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October 11, 2017

More victims of the $15 minimum wage

The deleterious side effects of the $15-per-hour minimum wage have continued to manifest across the country, affecting cities from Seattle to Minneapolis and states from California to New York. To illustrate the damage, the Employment Policies Institute is maintaining a catalog of suffering businesses across the country, highlighting stories of raised consumer prices, increased unemployment, reduced working hours, and outright business closures. Continue Reading...
October 11, 2017

Kuyper the anti-revolutionary

Abraham Kuyper knew that revolutions almost always make life worse, says WORLD magazine’s Marvin Olasky: Theologically, Kuyper followed John Calvin and other Reformers. Politically, he said government must not obstruct proclamation of the gospel, promote a counter-gospel, take away religious freedom, or coerce conscience. Continue Reading...
October 10, 2017

Should we be nudged toward libertarian paternalism?

If the boy is father to the man, then I was raised by a profligate dunce. Even though I had learned the power of compound interest in high school, I foolishly squandered my trivial savings at a time when the “eighth wonder of the world,” as Albert Einstein called it, would have had the greatest impact. Continue Reading...
October 10, 2017

Does tying benefit social welfare?

Note: This is post #52 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. What is tying and how is this a form of price discrimination? An example of a tied good is an HP printer and the HP ink you need for that printer. Continue Reading...
October 09, 2017

Putting Columbus in context

A few years ago the following quote from Christopher Columbus started making the rounds: For one woman they give a hundred castellanos, as for a farm; and this sort of trading is very common, and there are already a great number of merchants who go in search of girls; there are at this moment some nine or ten on sale; they fetch a good price, let their age be what it will. Continue Reading...
October 09, 2017

How Christopher Columbus helped bring the School of Salamanca to the Americas

Every Columbus Day gives rise to endless debates and recriminations over the impact of Christopher Columbus’ expedition upon the indigenous peoples of the Americas. No honest observer can dismiss the injustices perpetrated after Columbus’ landing (nor before it), but one benefit of his voyage has been forgotten: It inadvertently exposed the Americas to the School of Salamanca. Continue Reading...
October 09, 2017

Department of Justice memo reaffirms our rights of religious liberty

In May President Trump issued an executive order directing Attorney General Sessions to address several issues concerning religious liberty, including: • Issue explicit guidance from the Attorney General to the Treasury Department to prohibit the revocation of tax exempt status to an organization based on its religious beliefs; • Encourage the Department of Health & Human Services to issue the draft interim final rule providing relief to the contraceptive mandate; • Ensure a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) analysis is articulated in the process of all future regulations; • Reaffirm the First Amendment to the U.S. Continue Reading...