From the President of CREDO – Third Issue

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The focus of this issue was supposed to be marriage and the family, but on April 17, Francis Cardinal George, passed away after a long bout with cancer.  He was our Episcopal Moderator, that is, our church representative on CREDO’s board, and in many ways he was the impetus for the existence of our society, so I would like to spend some time in this column celebrating his life.

Francis George was born in Chicago on January 16, 1937, as the country was still struggling with the Great Depression.  The second of two children, he attended the Chicago parochial schools, and he was the only bishop of Chicago to be a native Chicagoan.  Although a native son, he had a measured view of the city of Chicago as an adult.  He loved the people and his diocese, but he hated the corruption of local politics. …

Letter from the President – Second Issue

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Welcome to the second issue of our CREDO newsletter.  A great deal has happened since our last issue.

In the spring, Thomas Piketty’s book, Capital in the 21st Century became a New York Times bestseller, creating excitement, controversy and much discussion in the economics community but probably more so in the Church, media, and broader society.  The focus of the book is, of course, wealth and income inequality, and we have decided to give some focus to the issue in the current issue.  CREDO vice-president Jesus Fernandez Villaverde has contributed a thoughtful review of the book…

Welcome from the President of CREDO

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Welcome to the inaugural issue of the CREDO newsletter, “On the Margin.” What do you think of the title? More importantly, what did it make you think of?

The phrase “on the margin” has many different meanings to many different people. To research economists, we use the phrase to think about the costs or benefits of an additional good consumed, worker hired, etc. We think of phrases like “marginal cost”, “marginal product”, or “marginal utility”. To a finance economist, the phrase might mean buying securities “on the margin”, that is, with borrowed money. To businesspersons, the word “margin” might remind them of profit margins. To a person directly engaged with the social ministry of the Church, “on the margin” is a phrase that emphasizes a commitment to those on those people who are sometimes forgotten or neglected members of society, e.g., the poor, indigenous peoples, women and children, the elderly. …