This is outright tyranny. Just like the trillions in bailouts that clearly aren’t working (see Warren Buffett’s comments from today, who himself is a liberal Democrat), this too will be crammed down our throats, without debate, without the consent of the people for whom Congress allegedly works, without any dialog or discussion, under the assumption of an unproven theory that man is causing the Earth to warm. This is simply outrageous. And it will raise costs on everything, especially energy, to levels we likely haven’t seen … and all this at a time when our economy is in one of the worst crises since the Great Depression and on the verge of possibly getting worse for a long time to come. Simply unbelievable. Yet this is the exact kind of nonsense that was warned against before the election. Kay Granger is up in arms on this one.
Category: Business Page 4 of 6
- Big government spending programs are turning out to have the opposite effect – AP – What a shocker!
- Ford to Face Tougher Rivals Following U.S. Rescue – WSJ – Example of government intervention stifling competition which leads to less incentive to buy, sell and invest and leads to less wealth creation overall.
- US Unemployment Rate Gallops Ahead of Expectations – voanews.com – All that money, gone, and nothing to show for it.
- US to Propose Wider Oversight of Compensation – NYTimes.com – When companies take from the government, even a little, they are wholly dictated to about how to run operations.
- Kennedy’s Healthcare Bill Will Increase Expenses, Decrease Employment and Encourage Outsourcing – Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis – The title says it all.
While there is a plethora of bad news that continues coming out concerning the economy, and the fog of economic uncertainty (and in some cases dire certainty) continues to creep in amongst communities all over the country, something we believers need to make sure we’re doing is responding to these trials in a way that glorifies God. And using this as an opportunity to share the Gospel to those who don’t know Him.
Though things may certainly not get as bad as many of the top economists and investment advisers in the country are saying it will get, certainly people are already being impacted by job losses, monetary loss, all kinds of loss. Yet, it is in these very times that God’s power shines its brightest in our lives. The Gospel works great power in weakness. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
These two three four five six radio programs on This American Life do an excellent job of giving an on-the-street perspective from the Wall Street investors to the lenders all the way down to the individual home-buyers and finally the results of the recession in everyday life. In addition, there is a very good explanation of how banks work and why they are becoming insolvent. If you haven’t dug in to understand how we have gotten into this mess, you must listen to these programs. Excellent journalism.
- The Giant Pool of Money (MP3) – 05.09.2008
- Another Frightening Show About the Economy (MP3) – 10.03.2008
- Bad Bank (MP3) – 02.27.2009
- Scenes From a Recession (MP3) – 03.27.2009
- The Watchmen (MP3) – 06.05.2009
- Return To The Giant Pool of Money – 09.25.2009
More in-depth economic analysis can be found here:
- http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/
- http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/
- http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/
- http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/
(Update: 9.28.2009 – Though they don’t come to this conclusion in these shows, after much investigation and personal reflection on the events of the last two years, I have come to the conclusion that the Federal Reserve is ultimately at fault for meddling in markets, making money super cheap to obtain, and promoting an environment of pure moral hazard. Certainly, all those who took the bait, everyone from lenders, to consumers, to those on Wall Street, are all responsible in some manner. But ultimate responsibility for the over-arching cause of the crisis is the reckless policy decisions of our central bank over the last 30 years, starting with Paul Volcker (as I understand it), who is oddly one of Obama’s economic advisor’s. It is unfathomable to me that the same people who promoted reckless macro-economic policies are supposed to be the same people to get us out of this mess … by spending us even further in the hole. Unbelievable. And contrary to the assumption that “no one saw this coming,” think again … watch below.)
This is a brief clip of one of Lance Secretan’s presentations to a group of corporate employees. Notice how at the beginning of this clip, he disregards anything Christianity had to offer in history as an explanation for natural and supernatural reality. He doesn’t even mention all of the thousands of Christian thinkers who have contributed greatly to the progress of “humanity” who believed Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. These voices are simply ignored. Sure, he mentions Jesus as a good moral teacher, and even quotes Him in the presentation. Yet Secretan cherry-picks what he wants from what Jesus said without dealing with the portions of Scripture where He claims to be God Himself, the only way to salvation, the greatest Person in all of history. This is ignored, for to deal with these texts simply denies his own worldview perspective of reality.
Oh yeah, that’s right … it was all marketing anyway, a facade … and when the economy crashes, marketing and advertising are the first things to get cut. Plus, when the economy is down, there’s no money to be made, because the green push only works when the economy is doing well. Hmm, what does that tell us about the reality of things?
The mighty Green push has disappeared from the media, with the exception of big companies like NBC and CNN still pushing it (I’m assuming because for them, there is still money to be made based on statistics), despite the fact that 2/3 of the presenters at the UN’s IPCC conference dissent against the theory of man-made global warming.
Can you tell this is a sticking point for me? 🙂 The level of absurdity with this nonsense continues to boggle the imagination.
Everything may shift around us at extremely fast rates … and yet God and His Gospel remain constant. Plant yourself in Him and His grace to us in Christ, for, “the times, they are a-changin’,” really really quickly.