We have written frequently on the topic of the Endtime Money Trap. A book entitled The Endtime Money Trap: How to live free was published on this topic in 2001. 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 at 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 could hasten the facilitation of just such an event as described. However, before pointing to these, it is worthwhile to first reflect on the implications of just such a prophecy. What does it mean 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 we wish to focus on is this: What systemic controls must be in place so that NO ONE on earth can either buy or sell without permission?

Essentially (and grossly simplified) for Revelation 13:17 to be fulfilled at least four things have to happen :

1. A globally integrated and closed financial system must exist. Necessary technologies must be in place. This 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 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 The legal statutes and regulatory institutions that oversee financial activities of individual countries must be superseded by a centralized world-wide authority in order that unified actions can be enforced.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 far along is the world with respect to 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 are already well in tow. However, further development in this direction is difficult. Why? Because individual countries must first give up a measure of sovereignty for these to occur. They will do so only very reluctantly. If this is the case, then how can these last steps ever fall in place?

As technocrats and political strategists well know, there is nothing as effective as crises and fear to unify political consensus or to compel change. In such desperate times people will be prone to strike deals that will hold them captive. An example of this tendency is shown in the Genesis account of the 7-year famine during the time of Joseph. In the later stages of the famine, 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 disaster that elicited the greatest globally-coordinated response of all time. Almost instantly, the attention of the entire world was captured, triggering a global wave of fear and angst. The spectre of collapsing stock markets, banks and other financial institutions met a hurried and panicked response. The sheer financial immobilization of the crisis allowed regulators and policymakers to enforce measures that might otherwise have been considered illegal. Such is the effectiveness of crisis. It can galvanize responsive action. Invariably, the changes born of such crisis tend towards centralization, greater controls and, crucially, massive wealth transfers. A measure of all of these has played out in recent years.

Let’s return to our original inquiry. Just what significant new developments over recent years serve to hasten the future facilitation of the Revelation 13:17 money policy? We will mention three.

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 centres, international financial institutions, sector-specific international groupings of 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 any future financial crisis. With this protected status, it would not be surprising if the entire world banking system were eventually centralized into a few institutions. That would certainly facilitate the ability to control all financial flows.

A second significant development in the effort to harmonize banks around the globe is the activity of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) based in Basel, Switzerland. Its purpose is to foster international cooperation and to act as a bank for central banks. Sixty such central banks are members of this organization today and its board of directors includes members from China to Canada.

A major endeavor of the BIS is the monumental Basel III program. This initiative was also taken expressly in response to the financial instabilities of the GFC. The new Basel III operating standards are now foreseen to be in effect by 2018. Crucially, the BIS continues to successfully build a common and unified foundation for global financial institutions and their central banks. This serves to organize common operating procedures and philosophies of global financial systems around the globe.

Finally, we will mention one other critical development in central banking. This involves the adoption of unorthodox monetary tools by central banks that by any fair standard would be considered immoral. These methods are considered necessary in response to the economic fall-out of the GFC. Central banks are desperately hopeful that such actions will restore prosperity. We would not be surprised to see aggressive implementation of such ideas as “money finance” and Outright Permanent Money Finance (OPMF) in the future. These policies will cause massive and unjust wealth transfers and an even greater stratification of wealth than already exists. All of this breeds the type of instabilities and problems that will require even greater financial controls in the future.

In our view, the three developments we have briefly outlined could well pave the road to the ultimate advent of the final money trap. Just when can we expect the next crisis that will drive the “money trap” to its final snap? According to our understanding of Scripture, the final one will occur in the second half of the Tribulation. This crisis could very well be the next one. Maranatha.

Central bankers around the world have continued in their vain and experimental policy actions in recent week and months. We have often commented on this late, great phenomenon of the office of central banker. Why?

The current world-wide fixation and veneration of central banking is one of the greatest delusions and manias of all time. Their actions are becoming increasingly desperate and are causing growing tremors and dislocations. (See EVR issues of February, April and June 2013 for additional perspectives.) It is a sad spectacle.

Central bankers are now popularly considered to be the most powerful people in the world. They are seen as the magi of prosperity…the magical healers of all economic and financial problems…the monetary priests that can apparently issue indulgences for all past economic sins. Their actions are catalysts for major wealth transfers within societies. And, amazingly, they are not even elected officials. Yet, these individuals can bring national and global economies to complete ruin. Just why is so much trust put into these officials?

