Posted on 08/24/2020 7:53:59 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
Since the arrival of COVID-19 and the subsequent decision to lockdown entire cities and nations, world economic activity has significantly decreased. When normal recessions strike, they typically involve only one nation or a single region. But the COVID Recession has hit the whole world at once. This is the first time every nation has simultaneously seen a decline in output since the Great Depression.
Despite the scale of this economic disaster, many economists are calling for a quick V-shaped recovery once the coronavirus is brought under control. But is this likely? No. Even if the virus disappears tomorrow, we won’t see a V-shaped recovery. Why? Because of central bank policies and unrestrained government spending. The world’s central banks (the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, and others) have made reckless policy decisions for decades. But their bad policy decisions kicked into overdrive following the Great Recession of 2008-2009.
After September 11th, central banks pushed out artificially low interest rates. These low rates, along with other poorly thought out government policies, blew a massive housing bubble. When the bubble burst, central bankers and politicians rewarded corrupt and incompetent bankers and business executives with huge bailouts. Unrestrained by a gold standard, they created new currency to fill the holes created by bad decisions, mismanagement, and misallocation of resources. They propped up a broken financial system and blew yet another asset bubble in the process.
When COVID popped that bubble, we saw a new round of bailouts and central bank schemes to elevate financial markets and avoid the inevitable. We also saw direct government payments to individuals in the hope of “stimulating” the economy. This is only possible because governments can create new currency at will. The U.S. dollar and every other national currency in the world is a fiat currency. This means they aren’t backed by anything but a government promise. They only have value because governments say they do. They’re nothing but pieces of paper or ones and zeros in a computer, and that means governments can create as much currency as they want to with the click of a button.
Fiat currencies don’t have the value of those backed by gold, silver, or other hard assets. This means politicians and central bankers can create new currency out of thin air to fund an endless array of stimulus programs, welfare benefits, and schemes to bailout and enrich their friends.
For decades, and especially since the Great Recession, these politicians and central bankers have done everything in their power to avoid the pain of a recession or even a protracted stock market decline. But no matter how hard they try to avoid the inevitable, a day of reckoning is coming. They’ve distorted the free market, and they can’t hold off the consequences forever. The bill will soon come due. COVID didn’t cause the coming crisis. It only accelerated it.
The Road Before Us
All these foolish government policies have put the global economy in a no-win situation. As a result, only two options are left:
Option #1): Deflation – The Great Depression is the most famous example of economic deflation. In a deflationary spiral, credit contracts and the overall money supply shrinks. People cut spending, and workers lose their jobs. Debt levels become a massive burden. Businesses fail and bankruptcies rise. Unemployment spikes and breadlines form. A deflationary spiral is a painful event for all of society. It foments riots and calls for revolution. The pain of deflation is necessary to clear the economy of bad debt and poorly managed companies. Nevertheless, central bankers and politicians try to avoid deflation at all costs. Why? Because the temporary and necessary economic pain threatens their power.
Option #2): Big Inflation or Hyperinflation – The Weimar Republic gave us the most famous example of hyperinflation. Crushed under a mountain of post-war debt and reparations, the German republic printed more and more currency to meet its obligations. The result was a massive loss of purchasing power for Germany’s currency – the mark. Prices rose quickly to reflect the new reality. A 160-mark loaf of bread at the end of 1922 cost over 200 billion marks less than a year later. In one story from that time, a woman carried a wheelbarrow of marks to the bakery just to buy a loaf of bread. When she went into the bakery, a thief stole her wheelbarrow, but he left the pile of worthless marks. That’s how quickly the currency lost its value.
All this happened because an unrestrained government vastly increased the supply of its currency, and basic economics says when supply increases without an increase in demand, price falls. In other words, the citizens of Germany quickly figured out that what they thought was “money” was nothing more than worthless pieces of paper. The mark wasn’t anchored to gold or silver or anything of real value. Once this reality came to light, the world lost all faith in the mark, and its purchasing power plummeted. Eventually, it became worthless.
In the last few months, central bankers and politicians have flooded the world with trillions of dollars in new currency. Their answer to every financial problem is to throw more and more currency at an ever-expanding list of government aid programs and targeted bailouts. Like Weimar Germany, the world is simply printing more and more currency in an effort to solve its financial problems. At best, the result will be a 1970’s-style stagflation with high unemployment and runaway inflation. At worst, we’ll see a total collapse of the purchasing power of all fiat currencies relative to gold, silver, and other hard assets. Once again, it will cost wheelbarrows of dollars, euros, or yen to buy a single loaf of bread. Unsurprisingly, the Bible says such a time will come – a time when an entire day’s wages will buy nothing more than a loaf of bread (Revelation 6:6).
