Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Economics

November 16, 2020

Biden’s minimum wage proposal would prolong pandemic pain

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, America’s planning class has relied on a predictable mix of so-called stimulus and monetarist tricks to curb the pain of economic disruption. Such heavy-handed interventionism has long been misguided, but for many, the government’s efforts have not gone far enough. Continue Reading...
November 13, 2020

Deutsche Bank’s work-from-home tax is economic insanity

As if 2020 could not get any worse, this week intellectuals unleashed another pandemic: a new proposed tax. Deutsche Bank suggested that the government lay a 5% “privilege” tax on employees who work from home, on the grounds that they “disconnect themselves from face-to-face society.” Continue Reading...
November 13, 2020

Applications now open: Mini-Grants on Free Market Economics

The Acton Institute’s Mini-Grants on Free Market Economics: Research & Teaching program continues for the upcoming 2021 academic year, and the application is now live. This grant program is intended to enhance the effectiveness of research and teaching about market economics for faculty at colleges, universities, and seminaries in the United States and Canada. Continue Reading...
November 02, 2020

Do economists agree?

Listen to politicians or cable news, and you will get the impression that economics is merely a thin veil for partisanship, the greatest mercenary discipline for justifying any policy. You can seemingly find at least one economist to agree with you; liberal economists favor liberal policies, while conservative economists favor conservative policies. Continue Reading...
October 07, 2020

When cronyism meets ‘creative destruction’

Amid rapid globalization, Americans have faced new pressures when it comes to economic change, leading to abundant prosperity, as well as significant pain and disruption across communities. In search of a villain, populists and progressives routinely blame the expansion of free trade and rise of global conglomerates, arguing that entrenched and moneyed interests are now allowed to run rampant from country to country with little competition or accountability. Continue Reading...
August 25, 2020

Karl Marx’s greatest lesson

Karl Marx famously concluded in his 1845 Theses On Feuerbach with his eleventh thesis: “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” How this change from analysis to activism can be justified in light of Marx’s own materialist conception of history is an enduring puzzle. Continue Reading...