization in America today? Are there any risks to the new strategy that the UAW is engaging in? Next, the guys evaluate the FDA’s decision to make Narcan, the treatment for opioid overdoses, available over the counter. Is this a good thing? What are the potential downsides, if any? And how do we need to look at ways to treat the underlying disease of the soul that’s driving addiction problems like the opioid epidemic? And finally, the truth is out there about “Mexican aliens.” The UFO kind, that is. Mexico’s Congress heard testimony as to their “authenticity.” The truth, however, is that it was all a sham. So why the big show?

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What are the UAW strike demands?

Here are the issues amid negotiations | Washington Post

The UAW Labor-Strike Debacle | National Review

How UAW Tossed Its Old Playbook and Pursued a Surprise-Attack Strike Strategy | Wall Street Journal

More Michigan pharmacies will carry over-the-counter Narcan | ABC 12 News

Michigan State Police trooper uses Narcan to save man from heroin overdose | MLive

Mummies From Outer Space? Mexico’s Congress Gets a Firsthand Look. | New York Times