Which Road Will We Choose?
Politicians and central bankers will never accept Option #1. This is because deflation poses an immediate threat to their power and position. Clearing the system of bad debt is necessary for a healthy economy. However, the pain it creates will lead voters to demand new leadership. That frightens the politicians and central bankers who love their positions of power and prestige. Faced with a deflationary spiral, Option #2 will seduce them. They’ll buy into the belief they can “engineer” a recovery while managing and controlling inflation. However, history has proven central planning doesn’t work. In the end, they’ll lose control, and all the world’s fiat currencies will collapse.
We’re already seeing the early stages of this crisis. As governments around the world call for bailouts of businesses, local governments, and the unemployed, we see the cost of their big government policies reflected in the surging prices of gold and silver. The chances of a global Weimar-style hyperinflation are much more serious than the public believes.
What’s Next?
Once the world experiences a massive inflationary spiral, the current monetary system (in place since 1971) will come to an end. A new monetary system will rise from the ashes. What will it look like? We don’t know for sure. But in all likelihood, it will be built upon some sort of digital currency. Already the world’s central banks are lining up to launch their own cryptocurrencies. China is currently testing its own state-sponsored cryptocurrency, and dozens of other nations have already announced plans to launch their own. Just last week, news broke of the U.S. Federal Reserve partnering with MIT to develop its own digital currency.
If government cryptocurrency replaces paper currency, individual freedom and liberty will disappear. Governments will be able to “turn off” an individual’s cryptocurrency. That means if you do something the government doesn’t approve of, they’ll be able to shut down your ability to buy and sell. This shouldn’t surprise you either. The Bible says this is precisely what will happen in the end times. The Antichrist will establish a global system of commerce. His system will play a part in every economic transaction on earth. It will be so dominant, no one will be able to buy or sell anything without approval from the Antichrist (Revelation 13:17).
We’re fast approaching a time the prophets warned about. We’re in the midst of a global pandemic (Luke 21:11). Israel is back in the land (Jeremiah 23:7-8). The Jewish people are back in Jerusalem (Luke 21:24-28). And the Gospel is being preached throughout the world (Matthew 24:14). The end times are drawing near. The tribulation, the Antichrist, and global government are part of the world’s immediate future. But don’t despair; this also means Jesus is on the brink of return (Revelation 22:20). He will establish an everlasting kingdom (Daniel 2:44) with no more death or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4). So keep your eyes fixed on Him!
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There is no getting away from the fact that we are rapidly closing in on a major economic reset soon. October Surprise? Maybe...
Keep looking up! Maranatha!
There will be inflation, and there will not be a collapse/meltdown/apocalypse/armegeddon/end of the world.
The lie that never dies.
I have been predicting massive inflation since the Great Recession of 2008.
Still no sign of it.
One thing I have noticed...
I’m a great food shopper. I wait for great sales and then buy as much as I can carry or store in my little studio apartment.
Great grocery sales have completely vanished in the Seattle suburbs.
My monthly food bill is almost twice as much as I was paying in 2019, and my former stockpile of months of food has dwindled down to a couple weeks.
“These low rates, along with other poorly thought out government policies, blew a massive housing bubble.”
...uh, that would be the Dodd/Frank bill that was “poorly thought out”. Actually it was well thought out and did what it was designed to do.
rancid music covering EVERYTHING now. Shopping, shows, movies, TV series. Lucifer once had the magnificent harps before casting. A chime will occur with “your” mark for micro compliance.
QE 1-4 allowed Obama to print one percent of the money supply every month in concert with worldwide banks.
This guy doesn’t see what is happening. First of all there is no “US” Dollar. There is a Federal Reserve dollar which the US government borrows at interest. Does the Federal Reserve want to usher in a digital currency? Of course they do.
Now comes DJ Trump. Trump has effectively taken control of the Federal Reserve and forced them to zero interest. Now Trump is using two large stimulus packages to flood the system with no cost dollars to achieve two things. A giant reverse wealth transfer back to Americans and dollars to fuel our industrial resurgence. He likely has no intention of paying this money back as he plans to bankrupt the Fed then bypass them completely to have the US Treasury roll out a new dollar tied to gold. It is the only way to stop the NWO.
Because the $atanic Banking-Insurance Uniparty is attempting the forced WorkCamp with no O-BodyMortgage Care to rely on. Force the ignorant into Mac/Walmart jobs.
