Do these bank failures and rumored bank failures signal an imminent collapse of the financial system? I don’t know. I’ve learned to be careful about predicting such things. The Wall Street/Washington/Central Banker establishment has thus far shown itself both dedicated to and capable of kicking the can down the road to a degree that many financial observers, myself included, did not think possible.
In my opinion, these bank failures and possible future bank failures stem from the 2008 financial crisis, which itself was never properly dealt with. The problems in the financial system that cause the Great Recession were never faced squarely and were only papered over with the “untampered mortar” of money printing, bailouts, and accounts tricks. Instead of dealing with our problems honestly, we tried to cheat our way out of the financial crisis. So it should come as no surprise that it appears to be coming back.
So what is a Christian to make of all this? How are we to respond? The Bible has a lot to say about ideas such as prudence, wisdom, and discernment. These traits were highly prized at the time of the Reformation and in the following centuries by the heirs of the Reformation.
Those with a financial or business background may be familiar with the prudent man rule. According to one definition I found, the prudent man rule is, “a rule giving discretion to a fiduciary and especially a trustee to manage another’s affairs and invest another’s money with such skill and care as a person of ordinary prudence and intelligence would use in managing his or her own affairs or investments.” According to this, not only are fiduciaries to manage the financial affairs of others in a prudent fashion but the notion of prudence is also tied to how they would manage their own affairs. That is, the prudent man standard encompasses the golden rule, whereby we are to treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated.
Prudence in financial and other matters served our Protestant forebears well, as it enabled them to build the greatest civilization in history. But as Christianity faded from the scene in America and other nations formerly under the influence of the Reformation, a new ethic took hold. No longer did prudence govern the thinking of men, but a sense of entitlement and instant gratification.
John Maynard Keynes, the most influential economist in the past 100 years, hated the Christian ethic of financial prudence demonstrated in the 19th century and railed against it. In his 1920 book The Economic Consequences of the Peace, Keynes wrote,
And on the other hand the capitalist classes were allowed to all the best part of the cake theirs and were theoretically free to consume it, on the tacit underlying condition that they consumed very little of it in practice. The duty of ‘saving’ became nine-tenths of virtue and the growth of the cake the object of true religion. There grew round the non-consumption of the cake all those instincts of puritanism [n.b. the Puritans are universally despised by unbelievers such as Keynes] which in other ages has withdrawn itself from the world and has neglected the arts of production as well as those of enjoyment. And so the cake increased; but to what end was not clearly contemplated. Individuals would be exhorted not so much to abstain as to defer, and to cultivate the pleasures of security and anticipation. Saving was for old age or for your children; but this was only in theory, – the virtue of the cake was that it was never to be consumed, neither by you nor by your children after you.
Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, pp. 19-20.
With a mindset like this, it should come as no surprise that Keynes was an apostle of deficit spending and government debt, both of which he mistakenly saw as necessary for ending the 1930s Great Depression, which itself was caused and prolonged by the interventions of central bankers and governments. Asking central bankers and politicians to fix a depression or a banking crisis is like inviting an arsonist to put out your house fire.
How widespread is the influence of Keynesian economics? A famous 1971 quote from then-President Richard Nixon is a clue. “We are all Keynesians now,” said the President. It was true then, and it remains true today. All, or nearly all, economists working in academia, on Wall Street, in corporate America, and in Washington are Keynesians of some sort or another. The baleful influence of Keynesian economic thought is substantially responsible for the sorry economic predicament of America and other western nations. What is Keynesian economics? Without delving into a lot of technical details, it’s the idea that you can deficit spend yourself rich. The “puritanical” prudence demonstrated in more Christian centuries said that hard work, savings, and investment were how you built wealth and financial security in the long run. But Keynes famously said, “In the long run we are all dead.” Various apologists for Keynes have tried to rehabilitate this statement by arguing that Keynes really wasn’t saying he had no regard for the future. But when you consider Keynes’s “in the long run we are all dead” comment in the context of his other statements such as the extended quote above, it seems entirely fair to see it as a Keynes’s dismissing the future for gratification in the now.
