Please follow me here for continued posts.
Prophecy Trumps History and Geography
Tuesday's (1/17/06) Financial Times (subscription required) offers two good articles to consider about the role of America and Britain in the global economy. The key to understanding the future direction of the world economy lies not in the numbers of economics but in the timing of God's hand upon these two nations.
First, John Kay writes about the role of global trade based on history and and geography. He says that two hundred years ago “China and India accounted for almost half of world (economic) production.” Both nations had a larger share of world trade then they do today, although both are on the rise again. Kay goes on:
A story next to Kay's on the same day by Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, made the case for developing countries in today's global economy “to replace their currencies with internationally accepted ones, namely the dollar or the euro.” Hew shows how Ecuador, which dollarised in 2000, is a top economic performer in Latin America. He suggests that Turkey and Russia would benefit from adopting a single monetary standard.
Steil goes back to the single gold standard of the 18th and early 20th century to show the value of one universally accepted rate of exchange. The Bank of England played a key role during that period as it committed to gold behind its pound and thus offered confidence to investors in the global market. The gold standard of those days was a basis, along with other factors, that fueled the last global period prior to the present.
That the dollar is today's main global currency is a blessing for America. It masks many fundamental problems with in our economy. Should that ever change, and Arab states begin pricing oil in euros, or China pegs its currency to the euro, then we would see a seismic shift that would dramatically impact America's economic standing.
That day is not here and we continue to be the engine of the global economy. But we maintain that when God pulls the plug on His blessings for our peoples we will see a time of trouble come upon us that was long ago prophesied. Until then, don't bet against us.
You can read more about this story, and the background to why Great Britain and America have dominated the past two hundred years of history, in our booklet, The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy .
First, John Kay writes about the role of global trade based on history and and geography. He says that two hundred years ago “China and India accounted for almost half of world (economic) production.” Both nations had a larger share of world trade then they do today, although both are on the rise again. Kay goes on:
Perhaps the most important single event in modern world history is that in the late 18th century economic growth took off in western Europe and not in south-east China, in spite of the apparent similarity of technological and economic development and natural resource availability in the two regions. But over the next 200 years, that fact transformed not only world politics but determined its economic shape. (I would add this coincides with a time when God said He would bless the descendants of Abraham with great material abundance). China and India's share of world output would fall by half and their share of trade would be reduced even further. Western Europe and north America, with about 10 per cent of the world's population, now account for about 40 per cent of its production.Why India and China declined while Britain and America rose is due to factors beyond location and demographics. The current shape of the global business is due to decisions made long ago by the biblical patriarch Abraham based on promises made by God. Genesis 12 is the beginning of this story. But you won't find that in modern business histories.
A story next to Kay's on the same day by Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, made the case for developing countries in today's global economy “to replace their currencies with internationally accepted ones, namely the dollar or the euro.” Hew shows how Ecuador, which dollarised in 2000, is a top economic performer in Latin America. He suggests that Turkey and Russia would benefit from adopting a single monetary standard.
Steil goes back to the single gold standard of the 18th and early 20th century to show the value of one universally accepted rate of exchange. The Bank of England played a key role during that period as it committed to gold behind its pound and thus offered confidence to investors in the global market. The gold standard of those days was a basis, along with other factors, that fueled the last global period prior to the present.
That the dollar is today's main global currency is a blessing for America. It masks many fundamental problems with in our economy. Should that ever change, and Arab states begin pricing oil in euros, or China pegs its currency to the euro, then we would see a seismic shift that would dramatically impact America's economic standing.
That day is not here and we continue to be the engine of the global economy. But we maintain that when God pulls the plug on His blessings for our peoples we will see a time of trouble come upon us that was long ago prophesied. Until then, don't bet against us.
You can read more about this story, and the background to why Great Britain and America have dominated the past two hundred years of history, in our booklet, The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy .
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment