Hello Everyone! First of all, let me say that this is John writing this letter, although Karen does agree with everything I have written. You are welcome to talk to either her or myself regarding what I’m about to present to you. Depending on your current knowledge of world affairs and your religious beliefs, what I am about to tell you will most likely change your current view of the world and quite possibly your relationship with God. How’s that for the beginning of a letter? It will certainly change your view of me. Because of this, I have a few disclaimers. I am personally writing this email, nothing is copied or forwarded from someone else. This is long, but very important, so please finish reading it today. Finally, I’m not going to pull any punches here, the message of this email will be disturbing to you (depending on your faith). Initially, you will be skeptical, doubtful and will not want to believe some or all of what I’m about to tell you. I assure you it’s only the truth. If you remain skeptical, I urge you to pray, research some (or all) of this on your own and write to me with any questions. Believe me, you will have many questions. Lastly, and this is probably the most important piece to remember as you read through this, I was as spiritually blind as most people until May of 2005. The Lord has called to me, asked me to give up my pursuit of worldly things and follow Him and His purpose for my life. I have answered His call. I am a well-rounded, stable individual (thanks to my parents!) who has never been one to believe in (or write about) conspiracy theories or proclaim my Christian faith openly. I’m going to do both in this letter. The final disclaimer is this: please do not read this and discard it without much thought or because you think I’ve somehow gone off the deep end. If there is one thing I have learned over the past year, it’s this: There are no coincidences in our lives. Each of you is reading this letter for a reason. It’s up to you to determine what the reason is. I am simply a messenger here. From my recent experiences, you will either know the reasons right away or you will need to pray for God’s assistance. Either way, you are starting on a path today that will lead you to greater knowledge and I believe, will ultimately strengthen your faith in God. If you do not currently believe in God or that He sent His son Jesus Christ to die on the Cross so that each of us may have eternal life, I feel confident that you soon will. With that final message, let me begin.

When I was a teenager, my mother told me the story of the book of Revelation in the New Testament in the Bible. For those of you who haven’t read it, many believe that it describes the final 7, horrific years of this age [based on Scripture, I no longer believe this to be true]. It describes an evil one world government (imagine a world government worse than Nazi Germany). Many people either stop reading it or never read it because of the things that are described in the book….war, famine, disease, death, the Wrath of God. Some of it is very disturbing and good people like ourselves, inherently do not like reading about bad things, so many of us choose not to learn about it. I have read it, and being interested in prophesy and mysteries, I have always wondered how the one world government forms. Surely, with the knowledge God has given us in the Bible and the number of Christians in the world today, it can’t possibly form for years! The truth is that it is being formed today, right in front of us. The problem is that we accept what the media tells us and are not researching on our own to learn the truth. The ultimate reason is that many of us simply aren’t paying attention…we’re too preoccupied with the stuff going on in our lives and are ignoring the signs (I’ve been as guilty as anyone). The Bible tells us that many will be deceived during the end times. I’m here to tell you that the world is being deceived today in an effort to bring about the one world government.

Let me ask you a question. Have you researched the events of 9/11 on your own and formed your own opinions? If you’re like everyone else I’ve asked, the answer is no. You have accepted what you’ve been told and moved on as I did.

Like most people, I accepted the official account of the events of Sept 11, 2001. There were some things about the official story that bothered me, but I eventually accepted what I was told and carried on with my life. After all, as with most people in America, I’m a very busy person with many important things to do. I now know that what I thought was important (job status, wealth, house, car, etc) really isn’t important at all. 9/11 slowed America down for a few months, then it was back to business as usual. Fast forward to May 2005. I’m sitting in class at UT on a Saturday afternoon. Out of nowhere a thought pops into my head….I never saw the plane that hit the Pentagon in any photo or video, surely there is a photo/video on the internet after 3 ½ years. That simple thought has led me to not only research 9/11, but eventually the people who are working on creating a one world government and most importantly, my Christian faith. The fact is, you will not find a photo or video of the airliner (757) that hit the Pentagon, simply because a 757 did not hit the Pentagon. An amateur photographer snapped a few digital photos of the wall of the Pentagon immediately after it was hit (all other photos/videos were confiscated by the FBI)…there are fire trucks next to the wall, the wall was definitely hit by something due to the blown out windows and black smoke, but there is only a 8’-12’ hole in the wall. All subsequent photos in the media showed the wall AFTER it collapsed. The 9/11 commission’s official account said that the plane ‘vaporized’ (no mention of the wings or tail section) and strangely no aircraft parts remained (except for a small plane engine that was not large enough for a 757 and something that looked like a small piece of aluminum foil on the lawn). Yet, the bodies on board somehow survived this ‘vaporization’ and were identified. I’m not making this up…this is the ‘official’ account. In fact, you will not find any current or past investigation (photos, aircraft parts, serial numbers, etc) in the past 3 years regarding the planes used in the 9/11 attacks. When was the last time the NTSB did not attempt to rebuild a crashed plane from the crashed parts to determine the cause of the crash? The fact is….never. Even the majority of parts from TWA flight 800 were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean and reassembled. All of this begs the question….if Flight 77 did not crash into the Pentagon, what happened to the plane and the people on it? There are some very interesting theories out there. I will leave it to you to look into them and I would be glad to give you my opinion if you’re interested. After finding all of this regarding the Pentagon crash, I then moved on to research the World Trade Center buildings.

On 9/11, I was attending a meeting in Auburn, AL. After hearing of the attacks, we watched the drama unfold on CNN like everyone else. After the planes hit, a couple of co-workers started talking about whether or not they would collapse. Having a civil engineering background (part of the code of being an engineer is offering your opinion even when it’s not asked for), I told them that the tops of both buildings might ‘shear off’ and fall due to the impact and resulting cracks/stress caused by the impact, but the majority of the buildings should remain standing. The WTC buildings (as with most tall buildings) were designed to withstand a plane crash into them and are built with center ‘cores’ of extremely strong concrete and steel. To our amazement, 10 minutes later, the south tower collapsed. They not only collapsed, but collapsed in less than 10 seconds….basically a ‘free fall’ collapse. Do you know how many buildings have collapsed due to fire in this manner in world history?....exactly 3. WTC 1, WTC 2 and WTC building 7. A Spanish firm was the first to question the ‘burning fuel’ theory (9/11 commission) since they had a tall building burn for 20 hours the previous year that never collapsed. The South tower collapsed first (after being hit last) in less than an hour. The North tower collapsed a few minutes later. Many experts initially said that it appeared that the towers were professionally demolished…..they then changed their story later on. There are pictures of survivors standing on the floors of the north tower where the plane impacted the building….if fires were raging out of control, they didn’t appear to affect these people.

Something that has never been reported in the mainstream media is that at 5:30pm on 9/11 (hours after the towers collapsed), WTC building 7 completely collapsed. Other WTC buildings closer to the towers did not collapse. Among other offices, it housed the New York offices of the CIA and FBI. Many people (as I now do) believe it was professionally demolished. There are many other problems with the official account of the attacks of 9/11 and many things never reported by our media. Many firefighters reported secondary explosions both below and in the towers prior to their collapse….never reported by the media. The families of the victims have submitted a list of over 20 unanswered questions to the Bush Administration. To date, they have received no response and this has never been discussed in the media. Even with the many unanswered questions concerning 9/11, it is still very difficult for us to believe our government could somehow be involved in this. For me, after waiting over 3 years to think about it, it’s the underlying logical flaws in the events of 9/11 that cause me to believe our government was involved. If you believe the official account of 9/11, then you believe that Arab men learned how to fly Cessna’s (and not well, all of them were poor pilots and one was not even allowed to rent a small plane during the summer of 2001 based on his poor piloting knowledge and skills) which allowed them to expertly pilot and navigate some of the most sophisticated commercial airliners in the world. You also then believe that the most powerful military in the world somehow allowed a commercial airliner to crash into its headquarters 40 minutes after the planes hit the WTC. Are these things logical? The most sophisticated anti-aircraft systems and radar in the world are positioned around Washington D.C. and the Pentagon….all failed on 9/11. Where were the fighters? Good question…..they were delayed for some unknown reason, did not fly at top speed to D.C. and were sent from an air force base miles away when there were bases just a few minutes from D.C. Basically, the entire U.S. military defense system failed completely on 9/11. How many people and departments have been reprimanded for this complete failure? Not one. Not one person or dept has been demoted or reprimanded. I will also point to something that has never been discussed in the mainstream media. George Bush was informed of the attacks and then remained at the Elementary School in Florida for over 25 minutes continuing to read to children and answer questions from reporters. When was the last time that a President was in imminent danger and a potential target and was not immediately removed by the Secret Service to safety? In a Sherlock Holmes novel, the detective was able to determine the killer in the story because a dog did not bark all night during a crime, leading him to believe that the perpetrator had to know the dog. Sometimes it’s what we don’t see or hear that helps us solve mysteries. Did our President and the Secret Service know that he was not in danger? I have obviously left out many details. I invite you to research 9/11 on your own. I have listed a couple of websites and books at the end of the email to get you started if you want to learn the details.

You’re thinking as I did……if many of these things are true, why aren’t they reviewed and talked about in the media? If 9/11 was caused (or allowed) to happen by our government, what is the reason for something this horrific? I simply could not accept the fact that Iraq and Afghanistan were the only reasons. Well, this is where things get interesting. By an odd coincidence (I no longer believe in coincidences…. which I will explain later), I believe that I know the reasons for what we’ve seen. I happen to work with a gentleman who has spent the last 10 years researching secret societies. He and I have had brief discussions over the past 3 years, but I never took his information very seriously….until now. As I began looking into some of the things he told me regarding the objectives of the secret societies active in our world today, one group in particular seems to control almost all other secret societies. The goals of this group are what caught my attention and led to my further research into what they’re doing. Their objectives are eerily similar to what is described in the book of Revelation. This group is commonly known as the Illuminati (other names associated with the Illuminati – Bilderberg, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, Freemasons and Skull & Bones).
You can search on Google for information on the Illuminati and you’ll find vast amounts of information. I have listed a book at the end of this email that describes their influence over society for the past two hundred years and their future goals. There are a few reasons why I believe they are related to end time events:

1. They are the wealthiest families in the world (that you will never hear about) with the means to accomplish their goals. From what I’ve seen, they are worth trillions and have great control of the world economy. They exert immense control over banking, world finance & media. Some names are Rockefeller, Morgan, Onassis, and Rothschild. Very rich, powerful people.

2. Their #1 priority is bringing about a one world socialist government. It appears that they have been working on this goal for hundreds of years.

3. They appear to be involved with black/white magic and Satanism.

4. Evidence of their influence is everywhere. Our money (the most prominent symbols are on the $1 bill) and our architecture (search for Illuminati symbols & U.S. buildings) are both good places to start researching. Ever wonder what the ‘all seeing’ eye, pyramid and the eagle with 13 stars above it on the $1 represent? Find the pagan owl on our $1 bill. Very interesting.

5. Another interesting fact is that from what I’ve researched, there are only a few American Presidents that were not associated with Secret Societies. Lincoln, Kennedy and Reagan were not members of any secret society and all were shot. There are theories that say Lincoln and Kennedy could have been shot because their policies/views did not coincide with the Illuminati. It’s interesting to note that the Onassis family is one of the original 13 families of the Illuminati. Another interesting story is how George Bush Sr (Skull & Bones) was selected as our VP by Reagan in 1980 after Reagan (on more than one occasion) said publicly that he would not select Bush based on his secret society background. If not for a fraction of an inch, Bush would have become President a couple of months later when Reagan was shot.

6. The U.S. Federal Reserve is a private corporation…..few people know this. From what I can see, families of the Illuminati own large amounts (if not all) of stock in the Fed. Look at the history of the Fed…very interesting. Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law in 1913 and then said, ‘I have unwittingly ruined my country’.

7. In 1995, a game designer with knowledge of the Illuminati created an Illuminati card game. One of the cards showed the WTC towers being destroyed…another card showed the Pentagon on fire. Subsequent cards show disease, famine, terrorist attacks, war….similar to the book of Revelation. By itself, I would view it as a coincidence. It’s very peculiar when added to everything else.

8. From what I’ve read and seen, the Illuminati use the numbers 11 and 13 extensively. It looks like they use the number 11 to communicate to members that they were involved in a particular incident. On Sept 11, 1990, George Bush Sr mentioned ‘A New World Order’ for the first time in a speech to Congress on the Gulf War. 11 years to the day, the WTC was destroyed. The number 11 is all over the WTC attacks (another good topic to research). The Madrid bombings happened on March 11, 2004….911 days after Sept 11, 2001. The Indian attacks in Mumbai were on July 11th of this year. There are other instances of the number 11 in major news events.

It’s interesting to note that both George Bush and John Kerry were members of Skull & Bones. I, like most Americans, have not paid much attention to secret societies such as Skull & Bones, Freemasons and others. From what I’ve read, it appears that the Illuminati now control most, if not all of these societies. If you think it matters whether you voted for Bush or Kerry (both Skull & Bones), my research would tell you it doesn’t matter. We innocently debate among ourselves about conservative versus liberal politics, democrat versus republican, capitalism versus communism…..all the while, the Illuminati are moving their agenda forward with whoever is in power. There is a reason the Soviet Union was dismantled. Gorbachev was the first world leader to mention a ‘New World Order’ in a public speech. The Berlin wall came tumbling down soon thereafter. If the Illuminati are as powerful as some researchers indicate, I began to search for mention of them in the Bible. I reasoned that if they are the ones who bring about a one world government and the Antichrist, there is a good possibility that they are mentioned in the Bible. I began to read the Bible extensively (which is what I should have been doing my entire life). Late one night I came across 2nd Thessalonians Chapter 2 Verse 7-8: ‘For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed (Antichrist), whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.’ Does it confirm the work of secret societies? I’m not sure, but I find it interesting that God chose the words ‘secret’ and ‘lawlessness’ in this verse while the Antichrist is referred to as the ‘man of lawlessness’ in the Bible.

I recently read a Christian author who said that God speaks to us through the circumstances of our life….if we would only listen. Before now, I had always incorrectly believed that God was in Heaven, we were on Earth and that God sometimes intervened in our life through prayer. I now know that God is with us always, is everywhere, loves us and is definitely communicating through the circumstances of our lives. I have had many examples of God answering my prayers over the past 2 months through many different circumstances. It really has been amazing. I began to pray regularly soon after researching 9/11 and the Illuminati due to the many obvious questions. Is this true? If it is true, why am I now discovering all of this? Why is this happening now? What should I do with this information? Initially, I was concerned with whether the Illuminati were as powerful as I was led to believe. I prayed for an answer to this question and received my answer a few days later. Through many different circumstances, I ended up in a building designed and built by the Illuminati. The fact that I ended up in this building was pure chance (or so I thought). As I began to realize the significance of what I was seeing, it dawned on me. God was providing my answer in a very dramatic way to finally get my attention. There is only one word to describe this experience: POWERFUL. At one point I re-entered the building after everyone else had left to take a second look at the images and writings in the building (because at the time I was having a hard time believing what I was seeing). There was no doubt that the building was built by the Illuminati and the future purpose of the building also became clear to me (the building was constructed in the 1920’s). As I stated before, this is one of many circumstances where God has shown me answers to my many questions. After 34 years of minimal prayer and worship, I can honestly say after the past 2 months that there is nothing in this world that cannot be accomplished by praying to our Heavenly Father.

So, after weeks of research and long nights, the final question became…what do I do with this information? What will other people think? I spoke to my pastor about this and received the exact same answer as I received from my prayers…Prepare. We can’t stop it, so we must be prepared spiritually first and foremost, and ensure that others are prepared. Jesus tells us that these things must happen, but not to worry. I just never thought that I would see them unfold during my lifetime. My student Bible makes an important statement that we all forget at times: ‘As Christians, we must never forget that there is an ongoing behind the scenes battle of good versus evil.’ We must always remember that Satan is at work in the world and through God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, it is our duty to fight against evil. I have sat on the sidelines over the course of my life and watched others become actively involved in working for Christ while I did very little. I believe that I (and now you) have been given this message as a way to get us in the game. God has shown me what is really important in this life and I am making changes because of it. If you haven’t already, my hope is that you will do the same.

