Newsworthy Tuesday.. no wait, it's Wednesday!

I put off my weekly news post yesterday because I couldn't find anything to write about. I've been feeling that way a lot lately. There just isn't any new news around lately with the election coming up!

But this morning, I had a stroke of genius... look on LDS.org's Newsroom site!  There's always great stuff there!

This week, an article in the Economist was spotlighted in the Newsroom.  It's title was "The Mormon Work Ethic."  And it was totally positive! 

You always hear about how great us Mormons are.  Well, either that or you hear we'll never make it to Heaven.  But never mind that!  In this article, it explained some of the reasons why the economy in Utah was so much better than those states all around.

It talked about the housing market.  "Utah’s housing market is relatively healthy, largely because it did not heat up too much in the middle of this decade."  It went on to say that forclosure rates were much lower than in the surrounding states as well.

Utah's natural resources have also helped.  The article discussed Ogden, a city who was once in big trouble, has turned it's economy around and now has "become the world centre of winter sports equipment. Mike Dowse, who oversees brands such as Atomic and Salomon for Amer Sports, gives three reasons: 'the mountains, the mayor and the money'."

A large portion of the article was devoted to what is sometimes called the "Mormon culture."  The first example is the demographics of the state.  The article reported families are started younger so the "echo boom" started earlier in Utah (the 80's) in stead of now like in other states. "One reason unemployment is rising across the West is that a wave of teenagers is crashing onto the job market. Utah, by contrast, has few teenagers and lots of productive people in their late twenties and early thirties."

Also as the article states "conservatism" is huge in Utah.  The example was Utah's budget. "It took the state legislature just two days last month to plug a $272m hole in the budget. By contrast, California’s budget was 85 days late. Nevada’s politicians are preparing for a nasty fiscal fight next year."

There was a lot of other great things said about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I highly recommend "the Mormon Work Ethic."  We have to get more good things circulating about the church!

Picture of the Angel Moroni taken by Philipp Spinnler, 9/2005