On the domestic front the author of this article should also have mentioned the amnesty no win program, terrorism, a run on the dollar, hyper inflation, high unemployment, riots, energy shortages, rationing, a draft, perhaps an EMP attack, thought police and maybe a police state. On the foreign threat he missed North Korea, Venezuela, and probably the next world war. Combine what Gerard Baker suggested in this article and what I just added, throw in a few unknown ingredients, turn the world upside down and let it simmer for a couple of years and what will come out of America’s melting pot?

This is the election you wouldn’t want to win | Gerard Baker - Times Online

It is highly probable that that moment, the very hour that he takes office, will be the high point of his presidency. Whoever wins on November 4 will be ascending to the job at one of the most difficult times for an American chief executive in at least half a century.

At some point reality will bite hard and politicians will discover that they simply cannot go on funding two wars, cutting taxes, creating vast new government health and pension programmes and doing the other essential things that the Federal Government does

The US is now indisputably entering the darkest phase of a period that will not only produce real hardship, but could send further shocks through financial markets and cause deeper fiscal damage.

Then there is energy policy. Weaning America off its oil addiction might actually need to be a policy rather than a slogan in the next four years; but that will place new burdens on the budget and require sacrifices difficult to make in good times, let alone in economically distressed ones.

Compared with all this, foreign policy looks like a doddle.

The next president has only to complete the process of transition in Iraq, win the war in Afghanistan, face down a resurgent Russia, continue to keep its foot on the throat of stateless Islamist terrorism, stop Iran from going nuclear and figure out what to do about the challenge from China - the most serious threat to US global hegemony since America became top nation.

Oh, and I didn’t mention Pakistan. Conversations this week with advisers to both campaigns suggest that both now see Pakistan - especially after last week’s terrorist attack in Islamabad - as perhaps the most intractable and serious challenge of all in the next few years: they candidly admit that no one has much of a clue what to do about it.

Full article

This article has been on my website for years. Since the economic wheels started coming off it has been downloaded many thousands of times. In case you have not read my 25 articles on World Trends and Bible Prophecy. This article on world debt is a sample.

Almost every nation of the world has such severe debt that just making the interest payments takes a large amount of their financial resources. Much of this world debt is owed to world bankers that then dictate their own economic policy to these countries. These policies do not favor the poor.

The largest economy in the world is the United States. The US government is currently 10 trillion dollars in debt and that is projected to go to 11 trillion or more in two years. Paying the interest on that huge debt in future years will cost about as much as what is spent on national defense (using modern historical interest rates and the cost of defense under normal peace time conditions).

The United States is now by far the biggest debtor nation in the world. For many years we have been importing hundreds of billions more dollars in goods and services than we are exporting each year. In 2005 through 2008 the trade imbalance averaged well over 700 billion dollars per year! Trillions of US dollars are now in the hands of foreign investors who at any time could dump the dollar causing a devaluation of the currency.

Just a few years ago, the US government was forecasting surpluses of trillions of dollars based on the stupid assumption that there would not be a downturn in the economy for decades. This foolish assumption was of course proven wrong and deficit spending has returned to well over “four hundred billion dollars” a year. The only reason the United States is not feeling the pinch of spending beyond its means has been the record low interest rates. The low interest rates were brought about by Federal Reserve manipulation to stimulate the economy but interest rates now will rise. Soon all who need loans will be making higher payments and the US government will be paying much more to service the national debt.

Debt and unfunded liabilities promised through entitlement programs is now over 50 trillion dollars. This amount of money in non inflationary dollars is impossible to raise! Thus, the U.S. is now technically bankrupt. In order to keep up the facade that the US is solvent for even another decade or two one or more of the following must happen.

1. Taxes must be raised.

2. Government spending will have to be drastically cut.

3. Deficit spending will dramatically increase.

If taxes are raised, it will kill the economy and the debt load will get worse and not better. Spending will not be drastically cut because these types of cuts would never get through the political system. Therefore, massive deficit spending will take place. The monetary system will be inflated so that this debt can be paid by using a dollar worth only a fraction of what it is today. This means a much weaker dollar in the future and much higher prices for all goods and services imported to the United States (in short it means we should expect hyper-Inflation). The recent rise in all commodity prices might just be the start of what is to come.

