Discussion:

Wall Street or Main Street

Who’s to blame?

What does our money idolatry look like?

In our weekly Zoom call (email info@newbreed.co if interested in joining), we discuss what is wrong with our current system and economy. Has the church been defensive about “Capitalism” and even tried to defend systemic greed? How have our financial markets systematized greed and how did we get here? Can it be undone? We discuss the sin of Sodom’s greed and specifically Ezekiel 16:49.

Wall Street issues

  • Hiding behind the opacity of “shareholder’s interests”
  • Wall Street profit “expectations” and the role of research analysts
  • Debt as leverage to maximize profit
  • Advent of the LBO and the hostile takeover in the 80s (“Greed is Good”)
  • Excess capital used for shareholder buybacks
  • Complexity of the civil justice system requires specialized attorneys to navigate
  • Rationalization of job relocation, elimination- explaining away decisions by “we had to do it” to preserve the company

Main Street issues

  • Manipulation of systems for extraction of money. Example: healthcare
  • Blame game: Wall Street is the scapegoat, yet all feed at it’s trough
  • Our consumer culture’s insatiable appetite for products and services
  • 70% of our GDP is consumer spending
  • Debt dependency of the consumer, corporate, municipalities, government
  • The Church and how its feeds on our consumer and money culture
  • Unholy alliance among politics, taxes and money
  • Parallels between chattel slavery and modern day economic slavery
  • Two income households the new requirement

Mentioned on the call last week, the “Field of Dreams” word from Rick Joyner in 1995. This is well worth reading:

https://newbreed.co/2012/12/11/field-of-dreams/

It describes well the economic dynamic we are now entering into in the USA. It contrasts the chaos and fog of the situation on the ground, with the position of the Church being an oasis of hope, joy and unity and a “hospital” to those who are hurting.