I suppose everyone knows that there's economic instability. Even though we know for sure that it is coming about because of the sovereign will of God, we don't have to be smiling about it. There were wise people in the past (there's a few of them about now - one of them quoted what I'm pasting in here) whom, if they had been heeded, would not have been called to mind.

“If no check is put to the progress of events, no one will attain to wealth and honor, who does not receive them at the hands of the bank aristocracy….And yet the paper system is applauded to the skies, as the wing upon which England has soared to her present prosperous height…but I have thought, and still think, that we owe all these things to the enterprise and industry of our citizens, and the abundant resources with which it has pleased Heaven to bless our country.

"And this brings me to the consideration of another evil of the paper [money] system, and that is, its tendency to call men off from the most productive employments to those which are less so, or not so at all; drawing them off from the cultivation of the soil to become speculators, bank officers, shopkeepers, and livers upon their wits.

"All values are created by the spontaneous production of the earth, by human labor, by animal procreation, or by some or all of these united. The spontaneous production of the earth is, of course, the most profitable to him who can avail himself of it of any other; and the production of the earth, combined with human labor, furnishes at last the basis of all wealth.

" Every thing, therefore, which has a tendency to divert a considerable portion of a nation from agricultural pursuits, by turning them to speculation, professions, merchandise…where that nation possesses a suitable field for agricultural pursuits, has, as a general rule, the effect of diminishing the wealth of that nation. I conclude that Congress has not the right, and if it had, it would not be expedient for it to undertake the creation and regulation of a common paper medium through banks…

"Sir, I have little hope that the paper system will soon be arrested…Its swiftly moving car may roll on; but let it not drag after it every thing dear to the earthly hopes of man. Let the inflated balloon ascend if it will; but let it not, in its ascent, wrench from their foundations the institutions of our country.

(Speech of Robert Strange of North Carolina on the Independent Treasury Bill in the US Senate, 6 March 1838, Congressional Globe, 25th Congress, 2d session, Appendix, 145-54)

Even Christians have been taken in by the un-wisdom of the economic policies which have been relentlessly pursued to the detriment of this country. My prayer is that the people of God would seek wisdom and persue it - maybe it's too late, but maybe it's not.

I was cheered to learn, recently, that there are 700,000 households which keep hens in their garden, for eggs. I've also been encouraged by the growth in families and individuals who have been learning how to grow vegetables in recent years. Waiting lists for allotments are increasing. The more people who recognise that lasting wealth comes from actually producing things rather than merely 'selling' things, the better hope we have for our children and grandchildren.

It's good to know that if the economy does a belly-flop the sun will still shine, and the rain will still fall, and the seeds will still germinate (if the Lord is active on our behalf). We're certainly living in interesting times.