At Pennsylvania State University, which has 64,000 undergraduate students, Stephanie Stama, an assistant director at the student psychological services centre, reports that “it is increasingly common for us to hear that students have lost a significant amount of money” in sports betting and that it “is interfering with basic needs like eating and sleeping”. An 18-year-old student at URI, who declined to be named, confesses that he can no longer feel enjoyment from watching sports without the high from betting.

Timothy Fong, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles sees a similar pattern. Every one of his clients as of late has been an 18- to 24-year-old man seeking help for a sports-betting or cryptocurrency addiction. The financial wreckage can be severe, too. John Simonian, a personal-bankruptcy attorney in Rhode Island, says he never used to see young men filing for bankruptcy, “but now it’s not surprising”. Sports betting, he notices in young clients’ bank statements, is often one part of the equation.

Institutions have had an uneven and clunky response. Between 2021 and 2023 a handful of universities partnered with sports-betting firms directly, receiving cash for sponsorship and naming rights. Most have since ended the agreements. But in America there is the added complication that many campuses are filled with both bettors and those being bet on. March Madness, the annual basketball tournament played by college athletes, is by some accounts the most-bet-on event in the country, with more than twice as much wagered on it as the Super Bowl.

Read it all.

Student-athletes now face a torrent of abuse from losing gamblers. Last year the governing body of American college sport recorded 740 instances of harassment directly attributed to sports gambling https://t.co/X73pIEgdBm

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) December 8, 2025

 America’s huge mortgage market is slowly dying. In America’s foundation myths, the humble mortgage rarely features. There are no stirring ballads about the heroism of 30-year rates or credit-scoring. Yet mortgages have fueled the American dream, which centers on home ownership, ever since the federal government began subsidizing property loans a century ago. Now that fuel is running low. At $13.5 trillion, America’s current stock of mortgage debt is equivalent to 44% of the country’s GDP. That marks a drop of almost 30 percentage points since the global financial crisis of 2007-09, which was sparked by a binge on dicey housing debt, and the lowest level since 1999, before that property bubble got started. More striking still, mortgage debt has shrunk to just 27% of the value of American household property—a 65-year low. A great de-mortgaging is under way, with worrying consequences for the property market.

With Wall Street fretting about other corners of American finance, such as booming private lending to shaky mid-size firms, the tranquility of the mortgage market might seem like a sign of healthy restraint. In fact, it masks an insidious crisis. The median monthly principal-and-interest payment on an American home has surged from just above $1,000 to $2,100 in five years.

Read it all.

"Mortgage debt has shrunk to just 27% of the value of American household property—a 65-year low. A great demortgaging is under way, with worrying consequences for the property market" https://t.co/dJcHA6ehZQ pic.twitter.com/IGSoQOrQIH

— Jim Russell (@ProducerCities) November 20, 2025

Big Pharma has a big headache: Donald Trump. Lately drugmakers have had to contend with the American president’s pronouncements on everything from vaccines to paracetamol. In the coming days the pain is set to intensify. Intent on lowering prices, Mr Trump has given leading pharma firms until September 29th to comply with an executive order to peg their prices to the lowest charged in other rich countries—a rule he calls “most favoured nation” (MFN) pricing. If they do not, he thundered, they will face “every tool in our arsenal” against “abusive drug pricing”.

At the same time, the president wants to encourage homegrown manufacturing. He plans to impose a 100% tariff on branded drugs from October 1st, unless their makers are building factories in America. His administration is also pondering additional duties under a law allowing imports to be restricted on national-security grounds.

As is often the case, the Trumpian diagnosis contains a kernel of truth. Drug prices are indeed higher in America than elsewhere in the rich world. But the president’s two-point prescription upends a model that has long underpinned the highly globalised pharma industry, which could have unintended effects. It could leave Americans with fewer medicines but not cheaper ones, while in other countries drugs could be fewer and dearer. David Ricks of Eli Lilly, the world’s most valuable drugmaker, has warned that MFN pricing risks “the worst of two worlds”, importing Europe’s sluggish innovation while keeping American prices high.

Read it all.

