Monday, February 16, 2009

Economic Chicanery?

Good Morning...an interesting take on the economic meltdown that we are experincing from Jack Kinsella of the Omega Letter:

''Stuck in Front of a Runaway Train''
Commentary on the News
Friday, February 13, 2009
Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor

One of our forum members summed up the Barack Obama Experience so far this way: "We're stuck in front of a runaway train with no way to escape."
I couldn't have said it better myself. There is a sense of inevitability about it all, like watching two trains approaching one another on the same track. There's nothing you can do but watch the wreck happen.
I caught Glenn Beck's show yesterday and his guest was a guy by the name of Gerald Celente.
Celente claims at his website to have predicted the rise of gourmet coffee, the boom in bottled water, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the last two recessions, the dot-com meltdown, the Crash of '87, the Asian currency collapse of '97 and the war on terror.
Pretty impressive track record, even if one takes into account the fact this is Gerald Celente evaluating Gerald Celente. Again, from his website:
"The proof is in his past — Gerald Celente has earned his reputation as "The most trusted name in trends" by accurately forecasting hundreds of social, business, consumer, environmental, economic, political, entertainment, technology trends, etc."
That's fair enough. So, what does Celente (who says he forecast the Crash of '08), forecast for '09? The Collapse of '09.
"We're going to start seeing the retail sector collapse . . . a lot a empty stores, at lot of vacancies. Also the commercial sector of real estate. . ."
On the viability of the economic stimulus package . . ."You can't spend your way out of problems. You have to produce your way out of problems. This isn't even Economics 101 -- this is Economics for Dummies. You can't print money based on nothing and expect it to fix the problems."
The news gets worse. Celente predicted we are entering the greatest depression in American history. Celente listed the reasons why this depression would be worse, (mainly the explosion in personal debt and trade deficits).
The rest of the segment was largely about who predicted more catastrophes earlier and how difficult it is to be the bearer of bad news. I was somewhat amused at Beck's assertion that it damaged his career, given he was saying it from the set of "The Glenn Beck Show".
(It reminded me of when Tim Robbins complained from the podium of the Washington National Press Club that his right to free speech was being violated.)
While Celente and Beck were explaining why government can't spend its way out of the current economic crisis, the Senate was passing the nearly $1 trillion 'emergency stimulus' bill.
And Timothy Geitner was announding the Federal Reserve was planning to bypass Congress and spend another $1.2 trillion more.
When Senator Chuck Schumer was asked about that during a 'quicky' interview outside the Senate chambers, Schumer explained that the Fed plan didn't need to go through Congress because it 'wasn't taxpayer money.'
Whose money is it? Suddenly, he had to break off the interview and head back to the Senate. Schumer's reaction typified those on the Left -- it proves (to me, at least) that they recognize this for the swindle that it is.
The look on Schumer's face when asked to elaborate on whose money the Fed was planning to use is the same look I used to see on suspects during interrogations at that moment when they realized they were just caught in a lie.
The runaway train analogy is a good one.
If I were prone to sensationalism and conspiracy theory, I would say that what we are now experiencing is deliberate. But since I'm not prone to such things, I'll just say it is PROBABLY deliberate. Here's why.
For most of the past eight years, even during periods of unbroken and almost unrestricted growth, the Democrats have continued to talk down the economy.
One of the side benefits of writing (or reading) a daily column like the OL is that it makes us a bit more resistant to historical revisionism.
I wrote the following in an Omegaletter that was published on July 25, 2002:
It's pretty transparent, really. This is political, not economic. The fundamentals of the economy are no different now than they were five years ago.Smoke and mirrors and unsustainable growth. Except now somebody has blown away some of the smoke.
The market is also tanking because the politicians have made it a campaign issue, further exposing the 'miracle' as the shell game it is.
If the economy improves, it works for the GOP. If it tanks, it works for the Democrats. In fact, the more it tanks, the better it is for Democratic hopefuls in the November mid-terms.
To accomplish the DNC strategy, your 401K has to go down the tubes and your investments have to dry up and go south.
It either happened that way or it didn't. You tell me. We lived through the last eight years together. And here is HOW it happened.
Again, from Volume 10, Issue 25, July 25, 2002:
The 19th century philosopher Georg Hegel outlined the crisis management dialectic that bears his name.
Hegel concluded that conflict creates history. Therefore, he concludes, history can be shaped by conflict. Hegel concluded that a population can be convinced to work against its own best interests via the application of a logical three stage program.
The Hegelian Dialectic offers a thesis, an antithesis, and resolves the argument between the two with a synthesis, which is presented to avoid a crisis. The crisis is often designed for the purpose of getting acceptance of the synthesis.
Thesis: Americans will blame the incumbent for an economic downturn and vote against the incumbent party.
Antithesis: Identify a connection between the party in power and the market downturn, continuing to talk down the market, talk up corporate fraud and scare small investors out of the stock market.
