Forgiveness

• Recent studies reveal that millions of Americans suffer from loneliness and social isolation, which significantly impacts their health and quality of life.
• As noted in the Surgeon General's recent advisory, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation , only 16% of Americans feel very attached to their local community.
• The Action Guide for Building Connected Communities provides a six-step framework to involve local leaders and community members in implementing social connection initiatives.
• Additionally, on October 12-14, Action Guide partners will host their Building Connected Communities event, an in-person and virtual action forum for leaders working to address social isolation, loneliness, and social connection.

• St. Louis, Missouri--(Newsfile Corp. - September 13, 2023) - Benjamin F. Edwards is experiencing a record year as it also celebrates its 15th year in the financial services industry, starting in 2008 amid the Great Recession.
• For Edwards, that's a distant memory based on its strong financial results and continuing steady growth.
• Tad Edwards, founder, chairman, CEO and president, opened the door of a firm dedicated to the advisor/client relationship and that mission holds today.
• Tad believes Edwards is a home for financial advisors who want support to manage their own destiny.

• But the law and Biden’s broader “buy American” agenda include measures that discriminate against imports.
• But we believe the law also clearly violates international trade rules.
• Today’s trade rules are ill-suited for the climate crisis.

Building, then violating WTO rules

• The United States has shaped international trade rules more than any other country.
• In the 1940s, the U.S. proposed rules that were eventually largely adopted as the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, or GATT, a series of multinational agreements to reduce trade barriers.
• The most ambitious of the GATT agreements was the U.S.-instigated Uruguay Round of the 1990s, which created the World Trade Organization.
• Some WTO rules are vague, but others are crystal clear, including an unambiguous prohibition of subsidies contingent on the use of domestic products instead of imports.
• U.S. leaders might have been justified in begging for forgiveness after passing the legislation rather than asking for permission to violate trade rules.

The real concern: Rising protectionism

• Its promise to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions relies on the rapid diffusion of technologies, knowledge and finance across borders.
• Yet, its domestic subsidies may accelerate the adoption of trade barriers that inhibit these same cross-border flows, thus slowing progress on climate change.
• Indeed, the real concern might not be the opening salvo, but the shootout of growing protectionism that ensues.

An opportunity to modernize international trade

• More proactively, the U.S. can reestablish its commitment to trade rules by instigating a process to develop equitable reforms.
• High-level leadership from the United States would add considerable heft to the ongoing efforts to reform global trade rules.
• Of course, these trade tools would have to be managed carefully to avoid proliferating and exacerbating tensions.
• It may turn out that the United States did the world a favor by throwing off the shackles of outdated trade rules.
• That will depend on whether U.S. leaders take advantage of the opportunity to reframe the discussion around the country’s recent legislation as steps toward a modernized international trade regime that better aligns with the world’s climate goals.

• — Evangelist Nick Hall
  BENTON, Ark., Aug. 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The 11th annual Amplify Music Festival, a community-sponsored free Christian music festival, drew over 45,000 attendees this past weekend to make Jesus known.
• Including the free live stream, the attendance topped 67,000 throughout the 2-day festival.
• The two-day event featured well-known Christian artists Chris Tomlin, Castings Crowns, Lecrae, Rend Collective, and Passion, as well as a message of hope by Evangelist Nick Hall.
• "There were hundreds of churches and tens of thousands of people who united to lift high the name of Jesus.