America’s drug prices were more than three times the average in other rich countries in 2022. As a consequence, it coughs up around 70% of global pharmaceutical profits from about half of global sales. This is partly because of how the market is organised https://t.co/eyJHSfPEB3

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) September 29, 2025

When students in my Old Testament courses contrast the allegedly messy world of the first testament with the allegedly simple, straightforward teachings of Jesus, I know for sure they haven’t read the New Testament lately. When we read the Gospels, not least Jesus’ parables, we discover him saying all sorts of bizarre, borderline offensive things.

Keith Bodner is here to help relieve our confusion. His new book, Exploring the Financial Parables of Jesus: The Economy of Grace and the Generosity of God, gives a tour of God’s “economy of grace” by focusing on “parables with a financial edge.” Indeed, Bodner suggests these parables provide “an excellent point of entry into the larger biblical story.”

Along the way, as Bodner invites us to learn from the parables, he also offers guidance on immersing ourselves in them as readers. The book thus inspires readers to engage a genre of biblical literature Bodner playfully dubs the “TikTok of the New Testament,” while equipping them with tools to engage it well.

Read it all.

Keith Bodner’s new book, “Exploring the Financial Parables of Jesus,” gives a tour of God’s “economy of grace” by focusing on “parables with a financial edge.”https://t.co/Ex1SSlyh5S

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) September 16, 2025

Nearly 10 million American children are living in poverty, the most since 2018, according to the latest Census Bureau figures from 2023. 

Tens of millions more—like the Meazler kids—are precariously close. Their families have been pushed to the edge by a storm of economic factors, including the expiration of Covid-era relief programs and the impacts of inflation on food and housing. 

The strain is expected to be worsened by cuts to federal spending on aid programs, including food benefits and Medicaid. President Trump on July 4 signed legislation passed by Congress that reduces funding and tightens work requirements for government assistance, and will likely result in less food aid and millions losing health coverage.

Even before the new cuts, several markers show that households with children are falling behind, though statistics around poverty have been complicated by the upheaval the pandemic brought to jobs and living arrangements, and the unprecedented federal aid distributed in response.

The share of families with children living in poverty jumped to 12.9% in 2023, the most recent year available, after plummeting to a record low of 5.6% in 2021, driven down by temporary pandemic programs like the expanded Child Tax Credit and extra unemployment insurance, according to census data compiled by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University. 

Poverty for all ages has inched up, but no other age demographic has seen a sharper rise in poverty between 2021 and 2023 than children, data compiled by the center show. 

Read it all.

Earning More but in Worse Shape: Hardship Overwhelms Many American Families

Nearly half of kids in the U.S. live in households below the middle class as inflation and the end of Covid relief hit working parentshttps://t.co/MmvB2XmIdG via @WSJ

— Lindsay Wise (@lindsaywise) August 5, 2025

While it’s true that traditional monasticism is declining in many historic Christian traditions, new monasticism—the contemporary reappropriation of monastic wisdom—is still very much alive. More than that, the movement is gaining a new and growing following among the next generation and is meeting universal human needs that are felt more now than ever.

In our global digital age, many Christians are rediscovering the importance of community, the value of rhythms and routines amid chaotic circumstances, and the need for deeper commitment to spiritual formation. Over the past five years alone, the pandemic, incidents of racial injustice, and the church abuse crisis have led to a wake-up call. We are realizing that it may be worth sacrificing modern comforts and conveniences to live out our highest ideals and potential as God’s people and that we may need to look back in order to go forward.

Some believers have been sensitive to these needs for a long time—people who consider themselves “new monastics” (like me), who are fascinated by the desert elders’ courage to relocate to abandoned places. We are intrigued by the idea of living in a close community and making serious commitments to fundamental values. We wonder if establishing communal rules for life might tame the wild horse of late modern culture and help us better order our lives around the gospel.

Today, this reappropriation is taking the form of devotional apps like Lectio 365, introductory virtual classes on contemplative prayer, repurposed convents in Europe, and prayer spaces in alleyways and financial districts. It looks like Christian university campus houses establishing their own rules of life or communal discipleship programs, and small “colleges” of Christian students attending larger universities. It is happening through globally dispersed organizations like OMS, which takes prospective members through stages of preparation and vow-taking in a digital initiation process modeled after traditional religious orders.

Read it all.

 So just how much have healthcare costs and spending been going up?