The final piece of this is….. what does the future bring and how do I prepare for it? This is difficult to communicate, but I believe we are going to see another ‘Terrorist’ event later this year. Unfortunately, I believe it’s potentially going to involve multiple U.S. cities and make us forget 9/11. Why do I believe this? There are a couple of reasons, and I would be glad to share them with you, for now I will simply say that there are signs. The reason for these ‘events’ is simple….the powers controlling this will use fear to further reduce freedoms and liberties throughout the free world. Currently, the world is being kept in a constant state of fear…terror alerts, bombings, plane crashes….we are constantly bombarded with worry. This is referred to in the Bible. If you haven’t read the Patriot Act, I would encourage you to do so. Many ‘temporary’ provisions of the Act were made permanent by Congress…with little notice from our media. As for day to day preparation, Karen and I are moving everything out of the stock market. I’m still working on this, but precious metals do well during times of uncertainty, so we’re moving a significant % of our savings into gold. I realize these things may sound strange, but the time will come very soon when we cannot depend on past ‘trends’, stock market or otherwise. I continue to pray for guidance and ask that you do the same.

I have no doubt that some of us are ready and have been ready for whatever comes our way. I will tell you that after much soul-searching, I was not ready for any of this. By ready, I mean a true belief that Jesus Christ died for me and the commitment of my life to him. As my brother and I have discussed, simply believing Jesus Christ died on the Cross is not enough. We must live our lives according to His will and commit ourselves to Him for the glory of God and our own salvation. Like most people, I went to Church on Sunday when it was convenient for me (and I wasn’t too tired), rarely prayed and gave to the Church whatever I didn’t spend in a given month. I then wondered why I never had a close relationship with God. It seems so simple now. I will admit that all of the things I have recently discovered initially depressed me. It’s not easy for good people to accept that evil is very powerful and can affect world leaders and world events. The Bible tells us that we cannot defend ourselves against Satan without God on our side. Ephesians Chapter 6 Verses 10:20 ‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the Devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.’ Amen! Whether we choose to believe it or not, there is spiritual warfare being waged in our world. All of the things in this world that distract us from what’s important, who do you think is behind it? Without the armor of God, you are on the field of battle with nothing to protect yourself. A year ago I will admit that I was scared and fearful after learning these things. Now I fear nothing in this world….and you will feel the same through your relationship with God. As my pastor said while we were discussing this, ‘Bring it on! I’m ready.’

Why was I depressed about these things I have learned? …because I love this world, I love my family, I loved my life and because of the society that I live in, I forgot one of the most important things we must never forget as Christians, that this life is simply a brief stopover before our true life in eternity begins. As Christians, we must separate ourselves from the world and the things in it. Not easy to do. Why do Jesus and His Disciples warn us time and again about the many temptations that Satan will throw at us? Because Jesus knows that it is difficult for us. Matthew Chapter 13 Verses 13:14 ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’ Jesus is telling us that we must believe in and follow Him to receive eternal life and God’s purpose for us in this life. I will say that although I know all of these things are coming to pass, I have never experienced the peace that I now enjoy. It’s amazing how wonderful life is when you are released from the worries of this world and are able to place your life in His hands. Jesus told us that He is the Truth and the Truth will set you free from this world. I won’t lie to you, when you’re looking out over the edge of the precipice, it takes true faith to step out and know that God is going to catch you. My reason for sending this to you is the sincere hope that you are prepared for what is to come if you are a Christian, or like myself, find the faith that will lead you to truly believe that Jesus Christ died and was resurrected by the grace of God, so that you can have eternal life. He is, after all, the savior of this world! We will go through some tough times ahead, but we have God and each other to help us through. Best of all, the good guys win!
You are wondering if what I’m telling you is true. I assure you that it is. Remember, I’m just the messenger.

A couple of books that I have read that provide thorough information on these topics. There are many others as well.

‘Rule by Secrecy’ – Jim Marrs
‘Inside Job - Unraveling the 9/11 conspiracies’ – Jim Marrs
Couple of websites relating to 9/11:
Reopen911.org
911Truth.org

As I mentioned in the first letter, when you pray for guidance and knowledge, God will answer your prayers and in my case, he isn’t wasting any time. You may be wondering whether I have, in fact, gone off the deep end and you may also be wondering why I am sending another letter to you. In this respect, nothing has changed over the past 3 weeks – God is leading me where I need to go and what I need to do. It’s that simple. He has given me additional knowledge and He has also asked that I give this information to each of you. You are probably wondering how God is communicating to me (and rightfully so). I have said before that I believe God communicates to all of us through the circumstances of our lives if we would only listen. I have been listening as well as I know how (with some help from local Pastors) and have discovered something that is truly amazing to me. He knows our strengths and our talents and uses these for not only His will on Earth when we choose to follow Him, but He also uses our strengths to further His communication with us. In my case, God is using His Word, His inner voice, numbers, circumstances and my interest in solving problems to give me information that I need to know. I have gained greater knowledge as I have solved the problems that He has presented to me. I realize that this may sound strange to some of you, others may know much more about this than I do. I can only say that it is a wonderful feeling when you realize that God is talking directly to you through the Holy Spirit and using you and your talents for His will. Another question that you are probably pondering is ‘Why is He giving this information to John?’ Believe me, I have prayed for an answer to this question. The answer is simple. When we choose to follow God’s plan for our lives, He will use our talents and abilities for His will. When I chose to turn my life over to him, He began to give me my true purpose in this life. I have realized in recent weeks that He has been leading me to where I am my entire life. I’m only now understanding this, which I will explain later in this letter. I will also say that other people are getting the same message that I am. Where will this lead my family and me? I honestly don’t know. I will say that while I know we are about to face some difficult times, it is very exciting to know that we are now on the path that God has planned for us. For Karen, our family, and myself the adventure has only just started. He has a plan for all of us; it’s up to each of us to choose to accept His offer of salvation through his Son, obey Him and follow His will for us.

Here’s where I need to give you another warning about the contents you are about to read. We (Americans) are about to face the most difficult times our nation has ever encountered. Since we need to stay grounded in the Word of God, please remember the following scriptures as you read the remainder of this letter:

‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, “We will not walk in it.” –Jeremiah 6:16

‘I appointed watchmen over you and said, “Listen to the sound of the trumpet!” But you said, “We will not listen.” –Jeremiah 6:17

‘The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’ – Ezekiel 33:1-6

I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people.” – Amos 7:14-15

I believe that God is giving me a warning to give to you and anyone who will listen. He has shown our nation mercy in recent decades, but I believe that His protection of our nation has ended. What happens when a nation falls away from God? God removes his protection and the powers of Satan have free reign. Could 9/11 and recent climate/weather changes be signals to us that He is removing his protection in an effort to get our nation to repent? Is it a coincidence that our weather seems to be more unpredictable and definitely more intense? You may be thinking to yourself, ‘But we’re the good guys! There are millions of good people in this country!’ If you use this world’s idea of good and evil as your baseline, you would be able to make an argument that we’re living in a good nation. If you look at the U.S. through God’s eyes, you see our nation from a much different perspective.

I don’t believe anyone would disagree that our nation’s Godliness and moral standards are declining. Since 1973, it is estimated that the U.S. has performed over 47 million abortions. Think about that number for a minute. 47,000,000. 47 million Americans who never got a chance in this life. 47 million of God’s children who never got a chance to do His will in this world. We are slowly removing God from our government, our schools and the offices where we work (there is now a movement to remove God from our money) all in the name of ‘political correctness’ or to prevent people from being ‘offended’. Pornagraphy is now a $10 billion dollar business in this country and continues to grow. If it’s not right in God’s eyes, it shouldn’t be right in ours. I now view the world and the issues in it by God’s word and His word alone. It doesn’t matter how you phrase it, if it goes against God’s word, it goes against God’s word. We haven’t learned from the history lessons in the Bible that tell us what happens to nations that do not follow God’s word. We talk a good talk in America, but as a nation, we are ignoring His will for us. Casinos and lotteries have been built and implemented in many states. Studies have shown repeatedly that the poorest people in our country play lotteries. We recently implemented a state lottery in Tennessee after churches fought against it. The CEO of the TN lottery is a multi-millionaire. The next time you’re in a convenience store, take note of the people who are funding her salary. Jesus warned us against taking advantage of the poor. We are the wealthiest nation on Earth and many of us live in luxury, yet we strive for more power and wealth while billions of people across the globe would be happy simply to know that they were going to have something to eat each day. What was the number one topic Jesus spoke of in His gospels? Money.

This all leads me to this. I believe that the ‘terrorist’ event I mentioned in my first letter will occur on November 11th of this year. I believe that it will involve multiple cities, and I strongly believe that Las Vegas will be one of the cities affected by this event [a few weeks later I felt that the Lord also communicated that San Francisco, Washington D.C., New York and Atlanta would also be affected]. Why do I believe that November 11th is the day? It’s been an interesting journey. I realize this requires a large amount of faith, so hang in there with me. For the past 15 years I have seen 11:11 everywhere and often. I initially began to see it on digital clocks and thought I was subconsciously looking at clocks at that time in the afternoon or at night. I then began seeing it on trip mileage, phone numbers, billboards, ID’s, etc. After the first few years of seeing it over and over, I began to experience some apprehension each year as November 11th approached. I had no reason to believe that the date was related to what I was experiencing, but I felt as though I was being sent a message, but could not understand it. Karen and I met with our neighbor Krista (who was our physician’s assistant for our OB/GYN) early last year to learn the due date of our son Jake. As Krista was calculating the date, I half jokingly said, ‘It better not be November 11.’ Her response after finishing her calculation was ‘How did you know?’

When the Internet was created, I discovered that 11:11 is a worldwide phenomenon. Thousands (if not millions) of people around the globe have experienced the same thing. There are websites dedicated to this and they’re even making a movie about it this year. So, seeing 11:11 became part of my life and while I would mention it to people on occasion, I stopped thinking that it was a message. That is, I stopped thinking about it until I started researching the Illuminati earlier this year. When I discovered that the Illuminati used the number 11 in events to communicate to its members, I suddenly became very interested again in 11:11. If you question this, research the number 11 and 9/11/01. I believe you will be amazed at what you find. There is some very interesting math involved with November 11 of this year. 9/11/2001 has one 11 in the date. 3/11/2004 (Madrid bombings) has two eleven’s (3+1+1+2+4 = 11). 11/11/2005 has 3 eleven’s (1+1+1+1+2+5 = 11). There are 911 days between 9/11/2001 and 3/11/2004. There are 611 days between 3/11/2004 and 11/11/2005. The difference between previous years and this year? Never in our lives has the month, day and year on November 11th added up to 11. Earlier this year my brother Charlie and I were discussing these things. At the end of the conversation he asked ‘Do you ever see the number 11:11?’. It turns out that we both started seeing it in the early 90’s. The difference was that until this conversation, he only saw 11:11 on digital clocks. After telling him that I see it everywhere in addition to digital clocks, he paused for a few seconds and asked me if I was watching the British Open (golf). When I told him that I had it on, he told me to look at the leader board. I turned around and saw that Tiger Woods was eleven under par on the eleventh hole. In July, Karen and I both started seeing 5:42 and 5:24 on digital clocks as well as 11:11. I can understand if you are skeptical. I realize it sounds unbelievable. If you haven’t taken the time to research the Illuminati, doing so will remove some of your doubt. I have had the thought for some time that if I ever figured out what 11:11 meant, I would stop seeing it. I can honestly say I haven’t seen it in over a month. Could I be wrong? Absolutely. It is entirely possible that I could be misinterpreting God’s message for me. It is also very possible through prayer, that we can delay or stop what is happening in our world. When evil attacks us, we should always pray to God for assistance and intervention. I pray that we will be protected from what is to come, but I will also say that I am making plans in the event something does happen.

Why Vegas? One night the power went out in our home and the alarm clock in our bedroom needed to be reset. I left my watch downstairs, so I opened the top drawer of my dresser to get the time off another watch. As I was reaching into the drawer, I noticed a luggage tag next to my watch…..for some reason I flipped it over. It was from a company trip in 2003 to Las Vegas. I wasn’t sure why I flipped it over…then realized that I had been praying for greater knowledge of coming events. Could this be an answer? I laid on my bed thinking about this for a few minutes and again, without really thinking about it, turned my head and looked directly at a photo on my end table of the same trip. It was a photo of me, Karen and Olivia (2 months old) on the Gondola ride in the Venetian. I have to admit; at this point I was thinking coincidence all the way. I studied the photo for a few minutes, and not seeing anything significant, started to place the photo back on the table when something told me to take the photo out of the frame. I did so. In the bottom left-hand corner of the photo was the date of the photo and a photo number: 3/12/2003 11-3.jpg. Add up the numbers in the date. Coincidence?

Even if you don’t quite believe what I’m saying about God and the information he has given me, take a moment and look at our nation from an economist’s point of view. Our country has a national debt approaching 8 trillion dollars. That’s Trillion with a T. The average American household has over $12,000 in credit card and other revolving credit debt. Housing prices have increased dramatically in the past 5 years (doubled in many areas) leading many Americans to use the equity in their homes to finance spending while losing site of the fact that our houses are only worth something when they sell. The world economy simply cannot sustain itself unless the U.S. stops spending and starts saving and the rest of the world does the reverse. If our economy tanks, the world economy is going to suffer greatly. Foreign countries now own over 45% of our national debt. If they stop buying our treasuries, the party’s over for us. No more cheap credit. If you read the news closely, many economists are saying that America’s debt is now something to be concerned about over time, but as long as we don’t have another major hurricane disaster or ‘terrorist’ event, the economy will continue to grow. There are an increasing number of articles and publications warning about America’s debt. The warning signs are all around us. I recently read in the Wall Street Journal where a well known economist uses 10 metrics to determine if a country’s economy is on a ‘bubble’ and at risk for a significant ‘correction’. The author said that America’s economy qualifies as being on a ‘bubble’ on 8 of them. The problem is that we continue to wrongly believe that the good life will continue regardless of the signs around us and our nation’s separation from God. I realize this seems like a lot of gloom and doom, but I feel as though we are asleep at the wheel and need to be awakened! There are many Christian writers who are sounding the alarm, but are not loud enough. We are being quieted by ‘political correctness’ and a lack of conviction.

I mentioned in the first letter what Karen and I are doing in preparation for coming events. Here are a few more details. I realize that a large amount of faith is required to do what I’m doing. I’ve prayed about what to do and these were my answers. I ask that you pray for guidance as well.

1. I am getting out of the stock market completely. There are no ‘safe’ stocks during times of crisis. Simply get out of the market altogether.
2. Since my 401(k) plan does not offer anything other than stocks and a few bond funds, I’m taking the money out, paying the tax penalty and putting the money in something safe (not spending it!). If your 401(k) has investments that are not stock/bond related and carries no risk (guaranteed interest investments), I suppose that would be fine. If you aren’t changing jobs and can’t take your money out and you don’t have safe options, I would suggest that you take a 401(k) loan for the maximum amount allowable and move it to something safe. Better to have the money in something safe and pay yourself back each month, than lose a significant amount of your savings when the stock market falls.
3. Instead of stocks, I’m in a fund that tracks the price of Gold. If you’re interested the fund is ISHARES COMEX GOLD TR. Symbol – IAU (It’s up $14/share since I bought it last year). I’m sure there are others. Be aware that many ‘funds’ include Gold, but many other investments as well. Be sure that you know everything that a fund invests in.
4. Similar to most areas, home values in Knoxville have skyrocketed in the past 2 years. If you are comfortable with your mortgage, I see no reason to sell your home unless you need the equity to get free of debt. As always, this is something to pray about. Many Americans have taken out multiple mortgages or ‘interest-only’ loans to finance spending and other things…with the hope that housing prices continue to rise. If you’re in a similar situation, now would be a great time to sell and downsize or rent. Use the funds to pay down your debt or invest in something that is much less risky. It’s also a great time to lock in a fixed rate mortgage if you have any type of an adjustable rate mortgage or ARM.
5. Have more cash on hand than usual.
6. Make sacrifices now to get out of debt. Everyone’s goal should be to become debt free (other than a mortgage) as soon as possible. Not only does debt place stress on you and your family (Satan loves to place stress and uncertainty in your life); it prevents you from doing everything God asks you to do. There have been many times in my life where my Church needed additional funds for the general budget, to help a family, to support a new mission….and I couldn’t contribute due to my spending and debt. This world tells you that you need a new car (Employee discount!), that you need a bigger home (Interest only mortgages!); go shopping (low credit card rates! – free T-Shirt!) and that you deserve all of these things. God tells us that we need clothing, a roof over our head and food to eat. He will take care of everything for us when we give our lives and finances over to him. Dave Ramsey provides excellent guidance for setting a budget and getting out of debt. If you need help, he is a great source for financial planning.
7. I’m going to stock up on the basics – water, non-perishable food, fuel, etc.

