When Wall Street Plays God—Everybody Gets Hurt!
A commentary by Howard Davis
United Church of God elder, Portland, Oregon
The world we live in bows to the god of mammon. Pursuit of materialism
and money has become the core value of most people the world over.
Obsession with material gain is the organizing motivator that drives
the world's economies. It is also one of the greatest sins
of our time. And abundant sin begets abundant curses.
The idea that both God and mammon control the outcome of the world's
financial structures might at first sound confusing.
But it's true!
God sets the rules for success or failure in every human activity.
But the worship of mammon messes up humanity's potential to
enjoy the long term blessings and prosperity that come from applying
the principles of God's laws—such as "You shall
not steal" and "You shall not covet ..." (Exodus
20:15, 17).
That's why the sub prime mortgage crisis and its potential
to collapse U.S. housing values is a curse that just keeps on
giving—exposing the symptoms of a deep, worldwide spiritual
crisis. Wrong values and practices of finance infect every nook
and cranny of the global economy.
Presently millions of Americans face the threat of being forced
out of the homes they purchased under manipulated circumstances.
You, your friends, relatives or coworkers may be hurt—perhaps
very badly—before the effects of these irresponsible loans
come to an end.
The price for playing God
God gives no one the right to rewrite the laws of basic prosperity.
Anyone trying to change His rules is playing God—trying to
usurp His authority.
Tragically, Wall Street's barons of banking and investments
have been playing God on a mind-boggling scale for the last five
years. These few thousands of people control or influence how money
flows throughout the world—deciding who gets it, who doesn't
and on what terms.
Bowing to the allure of mammon, many Wall Street bankers, underwriters
and promoters—with unsuspecting cooperation from consumers—have
for decades promoted the idea that easy credit is the foundation
of prosperity.
It is not! That's the big lie behind the economic crisis
of today.
The foolish idea of replacing the ethics of hard work, savings,
and sound investment as the foundation of prosperity was wrong.
But more than wrong, it is evil to attempt to turn the endless debt
extended to relatively poor people into endless supplies of gold
for rich people.
Ill gotten gain
After 9-11, Wall Street handlers of trillions of dollars of assets
manipulated the reigns of credit markets to lure millions of Americans
to take on trillions in mortgage debt under the false promises of
rising home values and easy repayment schemes. Investment bankers
repackaged and sold these to greedy investors for high returns.
Thousands of executives rejoiced over the legal but outrageously
unethical compensation for these massive transactions in fool's
gold. Wall Street investment bankers, traders, specialists, and
analysts and their management executives took home over $25 billion
Christmas bonuses in 2006 alone.
What was new was the gigantic scale of this foolishness. Banks,
investors, and insurance companies, on the grandest scale the world
over, bought the notion that Wall Street could change reality itself—and
rewrite the biblical principles behind prosperity or depression.
Even watchdog agencies that rate debt were obscenely compromised
while U.S. political leaders turned a blind eye or bought into the
scheme.
The destruction of assets and wealth—millions in mortgages
and other financial instruments—is wreaking havoc in the world's
credit and finance structure. Credit markets are in serious recession
all over the world. It is threatening meltdown within weeks.
Already U.S. stock markets have erased $3 trillion in equity value.
As of February 2008 there's a $2 trillion loss in home property
values, with as much as $5 trillion more to come.
By one measure of averaging, that would equal approximately $60,000
in asset value for each family of 4 in the United States that has
been lost already. The possibility of this loss tripling within
three years has been suggested by economists from both Goldman Saks
and Yale University.
If you are among the majority of Americans who own their own homes,
you have experienced a loss of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands,
of dollars in the value of your house. Some feel they have been
robbed. Indeed, you may be among them.
Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke
16:13). Eventually, serving mammon brings ruin to those ensnared
by its temptations, which proves yet again that when men in power
in this world play God everybody gets hurt.
 For an expanded explanation of God's
laws and principles that govern financial stability, I suggest that
you request or download our free publication, Managing Your Finances.
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