Coming Economic StormA prudent [man] foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.  Proverbs 22:3

The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower [is] servant to the lender.  Proverbs 22:7

For those who are looking at the coming economic storm.  The storm clouds are all around us and the trees are starting to reel to and fro.  Yet many people think “No not in America”  Yes as a nation we have departed from our God.  Our foundations are under attack.  God is going to refine His Church.  We are going into the fire.

The Coming Economic Storm

Do you have the faith of the Hebrew children that told King Nebuchadnezzar.  See important Radio message link on coming storm.

“If it be [so], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver [us] out of thine hand, O king.  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Blue Letter Bible – Dan 3 (KJV)

One very important radio broadcast link here

LISTEN NOW http://issuesineducation.org/audio/listen/1047.mp3

Much like those who have had to prepare for hurricanes in the past there is much to do before the storm.  Take this to the Lord in prayer.  It is time to fast and seek His face in all that is coming.

There is hope for believers, peace in the midst of a storm.  Jesus is with us.  Stop fighting the waves and call to Him.  We in America have given ourselves over to prosperity.

There are those who like Balaam have sold their gifts for hire.  We must have the “But if not…” clause in our faith.

Jesus said “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  John 14:27

Read the following article. Listen to the audio archive (26min.)  We need to know that God is Holy and just.  The coming trouble is not new to the Church.  It has been everywhere since the birth of the church.  The church in America is going to be purified and that comes by fire.  A godly friend of mine gave me a sermon which we will post soon.  Called the “The swelling of the Jordan”.  In a nutshell we have had it easy in America.  The prophet Jeremiah had his perspective adjusted by the LORD Himself in this summary of those “in the land of peace”.

The Lord explained as follows.  “If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and [if] in the land of peace, [wherein] thou trustedst, [they wearied thee], then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?”  Jeremiah 12  Things will get tougher says the Lord.  Read all of Jeremiah 12  Blue Letter Bible – Jer 12 (KJV)

I see and hear all kinds that promote various NWO conspiracy theories.  Many outside the Church see a One World coming.  Too many in the church don’t!  Blind guides.  Too all who think that they can fight this are fools.  Expose it yes!  As the bible says in Ephesians 5:8-21

“For you were once darkness, but now [you are] light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit  [is] in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose [them].  For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.  But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.  Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”  See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,  redeeming the time, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord [is].  And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,  speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.”

That is about as much of a right now word for the church.  Friends it’s not if the storm hits us it’s when.  Right now God is gearing up His people.  Recall that Fear is the beginning of wisdom, that is a reverence too God Almighty.  He does chastise His own.  See the radio links attached for news that is not watered down.  Links to IRN below.  See also the article attached by Khouse.org

“Our whole mission is to raise up wisdom in a generation that lacks wisdom” says Bates. “It’s an age of disinformation by osmosis and design; most journalists simply don’t have a clue, so audiences are not getting the truth from the current uninformed, controlled media who perpetrate a kind of intellectual incest on listeners”

http://www.inforadionet.com/index.php?id=30

http://www.inforadionet.com/index.php?id=30#archives

Offering all the programming previously available on both networks, IRN USA Radio News is broadcast from five satellites at its new base of operations – a state-of-the-art control room in Memphis. In addition to several former USA staff, IRN USA Radio News anchors continue to report the news from a lengthy roster of longstanding popular programs.

“People want a world view that is realistic” says Bates. “There’s no such thing as Christian news, per se. News is news. Truth is truth. National and international news affects Christians and non-Christians alike. But if you have real knowledge, then you have an understanding of what’s going on. From there you can assess how things will impact your everyday life.

“We have seen a lot of other networks become tabloid news rather than hard-hitting news” continues Bates. “At IRN USA Radio News you’re going to hear news that will make a difference. People aren’t really interested in what Britney Spears is wearing or not wearing, or what professional athletes or actors are doing in their private lives. This kind of information really doesn’t affect peoples’ daily lives. We think there are more important things going on in the world”

Bates is an economist, former bank CEO, and the best selling author The New Economic Disorder. He is also the publisher and editor of the Monetary and Economic Review, with subscribers in all fifty states and twelve foreign countries.

Chuck Bates is the executive vice-president and news director at IRN USA Radio News. Also an economist, Bates worked as an aide to the deputy to the president for Political Affairs in Bush one’s administration.

Related article from Khouse.org on brutal economic figures.  Get informed.  For the simple pass on by and are punished.

Twilight’s Last Gleaming? The End of America As We Know It – Chuck Missler – Koinonia House
The financial debacle we’ve all been plunged into was brought about by two bubbles: the real estate bubble and the associated credit bubble. A choreography of fiscal lunacy is well summarized in a New York Times article by Michael Lewis and David Einhorn:1
* * *

“A deeper absence, inside our financial system, has been undermined not merely by bad behavior but by the lack of checks and balances to discourage it. ‘Greed’ doesn’t cut it as a satisfying explanation for the current financial crisis. Greed was necessary but insufficient; in any case, we are as likely to eliminate greed from our national character as we are lust and envy. The fixable problem isn’t the greed of the few but the misaligned interests of the many…

“And here’s the most incredible thing of all: 18 months into the most spectacular man-made financial calamity in modern experience, nothing has been done to change that, or any of the other bad incentives that led us here in the first place. Say what you will about our government’s approach to the financial crisis, you cannot accuse it of wasting its energy being consistent or trying to win over the masses. In the past year there have been at least seven different bailouts, and six different strategies. And none of them seem to have pleased anyone except a handful of financiers…

“In the middle of all this, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. persuaded Congress that he needed $700 billion to buy distressed assets from banks—telling the senators and representatives that if they didn’t give him the money the stock market would collapse. Once handed the money, he abandoned his promised strategy, and instead of buying assets at market prices, began to overpay for preferred stocks in the banks themselves. Which is to say that he essentially began giving away billions of dollars to Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and a few others unnaturally selected for survival. The stock market fell anyway…

“It’s hard to know what Mr. Paulson was thinking as he never really had to explain himself, at least not in public. But the general idea appears to be that if you give the banks capital they will in turn use it to make loans in order to stimulate the economy. Never mind that if you want banks to make smart, prudent loans, you probably shouldn’t give money to bankers who sunk themselves by making a lot of stupid, imprudent ones.”