Full Article

(Please do not post full articles from my website on any another website or blog unless you use the “noindex” command in the meta data)

Is America now under judgment? When are acts of God acts of God? Has America done anything worthy of judgment? You be the judge.

• So far this year we are involved in two foreign wars with another war being a distinct possibility.
• We have had unprecedented numbers of tornadoes.
• The Mid-West floods have been catastrophic.
• More of California has burned this year then in any year in history and the fires are still burning with a fire season that still has a long way to go

On the Economic Front.

• Falling Real estate values have caused the greatest financial crises since the great depression.
• Tens of millions are losing equity in there homes, millions are losing their homes.
• The stock market is down 20 percent and pension funds and insurance will also lose at least that much value.
• Banks, brokerage firms and corporations are failing and need to be bailed out by the government.
• The U.S. dollar is the weakest it has been in modern times.
• Gasoline prices are four times what they were a few years ago.
• Heating bills will be much higher this winter.
• All electric bills are about to shoot up about twenty percent in one year.
• Food prices are up 10 to 20 percent this year.
• Inflation across the board is the worst in years and most of the costs have not even been passed through yet.
• Services in the U.S. are becoming unreliable.
• Unemployment is on the rise and it is going to get much higher.
• Due to falling revenues state and local governments are going to run into major deficit problems

Crime and amorality

• Gangs have taken over much of our inner cities.
• Drug trafficking is epidemic.
• Illegal drugs are used by a very large percentage of our population.
• 2.2 million people are in prison in this nation. This is the highest incarceration rate in the world.
• There are 10 to 20 million people in this country illegally.
• One in four adults in the U.S. has a VD. Homosexual males have a ten year shorter life span, yet, the pushing of homosexuality and sexual promiscuity is all over the media and sexual perversion is taught in our schools as normal healthy lifestyles and this is forced on suggestible children.
• Homosexual marriage is now legal in two states.
• There have been 50 million abortions in the U.S. and taxpayers in one way or another are paying much of the cost. Much of the black population in the U.S. is being aborted but most black leaders keep promoting it.
• Scams and rip-off schemes are epidemic especially on the Internet.

Politics.

• Congress has a nine percent approval rating.
• Judges are legislating law from the bench contrary to the Constitution.
• Special interest groups control almost all politicians and it is now almost impossible to get incumbents out of office.
• Thanks to the voters we have two choices for the President that want more globalism and more socialism. Both will bring in a liberal supreme court. Both will pass hate speech laws that will negatively impact Christians.

Religion.

• A generation of seeker friendly services has watered down much of what is left of Evangelical Christianity.
• The Emergent movement is redefining biblical truths and downplaying biblical doctrine.
• Most claiming to be Christians are biblically illiterate not having read through the Bible even once in their lives, far less have understanding of the passages in context.
• People flaunting their sins are put in church leadership roles.
• Psychology theories originated from the occult have corrupted much Christian counseling and other programs.
• New Age pagan thought is now all over the media and is being accepted by many claiming to be Christians.
• Much of the youth is leaving Christianity for postmodern relativism

If God were to continue judging this nation what might our immediate future hold?

• The economy would continue to decline.
• Hyperinflation is a very real possibility.
• Unemployment may become a very serious issue.
• There could be much greater weather related storms, droughts and crop failures.
• Major earthquakes would become likely.
• Major volcanic activity is certainly possible.
• Leadership in government could continue to get worse (even lower then scraping the bottom).
• Terrorist attacks would become likely.
• Hate speech laws will be passed and constitutional freedoms will be redefined by the courts. Government tyranny will become a major issue.
• A nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack may happen. It would leave the nation helpless without electric for months or years. (This would be the ultimate judgment it would most likely bring the complete collapse of our society).
• The complete collapse of our economic system is possible.
• Collapse of our social system and declining into anarchy is possible.
• The break up of the Union is possible.