“Now Trump is using two large stimulus packages to flood the system with no cost”
The Uniparty-BankingInsurance O-BodyMortgage is attempting to block Stimulus 2
Drawing the experience from the Weimar Republic and applying it to today's economic systems is just stupid. The US dollar has never been backed by gold. It's always been backed up by the goods and services that currency can buy...it is output that backs the dollar. When the MSM and Dr. Fauci quit the fear-mongering and doomsday forecasts, that V curve will show itself. If Biden somehow manages to cheat his way into the WH, the MSM will follow along and all wiil be roses in a few weeks. I understand CV-19 is real, but I don't understand why the FDA is preventing treatments that appear to work in other countries.
China’s been working on that a long time. So has Soros. Democrats helping them now.
SURE it will.../s
Doom ! Gloom! Who hasn’t heard this crap like 5000 times?
look scare Mongrwal. If we ever get to the point where you can’t go anywhere in the world with the US $20 bill and have somebody take it then I’ll know that we’re in trouble
Until then , take your doom and gloom prophecies, and end times crap and shove it!
Hear! Hear!
I've been hearing variations of this since I was a kid in short pants back in the 1960s. None of these doomsday scenarios have ever come close to coming to fruition. Hell, I remember reading the Paul Ehrlich "Population Bomb" at age 12 and if I recall correctly, everybody was going to run out of food and other stuff by 1990 and there was NOTHING WE COULD DO ABOUT IT! Sounds familiar as the global warming nuts are spouting the same hysteria today.
We are definitely in interesting times but rational people look around them and see that despite the pandemic, nobody is eating less. The supermarkets are still going gangbusters. I see tractor trailers on the highways every day supplying them. In general, nobody is consuming less either. We still purchase the same non-essential junk that clutter our lives, only now we are more likely to have it all delivered to our homes in brown vans and there are more and more of those Amazon Prime trucks plying our roads and highways as well.
Our largest corporations like Apple, Google, Amazon and Wal-Mart are posting record revenues and profits. All the folks cranking out hand sanitizer and those silly disposable masks are going gangbusters as well.
Yes, there are some casualties. It sucks to be a restaurant owner for example. Or a landlord for commercial real estate. People will suffer as the economy is majorly disrupted. But there will be opportunities elsewhere for those willing to change vocations.
Who knows, I might end up driving one of those Amazon Prime vans. You might run into me delivering toothpaste and a pair of XXL sweatpants to your house one of these days.
I have been on record that we have been in a massive deflation since the early 1990s. You see that in the fact that virtually no commodity prices have risen significantly—gold shot up a little, but since the 1980s, owning gold would have been a loser.
The reason for the deflation, which I think we are still in, is a) China exports deflation in the form of lower prices and slave labor. It is nearly impossible to raise prices on goods and services if a major economic competitor is constantly undercutting them; b) the computer revolution. Despite what Gordon says in his new book “The Rise And Fall of American Economic Growth,” we have NOT BEGUN to “price in” the impact of computers on everything from cars to phones to houses. We are still playing catchup. Thus, more deflation is more likely than inflation. And the Fed’s QE1,2,3 aren’t making a dent in the deflation.
What you need is debt free currency. The real problem is the FED and fractional reserve banking. Money does not have to be backed by anything, as history has shown many times.
The English built their empire on the tally stick. Yes you heard that right, their taxes had to be paid by a stick. As a matter of fact, the tally stick was one of the worlds longest running currencies.
Lincoln bought and paid for the civil war with greenbacks, backed by nothing. As a matter of fact, the country did so well with greenbacks that the bankers had Lincoln killed to stop it.
If we want to back our monies with something, I suggest something with massive supply, like silver maybe. Gold may be too easy for the powers that be to corner.
I’m no expert, but I am aware of the concept of debt free currency. I think it is do-able, and has been done, as you indicate. But I think it’s one of those “taboo” topics that people aren’t supposed to talk about because if people caught on that the massive worldwide debt is all a deliberate ploy to keep us enslaved, then there would be a Great Awakening.
You are correct. In the old days the people could figure out that the bankers were creating money out of thin air, then charging us interest on that money that we “borrowed”. The FED, or the many names used in history, is a scam that has brought down every major power in world history.
Heck, Jesus flipped over tables due to the very same thing. The half sheckel (I think that was the name) was the only coin you could pay your “once a year during pilgrimage” tidings in (the only coin that did not bear a pagan emperor). The “bankers” of this time, bought up all the half shekels during the off season, then when the time came, ran the price up to whatever the market would bear. This is why Jesus was flipping over tables.
Money changers have been with us forever. Fractional reserve banking as been with us since the first goldsmith finally stumbled on the fact that not every person would come and demand their gold back all at the same time.
BTW, I am no expert either, but I did stay at a holiday inn last night.
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