Mahatma Gandhi admired the Boston Tea Party protesters, fondly referring to them during his campaign against the oppressive salt tax imposed on Indians by their British rulers. To him, such taxes belonged at the top of his sobering list of mankind's seven social sins: commerce without morality, politics without principle, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, education without character, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice. These sins are all still relevant, but two seem particularly prescient in a country winded by a recession: wealth without work and commerce without morality.

In his encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI writes that economics should be guided not simply by profits but by "an ethics which is people-centered." This is why he places such an emphasis on employment. "The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require," he says, "that we continue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone."

Each year, over one thousand global leaders gather at a retreat center in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss the major economic, political, and technological forces currently at work in the world. Top executives from Google, HSBC, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley all gathered in Davos (officially titled the World Economic Forum) last week.

It is quite striking that, in the Gospel parables, Jesus more than once uses economics as a framework for his stories: the parable of the talents, the dishonest steward--even, we might say, the vignette of the lost coin. Like our coexistence with the earth, like familial bonds, like the tensions of public political life, economic relationships help us see our humanity in the context of God's actions.

Franciscan Sr. Kathie Uhler has for months been working on a series of panel presentations to the United Nations that will show the damage exploitative mining has had on the indigenous populations of countries like Peru, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. As Uhler has learned in her research, inhabitants of an area are often unaware of mining-for gems, coal, or oil-that is taking place a short distance from their homes, perhaps on a mountaintop, until natural resources have already been polluted.

After one tumultuous year in office, President Barack Obama used his first State of the Union address last evening to re-state his agenda. But rather than the inspiring rhetoric of a campaign speech, it was a more sober reflection on unfinished business. Not surprisingly, the president focused on the economy, particularly jobs and financial reform.

Declaring that huge banks had nearly brought down the economy by taking "huge, reckless risks in pursuit of profits," President Obama on Thursday proposed legislation to limit the scope and size of large financial institutions. The changes would prohibit bank holding companies from owning, investing, or sponsoring hedge fund or private equity funds and from engaging in proprietary trading -- what Mr. Obama called the Volcker Rule, in recognition of the former Federal Reserve chairman, Paul A. Volcker, who has championed the restriction.

This morning's Wall Street Journal headline reads, "Panel Rips Wall Street Titans." At yesterday's first meeting of the Congressional Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, finance industry CEOs sheepishly acknowledged their role in driving the economy over a cliff. Watching the commission hearing, however, I wished that Jim Wallis got to ask a few of the questions of the bank CEOs.