{"id":874,"date":"2013-07-03T05:00:29","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/?p=874"},"modified":"2013-07-02T11:20:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-02T15:20:35","slug":"why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame.html","title":{"rendered":"Why the economic recovery isn&#8217;t real and who&#8217;s to blame?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=37vfb5UknGI\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Godonomics: Prepare for Good Times and Bad\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/37vfb5UknGI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The political parties want us to blame Obama or Bush. The want us to demonize Donkeys and Elephants. \u00a0 The real problem is much much deeper. The face of our real problem belongs to a man named John Keynes. \u00a0 \u00a0His philosophy has brainwashed families, marriages, and economic &#8220;sense&#8221; for the past one hundred years. \u00a0His wisdom is not only wrong historically, but is in complete opposition to the Bible&#8217;s practical teaching on money. \u00a0 Check out these links. \u00a0 1) \u00a0Americans fear another great <a href=\"http:\/\/politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com\/2011\/06\/08\/cnn-poll-obama-approval-rating-drops-as-fears-of-depression-rise\/\" target=\"_blank\">depression<\/a>. 2) \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/Fed-survey-Economy-falters-in-apf-1245068985.html?x=0&amp;sec=topStories&amp;pos=main&amp;asset=&amp;ccode=\" target=\"_blank\">Economy falters<\/a>. \u00a03) Debt <a href=\"http:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/US-debt-default-unimaginable-rb-544637721.html?x=0&amp;sec=topStories&amp;pos=2&amp;asset=&amp;ccode\" target=\"_blank\">default<\/a> is playing with fire.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>We Overspend Our Way To Slavery, Not Prosperity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our grandparents told us things like, \u201cDon\u2019t spend more than you make\u201d and \u201cSave some money for a rainy day.\u201d Too often, we ignored them both individually and as a nation. What was the result? Pressure. We feel the pressure of financial obligation creeping into the things we love the most. It begins to hurt our families and our health. The ulcers from worry combined with that last fight with our spouse over the pile of bills eats away the joy of our love. We know how we got here. No one needs to spell it out. We spent too much. We bought a house, a car, and a television that cost more than our paycheck would allow. Our eyes were bigger than our checkbook. Now we are trying to pay our bills while still making payments with interest on stuff we bought two Christmases ago. Many are still paying credit card bills for stuff that broke or was sold at a garage sale long ago. We overspent our way to slavery, not prosperity!<\/p>\n<p>What is the solution? Pay the consumer credit, get out of debt, and stop spending so much. Right? But not if you are John Keynes. While the Bible warns that we overspend our way to slavery, not prosperity, Keynes tries to flip this around. He tells us that if you are in debt&#8230; If you are in trouble&#8230; spend and borrow more. He believed you could spend your way to prosperity. Here is another troubling quote from his bizarre-worldview of finance:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cBefore his death, Lord Keynes had spoken his mind about those sterling debts: \u2018If you owe your bank manager a thousand pounds, you are at his mercy. If you owe him a million pounds, he is at your mercy.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You see what he is saying? If you have spent more than you can afford and the bank is breathing down your neck, you need to spend and borrow a lot more. He is saying that if you can borrow millions instead of thousands, the lender will be at <em>your<\/em> mercy. This is utter nonsense! You are broke and worse than broke! You are enslaved to debt. Going deeper into debt doesn\u2019t make you more prosperous. It makes you more broke, more indebted, and more enslaved. Your assets are worthless because you have bills and debt that outweigh your assets. You can\u2019t pay your debts, nor do you even have any hope of paying them off in your lifetime. This is not the path to prosperity; it\u2019s the path to slavery. God gives us some counter-wisdom.<\/p>\n<p><em>Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em>The Bible challenges us to owe no one anything. This is the path to both emotional and financial freedom. The Bible describes how reality works. It gives us economic laws that function as surely as the law of gravity. Whether we believe these principles or not is actually irrelevant. Today, many say things like, \u201cI don\u2019t believe in absolute truth,\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t believe in a God who actually appeared in history,\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t think there are economic laws that anyone can really know absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though our culture and modern enlightenment might have bought into the belief that there are no absolute truths, reality teaches us otherwise. I might like to think of myself as 6\u20196, 220 pounds, with a face like George Clooney, but reality reveals the truth. My beliefs do not change reality. Reality just\u2026is. \u00a0I may say, \u201cI believe the best way to diet is to eat ice cream and Twinkies and never exercise.