Hope and Change

The Psalm for morning prayer today

I cry aloud to the Lord; •
to the Lord I make my supplication.

2I pour out my complaint before him •
and tell him of my trouble.

3When my spirit faints within me, you know my path; •
in the way wherein I walk have they laid a snare for me.

4I look to my right hand, and find no one who knows me; •
I have no place to flee to, and no one cares for my soul.

5I cry out to you, O Lord, and say: •

‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.

6‘Listen to my cry, for I am brought very low; •
save me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.

7‘Bring my soul out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name; •
when you have dealt bountifully with me,
then shall the righteous gather around me.’

It is hard to know where economics stops and sociology starts. This crisis seems to be as much about psychology as it is about anything happening in the actual economy.

This all got started because people believed something that was not true, that the price of houses always climbs, that when it does everyone who owns a house is better off and it is normal to earn 10% a year on an investment.

This is not about greedy bankers, they just did their job, maximising their shareholder's dividends selling a product everyone wanted to buy. This was about everyone of us wanting to be better off and now it is about everyone of us fearing the worst.

If this is primarily a social phenomenon rather than an economic one then it is only going to come to an end when there is an event, that puts down a strong marker that change has happened. I think this can only be clear and obvious change at the top, something that seems to herald a new dawn, even if it does not actually do that.

I believe that a break with the past is the only thing that will bring about the end of this crisis and the opening of what happens next.

And I think that the American Electorate is now, decisively and irreversibly, also coming to this view.