Inflation worsening. Supply-chain woes continuing. Trucker protests that have Canada’s leader in hiding. Regular rumors of an imminent “Global Re-Set” for all currencies. US federal debt topping $30 trillion. Interest rates to head higher. These are common themes in the financial press. There is no question that there are huge (and worsening) financial fractures in the global financial system.
Let’s examine some details about how bad these fractures are becoming. The first link, the home page of shadowstats.com, offers many summaries about current economic/financial data. ShadowStats is a private entity that calculates economic data from a non-political perspective. Governments of both American political parties always massage economic data to make themselves look good, and the Biden administration is doing the same thing. Readers can examine at their leisure the many ShadowStats metrics about current financial realities, but I want to focus on two of them: inflation and money supply growth. If you scroll down on the right-hand column, you will come to a report that the producer price Index (PPI) was up 9.68% in year-to-year calculations as 2021 drew to a close. Even more significantly, ShadowStats calculated that the actual annual increase in the CPI for consumer price increases was a stunning 15.1%--far higher than the “official” data admits. This reveals that the average American is being hit far harder by inflation than government data would indicate–guaranteeing that there will be a major gap between the real world and the economic fantasy land depicted by official reports. For example, if the real inflation rate increase for consumer goods is 15%, it means everyone’s paychecks would have to increase by that same amount just to stay even! Since almost no consumers have such salary increases, it makes the inflation situation worse for every family budget and it makes the electorate steadily more restive–something all governments want to prevent.
The money supply data in the ShadowStats report can be found in charts and graphs accessible at the bottom of the link. These charts show how the US Federal Reserve Board has been debauching the US dollar on an incredible scale due to wild monetary inflation for years. Indeed, this data indicates that it is the Fed itself that is responsible for much of the inflation being unleashed in the US economy. Having “too many dollars chasing too few goods” results in a classic inflation situation as the dollars in our wallets are worth steadily less as the Fed prints far too many dollars to “lend” these newly-created dollars to the federal government to spend on every wild scheme imaginable.
More on inflation facts. There are reports of certain staples at grocery stores becoming absent or scarce on grocery store shelves. The second link examines this phenomenon and reports that “shortages are widespread” and that the “unavailability rate [for common grocery items] currently is hovering around 15%”–an unusually high rate. Crop failures can account for some of this as can covid-related lockdowns at food-production facilities, but another key reason for such shortages is the continuing supply chain problem. The link reports that there is a shortage of 80,000 truck drivers, “a historic high.” This means vast numbers of normal loads are not being delivered to grocery and all kinds of retail stores. One factor those living in inner cities should consider. As crime rates rise in inner-cities, more truckers will decide it is too risky to drive loads to major metro areas and will simply refuse to go to such locations. This would cause food shortages in metro areas and cause even more unrest and crime. Concerning supply-chain problems, the third link, an article from the Minneapolis-Star-Tribune, reports that as of early February, the problems of clogged ports are still not resolved. The problem of container ships not being unloaded at ports in a timely manner is a worldwide issue, but it is particularly severe on America’s West Coast ports. I’m sure readers have seen news reports showing as many as 70-100 container ships moored and unable to be unloaded at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. So far, the problem seems intractable, and this will cause shortages on store shelves, slow-downs in production facilities as necessary components don’t arrive on time, etc. These factors will continue to drive consumer prices higher and it will make inflation an ever-worsening problem. I’m old enough to remember the runaway inflation rates in the Carter presidency, and it took sky-high interest rates to choke off the inflationary pressures. While it looks like the US Fed will increase interest rates in 2022, the increases are likely to be very tiny compared to the Paul Volcker increases in the 1970s. Why? The federal government’s debt levels are now so astronomically high that any major increases in interest rates could collapse the federal budget, the bond market and possibly even the US dollar. I think it is reasonable to assume the general public will be misled as much as possible so they do not know how bad the fiscal situation has become.