So back to our earlier question, how is a Christian to respond to the ongoing financial crisis? Proverbs 22:3 quoted at the top of this post provides good guidance. Notice that the prudent man does two things, he foresees trouble coming and then hides himself.
The first thing you and I need to do is to recognize that there is trouble coming. Many people, even many Christian people, do not realize the serious economic danger America and other western nations are in. The United States is over $30 trillion in debt. And that’s just federal debt. It doesn’t include state, municipal, corporate, or individual debt. And the debt keeps growing. In fact, given that our financial system is based on debt, the debt must keep growing to sustain the system. Obviously, debt cannot expand infinitely and forever. God has so constructed the universe that all debts must be paid. Just look at the chart at the top of this post. Do you think debt can continue to grow faster than income? If not, the current financial system must come to an end. It’s a matter of when, not if, we have a system-down event. The timing of the collapse is uncertain. But in my opinion, it’s probably sooner rather than later.
Second, as Christians, we must hide ourselves. What does this mean in the context of a financial crisis? A lot of those old-fashioned “puritanical” ideas, the sorts of things that Keynes and others of his ilk hated and made war on a century ago, are a good place to start. Eliminating debt and building savings is wise counsel. And when I say savings, I mean at least some of that savings should be held outside the financial system. That means having some ready physical cash at home. It also means holding some savings in dollar alternatives. The best dollar alternatives are physical gold and silver, but there are other options as well.
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It’s that time of year again. The time when we say goodbye to the old year and welcome in the new one with all its possibilities.
In the first place, I would like to thank the Lord for his grace and strength in 2022. The year was a challenging one for me personally, as I went through a period of unemployment. But God was gracious to me, helping me to find a job with a good company. And though things were a bit tight at some points, I always had the things I needed. I’m reminded of what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things – food, clothing, etc. – shall be added unto you.”
I’m thankful also for another year of serving the Lord through blogging and podcasting. 2022 was my 14th year of writing Lux Lucet and it’s been a labor of love the whole time. Ideas are powerful things, and ideas always come in the form of words. There was a time when I was in the habit of saying “words cannot express” when talking about something that deeply affected me. But many years ago, John Robbins disabused me of that notion. In Genesis, we see that the worlds were framed by the word of God. He spoke the universe into existence. Christ himself is called God the Word. There is nothing deeper than words. There is nothing that cannot be expressed by them. To have the opportunity to work in the medium of words. To write, to express ideas, to teach. That is a high privilege. It is also a great responsibility. It is my prayer each time I write that the words I use may honor God and edify his people.
War in Ukraine
In reviewing the year’s writing, I wrote 53 articles. And the prize for my most popular article written in 2022 goes to “The Reformed Church’s Lost Doctrine of Antichrist” published on April 3, 2022. The context of that piece was Pope Francis’ consecration of Russia and Ukraine “to the Immaculate Heart of Mary” on March 25, 2022. One of the biggest stories of the year was when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. And about a month later, there was Pope Francis dedicating Russia to “the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” I didn’t catch the significance of this story the first time I hear it, but in the week leading up to the papal consecration, there was so much chatter in the media about it that I decided to investigate the matter further. What I found was that the Pope’s decision was connected to the prophecies of Fatima from over a hundred years ago, in which the demon impersonation Mary promised that if the pope dedicated Russia to her immaculate heart, the nation would be freed from its errors and convert to Catholicism. Catholic commentators were ecstatic at the consecration and at least some of them were optimistic that quick results would soon follow. But here we are over nine months later, and the Pope’s consecration seems to have had precisely no effect. The likely excuse for this among Catholic commentators is that the Pope didn’t do the consecration right. At the time of the consecration, one prominent Catholic commentator, I think it was Taylor Marshall, mentioned his concern that Francis added “Ukraine” to his consecration rather than limiting it to “Russia,” as the demonic Fatima apparition instructed.
