Issues Page

Our country has been told that a gargantuan government rescue of the private sector is necessary because the collapse of major financial institutions would lead to unthinkable outcomes for society. Almost as if by magic, our nation's leaders conjure up vast sums to respond to this crisis. Yet when advocates point out that our nation is facing an altogether different kind of crisis, one of soaring hunger and homelessness, and that a large-scale bailout is needed to prevent social service providers nationwide from buckling under the increasing load, we are told that the money these agencies need just doesn't exist.

Church leaders urged members of Congress and the Bush administration to keep the human and ethical dimensions of the economic crisis in mind as they craft a financial bailout package for Wall Street. "This crisis involves far more than just economic or technical matters, but has enormous human impact and clear ethical dimensions which should be at the center of debate and decisions on how to move forward," said Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y. Bishop Murphy, who chairs the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, also stressed responsibility, accountability, awareness of the advantages and limitations of the market, subsidiarity, solidarity and the common good in the search for just and effective responses to the economic crisis.

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. Mounting consumer and household debt as housing prices fall is one of the main reasons behind the current crisis -- a crisis that religious conservatives say has moral roots.

When you are too big to fail, you are bailed out. When you are too small to save, you are down and out on the street. Some aspects of the Wall Street crisis are tough to understand. But one economic principle is pretty clear. When a really big company goes bust, the little guy pays with his home or job. But those CEOs and money managers who boldly march their corporate empires into bankruptcy just get paid millions and millions of dollars more. But no one wants to help taxpayers who are losing homes and jobs. In the grand scheme of American capitalism, they are overreaching specks, too stupid, presumptuous, and inconsequential to spare. In February, Bush signed into law a $170 billion stimulus package that did nothing for those hit hardest by the home mortgage collapse. And Congress, controlled by Democrats, went along.

Four years ago, the war in Iraq and the same-sex marriage debate pushed foreign policy and social issues to the top of the priority list for nearly all religious voters. Now, those issues have taken a back seat to something more pressing: the economy. A survey released yesterday by the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron shows that support for the war has dropped dramatically among religious voters. At the same time, they have been hit by the effects of a bad economy. So just more than half of the people surveyed put economy at the top of their list of priorities for the election, far more than the 11 percent who cared most about social issues and an increase of 24 percentage points from 2004.

From Seattle to Athens, Ga., homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation. Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they've experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group says the problem has worsened since the report's release in April, with foreclosures mounting, gas and food prices rising and the job market tightening. The phenomenon of encampments has caught advocacy groups somewhat by surprise, largely because of how quickly they have sprung up.

Unemployment rose last month in the twelve most hotly contested battleground states in the presidential election, including Michigan, Florida and Ohio. Michigan's jobless rate rose to 8.9 percent, the highest in the nation, with the loss of more than 20,000 manufacturing jobs in August, the Labor Department reported yesterday. Unemployment in Florida has surged 2.3 percentage points to 6.5 percent over the last 12 months. News about swelling unemployment rolls capped a tumultuous week when the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression dominated the presidential campaign. With Republican President George W. Bush in the White House, Democratic nominee Barack Obama gained support as economic concerns monopolized political debate.

States, counties, and cities with high home-foreclosure rates - now poised to reap a windfall in federal aid to help them cope with the crisis - are busy laying plans for what, exactly, they will do with the money. So far, their blueprints are as varied as the places themselves. Some plan to use the money for demolition, some for rehabbing abandoned properties. Some even envision using the one-time bonanza to try to prevent future foreclosures. The money, $4 billion in all, is part of a larger housing rescue package that Congress approved and President Bush signed late last month. It will go to America's hardest hit communities - and even some that aren't so hard hit.

In an age of subprime mortgages, credit cards, and payday lending, it's hard to imagine that charging any interest was once considered immoral. Yet like many ancient moral leaders, Moses commanded, "If you lend money to any of my people who are poor, do not...require him to pay interest." (Exodus 22:25, Good News Translation). Interest is what fuels savings and investment. Without interest, borrowing - from home loans to bonds - would virtually disappear. Most of us today don't lend to the poor. Rather, we "lend" to the very rich: When we buy bonds or set up a savings account, we give banks and government our money, expecting a modest rate of return in exchange. Does Moses' injunction apply in such cases? If so, is our modern economy intrinsically sinful?