The short answer: a lot. National healthcare spending increased 7.5% year over year in 2023 to $4.867 trillion, or $14,570 per person, according to data released Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

Total spending on healthcare goods and services, everything from prescription drugs to back surgeries, accounted for 17.6% of gross domestic product, a measure of goods and services produced by the U.S. economy.

The 7.5% rise represented a much faster pace of growth than the 4.6% increase in 2022. It came as pandemic federal funding for the healthcare sector expired and private health insurance enrollment increased. More people with insurance led to increased demand for medical procedures, and spending on hospital care grew at the fastest pace since 1990. Spending on drugs also rose, including for medications to treat diabetes and obesity.  

Read it all.

Why Are Americans Paying So Much More for Healthcare Than They Used To? – U.S. #healthcare spending rose 7.5% to nearly $5 trillion last year https://t.co/P4NGBmEb8g pic.twitter.com/S86iWDSA4g

— Sid Shah (@Sid_Healthcare) December 20, 2024

The consumers powering U.S. economic growth are increasingly those who are higher up the income ladder and likely enjoying a wealth effect from asset-price gains, according to research by Federal Reserve economists.

In the two pre-pandemic years, average household consumption was growing at a similar pace across all income groups, the new Fed study of retail spending shows. But since then, spending patterns have diverged sharply.

In the initial Covid period through mid-2021, low-income households increased spending faster than others with the help of public stimulus programs. But their consumption fell back after the last pandemic checks went out, while middle- and especially higher-income Americans have powered ahead. Overall, since the start of 2018, high-earning households raised spending more than twice as much as the low-income group. 

Read it all.

The consumers powering US economic growth are increasingly those who are higher up the income ladder, according to research by Fed economists https://t.co/ypEjW5Buyz

— Bloomberg Economics (@economics) October 11, 2024

Amber and Devin Weise lived in distant states when they met in an online social media group for Christian singles. They quickly became a couple, spending hours texting or talking on video chat. After several months of long-distance dating Devin wanted to propose, but thought it was proper and more romantic to do it in person.

Amber hinted she’d be OK with a proposal on a video call. Devin proposed and sent the ring in the mail.

It wasn’t until after they married that they learned the federal disability benefits program Amber relied upon penalizes couples who marry. Amber lost her monthly income check and the health care that came with it.

Amber is one of 7.4 million people who rely upon Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, a federal program that provides monthly cash assistance to disabled and older people with little income and resources. And for Amber and others, being on SSI is also the way they get health insurance.

Read it all.

Couples say they can't get married because of this government program's outdated rules. – Social Security's SSI program for people with disabilities requires couples to have no more than $3,000 in assets via NPR https://t.co/WZnjFejpUz

— Olav Mitchell Underdal (@omunderdal) June 20, 2024

Consumers are voting with their wallets—and some of America’s best-known food brands are losing.

Coffee drinkers are leaving Starbucks’s loyalty program. Chips Ahoy cookies are lingering longer on grocery-store shelves. Fewer customers are ordering at fast-food drive-throughs and kiosks, pressuring companies such as Wendy’s and McDonald’s.

For about three years following the Covid-19 pandemic, food companies pushed through a series of sharp price increases, saying they needed to recoup their own rising costs—and that consumers would adjust to stick with their favorite brands. As a result, the portion of U.S. consumers’ income spent on food has reached the highest level in three decades.

Now, some consumers are hitting their limits. Restaurant chains and some food manufacturers are reporting sliding sales or slowing growth that they attribute to consumers’ inability—or refusal—to pay prices that are in some cases a third higher than prepandemic times.

Read it all.

“I’m done.” Consumers, fed up with rising prices at restaurants and supermarkets, pull back from Chips Ahoy cookies, Starbucks coffee and other big food brands. https://t.co/FiKOPd0u4G

— WSJ Business News (@WSJbusiness) May 5, 2024

“The story of a wealthy businessman who annually gives out hundreds of $100 bills to strangers motivated a group of Phoenix students to start their own Secret Santa club. Steve Hartman has their story in “On the Road.””

Watch it all.

There is precious little assistance from the government for families who need a home health aide unless they are poor. The people working in these jobs are often woefully underpaid and unprepared to help a frail, elderly person with dementia to bathe and use the bathroom, or to defuse an angry outburst.

