With war in Israel, oil traders focus on Iran and 'domino effect' from possible tightening of sanctions | Don’t blame "quiet quitting" on Gen-Z | American megachurches are thriving by poaching flocks | Top economist calls hot jobs report good news for economy, bad news for markets

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With war in Israel, oil traders focus on Iran and 'domino effect' from possible tightening of sanctions - Fortune

As oil traders prepare for the market to open after the sudden eruption of war in Israel, one question is key: will the conflict spread to the rest of the region?

Crude traders don’t expect a massive price surge as there’s no immediate threat to supply. But all eyes are on Iran, a major oil producer and key backer of the Hamas group that launched this weekend’s offensive on Israel.

A retaliatory strike against the Islamic Republic would inflame fears over the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping artery which Tehran has previously threatened to close. There’s also the prospect of the US cracking down again on a resurgent flow of Iranian oil exports.

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Don’t blame “quiet quitting” on Gen-Z - The Economist

IT STARTED WITH a TikTok video. Last year a 17-second clip that promoted doing the absolute minimum at work sparked a “#quietquitting” frenzy. The term is deceptive as well as hard to pin down: so-called quiet quitters seek to improve their work-life balance not by leaving their jobs, but merely by not going above and beyond their duty to their employers. Perhaps because chatter about quiet quitting took off on TikTok, it is often associated with Gen-Z—people born after 1996. But doing as little as possible at work is scarcely new (it may sound familiar to “work-to-rule” popularised by trade unions in the 20th century). And it’s not confined to the youngest workers.

Our charts below contain data from Gallup’s annual survey on workplace engagement across 143 countries, broken down by age and gender. We have filtered out countries where the data were missing or incomplete, reducing the number to 73. The results suggest that remarkably few people, just about anywhere, are happily engaged with their work.

Gallup asked respondents 12 questions to gauge their engagement with their jobs, including whether they feel their job is important and whether their colleagues are committed to doing quality work. The polling company then sorted respondents into three categories, depending on their combination of answers. Those who appeared most engaged were classed as “thriving”, meaning they are involved and enthusiastic about their work and workplace. At the other end of the spectrum is “loud quitting”, where people may be resentful and voice their unhappiness at work. “Quiet quitting” falls in between. These employees are thought to be putting in the time, but not much else.

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American megachurches are thriving by poaching flocks - The Economist

Earplugs are available, should the music get too loud. Sure enough the volume—not to mention the tattooed front woman and bobbing crowd—evokes a country-rock concert. Only the lyrics suggest otherwise: “Fill it all up, fill it all up with Jesus.” Afterwards a pastor, in T-shirt and high-top sneakers, compares an Old Testament parable to a rom-com. Donations are solicited by QR code. The service is entertaining and, for many first-timers, unlike anything they expected of church.

Welcome to Life.Church, one of America’s largest megachurches, headquartered near Oklahoma City. Really it is a chain of churches, with 44 sites across 12 states. Every weekend around 80,000 people attend one of 170 services in person. Most watch a pre-recorded sermon by a senior pastor, Craig Groeschel; a junior pastor acts as an in-person MC and a worship band plays live. The whole thing blends seamlessly, and it is streamed online, too.

Churches have closed as the proportion of Americans who call themselves Christian has fallen from 76% in 2010 to 64% in 2020. But most of America’s 1,750 megachurches—all Protestant and mostly evangelical churches with at least 2,000 worshippers—are thriving. Between 2015 and 2020 their congregations grew by a third on average, turning younger and more multi-racial, according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, a think-tank in Connecticut. After a covid dip, “We’re in growth mode,” says Brian Tome, pastor of Crossroads, a nine-site church based in Ohio. “Things are fun right now.”

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Top economist calls hot jobs report good news for economy, bad news for markets - Fortune

The data is “good news for the economy right now,” El-Erian said on Bloomberg Television, but it’s “bad news for the markets and for the Fed. The Fed is not going to welcome this report. Over the long term this may end up being bad news for the economy as well.”

Friday’s payrolls figures are “consistent” with his call for a possible recession, El-Erian said. “This is an economy that got used to ridiculously low interest rates and got used to liquidity injections. The regime change is happening really fast.”

The nonfarm payrolls release, which showed the US labor market added more than 330,000 jobs in September, compared with the 170,000 estimated by economists. August’s headline data was revised higher, while average hourly earnings growth increased 0.2% last month, the same as in August.

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