It is certainly not because of their successful track records. Far from it. All the same, it is not surprising that economists have attracted the faith and hopes of the masses. Mankind has been only too willing to be deluded and to accept great lies many times before. There are countless examples of this being the case. Thousands of years ago, the Bible had already noted that those who promote themselves as wise and knowing apart from God are fools that invariably lead people and societies astray.

In this Creation, the majority is rarely right. Just because the majority may believe in evolution or in the big bang theory has no bearing whatsoever on the truth. “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it” (Matthew 7:13). Moreover, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight” (1 Corinthians 3:19).

But back to the wise of this age…the central banker. The latest magic wand has been the policy of “forward guidance”. Mark Carney, former governor of the Canadian central bank, recently introduced this new practice policy as one of his first acts as head of the Central Bank of England.

Quoting Martin Wolf, writing in the Financial Times (July 5, 2013), “Mark Carney has been welcomed to London as if he were the messiah. George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, refers to him as ‘the outstanding central banker of his generation’”. (FT July 5, 2013).

Shortly thereafter, Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank also indicated that he would adopt the same practice. The U.S. Federal Reserve has already been doing so for quite some time following the Global Financial Crisis.

What is forward guidance? It is simply this: Rather than keeping financial markets in suspense as to what their next policy action will be (i.e. raising administered interest rates, open market activities, etc.), central bankers plainly tell markets what they will do ahead of time.

In some instances, central banks are now signalling their actions two years ahead and further. Is this harmful? Yes, it is. Not necessarily as a specific policy but as part of the slavish veneration that is given to central bankers overall. Their every word and gesture is studied intensely for any indication of a possible policy change.

What is wrong with all of this? Quite a bit:

· Firstly, the types of policies that are today being considered as wise and smart policy are in fact immoral according to the time-worn standards. Furthermore, the track record speaks conclusively on this question. The macroeconomics community is more confused than the field of psychoanalytics. It is just as unscientific.

· Policy prescriptions that have been pursued (and, crucially, new incredibly-unorthodox policies currently considered) amount to theft. Introducing arbitrary policies that can have the effect of crushing one demographic (for, example, retirees, as interest rates have been pushed to the lowest levels in many decades) and, for example, favoring the banking industry (that itself has witnessed much criminality in recent years) is unconscionable.

· Central bankers who have pursued policies that have caused citizenry to lose faith in the value of their money and the future have destroyed entire societies…having been the hand-maiden to broad moral collapse. This happened in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. Dishonest money cannot be disconnected from overall moral conditions.

Most countries specifically task their central banks to manage inflation, maintain full employment, and to limit the prospect of financial crisis. How do they do all this? Well, they have not done so. In fact, this year central bankers have unleashed great instabilities. Firstly, Shinzo Abe (the new Japanese prime minister) appointed a new lap-dog head of the Bank of Japan, Kuroda. He unleashed a tsunami of fraudulent money. The yen plunged as much as 40% against the euro in a period of less than 5 months. Recently, Ben Bernanke, head of America’s central bank shook markets as he began to talk of “tapering”.

The actions of the world’s major central banks have gone past the point of no return. You must understand this. The recent reactions to the “tapering” comments illustrate this reality in spades. In the space of less than two months, the entire banking system in the U.S. has lost all its unrealized gains on its holdings of government bonds. You can imagine how offside will be the balance sheets of the major central banks which are now incredibly leveraged, operating on a very small sliver of equity. It really amounts to a giant confidence scheme.

There is no painless road back. Therefore, we expect much greater monetary lunacies to yet be inflicted upon the world. Outright Permanent Money Finance (OPMF) will likely follow at some point. We explained this policy in the last issue of EVR. Economists who are promoting this prescription are thought to be “brilliant.” Really? Even a child can look through these plans and recognize them to be fraudulent and immensely unjust.

Finally, is America in the hands of a better central banker (Ben Bernanke) than Japan or Europe? That seems to be the prevailing opinion. Few know this story.

Back in 1996 a certain academic economist advised Japan how to get out of their predicament of near-economic depression and deflation. Short-term interest rates were compressed to near-zero (for more than a decade following); government spending went up by over 50%; and government debt more than doubled (both measured relative to the size of the economy). The result?

Between 1996 and 2006, industrial production growth (smoothed) fell from 2% to zero; inflation declined from 1% to -0.3%; and the bond market far outperformed the stock market (which remained about 40% below the 1996 level). Who was that academic? None other than Ben Bernanke. “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit?” (Luke 6:39).