Another topic that I feel I need to reference relates to spiritual warfare. The best way for me to communicate this is through my own experiences. Before I was a Christian, Satan for the most part left me alone. He tempted me with wealth, pursuit of money, new stuff to keep me in debt, etc. to keep my focus on things other than my own salvation and to keep me off God’s plan for my life, but he did not aggressively attack me. Once we become Christians, we have chosen God and chosen to fight Satan and his evil purposes in this world. As many of you know, this is the greatest experience up to this point in your life! Although this is truly a wonderful, life changing event in our lives, we must never forget that once we have chosen to serve God and are saved, we become a target of Satan and evil in this world. I believe that Satan takes a special interest in new Christians. We haven’t matured spiritually yet, so we are vulnerable to attack. Satan knows that as we become more mature both in our spiritual relationship with God, His word, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ, the more protected and prepared we are when faced with Satan’s temptations and attacks. The final piece of this is that once a Christian begins to follow God’s plan and begins attacking evil and spreading God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, Satan does not take our aggression lying down, evil fights back. How do I know this? Because I have experienced all of these things over the past year. I have had doubts placed in my mind about the things that I’m doing. Are you sure God wants you to do this? What if you’re wrong? No one wants to hear these things! People want good news, not bad, so go back to the sidelines and get out of the game! Wasn’t your life easier before you began getting involved with these things? Why bother? Are you sure you’re saved? Would you be having these thoughts if you were saved? You’re using Scripture, are you sure that you are using it correctly? The Bible was written by men, how do you know that the Bible was inspired by God? Anything and everything has been thrown at me in an attempt to separate me from Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father. Only through the Holy Spirit can we hope to resist these attacks. At first, unbeknownst to me, God began preparing me for this. He has guided me to a local ministry that is focused on the intensifying spiritual warfare being waged in our world. Their Pastor (Mike McClung) has created a series of CD’s on spiritual warfare that I listen to everyday (www.lionheartministries.org). If you want to learn more about God’s word, the Christian faith and spiritual warfare, I highly recommend that you order his CD’s.

I mentioned that God has used the circumstances in my life to communicate to me and to place me in positions where He needed me. The other side of this is that Satan has used non-believers to try to prevent me from doing what God has asked me to do. As I continue to do God’s work through my job, I have noticed that something, very quietly (for now) is objecting. Here’s an example. I’m a General Manager of a broadband company in Knoxville. On our cable systems throughout the Southeast, we provide the Playboy channel among other ‘Adult’ channels. The Playboy Channel recently sent our Ad Sales department in Knoxville a 30 second promotional commercial for their ‘Adult’ content. It just so happens that this is the first year that I have had control over the advertising shown on my system in Knoxville. I refused to broadcast the promotion. I believe my exact words were ‘drive over the tape with your car.’ Our marketing department objected. I refused. I was then told ‘we have a contractual obligation, every other division is showing it, it’s ‘tastefully’ done, we’re showing it after 10pm, etc, etc’. I refused. More reasons were thrown at me. I finally told them that as long as I was running this division, we were never going to promote pornography again….and that’s exactly what we were doing – promoting pornography. This must have made the point more clearly, because I was never contacted again.

Two weeks later our marketing department sent direct mail to every one of our digital customers explaining how to set parental controls on their digital boxes to prevent anyone other than adults from viewing ‘adult’ films. This is a good example of how spiritual warfare is waged. Stand up for God and He will make great things happen through you. Once you have done the little things for Him, He will give you much bigger things to do. I met with our CEO and Vice Presidents on Friday of last week to discuss removing ‘adult’ content from not only our system in Knoxville, but all of our systems in the Southeast. We discussed this for over an hour before they promised me that they are going to give the decision serious thought. What will our CEO decide? If he listens to God, we will remove this programming from our systems….and how nice would it be for a cable company to actually move in the right direction when it comes to this content. If we remove it and customers choose us instead of our competition because of it, will it put pressure on our much larger competitors to do the same? Here’s a summary of the thoughts running through my mind at the moment I was going to initiate this conversation with our CEO….Don’t do it! Lost revenue! Lost customers! You can’t force your values on other adults! …and I almost didn’t say anything. In the end, I asked myself ‘What would Jesus Christ do in this situation?’ The answer is that Jesus attacked evil at every opportunity…so I asked Jesus to help me and give me the courage I needed. The doubt and questions ran away and I initiated the conversation. We’re not asked to fight alone. In fact, God warns us against it. These things may seem like coincidences, I assure you they are not. Spiritual warfare can be very quiet, hardly noticeable. Other times it can be very obvious. On Monday of this week I received an email from our marketing department that we are increasing the price of our Adult movies. More revenue! The battle continues.

As I have started to do more and more for God through my job and our community, I began to think that it wouldn’t surprise me if Satan tried to take me out of my organization. I was now using my position of influence to rebel against the flow of this world and do what God was asking me to do. After thinking about this for awhile, I realized that evil already tried to take me out. A few months ago I planned to promote a very good, dedicated employee to a supervisor position. He has always worked very hard and deserved the promotion. Before I offered him the position, unbeknownst to me, he received a speeding ticket. Instead of paying the ticket and moving on, he decided to contact a powerful political figure in Knoxville (who I knew personally) to fix it for him. This person said sure, he’d take care of it for him…he knew the judge. To show his gratitude, my employee took this person out to dinner…a very expensive dinner (as much or more than the cost of the ticket). A couple of weeks after the ticket was ‘taken care of’, the political figure called to tell me he heard that I was considering this person for the supervisor position. He then proceeded to tell me that this employee had him fix a DUI ticket that he received in a company truck and that under no circumstances should the employee receive the promotion (he probably had someone else in mind). I told him that I appreciated the information and I would talk to the employee about it. After talking to the employee and determining that it was simply a speeding ticket in his own vehicle, I called the political figure and told him that the employee would receive the promotion since it was only a speeding ticket. This person went ballistic and demanded that I not promote him. I refused and promoted him anyway. This person then spoke to a Vice President of our company and demanded that they fire me and two of my managers due to the poor performance of our division (we perform very well). Three executives initially agreed that there could be a problem and something should probably be done. Our VP of Operations, after being informed of this, rebuked all of them in front of our CEO….adamantly. Our CEO sided with him and has banned one of the executives from ever returning to Knoxville and any contact with the politician. This is a very good example of how Satan works. He didn’t ask our CEO to fire me; he simply placed a thought in an employee’s mind…’it’s only a speeding ticket, no one will ever know.’ A short term gain (that’s not really a gain at all) turns into something much worse. Satan will never tell you the long term consequences of your actions. Evil does the same thing with alcohol, drugs, embezzlement, etc. It almost always starts small and then mushrooms out of control. Enron and WorldCom come to mind. ‘You’ll be rich and no one will ever know.’ Ask Bernie Ebbers how that turned out for him. He’s going to die in jail. I didn’t understand why other managers were included at the time. I do now. Both are moving in the right direction spiritually and are being prepared by our Father for greater things. The other side knows this. It wasn’t our time to leave our company, so we stayed. Never forget that God is in complete control. When it’s time for us to leave, it will be God’s will.

God works in our lives everyday. The difference for me is that I can see it now. In my position, many charities ask me for company donations. In the past, as with most corporations, I have only donated to charities where my company received something in return….sponsorship, publicity, etc. Over the past 4 years, a local charity has asked me many times for a donation and each time I have refused because I didn’t feel that our company received anything for the donation (cold – but that’s life in corporate America). A few weeks ago I received another letter from this charity (SMA - Families with Spinal Muscular Atrophy). For once, I decided to actually read the letter. I learned that this is a life threatening disease that affects children. Many children die from the disease before the age of 5. I decided that it was time to send a check. So, I sent them some money and thought nothing more about it. Three days later I received a voicemail message from the director of the charity. I could tell she had been crying, she said ‘Mr. Gilmore, I just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate your donation. We received a letter today from a poor family in Knoxville who just lost their 4 year old daughter to this disease. They needed some financial help with the funeral and we had none to give. In the same stack of mail we received their letter, we received your donation that allowed us to help them. It was a miracle. God bless you.’ In the same stack of mail. I had to close my office door for awhile to compose myself. I cannot imagine the anguish that these people felt losing a child. God knows and provided for them. He has taught me much over the past 2 months. Sometimes the lessons are easy, other times they are very difficult. In this case it was this….you don’t need to gain ANYTHING for yourself to help others. Jesus taught us that if we’re asked for something, give it. Selfishness will destroy us spiritually if we let it.

One last story. A few weeks ago our General Manager in Columbus, GA (a good friend of mine) and I were discussing how God was working in our lives. He mentioned that he was made aware of a little girl who had a terminal disease and did not have long to live. He was told that she loved a certain country singer (not one of the top artists). Through his contacts he was able to get a guitar signed by this artist and give it to the little girl. He went on with his life and didn’t think much more about it. The guitar and the autograph were not worth much and he was glad to help. She died a few weeks later. My friend later found out that she loved the guitar so much, she asked that it be placed next to her coffin at the funeral. We don’t know how our actions truly affect others, but God knows. He loves each and every one of us. Through my friend, He gave the little girl much happiness before she left this world to be with Him.

The important thing is that God has opened my eyes to this ongoing warfare. We need the Holy Spirit in order to see it and discern what is right. It has not been easy to get the strength to write about these things and then send it to everyone I know. There is one reason that I have been able to overcome all of my doubt. That reason is God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We are human beings. The Bible teaches us that we cannot take on Satan alone. We will fail without God’s power on our side. Have you ever given in to temptation, only to have that decision cause you pain? With His power, we can overcome everything that the devil throws at us. Without Him, we are vulnerable to evil and will ultimately fail to resist. Satan does not want me sending these letters and he doesn’t want you to read them. Since he has failed to stop me, he will create doubt in your minds. Don’t listen, Gilmore’s losing his mind, the stock market will remain stable, Homeland Security will protect us…I can hear it all now. Evil would much prefer that you are kept in the dark and will therefore, be fearful and alone when faced with what’s coming. I recently purchased a very good book on our adversary and what he is capable of doing. I have listed it below if you are interested. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard ‘If I’m just a good person I’ll be in Heaven some day’ or ‘I believe in God, but I’m not so sure about Jesus Christ’. We all have evil thoughts at times and they are the work of our adversary. The devil is relentless in his attack on our relationship with God and Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ sealed the devil’s fate…..so the devil will do whatever he can to separate us from Christ. It’s very important that we learn how to fight back.

What does all this mean? From my own experiences, I can see this warfare intensifying and it’s going to continue to intensify. If you’ve been in the battle, I commend you. If you’re like me up until a few months ago, it’s time to get in the game. It’s time to place God #1 in your life. I know what it’s like to place God #4 on my list of priorities versus #1! If you want to find true happiness, love and satisfaction in this life, move Him to #1. I will be glad to help you in any way I can.

You probably noticed that I haven’t written much about 9/11 conspiracies or the Illuminati in this letter. The reason is that now they simply don’t concern me as much. I am more concerned with following God’s plan for me and my family. He will take care of the rest. The important thing is that we are prepared spiritually for what’s coming through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I continue to pray for our country and for all of you.

I always recommend a good study Bible to those that ask me for reading material, but if you’re interested in a couple of good books outside of the Bible relating to what I’m writing about, here are a couple:

‘The American Prophecies’ by Michael D. Evans
‘When the Enemy Strikes’ by Charles Stanley
‘A Modern Prophesy’ by John Tunstall

God Bless.

If you are a Christian and have had discussions on the ‘mark of the beast’ and how only those with the ‘mark’ will be able to buy and sell at some point in the future, you have probably wondered how this could happen.  How could anyone really gain financial control of the entire world?  If you are not a Christian, chances are that you have heard about this ‘mark’ and its control over the world’s financial system and have rejected this as being completely ridiculous – how could anyone control the world’s financial system?  If you throw in the popular Christian interpretations of end time prophecies – that one future ruler of the world will somehow unite the world’s government, the world’s religion and the world’s financial system – all within a period of 7 years – it becomes almost unbelievable.  How could someone – anyone – do all of this within a 7 year time period?  If I were not a Christian and had never heard about these things and someone told me that all of these things will happen within 7 years – I would find it very difficult to believe – if not impossible – the world simply does not cooperate this easily.  As you’ve seen in previous posts, Satan’s control of the world’s government and religion is not taking place during 7 years – and financial control of the world is no different. What you will find as you read this post, is that a few men have already gained worldwide financial control – and they did it before you and I were born.  It didn’t take 7 years – it took hundreds of years.  You and I rely on an economic system that has placed us in financial bondage – and most of us don’t even know it.  What you will find, once again, is that our spiritual enemy is much more cunning and deceptive than you have been led to believe.

 

Let’s start this with a simple question – do you know how our money is created?  Whether you are wealthy or poor, highly educated or not – chances are this question causes you some concern – because you really don’t know the answer.  Most people (and I was included) would say that the United States creates our own money through the U.S. Treasury – correct?  No.  It did until the early 20^th Century.  It is correct that the U.S. Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (agencies of the U.S. Government) create the hard currency we use, but the U.S. Treasury is not responsible for creating and managing our money supply.  Who then, is responsible for creating and managing our money supply?  A private corporation - The Federal Reserve Banking System.

 

If the U.S. Government needs $20 billion in hard currency (paper and coins), the Federal Reserve creates this $20 billion out of nothing (there is nothing of value that backs our currency), the U.S. Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing creates the paper and coin currency and the U.S. Government gives the Federal Reserve an IOU for $20 billion in exchange.  The U.S. Government then pays interest on this $20 billion.  On the surface, it may seem to you that this is logical – what’s wrong with the U.S. Government paying a private bank/corporation to print our money?  Actually, there is a whole lot wrong with it.  This is what I’m going to explain in this post. 

 

We’ve seen how physical currency is created and added to our economy, but physical currency – coins and paper – makes up less than 5% of the overall dollars in circulation in the world.  The other 95% is made up of all of the electronic dollars in checking accounts, savings accounts, CD’s, money market accounts, etc.  How is this money created?  The majority of our money is created by private banks.  This is where things get interesting.

 

If you have purchased a home, then you know that you apply for and receive a mortgage to pay for your home.  The question then becomes – where does the bank get the money to pay for your home?  If you are like most Americans (and I was certainly included in this group), you assume that this money somehow comes out of the bank’s profits or from deposits made at the bank.  It seems logical, but this isn’t what happens.  By authority of the bank’s charter, it has the ability to create the dollars needed for your home.  In the same manner that the Federal Reserve creates money out of nothing, your bank once again creates money out of nothing and places the dollars needed into your account.  The funds are then used to pay for your home.  I know what you’re thinking – this is the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard, there’s no way this is what happens.  You’d be wrong.  In our current monetary system (commonly referred to as a Fractional Reserve System), your act of signing for debt - creates money.  Every time someone signs for an auto loan, home loan, home equity loan, etc. – money is created.  This is how money is created in our system.  In our current monetary system, money is not created from value, money is created from debt.  It doesn’t matter if our money is created because the U.S. Government needs hard currency or if it is created through bank loans, the only way money is created in our current system is through debt.  Get ready - because this leads to some very interesting analysis.

 

If you’re thinking this through, then you’re beginning to feel very uncomfortable – and you should.  Even though it may seem strange to you that our money is created by debt, it might initially seem like this could work – that our economy has – and will continue to – function under this system.  There’s one very big problem inherent in this system.  If you’ve seen the movie ‘The Matrix’, then you remember that the massive computer simulation in the movie had a flaw in the program – an anomaly that over a long period of time would eventually crash the system.  We have the same type of ‘anomaly’ in our current economic system that over time – will have the same result.  What is the ‘anomaly’ in our system?  Interest.  When you take out a loan for $200,000 to pay for your home, is this all you need to pay back?  Of course not.  You must pay the $200,000 plus interest.  The total amount of money you will pay back with interest will be more than $400,000 if you have a 30 year fixed rate (around 6%) and don’t pay it off early.  Remember, our money is created from the principle, not the principle plus interest.  So, you bought a house for $200,000, and as a result, added $200,000 to our total money supply of dollars.  Do you see the problem?  If our money is only created from the principle payment, where do we get the money to pay interest?  This is where things really start to get interesting.

