This Financial “Crisis” Rant
Well I’m back, and I might as well start by being rather controversial. Be patient with me, but this has been brewing for awhile.
I think this current economic crisis is more farce than reality. That’s right, you heard me! A FARCE! Propaganda heightened because it’s an election year.
Don’t get me wrong, the economy is bad, but we are NOT YET in a crisis. I don’t think myself, my generation or the few previous have any idea what a real “crisis” is.
It’s not a crisis when you lose your 4 million dollar home and have to move into a 3 bedroom $150,000 house instead. it’s not a crisis when your $50,000. car get repo’d. It’s not a crisis when you get your cable disconnected. It’s not a crisis when you can’t find work in your trade, It IS a crisis if you can’t find work at all- but that’s not the case.
As far as I’ve observed people are more afraid of things getting bad instead of things actually being bad. I have 4 friends that are successful investment bankers- they said things are hard, but that they are doing fine. I have 7 friends making 6-7 figures all in different parts of the country- they haven’t been hurt by the “crisis” at all. If people stopped freaking out and looked around they’d see that yes times are hard, but no real “crisis” exists.
Maybe I’m jaded because I’ve lived off $15,000 a year the last 6 years. On that: I have a house. I take Carrie out on dates. I have a nice PDA and Computer. I have… err had a car (it broke down). I still have some to tithe on top of my 10 percent. So when I hear about people going from $120,000. a year to $90,000. because of our financial hardship, I can understand how that is a tuff transition, but they aren’t starving.
Lets look back at the great depression- people were starving for food in the streets of New York city. I mean middle class and working class families living in tents in central park eating what they could find from the garbage. Not only could people not find jobs within their trade, they couldn’t hardly find jobs in general. They weren’t crying because they couldn’t spoil their kids with tons Christmas with presents, they were crying because their kids were dying of diseases in the cold of winter and couldn’t afford medicine to treat them. It was indeed a crisis.
Conclusion:
Times are hard in our world, the economy is bad. But I’m not going to throw terms like crisis or depression at it just yet. I pray to God that He would have mercy so I never have to. In the mean time- Don’t cash in all your stocks. Don’t stop consuming. Live within your means. Be happy.
Times are hard, but life is hard. sure some people can’t find work with in their trade. Is that so different from the norm? Sure Ford and Chevy are going bankrupt. But Ford and Chevy are almost always on the edge of bankruptcy. It’s because Toyota, Honda, and Nissan make better cars and trucks, not because there is a crisis. Sure the banks are in debt. But they were 4 years ago when Alan Greenspan warned them about it then just before he stepped down and handed the reins to Bernake.
I just haven’t seen any REAL evidence of a crisis in our land, other the the fact that our liberal news media knows how to stir panic well.
Am I wrong? Is it worse than what it seems? are you or someone you know loosing their house and car and being forced to raise your children in the streets?
Here is the solution: Give your money to the needy. Pray, fast, and preach the good news of Christ wherever you go. How’s that for a bailout package!?
Zack,
As always, I really love to hear your thoughts on things, but on this one I have to disagree. Except for your bailout package, which I have given myself to as well, I think your missing the true depth of the situation. (hope Im wrong, maybe I am)
Our system has been intentionally engineered on credit. It operates based upon our need of credit. Banks operate because they extend credit to corporations, and individuals in order to make money from interest. Others will take the projected profit that they will make from said investments, bundle them together and sell them as securities on the open market.But there is NO REAL value to our dollar except for the prospect of us needing the credit to keep the ball rolling: i.e. the perceived demand for us needing this or that commodity enables us to put value to the over all economy. (This is seriously simple and lacking explanation, but it gives the gist of it.)
The situation has gone to an extreme place and has created this incredible bubble that is our economy, but lacks any true substance. A majority of our government, corporate and the privet sectors have an incredible amount of credit debt that they can not support. We are witnessing the beginning of a great collapse of this giant credit bubble that has inflated the value of everything. Major financial institutions have failed and over 2.2 trillion dollars of investor wealth has evaporated in the stock market in America, and 10’s of trillions world wide.
Here in America, it has affected the infrastructure of what makes our system work, and cities and towns have begun to have marked budget short falls. Some who have had investments in some of the failed institutions have lost entire budgets. The state of Virginia is an example of this, who have lost an substantial amount of their money as a result of the recent troubles in the financials.
