Here’s a thing: I really would like to hear a sermon on the tangled issue of finance. It could be called ‘the moral maze of money.’
What are we to make of waking up each morning to the heated discussions about ‘the markets’? We tremble to hear that the Nikkei (Japan) has crashed, the Hang Seng (Hong Kong) has plunged, the Nifty (India) is turbulent, and the Dax (Frankfurt) and FTSE (London) are on the verge of a nervous breakdown. And there’s still Wall Street to come, later in the day.
Drama
All this drama is, obviously, in the wake of Donald Trump’s decisions to levy tariffs on trade, where no such tariffs had existed before. The experts tell us repeatedly “the markets don’t like it”.
Perhaps I never previously realised just what an influential role ‘the markets’ play in our lives. I don’t own any stocks, shares or bonds, but it seems that I’m invested, indirectly, with all these markets (they have a direct input into pensions, for example).
Stock markets there have always been, but in an era of what’s now called ‘hyper-globalisation’, we are all involved in what the markets think and do.
What is the Christian interpretation of this situation?
The old-style Left used to call betting on shares and bonds ‘casino capitalism’, since they favour the speculator over the honest working man living by his labour”
Perhaps Christianity has always struggled between its detached view of the material – “consider the lilies of the fields” – and the more practical application of the needs of everyday life. Margaret Thatcher brought this down to her Methodist nitty-gritty by pointing out that the Good Samaritan wouldn’t have been able to help the afflicted traveller if he didn’t possess the dinari to pay for care.
The Catholic church, too, has always sensibly affirmed when financial support is required: churches are built, schools run, sacramental and pastoral ministration and charities organised with finance.
Moral
But are these now-dominant markets moral? The old-style Left used to call betting on shares and bonds ‘casino capitalism’, since they favour the speculator over the honest working man living by his labour. Nowadays, the Left seems to deplore Mr Trump for upsetting these hallowed markets. Values seem to have gone topsey-turvey.
Are tariffs right or wrong? We may remember the days when we were urged to ‘buy Irish’, for the benefit of home business and industry. But now, economists tell us that tariffs will only punish the poor, by reducing trade on competitive terms. Then, others say that the ‘hyper-globalisation’ which has taken place was unjust anyway – businesses might move from country to country according to where the labour was cheaper.
‘Nike’, the American company which gives us those rather pricey trainers which have so ubiquitously replaced elegant leather shoes, actually fabricates the product – at $100 a pair in (Communist) Vietnam – because of cheaper labour costs. Is this good or bad, I would ask some moral theologian?
Be charitable. Don’t be covetous about possessions or money. Act with honesty. It all seemed so simple”
Back in my schooldays, we were taught quite decent basics about the morality of money. A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. The labourer is worth his hire. Be charitable. Don’t be covetous about possessions or money. Act with honesty. It all seemed so simple. Now it’s way, way more complicated, and we need some deep thinking to explore this altogether changed world.
*
Little Cow of God
The Duchess of Sussex informs us, via her housewifely cooking programmes, that what British English calls a “ladybird” is, in America, a“ladybug”. Now I learn from a posting by the artist Sara O’Neill that the Irish version is “Bóin Dé” – “Little Cow of God”. Sweetly poetic.
*
Dr Livia Tossici-Bolt, 64, is an Italian-born retired clinical scientist who has appeared in a British court for holding up a sign outside a Bournemouth abortion clinic saying: “Here to talk. If you want.” She’s been found guilty of breaching a public space protection order – she was 50 yards from the clinic – and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs.
Her own story is telling. As a young physicist, she became pregnant in difficult circumstances. Her family disapproved of the man responsible and closed the door on her. She found temporary accommodation, while she was still studying for a post-graduate course. But she persisted with the pregnancy and had a “wonderful daughter”.
Dr Livia seems motivated to be there for any woman who might be under pressure to terminate a pregnancy from family, boyfriend, work colleagues, friends. It certainly happens. A GP told me recently that he had frequently encountered cases where he sensed it was the husband or partner who was pressing for a woman’s termination procedure. We know that women can be subjected to “coercive control” in relationships.
Livia Tossici-Bolt has had some support from JD Vance, US vice-president, who criticised the UK, for abrogating freedom of speech. But in Britain itself (as in Ireland) the “buffer zone” around abortion facilities has the protection of the law, so Dr Livia has to pay up.
