World News and Trends
Beyond Today Magazine
Good News Magazine: March - April 2010
Course Content
Notice these sobering words from The Wall Street Journal: "Never in the World Economic Forum's 40-year history have business and political leaders gathered in Davos [Switzerland] with so many pressing issues to discuss" ("A World of Troubles," Feb. 3, 2010, emphasis added throughout).
Notice these sobering words from The Wall Street Journal: "Never in the World Economic Forum's 40-year history have business and political leaders gathered in Davos [Switzerland] with so many pressing issues to discuss" ("A World of Troubles," Feb. 3, 2010, emphasis added throughout). Several of those pressing issues center on the global debt problem, and specifically that of the United States and the United Kingdom.
A number of disturbing newspaper and magazine headlines should grab our attention: "U.S. in Fiscal Peril With $12.1 Trillion Debt" (USA Today, Jan. 4, 2010); "Ocean of Debt Threatens Obama as He Forecasts Record £975 [billion, or $1.5 trillion] Deficit" (The Daily Telegraph, Feb. 2, 2010); "Tell Us the Truth About the Depth of Our [Britain's] Debt Crisis" (The Sunday Telegraph, Sept. 20, 2009); "We Can Afford to Pile Up Debt, Says [British Prime Minister Gordon] Brown" (The Daily Telegraph, Feb. 3, 2010); "How Great Powers Fall: Steep Debt, Slow Growth and High Spending Kill Empires—and America Could Be Next" (Newsweek, Dec. 7, 2009).
The USA Today article simply states: "After $787 billion in stimulus spending and $707 billion in bank bailouts, 2010 is fast shaping up to be the year of the federal budget diet. Bipartisan support is growing in Congress for action to stabilize the nation's bulging debt, which is now $12.1 trillion." Influential fiscal experts and concerned politicians want decisive action, but there is no agreement on what needs to be done.
According to The Sunday Telegraph'slead editorial about Britain's debt crisis: "The numbers are horrendous: today the national debt stands at £804.4 billion [or $1.3 trillion], equivalent to more than £25,000 [or nearly $40,000] for every family in Britain. Interest payments are expected to increase by more than 11 per cent every year; by 2013-14, they will amount to £63.7 billion [$100 billion], or more than we now spend on defence and transport together."
TheFeb. 3 Daily Telegraph article said that "Gordon Brown has insisted he was 'right' to run up a huge Government deficit and said that pushing the public finances deep into the red was essential to cope with the recent recession...The Government will spend £178 billion [around $280 billion] more than it raises in tax during the current financial year, a deficit equal to 12.6 per cent of the entire economy and larger than almost any other advanced economy."
In the Newsweek cover piece, author Niall Ferguson focused on how "economic weakness is endangering [America's] global power." He further stated: "But if the United States succumbs to a fiscal crisis, as an increasing number of economic experts fear it may, then the entire balance of global economic power could shift." Ferguson, a Harvard professor, indicated that a debt explosion usually ends up in a radical reduction in national defense spending.
This has already begun to happen in Britain. A Feb. 2 Daily Telegraph report stated: "Britain's Armed Forces face inevitable cuts that will leave the country 'dependent' on allies [like France] to fight future conflicts...The country can no longer afford to fund current operations in Afghanistan" ("Budget Cuts 'Will Leave Britain Reliant on War Allies'").
Failure to balance the books inevitably leads to financial disaster, whether on a national, corporate or individual level, bringing on all the other thorny difficulties that flow from a lack of adequate funds. (Sources: The Daily Telegraph [London], The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsweek.)
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