 

Let’s look at another example. Let’s say that the total debt (new debt – retired debt) created in a given year in the United States is $1 trillion dollars.  Based on our current system, $1 trillion dollars would then be added to our money supply.  As I mentioned above, because this is debt, the total actually owed is much higher – let’s say the total debt actually owed is $2 trillion.  So, we have created $2 trillion in liabilities that must be repaid, but we’ve only created $1 trillion dollars in the system to pay this debt.  Do you see the problem?  We never add enough money into our economy to pay for the debt. Our debt continues to rise and our money supply continues to rise – but the money supply can never equal the total amount owed.  What this means is that we can never pay off our debt under our current monetary system.

 

Let’s make it really simple.  If you and I each owe $100 and there’s only $150 in currency available to us – one of us isn’t going to have enough to pay our debts.  It’s a catch-22 that we cannot get out of.  In our current system, there will always be a certain percentage of people and businesses that cannot get enough money to pay their bills, debts, etc.  It’s mathematically impossible for everyone to have enough money to pay what they owe.  We can talk all day about why certain businesses fail (poor management, supply and demand, changing markets, etc), why businesses and people go bankrupt, but the bottom line is this - if there’s not enough money in our economy to pay for all outstanding debts, it doesn’t matter what we do, how we manage our budgets, we will never pay off our debts as a nation – never.  Of course I’m talking about our nation as a whole.  Individually, we can make good financial decisions and manage our money in a prudent manner, but on a national level, we are in a never ending cycle of ever increasing debt – personal debt, corporate debt, government debt, etc.  If our system never changes, it is mathematically impossible for us to ever pay off our national debt. 

 

I now find it interesting when I hear our President or members of Congress debating ‘fiscal irresponsibility’ or when I hear our leaders talking about reducing our national debt.  The truth is that all of us – our Government included – must continue to create debt in order to keep our economy from crashing.  The meter is always running on the current interest (which is now enormous). In order to keep creating additional money to pay for our ever increasing debt, we must create more debt to create more money.  I know what you’re thinking – this has to be the most ridiculous economic system ever devised.  It’s actually quite ingenious – when you realize why it exists.  We’ll examine this more later.

 

Since our money is created from debt, as our debts increase – our money supply increases.  The only thing that has prevented this system from collapsing years ago is due to the lag time we have to pay back the interest on our loans.  We are not required to immediately pay back the principle plus interest.  Although this system seems to have worked for a very long time, we’re going to see that it cannot continue forever.  You will see that it’s mathematically impossible for our economic system to continue without eventually collapsing.

 

If this hasn’t blown your mind yet, consider what would happen if we paid off all of our debt – personal debt (home loans, auto loans, etc), corporate debt and Government debt.  Since debt equals money in our system, if there is no debt, there would be no money!  I know – it keeps getting more ridiculous.  Your mind wants to reject this outright.  This is crazy!  Unfortunately, it’s the truth.  Our entire economy is based on the creation of debt.  Without debt, our economy would crash completely.  You now know the real reasons why we are all always fighting to get enough money to pay our bills and debts (there’s not enough money in the system for all of us).  You now know why we consistently have a steady stream of people and businesses that file for bankruptcy (there’s never enough money in our economy), why inflation has dramatically reduced the buying power of the dollar in the past few decades (our money supply is always increasing – it never stabilizes), why the total volume of dollars in the world economy has sky-rocketed in recent decades (leading to a decline in the value of the dollar – worldwide) and why we’re always being bombarded with loan offers (home, auto, home equity, etc), credit cards, etc.  Without debt, we have no economy.  How is this possible you ask?  Why would anyone allow this to happen?  How did this happen?  The most important question that you should be asking yourself is this – if we are creating so much debt, who are we indebted to?  What you will find later in this post is that this is all very deliberate – it’s not by chance.  There is a plan at work here – and it’s evil.  The honest truth is that every person in the United States has been placed in financial bondage since 1913 – and most don’t even know it.  Have I mentioned how deceptive our spiritual enemy is?  Keep reading.

 

I mentioned earlier that our current banking system is referred to as a Fractional Reserve System.  Basically, this means that banks can issue loans for much more money than they have on hand.  It depends on the type of account, but as an example, let’s say that the Federal Reserve sets the reserve requirement at 9:1 (or a 10% reserve ratio).  The Federal Reserve Board of Governors also has the power to change this ratio within limits set by law.  This means that for every dollar that a bank has held in ‘reserve’ at the Federal Reserve, it can lend out 9 times that amount.  Let’s say that a new bank holds approximately $1,111 dollars at the Federal Reserve.  It can then lend up to $10,000 dollars (9 x $1111 = $10,000). Money on reserve at the Fed is sometimes referred to as ‘super’ money – since the banks get to multiply its volume. The bank then loans this $10,000 to you for a new car.  You pay the car seller who then deposits the money in their checking account.  Their bank (this is a closed loop system – it doesn’t matter which bank receives the deposit) then takes the $10,000 – adds $1,000 of it to their reserves (the same 9:1 reserve ratio – reversed) – and loans out $9,000 to someone else who then deposits the money in their checking account.  Their bank takes the $9,000 – adds $900 to their reserves (9:1 reserve ratio) – and loans out $8,100 to someone else.  At this point, the original reserve of $1,111 has generated $27,100 in new money ($10,000 + $9,000 + $8,100).  If we do the math and continue to carry this through (and everyone deposits their money in a bank – not in a mattress), then this original reserve of $1,111 generates just under $100,000 of currency in our economy.  It’s like a huge game of musical chairs – as long as we’re creating money from debt, the music doesn’t stop playing.  Also remember – the original reserve deposit at the Fed ($1,111) was money created by debt – it has no value.  Some types of accounts in this system only require a 20:1 or 30:1 reserve ratio and some accounts do not require a reserve at all.  Should anyone be surprised that we always have inflation? 

 

What happens when the Federal Reserve changes the reserve ratio?  Is this significant?  Absolutely.  Let’s examine this more closely.  If the current ratio is 9:1 and the Fed changes this to 5:1 – what impact does this have?  If you’re a bank that has loaned millions of dollars at a ratio of 9:1, and have planned future loans around this ratio, what happens to you if the ratio changes to 5:1 (the reserve requirement increases)?  If you don’t have additional reserves to meet the new requirement - you instantly become under-capitalized.  Here’s a simple example: if a bank has a reserve of $1,000 and plans to make a loan of $9,000 – it can no longer make the loan if the reserve ratio is reduced to 5:1.  At 5:1, the reserve requirement on $9,000 would be $1800.  The real world result is – the bank must generate significantly more capital to increase its reserves or stop lending in order to meet the new reserve requirement. 

 

What should we learn from this?  Most of us know that the Federal Reserve has the power to raise and lower interest rates and therefore, has the power to raise and lower overall prices within our economy.  What most people don’t realize is that they also have the power to raise and lower the total volume of dollars in our economy.  If they raise the reserve requirement (requiring banks to have more reserves at the Fed), banks will lend less money and since our money is based on the creation of debt, less money is created.  If this happens, the gap between the amount owed within our economy (interest never stops accumulating) and the amount of money to pay the debt – widens.  We are often told that this is used to fight inflation – inflation that is caused by this system of money creation through debt.  The truth is that an increase in the reserve requirement results in even less money in the overall economy to pay back debt – which could easily lead to a recession or depression.  This is the continual game central banks around the world play every day – more money in the economy means economic growth, but higher inflation – reducing the money supply reduces inflation, but will also cause economic growth to slow or contract. 

 

The following chart shows the impact of the reserve ratio on our money supply.  It’s easy to see that as the reserve amount required is lowered, the amount of money generated increases significantly.  The reverse is also true – as the reserve required by the Fed is raised, the amount of money generated decreases.

 

 

 

What really happens when our money supply contracts?  Periods of recession or depression.  What we’re consistently told is that periods of economic growth and periods of economic contraction are unavoidable, when the truth tells us something different.  The Federal Reserve has the power to create periods of growth (increased money supply coupled with low interest rates) and periods of contraction (reduced money supply coupled with higher interest rates).  How are we told to categorize these periods of growth and contraction?  This is the ‘business cycle’.  While everyday business transactions certainly affect our overall economy – there is nothing that private business or individuals can do that will overcome the debt based economic system we’ve been placed under. 

 

You have also learned why the current credit ‘crunch’ is being referred to as a ‘crisis’.  What happens if banks reduce lending and consumers reduce taking on more debt?  Less money is created in the system – and a vicious cycle starts.  Wall Street refers to this as ‘de-leveraging’.  We’re going to explore the real reasons this happens.  Before we look closely at what is going on today, let’s examine another problem with our current economic system.  We have discussed how our economy must continue to grow in order for debt creation to continue in order to create additional money in order to pay the debt – a never-ending cycle of debt creation.  The question becomes – can this continue forever?

 

If you were to ask people about economic growth, some will know that our economic (GDP – Gross Domestic Product) growth rate typically averages about 3% (annually) in recent years.  Most of us assume this is a linear growth rate.  A linear growth rate looks like this:

 

 

 

The problem is that our economic growth rate is not linear.  As an example, let’s assume that the current overall value of our economy is $100.  If our economy grows 3% this year, then the overall value at the end of this year is $103.  If our economy grows an additional 3% next year, will the overall value of our economy be $106 at the end of next year?  No.  Since we grew our economy 3% this year, next year’s growth will be 3% of $103 and the total value of our economy at the end of next year will be $106.09 ($103*.03 + $103).  Our economy does not grow linearly, it grows exponentially.  What this means is that 3% growth this year is actually more growth than 3% last year since our growth is compounded annually.  This is what exponential growth looks like:

 

 

You are probably starting to feel uncomfortable, because you are beginning to see where this is going.  In theory, this growth rate remains relatively low for a given period of time – but as you can see, as each year’s growth compounds on the previous year, overall growth begins to accelerate rapidly at a given point in time.  A simple example of this phenomenon can be seen in the growth of a company.  A company that plans to grow 10% with annual revenues of $10 million only needs to grow $1 million.  A company that plans to grow 10% with annual revenues of $10 billion needs to grow $1 billion.  As growth compounds upon itself, the system requires ever more resources to grow the same amount (%).

 

In our current economic system that relies on continual growth to stave off a collapse, we must continually burn through more and more natural resources to keep the system going.  In a theoretical world, this exponential curve continues on to infinity.  Is this possible in a finite world with finite resources?  Of course not.  If we take a logical look at our economic system, mathematics tells us one of two things must happen to our current system.  The first scenario is that we burn through all of our resources and the system collapses.  We can certainly see the beginning of this from a global perspective.  As more economies around the world have instituted the same economic system as ours, we are seeing more and more concern that natural resources (oil, forests, water, etc.) are being depleted at an alarming rate – demand is outstripping supply – adding to inflationary pressures.  Although this is certainly possible in our distant future, since we are much farther along the exponential curve than other economies in the world, there is a much more likely scenario for the United States. 

 

The second scenario is that our current system collapses under the weight of the debt it has created.  If the rate of debt increases much more quickly than the rate of the supply of money in the system, eventually the amount of money in the system will not be able to support the increased debt.  There will not be enough money to make interest payments, pay utilities, buy consumer goods and create additional money.  As the exponential curve gets steeper and steeper – it will be more and more difficult to grow our economy, while supporting the existing debt in the system.  At some point, since we live in the real world, our monetary system will collapse under the weight of its debt – long before we burn through all of our resources. 

 

Before we get too far into this – let’s ask a question.  Where are we on this exponential curve?  If we look at trends of some of the most widely used economic indicators, can we determine if we should be worried about imminent collapse?   As you will see, we have reason to be concerned.

 

Let’s start by looking at our debt.  The following is a graph of our nation’s federal debt:

 

 

 

Does this look linear or exponential?  You don’t have to be a mathematician to see the answer.

 

The following is a different look at our national debt that calculates the debt as a percentage of GDP:

 

 

We hear politicians and economists talk about how there’s nothing to worry about since our debt remains in line with past years - as a percentage of GDP.  The problem is that they are only focusing on the amount of debt as a % of GDP in a given year and not the effect of our cumulative debt. As we’ll soon see, what is even more important is the ratio of debt to the money supply.

 

We also have much more debt than just the federal debt.  The following chart shows total debt over time (state, federal, personal, corporate).  Once again, we see an exponential curve.

 

 

What about our money supply?  We should expect to see the same trend – and we do.

 

 

 

 

 

Hard currency appears to be somewhat linear, but it’s an illusion.  If we reduce the scale (since hard currency is such a small percentage of the total money supply), we see the same trend:

 

 

Since the Federal Reserve stopped publishing M3 (total amount of dollars in circulation) money supply data in 2006, a couple of economists have worked to re-create it.  The next graph was created by John Williams at shadowstats.com.  Take note of how the year over year growth of our money supply has steadily increased since early 2005.  Also note how the rate of growth is beginning to slow since the beginning of 2008. (I originally wrote this post in early 2008 - I have updated the graph below to show money supply growth through the first few months of 2009 - you can see how the current credit 'crisis' is affecting money supply growth).

 

 

I believe we’re going to see our money supply growth continue to slow since we are now at the point that we cannot create enough new money (through debt) to support the existing debt. If we’re not able to create enough new money (through debt) each year to service the interest on the existing debt – the system begins to collapse (loan defaults & bankruptcies begin to increase).  The world tells us that our economy is ‘maturing’, which is why our economy’s growth is slowing.  The truth, as you see, is much different.  We are beginning to see the very real signs of an economy on the brink of collapse under the weight of its monetary system.  We’ll talk about these signs later in this post.

 

Let’s continue by viewing inflation.  Once again, we hear the world tell us that inflation is running at a rate of 3% a year and we all accept this as normal – and we forget that this rate is compounded year after year.  If we see our money supply increase at such a fast pace, we should expect to see inflation also rise at an exponential rate – and we do.

 

 

Now you know why cars that once cost $3,000 now cost $30,000 or a loaf of bread that once cost $0.25 now costs $2.50.  Prices increase as the volume of money in the system increases.  More people with more money to spend places upward pressure on prices for everything – cars, fuel, food, natural resources, etc.  As money supplies throughout the world increase at an exponential rate, we see inflation skyrocketing across the globe.  More on this below.

 

What about other economic indicators?  We see the same trend.

 

Government Spending:

 

Government Revenues:

 

 

 

Commercial Bank Credit:

 

 

 

 

Total Revolving Credit:

 

 

Total Consumer Credit:

 

 

These are all interesting, but the most important graph will show us the rate of increase of our debt and the rate of increase of our money supply.  If we see a widening gap between the two, then we know that the system is beginning to break down as the rate of increase in debt (new debt – retired debt + interest) is outpacing the money supply used to create and service the debt.

 

 

 

 Sobering isn’t it?  What you are seeing is a system on the brink of total collapse.  With no way to pay our debts (since money is created by debt), this was inevitable at some point.  Even though our money supply is also on an exponential curve, it cannot (mathematically) keep up with the runaway debt.  We are nearing the end of an inevitable cycle.  A cycle that ends with the economic collapse of the United States.  As I mentioned earlier, this would not be a surprise to the men who created the system in the U.S. in 1913, nor is it a surprise to the men who are controlling the system today.

 

What about the rest of the world?  Can’t they continue to finance our debt?  Won’t this help delay our collapse?  What you are about to see is that every major world economy also has a Central Bank – and therefore is on the same exponential curve as us.  At some point, the entire world system will be unable to sustain itself unless the entire system changes.  We’ll just take a look at money supplies of some of the world’s biggest economies.  As you view these graphs, also take note of the total amount of Euros (European Union) in circulation compared to the amount of dollars in circulation.  If you consider that there are trillions more dollars in circulation throughout the world compared to pounds and euros and also consider the massive amount of U.S. debt – it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the overall value of the dollar is declining against the world’s major currencies.

