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How debt mercy helps drive US recovery
Originally printed in The Christian Science Monitor, January 6, 2015.
Many Americans may not feel it yet, but their economy is doing very well compared with the economies of other advanced countries. Growth is nearly 3 percent. About a quarter million jobs are being added each month. In a world searching for economic propulsion, the United States is now a “lonely locomotive,” as The Economist calls it.
Recovery from the 2007–09 Great Recession is still slow in the US. Yet relative to Europe, which is tipping back into recession, the US has many advantages, such as higher worker productivity, a boost from shale petroleum, and a flush of monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve. To many economists, one advantage stands out: The US has been quicker to reduce the private debts of homeowners and companies.

August 10, 2015 issue
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Letters
Steven Price, Paula, Jean Jillings-Warner, Wendys
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What thoughts are we entertaining?
Katherine Stephen
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A spiritual foundation for motherhood
Inge Schmidt
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Prayer, not place, brings peace
Anne Holway Higgins
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The choice to love
Evan Mehlenbacher
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We should strive to reach the Horeb height
Photograph by Ann Blamey
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A depth of joy I’d never felt before
Margaret Wylie
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Hello, good thoughts! Goodbye, bad thoughts!
Shannon Naylor
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Freed from aftereffects of an injury
Paula Williams
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Gratitude for three healings
Rachel F. Henderson
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Dental visits free of anxiety and pain
Rosemary Denson Miller
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How debt mercy helps drive US recovery
The Monitor’s Editorial Board
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A sure basis for forgiveness
Stephen Carlson
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The stubbornness that does yield
David C. Kennedy