Usually, it is family that steps into the breach — grown children who cobble together a fragile chain of visitors to help an ailing father; a middle-aged daughter who returns to her childhood bedroom; a son-in-law working from home who keeps a watchful eye on a confused parent; a wife who can barely manage herself looking after a faltering husband.

Mr. [Frank] Lee finally found two aides on his own, with no help from an agency. Using the proceeds from the sale of his stake in a group of restaurants, including the popular Charleston bistro Slightly North of Broad, he pays them the going rate of about $30 an hour. Between his wife’s care and medical expenses, he estimates that he’s spending between $80,000 and $100,000 a year.

“Who the hell can afford this?” he asked. “There’s no relief for families unless they have great wealth or see their wealth sucked away.” He worries that he will run out of money and be forced to sell their home of more than three decades. “Funds aren’t unlimited,” he said.

Read it all.

Facing a severe shortage of aides and high costs, people trying to keep aging loved ones at home often cobble together a patchwork of family and friends to help. https://t.co/o7DgtCZFzp

— NYT Science (@NYTScience) December 4, 2023

More people are making hardship withdrawals from their 401(k) accounts, raiding retirement funds to cover emergency medical expenses or to avoid losing a home.

Hardship withdrawals from Fidelity Investments 401(k) accounts have tripled in five years, according to a report from the investment firm. The share of plan participants withdrawing money rose from 2.1% in 2018 to 6.9% in 2023.

“It’s a big problem, and it’s a growing problem,” said Kirsten Hunter Peterson, vice president of thought leadership at Fidelity.

Vanguard reports that hardship withdrawals have doubled in a four-year span, from a monthly rate of 2.1 transactions per 1,000 participants in 2018 to 4.3 in 2022.

Read it all.

Hardship withdrawals from 401(k) accounts have tripled in five years, according to Fidelity Investments. The share of plan participants withdrawing funds rose from 2.1% in 2018 to 6.9% in 2023. https://t.co/ktQZtj4Fus

— Stephen Miller, CEBS (@smiller_cebs) October 26, 2023

US borrowers who took on new debt in the middle of the pandemic are falling behind on repayments at unusually high rates, after lenders extended more credit to households helped by government stimulus. 

Federal programmes sent cash and froze certain loan repayment requirements for US consumers strapped by the economic shock of Covid-19. 

One effect was to drive up the median consumer credit score by 20 per cent to a peak of 676 in the first quarter of 2021, according to a report by TransUnion, a credit reporting agency. Credit scores above 670 are considered “good”. 

Lenders became more willing to provide consumer credit. Credit card and unsecured loan originations rose by more than half between 2020 and 2022, TransUnion said.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

Shocking news: the borrowers whose credit scores were inflated due to pandemic handouts are defaulting on after effects of binge borrowing.@FT: Late payments rise on US loans tied to inflated pandemic credit scoreshttps://t.co/hhppqjLfih

— Axel Merk (@AxelMerk) October 19, 2023

Two years of high inflation has many Americans shopping in places they wouldn’t normally, scouring for coupons and discounts and learning to do without.

The hit to the average budget is huge: The typical household spent $202 more in July than they did a year ago to buy the same goods and services, tweeted Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. “And they spent $709 more (in July) than they did two years ago.”

People, especially those with annual earnings less than $100,000, are trying multiple strategies to stretch their dollars, according to the Dallas Fed – from delaying major purchases and medical treatment to decreasing the use of utilities and tapping charities.

Read it all.

Two years of high inflation have ravaged most American households. Here's what resilient Americans have to do to get by, https://t.co/15QLDLp0Rd

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) September 6, 2023

More Americans struggle to meet expenses now than in the immediate aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, when millions lost their means of employment, a Census Bureau survey showed.

About 38.5% of American adults — or 89.1 million people — faced difficulty in paying for usual home expenses between April 26 and May 8, according to the latest Household Pulse Survey. That’s up from 34.4% a year ago and 26.7% during the same period in 2021.

The Census Bureau collaborates with multiple federal agencies to compile the survey developed during the pandemic to collect data and measure household experiences to help inform federal and state governments.

Read it all.