The moral maze of money…
Here’s a thing: I really would like to hear a sermon on the tangled issue of finance. It could be called ‘the moral maze of money.’
What are we to make of waking up each morning to the heated discussions about ‘the markets’? We tremble to hear that the Nikkei (Japan) has crashed, the Hang Seng (Hong Kong) has plunged, the Nifty (India) is turbulent, and the Dax (Frankfurt) and FTSE (London) are on the verge of a nervous breakdown. And there’s still Wall Street to come, later in the day.
Drama
All this drama is, obviously, in the wake of Donald Trump’s decisions to levy tariffs on trade, where no such tariffs had existed before. The experts tell us repeatedly “the markets don’t like it”.
Perhaps I never previously realised just what an influential role ‘the markets’ play in our lives. I don’t own any stocks, shares or bonds, but it seems that I’m invested, indirectly, with all these markets (they have a direct input into pensions, for example).
Stock markets there have always been, but in an era of what’s now called ‘hyper-globalisation’, we are all involved in what the markets think and do.
What is the Christian interpretation of this situation?
Perhaps Christianity has always struggled between its detached view of the material – “consider the lilies of the fields” – and the more practical application of the needs of everyday life. Margaret Thatcher brought this down to her Methodist nitty-gritty by pointing out that the Good Samaritan wouldn’t have been able to help the afflicted traveller if he didn’t possess the dinari to pay for care.
The Catholic church, too, has always sensibly affirmed when financial support is required: churches are built, schools run, sacramental and pastoral ministration and charities organised with finance.
Moral
But are these now-dominant markets moral? The old-style Left used to call betting on shares and bonds ‘casino capitalism’, since they favour the speculator over the honest working man living by his labour. Nowadays, the Left seems to deplore Mr Trump for upsetting these hallowed markets. Values seem to have gone topsey-turvey.
Are tariffs right or wrong? We may remember the days when we were urged to ‘buy Irish’, for the benefit of home business and industry. But now, economists tell us that tariffs will only punish the poor, by reducing trade on competitive terms. Then, others say that the ‘hyper-globalisation’ which has taken place was unjust anyway – businesses might move from country to country according to where the labour was cheaper.
‘Nike’, the American company which gives us those rather pricey trainers which have so ubiquitously replaced elegant leather shoes, actually fabricates the product – at $100 a pair in (Communist) Vietnam – because of cheaper labour costs. Is this good or bad, I would ask some moral theologian?
Back in my schooldays, we were taught quite decent basics about the morality of money. A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. The labourer is worth his hire. Be charitable. Don’t be covetous about possessions or money. Act with honesty. It all seemed so simple. Now it’s way, way more complicated, and we need some deep thinking to explore this altogether changed world.
*
Little Cow of God
The Duchess of Sussex informs us, via her housewifely cooking programmes, that what British English calls a “ladybird” is, in America, a“ladybug”. Now I learn from a posting by the artist Sara O’Neill that the Irish version is “Bóin Dé” – “Little Cow of God”. Sweetly poetic.
*
Dr Livia Tossici-Bolt, 64, is an Italian-born retired clinical scientist who has appeared in a British court for holding up a sign outside a Bournemouth abortion clinic saying: “Here to talk. If you want.” She’s been found guilty of breaching a public space protection order – she was 50 yards from the clinic – and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs.
Her own story is telling. As a young physicist, she became pregnant in difficult circumstances. Her family disapproved of the man responsible and closed the door on her. She found temporary accommodation, while she was still studying for a post-graduate course. But she persisted with the pregnancy and had a “wonderful daughter”.
Dr Livia seems motivated to be there for any woman who might be under pressure to terminate a pregnancy from family, boyfriend, work colleagues, friends. It certainly happens. A GP told me recently that he had frequently encountered cases where he sensed it was the husband or partner who was pressing for a woman’s termination procedure. We know that women can be subjected to “coercive control” in relationships.
Livia Tossici-Bolt has had some support from JD Vance, US vice-president, who criticised the UK, for abrogating freedom of speech. But in Britain itself (as in Ireland) the “buffer zone” around abortion facilities has the protection of the law, so Dr Livia has to pay up.
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