Nov 20, 2017
The Greatest Bubble in History
The US Stock Market has never had a better run in the history of Wall Street. At the Depth of the Great Financial Crisis, the Dow Jones Average screeched down to 6,594.44 on March 5, 2009. Since that low, the Dow has risen 350 percent. There is no other eight-year period where the Index has seen such a massive point gain.
President Trump is the only president in US history to oversee two stock-market rallies of nine days or more where the markets set new highs each and every day. In February, Trump matched President Reagan’s 1987 record of the Dow reaching a new high for its 12th day in a row. In August, President Trump reigned over a nine-day stock market rally with each day reaching record highs.
In the year since Donald Trump was elected president, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has closed at record highs 82 times — also a record. The 28.5 percent rally is the biggest one-year gain in the popularity index under a newly-elected commander-in-chief since the Great Depression.
What has made all these record highs possible is the lack of any major down days. Last month the Dow broke its previous record of the number of days without a three-percent drawdown.
If you find yourself left out of this massive explosion in wealth, you are not alone. For the first time ever, the richest one percent now owns more than half of the world’s wealth. “The share of the top one percent has been on an upward path ever since, passing the 2000 level in 2013 and achieving new peaks every year thereafter. According to our latest estimates, the top one percent own 50.1 percent of all household wealth in the world.” – Credit Suisse
The secret to the stock market’s unrelenting rise is the flood of money coming from the government-driven credit expansion. The world’s four most powerful central banks have pumped more than $10 trillion into the global economy since the financial crisis. The Swiss National Bank alone owns $90 billion in US stocks.
It is not just the US Stock Market that is getting bought out by central banks. The Japanese Central Bank has purchased most of the stock that makes up the Nikkei index. The holdings of Bank of Japan have become so massive, it now owns 75 percent of the top index funds in that nation. Only six percent of Japanese people report owning any stocks.
All this buying has created one of the greatest stock-market bubbles in history. A good example of these insane valuations that big tech companies have reached is the stock of Amazon. Legendary trader, Sam Zell, recently stated that in order to justify the 290 earnings multiple that Amazon trades at today, the company would have to be worth 25 percent of the US economy five years from now. Amazon has annual sales of $160 billion, and to reach 25 percent, its sales would have to rise to $3.2 trillion.
He made this same observation about Cisco Systems stock in 1997. At its peak, Cisco was worth $600 billion in today’s money. It is currently only worth $170 billion and has annual sales of $48 billion, which only amount to a tiny fraction of the US economy.
It’s not just stocks that are a bubble territory. The cryptocurrency bitcoin has recently hit $7,900 per bitcoin. When bitcoin first started trading in 2008, it was selling for $.008. Since then, it has gone up almost a million times in value. There is no other asset in human history that has had such a huge appreciation. The Great Tulip Mania of the 1600’s only saw prices rise 6,000 times.
The price of bitcoin has huge swings in its price. As soon as it hit that nearly $8,000 high, it declined by 30 percent down to $5,500. It then bounced back above the $7,000. The lack of any panic selling on the part of the holder of bitcoin seems to indicate it can trade higher. With the total value of cryptocurrencies now over $200 billion, the days of 10- or 100-fold increase would seem to be in the past. Since we passed crazy a long time ago, anything is now possible. It’s not just the price that will eventually reign in this mania. About a year ago, there were only 400 of these cryptocurrencies. Today, there are over 2,200 of them.
If there was any doubt about whether we are living through the biggest bubble in history, it should have ended last Wednesday. A rediscovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci broke the record price for art at an auction, selling for just over $450 million. For all the new bitcoin billionaires, that’s only 62,000 digital coins. The previous auction record for an Old Master painting was held by Peter Paul Rubens, whose “The Massacre of the Innocents” fetched $76.5 million in 2002. For anyone thinking that half a billion dollars for da Vinci was a fair price, I saw a painting at the same auction that looked like it was scribed in 30 seconds by a blindfolded child. It sold for $46 million.
I think the reason why we are seeing one bubble after another is because of Bible prophecy. Jesus said the time of his return for the Church would be equal to the times of Noah. Everyone was tranquilly eating and drinking and then, suddenly, disaster took them by surprise. The longer this historic bubble lasts, the more we, as Christians, should be looking for our Saviour.
“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37-39).
— Todd
Evil-Day Seducers
A flood of stories continues to pour upon us. It’s as if a cesspool of salaciousness is in process of being purged and it’s all gushing into our eyes and ears.
