Life Beyond Debt

Implications of the Financial Crisis and the Recession

 In February the Church of England's General Synod agreed a report on the 'Implications of the Financial Crisis and the Recession'. The report considers the origins and trajectory of the current crisis as well as policy options open to the Government in response. Accepting that there can be no one Christian view on economic or financial policy it also rightly acknowledges the need for a big vision for the economic and community life of our nation. The church is well placed to contribute to this and take part in the debate about the future shape of our society.

It is already clear that this recession will probably be more pronounced than many in Britain have ever experienced. There may be agreement that recessions always bottom out, but there is no consensus as to where the bottom is and when it will be reached. Likewise, the shape of the economy and society left in recession's wake remains unclear.

The orthodoxy of the past three decades has taken a pounding in recent months, yet there are no intellectually compelling alternative models ready to pull off the shelf. We are moving into uncharted territory and much remains to be done if a moral agenda, which is also economically sensible, is to emerge from the present crisis.

Comments by church leaders since the crisis broke have drawn attention to the moral bankruptcy of a society whose prosperity is built upon debt and phantom wealth. Their basic message has been plain: a recession is a time of moral, as well as economic, risk. How it is handled by government, by people and institutions, will determine the kind of country we are in the future. For a nation whose prosperity is not grounded in real human activity but relies on the illusion of making money from money is in moral peril. Moreover, debt enslaves people, both economically and by constraining their vision of what it is to be human.

Read 'The Implications of the Financial Crisis and the Recession'

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