Bush, Paulson, Bernanke, and the rest of the D.C. crew are imagining a vain thing
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.-Psalm 2:1-3
What caused this? It is a simple question, and yet answers are all over the map, as you might expect. Here's mine in two words: fiat money.-Lew Rockwell, Understanding the Crisis
The word "fiat" means "out of nothing." Money out of nothing is money that is eventually worth nothing. The possibility of precisely that happening emerged in August 15, 1971. Since Nixon severed the last tie of the dollar to gold, the world's monetary system has not been restrained by anything physical. We've depended on the discretion of central bankers. We can't trust that, and this crisis shows precisely why.
Sound Christian theology asserts that God alone is sovereign. He transcends the limits of time, space, and matter. God is not constrained by the boundaries and laws He has imposed upon creation, such as the inability of creatures to make something out of nothing. Ex nihilo, nihil fit -- out of nothing, nothing comes -- a law that governs mankind, does not apply to God and God alone.
Not content with this arrangement, the state asserts fiat -- the power to create ex nihilo, out of nothing. When applied to monetary schemes, money created out of nothing is eventually worth nothing, as Lew Rockwell points out.
Consider whether you as an individual could truly create value without material and intellectual capital, labor, and time. Of course not! God-imposed constraints of time, space, and matter, require for value creation the use of capital (material and intellectual) and labor, both utilized over time. Marketplace phenomena does not spring ex nihilo, out of nothing, by government fiat. Rather, purposeful humans -- businessmen -- gather and analyze information, calculate risk-adjusted profit potential discounted to the present value, risk their time and capital, make deals, work, adjust their course as internal and external changes occur, account for their activities and results, and wait for a bountiful harvest if their ventures succeed.
This is how real value is created in the marketplace. But the calculation and accounting elements are distorted when the state interferes and asserts sovereign prerogative to create value, ex nihilo, through fiat money. The Austrian Business Cycle theory asserts a monocausal source of economic woes, statist fiat money, which distorts calculation and causes businessmen to make decisions that appear irrational only in hindsight -- only when reality forces painful adjustments to correct distortions in the economy's capital structure and to readjust the allocation of labor and capital over time throughout various industries.
Make no mistake: The statist central planners -- Republicans and Democrats alike, who, even as I write this, are schemeing in Washington, D.C. -- are predicating their analysis, assertions, and actions, on an errant theological presumption. Namely, they believe in the vain imagination that they are sovereign, that they have the power to create and to destroy.
Christians often justify their willingness to vote for biblically unqualified candidates with the statement that they are not electing a "theologian-in-chief." However, a society cannot sustainably function when predicated on a theologically vain imagination -- upon the mistaken notion that man is sovereign, that man creates laws, that man creates money, and that man can save us from our woes. Neither should we select leaders who believe this vain imagination and rage against the sovereign Governor of all things, our Lord Jesus Christ.
"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. . . . Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him" (Ps. 2:4, 12).
posted by C.S. Hayden @ 2:04 PM
1 Comments:
Mr. Hayden, Thank you greatly for the essay. My father has always said "everything is theological", and it is encouraging to hear others who understand the deception behind the humanist economics. God will be glorified in whatever becomes of the currents situation, and it may show many where there treasure is and where their heart is... Praise God for his abounding mercy and being slow to anger with us.
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