american economy

The Great Resignation is underway in the United States with an astounding 3 percent of employees collectively refusing the terms of low-wages, absent benefits, and dangerous working conditions expected by their bosses. Pastors, too, are walking away. Recent poll data collected by Barna Group, a California-based research firm that studies faith and culture, confirmed what I’m seeing among my friends and colleagues. According to Barna, about 38 percent of Protestant senior pastors surveyed have considered leaving ministry over the past year. Among pastors under age 45, that number rose to 46 percent.

Tom Ehrich 7-17-2013
Photo courtesy Liz Van Steenburgh/Shutterstock.com.

The United States Capitol, American Flag and Bald Eagle. Photo courtesy Liz Van Steenburgh/Shutterstock.com.

It is tragic to watch contemptuous right-wingers declaring war on America.

With little heed for consequences on either actual people or the national interest, they declare war on the poor, the hungry, Native Americans, the unemployed, gays and lesbians, immigrants, minority voters, women, military dependents, and public education.

The recent farm bill — which gives public subsidies to agribusiness and denies food stamps to the hungry — is just the latest sortie in a determined decades-long assault on American values.

QR Blog Editor 6-27-2013

Debating whether immigrants will have a positive or negative effect on the United States’ economy, various political groups are arguing their viewpoints and analyzing a number of fiscal pros and cons that would stem from the passage of the immigration bill. The New York Times reports:

An overhaul of immigration law would reduce the federal deficit. That’s the conclusion of a broad range of studies, from the libertarian Cato Institute to the conservative American Action Forum to the liberal Center for American Progress. Wait, it would really increase the deficit. That’s the analysis of the Heritage Foundation and the Center for Immigration Studies. But hang on a second. Immigrants have little impact on the federal deficit. That’s what the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development thinks.

Read more here.

QR Blog Editor 5-16-2013

A week after reaching a five-year low, Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose by 32,000. This is the highest level in six weeks. Although the job market has improved in the lat six months, unemployment applications continue to fluctuate each week. The Associated Press reports:

"The underlying story in jobless claims continues to be one of gradual improvement," said Julia Coronado, an economist at BNP Paribas. Coronado said the small rise in applications "highlight(s) the need to take volatile weekly readings with a grain of salt."

Read more here.

Jack Palmer 12-07-2011

Obama Channels Roosevelt's 'New Nationalism'; Occupy Wall Street: A Generation Of 20-Somethings Airs Its Grievances, Its Frustrations; 19 Killed When Bus Hits Afghanistan Mine; 10 Reasons Why Cutting Poverty Is Good For Our Nation; Occupy The Bible: Why Jesus Is Not A ‘Free-Marketer’ (OPINION); The Progressive Consumption Tax; Occupy Big Business: The Sharing Economy's Quiet Revolution.

Lisa Sharon Harper 12-01-2011

What is valued in God's economy?

Jim Wallis 11-02-2011

Nonviolence is not just a critical tactic but a necessary commitment.