When Capitalists Become Socialists ~ LUF

Is anyone else as frustrated and angry as I am? Could this be the worst financial environment that this nation has faced since the Great Depression?

Typically, I'm a positive guy who tends to see the silver-lining in anything and everything. However, last week's fiasco on Wall Street as well as the recent suggestions and actions by the federal government have me seeing red today - and I don't mean just my hair when I look into the mirror.

As the value of the U.S. dollar continues to decline and markets continue to collapse, it's not far fetched to think that this current crisis could trigger a worldwide economic disaster. Something needed to be done. I get that. To do nothing would've been worse than simply sitting on your hands and doing nothing.

While it's clear that the Bush administration feared that letting the big Wall Street institutions fail could destroy the economy and prove more costly than rescuing them I don't believe that rescuing them was the answer.

This mentality that people can do whatever they please (live life and/or run a business irresponsibly) without having to suffer the consequences of such decisions and actions is becoming tiresome especially to this small business owner and sole income provider. The government only reinforces that mentality when they go out of their way to support and help such people/companies. So much for one's ideology.

So, in a single week we watched capitalists turn into socialists.

As The Buffalo News' David Robinson eloquently stated in a recent column, "We have to realize that the party is coming to an end. The era of easy credit is over. The age of paying back what you borrow is beginning. Deregulation is on the outs. A new age of regulation on the way in.. The laissez-faire approach to markets is history. The federal government is moving into the financial markets in an unprecedented manner. That, in a nutshell, is the fallout from last weeks unprecedented turmoil on Wall Street."

Is there any doubt that we're all going to remember last week for a long time? History was made. At the same time, those trying to do things the right way (i.e. eliminate debt; create a personal nest egg in the form of savings; pay for things with cash; etc.) will now be "punished" for that approach and mindset. How so? Well, it's going to be harder to get a mortgage, finance a car, or qualify for a credit card. If you own a business, it will be that much harder to get a loan. That likely will mean that consumers will start spending less and many hard-workers will no longer pursue the American Dream on their own, which could lead to even more job losses, and an even weaker economy.

How does all of this relate to Biblical prophecy? Where does it all fit into the big picture? Does Socialism, Antichrist, One-World Government, One-World Currency, One-World Religion/Ecumenicism, Mark-of-the-Beast all ring a bell?

There are some who are suggesting that the recent economic woes facing our nation and the effect on global markets is inching us ever closer to a one-world currency. They could be right.

However, I would also like to suggest that we are not only seeing a move in that direction economically speaking, but also a move towards ecumenicism. That being said, I think it's quite telling and prophetically significant how BOTH movements seem to be in sync with one another at this critical time in human history.

Let's take at look at things from the economy angle first. Should this economic crisis become a full-blown economic disaster on a worldwide scale (a plausible scenario with gas and food prices increasing by the day) a one-world currency is all but inevitable. We know from what the Bible tells us that there will come a day when this is going to be our reality.

"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name." Revelation 13:16-17

I'm sure many of us never expected that reality to arrive so soon. Yet, here we are on the horizon of handouts for all who want them courtesy of your helpful and friendly government.

Those who ignore the the relationship between money, banking, and power are in for a rude awakening. Sure, a single global currency sounds good on the surface as the solution to all the world's economic woes, but wage equality and production values are not currency issues per se, albeit currency matters do play a role.

Many of us have no real concept of the incredible power-shift that would occur under such a scheme – a shift that would effectively create a global master of untouchable proportions. All we want to see is an international-sized band-aid solution - “a single global currency” - to address the problem of world poverty.

Martin Walker from UPI wrote, "The most interesting political feature of the Wall Street crisis is not the effect it will have on what looks to be an extremely close presidential race, but just how much of the U.S. economy the new president will be running."

He continues...

"The U.S. government is fast becoming a socialist institution, owning the commanding heights of the economy. It has taken over responsibility for Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM). It is now sitting on 80 percent of the shares of American International Group (NYSE:AFF), the insurance giant, in return for an $85 billion loan. It is poised to lend another $25 billion to the troubled U.S. auto industry.

It has extended, through the Federal Reserve central bank, a series of open-ended lifelines to those parts of the financial system that it deems too big to be allowed to fail. It has also, by declining to intervene or by a heavy-handed role in negotiations, forced the liquidation of Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) and Lehman Brothers. It did not create the situation in which Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) had to sell itself to Bank of America, but it sealed Merrill’s fate by declining to propose any other option.

Only two investment banking giants survive — Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) — and Stanley’s fire-sale purchase of Bear Stearns earlier this year was orchestrated by the man who has become the most consequential federal official of them all, U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. Himself a Goldman Sachs veteran, Paulson has become the American Lenin, the man who has seized what the first Soviet leader called 'the commanding heights' of the economy."

We all better open our eyes and realize that our time is short. How could anyone look at the current situation, read the news headlines, listen to the analysis and not reach that conclusion?

As W.L. Mackenzie King (former Prime Minister of Canada) once stated, "Once a nation parts with control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes that nation’s laws.”

Thus, once the world clamors for a one-world currency it will surely want a one-world government led by a one-world leader. But why stop there?

Turning our attention to the religious angle, let's consider that "ecumenicism" is the doctrine or movement that promotes cooperation and better understanding among different religious denominations, which is aimed at universal religious unity.

Why is this relevant to this particular discussion?

Currently, through the implementation of the Alliance of Civilizations we have a full-fledged, organized and world-wide movement to accomplish this very task, and this is all happening at the same time that the economy is taking a beating and will be in need of a savior or, at the very least, a new system and way of doing things.

Friends, things are moving at an alarming rate. Legendary Radio Talk Show Host Art Bell used a phrase to describe a similar feeling - "the quickening" - and that's precisely what we're experiencing today.

"Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." Luke 21:28

Keep looking up.

RECOMMENDED READING:
The New F-Word
Walker’s World: Paulson, American Lenin
One World, One Money
Financial Bedlam: How the Mighty Fall
End-Time Economy