crunch

Economics was not one of my favorite subjects in college. But right now, I think I should have listened more back then. With all the downward-pointing arrows I see now in the stock market and interest rates and my favorite crude prices….. have gone haywire, and the declaration of Chapter 11 (bankruptcy) of some of seemingly unsinkable companies. The panic button has been pressed and everybody’s paying attention (well, almost everybody). While some of us watch in the sidelines, the ripple effect can be felt in the pumps and the grocery shelves and in the jobs of our friends. But as much as I’d like to pretend I know a lot of what’s happening, for me, the best way is to break it down in very simple terms for me. Kahit sub-atomic levels…And by doing this, I will start to understand this very complex adult world which Peter Pan disliked but has to contend with.

So this crunch supposedly started when entities who lend money decided to do that, (loan money) to people who bought homes. These people however, lack the ability to pay or the banks lend more than what these borrowers are capable of paying (of course at higher interest rates). Thus, the word sub-prime…(not choiced cuts) So the result are a plethora (this is my favorite word of the week) …of bad debts. The borrowers weren’t able to pay what they’re supposed to pay and they ended up giving up their homes.

So the companies who loaned them the money were in deep…. deep trouble. Thus, these companies declared bankruptcy. Since most of these are banks are connected in this wonderful world of capitalism. The domino effect was felt all over NY- LON-KONG (Time magazine’s front page a few months ago).

Other schools of thought say the culprit of all these is……deregulation. When companies were given the free reins to run wild… within the boundaries of the law of course…that’s what started the fire they stay.

This is really getting too complicated for my Kindergarten mindset. In Neverland, we don’t get to worry about these things such as mortgages and jobs. But when you see your friends losing their jobs, you tend to worry…And with our finite human minds, we become anxious with all the things that are happening…And then a verse the Pastor mentioned yesterday struck me…

Matthew 6:24-34
25"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

27And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?

28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? 31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.
34"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.

Of course that does mean we don't have to work like the birds in the air....but that's another story. ..