 

Global Money Supply:

 

 

 

European Union:

 

 

Australia:

 

 

New Zealand:

 

 

India:

 

 

In addition, in recent months China’s money supply (M1+M2) has been growing at a 16-18% annualized rate.  So, it’s easy to see that the same insane economic/monetary system has been instituted the world over.  The question is – why?  Before we answer this, let’s take a look at what is going on in the U.S. economy today.

 

Let’s think about what we would expect to see if the economic system of the United States begins to collapse due to this monetary system.  As the amount of total debt continues to increase faster than the money supply, we would expect the number of personal and corporate bankruptcies to continue to increase.  As global inflation also continues to increase prices on a broad range of products and commodities (due to increases in money supplies the world over), we would expect this to also negatively affect individuals and corporations in America.  We would also expect to see those of us with the lowest cash reserves to be affected first.  Are we seeing these things?  Absolutely.  We see them everyday in our news.  The current ‘credit crisis’ began when subprime borrowers began defaulting on their home loans.  Now, we see that the number of Alt-A and Prime borrowers falling behind on their mortgages is also increasing.  Home prices are now decreasing across the nation as a result.  How does this affect the money supply?  If a homeowner defaults on a loan, the bank must ‘foreclose’ and take a loss on its books.  The bank then must sell the home – but sell it in a depressed housing market.  If the home was originally purchased for $100,000; and the bank can only get $75,000 now - based on what we now know about how money is created - you can see how the money supply will begin to be affected in a very big way.  As home prices decline, the amount of money generated from the home loans from consumers also declines.  As banks tighten credit due to the rising defaults, the vicious cycle continues – fewer loans and lower prices equals less money created (thanks to this debt based monetary system).  Less money created means less money to loan and less money to buy things – and the exponential money creation cycle from debt begins to reverse itself. It’s also easy to see that falling housing prices and falling housing sales are not the only problem here – all of the suppliers, subcontractors, etc. are also affected.  The rapid increase in the money supply generated by private banks that we’ve seen over the past decade is beginning to slow significantly.  But as you know, this isn’t all that’s happening.

 

You’ve watched as the value of CDO’s (Collateralized Debt Obligations), CLO’s (Collateralized Loan Obligations), SIV’s (Structured Investment Vehicles) and other derivatives are now plunging in value resulting in huge write-offs for banks.  As foreclosures have risen, the value of the bonds created from these mortgages have plunged in value – even those bonds based on ‘prime’ mortgages.  All of these things are reducing the money supply.  If you have an investment that you thought was worth $100, but now is only worth $60 on the open market, your access to money has been substantially reduced.  Auction rate securities, once thought as safe as cash, now can’t be sold – there are no buyers.  What you are seeing are the cracks beginning to form in the dam. 

 

What is the Federal Reserve doing?  Basically, they are trying to plug the holes by injecting money into our economy to delay the inevitable.  Money creation through the private banking system is faltering, so someone has to step in or something catastrophic is going to happen.  As the process has accelerated, not only are banks slowing their lending to consumers, they have also significantly reduced lending to each other.  In order to get the capital they need, many banks are now borrowing more money directly from the Federal Reserve discount window.  Remember, the Fed isn’t giving the money away; banks are borrowing this money from a private corporation.  We can see the impact from the current credit crisis from the graph below.

 

 

(Courtesy of Bloomberg)

 

We see this problem developing with the money supply, but there is one area of our financial system that has yet to suffer a significant drop in value – the stock market.  It’s been very volatile, but has not really suffered a prolonged decrease in value.  Think about this – what happens when financial conditions worsen, people can’t pay their bills/debts, all other investments have significantly declined in value and there’s only one remaining large source of wealth remaining?  People will sell their stocks to survive.  There’s an obvious problem with this – if a large number of people start selling – what happens?  Prices drop significantly.  Since stocks are one of the most volatile investments in the world, the coming decline in the stock market will, in all probability, be much worse than the current decline in value of CDOs/SIVs, Auction Rate Securities and other bonds.  One thing is for certain, it’s not a matter of if, but when this will happen.

 

 

 

 

Take a look at the above graph of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Share volume is also shown).  Look familiar?  Once again, we see an exponential curve.  The DJIA is shadowing both our debt and our money supply.  Why?  Think about how the world tells us to invest.  We’re constantly told that stocks offer the best long term returns.  If you only look at stock returns over the past 30 years – this would appear to be good advice (if you ignore the possibility of something negative happening tomorrow).  The problem is that there are two very good reasons why the stock market has continued to increase over this time period – and they have nothing to do with the stock market itself.  As money has increased exponentially over the past 30 years – more and more liquidity has been placed in the hands of investors.  What is another consequence of this exponential money growth?  Inflation has also increased exponentially.  We have more and more money in a system where inflation is eroding the value of this money.  In this situation, everyone is trying to at least maintain the value of their money – by trying to earn a return higher than the inflation rate.  So, we see more and more people investing more and more money into risky investments (stocks, hedge funds, CDO’s, SIV’s, Auction-Rate Securities, etc.) in an attempt to outrun the inflation rate. 

 

There’s also another problem that no one in the mainstream media is discussing.  We assume that our inflation rate has been approximately 1%-5% in recent years because this is what our government tells us.  The problem is that since the early 1980’s, the government has changed the way it measures inflation.  I won’t go into details here (please watch Chris Martenson’s video for further information on how our government has changed how it calculates inflation and other economic data:  http://www.chrismartenson.com/fuzzy_numbers).  The truth is that the actual annual consumer inflation rate has been between 8%-12% over the past 10 years – which means that you would need to average an annual return of around 10% over the past 10 years just to break even.  The current rate of inflation is closer to 13% and increasing - not 5% as we’ve been told (I have updated the graph in 2009 to show how the current crisis is causing deflationary pressures).

 

 

 

If we also consider the impact that the actual inflation rate has on real GDP (inflation is subtracted from nominal GDP to calculate real GDP) – we see why businesses and consumers are telling us that we’re in a recession – while our government tells us that our economy is still growing.  The current state of our economy starts to make sense when we see inflation in double digits and negative GDP for several quarters.

 

 

Do you know people who have lost their jobs recently?  Wonder why it’s difficult to find a job right now?  It’s because the current unemployment rate is closer to 13% - not the 5% that we’ve been told (I have updated the graph in 2009 to show the continuing impact of the current recession/depression - real unemployment is now approaching 20%).   The government selectively removes ‘discouraged workers’ from total unemployment in order to calculate the lower rate.  It’s simply a way for our government to manipulate the data to show more favorable percentages.

 

 

 

What is going to happen to the stock market as our money supply growth continues to slow, GDP continues to contract, inflation continues to increase, housing prices continue to fall and more people lose their jobs?  The stock market will, once again, shadow our money supply straight down as the system collapses.  We’re beginning to see how this is affecting the stock market today.  The market has been extremely volatile as earnings reports from companies seem to contradict government economic data.  When it becomes clear to everyone that we’re in serious trouble – we’re going to see a mass exodus from stock markets worldwide.

 

If you’re wealthy, you may feel somewhat secure that you’ve got a nice nest egg to see this through.  Where is your money?  It’s most likely in dollar currency in the system – checking/savings accounts, money market funds, stocks, bonds, 401(k)’s, retirement accounts, etc.  What happens if it’s not just a segment of the system that collapses, but the entire system?  It won’t matter what you have - $5 or $5 million – your wealth will vanish before your eyes.  We are facing a far worse scenario than 1929.  From 1929 through 1933, our money supply contracted approximately 30% after a period of money supply expansion in the 1920’s.  As you can see from the money supply trends in previous charts, we have also been through a period of significant money supply expansion from 1995 until 2007.  It appears that 1929 was a trial run for what will happen in the near future to us. 

 

Was wealth destroyed during the Great Depression?  No.  Wealth was transferred.  If you read the biographies of some of the great bankers of that era (J.P. Morgan and others), you will see that the majority of them did not have their money in stocks.  Earlier in 1929, they moved their investment holdings to cash and gold.  For them, the crash of 1929 was not a catastrophe, it was a buying opportunity. A buying opportunity they created.  The price of assets dropped dramatically during this time - and guess who happened to have the cash on hand to buy assets at depressed values? 

 

Until now, you’ve probably thought that we’re all playing by the same rules – we’re not.  This really isn’t about money – it’s about power and control of the world.  It’s about a ruling elite enslaving humanity on a worldwide scale.  A ruling elite given power by the world’s spiritual ruler.  Now you know a little more about why the Lord has warned us.  He warned us that this beast would be deceptive and would deceive the whole world – and you’re beginning to see why.  When God tells us in His Word that something in our future will be deceptive on a worldwide scale – it’s a warning we should heed.

 

This leads us to why our monetary system exists.  In 1913, the battle for the control of the United States banking system was lost – and the Federal Reserve Bank was created.  The name of this private corporation should tell us all we need to know – it’s a lie.  It’s a bank that is not Federal and there are no reserves.    The truth is that this ingenious monetary system was created by some highly intelligent men for one purpose – global power.  Whoever controls interest rates and the volume of money in a nation controls the nation (and ultimately the world).  In a world focused on money and the pursuit of money, whoever controls our money has the power – absolute power.  These men created a monetary system that forever places our nation in debt and one that can be manipulated by them for their purposes.  What is going to happen when markets collapse? Guess who, once again, will be there to acquire depressed assets? 

 

As I’ve said before, this was inevitable.  If you give a banking system, in our evil world, the ability to control the money supply and the ability to charge interest on the money they create, the bankers will slowly, over time, exchange worthless money (paper and electronic fiat currency) for real assets – gold, silver, land and property.  If you view this from a spiritual standpoint, you begin to understand why Jesus told us that building the foundation of your life on the things of this world is not wise.  As has happened before, and will happen again, wealthy people of this world will see the foundation of their lives (money) slowly sift away through their fingers.  Our wealth is an illusion.  Satan has offered wealth and power to many in this nation and they have gladly accepted.  They are about to witness what happens when you do a deal with the devil.  Take him on by yourself and sooner or later – he’s going to find a way to get his tentacles into you.  What happens when wealth is taken away from people who are focused on wealth?  It’s not pretty.  How do we overcome?  As I’ve said before, and will continue to say until I leave this world – you will not overcome this world and its ruler until you humbly ask forgiveness from God.  Until you acknowledge your sins and truly believe the Lord’s promise of salvation through His Son, you will never get free of the world.  You will always be susceptible to the world’s many disappointments.  When you truly repent and are born again, what happens in the world no longer matters because you know the Lord and the Lord stands with you – until the end.

 

At some point you’ve probably wondered how on earth this monetary system has survived until now.  If you read the many quotes throughout recent history from bankers, world leaders, economists and tycoons about central banks – and really pay attention to what they’re saying - it’s no secret that those in power knew what was happening (I have listed many of these quotes on my website).  Why hasn’t anyone stopped this madness?  It’s not hard to figure out – fear.  If you attain a position of power and are told to look the other way or face the consequences – what do you do?  Most people in the world will gladly take the money and power….and look the other way.  Why place my life at risk when I can continue living this nice lifestyle by not rocking the boat?  Yes – I said that by standing against this beast – you place your life at risk.  I’m not saying this merely to make a hypothetical point.  Take a look at this list.  These men had three things in common.

 

Abraham Lincoln

James Garfield

John F. Kennedy

 

All were Presidents of the United States.  Each man spoke out against the issuance of money by anyone other than our Government and made it clear who they were targeting with these comments – and all were assassinated.  Lincoln refused to attain loans from the European banks to finance the Civil War (he was offered loans at 24%+ interest) and instead had the U.S. Treasury issue its own money.  JFK gave a speech in 1961 about a worldwide ‘monolithic and ruthless conspiracy’ which is ‘a system that has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations’.  I have added a link to the speech on my website. (Here’s the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4cqSXtj9ak)  JFK even had the audacity in the summer of 1963 to give the U.S. Government the authority to, once again, create its own money via Executive Order 11110 (based on a Silver standard).  The U.S. Treasury actually began to print its own money in 1963….but as we all know, this didn’t last long. 

 

As you read the quotes below, notice carefully what these men are telling us.  They didn’t realize it at the time they made these statements, but each one of them learned about and then commented on – one of the beasts of Revelation 13.  Some of them paid the ultimate price for doing so.  The Lord doesn’t arbitrarily label something a ‘beast’ without reason.  He uses the term ‘beast’ to tell us who and what we’re dealing with – an organization that will kill, steal and destroy anyone and anything in its path – anything that opposes it.  This beast obeys its father – the father of lies and deceit who walks in complete darkness.  There is only one way in this world that you and I can oppose this beast and survive – by standing with and obeying the Lord. 

 

“The very word secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society – and we are, as a people, inherently and historically, opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.” –JFK

 

 

“We are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covet means for expanding its sphere of influence – on infiltration instead of invasion – on subversion instead of elections – on intimidation instead of free choice.  It is a system that has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine - that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published.  Its mistakes are buried, not headlined.  Its dissenters are silenced, not praised.  No expenditure is questioned, no secret is revealed.”  -JFK

 

“I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people.” –JFK referring to the worldwide conspiracy mentioned above

 

“Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce….and when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate.”  -James A. Garfield

 

“The Government should create, issue and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers.  By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest.  The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of government, but it is the government’s greatest creative opportunity.” -Abraham Lincoln

 

“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected the promises of discretion for almost forty years.  It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years.  But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government.  The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the National auto-determination practiced in past centuries.” –David Rockefeller in an address to Trilateral Commission Meeting, 1991

 

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will
grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property
until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." –Thomas Jefferson

 

"Capital must protect itself in every way... Debts must be collected and loans and mortgages foreclosed as soon as possible. When, through a process of law, the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and more easily governed by the strong arm of the law applied by the central power of leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principle men now engaged in forming an imperialism of capitalism to govern the world. By dividing the people we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd." -J.P. Morgan

 

"We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent." –James Paul Warburg (Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, speaking before the U.S. Senate, 1950)

 

"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson. History depicts Andrew Jackson as the last truly honorable and incorruptible American president." –Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

"[The task is to] covertly lower the standard of living, the whole social
structure, of America so that we can be merged with all other nations." –Rowan Gaither (President of the Ford Foundation, 1954)

 

“I am myself persuaded, on the basis of extensive study of the historical evidence, that... the severity of each of the contractions - 1920-21, 1929-33, and 1937-38 - is directly attributable to acts of commission and omission by the Reserve authorities and would not have occurred under earlier monetary and banking arrangements.'' –Milton Friedman (Nobel Prize-winning economist, economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan)

 

"Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the U.S., in the field of commerce and manufacturing, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." –Woodrow Wilson

 

"A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which their own money is involved and who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom."  -Woodrow Wilson

 

"We have restricted credit, we have restricted opportunity, we have controlled development, and we have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world--no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men." –Woodrow Wilson

 

"This Act (the Federal Reserve Act, Dec. 23rd 1913) establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President (Woodrow Wilson) signs the Bill, the invisible government of the Monetary Power will be legalized... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency Bill." –Charles A. Lindbergh Sr. (Congressman and father of the famous aviator)

 

"The most wonderful thing of all is that the distinguished Lutheran and
Calvinist theologians who belong to our order really believe that they see in it (Illuminati) the true and genuine sense of Christian Religion. Oh mortal man, is there anything you cannot be made to believe?" - Adam Weishophf upon establishing his "Order of the Illuminati", on May 1, 1776

 

"It is ironical that the only nation which affirmatively expresses a dependence upon and belief in Almighty God in its birth certificate, should now be in mortal combat for its very existence with a godless conspiracy intent upon conquering the world, and reverting human society to the hazards and indignities of the Dark Ages." –Loyd Wright (Former President of the American Bar Association, 1961)

 

"From the days of Spartacus, Weishophf, Karl Marx, Trotski, Belacoon, Rosa Luxenburg, and Ema Goldman, this world conspiracy has been steadily growing. This conspiracy played a definite recognizable role in the tragedy of the French revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the 19th Century. And now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their head and have become the undisputed masters of that enormous empire." –Winston Churchill, 1920

 

"The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation. At the head is a small group of banking houses generally referred to as 'international bankers.' This little coterie... run our government for their own selfish ends. It operates under cover of a self-created screen...[and] seizes...our executive officers... legislative bodies... schools... courts... newspapers and every agency created for the public protection." –John Hylan (Mayor of New York, 1918-1925)

 

"The sovereignty fetish is still so strong in the public mind, that there would appear to be little chance of winning popular assent to American membership in anything approaching a super-state organization. Much will depend on the kind of approach which is used in further popular education." (Council on Foreign Relations, 1944)

 

If you spend some time studying these international bankers who have instituted this debt based monetary system worldwide, you will find that at the top echelon of power there are approximately 300 names.  These are the same 300 families who own stock in the Federal Reserve of the United States and all of the other central banks the world over. These are the people who wield the world’s real power from the shadows and provide the wealth and power needed to infiltrate the world’s monetary and political systems.  These are the people the Lord describes in Revelation 13 – this ‘beast out of the earth’.   