More than 90 Million American adults struggle to make ends meet, the Census says https://t.co/mJgBnsYQ3V

— Bloomberg (@business) May 18, 2023

Direct cremations, when the body is cremated without a service and the ashes are returned to the family, have risen in popularity in the last few years, partly because they are the cheapest option.

Janet Jones, 70, of Attleborough, Norfolk, is considering whether to book one for herself and her husband, as she wants to make sure her two children can benefit from whatever money they have left.

Janet worked for 30 years in a GP surgery and her husband Chris, who she has been married to for 50 years, worked for 33 years in a factory.

“We’ve worked all our lives and we want our children to have that money to do something to remember us in their own way,” she says….

Average funeral costs were £4,056 last year, compared to an average cost of £1,647 for direct cremations, which now account for 18% of all funerals, according to insurer SunLife.

Read it all.

Andy Vermaut shares:Cost of living: 'I don't want a funeral, it's a waste of money': Cremations without a service are on the rise, but others say they need a funeral to deal with grief. https://t.co/WFVgbTRskC Thank you pic.twitter.com/LdmfDDZQyJ

— Andy Vermaut (@AndyVermaut) February 21, 2023

The percentage of Americans reporting they or a family member postponed medical treatment in 2022 due to cost rose 12 points in one year, to 38%, the highest in Gallup’s 22-year trend.

Each year since 2001, Gallup has tracked Americans’ self-reports of delaying medical care in the past 12 months due to cost. The latest reading, from Gallup’s annual Health and Healthcare poll conducted Nov. 9-Dec. 2, is the highest by five points and marks the sharpest year-over-year increase to date.

This change came amid the highest inflation rate in the U.S. in more than 40 years, which made 2022 a challenging year for many Americans. A majority of U.S. adults have said inflation is creating at least a moderate hardship for them. The public continues to view the state of the U.S. economy negatively, and Americans were more likely to name inflation as the most important problem facing the U.S. in 2022 than at any time since 1984.

Read it all.

The percentage of Americans reporting they or a family member postponed medical treatment in 2022 due to cost rose 12 points in one year, to 38%, the highest in Gallup’s 22-year trend. https://t.co/G37mr1fW1M

— GallupNews (@GallupNews) January 17, 2023

Nearly three million adults in the UK are estimated to have sought help from church or other religious organisations since the start of the year as a result of the cost of living crisis, according to research published today.

New findings show that overall almost four in 10 (38 per cent) of UK adults have sought help this year because of the squeeze on living costs, with family and friends the most common source of help at 24 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.

However the polling by Savanta, for the Church of England, also found that five per cent of UK adults, approximately equivalent to 2.6 million people, report having sought help from churches or other religious organisations.

Six in 10 of those who sought help from churches and other religions said they had received free food or groceries (60 per cent). Half said they received low-cost food or groceries (50 per cent) or hot food (48 per cent), and four in 10 (40 per cent) said they had been provided with warm spaces.

Read it all.

"Churches have been providing a lifeline to people struggling to balance their household budgets and provide for their families…"
– @BishopPaulB

Read more about how churches have been providing practical support at https://t.co/LhZxjDd0ZO.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) December 22, 2022

The cost-of-living crisis is driving more parents and carers to resort to borrowing to get by, new research from the Children’s Society suggests.

In a survey of 2000 parents and carers of children under 18 in the UK, carried out in November and published on Monday, most respondents (86 per cent) reported being under financial strain.

Asked how well their household had been managing financially over the past three months, one third (34 per cent) said that they were “just about” getting by, 21 per cent said that they were finding finances “quite difficult”, while 12 per cent said that they were finding it “very difficult”.

The Children’s Society explains in a statement: “We considered those that said they found it quite or very difficult to manage financially during the last three months to be in financial strain; 33 per cent of those that responded indicated they were in financial strain.”

Read it all.

Increasing numbers of parents now borrowing to get by, Children’s Society survey finds https://t.co/VUAkVAZFc2

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 20, 2022

It may be the most anticipated recession in history. Economists have been forecasting contraction for the US economy since at least April, shortly after the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates. But a bit like Godot, it has yet to show up. Credit the cash cushion American consumers and corporations built during the pandemic. But that will eventually disappear, and then the economy will nosedive.

