“I called just last week about one of my clients ”” they had an adjustable rate that went up to 9 percent….They could afford if it they lowered (payments) by about $200, and the bank wouldn’t even talk to us.”
—Real estate agent Lindsay Dukes from a front page article in the local paper (well worth reading in its entirety)
US stock prices suffered their worst weekly loss in history on Friday, prompting a pledge from global policymakers to implement an aggressive but broad-brush plan to combat the financial crisis.
Finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Washington said they would use “all available tools” to prevent the failure of any systemically important banks after a day of virtually indiscriminate selling in Asia and Europe and unprecedented volatility in the US.
I really didn’t think I would witness another crash in my lifetime. My oh my. Read it all.
British economist Alfred Marshall, well known for his Marshallian scissors of supply and demand, once said that the modern science of economics “puts man in the saddle.” In other words, all that now defines economic exchange is what humans decide. “Man” takes the place of God in driving history. Perhaps the wild speculation in the stock market that has come to a ruinous end for many (recall that some economists were predicting the Dow would reach 36000 by 2005 — do they still have their jobs? — and the impending fluctuations, where some would try to outguess the market and receive windfall profits, only accentuating the fluctuations) might cause us to reconsider Marshall’s wisdom.
What would it mean to think of economics in terms of God and the good? It would mean in part, I think, that we would take more seriously the problem of usury, which is often mischaracterized. Usury occurs when anyone thinks he or she can have an unlimited growth of money without it being related to validly productive enterprises. It is a sin against God’s created order. The vice of usury is greed, wanting a maximization of profit without relating it to any fruitful created product. Profit is permissible, but within a context of production that is good and can be rightly ordered to God. Once we have a system where an enterprise such as a corporation can be productive, that is to say, its workers produce quality products that serve the common good and better the lives of their neighbors and even turn a modest profit, and yet the first obligation of the CEO of that corporation is not to those workers or those neighbors but to the maximization of shareholders’ profit, then we have an improper disjunction between work, productivity, and money. Diligence, loyalty, and work are no longer rewarded. What gets rewarded is speculation. We lose any relationship between what is produced and how it is rewarded.
The response to this downward spiral on the part of the world’s two great monetary powers ”” the United States, on one side, and the 15 nations that use the euro, on the other ”” has been woefully inadequate.
Europe, lacking a common government, has literally been unable to get its act together; each country has been making up its own policy, with little coordination, and proposals for a unified response have gone nowhere.
The United States should have been in a much stronger position. And when Mr. Paulson announced his plan for a huge bailout, there was a temporary surge of optimism. But it soon became clear that the plan suffered from a fatal lack of intellectual clarity. Mr. Paulson proposed buying $700 billion worth of “troubled assets” ”” toxic mortgage-related securities ”” from banks, but he was never able to explain why this would resolve the crisis.
Department stores hire mystery shoppers. Restaurant chains bring in undercover diners to rate their food and service. Churches enlist Thomas Harrison, a former pastor from Tulsa, Okla., and a professional mystery worshipper.
Mr. Harrison — a meticulous inspector who often uses the phrase “I was horrified” to register his disapproval of dust bunnies and rude congregants — poses as a first-time churchgoer and covertly evaluates everything from the cleanliness of the bathrooms to the strength of the sermon. This summer, Mr. Harrison scoured a megachurch in Cedar Hill, Texas, and jotted down a laundry list of imperfections: a water stain on the ceiling, a “stuffy odor” in the children’s area, a stray plastic bucket under the bathroom sink and a sullen greeter who failed to say good morning before the worship service. “I am a stickler for light bulbs and bathrooms,” he says.
Mr. Harrison belongs to a new breed of church consultants aiming to equip pastors with modern marketing practices. Pastors say mystery worshippers like Mr. Harrison offer insight into how newcomers judge churches — a critical measure at a time when mainline denominations continue to shed members and nearly half of American adults switch religious affiliations. In an increasingly diverse and fluid religious landscape, churches competing for souls are turning to corporate marketing strategies such as focus groups, customer-satisfaction surveys and product giveaways.
Read it all from the front page of the Weekend Journal section of today’s Wall Street Journal.
The decision to close nine churches on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota has sparked a growing controversy, with the congregations now preparing to file lawsuits in tribal court to keep their churches open.
