July, 2014, I began a series of twenty one (21) Columns for the Picayune Item relating to the causes of America’s 2007 – 2008 economic financial collapse. This effort was concluded on August 2, 2015, with some quotes from Patrick Buchanan’s “Suicide Of A Superpower” that our nation has turned its back on our Creator, the Lord God, the only true and living God.
Even after the trillions of dollars invested in stimulus programs, quantitative easing sponsored bond buying schemes, and the Federal Reserve System’s zero, or at near zero, interest rate policy, our economy’s recovery since that time has been very anemic.
The economy’s annual growth rate hovers around 2% and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) runs around $18 trillion. America’s debt now exceeds the level of the GDP, our annual earnings, and is approaching $19 trillion.
There is little hope that our leaders will “bite the bullet” to put America’s fiscal (annual operating) budget on a sound footing by reigning in deficit spending, which is financed with borrowed money.
The interest alone on this debt costs America some $1.2 billion per month, and the money is borrowed to pay the interest. Bank regulators call that “capitalizing interest”, and they forbid banks to do that. Their reasoning states that if a loan customer can’t pay at least the interest on a loan, the customer is in trouble. Therefore, since the first loss is the best loss, take it then.
So, as we ponder a solution to America’s situation, I whole heartedly agree with Buchanan.
The only hope for America is for the Christian Church to follow the recommendation of our Lord God in 2 Chronicles 7:14 as he spoke to King Solomon of ancient Israel. Also, please don’t stop there, but by all means, read further verses 19 – 22.
America’s problem is one of her spirituality, or the lack thereof.
The problems she faces, and they cover the spectrum of societal, political, economic, and all other aspects of our existence, are only the symptoms caused by turning her back on our Lord God. We were warned of this behavior and its consequences by our founding father, George Washington. George Washington was inaugurated as our first president April 30, 1789, in New York City, the temporary first capitol of America. In this first Presidential Inaugural Address, President Washington had these words in one of his paragraphs of the address:
“ I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire: since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity: Since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rule of order and right, which Heaven itself ordained:
And since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
Part II of the Prelude will follow.

By Aaron Russell