As I see the United States government striving to work out a new budget, trying to devise a way to get the nation out of deep debt, I am reminded of an old hymn:  "Give of Your Best to the Master."

How did such a rich country as the U.S. fall into such crushing financial debt? Somewhere in its history, a substantial number of its people quit giving of their best, and started to look out for how much they could take from their fellow Americans.

“EU’s Financial Hurricane Is About to Hit,” read a sobering headline in this week’s Times.  This week something critical happened in reaction to leaked information that the EU would allow Greece to redeem some of their bonds at their current financial status—50% less than their original worth.  The news scared Italian investors with the notion that the same could happen to them.  The result?  Italian bonds immediately dropped to 70% and 80% of their value.

“Half of Christchurch wants to leave,” reads one Australian headline.  In the wake of three powerful and devastating earthquakes in the last nine months, an unofficial poll of more than 40,000 Christchurch, New Zealand residents revealed that over 3,000 have emigrated to Australia so far.  Twenty-one percent of residents plan to leave Christchurch at some point in the future, another 26% say they would leave if it were not for their jobs and their property, and 13% said they do not know what to do.

Last weekend, an oil pipeline under the Yellowstone River in Montana broke, unloading more than 1,000 barrels of crude oil into the river.  The cause of the break is unknown, however some officials think it may be due to unusually high river levels thanks to the spring snow melt.  This high water has made containment of the spilled oil very difficult.  The effects of the spill are yet to be determined, but traces of the spill have been discovered 30 miles down-river, so far.

“Greece faces massive loss of sovereignty,” read a recent article in the EU Observer.  As the EU forwards 12 billion euros of additional relief to Greece, it completes its fifth payment of the overall 110 billion euro package.  This recent payment should help Greece meet its financial obligations through the end of the month.