I thought at the time of writing that article, and still think today, that one of the major overlooked aspects of the war in Ukraine is the role of the Roman Catholic Church-State (RCCS). Pope Frances has verbally come out in support of Ukraine on several occasions over the past year, and very clearly his consecrating Russia is a power play for the RCCS against its ancient rival, the Russian Orthodox Church, and against Eastern Orthodoxy more broadly. It is the long-term goal of the RCCS to create a one-world religion and a one-world government. Rome is the beating heart of New World Order globalism, and this shows very clearly in Ukraine, but most commentators either don’t notice or pretend as though they don’t.
Then there’s the fact that the CIA has been egging on this war since at least 2014 when they overthrew the elected leader in Ukraine and installed a pro-Western regime. The overthrow of Viktor Yanukovich in 2014 likely was precipitated by his announcement of a pro-Russia foreign policy for Ukraine in place of a pro-Western one. It’s worth noting, too, that the CIA has historically had close ties to the Roman Catholic Church going all the way back to its predecessor organization, the OSS during World War II. At that time, the OSS was headed by William “Wild Bill” Donovan, who was decorated “with the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Sylvester, the oldest and most prestigious of papal knighthoods.”
Keep an eye out for further papal intrigue in Ukraine. As things stand, the RCCS has captured America’s federal government and seems fully intent on prosecuting a war in Ukraine in which no clear American interest is at stake. Is the CIA carrying out its proxy war against Russia in connection with advancing the Vatican’s goals of subjugating Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church? It seems likely to the author that this is the case.
I had meant to write this post last week, but, as they say, life got in the way. So here’s the belated version for you.
As do many, I find New Year’s a convenient time to stop and reflect on the year past and consider what may lie ahead.
In my case, I like to mention upfront that I’m thankful to the Lord God Almighty for the opportunity to write this blog during 2021. Before I begin each post, I pray that the Lord would grant me the grace to write truthfully, clearly, and in a way that glorifies His name and edifies his people. Moreover, November 2021 marked the seventh anniversary of my prayer to God asking him to help me write at least one blog post a week. By his grace I have kept this pace, posting at least one new item every week since then. Thanks be to God for giving me the strength to do this!
There are times as a writer when I really do wonder if I’m doing the Lord’s will or my own. Has God called me to do this work, or am I just kidding myself and rebelling against him? That he has honored my prayers for this blog, that people still seem to get something out of it, and that I continue to enjoy writing are big hints to me that, yes, I am doing what the Lord has called me to do.
Luther at the Diet of Worms, by Anton von Werner, 1877.
And it cast down truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.
Daniel 8:12
Truth is cast to the ground.
I’ve thought about that quite a lot in recent years. It seems as if the lie always prospers, while truth, it if even is heard at all, is quickly dismissed as nonsense and those who speak it as fools or worse.
I was reminded once again of just how corrupt things have become after watching some of the shenanigans in the stock market last week with the big dust up over the Gamestop stock and how, supposedly, a group of small investors beat the big guys on Wall Street.
I’ll not dive into the details of what took place, but on the surface we can say that at least one major hedge fund sustained significant losses when its short position on Gamestock was blown up by investors piling into the company’s stock and driving it to over $400 per share.
For our purposes, what important to understand is that when an investor – either an individual or an institution such as a hedge fund – short sells a stock, he profits when the price goes down. If the price goes up, the short seller loses money. If the stock price goes way up, as was the case with Gamestop, the short seller loses a lot of money.
When the losses were piling up for the big guys during the week, it didn’t take long for the weeping and gnashing of teeth to begin. Billionaire hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman went on an epic rant on CNBC last Thursday, 1/28, saying, “The reason the market is doing what it’s doing is people are sitting at home getting checks from the government. This fair share, is a (bleep) concept. It’s just a way of attacking wealthy people and I think it inappropriate and we all gotta work together and pull together.”
Just how true is the narrative that a bunch of unemployed Robin Hood traders on their own drove up the price of Gamestop, thus inflicting heavy losses on some hedge funds, I cannot say for sure. I have my doubts that things are what we’re being told, but, at the very least, Cooperman seemed to accept that narrative when he went on his rant last week.
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence; and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. Isaiah 1:7
“…because of Western civilization’s love of material comforts, there is an unwillingness to face unpleasant realities.”
