Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Business and Society

February 19, 2010

Micro-Finance and Major Disaster

As we’ve noted before, the Planet Money team is on the ground in Haiti getting a hands-on look at the economic situation after the disaster. Today they broadcast a moving story of an entrepreneur who lost all her capital in the earthquake. Continue Reading...
February 16, 2010

A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs

NPR’s Morning Edition had a touching piece the other day that illustrated how great a blessing business can be, and just how terrible things can be when there’s no freedom to innovate, produce, and create wealth. Continue Reading...
February 15, 2010

What Government Can’t Do

NJ Governor Chris Christie: “Today, we come to terms with the fact that we cannot spend money on everything we want.” Lord Acton: “There are many things the government can’t do – many good purposes it must renounce. Continue Reading...
February 15, 2010

Defining an Ethical Economy

Longtime Acton friend John H. Armstrong notes the recent discussion of Rowan Williams’ pronouncements on ethics and the economy here at the PowerBlog, commenting that “The archbishop of Canterbury is an extremely likable Christian gentleman, a first-class Christian scholar. Continue Reading...
February 04, 2010

Rowan Williams on Wall Street

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, delivered a talk on theology and economics at New York’s Trinity Church last week. The historic Wall Street church was the site of the Building an Ethical Economy: Theology and the Marketplace conference which promised to “bring together leading theologians and economists to talk about the relationship between economics and Christian belief and action.” Continue Reading...
February 01, 2010

Zimbabwe’s Entrepreneurs

Business Weekly, a production of BBC World Service, had an informative feature on Toby Sheta, a Zimbabwean mobile phone trader, who provided insights into the courage and tenacity required of entrepreneurs under Mugabe’s brutal dictatorship (you can download the original Business Daily story in MP3 format here). Continue Reading...
January 21, 2010

Gain by Honest Industry

Daren Fonda at Smart Money has a great primer on faith-based mutual funds, “Faith & Finance: A Boom in Religious Funds.” These kinds of funds can be understood as a slice of the broader sector of “socially responsible investing.” Continue Reading...
December 28, 2009

What Would Jesus Drive? A Cadillac, of course!

There’s a new answer to the question, “What would Jesus drive?”, a contention that won’t sit well with the environmental activists who first raised the question. The inevitably revisionist logic of the prosperity gospel has to hold that “Jesus couldn’t have been poor because he received lucrative gifts — gold, frankincense and myrrh — at birth. Continue Reading...