Synthesis: If enough people pull their money out, the market will head south, jobs will be lost, causing a ripple effect across the lower socio-economic strata [that the Democrats claim as their base] and those injured by the economy will vote for the Democrats.
They'll worry about how to undo the damage they are doing in order to win votes after they accomplish their primary goal. Which is not to help the economy, by the way. It is to get elected.
I am astonished that there is anyone in America that cannot see through this -- but that is the reason everybody quotes Georg Hegel and not Jack Kinsella. Hegel was undoubtedly smarter -- 'cause it works.
This isn't about Jack Kinsella having to bear the ponderous weight of career-smashing doomism that plagues Glenn Beck and Gerald Celente.
The point is that if I could identify the plan in such detail in 2002, then I'm probably not blowing smoke when I say in 2009 that it was deliberate.
(And the sub-point isn't that I'M so smart. It's that the Bible that I rely on is so true that even a donkey like me can use it to make sense of the apparently senseless.)
Although the Democrats tried to shake investor confidence, until they managed to get a majority in Congress in '06, they didn't have the power. Since winning both Houses and the White House, they've revised the dialectic.
The market operates based on investor confidence. If investors are confident they will get a return on their investment, then they will invest. If not, then they will keep their money under a mattress. So if you want investors to invest, you create an atmosphere of confidence.
"A failure to act, and act now, will turn this crisis into catastrophe" - President Barack Hussein Obama
The economy is "dark, darker, darkest. 650 million Americans lose their jobs every month. " Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
"If we don't pass [this stimulus bill] it's Armageddon." Senator Claire McCaskell - [D-Mo]
(During the Great Depression, US unemployment reached 33%. During the 1970's OPEC recession, it hit 10.2%. Right now, it is at 7.2%.)
That's why it seems like a runaway train headed straight for us, rather than, say, a lightning bolt or a meteor strike. This was carefully planned, but somewhat sloppily executed 'crisis', and now it's spiralled out of control.
Is Celente right? Are we on the cusp of a global depression that will make the 1930's pale by comparison? Possibly. But not because of any fundamental changes in the economy.
We are where we are as part of a political plot that we outlined in detail almost seven years ago. This is no accident of history.
If they can right the ship before its too late, then the collapse may be forestalled for a few more years, but the collapse eventually will come regardless, because the Bible predicts economic collapse as part of the overall picture for the last days.
So, is this it? Are we toast? Or can we find, for a change, a little good news in Bible prophecy for the last days? Let's see.
I want you to notice with me, the order in which these things are predicted to unfold. It is a key to understanding the Book that one understands that the Revelation is written in chronological order.
In Revelation Chapter Six, we have the opening of the seven seals and the first seven judgments. The first four seal judgments are represented by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
First comes the rider on the white horse -- the antichrist. Then after that, the rider on the red horse, War. After that comes the rider on the black horse that brings economic collapse and famine.
This ISN'T the ride of the Rider on the Black Horse that we are witnessing. Not yet. The Seal Judgments are what they are and God didn't number them arbitrarily.
It could well be a setting of the stage for that ride, but if that is true, then the antichrist and global war are just around the corner. Because they HAVE to come first. Each is interdependent upon the seal judgment that comes before.
It is like an equation: antichrist + global war = famine + death.
The antichrist kicks things off by starting the global war that collapses the global economy -- bringing about the death of about a third of the population.
So where's the good news in all of this? The Book of Revelation is written in chronological order. Revelation 1-3 deals with the Churches and the Church Age. Beginning in Revelation 4:1, the perspective of the Church shifts from that of earth to that of heaven.
"After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter." (Revelation 4:1)
To recap, the four horsemen are Antichrist, War, Famine and Death. Each of the seal judgments depends on the one that comes before -- antichrist brings war, which brings famine, which results in death. Those events are ALSO interdependent with an event that takes place concurrently in Heaven.
First, BEFORE the breaking of the first seal (the rider on the white horse) the Bible says this:
"the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." [Revelation 5:8-10]
Who is redeemed by the Blood of Christ out of every kindred, and tongue and nation? Who did Jesus make kings and priests unto God? Who does the Bible promise will reign with Him?
These promises are unique to the Church. And the Church sings this new song BEFORE the first seal is broken. The seal that brings economic collapse is broken third. And when the Church is singing this new song, it is singing it in Heaven.
The runaway train analogy is EXACTLY the right analogy. The Church is standing on the tracks, transfixed by the oncoming train. And then, as certain doom approaches,
"the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
For THIS reason, as we see the train approaching, Paul says, "Wherefore, comfort one another with these words." (1st Thessalonians 4:16-18)
To the world, that approaching Light looks like an oncoming train. Be comforted. The Engineer's a Friend of ours. He said to watch for it.
And when we saw it BEGIN to start bearing down on us, THAT was when He said would be the time to look up and lift up our heads, for our redemption draweth nigh.

Maranatha!

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