In 2020 and 2021, generous unemployment insurance benefits, stimulus cheques and child tax credit payments helped households squirrel away roughly $2.3tn in excess savings — the amount above what they would have saved had there been no pandemic. This powered a surge in demand as the economy reopened (fuelling upward pressure on inflation). October retail sales posted their strongest gain in eight months. Consumption accounts for more than two-thirds of US gross domestic product growth, and so far spending has remained strong.

But with consumer price inflation running at 7.7 per cent in October and median wages rising 6 per cent, according to the Atlanta Fed’s wage growth tracker, people’s standards of living are falling. As stimulus programmes ended last year and the economy reopened — increasing opportunities to spend money — Americans’ cash war chest has been dwindling, and the spending extravaganza cannot last. Economists’ estimates for how much is left vary from about $1.2tn to $1.8tn. 

Read it all (registration or subscription).

"In the months ahead, the cash war chest will dwindle, earnings will suffer and unemployment will rise. Godot never came, but a recession will, sooner or later. Whether a soft or hard landing, there will be a much thinner cash cushion to buffer it." https://t.co/YVP35bjVL6

— Nomi Prins (@nomiprins) December 1, 2022

Mark Seed now runs a community food project in Trowbridge, east Cardiff.

BBC Wales analysis of new Census data suggests six of Wales’ most deprived communities are in the city.

A charity warns that struggling households do not just appear in areas long associated with poverty and policy needs to focus on people not places.

Trowbridge lies in what Mr Seed calls an “arc of poverty” from east to west of the Welsh capital, with issues endemic in his area.

“I’m still shocked by the fact that we have people who are eating pet food,” he said.

Read it all.

People in Cardiff 'eating pet food' as cost of living rises https://t.co/TiJt4NWaT0

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) December 1, 2022

“Ahead of today’s statement one of our key concerns was to see benefits keep pace with inflation. So we welcome the Chancellor’s commitment in this regard but continue to call for the end to the two-child limit on Universal Credit, which hits some of the poorest families hardest.

“This is going to be a very hard winter for many. Our churches, in communities across the country, are already reporting alarming rises in demand for foodbanks and other services which have become a lifeline.

“It is heartbreaking to hear of people who just a year ago were donating to foodbanks but are now using them themselves.

Read it all.

“It is heart-breaking to hear of people who just a year ago were donating to foodbanks but are now using them themselves."

Read a response on the #autumnstatement2022 from @BishopPaulB and Bishop of St Albans, at https://t.co/Y7woEJn6EL.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) November 17, 2022

You may listen directly or download it if you prefer.

Postcard-Farm-Fresh done in Adobe Illustrator
Proverbs 3:9 NIV

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops. #EncouragingArt #Fruit #AdobeIllustartor pic.twitter.com/GQrG0KX0na

— Encouraging Art (@CharlesBriley3) September 18, 2020

US consumers are standing firm in the face of hot inflation and rising interest rates — even if they’re spending with a little less gusto and a lot more frustration.

Retail sales excluding a price-induced drop in gas station receipts and a drop in motor vehicle purchases rose a better-than-expected 0.7% in July, Commerce Department data showed Wednesday. Building-materials outlets, electronics and appliances stores and online merchants were among those with firm gains in receipts before adjusting for inflation…..

“The most important takeaway is that consumer spending on goods is continuing to increase, even as the bulk of their energies have shifted to services,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities.

With China’s economy slowing down, Europe likely heading into a recession amid skyrocketing energy prices, the resilience of the American consumer so far is all the more remarkable….

Read it all.

US consumers are standing firm in the face of hot inflation and rising interest rates — even if they’re spending with a little less gusto and a lot more frustration https://t.co/APS1iHi80I via @markets

— Robert Burgess (@BobOnMarkets) August 17, 2022

Again and again, Knowles’s stories attest to a money machine devoted to nothing but its own perpetuation. She cites “no less a figure than UK Financial Services Authority Chairman Adair Turner”, who has described banks as engaged in “‘economically and socially useless activity’.” Big finance is a closed system designed by bankers to redistribute money among themselves. And to what end? The way Knowles tells it, having loads of money is not much fun at all. Jean-Paul Sartre described being rich as an “inherently nervous condition”; the plutocrats Knowles meets, along with their stay-at-home wives and spoilt children, are paranoid, bored or prima donna-ish to the point of mental breakdown. A Colombian woman who organizes VIP services in top-end London hotels tells Knowles that she once had to turn down a request to refloor a suite with turf: “the guest was bringing their dog and the dog would only use the toilet on real grass”.