* * *
It is also most disturbing to discover that this vulnerability was known and predicted, but attempts to forestall disaster were blocked by corrupt politicians who were “on the take” for the past 30 years. It all began with the passing of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, in which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were directed to subsidize subprime loans.

The mounting calamity from encouraging unsound lending practices was recognized by numerous members of Congress over several administrations, but attempts to repair the impending disaster were blocked by entrenched Democrats: specifically, by Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee; Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the Sen-ate Banking Committee; and their associates, who were the beneficiaries of bribes from the resulting gravy train.

The resulting real estate bubble of unsound loans, however, was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Securitization Leverage (“Derivatives”)

Wall Street developed a series of “Structured Investment Vehicles” (SIVs), with which funds could borrow money by issuing short-term securities at low interest and then lend them by buying long-term securities at higher interest, profiting from the difference. (However, these can become insolvent when the value of the long-term security falls below the value of the short-term security that was sold.)

SIVs became extremely profitable products among the institutional investment community; however, they were sold with-out regulation—no listing on public exchanges, no standards, no open market (bid/asked, etc.), no clearing houses—simply private contract arrangements, unfunded with no guarantees. Specific performance was dependent on the balance sheet of the loser.

It now appears that over $20 trillion in notional value are in default. And it gets worse.

Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs)

SIVs led to loans being repackaged as securities. First is-sued in the 1980s, these became the fastest-growing sector of asset-based synthetic securities market, and are held by thou-sands of the largest financial institutions of the world. There are dozens of varieties which almost defy categorization:
• Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs) Backed by leveraged bank loans
• Structured Finance CDOs (SF CDOs) Backed by mortgage-backed securities
• Commercial Real Estate CDOs Backed by commercial real estate assets
• Collateralized Bond Obligations (CBOs) Backed primarily by corporate bonds
• Collateralized Insurance Obligations (CIOs) Backed by insurance or reinsurance contracts
• Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) $14.9 trillion to $45.5 trillion (300%) in 12 months
• CDOs backed by groups of other CDOs
Most of these bundled packages of subprime loans are now effectively worthless. They were based on the premise that markets would expand indefinitely and never contract. Their sales were completely unregulated and massively (fraudulently) overrated by the rating companies: Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P. False “Triple-A” Bond ratings were given by specialized default insurance companies: Ambac, MBIA, CIFG, and FGIC. Nine major insurers of over 80,000 corporate, municipals, and mortgage backed bonds are also in trouble and having their own credit ratings cut.

A sampling of exposures to these “derivatives”:2
JP Morgan Chase $90.4 trillion
Bank of America $38.1 trillion
Citigroup $38.1 trillion
Wachovia $4.9 trillion
HSBC $4.4 trillion
Wells Fargo $1.5 trillion

How Much Is a “Trillion”?

It’s easy to throw words around without a grasp of their significance. Each day we find increasing tax payer liabilities being added by various “bailout” programs and other spending sprees. How much is a trillion?

• It is the sum of all the government borrowing in the history of 42 administrations: from 1776 to 2000, the first 224 years of U.S. history, a total of $1.01 trillion was borrowed.

• If you were paid $1.00 per minute, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, it would take 2 million years to collect $1,000,000,000,000.

Derivative Exposure

The total exposure from the collapse of derivatives eludes even the experts in this field. Some of the published estimates are literally beyond our grasp and are on an equity base of less than 1%!

U.S. Government Bailouts

TARP $700 billion, and growing
Bear Stearns $29 billion
Detroit Big Three $25 billion
AIG $123 billion
Fannie and Freddie $200 billion
Mortgage-backed Securities $144 billion
FHA Rescue bill $300 billion
JPM for Lehman $87 billion
Fed’s TAF program $200 billion
Commercial paper $30 billion
Fed currency swaps $740 billion
TOTAL $2,700 billion …so far

FDIC

Many naïve investors take comfort in the fact that their bank deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC is the insurer of $13.3 trillion in U.S. bank deposits in 8,451 U.S. Banks. However, it had less than $35 billion in insurance funds at the end of the 3rd Quarter 2008 (down 24%). That amounts to only 76 cents for every $100 of insured deposits; less than 1%. For example, how can the FDIC participate in the GE Capital loan guarantee of $139 billion? This amounts to simple cosmetics to help defer bank runs.

A Structural Revolution in Progress

We occasionally hear the word “fascism” without really understanding its meaning: Webster’s Dictionary cites it as fol-lows: “Any program for setting up a centralized autocratic national regime exercising the regimentation of industry, commerce, and finance, rigid censorship and forcible suppression of opposition.”3

As we watch—daily—our traditional institutions become nationalized, and we watch our politicians saddle our children and grandchildren with debts beyond any capacity to ever be repaid, we need to prayerfully reflect on the implications for our future, our liberties, our freedom of worship, and our priorities. Let Psalm 91 be your devotional commitment in these turbulent hours

Notes:

1.     Michael Lewis and David Einhorn, “The End of the Financial World As We Know it,” New York Times, January 4, 2009.

2.     FDIC/IRA Bank Monitor, Q1 2008.
3.     Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (Unabridged).