June 1, 2009
"We Are Out of Money"
The stock market has been up each of the past three months, but I don't look for any long-term economic recovery. A mass of dark clouds on the horizon is headed our way.
Sometime this week, General Motors will likely file for Chapter 11. It will be the largest industrial bankruptcy in American history. Taxpayers will eventually own nearly three-quarters of GM, with a total government commitment of nearly $50 billion.
California is next in line for a bailout. The not-so Golden State is asking for Washington to act as a sort of co-signer on the state's borrowing, to be backed up with money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. California is looking to get $30 billion to help keep it from insolvency.
All this money is not coming out of some giant cookie jar. It is the result of a mountain of IOUs that will someday have to be paid or rolled over.
America's debt burden has reached staggering levels. In 2008, the government took on $6.8 trillion in new obligations, pushing the total owed to a record $63.8 trillion. This current fiscal year will likely see the tab climb all the more higher. Federal obligations are now at a record $546,668 per household. That's quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards, and other debt combined. This number includes everything from Medicare to military pensions.
Russia's Pravda newspaper featured an article this week that warns of American's economic doom. It states: "The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe."
Our debt situation is made all the worse by the fact that there has been a huge decline in tax revenues. Federal tax income plunged $138 billion, or 34 percent, in April versus a year ago. It was the biggest decline in twenty-seven years. The lack of income could mean that the projected $1.8 trillion dollar deficit for 2009 is too low.
The dollar has been in a nosedive the past week. Sterling approached $1.62, almost an eight-month high. The euro has been rising steadily against the greenback as investors worry about our nation's debt load.
The U.S. bond market has had an equally rocky road. The ten-year Treasury note has seen a 1.4-percentage-point rise in yield this year. Treasuries have lost 5.1 percent in their worst annual start since Merrill Lynch & Co. began its Treasury Master Index in 1977. As interest rates rise, the government's cost of operation rises too.
The fate of the U.S. economy may ultimately be decided in Beijing. The Chinese government's purchase of U.S. Treasuries has been critical in the ability of our government to fund its debt obligations. As old debts come due and new Treasury notes come up for auction, the Chinese may finally say, “Thank you, we've had enough.”
In interview with C-SPAN, President Obama made a rather surprising statement when asked about the government’s ability to spend more money. He said, "Well, we are out of money now." Any fool can tell you we never had money in the first place. It is rather chilling to have one of the most liberal, spend-happy politicians in Washington admitting we lack the ability to generate new cash.
Terry and I have debated several times the question, “Will America have some spectacular collapse ahead of the pre-tribulation Rapture?” We both agree that it doesn't seem likely that there would be a time of great financial unrest at the time Jesus comes for the church.
The time of our Lord’s return is described as being relatively calm. Jesus used the example of Noah to warn how He will catch the world completely off guard.
"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).
I sometimes wonder if it would be best if there were an economic calamity ahead of the Rapture. It would do wonders to shock people out of their comfort zone and force them to focus on what is coming our way.
Whatever scenario we're facing, it will soon play out before our eyes. I ask all my fellow believers to take an inventory of their lives by asking if you have a mindset that is focused on being ready for our Lord's return.
"Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:36).
-- Todd
Humanism’s Tar Baby
If it were not so serious, so tragic, it would be laughable to look at the leaders of our generation—particularly the geopolitical leadership—while they pridefully deal with the issues and events of the times. They assemble, make plans and proclamations, issue sanctions and institute protocols and resolutions. They tilt with rage in Don Quixote-like fashion against the windmills of the world, determined to establish absolute control over all who would defy them.
It forever reminds me of the famous kids’ story from my childhood, the story from the Uncle Remus series called “Tar Baby.” Br’er Rabbit was a recurring character in the series. He was a quite clever bunny, some readers might remember. Br’er Rabbit was the one Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear was always trying to catch, in order to make a meal of him.
Br’er Rabbit was always the winner–like the time when Br’er Bear, I think it was, was about to make hash of him. Br’er Rabbit begged Br’er Bear to do anything…ANYTHING!…to him rather than throw him in the Briar Patch. The big, dumb Br’er Bear so hated the rabbit because he had eluded the Bear’s clutches so many times that rather than eat him, he fell for the reverse psychological ploy and flung the rabbit into the Briar Patch. This, of course, was not a place Br’er Rabbit feared, but was one in which he was most at home.
Anyway, to get back to the story of Br’er Rabbit and the Tar Baby, Br’er Fox, I believe it was in this one, constructed a doll made of tar and turpentine. Br’er Rabbit came upon the Tar Baby and, when it wouldn’t respond to his speaking, Br’er Rabbit became enraged. Finally, the rabbit hit and kicked the Tar Baby ... and became stuck. The infuriated rabbit began striking the inanimate Tar Baby and, as the writer put it: “The more Br’er Rabbit tried to get unstuckered, the more stuckered up he got.”
We who enjoyed the story laughed at the plight of Br’er Rabbit from our perspectives as children. The danger to the rabbit was great, because Br’er Fox could catch him and make the ever sought-after meal of rabbit stew. But, thankfully, the rabbit always won in those stories. The leadership of the nation states of today’s world have themselves a Tar Baby. God’s Word, the Bible, tells us through Jesus’ words of prophecy about this entrapping that, in my mind, is analogous to Br’er Rabbit and the Tar Baby, even if less humorous because of the dangerous and prophetic potentialities it raises. And, tragically, the nations won’t escape the horrendous trap. Jesus said the following about just such a time as we now see developing: “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25).
Whether considering wars such as in Afghanistan; considering the rumors of wars such as those involving Israel, Iran, and North Korea; thinking about the global economic meltdown that threatens worldwide depression; or thinking of a dozen other critical matters on the horizon, nations are in great distress with perplexity. The leaders flail about at the “Tar Baby,” and the more they try to get unstuckered, the more stuckered up they get.
A look inside America’s growing confusion involving intelligence services points as one example to the sort of perplexity faced by today’s leadership.
WASHINGTON -- The nation's two intelligence chiefs are locked in a turf battle over overseas posts, forcing National Security Adviser James L. Jones to mediate, according to current and former government officials.
The jockeying between CIA Director Leon Panetta and National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair centers on Blair's effort to choose his own representatives at U.S. embassies instead of relying only on CIA station chiefs. Current and former U.S. officials described the dispute on the condition of anonymity, because of the sensitivity of intelligence issues…
[CIA officials said the shake ups in the nation’s intelligence operations] could confuse or degrade long-standing relationships with foreign intelligence agencies and U.S. ambassadors who would not know whether to rely on the word of the station chiefs or the national intelligence director's representatives (“CIA's Panetta, Intel Director Blair Locked in Spy Turf Battle,” Newsmax.com, 5/27/09).
The humanists elite leave the Creator of the heavens and the earth out of their grandiose plans to save planet earth. God, in His righteousness, watches from His omniscient perspective. He will eventually, His prophetic Word reports in advance, see these self-serving world leaders while they try to dispatch their own version of Tar Baby.
Psalmist the prophet reports God’s Word on their futile efforts:
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession (Psalm 2:1-8).
The world governments, represented in a major way by the G-20, are on a determined course against an enemy–Satan and their own fallen mindsets—that will mire the world ever more deeply in the quicksand of failure. The more they try to get unstuckered, the more stuckered up they get. Unlike in the humorous children’s story, Br’er Rabbit won’t escape the end times Tar Baby and Br’er Fox. All who accept Jesus Christ this side of the Rapture will be kept out of the time of Antichrist and his regime of desolation. Receive Him now and escape the wrath to come (Revelation 6:17).
--Terry