This is only the tip of the iceberge. The media is far from trying to stir panic, they are in all reality, suppressing the true severity of the situation to stem the panic. They are trying to avoid more of these situations described in this article; http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/13/economy.violence.ap/index.html We are witnessing a systemic collapse of the American credit based economic system, and it is having global impact.
I have been pressing in to the Lord, looking at these things and asking Him what they mean, and these are the scriptures I have continually been taken back to: Joel 1, Habakkuk 1:1-10, Psalm 11:3-7 and Isa. 57. God is moving to shake the thrones of iniquity, but I don’t think it is coming in the way any of us are wanting. Joel 1, as you well know outlines a severe economic crisis that took hold of Israel in successive waves of devastation. This may not be locust that are ravishing our land, but there are definite forces at work in nature as well in the affairs of men that are mounting in their intensity to shake our confidence in our wealth. This is coming also to alert us of a greater trouble ahead- military invation, and the greater problem of the evil world ruler which will come in the days after that.
I have been crying out daily for mercy. I am pleading with the Lord not to give us the ruler that we as a nation deserve. But my gut tells me that we may be in for the most liberal president that we have ever had. There are times in the econmy of God where He must move in judgment to bring about the greatest amount of good by stemming the tide of evil that has overtaken His people.
Zack,
What do you, then, define as “crisis”? You say all your wealthy friends haven’t been affected much and are doing fine. Well, that’s sort of obvious – they had a lot of money to start with and are not going to feel the crunch as frontally (except maybe in their investment portfolios).
In the sense that most people aren’t yet starving, maybe you have a point. But the Dow has gone down something like 38% since January, trillions of dollars of wealth around the world have evaporated, the credit markets are still frozen. You also have to consider that many “normal” people have stock assets in the form of mutual funds or 401Ks, funds reserved for retirement. The value of these assets has decreased considerably, a major major blow for those people thinking about retiring in the next year or two.
So you haven’t yet convinced me that were not in a crisis, but maybe you still can.
Cheers
Greg,
I agree I’m being unreasonable. Maybe even purposefully to start a discussion.
My point is this I spent the last 2 weeks watching CNN (yes on the honeymoon- Carrie was interested too!) Over and over again they talked about how troubling, hard, and terrible our country is to live in right now. How this is the second great depression.
As unfortunate as it is that people are loosing their retirement, is not a life taking crisis. It’s a frustrating inconvenience. Sure you hope your 401K is good, but most financial advisers for the last 10 years have been saying don’t bank on your 401K alone. Even still it’s bad, it’s a bummer, but life will still go on. That’s my point.
@John
You asked me if this is a judgment of God with escatological implications. I think it may be a warning. Because if this is a judgment, it is a merciful one at that. i pray we turn at the caution.
either way keep praying!
All good points. It probably depends on how we define “crisis.” But I don’t think you’re being reasonable. As Christians, our security is in the Lord, not in wealth, so it’s good that you don’t view a falling stock market as a real crisis. The problem is that, most people, regrettably, don’t see it that way.
Take care, and congrats on your marriage.
Someone in my immediate family [I won't say who, in case he reads this], lost $100,000 out of his retirement fund (which is a lot for him), and also approx. $75,000 out of his equity in his house previously estimated at $225,000. Also, he’s a Realtor who hasn’t sold a house in a year.
I had the chance to talk with him recently, and he was majorly depressed and hopeless. I got to share some hope in God’s economy (it’s doing fine, btw), and pray for him. The next day he called me and had a completely different tone and even apologized for his negativity.
While the question of how we define the term “crisis” might still be a bit vague, the fact that God is using this to shake people’s confidence in their portfolio’s is unquestionable. Even if nothing else happens at this point, for most people this month is as memorable as 9/11. Oh, and also, this is not a problem that is isolated to our country. It may even be much worse in other countries (thinking of Poland?).
There is still potential for this thing to slide much further, and honestly, if it does, I’ll still say that God is good, and has us in mind. The truth is we have relied on our own wealth for our security. If it doesn’t slide further, I’ll say God is patient.
@ greg I’m glad you stopped by. It’s good to know you are still out there
@David G Very good points, in all of this, God is good
@ everyone I’m wrong it is a crisis! i just got decent intel to prove so!
Actually, Zack, you were right to start with. It’s not a crisis.
–Obviously it is for some people, but that’s always the case.
–There is certainly a crisis in the banking industry, and for credit.
–Wall Street has had a crisis I suppose. But bear in mind that the average bear market has a 36% downturn in stock prices. What have we had? Exactly that. Average.
