Lessons From Greece

In today's Wall Street Journal they are talking about the debt problems that Greece has....caused by Greece spending WAY more money than they had. I hate to state the obvious...but that's how we get into debt.

The next statement caught my attention, "New York, California and Washington D.C. are on the same path."

We have been saying the exact same thing here for some time....California has been a foreshadowing for what may be coming for all of us.

While Greece's woes are still mainly Europe's problem, they should be a warning to Americans as well. Greece's predicament resembles that of New York and California, which are also struggling to pay their debts. The 2009 Washington stimulus helped those states postpone their day of reckoning, but that money runs out this year. Tax revenues have begun to rise again as the U.S. economy recovers, but those U.S. states also need to confront spending and pension commitments that are unaffordable in the long term.
As for Washington, it's worth noting that Greece's debt as a share of GDP is 113%. America's is now about 63%, a postwar record. But it is also growing fast, and the Congressional Budget Office forecasts that it will reach 90% by 2020 under Mr. Obama's latest budget proposals that will keep federal spending close to 25% of GDP. The recent historical average has been under 21%. Oh, and that 90% U.S. debt estimate includes the big tax hike scheduled for January, which CBO assumes won't retard economic growth.

Some on the American left argue that Greece's problem is that it joined the euro bloc and so can't devalue its way out of trouble. But the discipline of the euro is one reason Greece is having to confront its fiscal profligacy, and leaving the euro would only add to its financing woes. The Obama Administration may quietly assume the U.S. can devalue its way out of debt with easy money, but sooner or later the bond vigilantes will blow the whistle on that strategy and raise U.S. borrowing costs too.

Greece's predicament—like New York's and California's—is signaling loud and clear that the spend-and-tax economic model has hit the wall. The first lesson should be to stop the spending spree before it creates Greek levels of debt. The second should be to stop the tax increases that could slow the nascent U.S. recovery.

See it here; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304168004575178280470795248.html

It seems obvious that God will continue to pull the god of Mammon out from under us. How many times has he told us that He is a jealous God?

Will our faith stand when things aren't going well? Will we continue to praise our creator if all we have is bread and shelter?

Do we really mean what we say in the Lord's prayer?....or have we re written it to suit our earthly desires?