Play Money
The Moral Crisis in Economics
This is the full version of an op-ed picked up by some online publications and newspapers last week.
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It is a strategic mistake of the highest order to assume that theology has nothing to do with economics. The stewardship of resources, including such seemingly spiritually devoid things like monetary policy and the economic indicator called inflation, as a result of bad policy, is not only directly tied to our relationship to God and His revealed purposes for Mankind but is an evident and frequent, if not oft-ignored, subject of the biblical testaments. Indeed, the tenth commandment – perhaps the most misunderstood of the Decalogue—is not a prohibition against a behavior like the rest. Instead, “Thou shalt not covet” is a command to check an attitude of incalculably harmful consequences for self and society, viz., the fallen human proclivity to envy the possessions of another. Covetousness is a sin of the heart that gets at the motivation for entertaining the violation of the other nine. It is this “look under the hood” warning that was inherent to Jesus’ famous formula used in the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said…But I say to you…” (Matt 5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43).
But what doth Galilee have to do with Jackson Hole? No disrespect intended towards Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve, but the connection is significant. Alfred Kahn, once President Carter’s “anti-inflation czar,” acknowledged,
“Inflation is a symptom and a reflection of a society that is, in some degree, in a state of dissolution—one in which the social limitations, the bounds that an orderly society has to accept, in large measure voluntarily, on individual action, are in the process of weakening.”1
This observation by Carter’s inflation expert was not merely an attempt to justify the administration’s austere outlook (though such a conclusion seems logical). In his book The History of Interest Rates (1977), Sidney Homer evokes sentiments that transcend the book’s tedious title. In his masterpiece of cultural evaluation, Idols for Destruction (1983), Herbert Schlossberg (1935-2019) made these concepts more accessible:
“The cultural level of a nation correlates inversely with its interest rates. The higher the moral and intellectual strength, the lower the interest rate and the greater the financial strength.”2
Surprising summation from an economist and former CIA analyst? I would say “No.” That economics depends on morality is an alert realism necessary to prevail.
“All true needs are satiable. Illegitimate wants—pride, envy, greed—are insatiable.”—Herbert Schlossberg (1935-2019), Idols for Destruction (1983)
When we study economics and inflation, specifically, we come to realize that an observable virus of envy appears to infect people before any hint of monetary disasters. Whether pre-Revolutionary France or the Western nations’ obsession with leisure and pleasure (Exhibit A: “The Taylor Swift effect,” or Exhibit B: The “NIL mess” that threatens college football), centralized powers print more money to feed the greed. Schlossberg again: “All true needs are satiable. Illegitimate wants—pride, envy, greed—are insatiable.”
“Thou shalt not covet” is a command to check an attitude of incalculably harmful consequences for self and society, viz., the fallen human proclivity to envy the possessions of another.—M. A. Milton
Yet, some within the Church exchange spiritual authority for popularity (ultimately forfeiting both), and people grow estranged from God, believing their prosperity is self-generated, which fosters ingratitude and demands for entitlements, especially of the “insatiable” variety. This spurs complex socio-economic phenomena, with central powers attempting to satisfy these demands from depleted resources, resorting to tricks like “monetizing the debt.” This deceptive practice involves printing more currency—as in “digital” currency—to cover the interest on incurred debt, perpetuating a corrupting cycle. The intrigue deepens as nations collaborate in international efforts to sustain this precarious system, a scheme shrouded in a facade of respectability and pseudo-intellectualism. However, without a resurgence of genuine faith to eliminate covetousness and its harmful offspring and to avert self-destruction, this unsustainable game will end. If only the consequences were as benign as bankruptcy. Yet, history shows otherwise. Better to pay heed to the ancient warning of a perpetually familiar theme. Thus, the Old Testament prophets and their ever-timely message against societal decline driven by covetousness:
“You have planted much, and harvested little; You eat, but never have enough; You drink, but never have your fill; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Does so to put them into a purse with holes” (Haggai 1:6 NKJV).
The crux of the matter extends beyond discussions of inflation, the World Bank, and intricate monetary policies designed to prolong the inevitable.
However, without a resurgence of genuine faith to eliminate covetousness and its harmful offspring and to avert self-destruction, this unsustainable game will end.—M. A. Milton
It boils down to every individual's fundamental choice: “Will you serve God or mammon?”3 A shift towards gratitude could unleash divine blessings, starve the greed demanding the insatiable, and unlock an economic dynamism rooted in contentment. After all, it’s not merely play money. Everything belongs to the Creator and Sustainer of life. Embracing this truth is the evidenced-based pathway to true prosperity.
As quoted in Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction: The Conflict of the Christian Faith and American Culture (Wheaton: Crossway, 1990), 102.
See Sidney Homer, A History of Interest Rates (New Brunswick, NJ; Rutgers University Press), 31. Herbert Schlossberg summarizes Sidney Homer’s observations in Idols for Destruction, 102.
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24 Greek mammon, a Semitic word for money or possessions).