Bibli-econ 101

In reflecting upon a series of posts that I wrote back in early 2009, which I called my "Stupid series" ( not to demean the content, but referring to the political adage, " It's the economy, Stupid..."), I came up with some interesting thoughts that I decided to share. They may seem outlandish based upon our present economic, and political reality, but I believe it should make for interesting discussion if anyone remembers that there is a "comments" button at the bottom of each post. If you make sincere and relevant comments, I will publish them, and perhaps comment back ( provided you are not trying to promote some anti-Christian cult, as happened recently).

These earlier posts were made to try to explain, Biblically, why the chaotic state of the economy would most likely doom the Democratic majority in Congress to wholesale losses in the coming 2010 elections, and also make President Obama's 2012 re-election unlikely, as well. So much for my new career as a political prognosticator! I couldn't fathom the American public being duped to the extent that we would re-elect the Bums who perpetuate this quagmire which has to end in the worst economic tragedy in history, if it is not brought under control soon. I guess my optimistic regard for the political acumen of the average citizen is tragically misplaced. It now seems we will have to depend entirely upon God's infinite capacity to care for, and provide for those who truly repent, in Jesus name, in the future economic disaster that may not be too far off. Thank God He is up to the task, but it's a shame we will have to experience a lot of the financial pain that now seems inevitable to me.

Anyway, in my old posts ( written in my now-defunct previous blog, which I recently cancelled permanently. If you now Google-up "The End-Times News Review" you will get a blank page with the title only on it.), I tried to describe the plan for economic activity that God revealed to the Israelites, the best that I could understand it. It is designed to automatically deflate the economy a little at a time, thereby eliminating the possibility of their economy having to suffer through the painful effects of a hyper-inflationary collapse such as historical evidence suggests the Roman empire may have dealt with as a consequence of Nero's tax-and-spend, and currency-inflating policies, and the record accounts for the similar collapse of the post-World War I German economy of the 1920's.

In my considering this plan, it occurred to me that this economy would not only protect the obedient individual, but it would tend to benefit small businesses who practiced it, while punishing the disobedient profligacy of the ancient equivalent of today's Multi-national Global Corporations. As the economy was designed to gradually deflate, it made it difficult to fund the rapid expansion of the rich ( i.e., corporations), which is generally accomplished through massive borrowed-capital investments ( massive borrowing would have been disastrous in a deflationary system). The rich would have survived, but only after defaulting on their massive debts, which would consequently have forced the liquidation of much of their assets. Eventually, those assets would be for sale at cheap prices, and the more prudent small business owners, and merchants of the day would have been the most likely people to have the funds to purchase them. This would accomplish two things: 1) it would be God's way of blessing the more prudent business practices of those who obediently applied His principles, while they gradually became the rich members of society; and, 2) it served as a painful, but not fatal lesson to the greedy, former rich business people, who thought massive borrowing was the best way to expand their business. If they chose to repent, and return to God's plan they could soon begin to prosper safely, but their previously greedy short-cut practices would continue to create the same result.

Today, we have an economy that runs completely opposite to God's plan. It is based upon massive borrowing ( called "financing") to build most of our businesses, with the result being massive corporate debt leaving our economy hanging by a thread, waiting for the next economic "bubble" to send us crashing into the next recession, with each successive recession probably more painful that the last, as consumer spending would be slower to recover from an attitude of emergiency-need-based-spending-only. But wait! To the rescue comes our "hero", the Fed! They move in with massive foreign-borrowed money to save the Banks that are "too-big-to-fail", which in turn loan money to the Global Corporations that are too indebted to them to allow them to fail, because then the Banks wouldn't get paid, and the Corporations would be forced to sell their valuable assets cheaply to the more frugal small businesses, which would be in the process of becoming the next major corporations through more wise and less greedy business practices ( such as expanding only through self-financing, using money from previous profits to turn back into the business, to create the opportunity for greater future profits. But this would crimp the style of the greedy Corporate C.E.O.'s, Directors, and Managers, who prefer to spend their company's profits on their own lavish lifestyles, and borrow the funds for expansion). But thanks to the Fed, the old, corrupt "Capitalistic" system is preserved, which does not in the least resemble the so-called "Free Enterprise" system that it claims to be. ( Please, spare me the old knee-jerk reaction to call me a "communist", just because I am not enamored with today's concept of "Capitalism".) It is "free" only to the Banks, and Global Corporations that the Fed protects, and it is paid for by the rest of us through suffering the Fed-driven inflation that they institute to pay off the interest to their foreign loans, which they borrowed to prop up the Banks, etc., that probably should have been liquidated into the hands of more responsible owners. True "Free Enterprise" would allow the greedy to fail, so their assets could be re-purchased cheaply by more frugal, smaller business owners, who could be trusted not to become the greedy corporate owners, and managers of the future, for fear that they might suffer the same consequences as their predecessors. But this would take the largest part of the economy out of the hands of the Bankers, who might have to make their living providing a service of protecting the money of their depositors, and making smaller, and safer loans to consumers, who would soon be able to buy houses and other assets more cheaply, because there would not be so much inflationary-borrowed money available to drive up the prices artificially.

Interestingly, it occurred to me that the Fed was created by Congress about the time of the Teddy Roosevelt anti-trust campaign which eventually broke up so many of the old "Robber Barons'" corporations. The likes of J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and John D. Rockefeller saw their vast corporate holdings broken up into smaller companies ( but, they were compensated through the sales prices, so not suffering the financial losses of bankruptcy, they still maintained their wealthy power to influence the economy to their favor; hence the Fed was created to be run by wealthy Bankers, with the Fed's stock being owned by the Banks that were owned by these same "Robber Barons", to the ultimate protection of their Bank, and corporate holdings, at the expense of the average citizen, who was hurt the most by inflation.) What a brilliant plan to corrupt God's natural plan for allowing the economy to cleanse itself from Hyper-Greedy business practices, and steal the average man's desperate attempt to save, and prosper from his labors, in order to perpetuate their greedy ways! In God's economy, the greedy business owner may use greater riches to acquire more property, assets, subsidiary small businesses, and even more efficient competitor's businesses. But these very expansion acquisitions will only increase the profits in good economic times. When hard times hit, they tend to hit the bigger, less efficient businesses hardest. Soon the rich owner tires of paying the expenses of the unprofitable subsidiaries out of his own pocket, so he will seek to divest himself of the financial drag, and whomever buys it will likely run it more efficiently, and profitably. Even more efficient divestiture is through bankruptcy, after the rich guy hangs on too long to his inefficient businesses, and loses his shirt. That's how God would have the fat, inefficient corporations broken up, and sold to more efficient owners, at cheap prices. Not by government edict, when the former owner can sell the subsidiaries at reasonable prices, and maintain his wealthy power to continue his greedy practices once the economy rebounds. Without the automatic punishment of significant loss of wealth, there is no motivation for the greedy owner to change his ways, in the future.