Gordon H. Clark, A Christian View of Men and Things, p.53
“‘How did you go bankrupt?’ Bill asked. ‘Two ways,’ Mike said. ‘Gradually and then suddenly.’“ So wrote Ernest Hemmingway in his novel The Sun Also Rises.
Although Hemmingway’s book was a work fiction, what he said about bankruptcy is a phenomenon many of us have seen in real life. Individuals and organizations that appear to be in robust financial health experience sudden financial collapse.
Perhaps the poster child for sudden financial ruin is Lehman Brothers, a famous 150-year-old Wall Street investment bank. Having earned record profits during the height of the real estate bubble from 2005-2007, early in the morning on Monday, September 15,2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.
The collapse of Lehman Brothers to this day is still the largest bankruptcy in American history.
Gradually, then suddenly. That same pattern can be seen in the Scriptures as well. In Deuteronomy 32:35 we read, “Their foot shall slide in due time.” Some will recognize this as the text on which Jonathan Edwards based his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Wrote Edwards,
It [the saying “their foot shall slide in due time”] implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is also expressed in ‘Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment? (Psalm 73:18-19).
Sodom and Gomorrah met with destruction in a single day.
After centuries of rebellion against God, Jerusalem was sacked in a single day.
In Daniel’s time, the mighty city of Babylon was overthrown in a single day.
In Revelation, the voice from heaven prophesies that the destruction of Babylon the Great will come in a single day. The kings of the earth are said to lament her destruction, crying out, “Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come” (Revelation 18:10).
In all of these cases, the sudden final destruction was really the end result of a process that had been going on for many years.
An Auto Zone burns in Minneapolis early Thursday, May 28, 2020. (Nick Woltman / Pioneer Press)
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire.
Isaiah 1:7
Writing late in the history of Judah, the prophet Isaiah’s work has long struck this author as having special application to our own time. In his long career, Isaiah witnessed much, including the final destruction of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria in 721 B.C. and a remarkable restoration of the Southern Kingdom under King Hezekiah.
In the opening chapter of the book named for him, Isaiah painted a stark and unflattering picture of the current state of Judah and Jerusalem in his day. Although they had a Godly heritage, the people of the Southern Kingdom had not only abandoned that heritage but were acting in ways that were the exact opposite of what had been laid down for them in the Law of Moses. Speaking through Isaiah, the Lord called them “children who are corruptors.” Not only were they themselves corrupt, but they corrupted others. Further, the Lord said of them that, “They have turned away backward.’ The inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah not only were off course but were going 180 degrees away from the direction God had called them to go.
Signs hanging inside a Costco store notified customers that they were out of supplies on Monday, March 2. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:24
What’s my topic? That’s the first question every writer must answer before starting. Sometimes topics suggest themselves easily. Other times, coming up with an appropriate subject can be a bit daunting.
With all the events of last week – coronavirus, and the stock market crash to name two – you’d think that finding a topic would be easy. But it’s been more of a challenge than may seem at first.
I had a number of ideas coming into today and had even written an outline for a possible series addressing ways in which entrenched vested interested manipulate events and the reporting on those events, giving people a false sense of reality and allowing them to surreptitiously advance their own hidden agendas.
Lord willing, I hope to be able to write that series. But today, it just didn’t seem right.
A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.
Proverbs 22:3
The hits – negative economic news, that is – just keep coming. To underscore what I mean by bad economic news, consider the following headlines from just last week:
Yet for all that, stocks hit a record high on Friday with the Dow closing above 28,000 for the first time. CNBC’s headline on Thursday summed up the mainstream financial press’ exuberance quite well, “This is now the best bull market ever.”
How is it possible, on one hand, for there to be so much bad economic news and, on the other hand, for stocks to be hitting record highs? We dealt with this topic last week, but this topic is of such importance that it bears additional commentary. The answer to this question, to borrow a turn of phrase from one commentator I follow regularly, is that nothing’s real. We have fake financial markets designed to manipulate your perception of reality.
