US to buy stake in banks; first since Depression

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer


WASHINGTON - The government will buy an ownership stake in a broad array of American banks for the first time since the Great Depression, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said late Friday, announcing the historic step after stock markets jolted still lower around the world despite all efforts to slow the selling stampede.

Separately, the U.S. and the globe's other industrial powers pledged to take "decisive action and use all available tools" to prevent a worldwide economic catastrophe.

"This is a period like none of us has ever seen before," declared Paulson at a rare Friday night news conference. He said the government program to purchase stock in private U.S. financial firms will be open to a broad array of institutions, including banks, in an effort to help them raise desperately needed money.

The administration received the authority to take such direct action in the $700 billion economic rescue bill that Congress passed and President Bush signed last week.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown
God is certainly at work in the hearts of His people. It is easy to castigate blame, and for certain there are some to blame...but...

Let us begin at the House of God. We have assumed that debt, non-secured debt, is quite the appropriate thing to do. We have made it a life-style. Buy now, pay later, easy payments...living on the edge of financial collapse with any unexpected turn...and the turn has arrived. By diving deeper and deeper into an entitlement mentality we have buried ourselves in this wretched position.

Oh yes, Joe American is mad...and understandably so...but Joe Christian should be on his face in abject repentance and grief. Look around you. There is not a hair breadth of difference between the economics of the typical Christian and the typical Non-Christian...and Jesus had a great deal to say about money and the wise use of it. Matter of fact...Jesus spoke five times more about the importance of wise stewardship than any other single topic...heaven, hell, salvation...you name it...five(5) times more than any other topic.

We should proclaim a solemn fast and do business with God and the truth of God's Word. We need to get our own houses in order...before advising others on getting their houses in order.

The Book still says, "If My People, called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways...then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin...and heal their land."

The land needs healing, and a repentant church is the only sure help.

Ah, yes, we like to talk about taking responsibility...talk is cheap.

XtnYoda, shalomed aka chuck