The Search for Solutions
WHEN it comes to curing what ails Wall Street, there is no shortage of ideas. But there is a shortage of agreement. Some experts argue that debt and LBOs must be limited, while others insist that both are good for the economy. The two sides are heavily armed with statistics to “prove” their points.
Helmut Schmidt feels that the world’s major economic powers (United States, Germany, Japan) must cooperate to solve the world’s economic woes. He says: “The mediocrity of all three governments can be no excuse for spending more time complaining about one another than recognizing their own deficiencies. Even mediocre people can shoulder responsibility.”
But ask yourself: How much can we reasonably expect from inherently mediocre human governments? Schmidt readily admits, for instance, that the problem of Third World debt is “unsolved and virtually insoluble.” Can the mediocre solve the insoluble?
These words of a wise man of some 25 centuries ago are right on the mark: “It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” (Jeremiah 10:23) How true those words have proved to be today! The world’s economy is too complicated for even the experts to understand, let alone repair.
What can you do in the face of the world’s economic instability? The Bible again has some pointed advice: Invest wisely! Note Jesus’ words at Matthew 6:19, 20: “Stop storing up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break in and steal. Rather, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
But how do you do that—store up treasure in heaven? You begin by realizing that you, like all of us, have spiritual needs to fill. (Matthew 5:3) You can address those needs by investing something even more precious than money—your time—in studying the Bible. You will be amazed at the simplicity and reasonableness of the answers it gives to your most troubling questions.
The ex-yuppie mentioned in the previous article did just that. He returned to the study of the Bible that he had abandoned during his busy years on Wall Street, and he found that doing so changed his life for the better. He was fascinated to learn that the Bible foretells the final collapse of all the greed-driven economic systems of this world. When God brings this world system to its cataclysmic end, no stock portfolio, no bankroll, will buy protection or escape. Money will be so useless that people will throw it into the very streets. (Ezekiel 7:19; 1 John 2:15-17) Only spiritual investments will have any value then.
Especially comforting is the Bible’s promise that after that time of destruction, greed will no longer rule the world. Justice, not profit, will then reign forever. (Isaiah 9:6, 7) Indeed, some day people will say, ‘Wall Street—what’s that?’