U.S. investors lose trillions

An article taken from the NZ Herald, 14 March 2001,
reads: "US stocks plunder investors' trillions - Four and a half trillion US
dollars - $10.71 trillion in New Zealand currency -– that's how much
investors have lost from the fall in US share prices over the past year.

High-tech companies have been especially hard-hit. The Nasdaq
index, which includes many high-tech firms, fell 6.3 per cent yesterday (New
Zealand time) to its lowest point in two years....

The latest falls were spurred largely by a warning from Cisco
Systems that it was cutting staff amid fears of an economic slowdown.

Cisco, the company that makes much of the hardware that runs
the internet, had been one of the darlings of the so-called 'new economy'.

About this time last year its shares were worth $US82 each
and there was talk that it would surpass General Electric and Microsoft as the
most valuable company in the world.

By yesterday, Cisco's shares were down to $US18.81.

Many analysts are forecasting that the high-tech sector's
problems are far from over, with more falls ahead" (emphasis added).

It is little wonder that God's word warned us many, many
years ago through the prophet James, that a day would come when the economy of
this world would no longer be reliable. We read some interesting verses in James 5:1-3: "GO TO now ,ye
rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your
riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is
cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat
your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days."
And then some warnings from 1 Timothy 6:17-19:

"Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not
highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who
giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in
good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for
themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on
eternal life" (emphasis added).