Unchained Greed

I arrived late last night at my hotel room and could not sleep. Television is a poor substitute for sleep but it was the only thing available. CNBC had one of their specials about the financial crisis.

Across the screen paraded people who had bought bigger homes than they could afford. Mortgage lenders who loaned them the money they borrowed from Wall Street and banks. There were the wall street analysts, “masters of the universe”, who packaged and repackaged these loans into derivatives that were spread to Europe and Asia. Lastly there was one hedge fund manager who figured out the ponzi scheme and made 600% profit for his fund.

We all know the end result. A major financial meltdown of global proportions. When it will end is anybody’s guess–including the experts.

I was struck by a concluding sound bite from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Greenspan talked about the potential of capitalism to create wealth. No other economic system in human history has produced more wealth than captitalism. Millions have been lifted out of poverty through the sheer force of this modern marvel.

However, Greenspan said, greed is a systemic problem that will not go away. “Somewhere, sometime in the future we will be talking about this problem (financial meltdown) again”. He talked about the fundamental problem of human nature. Greed.

Pretty pessimistic. But true.

How we use money is an indicator of our character. If I want something I cannot afford and go out and spend somebodies money to meet that desire, without adequate resources to pay the obligation, then I have a problem–a spiritual problem. I have to correct that problem or I will fall into the same hole again.

Examine your financial character. Is it in line with God’s financial ethics? We can only start with ourselves and decisions we make everyday with our money.