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

December 13, 2016

What you should know about subsidies

Note: This is post #13 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. What is a subsidy? A subsidy is really just a negative or reverse tax, explains Alex Tabarrok. Instead of collecting money in the form of a tax, the government gives money to consumer or producers. Continue Reading...
December 12, 2016

The cost of Twelve Days of Christmas: $34,363.49

If you’ve been stuck at the mall listening to a song about ten Lords a-Leaping and eight Maids a-Milking you can blame the Jesuits. Rumor has it they invented the Twelve Days of Christmas song as a catechism in code for persecuted Catholics in 16th-century England. Continue Reading...
December 09, 2016

An ecumenical Methodist: Thomas Oden (1931–2016)

Thomas Oden, considered by many to be one of the premier Methodist theologians in America, died yesterday at the age of 85. Oden was the author of numerous theological works, including the three-volume systematic theology The Word of Life, Life in the Spirit, and The Living God. Continue Reading...
December 08, 2016

The constitutional problem with crony capitalism

Recently, when asked if intervention by the White House into private enterprise was presidential, President-elect Trump responded, “I think it’s very presidential. And if it’s not presidential, that’s okay … because I actually like doing it.” Continue Reading...
December 07, 2016

Republicans and conservatives are trading free markets for cronyism

“Don’t forget, this is called the Republican Party,” said Donald Trump in an interview justifying his opposition to free trade, “it’s not called the Conservative Party.” When Trump made that statement six months ago it was still possible to believe a distinction could be made between traditional Republicanism—which tends to be pro-Big Business—and traditional conservatism—which has generally been pro-free markets. Continue Reading...
December 06, 2016

How humans became consumers

Consumption is arguably the first (or maybe second) economic concept mentioned in the Bible. After creating Adam and Eve and giving them the cultural mandate (“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”), Continue Reading...
December 06, 2016

Understanding tax revenue and deadweight loss

Note: This is post #12 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. Why do taxes exist? What are their effects? In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Alex Tabarrok explains how taxes affect consumer surplus and producer surplus. Continue Reading...
December 05, 2016

Would you give up the internet for a million dollars?

Are you better off than someone who has a million dollars in the bank? Probably not—at least not compared to a millionaire today. But chances are you consider yourself better off than someone who was a millionaire in an previous era—and you may even be better off than someone who had a million dollars in the bank in the 1970s or 1980s. Continue Reading...