Earlier this year I had the honor of moderating a panel discussion, “Common Grace, Community, and Culture,” at the Kuyper Conference at Calvin College and Seminary. The discussion featured J. Daryl Charles, with whom I have the pleasure of coediting the Common Grace volumes in the Kuyper series, Vincent Bacote of Wheaton College, and Jessica Joustra of Redeemer University College and TU Kampen. It was a wide-ranging and substantive discussion. The video is now available and mend it to you:...

In our efforts to reduce poverty and spur economic growth, we can be overly consumed in debates about top-down policy tactics and the proper allocation of physical resources. Yet, as many economists are beginning to recognize, the distinguishing features of free and flourishing societies are more readily found at the levels of culture—attitudes, beliefs, and imagination. According to economist David Rose, for example, “it is indeed culture—not genes, geography, institutions, policies, or leadership—that ultimately determines the differential success of societies.”...

Samuel Gregg, director of research at the Acton Institute, released a new book titled, Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization. In his book, Gregg discusses the dangers that an unbalanced relationship between faith and reason imposes on a society. The Daily Caller, a widely read news and opinion outlet, reviewed Gregg’s new book in an article titled, “New Book Emphasizes the Importance of Faith and Reason for Western Civilization.” The article provides a brief synopsis of the book...

After a long gestation, I’m happy to report that my book, Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization, published by Regnery Gateway, has just been released and is available for purchase at Amazon. Over the past two weeks, it’s been listed as #1 New Release on Amazon in 5 categories – History of Civilization and Culture; Science and Religion; Ancient Early Civilization History; Church and State; and History of Christianity. The book has already been reviewed in The Stream...

On September 14, 1974, economist Arthur Laffer and three friends had the most productive cocktail discussion in U.S. history. On that day, Laffer famously sketched his U-shaped theory of taxation on a cocktail napkin. It came at the height of the Keynesian ascendancy, just three years after President Richard Nixon proclaimed, “I am now a Keynesian in economics” and as his successor proposed a tax increase. Laffer argued that higher tax rates produce higher tax revenues, but only up to...

If it were possible to localize all the pathologies undermining the West into a single incident, a court ruling handed down on Friday might serve as the one. A British judge has ordered a young Catholic woman with “moderately severe” learning disabilities to have a second-trimester abortion against her will, in a case filed by the publicly funded National Health Service. The circumstances are horrific. The mother, who cannot be named, is in her twenties with a mental parable to...

This week is “Religious Freedom Week,” a time set aside by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to “pray, reflect, and take action on religious liberty, both here in this country and abroad.” In honor of the Religious Freedom Week, here are three explanations about what religious freedom means in America. 1. Basic Explanation Religious freedom is a right, given by God and guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, that allows individual people or groups to...

Note: This is post #126 in a weekly video series on basic economics. The best case for fiscal policy happens during a recession caused by an aggregate demand shock, says economist Alex Tabarrok. Even so, it’s hard to get it right because the U.S. economy is massive plex. In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Tabarrok highlights the three factors for an ideal stimulus—Timely, Targeted, and Temporary—and notes that all of these characteristics present some problems for enacting fiscal policy....

As world leaders from a select group of the largest national economies meet in Osaka at the end of this week, they face increasing volatility and uncertainty around some of the basic principles and institutions that bring together their various peoples in the global marketplace. The World Trade Organization may undergo serious reform in the face of hints from President Trump that the United States might withdraw amid broader dissatisfactions. The ongoing tariff battles between China and the United States...

A wide range of U.S. government agencies and offices use the reports for such efforts as shaping policy and conducting diplomacy. The Secretary of State also uses the reports to help determine which countries have engaged in or tolerated “particularly severe violations” of religious freedom in order to designate “countries of particular concern.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback discussed the report at a special briefing. “This mission is not just...