 

If you continue to study how they have gained this power, you will be led back in time to the early 1690’s to the founding of the Bank of England – the world’s first central bank.  And if you continue to search for the truth, you will find that all roads on this journey eventually lead to one name – Rothschild.  The world will tell you that the Rothschild’s banking empire has been reduced to a ‘niche’ bank – catering mainly to very wealthy investors.  The truth is that they control approximately 70%-80% of the world’s wealth from the shadows.  If I had told you this at the beginning of this post, you would have probably rejected this statement outright.  Now you know how it’s possible – they print the world’s money and exchange it for the world’s real assets.  As I mentioned at the beginning, it’s really an ingenious plan – when you realize why it was created.  It’s evil, but ingenious.  The Rothschilds and every member of these ‘elite’ families would tell you that this plan was devised by them for their purposes – but we know the truth.  The Lord has told us Satan’s plans – they’re simply obeying the one they serve.

 

We now see how the world’s financial system has been overtaken by a few very powerful men.  If we take what we know and think about the ‘mark of the beast’, we realize that control of the world’s financial system isn’t enough to satisfy the prophecies about the ‘mark’.  Controlling the world’s financial system is one piece of the puzzle, but something else is needed – enforcement.  Everyone throughout the world will be ‘forced’ to accept the mark. These powerful men need a way in which to deceive us into believing that humanity needs protecting – and now we know why the Lord tells us in the book of Revelation about ‘miraculous signs’ used by this beast.  The beast creates these ‘signs’ to strike fear among us – fear that will eventually drive humanity to give over its freedom to the beast – and Satan.  We’ve seen many of these ‘signs’ already, but they are only the beginning.

 

When it comes to spiritual deception, you are beginning to see just how blind we really are in this world when we walk away from our Creator.  We focus on the things in the world – money, careers, cars, houses, addictions, stuff, etc. – and we forget about the subtle things that are missing from our lives.  Some of these things are big picture – How did we come into being?  Why are we here?  Does God really exist?  If He exists, why can’t I see Him?  Can I really know God - personally?  Where do I go when I die?  Am I really alone in this fallen world?  How can I get free of this mess?  Other questions are smaller picture, but would also lead us to the truth if we would just slow down for awhile and think about what we’re consistently told in this world and compare it to God’s truth – could someone really consolidate the world’s government, world’s religion and world’s financial system within 7 years?  If God has allowed His children to experience pain and suffering throughout human history in order to strengthen them in this world, why would He change now? Sometimes it’s a very simple question that leads us to some very important answers – how is our money created?  Think about how many times in your life – friends, parents, teachers, professors – someone has explained our monetary system to you.  Never?  You’re not alone – and there’s a reason it’s being hidden.  If I were to ask 1000 Americans today what is the greatest threat to our nation’s sovereignty – how many do you think would respond - ‘the war on terror’?  My guess is that 99% of us would agree that ‘the war on terror’ is our greatest threat.  Our spiritual enemy has created a perceived threat – while his true ‘beasts’ gain control of the world through deceptive means – subversion, infiltration and intimidation.  Again, an ingenious plan – and not of this world.  The only way to overcome it is to obey the One spiritual being that Satan cannot deceive, intimidate or overcome – our Father in heaven. 

 

The truth is that never before, in the history of the United States, have we faced a greater threat to our national sovereignty as we do now – never.  We are facing an enemy that is much more intelligent and powerful than you and I - an enemy that has not used brute force against us, but works in the shadows to deceive and infiltrate.  At times in the past I would think about the book of Revelation and wonder how the people of the world could ever allow themselves to be subjected to an evil world government.  I simply didn’t want to believe it was possible and I, like most people today, disregarded the Lord’s warnings about how this beast would deceive the whole world.  Now that I’ve humbled myself and know the truth, I listen to this beast talk to us everyday through corporate, governmental, banking and religious leaders – leaders of the United States.  It’s no longer a mystery.  Their plan has almost come to fruition.  At some point, you might think that all hope is lost – that they are too powerful and the plan is too far along.  How can we possible stop this?  I’m not fearful of these things because I know that God could see this coming since the creation of the world – and I don’t need to figure out what to do on my own.  I will simply continue to seek the Lord’s will for me – His plan, not mine.  What you are about to see throughout the world is that God is going to go on the offensive – and he’s going to do it with you and me.  Now is not the time for weak people with weak ministries to proclaim a weak message.  Now is the time to allow ourselves to be strengthened spiritually.  Now is the time to stand in the face of overwhelming odds – and succeed. 

 

At different times in your life you have probably felt that something wasn’t quite right.  You could ‘sense’ it, but you couldn’t ‘see’ it.  You couldn’t really explain it, but you knew that there was something not quite right about the world you live in.  The economy is up – the economy is down.  Life is good – life is not so good.  Chaos seems to rule the world.  It’s like we’re walking on very thin ice that is constantly cracking – about to give way.  You are now beginning to understand that there is a method to the madness.  When the world chose death over life, sin over righteousness – when we chose to believe lies instead of the Truth – this was the inevitable result.  What gets the true Christian through all of this is that this isn’t the end – it’s only the beginning – and we’re not alone.  The end is glorious for us – end of story.

 

You’ve seen me reference the movie ‘The Matrix’ and how many aspects of the movie are similar to the spiritual battle being waged in the world.  I’m going to end this post with some dialog from the movie because it certainly relates to most of us.  The following scene takes place right before Neo learns the truth about his world.

 

Morpheus: I imagine that right now, you're feeling a bit like Alice. Hmm? Tumbling  

down the rabbit hole?
Neo: You could say that.
Morpheus: I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, that's not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
Morpheus: I know *exactly* what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Neo: The Matrix.
Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?
Neo: Yes.
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.

 

I finally found a video that does an excellent job of explaining our monetary system in simple terms.  I recommend that you watch it to get a better understanding of what I have discussed here.  The video was created by Paul Grignon and is only 47 minutes long.  It’s available on Google Video at:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279&q=paul+grignon&ei=kmAsSL70C5CUrgL0r72aCg .  I have used a couple of Paul’s examples in this post.

 

http://johngilmore.org/

OCTOBER 7, 2008

 

Brazil Expands Bank's Authority

Wall St. Journal

 

BRASILIA -- Brazil's government will issue a decree granting the country's central bank expanded powers to reinforce local credit supply, Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles said.

The measures, effective Tuesday, aim to give greater agility to the central bank to respond to adverse regional conditions during the global credit crisis.

The measures include authorization for the central bank to purchase credit portfolios from small banks suffering from reduced liquidity in the financial system.

 

Iceland Scrambles to Shore Up Its Finances

Wall St. Journal

OCTOBER 7, 2008, 8:52 A.M. ET

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Iceland nationalized its second-largest bank on Tuesday and negotiated a €4 billion ($5.41 billion) loan from Russia to shore up the nation's finances amid a full-blown financial crisis.

The moves came a day after trading in shares of major banks was suspended, the Icelandic krona lost a quarter of its value against the euro, and the government rushed through emergency legislation giving it new powers to deal with the financial meltdown.

Reuters

A branch of Landsbanki Bank in Reykjavik.

"As declared by the government, all domestic deposits are fully guaranteed," the Financial Supervisory Authority said. "Landsbanki's domestic branches, call centers, cash machines (ATMs) and Internet operations will be open for business as usual."

The Russian loan supports the government's efforts to gain control of an increasingly dire financial situation. Landsbanki is the country's second bank to be nationalized in less than two weeks. Last week, Iceland effectively nationalized the country's third-largest bank, Glitnir Bank hf, taking a 75% stake for €600 million ($811.1 million), while Landsbanki sold the majority of its foreign operations to Icelandic investment bank Straumur-Burdaras hf.

The country's biggest bank, Kaupthing Bank hf, said Tuesday it hadn't been approached by the regulator regarding any intervention in its operations. Kaupthing added that Iceland's central bank has provided it with a €500 million loan to assist operations.

Iceland is paying the price for an economic boom of recent years that saw its newly affluent companies go on an acquisition spree across Europe and its banking sector grow to dwarf the rest of the economy. Bank assets are nine times annual gross domestic product of €14 billion. Investors are now punishing the whole country for the banking sector's heavy exposure to the global credit squeeze -- its currency has gone through the floor, imports have fallen and inflation is soaring.

A person familiar with the situation said that Iceland's central bank will peg its currency to a basket of currencies, which will then give a euro-Icelandic krona exchange rate of 131. Euro/krona exchange rates have been quoted in recent days at around 200, according to unofficial accounts from currency traders, as official trading in the currency has all but broken down with Iceland fighting for financial survival.

Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde warned late Monday that the heavy exposure of the tiny country's banking sector to the global financial turmoil raised the specter of national bankruptcy. "In the perilous situation which exists now on the world's financial markets, providing the banks with a secure life line poses a great risk for the Icelandic nation," Mr. Haarde said in a televised address to the nation. "There is a very real danger, fellow citizens, that the Icelandic economy, in the worst case, could be sucked with the banks into the whirlpool and the result could be national bankruptcy." (See related article.)

Just hours earlier, Mr. Haarde had said that no special measures were necessary -- but credit lines to banks then seized up on speculation about the solvency of the country's major banks. The new laws gave the Central Bank of Iceland and the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority detailed and vast authority to intervene in the control and operation of Icelandic financial institutions, including the ability to take over or create new institutions, call shareholder meetings and limit the authority of boards.

Earlier Monday, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority suspended trading in financial instruments issued by Kaupthing, Landsbanki, Glitnir, Straumur-Burdaras, Exista and Spron. The government also put 100% guarantees on savers' deposits, following in the footsteps of Ireland, Germany, Austria, Greece and Denmark.

Tuesday, Icelandic insurer Exista hf said it was selling its 20% stake in Finnish insurer Sampo Oyj through a bookbuilding process. Exista also holds a 4.7% stake in Norwegian insurer Storebrand as well as a 24.7% stake in Kaupthing. Exista and Kaupthing, in turn, own around 29% in Storebrand directly and indirectly, and analysts say a stake sale in Storebrand could be next. Exista Chairman Lydur Gudmundsson said in a statement that Exista has no plans to sell other assets.

A collapse of the Icelandic financial system could reverberate across Europe, given the heavy investment by Icelandic banks and companies across the continent.

One of the country's biggest companies, retailing investment group Baugur, owns or has stakes in dozens of major European retailers -- including enough to make it the largest private company in Britain, where it owns a handful of well-known stores such as the famous toy store Hamley's.

—The Associated Press and Anna Molin and Joel Sherwood of Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this article.

Write to the Online Journal's editors at newseditors@wsj.com

 

U.S. Treasury Considers Buying Stakes in Banks

New Tack Comes Amid World-Wide Emergency Rate Cuts

By DEBORAH SOLOMON

Wall St. Journal

October 9, 2008

WASHINGTON—The Treasury Department is considering ways to inject capital directly into banks, possibly by taking equity stakes, as the financial crisis continues to worsen.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, in a marked shift in rhetoric, played up Treasury's newfound authority to "to inject capital into financial institutions" in remarks Wednesday. Mr. Paulson, who won approval from Congress to buy $700 billion worth of distressed assets, had previously focused on Treasury's plan to buy mortgage-related securities from financial institutions that are having trouble getting the assets off their books.

As the financial crisis continues to escalate, Treasury has begun fleshing out ways to use its authority to make direct injections into financial institutions, according to a person familiar with the matter. Treasury is figuring out how to structure such infusions so that banks can recapitalize and begin lending.

No such moves are imminent, but the fact that the department is engaging in such discussions is an indication of how the crisis is constantly morphing. Such a move was not under consideration just a few days ago but has become more of a possibility in recent days as the stock market has plunged and the credit crunch shows no signs of easing.

Treasury wants to design something voluntary that encourages healthy institutions to participate. Treasury is discussing whether to buy preferred stock or find some other way to inject capital into the firms.

In remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Paulson said its new authority extends beyond just mortgage-related assets to "any other troubled assets that the Treasury and the Federal Reserve deem necessary to promote financial market stability."

The U.K. government this week announced a plan to take stakes in a range of domestic banks.

Coordinated Rate Cuts

On Wednesday morning, the world's central banks launched a large coordinated attack against the widening global financial crisis, lowering short-term interest rates in unison.

Getty Images

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Sept. 24.

The emergency interest-rate action, which involved the Fed, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and others, is a sign that fears that the financial crisis could cripple the global economy are spreading rapidly.

But the rate move failed to soothe jittery investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Wednesday at 9258.10, down 189 points, or 2%. The index has fallen 14.6% so far this month. Oil fell $1.11 to $88.95 a barrel, on signs of weakening global demand. Investors continued to flock to safe-haven U.S. Treasury bills, and away from riskier debt such as junk bonds.

One of the chief threats to the global economy is that banks and other financial institutions are hoarding cash, which makes it harder for businesses and households to finance their day-to-day affairs. Lower interest rates reduce the cost of borrowing for banks, businesses and households, and potentially boost confidence. But it's far from clear whether the lower rates will make banks and other lenders, which are gripped by fears of defaults by borrowers, any more willing to lend.

The U.K. government this week announced a plan to take stakes in a range of domestic banks. As recently as a few days ago, the U.S. Treasury was not considering any capital injections. But it has become more of a possibility as the stock market has plunged and the credit crunch shows no signs of easing.

Treasury wants to design something voluntary that encourages healthy institutions to participate. It is discussing whether to buy preferred stock or find some other way to inject capital into the firms.

In remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Paulson said its new authority extends beyond just mortgage-related assets to "any other troubled assets that the Treasury and the Federal Reserve deem necessary to promote financial market stability."

On Wednesday, central banks in the U.S., the euro zone, the U.K., Canada, Sweden and Switzerland each cut short-term interest rates by a half percentage point, noting that "the recent intensification of the financial crisis has augmented the downside risks to growth." Acting on its own, the People's Bank of China also cut rates, as did Australia's central bank, a day earlier. Later, central banks in South Korean and Taiwan cut interest rates, too, and Brazil's central bank cut reserve requirements on cash and term deposits.

Central banks around the world acted in concert Monday, hoping a half-percentage-point rate cut would restore confidence to battered markets, WSJ's David Wessel reports. (Oct. 8)

The global scope of the move was unprecedented, and the cuts marked the first time central banks across the Atlantic have moved in tandem on interest-rate policy since just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. The Fed has not moved rates since April, when it lowered them to 2%.

The moves likely mark just the beginning of broadened government efforts to keep the world-wide credit freeze from strangling the global economy. "For all central banks, this is not the end of the story," says Laurence Meyer, vice chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm, and a former Federal Reserve governor. "We're facing a potentially severe recession."

—Jon Hilsenrath, Joellen Perry and Sudeep Reddy contributed to this article.

Write to Deborah Solomon at deborah.solomon@wsj.com

 

I mentioned yesterday that we would begin seeing comments relating to how this financial crisis would need to be solved 'globally'.  It's already starting.  This is an article by Chris Martenson posted this morning. 

 

John

Berlusconi Says Leaders May Close World's Markets

Friday, October 10, 2008, 12:15 pm, by cmartenson

 

An interesting bit of news:

 

Quote:

 

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the world's financial markets while they ``rewrite the rules of international finance.''

``The idea of suspending the markets for the time it takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed,'' Berlusconi said today after a Cabinet meeting in Naples, Italy. A solution to the financial crisis ``can't just be for one country, or even just for Europe, but global.''

 

The really interesting part is here where he hints that a second aim is to revisit the Bretton Woods agreement.