\u201d I may firmly and sincerely believe that to be true, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">but<\/span> the reality is quite different. In the same manner, the facts show us that we don\u2019t change God\u2019s laws when we break them or choose to ignore them; but that\u2019s often when we discover them! This economic principle, \u201cYou overspend your way to slavery, not prosperity\u201d is true whether we believe it or not. God says it this way:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">The Borrower is Servant to the Lender<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Proverbs 22:7 Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For more information, check out\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.godonomics.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"162\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The political parties want us to blame Obama or Bush. The want us to demonize Donkeys and Elephants. \u00a0 The real problem is much much deeper. The face of our real problem belongs to a man named John Keynes. \u00a0 \u00a0His philosophy has brainwashed families, marriages, and economic &#8220;sense&#8221; for the past one hundred years.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,85,65,58,79],"tags":[220,221,154],"class_list":["post-874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalismsocialism","category-debt","category-generosity","category-liberty","category-self-sufficienct","tag-economic-recovery","tag-how-to-get-out-of-debt","tag-us-hyperinflation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why the economic recovery isn&#039;t real and who&#039;s to blame? - Godonomics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why the economic recovery isn&#039;t real and who&#039;s to blame? - Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The political parties want us to blame Obama or Bush. The want us to demonize Donkeys and Elephants. \u00a0 The real problem is much much deeper. The face of our real problem belongs to a man named John Keynes. \u00a0 \u00a0His philosophy has brainwashed families, marriages, and economic &#8220;sense&#8221; for the past one hundred years.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-03T09:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-02T15:20:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"chadhovind\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why the economic recovery isn't real and who's to blame? - Godonomics","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why the economic recovery isn't real and who's to blame? - Godonomics","og_description":"The political parties want us to blame Obama or Bush. The want us to demonize Donkeys and Elephants. \u00a0 The real problem is much much deeper. The face of our real problem belongs to a man named John Keynes. \u00a0 \u00a0His philosophy has brainwashed families, marriages, and economic &#8220;sense&#8221; for the past one hundred years.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame.html","og_site_name":"Godonomics","article_published_time":"2013-07-03T09:00:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-07-02T15:20:35+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png"}],"author":"chadhovind","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame.html","name":"Why the economic recovery isn't real and who's to blame? - Godonomics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png","datePublished":"2013-07-03T09:00:29+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-02T15:20:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#\/schema\/person\/b94809cbc6e13eafdb08a63d1825e37a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2013\/07\/why-the-economic-recovery-isnt-real-and-whos-to-blame.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why the economic recovery isn&#8217;t real and who&#8217;s to blame?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/","name":"Godonomics","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Chad Hovind","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#\/schema\/person\/b94809cbc6e13eafdb08a63d1825e37a","name":"chadhovind","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5ce\/5ce450f147d7562d63fa6a7f70df8143x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5ce\/5ce450f147d7562d63fa6a7f70df8143x96.jpg","caption":"chadhovind"},"description":"Chad Hovind is Senior Pastor of Horizon Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated from Moody Bible College in Chicago, majoring in pastoral ministry and communication. His love for ministry and creativity can be seen in many forms: leading teams, expository teaching, acting, and video production. He has served as pastor at two high-impact churches in Georgia: Cumberland Community Church and New Community Church. Chad received an M.A. in Ministry from Moody Graduate School in 2008. He loves volleyball, movies, and hanging out with his wife Beth and their three children.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/author\/chadhovind"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions\/876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}