If the things with which we are deluged aren’t true—and there is more than enough that is true— then the news media will make it up and throw it into the mix for their own nefarious purposes. I’ll let you think on what you consider that which is real sludge and that which is fake news.
Hollywood has always provided fodder for the tabloids to fill ears and eyes more than willing to take it all in. Now, however, even Hollywood seems to be regurgitating the sick things that have become worse and worse.
Wait! There’s a prophecy about such sickness. Oh, yes. Here it is: “But evil men and seducers shall [become] worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).
The apostle, in his second letter to Timothy, seems to have been pointing to a time near the end of the dispensation of grace that would see an increase in the number of evil people who become worse by the day. He called them “evil men and seducers.” At the same time, he said they would be being deceived while deceiving others.
The rumors have been around for ages about the so-called casting couch. This, of course, is the term for those in the movie industry or the acting profession in general who misuse their power to give roles to the actresses seeking the jobs. They provide jobs for sexual favors from those seeking the available roles.
Until a few weeks back, this was all kind of looked at by the public and by the movie and acting industries in general as something that elicited a wink and a chuckle. It was all a consensual thing…no harm done. Just compromise one’s self a time or two, and many a budding starlet was on her way to fame and fortune.
The Harvey Weinstein story has suddenly changed all that. Now, we know details of the alleged crimes involved. Underage sexual contact, abuse, blackmail, and a number of other criminal actions make the casting couch no longer a thing about which to only give a wink and a chuckle.
It is as if the Lord, Himself, has taken the cover between thumb and index finger and peeled back the lasciviousness. Suddenly, the evil of Hollywood has been exposed for what it is. Bible prophecy again is validated in our time as is revealed for the world to see, the evil-day seduction that has been going on among the much worshipped elite—the idols media and fans have made of those under this blanket of iniquity.
Pulling back this blanket has exposed such debauched evil at every level. It now is in process of exposing politicians at every level.
Some used to chuckle, wink, and revel in stories such as when Senator Edward Kennedy, the lion of the Senate, and Senator Christopher Dodd reportedly visited a certain D.C. restaurant and made “waitress sandwiches” in private dining rooms. Many other stories of orgiastic activities in D.C. and other halls of power have entertained the news-consuming public for decades.
But, it is no longer funny. And, the same entertainment and news media types that have for those many decades secretly enjoyed knowing about the debauchery and/or engaged in it themselves now find it all an outrage. —Especially when an avowed Christian is accused by supposed victims from some thirty or more years ago.
And, indeed, it is not funny. It is an evil that is going to add to the horrors of God’s wrath and judgment in the near future. The following excerpted story illuminates the evil-day seduction taking place on a worldwide scale.
It’s not just pimps and escaped convicts involved. It’s the people we’re expected to respect or “look up to” the most: the politicians, the elite, the wealthy businessmen, your neighbours, and oftentimes the people that you’d least expect
In this particularly devastating case, it’s the people we’re supposed to trust to help others: the United Nations’ peacekeepers. As it turns out, these people are anything but “peace keepers.” Instead, they’re the ones wreaking havoc in these villages and causing children to have nightmares for the rest of their lives…
Many of the children living in poverty in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, are left to fend for themselves, scavenging for food and struggling with hunger on a daily basis. Their lives drastically changed when the UN peacekeepers moved to their village, as they were offered snacks and cookies.
However, this food came with a heavy price no one should ever have to pay. In exchange for food, the UN peacekeepers demanded sex from children as young as 12. In regards to the child sex ring run by UN peacekeepers in Haiti, nine children were being passed around from 2004 to 2007…
There was another pedophile ring in the Democratic Republic of Congo that the UN was involved in — UN police officers in Bosnia paid for prostitutes and were caught trafficking young women from Eastern Europe — and the UN was involved with child sexual abuse and rape in the Central African Republic as well. [“SHUT IT DOWN: United Nations ‘Peacekeepers’ Caught Running A Child Sex Ring: 2,000+ Cases of Sexual Abuse Reported,” JEWSNEWS, Rapture Ready News Nov. 12, 2017)
Many stories available at present contained reports much more graphic, disgusting, and heart-wrenching. They were quite difficult for me to read, much less bring before you in this column.
Evil men and seducers are becoming worse and worse, to be sure. They have been in the process of deceiving and being deceived by hiding much of the evil going on in America and the world. The uncovering of these things taking place now is long overdue. I believe the exposure taking place at present can be seen as the Lord revealing exactly how far along this generation is on God’s prophetic timeline.
These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (Jude 1: 19-20)
–Terry