The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Don’t you think it would be wise for people in this nation to fear the Lord instead of Him having to send correction because we will not do what is right?

Craig Smith says were heading for massive inflation in a couple of years. I also believe high inflation is inevitable since they will not allow a massive depression and can’t raise taxes or it would cause one. So they will just print all the funny money they need for the massive bail-outs. Then government will put on a lying happy face and tell everyone how our economy is not in a recession and how it is growing at 2 percent a year. Meanwhile, the costs of everything you need to live on will increase twelve percent or more each year for at least the next decade.

Translation: a 10 percent decline in your living standards each year for a decade or by 2020 we will have the living standard that Mexicans have today. Think it can’t happen here? Why not, it is happening in other nations and their debt load is less than ours? The U.S. is not magic-land the bills will come due. No it does not matter who you elect to be President the economic die is already cast. They may try price controls and rationing but we all know from history that just brings more government control, black markets and eventually total collapse of the free economic system. I highly doubt if they will allow you to keep your gold and silver and they will make you sell it to them at their price not the world market price. So what do you do? Learn to live on half of what you live on today, because you will. Think of it as a judgment on America for becoming the greedy godless heathens that we have become, because it will be. And yes, it could even be much even worse.

In the eye of an economic storm

Soon our financial leaders like Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will either have to prepare America for a lot more pain or employ all their resources to bail everyone out of the mess. From commercial banks to homeowners. Credit card users to common businesses. All will look to the Fed and the government for their financial salvation.

Given that we are in an election year, the Fed will not disappoint. It will run the printing press at full speed 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide the cash necessary to save the system. It will have to choose between doing the right thing and political expediency.

Which will they choose? Will the government stop spending money? Will the Fed stand by and watch a commercial bank or a company like General Motors go bankrupt? I doubt it. They will make piles of freshly printed money to keep the spending orgy afloat.

The Fed has to turn the spigot on and do so fast. Inflation will run well above the current (ridiculous) official rate of 4 percent. Expect to see 8 to 12 percent inflation at minimum until the markets recover from the fresh injection of easy cash they get from the Fed. Creating inflation will ruin the life savings of the many people who did not prepare. We have seen it happen. Yet we ignore the lessons of history. This round of inflation will only put off the day of reckoning yet again, and this time we may not recover.

I hope I am wrong. Believe me when I say I take no pleasure in writing this type of assessment of the current conditions we face, but I can not change the facts. We have overindulged at the trough of debt. Government, business and individuals spent borrowed money like there was no tomorrow. But tomorrow has indeed arrived.

I wrote these articles on imminent dangers to the United States a couple of years ago and they are on my website but I think in light of the world and national situation and the fact that many do not read my website it may be appropriate to post a review to these articles on this blog.

Imminent Danger for the United States of America Superpower

Nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) - Imminent danger to the US # 1

Massive oil and gas disruptions - Imminent Danger to the U.S. # 2

Total economic collapse in the U.S. - Imminent danger to the U.S. # 3

Coordinated nuclear terrorist attack - Imminent danger to the US # 4

WMD Attack on the U.S. by Russia or China - Imminent danger to the U.S. #5

Break Up of the United States of America and Civil Upheavals - Imminent Danger #6

This is the best written paper I have read on what is likely to happen to the U.S. economy between now and 2018.
I think what is said here is essentially correct. I do not think it will be quite as bad as the writer says or quite like Germany’s monetary collapse of the Weimar Republic only because our collapse will bring about the collapse of the economy of the whole world and the world power brokers will work overtime to come up with a solution (probably a world currency). I do see the living standards in the United States dropping to about half of what it is today in just a decade. The civil unrest this will all cause will change our nation and the world as we know it.

hadow Government Statistics » Special Issue - Hyperinflation

The U.S. economy is in an intensifying inflationary recession that eventually will evolve into a hyperinflationary great depression. Hyperinflation could be experienced as early as 2010, if not before, and likely no more than a decade down the road. The U.S. government and Federal Reserve already have committed the system to this course through the easy politics of a bottomless pocketbook, the servicing of big-moneyed special interests, and gross mismanagement.