The National Center for Atmospheric Research, an important hub for work on the causes and consequences of climate change, has shut down a program focused on strengthening poor countries' ability to forecast and withstand droughts, floods and other climate-related hazards. The move, which center officials say resulted from the shrinking of federal science budgets, is being denounced by many experts on environmental risk, who say such research is more crucial than ever in a world with rising populations exposed to climate threats. In e-mail exchanges, these experts said the eliminated program, the Center for Capacity Building, was unique in its blend of research and training in struggling countries.

Utility shut-offs for customers behind on their energy bills are increasing around the country, reaching 50% or more in some hard-hit areas, as the effects of rising prices and a sagging economy are beginning to drag down more vulnerable consumers. Agencies that provide financial assistance for energy costs report long waiting lists and significant jumps in first-time applicants. With the prospect of much more serious trouble this winter, when bills traditionally are higher, Congress is exploring a significant increase in federal energy assistance as part of a second economic stimulus plan scheduled for consideration next month.

The soaring price of oil will leave the Iraqi government with a cumulative budget surplus of as much as $79 billion by year's end, an American federal oversight agency has concluded in an analysis released yesterday. The unspent windfall, which covers surpluses from oil sales from 2005 through 2008, appears likely to put an uncomfortable new focus on the approximately $48 billion in American taxpayer money devoted to rebuilding Iraq since the American-led invasion. And in an odd financial twist, a large amount of the surplus money is sitting in an American bank in New York - nearly $10 billion at the end of 2007, with more expected this year, when the accountability office estimates a skyrocketing surplus.

Planned layoffs at U.S. companies jumped 26 percent in July from June, depicting further deterioration in the labor market, a report showed on Monday. Planned layoffs at U.S. companies totaled 103,312 in July, compared with June's 81,755, employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc said. Announced job cuts at U.S. companies last month were the second highest total so far in 2008, more than double the 42,897 a year earlier, the report said. From January to July, planned layoffs totaled 579,260, up 33 percent from the same period a year ago. Financial companies, in particular mortgage lenders, have been slashing their payrolls, prompted by billions of losses and write-downs tied to soured investments on housing and mortgages.

If you were to ask Democrats Barney Frank and Chris Dodd -- the principal architects of the massive housing bill signed Wednesday by President Bush -- which of its many features pleases them most, the answer would surprise you. It is not the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the embattled mortgage giants, or the aid the bill provides for thousands of homeowners struggling to afford their subprime loans in a faltering real estate market. Instead, it is the section creating the National Housing Trust Fund, a creative way of meeting the chronic shortage of affordable low-income rental apartments -- a huge problem in cities and rural areas across the country.

The nation's employers eliminated 51,000 jobs in July, the seventh consecutive contraction in the labor market, as the unemployment rate reached a four-year high, signs that the pressure on business owners and consumers was likely to continue. Still, Friday's report from the Labor Department showed that the declines have softened since spring. The number of layoffs was less than the 75,000 that economists had expected, and the government said that businesses cut fewer jobs in June and May than first thought.

The number of Americans who have seen their full-time jobs chopped to part time because of weak business has swelled to more than 3.7 million - the largest figure since the government began tracking such data more than half a century ago. The loss of pay has become a primary source of pain for millions of American families, reinforcing the downturn gripping the economy. Paychecks are shrinking just as home prices plunge and gas prices soar, furthering the austerity across the nation.

The giant housing rescue plan President Bush signed Wednesday might help stanch the bleeding in the housing market, but experts on both sides of the political divide worry that it is, at best, only an emergency step. In addition to $300 billion in government guarantees to aid homeowners threatened by foreclosure, the administration got extraordinary new powers to backstop mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after their stocks plunged earlier this month.