The strongest public challenge to the closings to date has come from members of Christ Church, Red Shirt Table, who sent a six-page letter to Bishop Creighton Robertson dated September 10. When asked to comment on the letter, South Dakota diocesan administrator Randy Barnhardt said the bishop’s office had not received a copy. But Lorri Ann Two Bulls, a member of Christ Church, reported that the certified letter sent to Robertson “was returned and had been refused by the bishop’s office.” Mr. Barnhardt subsequently confirmed that the diocese had refused to receive the letter. Copies were also sent to members of South Dakota’s Standing Committee, as well as national church officials and the local media.
The short-term funding markets remained on strike today despite the massive liquidity injections and rate cuts from the world’s leading central banks. Three-month dollar Libor rose another 7 basis points to 4.82%, the TED spread pushed out to new record levels, and the LIBOR/OIS spread jumped to a new high of 366 basis points.
For an example of what this means in practice, consider this:
The credit crisis is spilling over into the grain industry as international buyers find themselves unable to come up with payment, forcing sellers to shoulder often substantial losses.
Before cargoes can be loaded at port, buyers typically must produce proof they are good for the money. But more deals are falling through as sellers decide they don’t trust the financial institution named in the buyer’s letter of credit, analysts said.
“There’s all kinds of stuff stacked up on docks right now that can’t be shipped because people can’t get letters of credit,” said Bill Gary, president of Commodity Information Systems in Oklahoma City. “The problem is not demand, and it’s not supply because we have plenty of supply. It’s finding anyone who can come up with the credit to buy.”
So far the problem is mostly being felt in U. S. and South American ports, but observers say it is only a matter of time before it hits Canada.
In the past few years, stay-at-home moms have come under fire from some of feminism’s most hard-line mouthpieces. These mothers have been told that they’re letting down the sisterhood, endangering the economy and — most important — undermining their own position. By failing to bring in at least half the family income, it is claimed, they have rendered themselves powerless in their own homes.
“Incomes give women power in their marriages,” says Leslie Bennetts, a Vanity Fair writer and frequent “Today Show” guest. She has called the recent increase in mothers choosing to stay home a national tragedy. Linda Hirshman, the author of “Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World,” has made her own rounds of female-targeted programming, appearing on “The View” and “Good Morning America” to recommend that young women “marry down.” Why? Because money “usually accompanies power,” she says, “and it enables the bearer to wield power, including within the family.”
But as it turns out, wives don’t need income to wield power in their marriages. And mothers don’t have much reason to fear losing power if they’re not bringing home an equal share of the bacon. A Pew Research Center study released a couple of weeks ago found that when it comes to decision making in the home, wives in a majority of cases either rule the roost or share power equally with their husbands, regardless of how much money the women earn.
This year could have changed things. The G.O.P. had three urbane presidential candidates. But the class-warfare clichés took control. Rudy Giuliani disdained cosmopolitans at the Republican convention. Mitt Romney gave a speech attacking “eastern elites.” (Mitt Romney!) John McCain picked Sarah Palin.
Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive. But no American politician plays the class-warfare card as constantly as Palin. Nobody so relentlessly divides the world between the “normal Joe Sixpack American” and the coastal elite.
She is another step in the Republican change of personality. Once conservatives admired Churchill and Lincoln above all ”” men from wildly different backgrounds who prepared for leadership through constant reading, historical understanding and sophisticated thinking. Now those attributes bow down before the common touch.
And so, politically, the G.O.P. is squeezed at both ends. The party is losing the working class by sins of omission ”” because it has not developed policies to address economic anxiety. It has lost the educated class by sins of commission ”” by telling members of that class to go away.
A group of 45 people say they will assist the Alliance for Collaboration with the Hispanic Community, a non-profit that will attempt to provide a safety net for the families of the 350 workers arrested in a raid at the Columbia Poultry Farm, a processing plant….
Deacon Gabriel Cuervo, a regional coordinator for the Catholic Charities of the Piedmont Region, said a number of churches and pastors will help.
“We have a lot of pastors who are willing to help,” said Adela Mendoza, a Hispanic Outreach Program Director.
St. Francis Episcopal Church, which has a strong Hispanic ministry, will also assist, she said.
One of the most interesting points was that both sets of lawyers argued that under either legal principle, those being principle of government which would favor a hierarchical denomination and neutral principles which would favor the individual church, their side should prevail. I must admit that between the legal argument and the interruptions (I could not completely shut the world out) I had trouble following why the denomination should win under neutral principles. It may also have something to do with the weakness of the argument because it was clear that at least a couple of justices had trouble buying it. What was more interesting, and has a certain degree of logic, was the individual church’s argument that they still win under principle of government. The argument was that the actual church government was not the Episcopal Church but the Worldwide Anglican Communion which they have not left but are still under its governance. This clearly is not an argument that can be used by a church trying to leave with contested property from the PC(USA).
