Upcoming Issues: Subprime Loans, Business Profits

A couple of months ago, Matt the Web-Dude installed a "hit counter" for us at the bottom of the picture frame here. As we have monitored the statistics it collects, we see that the largest number of you visit on Tuesdays. We'll be writing later than that this week, so we wanted to let you know now what's coming up, so hopefully, you'll come back!

There's been a lot of press lately about subprime mortgage lending and what a "scandal" it is. The Mortgage Bankers Association, the main mortgage trade association, will publish its mortgage delinquency data for the first quarter of 2007 on Thursday. So when we have those new figures, we'll talk about these subprime loans and about their role in what we've come to call consumer "debting". Watch for that, maybe on the weekend.

We're also working on a post – or more likely, several posts – about business profits and about business in general. This comes up presently because business profits and the stock market have recently been doing pretty well. In fact, as soon as we fretted about the stock market here back in February, it began to rise and has reached new records! Also, as we have discussed, business is taking the lead in addressing some aspects of environmental and development issues. So this seems a good time to look more broadly at business institutions. As a "business economist", I have a kind of insider's perspective on this. Eventually, I'd like to get to making connections between theology and business, but that's probably several articles and considerable head-scratching down the road. [If you've had EfM*, think "theological reflection".] Meantime, if you have some ideas, questions or arguments you'd like me to cover specifically, let me know. Write to carol@geraniumfarm.org.

Thanks! See you in a few days!

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*EfM stands for Education for Ministry, a program of lay theological education designed by the School of Theology at the University of the South "Sewanee". It is conducted in small groups throughout the country and several places abroad. I did it at Trinity Church, Wall Street, and the Diocese of Long Island has just recently begun to offer it. If you want more in-depth knowledge about the Bible, Church History and current issues, check it out. Exercises in spiritual autobiography and theological reflection augment the regular study lessons. A really informative and engaging program. http://www.sewanee.edu/EFM/index.htm.