It’s never easy ing a billionaire, but the path to achieving a 10-figure level of wealth is smoother when you have the government as a business partner. Crony capitalism is a general term for the range of activities in which particular individuals or businesses in a market economy receive government-granted privileges over their customers petitors. Certain industries (like casinos and real estate) and some nations (Russia, the Philippines) are more prone to cronyism than others. So if you want to...

We know that some countries around the world are rich (e.g., the United State) and others are, relatively speaking, poor (such as Mexico). But not all poor countries are equally poor. Mexico, for instance, is pared to some African countries. Knowing how to measure such differences can help us better grasp the relative well-being of people around the globe. In this video byMarginal Revolution University, economist Alex Tabarrok provides a simple tool paring relative wealth between nations. ...

Today is the National Day of Prayer, an annual day of observance celebrated by Americans of various faiths. Here are five facts you should know about the day when people are asked “to turn to God in prayer and meditation.” 1. The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance held on the first Thursday of May, inviting people of all faiths to pray for the nation. It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States...

“The fruit of our labor is fellowship. munity. It’s relationship.” Global trade has suddenly emerged as a hot conversationin the current election cycle, with candidates likeDonald Trump and Bernie Sanders leading the charge toward severe protectionism, while the others quietly shrug and nod along accordingly. Voters of all ideological stripes areresponding with fervor, calling for more trade barriers and increased manipulation of prices and wages, hoping to insulate the American economy from our global neighbors and “keep what’s ours.” Such...

Series Note: Jobs are one of the most important aspects of a morally functioning economy. They help us serve the needs of our neighbors and lead to human flourishing both for the individual and munities. Conversely, not having a job can adversely affect spiritual and psychological well-being of individuals and families. Because unemployment is a spiritual problem, Christians in America need to understand and be aware of the monthly data on employment. Each month highlight the latest numbers we need...

“Good work…does not disassociate life and work, or pleasure and work, or love and work.” These words, written by Wendell Berry, pulse throughout the work of Laremy De Vries, owner and chef of The Fruited Plain Café, a sandwich and coffee shop in Sioux Center, Iowa. For De Vries, our work unites general revelation with special revelation, yielding an opportunity for “valuing the created world not only insofar as it belongs to God in a sphere sovereignty sense, but also...

Poverty, Inc. co-producer Mark R. Weber shares mitment to fort as a necessary function of growth at the Jubilee Professional conference in Pittsburgh, 2016. Poverty, Inc. is a critically acclaimed documentary that has earned over 50 international film festival honors and the $100,000 Templeton Freedom Award. It has been endorsed across the political spectrum, from Michael Moore to Russ Roberts, playing in over 100 universities including Harvard, MIT, NYU, Cornell, Stanford, Yale, and Northwestern. Learn more at povertyinc.org and /povertyinc....

[Note: This is the first in an occasional series evaluating the remaining presidential candidates and their views on economics and liberty.] In the history of American politics, there has never been a candidate quite like Donald Trump. He is an Ivy League-educated New York billionaire appealing to populists across the country. He is a crony capitalist who loves bureaucracy and yet has convinced voters that he is the anti-Establishment candidate. He is profoundly ignorant about economics and openly hostile to...

Yesterday was the 116th birthday of the late Austrian and British economist Friedrich Hayek. Throughout his life the Nobel-winning philosopher defended civil liberties and political freedom and warned against the Keynesian welfare state and of totalitarian socialism. In honor of his birthday, here are six key quotes from his writings: On Faith in Freedom: Freedom necessarily means that many things will be done which we do not like. Our faith in freedom does not rest on the foreseeable results in...

Yesterday was both Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) and the day that Donald Trump became the presumptive presidential nominee for the Republican party. I reflected on the confluence of these two phenomena in a short essay on what Mr. Trump might learn from Emperor Palpatine. It is not well-known, perhaps, but Palpatine was instrumental in creating the so-called Book of Sith, which includes a treatise by him on “Absolute Power.” I draw a couple of lessons for Mr. Trump...