Acton Unwind

This week, Eric, Anthony Bradley (making his maiden voyage on the podcast), and Emily discuss the resignation of Harvard University president Claudine Gay. How significant a story is this? Does it matter only for elites, or do the downstream effects impact more of America? Does it matter that the people who uncovered her plagiarism had their own political motivations? Did race play any role in this story, with Gay having been the first black woman president of Harvard? Next, the panel reflects on the passing of Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor in early December. Beyond being the first woman on the Court, what will she be remembered for? And finally, what are Eric, Anthony, and Emily hopeful for in 2024? Harvard President Resigns After Mounting Plagiarism Accusations | New York Times Claudine Gay: What Just Happened at Harvard Is Bigger Than Me | New York Times Harvard President Claudine Gay Hit with Six New Charges of Plagiarism | Washington Free Beacon How We Squeezed Harvard to Push Claudine Gay Out | Christopher F. Rufo, Wall Street Journal Sandra Day O’Connor, First Woman on the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 93 | New York Times

This week, Eric is joined first by Mark Clifford, the president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, as they discuss the National Security Law trial of Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong. After numerous delays, the trial has finally started. What charges is Jimmy facing, of which he will certainly be convicted? What comes after those convictions, both in regard to the cause of freeing Jimmy Lai and the cause of freedom in Hong Kong? What significance do the calls from the U.K. and American governments for Lai to be released hold? Then Eric is joined by Noah Gould and Emily Zanotti to discuss the Satanic Temple’s statue of the pagan idol Baphomet in the Iowa State House. Should such displays be prohibited? If so, on what grounds? What does the legal jurisprudence say on matters like this? Does the First Amendment require indulging efforts to troll people of faith? And finally, Sam Bankman-Fried was indicted and convicted on multiple federal charges related to fraud perpetrated at his cryptocurrency exchange FTX. His adopted philosophy of effective altruism has also come in for criticism in the wake of the conviction. The group discusses Noah’s piece in Fusion magazine on the topic. The Hong Konger: Jimmy Lai’s Extraordinary Struggle for Freedom | Full Film The Trial of Jimmy Lai | Isaac Willour, Acton Institute Jimmy Lai: Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon’s trial begins | BBC Britain calls for Jimmy Lai’s release as Hong Kong trial begins | Reuters Trial of Jimmy Lai Under the Hong Kong National Security Law | US State Department Satanic Temple says part of display in Iowa Capitol ‘destroyed beyond repair’ | Des Moines Register Effective Altruism’s Reign Should End with Sam Bankman-Fried’s | Noah Gould, Fusion Poverty, Inc.

This week, Eric, Dan, and Dylan discuss the passing of Henry Kissinger at the age of 100. How should Kissinger be remembered? Is there any merit to the claims he was a war criminal? What will be his enduring legacy? Next, Venezuela might be preparing to annex some of the territory of neighboring Guyana after the discovery of large oil reserves in that nation. How concerned should we be? How much does this underscore the disaster that the socialist governments of Chávez and Maduro have been for Venezuela? And finally, the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn appeared before Congress to testify on anti-Semitism on their campuses—and it didn’t go very well. How should we think about free speech on college campuses? Pax Kissinger | The Morning Dispatch The Meaning of History: Dr. Henry Kissinger’s Undergraduate Thesis | Johns Hopkins University Guyana agreed to talks with Venezuela over territorial dispute under pressure from Brazil, others | Associated Press Venezuela’s autocrat, Nicolás Maduro, threatens to annex Guyana | The Economist Antisemitism Beleaguers the Ivies | The Dispatch

Today, Eric and Dan talk with Acton’s Michael Matheson Miller about his essay “The Poverty Pyramid Scheme,” and AIER’s Samuel Gregg about his review “Mistaken About Poverty,” both of which appear in the Fall 2023 issue of our magazine RELIGION & LIBERTY, which is focused on the issue of poverty. How should we think about poverty in the developing world and in places like the United States? What conditions are necessary for people to rise out of poverty? What do social engineers get wrong about how we should address issues that contribute to poverty? And what is Acton’s new Center for Social Flourishing doing to advance the discussion on poverty? Subscribe to RELIGION & LIBERTY The Prosperity Pyramid Scheme | Michael Matheson Miller Mistaken About Poverty | Samuel Gregg Poverty, Inc. Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization | Samuel Gregg Afghanistan I fought for lacks foundation for freedom | Stephen Barrows

This week, Eric, Dylan, and Noah are joined by Acton Managing Director, International, Alex Chaufen to discuss Argentinian president-elect Javier Milei. Who is Milei? Is there anything to the comparisons American media are making to Donald Trump? Can he pull off changing Argentinian currency from the peso to the dollar? They also dive in to the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the deal made to release hostages from the terrorist organization in exchange for Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israel. Will this be good for the war, and will this incentivize more hostage taking in the future? And finally, Senator Elizabeth Warren is warning us about a “sandwich shop monopoly” emerging from a deal that would unite Subway under the same ownership with Jimmy Johns and McAlisters. Because, you know, those are the only three options you have for lunch. Javier Milei will be Argentina’s first libertarian president | The Economist Israel, Hamas Reach Deal to Release 50 Hostages | Wall Street Journal Israel-Hamas War: Sides Near Hostage Release, Truce Extension | Wall Street Journal The FTC puts your lunch on its plate | Politico

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 Subscribe to RELIGION & LIBERTY 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? Subscribe to our podcasts 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