Happy New Year 2023: A Look Back and a Look Ahead
Posted in General Commentary, tagged CIA, Deep State, Financial Crisis, Pope Francis, Rome and Immigration, Russia-Ukraine War, The Year In Review, Twitter Files on January 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »
It’s that time of year again. The time when we say goodbye to the old year and welcome in the new one with all its possibilities.
In the first place, I would like to thank the Lord for his grace and strength in 2022. The year was a challenging one for me personally, as I went through a period of unemployment. But God was gracious to me, helping me to find a job with a good company. And though things were a bit tight at some points, I always had the things I needed. I’m reminded of what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things – food, clothing, etc. – shall be added unto you.”
I’m thankful also for another year of serving the Lord through blogging and podcasting. 2022 was my 14th year of writing Lux Lucet and it’s been a labor of love the whole time. Ideas are powerful things, and ideas always come in the form of words. There was a time when I was in the habit of saying “words cannot express” when talking about something that deeply affected me. But many years ago, John Robbins disabused me of that notion. In Genesis, we see that the worlds were framed by the word of God. He spoke the universe into existence. Christ himself is called God the Word. There is nothing deeper than words. There is nothing that cannot be expressed by them. To have the opportunity to work in the medium of words. To write, to express ideas, to teach. That is a high privilege. It is also a great responsibility. It is my prayer each time I write that the words I use may honor God and edify his people.
War in Ukraine
In reviewing the year’s writing, I wrote 53 articles. And the prize for my most popular article written in 2022 goes to “The Reformed Church’s Lost Doctrine of Antichrist” published on April 3, 2022. The context of that piece was Pope Francis’ consecration of Russia and Ukraine “to the Immaculate Heart of Mary” on March 25, 2022. One of the biggest stories of the year was when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. And about a month later, there was Pope Francis dedicating Russia to “the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” I didn’t catch the significance of this story the first time I hear it, but in the week leading up to the papal consecration, there was so much chatter in the media about it that I decided to investigate the matter further. What I found was that the Pope’s decision was connected to the prophecies of Fatima from over a hundred years ago, in which the demon impersonation Mary promised that if the pope dedicated Russia to her immaculate heart, the nation would be freed from its errors and convert to Catholicism. Catholic commentators were ecstatic at the consecration and at least some of them were optimistic that quick results would soon follow. But here we are over nine months later, and the Pope’s consecration seems to have had precisely no effect. The likely excuse for this among Catholic commentators is that the Pope didn’t do the consecration right. At the time of the consecration, one prominent Catholic commentator, I think it was Taylor Marshall, mentioned his concern that Francis added “Ukraine” to his consecration rather than limiting it to “Russia,” as the demonic Fatima apparition instructed.
I thought at the time of writing that article, and still think today, that one of the major overlooked aspects of the war in Ukraine is the role of the Roman Catholic Church-State (RCCS). Pope Frances has verbally come out in support of Ukraine on several occasions over the past year, and very clearly his consecrating Russia is a power play for the RCCS against its ancient rival, the Russian Orthodox Church, and against Eastern Orthodoxy more broadly. It is the long-term goal of the RCCS to create a one-world religion and a one-world government. Rome is the beating heart of New World Order globalism, and this shows very clearly in Ukraine, but most commentators either don’t notice or pretend as though they don’t.
Then there’s the fact that the CIA has been egging on this war since at least 2014 when they overthrew the elected leader in Ukraine and installed a pro-Western regime. The overthrow of Viktor Yanukovich in 2014 likely was precipitated by his announcement of a pro-Russia foreign policy for Ukraine in place of a pro-Western one. It’s worth noting, too, that the CIA has historically had close ties to the Roman Catholic Church going all the way back to its predecessor organization, the OSS during World War II. At that time, the OSS was headed by William “Wild Bill” Donovan, who was decorated “with the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Sylvester, the oldest and most prestigious of papal knighthoods.”
Keep an eye out for further papal intrigue in Ukraine. As things stand, the RCCS has captured America’s federal government and seems fully intent on prosecuting a war in Ukraine in which no clear American interest is at stake. Is the CIA carrying out its proxy war against Russia in connection with advancing the Vatican’s goals of subjugating Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church? It seems likely to the author that this is the case.
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