Panic of 2015?
By Hal Lindsey
On last week’s Hal Lindsey Report, I talked about some of the underlying problems facing the Chinese economy and how that affects other nations. After taping that program, I watched financial markets all over the world go on one of the wildest rides in history. The immediate cause of all that turmoil was China.
Uncertainty has become the word of the hour. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial average went down almost 1,100 points, then rose back up to within 115 points of where it all started, before falling back down to a loss of 588 points by the end of the day. They called it “Manic Monday.”
It was followed by what some were calling “Turnaround Tuesday.” And it did turn around — several times. The Dow rose 440 points early on. By noon it was at 333. With a half hour left to go, it remained in positive territory — 120 points to the good. But in the final 30 minutes, it lost all the gains and ended at negative 204 points. On the day, the Dow traveled up and down a total of more than 1,600 points. Now that’s a ride!
It was only about a month ago that the Administration was telling us not to worry about China. Secretary of the Treasury, Jack Lew, told a gathering at the Brookings Institute that Chinese markets would have little affect in the United States. “I will say that China’s markets still are pretty much separated from world markets. They’re, obviously, moving towards being more integrated, but right now they’re not. . . . So you’re not going to, I don’t think, see the direct linkage there.”
U.S. exports to China are third behind only Canada and Mexico. Imports from China exceed that of all other nations. It’s concerning that the man who is, in effect, the Chief Financial Officer of the United States of America, can’t see the linkage between the American and Chinese economies.
All over the world, nations have been printing cash and keeping interest rates low. They’ve been doing the kind of things nations do when they’re desperately trying to avert a collapse. Such measures are usually only temporary, but they’ve been going on now for several years in a row.
In the U.S., investors worry that, after 6 ½ years at near zero, the Fed will finally increase interest rates. Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta calls raising the interest rates, “the normalization of monetary policy.” And he’s right, it has not been normal to keep the rates so low for so long.
It’s unsettling that governments all over the world seem to already be pulling out all the stops trying to keep the world economy afloat. That’s one reason Stephen King from HSBC Bank, said, “The world economy is sailing across the ocean without any lifeboats to use in case of emergency.”
Before they were called recessions or even depressions, financial crises were known as “panics.” There was the “Panic of 1819,” the “Panic of 1837,” the “Panic of 1857,” the “Panic of 1873,” the “Panic of 1893,” and the “Panic of 1907" among others. While they were sometimes called “depressions,” people named them with the word “Panic.”
When dealing with large crowds, panic is an ever present possibility, and exceedingly dangerous. In 1856, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, sometimes known as the “Prince of Preachers,” held a mass meeting at the Surrey Gardens Music Hall. Someone yelled “Fire!” in that venue holding 10,000 people. In those days, aisles and doors were exceedingly narrow. In the panic that followed, seven died and dozens were hospitalized with serious injuries.
An economic panic works in much the same way. Economic fears are visceral with us because we fear a disruption in the flow of money. We know that money buys our food and clothes. It buys shelter and transportation. We use money to purchase the basic necessities of life for ourselves and our loved ones. Economic panic is extremely powerful. Along with fear of war, economic panic will one day enable the Antichrist’s rise to power.
Because money buys the necessities of life, it’s easy to understand why people begin to see money as their provider. They begin to treat money as an idol to be served. But we should never confuse the Provider with the thing provided.
Jesus gave us this profound warning. “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” [Matthew 6:24 NIV]
Money does not provide. Money is a provision from God — one of many. We like cash because it gives us freedom to choose, but sometimes God meets our needs more directly. Sometimes He gives us shelter or food directly from His own hand. He sent Elijah to the brook Cherith where God commanded ravens to feed him.
God doesn’t promise money. He promises provision. Later, the Lord allowed brook Cherith to dry up. He wanted Elijah to move on to another place where He would bless both Elijah and those who would care for him. In neither case did God answer with money, but in both cases He met Elijah’s need.
Jesus spoke of God providing for “the fowls of the air” and “lilies of the field.” He said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” [Matthew6:33 NKJV]
Even as we recognize that we buy things with money, including the basic necessities of life, remember that money does not feed or clothe us. It buys shelter, but it does not provide shelter. We work for it, but we do not serve it. We who follow Christ serve our Lord; and He feeds, clothes, and shelters us. He alone is Jehovah-jireh — our Provider.
