A clean conscience makes a soft pillow.
~~~~~~~
A family altar can alter a family.
~~~~~~~
A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing.
~~~~~~~
Are you wrinkled with burden?Come on into Church for a faith lift!
~~~~~~~
Be ye fishers of men.You catch them and He will clean them.
~~~~~~~
Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.
~~~~~~~
Do your best and then sleep in peace.God is Awake.
~~~~~~~
Don't put a question mark where God put a period.
~~~~~~~
Don't wait for 6 strong men to take you to church.
~~~~~~~
Exercise daily.Walk with the Lord!
~~~~~~~
Fear knocked.Faith answeredNo one was there.
~~~~~~~
For all you do,His blood's for you!
~~~~~~~
Forbidden fruits create many jams.
~~~~~~~
Give God what's right, not what's left!
~~~~~~~
Give Satan an inch and he'll be a ruler.
~~~~~~~
God doesn't call the qualified,He qualifies the called.
~~~~~~~
God doesn't want shares of your life;He wants controlling interest!
~~~~~~~
God grades on the cross, not the curve.
~~~~~~~
God loves everyone, but probably prefers"fruits of the spirit" over "religious nuts"!
God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.
~~~~~~~
Having truth decay?Brush up on your Bible!
~~~~~~~
He who angers you, controls you!
~~~~~~~
He who is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
~~~~~~~
He who kneels before God can stand before anyone!
~~~~~~~
If God is your Co-pilot - Swap seats!
~~~~~~~
In the sentence of life the Devil may be a comma, but DO NOT let him be the PERIOD!~~~~~~~
Kindness is difficult to give away because it keeps coming back.
~~~~~~~
Man's way leads to a hopeless end!God's way leads to an endless hope!
~~~~~~~
Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory capacity.
~~~~~~~
Never give the devil a ride!He will always want to drive!
~~~~~~~
Nothing ruins the truth like stretching it.
~~~~~~~
Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.
~~~~~~~
"Pray" is a four letter word that you can say anywhere (except in a public school).
~~~~~~~
Prayer - Don't give God instructions - just report for duty!
~~~~~~~
Read The Bible...It Will Scare The Hell Out Of You!
~~~~~~~
The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.
~~~~~~~
The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.
~~~~~~~
This Church is "Prayer Conditioned"!
~~~~~~~
To be almost saved is to be totally lost.
~~~~~~~
Wal-Mart isn't the only saving place!
~~~~~~~
WARNING: Exposure to the Son will prevent burning!
~~~~~~~
Watch your step carefully! Everyone else does!
~~~~~~~
We don't change the message, the message changes us.
~~~~~~~
We set the sail; God makes the wind.
~~~~~~~
We're too blessed to be depressed.
~~~~~~~
When God ordains, He sustains.
~~~~~~~
Wisdom has two parts:
1) Having a lot to say.
2) Not saying it.
~~~~~~~
Worry is the darkroom in which "negatives" are developed.
~~~~~~~
You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him.
Taken from
http://www.Godswork.org/inpoem111.htm
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
World Economy at Risk from Chaos of Bush Regime
By Joseph E. Stiglitz29 Dec 2006 at 10:18 AM EST
NEW YORK (Business Day) -- The world survived 2006 without a major economic catastrophe, despite sky-high oil prices and a Middle East spiraling out of control.
But the year produced abundant lessons for the global economy, as well as warning signs concerning its future performance.
Unsurprisingly, it brought another resounding rejection of fundamentalist neo-liberal policies, this time by voters in Nicaragua and Ecuador. In neighboring Venezuela, Hugo Chávez had an overwhelming electoral victory: at least he had brought some education and health care to the poor barrios, which previously had received little of the benefits of the country’s enormous oil wealth.
Perhaps most importantly for the world, voters in the US gave a vote of no-confidence to President George Bush, who will now be held in check by a Democratic congress.
When Bush assumed the presidency in 2001, many hoped he would govern competently from the centre. More pessimistic critics consoled themselves by questioning how much harm a president could do in a few years. We now know the answer: a great deal.
Never has the U.S.’s standing in the world’s eyes been lower. Basic values that Americans regard as central to their identity have been subverted. The unthinkable has occurred: an American president defending the use of torture, using technicalities in interpreting the Geneva Conventions and ignoring the Convention on Torture, which forbids it in any circumstances.
Likewise, whereas Bush was hailed as the first “MBA president”, corruption and incompetence have reigned under his administration, from the botched response to Hurricane Katrina to its conduct of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In fact, we should be careful not to read too much into the 2006 vote: Americans do not like being on the losing side of any war. It was this failure, and the quagmire into which the U.S. had once again so confidently stepped, that led voters to reject Bush.
But the Middle East chaos wrought by the Bush years also represents a central risk to the global economy. Since the Iraq war began in 2003, oil output from the Middle East has not grown as expected to meet rising world demand. Although most forecasts suggest oil prices will remain at, or slightly below, present levels, this is largely due to a perceived moderation of growth in demand, led by a slowing U.S. economy.
Of course, a slowing U.S. economy constitutes another major global risk. At the root of the U.S.’s economic problems are measures adopted early in Bush’s first term. In particular, the administration pushed through a tax cut that largely failed to stimulate the economy because it was designed to benefit mainly the wealthiest taxpayers. The burden of stimulation was placed on the Federal Reserve, which lowered interest rates to unprecedented levels.