 

Translation:  The US dollar's role as the world's reserve currency is up for debate.

 

Quote:

 

Berlusconi didn't give any details about what kind of rules leaders were looking to change, except to say that leaders are ``talking about a new Bretton Woods.''

The Bretton Woods Agreements were adopted to rebuild the international economic system after World War II in a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The aim of the agreements was to establish a monetary management system, initially by pegging currencies to gold. The IMF was set up later to help manage the international financial system.

 

OCTOBER 15, 2008

 

While the World Is Listening, Brown Touts Global Oversight

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD

Wall St. Journal

 

LONDON -- As the British bank-bailout plan becomes a model for Europe and the U.S., U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is using his new platform as financial statesman to push what he sees as the next step: a global system of financial supervision.

Getty Images

From left, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown with Justice Secretary Jack Straw and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn in a cabinet meeting Tuesday at 10 Downing Street

Risk from financial markets has become global but the way to supervise financial institutions and their products hasn't, and needs to be, Mr. Brown says. "You can't deal with the problems of global financial markets within national systems of regulation," he said at a news briefing.

Among other measures, Mr. Brown wants to empower international bodies including the International Monetary Fund to monitor global markets and act as early-warning systems.

Mr. Brown first proposed the idea after the Asian financial crisis in 1998, when he was Treasury chief under Prime Minister Tony Blair, and returned to it after the start of the credit crisis last year.

Mr. Brown said Tuesday that progress has been slow.

Though he may now have the attention of other leaders, getting them to act is more difficult. Moreover, warnings from central banks ahead of the credit crunch that there was too much leverage in the system were ignored. And the IMF's current global financial stability reports get little traction.

But in the U.K., Mr. Brown's handling of the credit crisis is lifting his popularity from its historic lows. He has a lot of ground to cover: his Labour Party trailed the rival Conservative Party by a wide margin in opinion polls before this week.

Mr. Brown needs to call an election by 2010.

The U.K. leader's bailout approach -- injecting capital to bolster bank balance sheets as well as guaranteeing loans to unfreeze lending markets -- got its strongest endorsement Tuesday when the U.S. took similar steps.

Mr. Brown and his team looked for other options to help the country's banks after concluding that the massive amounts of liquidity that central banks had been pumping into the system weren't addressing the central problem that banks didn't trust each other so they weren't lending, Mr. Brown said.

"We defined the problem as the strengthening of our banks with more capital so they could deal with any bad assets," coupled with a need to guarantee some of their lending, he said. Taking stakes in banks also meant the government could dictate tough terms because taxpayers are footing the bill, he has said.

"I am very pleased that a large number of countries across the world, from Australia and New Zealand, to Sweden, to the euro area have moved towards the proposals that seem to me to be now the common ground for the way forward," he said.

While Mr. Brown calls for greater global supervision, the U.K.'s markets regulator, the Financial Services Authority, was criticized for failing to spot and react to the risks associated with some of the country's banks. Now, Mr. Brown's increased credibility and the fresh urgency of the global crisis may move it along.

"We need an effective global early-warning system for the world economy to alert us to the risks ahead. We need globally accepted and supervised standards of regulation applied equally in all countries. We need stronger arrangements for cross-border supervision of global firms," Mr. Brown said.

He talked with President George W. Bush on Tuesday about the crisis. Mr. Brown said he will push global regulation at the European Council meeting Wednesday, and he said he has talked to Chinese, Australian and other leaders this week about the idea.

An IMF spokesman didn't return calls seeking comment.

Write to Alistair MacDonald at alistair.macdonald@wsj.com

 

OCTOBER 21, 2008

Volcker Makes a Comeback as Part of Obama Brain Trust

By MONICA LANGLEY

NEW YORK -- At 81 years old, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker is getting a second chance to shape his legacy with a presidential hopeful more than 30 years his junior.

Mr. Volcker has emerged as a top economic adviser to Sen. Barack Obama during a presidential campaign dominated by a global financial crisis. Their growing bond is paying dividends for each man.

Mr. Volcker delivers gravitas and credibility to Sen. Obama, people in the Obama camp say, as well as ideas and approaches to the economic crisis. "Volcker whispering in Obama's ear will make even Republicans comfortable, because he's a hero of the right and a supporter of a strong dollar," says John Tamny, a supply-side economist and Republican.

On Tuesday, Mr. Volcker is scheduled to appear on the campaign trail with Sen. Obama for the first time. At a round-table discussion with voters in Lake Worth, Fla., he'll "give his view on the state of the economy and the credit markets, and what needs to be done to fix them," says one campaign adviser. Longtime Fed watchers are amused that Mr. Volcker, known for his muttered statements during Fed meetings in the 1980s, will be in a political role on the stump.

For Mr. Volcker, a connection with Sen. Obama could help burnish his record as Fed chairman. The cigar-chomping central banker from 1979 to 1987, he received blame for driving up interest rates and tipping the U.S. into the deepest recession since the Great Depression. But Mr. Volcker is just as well known for taming the runaway inflation of that era. His stock has risen in recent months as his gruff warnings about the risks of deregulating the financial sector have come to look prescient. His successor's reputation, meanwhile, has come under a cloud. Alan Greenspan is under criticism that the low interest rates and deregulatory ideology of his tenure contributed to today's crisis.

With nearly every day presenting a fresh financial emergency, Sen. Obama has persuaded Mr. Volcker, who travels the globe for economic meetings and occasionally disappears on fly-fishing trips, to be at the ready; Mr. Volcker now keeps a cellphone on him at all times. And though he still doesn't own a computer (his assistant prints out emails for him), he's gotten used to Sen. Obama's rapid-fire messages sent from a BlackBerry device.

The Obama-Volcker relationship continues to evolve, campaign advisers say. At the start, Sen. Obama sought advice from Mr. Volcker and other outside voices through his economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, a 39-year-old University of Chicago professor. But starting with the demise of Bear Stearns Cos. in March and continuing today, Sen. Obama speaks directly and often with Mr. Volcker about the intricacies of the financial crisis and possible solutions. They've become "collaborators," as one aide puts it.

For example, when the U.S. Treasury put forth a plan to set up a $700 billion rescue fund to buy up toxic assets, Sen. Obama quickly backed it on the advice of Mr. Volcker. Like other prominent economists, Mr. Volcker also advocated early on for the recapitalization of banks. On this advice, Sen. Obama proposed direct equity infusions in banks in his frequent conference calls with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The idea, initially rejected by Mr. Paulson, was finally proposed last week by the administration, in an effort to get banks lending again to businesses and each other.

Sen. Obama's team of economic advisers includes two former Treasury secretaries, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, and in some decisions, Mr. Volcker doesn't reign supreme. The candidate's latest proposal, for example, a $60 billion stimulus package, was initially fought by the former Fed chief on the grounds that Americans were already overspending. Moreover, he is unlikely to take a long-term role in any Obama administration.

Paul Volcker, delivering a lecture last week in Singapore, where he warned that the U.S. and Europe are facing recession from the financial crisis.

But for now, and going into the campaign's final weeks, aides say Sen. Obama is increasingly relying on Mr. Volcker. His staff now routinely reviews policy proposals and speeches with Mr. Volcker. Conference calls and face-to-face meetings of the Obama economic team are often reorganized to accommodate his schedule. When the team discusses the financial crisis, "The most important question to Obama: What does Paul Volcker think?" says Jason Furman, the campaign's economic-policy director.

The two men have developed an ease with each other, say aides, even as their styles appear to differ: Sen. Obama, who tends to use the Socratic method from his law-school training, examines all points of view and debates them. With a more formal and direct demeanor, Mr. Volcker likes to go straight to solutions.

In last week's final presidential debate, after Republican John McCain raised questions about his rival's ties, Sen. Obama said, "Let me tell you who I associate with. On economic policy, I associate with Warren Buffett and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker...who have shaped my ideas and who will be surrounding me in the White House."

Some Democrats have speculated that, if elected, Sen. Obama could name Mr. Volcker to a post, possibly even as Treasury secretary, for a limited time. Banking and Wall Street executives are pushing the two campaigns to name a new secretary shortly after the election to reassure markets during the transition. The Obama campaign wouldn't comment on possible appointments.

"I just want to be helpful, because I believe Sen. Obama -- in his person, in his ideas and in his ability to understand and articulate both our needs and our hopes -- brings the strong and fresh leadership we need," Mr. Volcker said in an interview in New York. Mr. Volcker wouldn't provide details of his policy suggestions or his personal relationship with Sen. Obama.

After leaving the Fed 20 years ago, Mr. Volcker stopped smoking cigars, became a professor at Princeton University and spent more time fly-fishing. His corner office overlooking Fifth Avenue is filled with photographs and statues of fish, as well as a pillow inscribed: "Work is for people who don't know how to fish."

Following a stint as chairman of a boutique investment-banking firm, Mr. Volcker largely steered clear of joining any Wall Street companies. He set up his own office in Rockefeller Center, where he consults for companies and governments. He has served on a few corporate boards, such as UAL Corp., Prudential Insurance Co. of America and Nestlé SA. He also participated on commissions including the United Nations committee to investigate corruption in its oil-for-food program, and an inquiry launched by Swiss banks to determine which accounts belonged to Holocaust victims.

The bond between Messrs. Obama and Volcker started with a dinner invitation. In June 2007, Mark Gallogly, co-founder of Centerbridge Partners, a New York private-investment firm, and an early supporter of Sen. Obama, invited a dozen financial executives to meet the senator, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. President Gary Cohn, Merrill Lynch & Co. President Greg Fleming and Mr. Volcker.

Along with the invitation, Mr. Volcker received from Mr. Gallogly a "briefing package" containing some speeches by Sen. Obama and news articles about him. Mr. Volcker also read the two books written by the senator.

In the private dining room at a Capitol Hill restaurant, Mr. Gallogly seated Mr. Volcker directly across from Sen. Obama, who at the time was considered a long shot to win the Democratic nomination over Sen. Hillary Clinton. Returning late that night on a flight to New York, Mr. Volcker told the group he was "genuinely impressed" with the Illinois senator.

That message was eventually passed along to Sen. Obama's advisers in New York, Michael Froman, a friend from Harvard Law School and a Citigroup Inc. executive, and Jenny Yeager, a fund-raiser. Ms. Yeager told Obama headquarters in Chicago that Mr. Volcker seemed "interested" in the candidate, but in two months no one had followed up with the ex-central banker for fund raising or anything else.

When Sen. Obama's economics adviser, Mr. Goolsbee, heard about Mr. Volcker's interest, he immediately got excited. "Paul Volcker is a legend! We don't want to use his contacts for money, we want to pick his brain," he recalls saying to a campaign operative.

Starting in late summer 2007, Mr. Goolsbee had regular discussions with Mr. Volcker. He incorporated Mr. Volcker's ideas, including his early concern that the housing downturn would snowball into a larger financial crisis, into Sen. Obama's policy positions. In a September 2007 speech at Nasdaq, Sen. Obama predicted that because of oversight lapses and abusive practices that cause the public to doubt financial results, "the markets will be ravaged by a crisis in confidence."

In early January 2008, when Sen. Clinton was pounding her rival over his lack of experience and stature, Sen. Obama phoned Mr. Volcker to ask for his endorsement. (At that time, billionaire investor Warren Buffett had refused to take sides between the Democratic contenders, saying he would support whoever got the nomination.) Mr. Volcker, a long-time Democrat who had mostly stayed out of partisan politics, agreed, and wrote out his statement in longhand.

The presidential candidate's first big economic address took place in March at Cooper Union in New York. Mr. Volcker's fingerprints were evident in the speech. The onetime central banker had long been vigilant about strong regulatory oversight; as Fed chairman he rejected big banks' attempts to repeal Depression-era laws to engage in more risky practices like investment banking. New financial institutions and instruments have since led to the repeal or relaxation of those laws, and Mr. Volcker told Sen. Obama that the U.S. regulatory structure must be strengthened and updated for the 21st century.

With Mr. Volcker sitting in the front row, Sen. Obama told the audience at Cooper Union that the current financial-regulatory framework must be "revamped." He faulted deregulation for the growing economic crisis. "Our free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it."

Once Sen. Obama became the expected Democratic nominee in June, and the economy became the central campaign issue, his chats with Mr. Volcker picked up. Mr. Goolsbee would get emails from Sen. Obama's traveling aide Reggie Love or his senior strategist David Axelrod with the message: "BO wants to call Volcker. What's his number again?"

In the past two months, financial crises have come one after another, picking up speed with the federal government's July effort to bolster big mortgage insurers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As the contagion from the subprime mortgages and risky mortgage credit swaps threatened to topple other institutions, Sen. Obama asked for "emergency meetings" with his economic team, about a dozen advisers including Mr. Volcker and Mr. Buffett.

At the first group meeting in Washington in late July, Sen. Obama said he wanted to hear from each adviser on the worsening economic downturn and asked Mr. Volcker to go first. "The very health of the credit markets is at stake," Mr. Volcker said, according to one attendee. He urged strong action to restore confidence, particularly in the U.S. banking system.

When Sen. Obama raised the prospect of a package of spending and tax measures to "stimulate" the economy, Mr. Volcker disapproved. "Americans are spending beyond their means," he told the group. A stimulus package would delay the belt-tightening and savings needed, he added, proposing instead better regulation and assistance to banks.

Laura Tyson, economics adviser for President Bill Clinton and a professor at University of California, Berkeley, disagreed. "Americans can't help but spend beyond their means because they've had no income growth while their costs on gas and food have skyrocketed." She suggested spending money to rebuild infrastructure and create jobs. Even as some others agreed with Ms. Tyson, Mr. Volcker didn't budge. Sen. Obama delayed putting out a new stimulus package, but stressed that he wanted to find the "right balance" of possible assistance.

When the bailout bill became a political football and the markets seized up, Sen. Obama called the second in-person meeting of his financial team on Sept. 26 in Miami. Mr. Volcker initially said he would have to call in because he was leaving for Europe that day. Sen. Obama, according to campaign aides, called him with a personal plea.

The next morning, the senator seated Mr. Volcker beside him, an arrangement that was photographed by the media entourage covering the campaign. Mr. Volcker told the group he had changed his mind about an economic-stimulus package due to the global recession, but he couldn't stay to hear the discussion about the approach because he had to catch a plane to Europe.

In the past two weeks, with the stock market's drastic volatility and weak economic indicators, Sen. Obama presented his $60 billion package, which contains tax cuts and spending to provide public-works jobs to struggling Americans.

On Monday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke endorsed the idea of another stimulus package, giving a boost to Democratic lawmakers who are considering one. But congressional Republicans have so far shown little interest in a second spending bill.

February 10, 2009

 

Here’s another article that relates to the article above.  This is an article from the Loose Change website.  I encourage you to research these things on your own. 

 

jg

 

Obama’s Trilateral Commission Connections, Council on Foreign Relations Sellouts and Wartime Military/National Guard Draft Re-Instatement Issues that the Republicans Don’t Even Talk About

 

By Patrick Wood, Editor
The August Review, Global elite research center

January 30, 2009

[Ed. note: For clarity, members of the Trilateral Commission appear in bold type.]

As previously noted in Pawns of the Global Elite, Barack Obama was groomed for the presidency by key members of the Trilateral Commission. Most notably, it was Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller in 1973, who was Obama’s principal foreign policy adviser.

The pre-election attention is reminiscent of Brzezinski’s tutoring of Jimmy Carter prior to Carter’s landslide election in 1976.

For anyone who doubts the Commission’s continuing influence on Obama, consider that he has already appointed no less than eleven members of the Commission to top-level and key positions in his Administration.

According to official Trilateral Commission membership lists, there are only 87 members from the United States (the other 337 members are from other regions). Thus, in less than two weeks since his inauguration, Obama’s appointments encompass more than 12% of Commission’s entire U.S. membership.

Is this a mere coincidence or is it a continuation of dominance over the Executive Branch since 1976? (For important background, read The Trilateral Commission: Usurping Sovereignty.)

