AWRY AND AMUCK

From My Perspective - - -

It’s difficult not to be focused upon the economic concerns of our nation and the world. Most citizens have experienced financial strain, losses, uncertainty and fears regarding the immediate and longer-term stability of employment, debt management, Social Security availability, investment recovery, etc. It seems to be abundantly clear that “financial bailout” is not focused upon the individual’s plight but has become more of a corporate welfare effort. The government stimulus package is costing this nation One Billion Dollars a day on average, and now the elected leadership is mentioning the need for another stimulus package as soon as possible. It is an understatement to suggest that our government and the economic activity are running both awry and amuck.

For someone or something to run awry means: “turned or twisted toward one side; not in a straight or true direction, or position; out of the right course; distorted…; aside from the line of truth, or right reason; unreasonable or unreasonably; perverse or perversely…” When someone or something is running amuck, it means: “In a frenzied and reckless manner.” The example of this was with the first $700 Billion Bailout of Banks, etc. There was very little guideline and almost no accountability factors built into the distribution of taxpayer funds to assist Banks and Corporations. For instance, Bank of America agreed to take over Merrill Lynch and to merge it into their corporation. Bank of America received $25 Billion Dollars from the Federal Bailout Funds. Merrill Lynch distributes bonuses that amount to approximately $5 Billion Dollars. We get an idea of this from an ABC News Report dated February 25, 2009: “The New York Attorney General's office declined to publicly comment on the matter…The bonuses became a subject of the investigation into Merrill's merger with Bank of America by Cuomo's office after the Attorney General raised whether the two banks -- which together received about $45 billion in taxpayer dollars -- worked together to arrange the early bonus plan just weeks before the merger was completed. The bonuses were awarded despite the fact that Merrill lost $25 billion in 2008 and posted greater than anticipated fourth quarter after-tax losses of $5 billion dollars. According to sources involved in the probe, Cuomo's office is seeking information about the individual awards of about 200 top employees. The top 14 got $250 million and the top 159 received over $858 million in bonuses. Overall, sources said, 694 employees at Merrill received bonuses in excess of $1 million. The bank's four top executives received $121 million.” John Thain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch, was choosing to remain silent about the pre-merger agreement regarding bonuses.

Consider these things with me - - - On March 13^th, 2009 – Chuck Colson wrote a column on Economic Lent. It included some of the following: “One obvious failure is our levels of indebtedness. As historian Niall Ferguson recently wrote, Western…governments, corporations and households are groaning under unprecedented debt burdens. Average household debt has reached 141% of disposable income in the United States and 177% in Britain. Our financial institutions…are in far worse shape. Some of the best-known names in American and European finance have liabilities 40, 60 or even 100 times the amount of their capital. While the Scriptures have something to say about the perils of indebtedness, they have much more to say about the human failings that prompted the unprecedented debt burdens, like greed and covetousness…We are now living with the wreckage caused by all this covetousness.” Bernie Madoff is an example of one who fed off of the covetousness and greed of those who believed they would receive 12% return on their investments. One investment firm states on its web-page: “Our objective is a high return with low risk. What Wall Street won't tell you, we will.” Churches and Individuals were led to believe they would receive a 9% return on their investment. Huge sums of money were “invested” that recently were valued at just 30 cents on the dollar. Just examples of how easily one can be beguiled into what is now representative of both being awry and amuck. In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus said: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”