Money begets purposelessness, particularly in the case of inherited wealth. An assistant to a billionaire’s son notes the “suffocating vacuity” and “emptiness” of lives spent making social occasions – invariably with other, identically aimless members of the super-rich – “last and shape the day”. Parties become an entirely recursive – and exhausting – means of establishing and maintaining one’s status. The spectre of transactionality – are they just after my money? – engenders a profound isolation, entrenched by security arrangements that are as extensive as they are largely absurd. London is not Iraq or Afghanistan. Former SAS soldiers are hired to drive the super-rich to their hair appointments or to carry out “pre-location sweeps” at fancy restaurants. “Spontaneous travel” is discouraged because it causes “severe security concerns”. Like so much in the world of the UHNWIs, security is self-perpetuating, seemingly provided for no other reason that, apart from propelling the CEOs of the security companies to UHNWI status themselves, it stands as a marker for the vast wealth it purports to protect.

Private tutoring operates in much the same way….

Read it all.

Our new Gilded Age — Exploring the strange world of the modern rich. @TheTLS (by Nat Segnit) https://t.co/bJZaX6qIdf

— Mark Storm (@marksstorm) July 1, 2022

Sariah Masterson had big plans this summer for a camping vacation at Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah. But the five-hour road trip seemed like a budget-buster once the price of gasoline hit $5 a gallon last month. Masterson and her family opted for a backyard campout at their home in Provo instead.

“I used that money to buy a couple of extra cots and we camped in the back with our kids,” she says. “The youngest is two. He woke up in the middle of the night and then we all went back inside.”

The high price of gasoline and other goods is interrupting the dreams of a lot of Americans this summer.

Read it all.

It’s summertime. But the cost of living is anything but easy. Record gas prices likely pushed inflation to a four decade high last month. – https://t.co/YesOyKSOaj

— scott horsley (@HorsleyScott) July 13, 2022

Decisions about the distribution of grants will be made at diocesan level but it is expected that people from the following groups will be eligible to apply:

–Stipendiary clergy, including curates
–Self-supporting ministers with a provided house (‘House-for-Duty’)
–Salaried lay workers employed by the diocese or parishes such as youth and children’s workers
–Retired clergy carrying out a specific role in support of Diocesan ministry as agreed by or at the request of a Bishop or Archdeacon

A Church of England report published last year backed targeted support for clergy facing financial challenges such as those with larger families or with no additional household income other than the stipend.

Read it all.

Excellent that this funding for help with cost of living crisis includes salaried youth and children's workers and other lay workers. Just so sad it's needed. https://t.co/5cVOvg8oOl

— Lucy Moore (@lucybmoore) May 10, 2022

‘A Long Island woman received a scam call that her grandson was in a drunken car crash. She notified the police, who helped tackle the fraudster when he showed up demanding money.’ Watch it all.

Five months after Kassandra Jones earned her master’s in public health from New York University in May 2019, she still hadn’t landed a job in the field. She was staring down a six-figure student-loan balance and had to pay for rent and food.

So she sold her eggs. Again.

Ms. Jones first harvested her eggs before starting at NYU in 2017 to help pay for moving to the city, she said. She received a $12,500 annual scholarship and relied on $131,000 in federal loans to cover the rest of her tuition and expenses. She has given her eggs five times, including to an NYU fertility clinic, earning $50,000.

Now 28 years old, Ms. Jones is working freelance on public-health campaigns for nonprofits making about $1,500 a month, which isn’t covering her living expenses, she said. She is applying for new jobs and considering leaving the field. “There are definitely moments where that number just looms as this tunnel that doesn’t have a light at the end of it,” she said of her debt. “It feels like I’m kind of trapped.”

Read it all.

An NYU grad has more than $160,000 in student loans and struggles to land a job in her field. So she sells her eggs. https://t.co/POJLtZDk3g

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 19, 2021