The word for the day
The word for the day is “Hyperinflation”. Now I know that you were expecting a biblical word weren’t you. Well it is, and it isn’t, I’ll explain.
As Christians we are often less familiar with some of the economic terms thrown around these days. Sadly there is a good possibility that we’ll get to experience exactly what this word means in the near future, so I thought it might be good to write about it.
When a nation undertakes the printing of paper money on a massive scale and introduces newly printed money into the existing money supply, it effectively reduces the value of the existing money which is circulating in the economy. That means that your dollar is no longer worth a dollar, or put it another way, your dollar no longer holds the purchasing power it previously held. The result is that prices seem to be going up, in reality the prices are not going up, the value of your dollar is going down.
This is called inflation, every economy suffers from it. Now when governments introduce massive amounts of new paper dollars into the economy, then they risk causing inflation which is out of control, this is called hyperinflation. Prices climb rapidly due to the devaluing of the currency.
Before we move on lets read a quote from someone who experienced hyperinflation:
“It was horrible. Horrible! Like lightning it struck. No one was prepared. The shelves in the grocery stores were empty. You could buy nothing with your paper money.” – Harvard University law professor Friedrich Kessler on the Weimar Republic hyperinflation (1993 interview)
When the Black horse of Revelation is unleashed upon the earth, one of the results is Hyperinflation. A good biblical example of hyperinflation is found in Revelation 6:6. In this day a man will have to labor all day, in order to purchase a loaf of bread. This is basically what the scripture in Revelation is saying ;
Rev 6:6 And a voice from among the four living beings said, “A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley for a day’s pay.[fn1] And don’t waste[fn2] the olive oil and wine.”
In the midst of the present economic crisis one of the things that many western nations have done in order free up the credit markets is to print more money. If we are wise and use this money for infra structure initiatives then that will bode well, but if we simply throw it into the black hole of propping up banks and institutions that are “too big to fail” then we risk a climate of hyperinflation. Sadly it seems to me that it’s the big black hole that we are more concerned about fixing, and this type of action will invariably lead to out of control inflation, Hyperinflation.
When hyperinflation runs rampant it is terribly destructive to the culture and may well lead to civil unrest, as those who have little income can scarcely afford to buy a loaf of bread and will resort to whatever means at hand to survive.
Now sometimes I’m a little reluctant to suggest how we should consider surviving such a crisis. One part of me says that we should not put our trust in wealth, nor hoard wealth, but another part of me that knows full well that God has in times past, forewarned His people of a coming famine, and as a result of being forewarned, they were able to take appropriate action and care for and provide for each other.
These things should be brought before the Lord in prayer.
