nothing is written

I’ve read two different versions of the same statistic in the last week. It seems that these days everyone’s looking for a yard stick against which to measure the state of the spluttering economy. One of the measurements in fashion right now is this; the ratio of household debt to GDP.

If, like me, you virtually flunked your economics and have a little difficulty telling your macro from your micro, some explanation is in order. Household debt to GDP (Gross Domestic Product – a fancy title for the effective income of any given country) simply shows how much on average households are borrowing against what the whole country has coming in.

Last summer, according to some reports, the UK broke through an invisible – but significant – barrier; we started borrowing more than we were earning.

A few months later and the whole thing has gone crazy. We’re now in a situation where the world’s ‘wealthiest’ countries are caught up in the chains of debt, as the stats reveal:

Household debt as a percentage of GDP

(2005)

France 56.2%
United States 98%
United Kingdom 104.2%
Netherlands 116.5%

Another, more up to date, version put the UK in overall lead, with about household debt now at over 170% of GDP.

Yikes.

Here are a few more shockers for you…

The freshly-bailed out Royal Bank of Scotland’s liabilities alone exceed the total national income of the U.K. So far this year UK debt has grown at a rate of £1million every 8.5 minutes. The current rate of 104 house repossessions every day is sure to rise as is the fact that 1 person every 5 minutes is declared bankrupt.

There are  a couple of questions that line up behind this; what does all this debt say about us? And what’s all this credit crunching going to do to our new-found passion to change the world and eliminate poverty?

We’ve all heard greed blamed as the number one fuel for the current financial crisis. But I doubt it’s really as simple as that. Why? Because – as I found out when I opened the results envelope and saw a shiny ‘D’ next to A level Economics – nothing ever really is that simple. Yet what we can be sure of is the fact that the current threat of Depression 2.0 tells us this; we really ought to be a little more sceptical of the hype that we pump out here in the wealthy west. All our strutting and strolling and summiteering (Ok, I just made that up, but you get the drift) is worth far les than we assume. We think of ourselves as the global leaders and yet we can’t even manage our own interests properly, let alone deal with the fact that 2 out of 3 people on this planet will be forced to try and get through the next 24 hours on less than £1.

Right now, if you ask me, we look a lot less like global leaders and a lot more like the prodigals taking our first look at the pig-sty which pretty soon could become our home.

But what about the other question; is this the end of our brief attempts to be the first generation in a while that makes real efforts to correct the problem of global injustice? Are we going to be too busy licking our own wounds over the coming years to worry about anyone else’s? Has charity got to go back to basics and start over again at home?

Opinions, please.

Now, I like this guy called Steve Strang. Personally, I find him to be pretty good company. Of course there’s plenty that we would disagree on, but I get the feeling that had he been born in Mumbai and found his faith, Steve would have ended up being one of those remarkable influential nobodies that are quietly changing their world.

Oh, he published a book I wrote too, so that makes him a pretty rare man.

But Steve wasn’t born in Mumbai, and he’s become – for what it’s worth – the kind of guy that features in Time magazine’s list of the Most Influential Evangelicals in America.

And this is his latest blog posting:

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Life As We Know It Will End If Obama Is Elected

I was amazed that during the presidential debate this week Sen. John McCain didn’t make the point that if Sen. Barack Obama is elected, life as we know it in many ways will end. America will be more socialized and have less free enterprise and freedom.

It seems that due to the current economic crisis, a percentage of Americans are clamoring for change in the White House. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to realize that change will mean gay rights will be encoded into law and abortion rights laws will be strengthened. The result will be an alteration in our entire social structure and the likelihood that Roe v. Wade—the case that led to the legalization of abortion–will never be overturned. Recently someone sent me a video put out by Roman Catholics on the sanctity of life. Take time to watch it at www.catholicvote.com. It makes the point that protecting human life from conception to natural death is one of the most important responsibilities we have as Christians.

I believe if Obama is elected, the government will tax, tax, tax the citizens who are most productive. Yet it’s been proven that tax increases lead to economic downturn, while tax cuts lead to economic growth (which we desperately need). There will also be a “take from the rich, give to the poor” type of socialistic mind-set throughout the nation. And I believe our country will be weaker militarily around the world.

