The Emperor has no clothes - economic and cultural crash

When I was a boy I remember being told the story about the emperor with no clothes and how he foolishly took the word of his advisers, but then one small boy saw the truth and spoke up. Sadly today we can report what is obvious to some, which is that there is coming a great financial crash to rival any in the past. And still we have those who man the ship and are the economic mouthpieces of our media elite, ridicule such observations. Perhaps it is that they fear speaking up on such issues believing that in so doing it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But the fact and the reality are out there for those who will take a moment and investigate.

America's debt is beyond recovery. Apart from the current National debt in America passing the 15 Trillion mark, having gone up from 10 trillion dollar mark in 2008, there's the added unfunded liabilities such as Social Security and Medicaid which in effect take their national debt to around 100 Trillion dollars. That is almost unfathomable and yet it is politics as usual in The House and Senate and the White House in America. No one is willing to make the hard decisions. They all want to feather their own nests.
Consider the chart below as provided by the Federal Reserve Board.


and then read Michael Synders blog at theeconomiccollapseblog.com

Something to mull over isn't it? Here in Australia we have the same attitude - stick your head in the ground and hope it will all go away.
Yet it isn't just an economic crash we are speaking of is it? How will people respond in the midst of being left destitute and perhaps so destitute they wonder how they will feed themselves and their family? Will they be like the children in Lord of the flies? The Bible warns us many will be lovers of themselves, void of any love for parents or others. That is what we are already seeing happen around us today in our culture.

In the midst of all this, truly only God's peace will suffice.

Gary

financial mismanagement or something else?

Here in Australia it has been announced that our state electricity will increase costs to the consumer by up to 60% in the coming year.
The reason being given is that half of that 60% is due to the Emissions Trading Scheme our Federal Government wants to introduce to combat global warming. In other words it's a round about way of introducing a new tax on the people, but making the utilities introduce it upon the people. Be that as it may that still leaves a 30% increase which is being touted as going to infrastructure as the electricity infrastructure is in dire need of improvements and developments to meet the projected needs of people in NSW over the next 25 years. What is shocking about this is that directors of companies such as Coca-Cola of Goodmans - fielders to name two regularly allow in their budget allocations for infrastructure write offs, and developments. It's incomprehensible that a electricity company could fail to allow for infrastructure development to meet the needs of projected growth from which they earn their profits!
Is there something else going on here? a 60% increase will put many middle class families under financial pressure and the aged and poor under extreme pressure. But just listen to the State governments answer to that. "We will make tax credits available to alleviate these pressures." they say. We will divert tax dollars through Government agencies to help out the poor and so on. In other words not only will our costs as consumers increase inordinately, but the Government will direct tax resources into those areas where burdens become horrific. Is this merely the promotion of the socialist, welfare state? It makes more and more people dependant upon the State. And why? because of an over hyped global warming scenario that has little scientific evidence to justify it.
Is there not a better way to care for our environment and at the same time not work on the basis of making more and more people dependant upon welfare?
With welfare one major change is that the bureaucracy gets bigger and bigger and more powerful.
What economic model is better than a welfare model?

any thoughts?
Gary

Suffering and the Economy

Often after watching the evening news I am forced to ponder the behaviour of politicians here and abroad in regard to the global financial meltdown.
Are their enacted and proposed solutions viable? Will they work out in the end for those whose only hope is in pragmatism? Or will it come crashing down like a deck of cards in a tornado? a disaster much worse than what has happened in the last 16 months with the crashing global economies.
I regularly see advertisements on television by superannuation funds saying that though times are tough we must look to the long term regarding our superannuation. That it will return to the good ol times of prosperity once again. I get the same speel from my frequent supperannuation investment reports encouraging me to further invest!

Yet at present we see America spiralling into further debt that must end in dire consequences for all. They say their current debt is a mere 7 trillion dollars but the real amount of unfunded liabilites when you add their medicare and social security is closer to 100 trillion. Think of it, their economy is only a 10 trillion dollar economy and their debt at it's simplest calculated level is 7 trillion! Who could run a household and not be bankrupt on those kind of figures?

We do well to heed the words of Lawrence Reed as reported over at Wayne Israel's blog, Christianworldview.
"[The corrections introduced by Governemnt] are preventing the necessary adjustments from cleansing the economy and is putting us on a reckless path to inflation, debt and national bankruptsy."

"Government and it's unconscionable debt are spiralling out of control. This must stop or financial disaster looms."

He correctly alludes to the collaspse of character that is behind this fiscal lunacy.

I understand the positiveness of politicians in the face of financial collapse, they worry that their negative comments could send the economy further into crisis, and perhaps they do indeed operate on what Reed says is the Keynesian school of economic thought - see the above linked article, however I see overall they are failing to lead the country and act responsibly. What is required is indeed a proper level of integrity, not just pragmatism or economic rationalism which here in Australia was actually the backbone of Liberal federal government rule, but seems to be also that of Labour!

Overall, we trust our Lord and God through all crisis, but that doesn't mean we have to be uninformed or naive about possible consequences. And more importantly for Christians, is our character and that of our children being honed by our Lord to withstand the difficulties that await all due to economic failure of whole economies? We need to resist the mindset of our culture that we can have it all and we can have it now. Our mindset is that in Christ we already have all that is important.

In Christ,
Gary