Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Economics

November 13, 2013

Sports Journalism, Cultural Marxism, and the Miami Dolphins

Class struggle. Racially-charged rhetoric. Anti-capitalist diatribes. Sounds like the lineup to a “Fantasy Diversity” team from a sociology professor at Wellesley College, right? Alas, I’m merely referring to the controversy surrounding ex-Miami Dolphins players Jonathan Martin (black) and Richie Incognito (white).   Continue Reading...
November 12, 2013

How Does the Economy Actually Work?

In every stage of my formal schooling – from high school to college to graduate school – I’ve taken courses in economics. Yet with all that education I still struggle to understand a seemingly simple question: How does the economy actually work? Continue Reading...
November 08, 2013

France: What Not To Do

Since the French Revolution, Americans have glanced over to our friends across the Atlantic Ocean as a model of what a country should not do. That tradition continues. France’s centralized planning of the economy, health care, education, the family, religion, and so on is not working. Continue Reading...
November 06, 2013

Sid Meier, Slot Machines, and the Flow of Vice

My wife despises Sid Meier. She’s never met him, nor would she even recognize his name. But she knows someone is responsible for creating the source of my addiction. For over twenty years I’ve spent (or wasted, as my wife would say) countless hours playing Civilization, Meier’s award-winning strategy game. Continue Reading...
November 06, 2013

Envy and Wanting What Others Have

Over at the University Bookman today, I review John Lanchester’s novel Capital. I recommend the book. I don’t explore it in the review, “Capital Vices and Commercial Virtues,” but for those who have been following the antics of Banksy, there is a similar performance artist character in the novel that has significance for the development of the narrative. Continue Reading...
October 31, 2013

Eurozone Unemployment At Record Levels

“Abysmal.” That’s the word one reporter is using to describe the newly released numbers for Eurozone unemployment and inflation. The Eurozone (which includes 17 nations) is seeing miserable numbers: The ranks of the jobless swelled by 60,000 to a record 19.45 million, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency. Continue Reading...