Joe Carter

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

If the lottery was honest

When it comes to government programs for redistributing income, nothing is quite as malevolently effective as state lotteries. Every year state lotteries redistribute the income of mostly poor Americans (who spend between 4-9 percent of their income on lottery tickets) to a handful of other citizens—and to the state’s coffers. Continue Reading...

Economics made the world a better place

“A lot of doom and gloom types say we’re living in dark times. But they’re wrong,” says economist Donald J. Boudreaux. “While there are real problems, the world has never been healthier, wealthier, and happier than it is today. Continue Reading...

5 Facts about Jean-Baptiste Say

Today is the 250th anniversary of Jean-Baptiste Say, one of the most important economic thinkers of the nineteenth century. Here are five facts you should know about this French economist: 1. Continue Reading...

Explainer: What you should know about right-to-work laws

Shifts in the partisan composition of state legislatures during the recent election has made it likely that several states will be passing right-to-work bills in 2017. As Melissa Quinn of The Daily Signal notes, in Kentucky, Missouri, and New Hampshire, last month’s election resulted in a flip in party leadership in either governors’ mansions or state legislatures, which put previously defeated right-to-work legislation back on the table. Continue Reading...

A price is a signal wrapped up in an incentive

Note: This is post #15 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. The price system allows for people with dispersed knowledge and information to coordinate global economic activity. The global production of roses, for example, reveals how the price system is emergent, and not the product of human design. Continue Reading...

10 Things you should know about the minimum wage

The minimum wage increased yesterday in nineteen states across the U.S.: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington. Continue Reading...

It’s time to kill the penny

Over the past twelve months there have been considerable discussions of monumental public policy issues.  But before 2016 ends we need to consider one more of (in)significant importance: what to do about the penny. Continue Reading...