We have written frequently on the topic of the Endtime Money Trap. A book was published by Midnight Call on this topic in 2001, entitled The Endtime Money Snare: How to live free (now out of print). It documented the steadily accelerating trends toward financial controls, global financial interconnectedness and the financialization (money captivity) of an ever greater part of human activity. These trends indeed have continued to accelerate and remain a topic of interest on many levels.
A number of verses in the Bible point to the emergence of a potential “money trap.” Most specific is the following prophetic text: “[…] that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:17 KJV).
We note a number of new developments over recent years that hasten the facilitation of just such an event as described. However, before pointing to these, it is worthwhile to firstly reflect on the implications of just such a prophecy. What does it imply, “that no man might buy or sell”? It clearly means that NOBODY … ANYWHERE … will be able buy or sell … ANYTHING … unless they subordinate themselves to the “Beast and its image.” The question to which we want to direct our attention then is this: What systemic controls and/or developments are yet required to be in place so that NO ONE on earth can either buy or sell without permission?
Essentially, for Revelation 13:17 to be fulfilled (grossly simplified), at least four things have to happen:
1. A globally integrated and closed financial system must exist. Necessary and common technologies must be in place. That means that not even a little bank in Tupelo, Mississippi or the Island of Tuvalu will be able to facilitate any type of transaction (whether buying food or selling a house) outside of this closed system.
2. A system of central banking must be endorsed everywhere and which is centrally coordinated. This must result in a commonly-shared monetary philosophy around the world, which, most importantly, achieves a strong influence over market and human behavior. In other words, the entire world must agree to play by the same rules and values, thereby obeying and following the actions of monetary officials (the modern money equivalent to suzerains).
3. The legal statutes and regulatory institutions that oversee the financial activities of individual countries must be superseded by a centralized worldwide authority in order for unified actions to be enforced.
4. Finally, a unified global “political economy” must exist (either taking the form of a very small group of powerful countries or a single autocrat) that is powerful enough to enforce and authorize such controls upon the entire world at a given time.
How Advanced Is the Trap?
How far along is the world with the four steps mentioned? Steps #1 and #2 are well advanced. For all intents and purposes, we could say that they are already in place. Only the final two remain to be completed. In our view, global initiatives in this direction have already progressed quite rapidly.
However, further development in this direction is difficult. Why? Because individual countries must first give up a measure of sovereignty for this to occur. They will do so only very reluctantly. If this is the case, then how can these last steps ever fall in place? After all, they must occur in order to facilitate the prophecy of Revelation 13:17.
As technocrats and political strategists well know, there is nothing as effective as crises and fear to unify political consensus or to compel change.Quoting Milton Friedman (well-known monetarist economist): “Only a crisis, real or perceived, produces real change.” A more diabolical quote comes from the Nazi political theologian, Carl Schmitt: “Sovereign is he who decides the state of emergency.”
In desperate times, thinking they have no choice, people will strike bad deals … ceding freedoms and becoming subject to hostage. An example of this tendency is shown in the Old Testament Genesis account of the 7 year famine during the time of Joseph. In its later stages, people became so desperate they said: “[…] buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh.”
A major crisis occurred only recently—the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). It was most significant, as it was a globally-interconnected and fiercely contagious financial crisis that elicited the greatest globally-coordinated response of all time. (Actually, we would argue the GFC is not yet over.) Almost instantly, the attention of the entire world was captured, triggering a global wave of fear and trepidation. The specter of collapsing stock markets, banks and other financial institutions, met a hurried and panicked response.
The sheer financial immobilization of the crisis provided license regulators and policymakers with the power to enforce measures that might otherwise have been considered illegal or have encountered stiff resistance. Such is the effectiveness of crisis. It can galvanize responsive action. Invariably, the changes born of such crisis tend toward centralization, greater controls and, crucially, massive wealth transfers. A measure of all of these has played out in recent years.
The Advancing Money Trap
Let us return to our original objective. Just what significant new developments over recent years serve to hasten the facilitation of Revelation 13:17? We have documented many of these in the past. Here we will mention three new ones.
Firstly, in 2008, in response to the GFC, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) was formed by the G20 countries. It was established to coordinate internationally the work of national financial authorities and international standard setting bodies, and to develop and promote the implementation of effective regulatory, supervisory and other financial sector policies.
As such, it brings together national authorities responsible for financial stability in significant international financial centers, international financial institutions, regulators and supervisors, and committees of central bank experts. As can be concluded from this description, it is yet one more transnational organization that is seeking to promote an internationally-connected and regulated financial system.
Most interesting is that the FSB has determined that some financial institutions around the globe are systemically important banks (G-SIB). It has identified 28 such G-SIBs, these being the biggest, most internationally-connected banks. What are the implications of this initiative? To our thinking, while these banks will be carefully monitored at the international level, they therefore will likely also be favored and protected during future financial crisis. With this protected status, it would not be surprising were the entire world banking system eventually centralized into a few institutions. That will greatly facilitate the ability to completely control all financial flows.
Further efforts to harmonize banks around the globe include the activities of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), based in Basel, Switzerland. Its purpose is to foster international cooperation and to act as a super-bank for all the individual-country central banks. Sixty of these central banks are members of this organization today, its board of directors including members from China to Canada. Senior central bankers from around the world meet regularly (some committees meeting bi-weekly). This leads us to the second development we wish to review.
Critically, the BIS seeks to set common voluntary standards for banking institutions around the world, whether American banks or Chinese. A major continuing step in this direction is the monumental Basel III initiative. This undertaking was also expressly prompted by the financial instabilities of the GFC. Its new set of operating standards were originally foreseen to be in effect by 2015. However, implementation has now been delayed until 2018 due to ongoing negotiations.
Crucially, the BIS continues to successfully build a common and unified foundation for global financial institutions and their central banks. This serves to organize the common operating procedures and philosophies of global financial systems that are required for the complete systemic control of all financial transactions.
Finally, we will mention one other critical development in world money systems recently, this also involving central banking. Here we point out the radical and unorthodox monetary policies by central banks in recent years. By any fair standard, these new actions would be considered immoral.
Why have such actions been considered necessary? Again, in response to the economic fallout of the GFC, central banks have been desperately hopeful that their actions will be able to restore prosperity. The scale of their interventions, frankly, is already unconscionable. In fact, these extreme measures have come to be the norm. Why? Because conditions have become so imbalanced, that these policies cannot be reversed. Were they only to consider to do so (not actually exiting from these policies … just considering), financial markets would swoon.
We would not be surprised to see even more aggressive actions in the future. Readers will likely hear more about such ideas as “money finance” or Outright Permanent Money Finance (OPMF). We do not propose to provide detailed technical descriptions here of these high-sounding techniques. Suffice it say that these ideas, which are gaining the popular support of macroeconomists, will cause massive and unjust wealth transfers and an even greater stratification of wealth than is already the case.
Literally, money would be created out of thin air and given directly to governments to spend or to fund direct tax cuts to households. This is a form of stolen money … fictitious money chasing its own tail. All of this breeds the type of instabilities and imbalances that will trigger even greater financial controls in the future.
Thoughts to Ponder
These three recent developments and trends that we have presented (of many more that we could have mentioned), in our view, should all be seen as stepping stones for the endtime money trap—the ultimate worldwide control of all buying and selling that is mentioned in Revelation 13:17. Just what types of crises must yet occur to achieve such global control?
We will deal with this question in Part II.