Why Should Christians Care About Economics? Part 2

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

Crowding Out

Imagine you live in a small town with a corner hardware store, grocery store and pharmacy. These small, privately owned businesses form the heart of your town’s small shopping district. One day, you read in the local paper that a Wal-Mart Supercenter is going to be built a few miles away near the Interstate. It is certain to draw customers from all of the surrounding towns, including yours. As soon as you read this, you’re excited by the prospect of having such a convenient, one-stop, low-priced place to shop close-by. Then you’re also concerned for the small stores in the center of town, because now they have to compete with a bigger, more powerful store and they may be pushed out of business.

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Why Should Christians Care About Economics?

By Jason, M.Ed.. M.A.R., Headmaster

Christians and Economics, Part One

A woman operates a small coffee stand in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of a big city in Bolivia. She sells coffee and earns a regular income to feed and clothe her children and build a decent home for her family. She opened her coffee stand thanks to a $500 loan, a loan which she easily and quickly repaid because it was small and she used it to secure a dependable income. This is the world of microfinance, a movement transforming lives in the developing world.

In a middle class suburb in America, a man charges dinner out with his family. He then goes shopping and buys a new suit for himself, putting another few hundred dollars on his Visa. Soon, he has taken on more personal debt in an evening than the coffee-stand entrepreneur in Bolivia. Yet his debt was not incurred in the pursuit of income to help his family. His was spent on convenience, pleasure and fashion.

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Tax Incentives To Consider in 2009

By Brian, CPA

As a result of recent economic conditions and policy moves, Congress has created more and more liberal tax incentives than I have ever seen in my long years of doing income tax work. If you happen to be in a position to take advantage of them, the savings can be huge. OF COURSE, as my parents said so often, a bargain isn't a bargain unless you would have bought it anyway....

By far the largest for consumers is the liberalized first-time homebuyer credit. It's claimed on IRS Form 5405. In general, for the purchase of a qualifying first-time principal residence this credit is available for 10% of the purchase price, up to $8,000 for 2009 purchases. It's critical to note that this credit fundamentally changed radically for 2009. For 2008 it was a good deal, but really only an interest free loan that had to be repaid over 15 years through the purchaser's tax return. For 2009 there is no repayment as long as the house remains the principal residence of the purchaser for 36 months.

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Money Management 101: The Course I Would Have Failed

Reposted By Erika

Growing up, I never thought I would be the kid who gets excited about saving money. I always put the "fun" percentage of my allowance and my birthday money and all that I earned towards whatever goodies I had my eye on at the time. In middle and high school, it was clothes. During the first half of college, while working as a waitress, it was whatever my heart desired.

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Debt That Is Forgiven By Creditors Is Considered Income

By Alan and Brian, CPA

I had someone make a statement at work that I wanted to look into. Since it was a money related, I asked Brian who is a CPA. I wanted to know: If you have a $10,000 debt to a credit card company, and through negotiation (because you can't pay the full amount), they relieve $5,000 of debt in order for you to only pay $5,000, is it true that the credit card company will issue a 1099 to the IRS in the form of income given to you? Are there times when this would not happen? This seems like this isn't really talked about, if true.

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