While cheap money had little effect on business investment, it fuelled a real estate bubble, which is bursting, jeopardizing households that borrowed against rising home values to sustain consumption.
This economic strategy was not sustainable. Household savings became negative for the first time since the Great Depression, with the country borrowing $3bn a day from foreigners. But households could continue to take money out of their houses only as long as prices continued to rise and interest rates remained low. Thus, higher interest rates and falling house prices do not bode well for the U.S. economy.
According to estimates, roughly 80% of the increase in employment and almost two-thirds of the increase in gross domestic product in recent years stemmed directly or indirectly from real estate.
Making matters worse, unrestrained government spending further buoyed the economy during the Bush years, with fiscal deficits reaching new heights, making it difficult for the government to step in now to shore up economic growth as households curtail consumption.
Many Democrats, having campaigned on a promise to return to fiscal sanity, are likely to demand a reduction in the deficit, which would further dampen growth.
Meanwhile, persistent global imbalances will continue to produce anxiety, especially for those whose lives depend on exchange rates. Though Bush has long sought to blame others, it is clear the U.S.’s unbridled consumption and inability to live within its means is the major cause of these imbalances. Unless that changes, global imbalances will continue to be a source of global instability, regardless of what China or Europe do.
In light of these uncertainties, the mystery is how risk premiums can remain as low as they are.
With the dramatic reduction in the growth of global liquidity as central banks have successively raised interest rates, the prospect of risk premiums returning to more normal levels is itself one of the major risks the world faces today.
Joseph E. Stiglitz is a Nobel laureate in economics and professor of economics at Columbia University.
NEW YORK (Business Day) -- The world survived 2006 without a major economic catastrophe, despite sky-high oil prices and a Middle East spiraling out of control.
But the year produced abundant lessons for the global economy, as well as warning signs concerning its future performance.
Unsurprisingly, it brought another resounding rejection of fundamentalist neo-liberal policies, this time by voters in Nicaragua and Ecuador. In neighboring Venezuela, Hugo Chávez had an overwhelming electoral victory: at least he had brought some education and health care to the poor barrios, which previously had received little of the benefits of the country’s enormous oil wealth.
Perhaps most importantly for the world, voters in the US gave a vote of no-confidence to President George Bush, who will now be held in check by a Democratic congress.
When Bush assumed the presidency in 2001, many hoped he would govern competently from the centre. More pessimistic critics consoled themselves by questioning how much harm a president could do in a few years. We now know the answer: a great deal.
Never has the U.S.’s standing in the world’s eyes been lower. Basic values that Americans regard as central to their identity have been subverted. The unthinkable has occurred: an American president defending the use of torture, using technicalities in interpreting the Geneva Conventions and ignoring the Convention on Torture, which forbids it in any circumstances.
Likewise, whereas Bush was hailed as the first “MBA president”, corruption and incompetence have reigned under his administration, from the botched response to Hurricane Katrina to its conduct of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In fact, we should be careful not to read too much into the 2006 vote: Americans do not like being on the losing side of any war. It was this failure, and the quagmire into which the U.S. had once again so confidently stepped, that led voters to reject Bush.
But the Middle East chaos wrought by the Bush years also represents a central risk to the global economy. Since the Iraq war began in 2003, oil output from the Middle East has not grown as expected to meet rising world demand. Although most forecasts suggest oil prices will remain at, or slightly below, present levels, this is largely due to a perceived moderation of growth in demand, led by a slowing U.S. economy.
Of course, a slowing U.S. economy constitutes another major global risk. At the root of the U.S.’s economic problems are measures adopted early in Bush’s first term. In particular, the administration pushed through a tax cut that largely failed to stimulate the economy because it was designed to benefit mainly the wealthiest taxpayers. The burden of stimulation was placed on the Federal Reserve, which lowered interest rates to unprecedented levels.
While cheap money had little effect on business investment, it fuelled a real estate bubble, which is bursting, jeopardizing households that borrowed against rising home values to sustain consumption.
This economic strategy was not sustainable. Household savings became negative for the first time since the Great Depression, with the country borrowing $3bn a day from foreigners. But households could continue to take money out of their houses only as long as prices continued to rise and interest rates remained low. Thus, higher interest rates and falling house prices do not bode well for the U.S. economy.
According to estimates, roughly 80% of the increase in employment and almost two-thirds of the increase in gross domestic product in recent years stemmed directly or indirectly from real estate.
Making matters worse, unrestrained government spending further buoyed the economy during the Bush years, with fiscal deficits reaching new heights, making it difficult for the government to step in now to shore up economic growth as households curtail consumption.
Many Democrats, having campaigned on a promise to return to fiscal sanity, are likely to demand a reduction in the deficit, which would further dampen growth.
Meanwhile, persistent global imbalances will continue to produce anxiety, especially for those whose lives depend on exchange rates. Though Bush has long sought to blame others, it is clear the U.S.’s unbridled consumption and inability to live within its means is the major cause of these imbalances. Unless that changes, global imbalances will continue to be a source of global instability, regardless of what China or Europe do.
In light of these uncertainties, the mystery is how risk premiums can remain as low as they are.
With the dramatic reduction in the growth of global liquidity as central banks have successively raised interest rates, the prospect of risk premiums returning to more normal levels is itself one of the major risks the world faces today.
Joseph E. Stiglitz is a Nobel laureate in economics and professor of economics at Columbia University.
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