In Exodus Chapter 16, we find the Children of Israel wandering through the “Seen” desert, and they were none too happy with Moses and Aaron. They were famished and complained loudly that they might as well have died back in Egypt, rather than starve to death in the wilderness.  Still possessing a slave mentality, they weren’t accustomed to [...]

Apparently, the recession is leaving many families unable to pay for elaborate funerals and burials, and they’re now opting for cremation, ”even when their culture or religion calls for such customs.”
Many are turning to cremation as a more budget-friendly alternative.  The cost of a cremation, with the ashes either returned to the family in a container [...]

One more rite of passage the economy is impacting: Latinos are downsizing their daughters’
15th birthday bashes, also known as quinceañeras.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach spoke with BiblEconomy about the roots of the financial crisis and how we transcend it.
“The collapse of our economy was caused not by an economic crisis but a spiritual crisis called greed, where you become voracious and insatiable. I believe that the Jewish community, and the Jewish religion has unique values that need [...]

The Dallas Morning News’ Religion Blog convened a “Texas Panel” to ruminate over faith and the famous CNBC Rick Santelli monologue. Deal Hudson, director of InsideCatholic.com made this observation:
There is no obligation whatsoever for the government to “bail out” banks, investment firms, or individual homeowners who can’t pay their mortgages. The reason the government has started [...]

The Salt Lake Tribune reports on the religious debate: should responsible taxpayers who took out affordable mortgages bail out those who didn’t?
Is it ethical for others to foot the bill for your bad financial decisions? And is it ethical to say no to those pleas for help?
The article quotes Mu Soeng, a Buddhist studies [...]

In his Washington Post/On Faith column, “Our Brothers’ Keepers, Not their Guarantors,” Rabbi Brad Hirschfield cites the Cain and Abel story to support bailing out even those who behaved irresponsibly, offering a different take than this famous TV clip arguing the government’s subsidy of “losers’ mortgages” promotes bad behavior.
When God asks him where his brother is, Cain [...]

In a column detailing how we piled on debt from 2004-2008, Ralph R. Mabey in the Mormon Times has a good line to help us focus our future priorities:
In Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin’s words, we unwisely based our spending much more on our “yearnings” than our “earnings.”

Now a fourth Obama administration nominee with tax troubles.
This time, it’s Ron Kirk, the president’s choice to be U.S. trade representative. Kirk owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade and has agreed to pay them, the Senate Finance Committee said Monday.
Remember this good lesson for public officials from Abraham in Genesis: even [...]

Column worth reading by Kristine Frederickson in the Mormon Times on the perils of conspicuous consumption and how now necessity ”has engendered thrift, industry and charitable impulses and actions” prompting a new recognition of the difference between wants and needs, teaching us “to live well on less.”
She says that in 1869 Brigham Young:
…explained that others looked at the [...]