Borrowing and spending for prosperity:The keynesian myth

Shakespeare once said,”Neither a lender nor a borrower be for loan oft looses both itself and friend and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” although Sheakspeares words reflect biblical wisdom,the bible is stronger in its admonition on borrowing when it says,”the borrower is servant to the lender” (Prov.22:7) and “The wicked borroweth and payeth not again” (Psalms 37:21).With a defined plan to overcome debt with the help of God we can be set free from its heavy burden. we have  seen recently how the burden of debt has brought down into bankruptcy many of the largest corporations in America .The year 2008 will be remembered for the economic earthquake that exposed huge debt within the banking insurance and auto industries.  Tax payers are being asked to finance billions in bailouts because of poor stewardship on the part of CEOs of these organizations.  Much of the blame can be placed on improper thinking related to economic theory and debt, thinking that is presently being taught in our colleges and graduate schools.   The fallatious thinking of borrow and spend for prosperity finds its historic source in the writings and policy of the British economist, John Maynard Keynes, thinking commonly known as, “Keynesian Economics.”  His work took root in  Cambridge University in England and was applied initially under Lloyd George.  Later, Franklin D. Roosevelt used this policy in his, “New Deal,” program.  Academically, Harvard became America’s center for Keynesian economics under the teaching of men like John Kenneth Galbraith and Paul Samuelson who wrote the famous introduction to economics textbook used  almost universally in beginning  economics classes.A simple distillation of his teaching is the principal of borrow and spend to attain properity and full employment with a loosely defined plan to pay back through increased productivity.  Whether on a personal, corporate, or government level, the end result of this is always more and more debt.  And in the case of goverment, more and more taxes to repay the debt.  God’s standard of righteous stewardship stands in opposition to this spirit of borrow and spend.  We have only to take a candid look at the economic state of America to see the impact of this teaching and policy.  To get a true understanding of the spirit behind the man and his teaching, we have only to examine the lifestyle of John Maynard Keynes.  His dying words were, “I wish I would have drunk more champaigne.”  Keynes was a member of the infamous Bloomsbury group of political liberals who claimed sexual liberty sleeping with many of the Bohemian men in his circle and excessively drinking champaigne.  People can be set free from this ungodly spirit through the power of God’s word and its teaching that continual borrowing leads to debasement and servitude and that any borrowing should only be a temporary state on our way to debt free living.