In Brief...World News Review
Beyond Today Magazine
World News and Prophecy: September - October 1998
Course Content
Russian economic stability in question.
The Russian ruble has been devalued in the midst of some stark apocalyptic statements about the state of the economy. For instance: "Russia's financial crisis could spin out of control as banks collapse" wrote Garth Alexander in New York and Mark Franchetti in Moscow" (The Sunday Times,August 16.).
The European evaluation is even worse: "Thinking that a rise in fiscal receipts and a trimming of public spending will solve Russia's problems, as the IMF does, is to miss the self-evident point that the Russian economy is bust, plain and simple. All the statistics about economic activity are probably hokum. The foundation stones of a market economy—a legal structure to enforce mutual obligations, corporate responsibility and transparent accounting—are non-existent" (August 17-23).
Says American columnist Patrick Buchanan: "It is time for truth. The Russian economy is a corpse. That $15 billion, which comes on top of the $9 billion the IMF has already committed and on top of the scores of billions from Europe and the United States, will never be seen again. Russia is bust. Indeed taking out new loans to pay interest on old loans is a definition of bankruptcy" (The Washington Times, July 20-26).
But more than bad economics is at stake here. The world has a very heavy interest in Russian economic stability. The country still has too many nuclear weapons for comfort. And any temptation to sell weapons technology to unstable dictatorships for badly needed cash frightens the West.
In terms of Russian economic well being, too much was expected too soon. A nation pays a heavy price for 70 years of communism. The attempted conversion to a free market economy and a full free enterprise system has rocked the nation's social fabric. No wonder Gorbachev wanted to go slower.
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.
