With the financial crisis weighing heavily on Greece, creditor nations are now discussing the issue of obtaining collateral for money they loan Greece—in the event that Greece proves unable to pay back any loans.  Such collateral could include Greek real estate or shares in state assets such as utility companies.

Last week in Berlin, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called for the creation of a “United States of Europe… to avoid future economic crises,” declaring “we will have to give up national sovereignty” to a common government (Reuters.com, September 4, 2011).  This conviction is being voiced around the world.

“I know that there is only the smallest measure of inspiration that can be taken from this devastation. But there is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah that I think speaks to us all at times like this. ‘The bricks have fallen down but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled but we will replace them with cedars.’ That is what we will do. We will rebuild and we will recover…” So spoke United States Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, on September 12, 2001, in response to the shocking terrorist attacks the day before.

In an article in the UK’s Guardian, author Damian Carrington reviewed recently published research by three Cornell University faculty members suggesting that when food prices reach a specific level, riots and civil unrest are more likely to occur.

Before the world-changing events of 9/11/2001, Americans’ exposure to terrorism was mostly secondhand—perhaps watching video images of a bombed-out Oklahoma City building in April 1995, or reading newspaper stories of a botched World Trade Center bombing in February 1993. Millions, however, on that momentous Tuesday morning of September 11, were watching live television coverage of one burning skyscraper, when another jet suddenly appeared—and then crashed into the second WTC tower!