Tuesday 29 January 2013

It's the savers who will pay for the financial crisis

Just occasionally a news item catches my eye, and since I'm not currently updating the Chelmsford Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans blog (though that may soon change), I feel inclined to link to them here.

One such is an article in the Guardian: Q[uantitative] E[asing] a 'monumental mistake' pensions experts say. This points out that the effect of QE - or in layman's terms, 'printing money' - has been basically inflationary. It has driven up prices and driven down returns on investments.

And a key result, according to the article, is that it is pensioners in particular, living off their savings in one form or another, who are hardest hit - a conclusion reinforced by a financially savvy friend of mine.

All this is just by way of alarming you. There's not much can be done by the likes of you and me to change things, but my own advice (which is not worth much, I admit) is to buy 'stuff' rather than save 'cash'. Meanwhile, watch the effect on the economy which, since earning and spending represent our modern Baal worship, is bound to have an effect on the context in which we evangelize.

Please give a full name and location when posting. Comments without this information may be deleted. Recommend:

2 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Total UK debt 8 trillion or around 500% of GDP!

    £130K for every person in the UK (Roughly £350K per worker)

    Tell me how we can get out of this without inflation.

    Worth reading but probably most people will have seen this sort of thing before.

    http://www.infowars.com/quantitative-easing-did-not-work-for-the-weimar-republic-either/

    Back to the question

    How can we protect ourselves?

    Many people have all their monetary eggs in one basket. (i.e. their job or pension). One way forward is to look into creating multiple income streams rather than relying on one bigger one. Easier said than done, but 5 small streams are far better than one. For pensioners this is difficult but not always impossible.

    The church should I believe look into ways now of supporting members and where possible extending this into the wider society.

    If things pan out as they did in the past the Government will not be able to cope. Look at what is happening in Greece. (And they are still getting large chunks of cash from Germany.)

    As Christians I think it is an excellent opportunity to be clear on how we got into this mess. The encouragement of greed, the deliberate weakening of the family, the absence of virtue, the encouragement of moral behaviour that undermines family structures and of course a culture that does not take personal responsibility for anything. The Bible tells us how we can live a good life and enjoy the fruits of his world. When we take the other path, we should not be too surprised when it all ends in tears.

    Phil

    ReplyDelete