The U.S. has no way of avoiding a financial Armageddon. Bankrupt sovereign states most commonly use the currency printing press as a solution to not having enough money to cover their obligations. The alternative would be for the U.S. to renege on its existing debt and obligations, a solution for modern sovereign states rarely seen outside of governments overthrown in revolution, and a solution with no happier ending than simply printing the needed money. With the creation of massive amounts of new fiat (not backed by gold) dollars will come the eventual complete collapse of the value of the U.S. dollar and related dollar-denominated paper assets.

What lies ahead will be extremely difficult and unhappy times for many.

OPEC might be shattered if we actually started drilling for oil and switching to coal instead of being blocked from doing so by congress cowed by the junk science global warming lobby. However, even if all restrictions were done away with it would take 5 years to gear up enough to make any difference. Meanwhile, the next oil disruption from a hurricane or a Middle East war will bring gas to $10 a gallon and will wreck the energy dependent economies of the world.

There are ways to deal with this but of course that won’t happen because what seems to be happening right now in food, energy, economics and the religious wars is the deliberate manufacturing of crises on the earth so that the only solution will appear to be a totally managed controlled world. I think the Pope just said wonders when he said a global government was needed to solve global problems.

In others words I think powerful spiritual/human forces are orchestrating this so that it will get so bad that all humans will want and even demand a world government to fix the problems. So is this a human conspiracy of the elite? Some might think so but I do not think any group of elite have the power to control the many different aspects of all this. They are more like puppets on a string. If what I said is true, these crises are not going to be resolved before the goal is achieved. So expect more wars, energy shortages, food shortages, the collapse of many world economies and rationing of many essentials until they bring in their world government, universalist world religion (to end the religious wars) and their world leader with all the answers.

Time to shatter OPEC … again

Last Friday, the “president” of Iran told an oil and gas exhibition in Tehran that the price of oil was too low.

“The oil price of $115 a barrel in today’s global markets is a deceiving figure,” he said. “Oil is a strategic commodity that needs to discover its real value.” The “president” accused Western countries of “selfishness” in their quest for oil and called the U.S. dollar “a handful of paper.”

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of this arrogant pipsqueak “president” and the “el supremo” of Venezuela, and the “royal” family of the desert and all the other blowhards of the OPEC cartel.

What makes me even angrier than their smug superiority is the fact that we brought this on ourselves. And it’s all happened before.

When you go to the gas pump and the $4 gas becomes $5 and then $10 per gallon, remember this is a self-inflicted price brought to you by the Carterite Democrats in Congress. The ghost of Reagan pleads with us to drill the oil literally bubbling up under our feet and shatter OPEC once more.

Gary Kah gives an interesting perspective in this piece. I believe he is correct that the influence of Christians will remain on the decline and that the country will continue to shift left toward globalism. If the figures he quotes is anywhere near correct, Bible based believers have gone from 67 percent of the world war II generation to five percent of those under 20 years old. Therefore without a major revival America’s fate is sealed, but does anyone see signs of a revival back toward biblical Christianity in America? All trends point toward universalism, pantheism and paganism.

Winds of Change - CWN

Whether we like to admit it or not, the hard reality is that while a significant number of Americans currently oppose efforts toward globalization, morally speaking our nation has moved strongly toward the left in recent years. Young voters are generally much more liberal than the WWII or Baby Boomer generations. They also tend to view globalization more favorably. The Obama campaign has succeeded at registering unprecedented numbers of these young voters. In all probability, 3 to 4 times as many individuals in the 20 – 45 age group will vote in November’s national election, as compared to 2004. They will be voting not only for our next president, but also for members of the House and Senate. If they show up in the numbers expected, it will represent a quantum shift in American politics. Unlike the conservative pundits on television and radio who are boasting about the huge conservative backlash that will follow in 2012, I believe the ideological shift already underway could be permanent. Here’s why.

Members of the so-called Generation X (ages 20 – 45) are far less prone to embrace the Christian faith than are their more senior counterparts; only 18 percent of Generation X members are Bible-based believers. Unfortunately, it gets worse. Among our youth, ages 20 and under, less than 5 percent are Bible-based believers – compared to 33 percent of Baby Boomers and 67 percent of
the WWII generation.

