Will things ever be the same again?

19 August 2011

We hope not.  We don’t want more of the same.  The Lord Jesus Christ has a better vision for this world, and we share it.

However, the world’s moneymakers would like to get back to making money, but it is difficult for many of them in the current financial crisis. Politicians spin stories, and moneymakers spin webs of money shrouded in veils of deceit.  Printing money is a murky business which robs ordinary people of the value of their savings.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at global financial information firm Markit, writes: “The greenback [US dollar] and the euro may never again be the strong currencies they were before the crisis struck (assuming the euro survives).  Increasing numbers of analysts are questioning the survival of the euro due to the political tensions.  The Chinese authorities are now calling for a new world reserve currency to replace the US dollar following S&P’s downgrade.”

Analysists are wondering what it will take to bring the world out of the growing crisis.  Meanwhile, while some people are losing money, jobs, patience and their lives, there are a few well-heeled individuals who continue to make money in the turmoil of the world’s markets.  They make money if share prices go up, or if they go down.  Volatility suits them as they can make more money on the rise and fall.  In this way, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

The rich can ride the storm and wait for the recovery.  The middle man cannot, and so he has to sell out at the bottom and join the rest of the world at the bottom.  If the world’s population was represented by 1000 people, about 180 of them are living in affluence at the top of the mountain; the rest of them are in the valley.  It makes it difficult for Christians to weep for the rich person’s loss of some riches, although we do weep for the loss of any soul.  For some rich people, the only exchange they know about it the Stock Exchange, but Jesus reminds us of another exchange: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mk 8:36-37.

On Newsnight tonight, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of The Black Swan, said that the core of the problem is what he called the agency problem, which he explained as bankers getting bonuses for good investments, and society picking up the bill for bad decisions.  He said the situation is even worse now than in the credit crunch of 2008.  The assymmetry of this problem he called “the generator of iniquity” and “we have wasted three years putting money into the pockets of the bankers”.  This reminds us of Paul’s assertion: “The love of money is a root of all evil” 1Tim 6:10.

The Scottish Christian Party website has said for some time that the politicians don’t know what to do in this crisis, and Paul Mason, Newsnight’s Newsnight’s Economics Editor, confirmed this on Newsnight tonight when he said: “The world’s politicians have no idea what to do next.”  We have warned ever since the formation of the ConDem Alliance after the General Election in 2010 that we are going into a double dip recession and after a week of market turmoil, there is talk of its strong possibility.

We need Christian politics and politicians to see us through these tough times.

It is worth noting that there is nothing morally wrong with money, riches, nor being rich.  It is the love of money which is the problem, and the pride, self-importance and sense of self-security of rich people.  The Bible does not teach robbing rich people through excessive taxation by the politics of jealousy, but it teaches how rich people should use their money to the glory of God, the good of mankind, the peace of their own conscience and to enhancement of their reputation for goodwill 1Tim 6:6-11,17-19.  It is no wonder that God touches ungodly men where it hurts them most.

For those who understand the Black Swan theory - the greatest Black Swan event, with earth-shattering consequences, reverberating to the present hour, is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.  This changes everything for mankind.  Read 1Corinthians 15.

Related Stories