The Christian Economist by Dave Arnott

#147 The Digital Dollar Deceit As the Christian Economist, I worry about the threat to privacy posed by central bank digital currencies.  The US government first issued paper currency in 1861.  For over 160 years, we have used dollars as our currency.  You might even say, cash has been king. But it might be replaced…

#146 Power Corrupts  One-party rule threatens the power structure as well as the economy, not only within the United States, but China, and the rest of the world as well.   In a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, Lord Acton wrote, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  He was writing about Pope…

#145 All Dogs Go to Heaven “Pets as children” violates the Christian Worldview.  Humans should spend more of their scarce time with other humans, rather than pets.   Something I wanted to say to Dennis Prager during the fireside chat, when his dog Otto was sleeping between us, “All dogs may go to heaven, but…

#144 Be Anxious about Nothing Anxiety is becoming its own industry which will slow GDP Growth, but for Christians, “…the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”   I said to a young woman in my class recently, “You're in the happiest group in the world. …

#143 Why Work? Three million Americans quit working, but how are they living when “there is no free lunch”? We are Biblically commanded to work in order to serve our neighbors.     How can three million people leave the workforce and still make a living?  Good question.  There is no free lunch, but these folks…

#142 The Church of Environmentalism The latest pagan form to fill the God-shaped vacuum in humans is called environmentalism.  It has its own church, high priests, and eschatology, but the economics don't work.  Economics is the study of the production and distribution of goods and services under scarcity.  When applied to religion, we understand that…

#141 Christianity is Good for You An “investment” in Christianity pays twice: Here on Earth, AND in Heaven. As the Christian Economist, I operate in two camps: Christians are concerned about the means, and economists are concerned about the ends.  It just happens that being a Christian is good for both.  The ends are good…

#140 The IRS Targets the Proletariat The IRS is getting 87,000 new agents.  It would take only 25,000 to audit every millionaire, and the bottom 57% pay no taxes.  They will target the middle class.   The terribly misnamed Inflation Reduction Act contained an $80 billion increase in the IRS budget.   The IRS says they…

#139 The Economics of Virtue Signaling We're all bad men. Some bad men have good policies, some bad men have bad policies, but the policy of virtue signaling is always “bad” economics.   Virtue signaling became popular during the waning days of Covid, when people would wear a mask as a way of indicating they…

#138 The Soul of a Nation In the Christian worldview, nations don't have a soul, only individuals do.  There is no soul in Socialism, only power.    President Biden gave a speech recently addressing the “Soul of the Nation.”  President Biden said, in part, “The soul is what makes us, us.”  Well, it doesn't.  It's…

#137 Student Loan Forgiveness Student loan forgiveness decreases the incentive to work: it is regressive.  It makes the Federal Government the owner of the education of 40 Million Americans.  What will the government expect in return?   Christians tend to believe that only God can forgive sin.  But increasingly, it's looking like government officials think…

#136 Global Warming is Good The Christian Economist looks at “The other hand” of global warming, and finds some good effects.   The Inflation reduction plan signed by President Biden recently will reduce inflation by…..wait for it….are you ready?  I'm an academic, so I'll use three citations: First, The Congressional Budget Office says the effect…

#135 Economics is the Study of Life During the C0VID pandemic, leaders tried to separate health from the economy.  That is a false dichotomy because Economics is the study of life through the exchange of resources. During the pandemic, there were arguments about health versus the economy.  First, I'm interested that they called it “the…

#134 Be Fruitful and Multiply Americans are not having enough babies.  This is a departure from the Christian Worldview which harms the economy.     Another day, another Malthusian.  Now I know what the Apostle Paul was writing about when he mentioned the thorn in his side.  This time, it's the White House claiming that we…

#133 South America Turns Socialist   As South American countries turn Socialist, the US should prepare to bail them out just as President Clinton did in 1995.   Caring for our Neighbors  One of the bravest political economic decisions in American history does not get enough attention.  In 1995, President Bill Clinton was provided details…

#132 Work as Recreation In the Christian Worldview, work is performed to restore the world to God's creational intent.  Thus, our work is recreation.    The Great Resignation is the term describing why people are not returning to work after the COVID-19 pandemic.  Is work good or bad?  Why work? I was struggling to come…

#131 Abraham and wealth migration Abraham moved because God told him to.  Americans are moving from California and New York to Florida and Texas because the economy is telling them to.     Abraham moved because God told him to.  Americans are moving because the economy is telling them to.  Predictably, they are moving from high…

#130 Imagine That: A Christian Worldview Case Study  When John Lennon sang, “Imagine no possessions,” he added more to his possessions than any other song he possessed. Here is a Christian worldview analysis of the popular song, “Imagine” (Lennon, 1971, A1):    Imagine there's no heaven. Heaven and hell are the original representations of good…

#129 President Biden's Road to Serfdom   Then Vice-President Joe Biden contributed to the 2015 President's Economic Report, stating that higher taxes result in lower wages.  Thus President Biden's call this week for higher taxes are leading America down The Road to Serfdom   Taxes Lower Wages President Obama was correct.  His 2015 Economic report…