A point where the denomination’s lawyers did better than the congregations’ lawyer was regarding the law in other states. When the justices asked what the status is in other states (I think this was a “never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to”) the congregations’ lawyer answered “mixed.” The denomination’s lawyers answered that other states have favored principle of government. (It is my understanding that there are few similar cases which have made it all the way to the state supreme courts in this current round but that the government principle has been favored so far.)
She spoke to The Dispatch after receiving an honorary doctorate in divinity from Bexley Hall Seminary, which shares a campus with Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
Jefferts Schori spoke of her grief about the Pittsburgh Diocese’s decision to leave because of disagreements with the church over biblical teachings about homosexuality and salvation.
“That’s just profoundly sad,” she said. “Arguing about fine details of theology isn’t the main reason for our existence.” The focus instead should be on service and evangelism, she said.
The 2.2 million-member Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The relationship between the two has been threatened since 2003, when an openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, was elected in New Hampshire.
Web users looking for support during the current financial situation have boosted traffic to a Church of England website section focusing on debt advice by over 70 per cent, and increased visitor numbers to the Church’s online prayer page by more than a quarter.
The Matter of Life and Debt website section – containing a new ”˜debt spiral’ feature so visitors can work out if they are one of the many families who will be seriously affected by the credit crunch, and useful advice for those worried about debt – has seen a 71 per cent increase in traffic in recent weeks.
It can be viewed by visiting www.cofe.anglican.org/debt.
The U.S. economy has sunk into a recession and government action is critical to stem the damage, according to economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.
“We’re in the middle of a very dark tunnel,” said Brian Fabbri of BNP Paribas, referring to the worsening credit crunch. “Each day we see another crack in the system.”
Those cracks are quickly adding up. On average, the 52 economists surveyed now expect U.S. gross domestic product to contract in the third and fourth quarters of this year, as well as the first quarter of 2009.
For U.S. Depository Institutions non borrowed reserves have been between $30-50B for the past 65 years.
Two weeks ago the number was -154 Billion
Today? -363 Billion.
–From a friend who is an analytical whiz about the industry. For those interested in the subject, the latest information on this may be found here.
“Not only have individual financial institutions become less vulnerable to shocks from underlying risk factors, but also the financial system as a whole has become more resilient.”
–Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, in 2004
US shares plummeted again last night as fears that further, frantic efforts by governments to halt financial turmoil will fail to stave off global recession triggered another punishing slump in stock markets.
As panic over the danger of financial and economic meltdown swept Wall Street once more, the latest 7 per cent plunge in the value of America’s blue-chip businesses piled pressure on world financial leaders gathering in Washington today to take yet more drastic measures to avert disaster.
A Wisconsin-based group of atheists and agnostics has filed suit against President Bush over the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which urges a strict separation of church and state, also names White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, and National Day of Prayer Task Force Chairwoman Shirley Dobson in the lawsuit filed Friday (Oct. 3).
“The point is to stop the National Day of Prayer,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the foundation, in an interview Monday.
The Life of Jesus film crew has gained rare access to an archaeological find that cements historical evidence early Christians worshiped Jesus as divine.
Dr John Dickson, the series’ host and co-founder of the Centre for Public Christianity, will guide viewers through the remains of an ancient prayer hall unearthed at Megiddo in central Israel.
“The inscriptions on the mosaic floor are remarkable,” Dr Dickson says.
“One of them names a benefactor called Gaianus who is described as a centurion. Another mentions a woman called Akeptous who ”˜”¦offered this table in memorial of the God Jesus Christ’.”
After Compline, the cathedral is hushed. Some kneel in shafts of light tinted by stained glass. Others leave quietly, a few stopping to light a candle on the way out.
In the courtyard, the mood is lighter. “Nice outfit. How did you get it?” “How did you get it? Shouldn’t the question be where?”
This is the Anglican Church in Second Life’s virtual cathedral, so the answer involves computer keys and Internet links. And those who’ve stopped to chat do so in the form of animated characters — many elaborately costumed — they’ve created to represent themselves on the computer screen.
