The World’s Biggest Idol
Do you know what the World’s biggest idol is? If you said “Money” you would be correct. However, you can be excused if you don’t understand the size of that idol. There is a verse that most of us know and probably can recite that illustrates this.
Matthew 6:24-26 Amplified Bible (AMP)
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money, possessions, fame, status, or whatever is valued more than the Lord].
As my pastor said last Sunday, money is mentioned more than 800 times and is the second most subject mentioned in the Bible. This illustrates the importance this subject has to God. You probably have had your own struggles with dealing with money – too much or too little – so you understand the issue on a personal level. But, how about from a Spiritual Warfare perspective?
Lately, the term ESG has sparked quite a strong reaction from the investment community. Especially, about how it potentially can affect investment returns. The problem with ESG is that the idea of “Values-Based Investing” has highlighted the main problem with ESG. IE., whose values are guiding the investment process? It turns out that the overwhelming majority of Investment Management Firms that have instituted an ESG model/fund or a series of funds are firms with a progressive agenda. A few of the largest firms have so many shareholders in their funds that they can easily dominate any voting process (proxy voting process) for any company in their funds. Thus, forcing their political agenda on those companies. Plus, there are other companies whose business is to facilitate the proxy voting process for companies that issue a proxy vote form to their shareholders. These companies essentially function as gatekeepers to the whole process and also have a progressive bias. This has played out such that shareholders that want to put a conservative values issue to a shareholder vote have been denied by the gatekeepers.
This effectively is a method for forcing a progressive agenda upon shareholders and companies without having to go through Congress.
This is a big problem for investors in America with traditional American values.
Now let’s look at this from a total global perspective. From what we see in the above example, it is obvious that there is a strategy being employed consciously or otherwise. I think it would be safe to say that there is more here than in just this instance. Because the stock market is only one piece of the pie when it comes to the Global Market. For example, the current size of the various markets in the World is as follows:
1) Worldwide Stock Markets: $89.5 Trillion Dollars(1)
A) New York Stock Exchange: $26.2 Trillion Dollars
2) The FOREX (currency market, largest market): $7.5 Trillion volume per day, which is 30 times greater than the daily global GDP.(2)
3) The Over-the-Counter Derivatives market: $632 Trillion dollars.(3)
4) Global Reinsurance Market: $421 Billion Dollars gross premiums.(6)
5) Commodity Trading Industry (US): $100 Billion Dollars.(7)
6) Global Cryptocurrency Market: $4.57 Billion Dollars.(6)
7) The Fourth Market: $64.9 Billion Dollars.(9)
8) Dark Pool Market/Fourth Market: Impossible to estimate the amount of volume in the Dark Pool Market/Fourth Market because these are private transactions between large institutional investors.(4),(9)
9) Global Money Supply: $83 Trillion Dollars.(10)
10) Total Value (very approximate) Global Markets: $815,252,900,000,000.00 (Eight Hundred Fifteen Trillion, Two hundred fifty-two Billion, Nine hundred Million Dollars)
I am sure that I have left something out, but the battle to control those markets has a hugely disproportionate effect on the lives of the people of the world.
You are probably wondering at this point if you have read this far, what does this have to do with me? I agree, how can we individually influence this large of a problem? That question is like the question many people ask every two years when we have an election. Why should I vote? My one vote won’t make that much of a difference. But it does have an effect because when it is added to the votes of people with the same values as you, you can change society for the better.
How do you vote with your money in a world that seems to be falling into value systems that don’t meet your traditional American values? Or wouldn’t pass a Biblically righteousness test. The problem goes further than just in our country. It’s a Global problem. The worldwide push for a One World Government is attempting to impose its agenda on the world. We need to fight for the Biblical Standards that form the foundation of our country to remain strong and able to push back against the kind of Global attempts to erase our national sovereignty and our national identity.
We at Inspire provide a Biblically Responsible Investment (BRI) option that gives us all a place to vote for Biblical Values. To remove our money – God’s money – from becoming part of the problem. We all can make a difference, even when we can’t see the top of the financial mountain. One account, one financial vote, at a time.
1) https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-worlds-10-largest-stock-markets/
2) https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/10-largest-stock-exchanges-world-233000404.html
3) https://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt2212f.htm
4) https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dark-pool.asp#:~:text=What%20Is%20a%20Dark%20Pool,has%20been%20executed%20and%20reported.
5) https://www.bis.org/publ/otc_hy2211.htm
6) https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/global-reinsurancemarket#:~:text=The%20Global%20Reinsurance%20Market%20has,they%20have%20faced%20higher%20losses.
7) https://www.oliverwyman.com/media-center/2023/mar/financial-times-and-bloomberg-boomtime-for-commodities-trading-is-now-as-oliver-wyman-reportshows.html#:~:text=Wyman's%20Report%20Shows-,Financial%20Times%20And%20Bloomberg%3A%20Boomtime%20For%20Commodities%20Trading%20Is%20Now,As%20Oliver%20Wyman's%20Report%20Shows&text=The%20commodity%20trading%20industry%20set,almost%20tripling%20pre%2Dpandemic%20levels.
8) https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cryptocurrency-market-report/
9) Fourth market trading is direct institution-to-institution trading without using the service of broker-dealers, thus avoiding both commissions,[1] and the bid–ask spread.[2] Trades are usually done in blocks. It is impossible to estimate the volume of fourth market activity because trades are not subject to reporting requirements.[citation needed] Studies have suggested that several million shares are traded per day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_market
10) https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/economy/how-much-money-is-in-the-world/