Ponzi Finances of Debt; Catholic Economies of Plenty

Our economy is more and more looking like a mega-Ponzi scheme. We got into trouble because everyone was borrowing too much: China has loaned us $1 trillion over the last decade. To get out of the crisis we will stimulate the economy by borrowing another $trillion, probably from China. Isn’t this the way a Ponzi scheme works: expansive borrowing to cover prior debt? If faith in unregulated, low-tax free markets went into crisis in late summer of 2008 with the mortgage bust, we are now witnessing a revived faith in Keynesian deficit spending. Today’s NY Times explains that the Chinese have loaned us so much money because we Americans borrow and spend without saving while the Chinese are making, saving and loaning tons of money without buying anything. We are joined to each other as addict to co-addict. It is hard to avoid the impression that the economy we have created is a macro-monster that no one really can understand, control or predict. The financial wizards and economic experts with their obscure terminology and complicated mathematical modeling did not anticipate this crisis and elicit little confidence that they can resolve it. What are we learning? We are learning to place little trust in things like stocks, credit, planning, pensions, retirement plans and “financial security” in general. It resonates of the Gospel rebuke to the rich man building barns for his harvest: “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you!” (Luke 12:20)

Sin as Debt?

The time seems ripe to retrieve the language and imagery of sin as debt. To literally identify sin as debt and debt as sin would surely be simplistic and distorting of both; but there is a sin-like quality to debt and a debt-like quality to sin. The mystery of iniquity is illuminated by many images: disease, addiction, isolation, mimetic contagion, rebellion, deception, darkness, and bondage…to name a few. Sin has traditionally been understood as an infinite debt incurred by offending our Almighty God. This approach has been unfashionable in recent decades but can be helpful. Both sin and debt are progressive and dynamic and lead us deeper into a bondage that can become inescapable; both involve profound deficit, loss and negativity; both bring bondage and oppression; both lead to hopelessness and paralysis. The economic and spiritual spheres of human life are clearly distinct; but they do mutually infuse and influence each other and there is an analogical and interactive relationship between them. In an age of Ponzi schemes and trillion dollar deficits, our fear and loathing of sin might well inflame our dread of debilitating debt and our thirst for frugality, simplicity and generosity.

Grace and Plenty

If sin implies debt and destitution, grace clearly means plenitude, surplus, and extravagance. Christ in the paschal mystery has not only canceled our debt, but has invested us into his own legacy of boundless plenty. In the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, we eat the bread of eternal life and drink from heavenly springs. This spiritual banquet overflows into our economic, domestic and physical, economies. Within the faith of the Church, we daily live the miracle of the loaves and fishes and the generosity of the sinful woman who anointed her Lord with precious oils; we draw from the merits or credit of the Communion of Saints even as we sup on the provisions of Mother Nature.

It is a marvelous time for skepticism about financial instruments and macro-economics; a time for uninhibited immersion in the sacramental economy and the abundance of the Kingdom; a time for vigorous and celebrative simplicity, frugality and generosity.