Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

January 09, 2013

The Fiscal Cliff and the Fifth Commandment

America’s recent fiscal crisis has been delayed, not averted. Even if action is taken within the next few months to cut spending and/or raise taxes, the day of reckoning will only be slightly delayed since no one is willing to touch the three programs that constitute almost half the federal budget: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Continue Reading...
January 08, 2013

The Fiscal Cliff Deal and Intergenerational Justice

So … what happened? With regular coverage of the US “Fiscal Cliff” running up to the new year, PowerBlog readers may be wondering where the discussion has gone. While I am by no means the most qualified to comment on the matter, I thought a basic summary and critique would be in order: With six minutes to read this 157 page bill, the US House of Representatives passed it. Continue Reading...
January 04, 2013

There Are No Ideas Too Silly for Politicians

Remember last month when we discussed the “platinum coin option”? If you’ve forgotten already, it was the ridiculous idea that President Obama could have the U.S. Mint produce a pair of trillion-dollar platinum coins and deposit them with the Federal Reserve to pay off the national deficit. Continue Reading...
January 04, 2013

Combatting Textbook Tyranny

In addition to my post in late November about the textbook bubble (spurred by this post from AEI’s Mark Perry), the Atlantic‘s Jordan Weissmann joins the discussion, asking, “Why Are College Textbooks So Absurdly Expensive?” Continue Reading...
January 04, 2013

‘The Most Radical Form of Privatisation’

When Christians are tempted to despair over our seeming inability to make significant cultural changes in America, there is one word that should give us reason to be optimistic: homeschooling. As The Economist notes: Three decades ago home schooling was illegal in 30 states. Continue Reading...
January 03, 2013

Changing the Culture of a City

Julius Medenblik, the president of Calvin Theological Seminary, passes along an anecdote from Michael Lewis’ new book, Boomerang: Travels in the New World. Read the whole selection for the entire context. Continue Reading...
January 02, 2013

How to Develop a Christian Mind in Business School (Part II)

Note: This is the second in a series on developing a Christian mind in business school. You can find the intro and links to all previous posts here. Before we move on to how to think Christianly in business school, we should first discuss how to think Christianly about the decision to go (or not go) to b-school. Continue Reading...
January 02, 2013

African Economics Expert: “Please stop the Aid!”

In the German newsmagazine Spiegel, Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati says that foreign aid to Africa is doing more harm than good: SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa… Shikwati: … for God’s sake, please just stop. Continue Reading...