George Soros, the prominent financier, avoids using the financial contracts known as derivatives “because we don’t really understand how they work.” Felix Rohatyn, the investment banker who saved New York from financial catastrophe in the 1970s, described derivatives as potential “hydrogen bombs.”
And Warren Buffett presciently observed five years ago that derivatives were “financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.”
One prominent financial figure, however, has long thought otherwise. And his views held the greatest sway in debates about the regulation and use of derivatives ”” exotic contracts that promised to protect investors from losses, thereby stimulating riskier practices that led to the financial crisis. For more than a decade, Alan Greenspan has fiercely objected whenever derivatives have come under scrutiny in Congress or on Wall Street.
Not a pretty picture at all. (For a longer term perspective, look here, and for further background, please see this earlier thread).
The area’s largest Episcopal parish plans to split from the Diocese of Western New York and leave behind the Town of Tonawanda church buildings it has called home for 48 years.
Members of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church will become the first local congregation to break ties with the Episcopal Church since the contentious 2003 ratification of an openly homosexual bishop by the national governing body.
“The gay issue is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said the Rev. Arthur W. Ward Jr., rector of St. Bartholomew’s Church. “The Episcopal Church from our perspective has turned its back on the Lord, it’s turned its back on scripture and the word of God.”
This boggles the mind. I find myself very sad because of the astounding collateral damage it has, it is, and it will cause. I started worrying about the economy in the summer of 2007–this is why. But who thought it would come to this? I pray the Lord might bring some real redemption from all these ashes–KSH.
The Archdeacon of Cardigan, the Venerable Andrew John, is the Bishop Elect of the Diocese of Bangor.
The announcement was made this afternoon by the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, at the west door of Bangor Cathedral on the third and final day of the meeting of the Electoral College.
The election follows the death of the Rt Rev Anthony Crockett in June, who served as bishop of the diocese from 2004. The new bishop will be the 81st Bishop of Bangor, serving an area stretching across north-west Wales from Holyhead to Llanidloes.
AIG suffered huge losses when its credit rating was cut, thanks largely to complex financial transactions known as “credit default swaps.” AIG was a major seller of the swaps, which are a form of insurance, though they are not regulated that way.
The swap contracts promise payment to investors in mortgage bonds in the event of a default. AIG has been forced to raise billions of dollars in collateral to back up those guarantees. AIG stopped selling credit default swaps in 2005 to limit its exposure, but the damage was done.
Conservative U.S. Christians say the culture has gone to hell and it has taken the economy and Wall Street down with it.
It is a view which outsiders may find puzzling but has wide resonance in the U.S. heartland: the notion that moral decay and a lost sense of responsibility has brought on the worst banking and credit crisis since the Great Depression.
Such a view helps explain the unpopularity in conservative Christian circles — which have a big influence on the Republican Party — of a $700 billion bailout plan which the U.S. House of Representatives rejected on Monday, rocking financial markets.
His main point is that Vatican II differed in its way of thinking from every other doctrine-setting gathering in the church’s history, from the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. to the First Vatican Council in 1869. His preferred word for this is “style,” though sometimes he says “method,” “approach” or “language.” Vatican II was distinctive, he contends, in its attention to the liberty of the human person and to the connectedness of the human community. The new spirit was to affirm, not condemn; to be open, not closed; to focus on ideals to live by, not things forbidden.
“Vatican II was unprecedented,” he writes, “for the notice it took of changes in society at large and for its refusal to see them in globally negative terms as devolutions from an older and happier era.” He says the council underscored the authority of bishops while, at the same time, trying to make them “less authoritarian.” For bishops, priests and everybody in authority, it recommended the ideal of the servant-leader. It upheld the legitimacy of modern methods in the study of the Bible. It condemned anti-Semitism and discrimination “on the basis of race, color, condition in life, or religion.” It called on Catholics to cooperate with people of all faiths, or no faith, in projects aimed at the common good. And it supplied “the impetus,” O’Malley writes, “for later official dialogues of the Catholic Church with other churches….”
But to my thinking, O’Malley’s approach is a little too lacking in irony, a little too blind to the council’s negative effects and much too blind to errors committed by progressives in pursuit of noble goals: Translations of council documents (and important texts of the Scriptures) were so ideologically cast that they distorted the meaning. The abruptness of changes in the sacred liturgy unloosed a sense of instability and make-it-up-yourself theology. In some places, there followed a “me decade” of “cafeteria Catholics” who felt they could pick and choose from church doctrines.