Along with the coming crash of the economy there may occur in this country a movement that few have considered. I am not saying that this latest article in my imminent danger series will happen but I think that there is about a 50/50 chance that it will. As the country goes liberal and makes amoral laws and calls biblical expression hate speech, regions of this country may decide they do not want to be part of the United States anymore.

The counter-revolution from the heartland may start as a rebirth of the anti federal Government American Patriot Movement and the Libertarians that all but died out after 9/11. The leaders of the movement will address government circumvention of U.S. constitutional rights and it will gain an increasingly large following when muzzled Christian conservatives also identify with their message and some support the movement.

The federal government will obviously oppose these constitutional militias or whatever they decide to call themselves and overreact against them with Homeland Security directed raids that will dwarf Waco. This will only help enlighten more people in the Heartland to the creeping government fascism that is taking control of government and it will spark secession movements in conservative states.

As with prior federal agendas, they will threaten to withhold federal funds and use other coercion techniques against states that will not fully comply with locally unpopular federal laws. That will only alienate state representatives and legislators who will be under much pressure by the local people and cause them to threaten to cut off sending federal taxes to Washington. At some point one northern mountain state will put secession from the union to a emergency state referendum and it will pass. They will declare themselves a free state (like Kosovo) and invite international recognition. Other northern mountain states and some mid-western farming states might soon join with them and create a new union of states.

Full Article 

In light of the present economic crises I will bring up an article I wrote almost a decade ago. Some of the figures have been updated but things look like they are now beginning to play out as I figured.

This article is now the most downloaded article on my website. It will be downloaded two thousand times this month alone. You can always tell what people are worried about by what they search for on the Internet. Many people obviously are very concerned about the economy.

They have good reason to be concerned with the economy. We are about to enter a time like none before in modern times. Most everyone thought that economic conditions in the world would continue to improve because few people evern learn from history. There is nothing unique about this generation that makes us any more immune to the consequences of mankind’s greed and violence then any other generation. In the next decade their will be changes in the U.S. that you probably will not believe if I told you.

The next decade will radically separate Christians who trust God for their needs and and those who become almost totally dependent and enslaved by an increasingly fascist government for their needs.

Banks and financial institutions holding today’s unrealistic low interest loans on property will go under, causing a collapse of pension systems and/or a taxpayer bailout that will worsen the deficits even further. Many with adjustable rate mortgages will not be able to make the payments and they will default on their loans. The foreclosed houses will be dumped on the market bringing a collapse in all home values. All this in effect will cause an inflationary depression in the largest economy in the world.

The fall of the US economy will have a domino effect and bring about a worldwide depression that will further depress the US economy and bring a full fledged depression worse than the great depression of the 1930’s. When this happens most companies will go bankrupt and will be nationalized.

Full article 

Everybody hates the dollar: James Saft U.S. Reuters
And while the Federal Reserve seemed to signal that this week’s cut in rates might be the last for a while, if anything U.S. interest rates may decline faster and farther than those of most other major currencies, undermining support for the greenback even more. This may be especially true if you believe, as do a vocal minority of analysts, that the U.S. will slide into recession, forcing the Fed to cut rates aggressively.”

There could be a recession along with a much weaker dollar that will fuel inflation at home. Its the perfect trifecta for a worldwide depression and economic collapse a year or so down the line. We seem to have been in the roaring twenty’s but now it is looking like 1929. The last great depression took 15 years and a world war to get out of. This one could bring us into the time of end time biblical prophecies.

French PM Fillon tells farmers ‘France is broke’ - Telegraph
France is bankrupt and can no longer afford to pay its workers generous salaries and subsidies, its prime minister has declared.

Francois Fillon made the undiplomatic outburst during a trip to the French island of Corsica, where farmers were demanding more government money. “I am at the head of a state that is in a position of bankruptcy,” he said. “I am at the head of a state that for 15 years has been in chronic deficit. I am at the head of a state that has not once passed a balanced budget in 25 years. This can’t go on.”