But so far what has filtered down to “Main Street” has been far from a crisis for about 90-95% of the people. It’s a matter of perspective. Like you said, previous generations endured far worse crises.
Nevertheless, here we are 14 days before the election. Now is the time to cry out to God for mercy and to be sure that we align ourselves with His purposes. I don’t know what the election will bring, or whether Wall Street’s problems will become a Main Street crisis, but I am sure that I want to be where Jesus is.
Welcome back Zack.
“@ everyone I’m wrong it is a crisis! i just got decent intel to prove so!”
Was this sarcasm? Would love to hear what it is, if it wasn’t. Was it Wendy Alec’s recent email?
Oh and yeah, I agree if this is all there is to what is happening with the economy- it is merciful, but I don’t think we have seen all that is going to happen. There are a couple of unforeseen things that could further destabilize the whole thing.
After the first wave of locust in Israel, I’m sure most of the people thought, “well, glad that’s over with! we can rebuild and recoup our losses; been here before, done that.” Only to find yet another wave fill the horizon- blotting out the sun. They watched in terror as they became overwhelmed yet again with this insurmountable hoard.
And after his one, they breathed a sigh of relief… and yet another, and again another. Still yet after this, a drought, and then fire. You haven’t seen the end of this, I don’t think.
I think it is a crisis depending on what line of work you are in. In my line of work, working on highend remodel and building doing architectural millwork, making molding basically. Well we also do anything that involves cutting wood. But we are not a commodity shop. And right now many of the commodity shops are not doing well. The major mills we know of they are barely running and laying people off. We on the other hand have more money in the bank and are owed more money and are busier than ever. It is interesting. Truckers are having a hard time to, now it is not just because of the high diesel prices it is also because there just is not that much hauling to do.
I think that on average people who are in the upper middle class are cutting back, but people in the upper class are spending more. I am glad for this. I know though that I have not changed my spending at all. Actually this last month I spent too much, but God provides.
Also there is something to be said for how you run business and where you have your priorities. My dad who owns the company I work for, loves the Lord and has really given the company over to the Lord asking the Lord whom he should hire, whom he should let go, when to buy, when to sell. how to deal with difficult customer, and for grace when things get hard. I believe that because of the way my dad runs our business we are doing well even right now. We also know a trucker who loves the Lord and sows in ministry, he is doing great. Though he is the only trucker that I have talked to who has said he does not have enough work.
As John Barker was saying concerning the way our nation relies on credit. It is true. People think that they should be able to put money into this thing called the stock market, or buy a house and it will automatically go up and make them filthy rich. Granted not all look at things this way. But I have friends who would buy 350,000 houses and sell them for 400,000+ and buy a 500,000 and then their idea was to have that grow to 750,000+- and then sell it and go back to a 350,000 house.
To me that sums up the way much of our nation looks at things. It is not right that houses gain in price like that. And think about where that gain come from, it come from screwing some sucker who buys your house you owned for a couple years and made 100,000, and really did nothing to improve it.
Well these people are leveraged out in credit, and banks are closing or their house just dropped 100,000 because it was never truly worth what people said it was, and they don’t want to pay 100,000 more on that loan so they file bankruptcy.
Oh and how about the fact that banks let people borrow out 130%+ that is wrong, and then people can’t make those payment. This crisis it truly alive because if you live selfishly beyond your means it is going to bit you. Unfortunately, we get to pay for it. YEAH!!! lol
did you check out the linkage i sent you the other day?
here are some posts a guy i know named zack exley on what’s going on in finance.
http://revolutioninjesusland.com/index.php/2008/10/17/depression-economics-explained/
also: i just talked to someone today that reveals that the problem is real – they’re hours at work were cut back, they work at the apple store.
i believe in the next 2-3 months we will all have many stories of people being laid off or losing their jobs. it’s gonna get real pretty fast.
of course, the glory of being a believer is that our hope was never in our home equity or our 401(k), right?
@ joe I feel you man
@ john I wasn’t being sarcastic- i talked with a guy who has a good grip on what is going on and laid out some things that solidify the fact that crisis, if it isn’t here right now, will be soon.
@ Scott knowing that I agree with you agreeing with me- it’s complicated
@Kyle I’m reading it now;)
@ everyone we need to pray
Hi All,
These are interesting times to be sure. I’m going to check out Zach exley’s stuff soon. I also would like to suggest that everybody check out Rick Joyner’s comments about the economy Here http://www.morningstarministries.org/Articles/1000039109/MorningStar_Ministries/Media/Special_Bulletins/2008/_15_The.aspx