In addition, people who hate Christianity will be emboldened to attack our freedoms. Christianity is already persona non grata in academia and in the liberal media. People such as Bill Maher and Michael Moore, who hate God and God’s people, will think the election verifies that the nation as a whole believes as they do and will jump for glee. Meanwhile, Christians seem almost asleep. There is no outcry! And there is a group of Bible-believing Christians who appear to have decided to overlook how dangerous Obama will be and plan to vote for him anyway.

A few weeks ago McCain and Obama were even in the polls. However, the economic crisis seems to have pushed some Americans toward Obama. So in the 25 days to the election we must pray as never before. And we must work to wake up Christians. That is what happened late in the 2004 election—Christian leaders rallied believers, and as a result, George W. Bush was re-elected president.

Even though polls are often right, there are exceptions, and we must pray and work–before it’s too late–to see that Obama is not elected. I receive lots of interesting e-mails having to do with the election and the issues surrounding current culture wars. Below is some of what someone sent me and urged me to pass on. There are links to several interesting videos that you should take the time to watch. Much of what you will see is disturbing. I urge you to forward the information below to your friends.

The only reason Obama is competitive is because people do not really know who and what he stands for.

Barack Obama’s Views:

Endorsed by:
- ACLU
- AFL-CIO
- National Trial Lawyers Groups
- NARAL
- Planned Parenthood
- Homosexual and atheist advocacy groups
- Moveon.org
- Radical leftist national groups

These groups have provided the largest support for his campaign, along with the Saudis. And every one of them hates serious Christians and Zionist Jews. How can a Christian or a Jew vote with them? He promised the trial lawyers that he will fight against Tort Reform.

He promised the unions to vote for the Union Intimidation Act (aka Employee Free Choice Act)–a laughable name for legislation that will devastate American jobs. He promised the abortionists to vote for the Abortion Anytime Act (aka the Freedom of Choice Act).

He promised the homosexuals that he will support the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, and he is already fighting the California Marriage Amendment. And he has no experience! Hello?

Serious Political Videos and Articles that Expose the Truth about Barack Obama

Article: See Obama’s Illegal Campaign Contributions
http://www.newsmax.com/timmerman/Obama_fundraising_illegal/2008/09/29/135718.html?s=al&promo_code=6BD9-1

Video Clip: Mohammar Khaddafi on Barack Obama. Quite real and quite damning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSemkPChvHo

Video Clip: A History of Barack Obama’s Life and Politics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUdjhKbImwE

Video Clip: Barack Obama on Defense Spending
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sj91NH5fvw

Video Clip: Little-Known Barack Obama Scandals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sawN7uJ8s8s

Video Clip: Hillary Shreds Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQadAAlK9c4

Video Clip: Biden Slams Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV14xqelWxY

Video Clip: The Hypocrisy of the Liberal Media Exposed in Their Attack on Sarah Palin’s Prayer for the Troops
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hpwM4Jjyrs

Video Clip: School Children Sing Praises of Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08iomNFrzU4

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I know many of you are as disturbed as I am. I think this information on Obama speaks for itself. Let’s pray for a shift in our country. And let’s get this information into the hands of as many people as possible. If you missed my endorsement of John McCain, click here.

And be sure to add your thoughts to the blog.

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Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that his tone and pitch have revved up just like McCain’s, but I have to confess that I was a little taken aback by this. But what made me smile were the comments that followed. Read them for yourself here.

What I want to know is are these the final kicks and snarls of a fatally wounded beast – is this the beginning of the end of the religious right? Or is this the first signs of a drastic counter attack that will lead us into the kind of future that Atwood glimpsed in The Handmaid’s Tale?

This is plagiarism, but since I can’t remember whether or where or when I read, heard or overheard someone saying this I’ll just have to go ahead and spew it;

In years that followed it  the 1914-1918 war was the seen as one of the most brutal periods of human history. It was the war to end all wars, the like of which nobody assumed would be seen again. So they called it the Great War.

1939 – 1945 changed all that. With over 70 million dead on both sides the Great War was no longer so unique and as a result it was renamed World War I.

There was another event that shaped the twentieth century; the Great Depression. From 1929 to the 30s and 40s, the largest and most significant economic depression devastated the economies of once-wealthy nations. The cause? The 1929 stock market crash.

It doesn’t take a genius to see where this is heading; could it be that soon we’ll be forced into rebranding the Great Depression? Are about to start GD II?

Whether this happens or not, what we call it is surely the least significant part of it all. But I’m wondering if, right now, tinkering with the packaging is about all we can do.