Most of the rest of the world is bankrupt as well. Democratic socialism has not worked because their representatives continually spend more than the nation has. When the bills come due there will be chaos. You will not have long to wait to see the results of this failed system.

What it really comes down to is that most investments just finance debts that will have to be paid with money worth far less, or not paid at all. That means that entitlements, dividends, bonds etc., will be paid with increasingly worthless money or they will never be paid. There will be runaway inflation, defaults or both. It will bring about a world depression. After most people have lost everything they will just set up a new system.

It could start happening any day now. For sure, it will happen before the bulk of the ageing populations draws social entitlements that cannot be paid.

Greenspan: Higher inflation to warrant double-digit rates in future - USATODAY.com Greenspan: Higher inflation to warrant double-digit rates in future - USATODAY.com: “WASHINGTON — Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan predicts in a new book out Monday that the Fed will have to raise interest rates to double-digit levels in coming years to thwart inflation. Greenspan, 81, says in The Age of Turbulence that the inflation-damping effect of globalization, which has led to lower wage pressures, inflation and interest rates worldwide, will recede. At some point, the flow of people into the workforce in developing countries such as China, which has seen a movement of workers from farms into factories, will slow, leading to stronger wage pressures and prices, he says. The impact will be global.”

“Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues, who meet in Washington Tuesday, have kept their target for short-term interest rates, which influence borrowing costs economywide, at 5.25% for more than a year. Greenspan’s assertion that the Fed may have to double rates from current levels suggests the Fed may put itself in a bind by cutting rates now.”

Greenspan’s rationalization for double digit inflation in the future is self serving and very deceptive. Double digit inflation will come like Greenspan says but it won’t come because of lack of workers as Greenspan implies. Worker shortages just bring higher productivity. Double digit inflation will actually come because people and governments have been spending much more than they have had, for many decades.

The Federal bankers of some nations have just been creating money like it was toilet paper and it will be worth just about as much some day.

What’s the solution? There isn’t any, it is far too late to save the system. The US is already bankrupt because it has 65 trillion in entitlements debts coming due and no way to pay for them except by printing nearly worthless paper or by defaulting. Some other countries are in the same position. Even the countries that have assets will suffer the consequences because the assets they hold will become worthless paper and there will be little wealth left in the world to buy their products.

When the facts hit home that the dollar and certain other currencies need to inflate to pay off their debts the whole world economy will be in the toilet. It is not that there will be a labor shortage, there will be few jobs for laborers at all. Paper assets will be wiped out, along with individuals savings and promised entitlements.

After people lose nearly everything they ever worked for, the world bankers will propose a partial bail out through a new worldwide banking system that will enslave the people into a socialist global system that will have little differences in pay for work done anywhere on the globe. This is the socialist utopia the elite dream of for others but not for themselves.

The Real State of Our Union: What The Politicians Know But Don’t Talk About - CWN: “Events over the past few years have caused many informed observers to be concerned over the increased precariousness of our strategic horizon. In addition to natural disasters-such as Hurricane Katrina-and the continuing terrorist threats promising a major sequel to “9/11,” and the probability of rogue nuclear attacks of various kinds, anyone who is relying on smooth waters over the next 12-18 months is simply among the ranks of the under-informed. To prepare for potentially volatile uncertainties, some years ago we published a series of suggestions, which we called “The Vortex Strategy,” and in view of our current horizon, it seems appropriate to review some of those ideas. The next major terrorist event could prove to be an even more impacting sequel than “9/11”-whether it is an Al Qaeda plot of some kind, or an EMP attack which threatens to plunge the U.S. back into the 19th century. But without indulging in speculations regarding the challenges that Homeland Security presently faces, many experts are also anticipating a possible upheaval to emerge from the current debt debacle of the United States. What would be the consequences to you and your family if America’s economic foundation was ripped out from under you? We individually can’t change the probabilities of such an event, but what is your action plan to protect yourself and your family?”

I think it is wise to respect what Chuck Missler says in this article because he is not just blowing smoke. We are in big trouble.