Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).
Posts by Joe Carter
January 29, 2018
Winston Churchill once said, “Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.”
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January 24, 2018
Do you ever stumble upon a fact that seems like it must have some significance but you just can’t figure out what it might mean? That’s how I feel seeing the ratio of economists to clergy in major metro areas.
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January 24, 2018
In this week’s Acton Commentary, we have an excerpt from
On Islam by Abraham Kuyper (Lexham Press, Acton Institute, 2017).
Islam in Algeria requires a short explanation. The Muslims in Algiers, insofar as they are Berbers, are of weak faith.
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January 23, 2018
When James Blaine introduced his ill-fated constitutional amendment in 1875, he probably never would have imagined the unintended consequences it would have over a hundred years later. Blaine wanted to prohibit the use of state funds at “sectarian” schools (a code word for Catholic parochial schools) in order to inhibit immigration.
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January 23, 2018
Note: This is post #65 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics.
In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Tyler Cowen discusses asymmetric information, adverse selection, and propitious selection in relation to the market for health insurance.
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January 22, 2018
Many politically progressive Christians have latched on to the concept of a “Jubilee year” as a biblically endorsed excuse for debt cancellations and as a way to “dismantle economic inequality.” But as a new study by Charles A Goodhart and Michael Hudson explains, Jubilee Years didn’t originate in ancient Israel, they weren’t really about egalitarianism, and they can’t readily be applied outside of agrarian based economies.
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January 19, 2018
In the
Federalist Papers James Madison claimed that, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” But is that true?
James R. Rogers, an associate professor of political science at Texas A&M University, explains why some form of government would be necessary even if man were still in a prelapsarian state of nature:
[E]ven without the Fall, there would be a role for civil government for the duly recognized person who exercises civil authority.
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January 18, 2018
The opioid epidemic has become one of the deadliest drug crises in American history. In 2015, more people died from drug overdoses than in any year on record, and the majority of drug overdose deaths—more than six out of ten—involved an opioid.
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January 17, 2018
Why is there talk about a government shutdown?
In December Congress passed the Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018 (H.R. 1370) which provides non-discretionary funding through January 19, 2018. Because that Act expires at midnight on Friday, Congress must pass a new continuing appropriations act to keep the government operating.
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January 16, 2018
Note: This is post #64 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics.
Adverse selection occurs when an offer conveys negative information about what is being offered. For example, in the market for used cars, sellers have more information about the car’s quality than buyers.
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