[Posted December 8, 2007]

Economic Policy a Recipe for Quicksand

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Easier to save your soul than the economy

Goldseek 7 December 2007 - PETER SCHIFF

The Mother of all Bad Ideas

Without question, the Bush administration's mortgage rescue plan will exacerbate, not alleviate, the problems in the housing market. As the plan will sharply reduce the ability of new buyers to make purchases, it really amounts to a stay of execution and not a pardon.

Although there are mountains of uncertainty as to how the plan will be structured and implemented, there is no question that as lenders factor in the added risk of having their contracts re-written or of being held liable for defaulting borrowers, lending standards for new loans will become increasingly severe (higher down payments, mortgage rates, and required Fico scores, lower loan to income ratios, and perhaps the death of adjustable rate loans altogether). The result will be additional downward pressure on home prices, despite the fact that in the short term fewer homes will be sold in foreclosure than what might have been without the rescue plan.

Most homes temporarily saved from foreclosure will continue to depreciate as new buyers fail to qualify for loans. As a result, lenders will be on the hook for more losses than had the foreclosures taken place sooner. Of course, as these chickens will likely come home to roost after the next election, that's a trade-off incumbent politicians will happily make. go to story

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Necessities of Life

Krishna's Socio-Economic Solution A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

PRABHUPADA: Now here is economics, politics and everything. So by Krishna consciousness movement we want to see that everyone is getting nicely the necessities of life. That is economic. Is it not? REPORTER: It is economic in a very, in a very... PRABHUPADA: Brotherhood. Actually, we develop economics for getting the necessities of life. Is it not? That is economics. REPORTER: Yeah. But the point is that these necessities of life is a frontier, you know, ... which is always farther, and farther and farther, always more pushed, pushed away, pushed away by new things. So... more

Inevitably opposite results

Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.7.41-42, text & purport

A materialistic person, thinking himself very advanced in intelligence, continually acts for economic development. But again and again, as enunciated in the Vedas, he is frustrated by material activities, either in this life or in the next. Indeed, the results one obtains are inevitably the opposite of those one desires.

PURPORT
No one has ever achieved the results he desired from material activities. On the contrary, everyone has been frustrated again and again. Therefore one must not waste his time in such material activities for sensual pleasure, either in this life or in the next. So many nationalists, economists and other ambitious persons have tried for happiness, individually or collectively, but history proves that they have all been frustrated. In recent history we have seen many political leaders work hard for individual and collective economic development, but they have all failed. This is the law of nature, as clearly explained in the next verse.

In this material world, every materialist desires to achieve happiness and diminish his distress, and therefore he acts accordingly. Actually, however, one is happy as long as one does not endeavor for happiness; as soon as one begins his activities for happiness, his conditions of distress begin.

PURPORT
Every conditioned soul is bound by the laws of material nature, as described in Bhagavad-gita (prakriteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvashah [Bg. 3.27]). Everyone has achieved a certain type of body given by material nature according to the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

ishvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrid-deshe 'rjuna tishthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya

"The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy." (Bg. 18.61)

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supersoul, is present in everyone's heart, and as the living entity desires, the Lord gives him facilities with which to work according to his ambitions in different grades of bodies. The body is just like an instrument by which the living entity moves according to false desires for happiness and thus suffers the pangs of birth, death, old age and disease in different standards of life. Everyone begins his activities with some plan and ambition, but actually, from the beginning of one's plan to the end, one does not derive any happiness. On the contrary, as soon as one begins acting according to his plan, his life of distress immediately begins. Therefore, one should not be ambitious to dissipate the unhappy conditions of life, for one cannot do anything about them. Ahankara-vimudhatma kartaham iti manyate [Bg. 3.27]. Although one is acting according to false ambitions, he thinks he can improve his material conditions by his activities. The Vedas enjoin that one should not try to increase happiness or decrease distress, for this is futile. Tasyaiva hetoh prayateta kovidah. One should work for self-realization, not for economic development, which is impossible to improve. Without endeavor, one can get the amount of happiness and distress for which he is destined, and one cannot change this. Therefore, it is better to use one's time for advancement in the spiritual life of Krishna consciousness. One should not waste his valuable life as a human being. It is better to utilize this life for developing Krishna consciousness, without ambitions for so-called happiness.

Sri Guru and Gauranga