Latest Posts

October 19, 2017

An evangelical manifesto on wealth creation

Earlier this year two evangelical groups, the Lausanne Movement and BAM Global, met in Thailand to “discuss various aspects of wealth creation, including justice, poverty, Biblical foundation, wealth creators, stewardship of creation and the role of the church.” Continue Reading...
October 18, 2017

Protectionism is economic suicide

The most charitable assumption you can make about people who support tariffs and other forms of protectionism is that they are economically illiterate. But if they are able to demonstrate they understand the economics of protectionism and still support such policies, then we are justified in assuming they don’t care about harming their neighbor. Continue Reading...
October 17, 2017

How close are we to ending extreme poverty?

Today is the 25th anniversary of the declaration by the UN General Assembly designating October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than $1.90 per person per day. Continue Reading...
October 16, 2017

Christian education is not safe

“Each generation needs to re-own the rationale for Christian education,” says philosopher James K.A. Smith, “to ask ourselves ‘Why did we do this?’ and ‘Should we keep doing this?’” In answering such questions, Smith notes, “it might be helpful to point out what Christian education is not”: First, Christian education is not meant to be merely “safe” education. Continue Reading...
October 13, 2017

Sin taxes: The ‘nudge’ that benefits terrorism

Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize for describe how even small economic incentives can affect behavior. One of those nudges, high “sin taxes,” has helped finance terrorism and organized crime. Sin taxes played some role in his winning the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences this week. Continue Reading...
October 13, 2017

Economic man is a myth, but ‘nudging’ is a distraction

The University of Chicago’s Richard Thaler recently won the Nobel Prize for his contributions in behavioral economics, much of which centers on challenging rational choice theory. “Renowned for his use of data to observe and predict how people behave in the real world,” writes Derek Thompson, “Thaler’s career has been a lifelong war on Homo economicus, that mythical species of purely rational hominids who dwell exclusively in the models of classical economic theory.” Continue Reading...