• Secretary of Treasury, Tim Geithner
• Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice
• National Security Advisor, Gen. James L. Jones
• Deputy National Security Advisor, Thomas Donilon
• Chairman, Economic Recovery Committee, Paul Volker
• Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis C. Blair
• Assistant Secretary of State, Asia & Pacific,  Kurt M. Campbell
• Deputy Secretary of State, James Steinberg
• State Department, Special Envoy, Richard Haass
• State Department, Special Envoy, Dennis Ross
• State Department, Special Envoy, Richard Holbrooke

There are many other incidental links to the Trilateral Commission, for instance,

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is married to Commission member William Jefferson Clinton.

Geithner’s informal group of advisors include E. Gerald Corrigan, Paul Volker, Alan Greenspan and Peter G. Peterson, among others. His first job after college was with Henry Kissinger at Kissinger Associates.

Brent Scowcroft has been an unofficial advisor to Obama and was mentor to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Robert Zoelick is currently president of the World Bank.  The World Bank Group is comprised of five agencies that make loans or guarantee credit to 177 member countries. Its stated aim is to help countries reduce poverty by making long-term loans to governments for large-scale projects such as dams or pipelines, or to back economic reform programs. However, World Bank loans have often had very negative effects on countries putting them in situations of precarious debt and setting conditions on which countries can receive loans, conditions which often have a devastating impact on the lives of citizens
Laurence Summers, White House Economic Advisor, was mentored by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin during the Clinton administration.

There are many other such links, but these are enough for you to get the idea of what’s going on here.

Analyze the positions

Notice that five of the Trilateral appointees involve the State Department, where foreign policy is created and implemented. Hillary Clinton is certainly in line with these policies because her husband, Bill Clinton, is also a member.
What is more important than economic recovery? Paul Volker is the answer.
What is more important than national intelligence? Gen. James Jones, Thomas Donilon and Adm. Dennis Blair hold the top three positions.

What is more important than the Treasury and the saving of our financial system? Timothy Geithner says he has the answers.

The State Department is virtually dominated by Trilaterals: Kurt Campbell, James Steinberg, Richard Haass, Dennis Ross and Richard Holbrooke.

This leaves Susan Rice, Ambassador to the United Nations. The U.N. is the chosen instrument for ultimate global governance. Rice will help to subvert the U.S. into the U.N. umbrella of vassal states.

Conflict of interest

Since 1973, the Commission has met regularly in plenary sessions to discuss policy position papers developed by its members. Policies are debated in order to achieve consensuses. Respective members return to their own countries to implement policies consistent with those consensuses.

The original stated purpose of the Trilateral Commission was to create a “New International Economic Order.” Its current statement has morphed into fostering a “closer cooperation among these core democratic industrialized areas of the world with shared leadership responsibilities in the wider international system.” (See The Trilateral Commission web site)

U.S. Trilateral members implement policies determined by a majority of non-Americans that most often work against the best interests of the country.

“How,” you say?

Since the administration of Jimmy Carter, Trilaterals held these massively influential positions:

• Six out of eight World Bank presidents, including the current appointee, Robert Zoelick
• Eight out of ten U.S. Trade Representatives
• President and/or Vice-President of every elected administration (except for Obama/Biden)
• Seven out of twelve Secretaries of State
• Nine out of twelve Secretaries of Defense

Is this sinking in? Are you grasping the enormity of it?

Endgame is at hand

For the Trilateral crowd, the game is about over. The recent reemergence of original members Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft and Paul Volker serves to reinforce the conclusion that the New International Economic Order is near.

The Trilateral Commission and its members have engineered the global economic, trade and financial system that is currently in a state of total chaos.

Does that mean that they have lost? Hardly.

In the article Chorus call for New World Order, they are using the crisis to destroy what remains of national Sovereignty, so that a New World Order can finally and permanently be put into place.  Sovereignty is the principle that the state exercises absolute power over its territory, system of government, and population.  Accordingly, the internal authority of the state supersedes that of all other bodies.

Conclusion on Obama’s Trilateral Commission Connections

The Obama presidency is a disingenuous fraud. He was elected by promising to bring change, yet from the start change was never envisioned. He was carefully groomed and financed by the Trilateral Commission and their friends.
In short, Obama is merely the continuation of disastrous, non-American policies that have brought economic ruin upon us and the rest of the world. The Obama experience rivals that of Jimmy Carter, whose campaign slogan was “I will never lie to you.”

When the Democrat base finally realizes that it has been conned again (Bill Clinton and Al Gore were members), perhaps it will unleash a real political revolution that will oust Trilateral politicians, operatives and policies from the shores of our country.

If the reader is a Democrat, be aware that many Republicans and conservatives are still licking their wounds after finally realizing that George Bush and Dick Cheney worked the same con on them for a disastrous eight years of the same policies!

A who’s who guide to the people poised to shape Obama’s foreign policy.

U.S. policy is not about one individual, and no matter how much faith people place in President-elect Barack Obama, the policies he enacts will be fruit of a tree with many roots. Among them: his personal politics and views, the disastrous realities his administration will inherit, and, of course, unpredictable future crises. But the best immediate indicator of what an Obama administration might look like can be found in the people he surrounds himself with and who he appoints to his Cabinet. And, frankly, when it comes to foreign policy, it is not looking good.

Obama has a momentous opportunity to do what he repeatedly promised over the course of his campaign: bring actual change. But the more we learn about who Obama is considering for top positions in his administration, the more his inner circle resembles a staff reunion of President Bill Clinton’s White House. Although Obama brought some progressives on board early in his campaign, his foreign policy team is now dominated by the hawkish, old-guard Democrats of the 1990s. This has been particularly true since Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the Democratic primary, freeing many of her top advisers to join Obama’s team.

“What happened to all this talk about change?” a member of the Clinton foreign policy team recently asked the Washington Post. “This isn’t lightly flavored with Clintons. This is all Clintons, all the time.”

Amid the euphoria over Obama’s election and the end of the Bush era, it is critical to recall what 1990s U.S. foreign policy actually looked like. Bill Clinton’s  boiled down to a one-two punch from the hidden hand of the free market, backed up by the iron fist of U.S. militarism. Clinton took office and almost immediately bombed Iraq (ostensibly in retaliation for an alleged plot by Saddam Hussein to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush). He presided over a ruthless regime of economic sanctions that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and under the guise of the so-called No-Fly Zones in northern and southern Iraq, authorized the longest sustained U.S. bombing campaign since Vietnam.

Under Clinton, Yugoslavia was bombed and dismantled as part of what Noam Chomsky described as the “New Military Humanism.” Sudan and Afghanistan were attacked, Haiti was destabilized and “free trade” deals like the North America Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade radically escalated the spread of corporate-dominated globalization that hurt U.S. workers and devastated developing countries. Clinton accelerated the militarization of the so-called War on Drugs in Central and Latin America and supported privatization of U.S. military operations, giving lucrative contracts to Halliburton and other war contractors. Meanwhile, U.S. weapons sales to countries like Turkey and Indonesia aided genocidal campaigns against the Kurds and the East Timorese.

The prospect of Obama’s foreign policy being, at least in part, an extension of the Clinton Doctrine is real. Even more disturbing, several of the individuals at the center of Obama’s transition and emerging foreign policy teams were top players in creating and implementing foreign policies that would pave the way for projects eventually carried out under the Bush/Cheney administration. With their assistance, Obama has already charted out several hawkish stances. Among them:

– His plan to escalate the war in Afghanistan;

– An Iraq plan that could turn into a downsized and rebranded occupation that keeps U.S. forces in Iraq for the foreseeable future;

– His labeling of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a “terrorist organization;”

– His pledge to use unilateral force inside of Pakistan to defend U.S. interests;

– His position, presented before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), that Jerusalem “must remain undivided” — a remark that infuriated Palestinian officials and which he later attempted to reframe;

– His plan to continue the War on Drugs, a backdoor U.S. counterinsurgency campaign in Central and Latin America;

– His refusal to “rule out” using Blackwater and other armed private forces in U.S. war zones, despite previously introducing legislation to regulate these companies and bring them under U.S. law.

Obama did not arrive at these positions in a vacuum. They were carefully crafted in consultation with his foreign policy team. While the verdict is still out on a few people, many members of his inner foreign policy circle — including some who have received or are bound to receive Cabinet posts — supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Some promoted the myth that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. A few have worked with the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, whose radical agenda was adopted by the Bush/Cheney administration. And most have proven track records of supporting or implementing militaristic, offensive U.S. foreign policy. “After a masterful campaign, Barack Obama seems headed toward some fateful mistakes as he assembles his administration by heeding the advice of Washington’s Democratic insider community, a collective group that represents little ‘change you can believe in,’” notes veteran journalist Robert Parry, the former Associated Press and Newsweek reporter who broke many of the stories in the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s.

 

NOVEMBER 3, 2008

 

Brown Expects Support for a Global Crisis Fund

By LAURENCE NORMAN

Wall St. Journal

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he believes there is support for a global fund to help stem the spread of the financial crisis.

Associated Press

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal at Riyadh Airport before boarding his plane bound for Qatar Sunday.

Speaking to the British Broadcasting Corp. from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Mr. Brown said he has found support in the region for his proposal. "The Saudis will, I think, contribute like other countries, so that we can have a bigger fund world-wide to avoid the contagion, to avoid this spreading to different parts of the world," he said.

Mr. Brown last week said the roughly $250 billion in funds available to the International Monetary Fund to help stem the crisis isn't enough. He called on oil-rich nations and other countries with large foreign-exchange reserves to boost the resources.

Mr. Brown said he hopes to win support for an expanded fund in time for the Nov. 15 summit of world leaders in Washington. "I see the world moving closer together to work to solve these problems, and the reason I'm here is to make sure that all countries in the world, those with big resources like the Gulf states, those with big surpluses like China are working with Europe and America to find a solution to these problems, which are global," he said.

He said the world economy will get through the downturn much faster if there is "common action and coordinated responses" to the crisis.

He suggested further monetary-policy easing in the U.K. and elsewhere is appropriate. "Now that inflation is brought under control, we are going to see -- as we have seen -- two cuts in interest rates, and I believe that the trend around the world...is to respond to the fall in oil price and the falling food prices that we're seeing at the moment," he said.

Mr. Brown said the Nov. 15 summit would see further "coordinated" policy response to the financial crisis.

The Bank of England cut its benchmark interest rate by one-half percentage point on Oct. 8, part of a coordinated cut by several central banks. The Monetary Policy Committee meets again Nov. 5-6. The Bank of England is expected to make another 0.5 percentage-point cut, to 4%, when it announces the results of its monthly rate-setting meeting Thursday.

Mr. Brown, who met with Saudi King Abdullah on Saturday, reiterated his call for low and stable oil prices.

"There's a determination that we have a more stable energy market, not this volatility, not this really bad time when so many people saw the petrol prices go up so quickly," he said. "I want to see more stability as well as lower prices."

He also called on U.K. companies to respond more quickly to the sharp fall in oil prices by cutting prices. "I hope we'll see the companies that haven't yet followed the faster move down doing so in the next few days," he said.

Mr. Brown also commented on reports of a possible second bidder for U.K. bank HBOS PLC, which is set to be merged with Lloyds TSB Group PLC.

He said the government would consider any new offer. However, he noted that had the government not intervened to encourage a merger with Lloyds, the company "would have fallen altogether."

"Of course we'll look at every offer, and of course that's part of the process of shareholders sorting out what the future is," he said, "but let's remember the problems that HBOS had and why we had to intervene with so much money in the first place."

Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@dowjones.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2008

 

On Crisis Stage, FDIC Plays the Tough

Wells Filing on Wachovia Deal Shows Agency Acting Quickly, Decisively

By DAN FITZPATRICK

Wall St. Journal

 

In a further sign of the U.S. government's get-tough approach with banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. threatened to seize Wachovia Corp. last month if it didn't find a buyer, passed on an initial government-assisted takeover by Wells Fargo & Co. and rejected an 11th-hour option that would have allowed the Charlotte, N.C., bank to remain independent, according to a Wells Fargo securities filing Friday.

Bloomberg News /Landov

Before Wachovia's sale, the FDIC gave an ultimatum: sell or be seized. Here, employees at a meeting after the sale.

The FDIC also was a central player in Wells Fargo's surprise re-emergence as the winning bidder on Oct. 3, edging out Citigroup Inc.

The details offer fresh evidence of a government strategy of trying to rid the banking industry of its weakest performers.

This approach, employed in recent takeovers of Wachovia, Seattle thrift Washington Mutual Inc. and Cleveland-based National City Corp., has drawn some criticism as the Treasury moves to shore up certain banks. In agreeing to acquire National City last month, Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc. used a federal pledge of $7.7 billion in new capital and potentially billions more in tax savings, prompting Ohio politicians to ask why National City was not offered the same sort of U.S. assistance.

"It is still unclear what factors, terms and conditions Treasury and the various regulators are using to make capital investment decisions," Ohio Sen. George Voinovich said in an Oct. 30 letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Without a clearer explanation, the senator added, "people start questioning whether Treasury officials are picking winners and losers."

Richard Kovacevich

Wachovia's problems emerged before the Treasury rescue plan was available. In mid-September, management and the board considered an array of alternatives: selling core assets, raising $10-15 billion of new capital, offering an investor 20%-40% of Wachovia's voting shares or combining with another company. But after negotiations with two different merger partners didn't work out and a potential deal with the new investor fell through, Wachovia went into the weekend of Sept. 27-28 with concerns about a deposit runoff and its ability to fund its banking activities on Monday, the 29th. If Wachovia couldn't find a partner by the 29th, management told its board, the FDIC would place the company's bank subsidiaries into receivership.

The bank's two remaining options were Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo. Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit had already placed four unsolicited calls to Wachovia in recent weeks to explore a possible transaction, and Wells Fargo Chairman Richard Kovacevich had first discussed the topic with Wachovia CEO Robert Steel on Sept. 20, according to the securities filing.

As the weekend began, Mr. Kovacevich was willing to consider a purchase of Wachovia without any government assistance but backed away from that idea around 7 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 28, saying the timetable was too tight. FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, feeling that Wachovia's problems posed "systemic risk" to the banking system, told Wachovia she would try to push through a FDIC-assisted transaction over the next several hours.

Sheila Bair

At 12:30 a.m., on Monday the 29th, Wachovia's final effort at keeping its stand-alone status was a proposal that the FDIC provide loss-sharing protection on certain loans, take an equity stake and allow the bank to raise $10 billion in new capital. Wachovia argued its proposal involved less risk to the FDIC than a transaction with Citigroup.

Wells Fargo also came back to the table that morning, discussing a loss-sharing agreement with the FDIC that would limit Wells Fargo's exposure.

The FDIC at 4 a.m. rejected both options in favor of a government-assisted sale of Wachovia's banking subsidiaries to Citigroup, with the FDIC providing the New York bank with protection on a certain Wachovia loan portfolio. If Wachovia's board hadn't accepted the agreement during a 6:30 a.m. meeting that day, the FDIC would have placed Wachovia's banking subsidiaries in receivership and Wachovia Corp. would likely have filed for bankruptcy, according to the filing.

When Wells Fargo re-emerged later that week with a new offer for Wachovia, it was Ms. Bair of the FDIC who first notified Wachovia's Mr. Steel that such a proposal would be forthcoming, and she "encouraged" him to give it serious consideration. Ms. Bair also discussed the matter with Wachovia's general counsel and relayed a message back to Wells Fargo's Mr. Kovacevich that Wachovia needed to see a board-approved merger agreement.

At that point Citigroup and Wachovia had not yet agreed on their final acquisition document, and there were "substantive issues of disagreement" between the two companies, according to the filing.

When Wachovia's board met at 11 p.m. on Oct. 2 to consider the new offer from Wells Fargo, they were told again that FDIC would place the company's banking subsidiaries into receivership over the coming weekend if a merger proposal was not signed by Oct. 3. After board approval, Ms. Bair of the FDIC joined Mr. Steel and Wachovia's general counsel in breaking the news to Citigroup's Mr. Pandit.

Mr. Pandit asked Ms. Bair to consider "the effect of this development on systemic issues unrelated to Wachovia" but the appeal fell flat. Citigroup declined comment for this article but said in an Oct. 9 release that Wachovia approached Citigroup, instead of the other way around, and that "we stood by while others walked away."

Wells Fargo and Wachovia announced their agreement at 7 a.m. on Oct. 3. It now is scheduled to close by the end of the year.

Write to Dan Fitzpatrick at dan.fitzpatrick@wsj.com