There is another wild card in the global financial situation which could cause a major global financial crisis. This is the possibility the Ukrainian-Russian-American-NATO confrontation could get out of hand and have unforeseen consequences that could topple the world’s currently-precarious financial system. As I’m sure you know, the world’s currencies, especially the US dollar, float on an ocean of debt which cannot be paid off. All nations have worked together to keep this debt-based system afloat, but there is now a possibility that a bloc of nations may deliberately pull it down. In the January 30, 2022 issue of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune was an article entitled “Ukraine war could bring global shock.” It is a reprint of a New York Times article. Sometimes it can be hard to find articles for free on the internet if they come from major newspapers, but I found this article in a Bangladeshi newspaper (fourth link). As you know, President Biden is threatening very severe economic sanctions on Russia if it invades the Ukraine. Some advisors are reportedly urging Biden to start the sanctions even before Russia invades the Ukraine. The article discusses some of these possible sanctions, but it does not offer much on the possible ways Russia could retaliate other than to mention Russian cyber hacking attacks on US banks and financial markets. Russia has many more options than that. As you read the article, look at the language which admits that planned American/NATO sanctions could cause a situation which would “threaten the stability of the global financial system,” and that the US government has consulted with the big American banks to see if the sanctions will, indeed, endanger the global financial system. Let’s examine some possibilities that could quickly get out of control.
The article notes Biden intends to “take a sledgehammer to pillars of Russia’s financial system.” That is rather close to declaring war. Russia would obviously retaliate vs. the Western banks and the West’s financial system. How could they do that? For years, there have been rumors that Russia, China and their allies might adopt gold- and silver-backed currencies which could collapse the fiat-based currencies of the USA and western nations. The western nations would have to adopt gold- and silver-backed currencies to compete, and because there are so many dollars floating around the world due to the wild monetary inflation caused by the US Federal Reserve Board, the dollar-based prices of gold and silver would have to “head for the moon.” Indeed, the big banks may already be preparing for just such a crisis. There is a report which received very little press that the big banks have quietly been accumulating their highest gold reserves in over 30 years (fifth link). What do they know about the future price of precious metals that the general public isn’t allowed to know? If Russia and China launch gold-backed currencies, it will stagger the West’s financial system. The fourth link also comments on how dependent various European nations are on Russian oil and gas shipments. If there is an escalating financial and sanctions war between Russia and the West, Russia could decide to simply stop all shipments of oil and gas to NATO nations until they agree to Russian demands concerning the Ukraine. Russia needs the sales from its oil and gas shipments, but even a short hiatus in such shipments to Europe in the middle of winter could rapidly cause European nations to break ranks concerning the entire financial sanctions strategy. If a Russian oil and gas embargo hits the West at the same time as Russia and China announce gold- and silver-backed currencies, Russia will quickly be in the driver’s seat, and the global financial system could come down like humpty-dumpty falling off his proverbial wall. I’ve also seen some media reports that Russia and China have agreed that China will import much more of Russia’s oil and gas, already leaving less energy supplies for Russia to ship to Europe.
I’ve also seen media reports that Biden may try to cut off Russia from the Western-based SWIFT system of clearing global financial transactions. That could backfire badly. Russia and China may establish their own system of clearing global transactions and mandate that anyone doing business with any company in China must abandon SWIFT and use only the Russian-Chinese financial-clearing system. This could collapse the SWIFT system altogether.
Revelation 17-18 prophesy the global financial/commercial/monetary system will suddenly collapse at some point in the latter days, and it adds that seventeen cryptic entities (the “seven heads and ten horns” in Revelation 17:7-18) will deliberately tear down the current global financial system to replace it with a new one which the book of Revelation calls the “beast” system. I’m not making specific predictions, but the developing financial crisis which may occur due to the Ukrainian-Russian standoff could be the trigger which causes this prophesied event to happen. Heretofore, I’ve generally thought that the seven heads and ten horns would be a western-oriented alliance, but the developing crisis over the Ukraine could result in a rebellion vs. the world’s global financial system which unites a bloc of eastern nations with several western nations. Again, I’m not making specific predictions, but if global financial war breaks out, the world’s entire situation could change very suddenly if the major fiat currencies fall. Revelation 18:11-19 describe a global commercial system wherein there is a money crisis: merchants have goods and services to sell but no one can buy them. Why? Perhaps because there are no reliable valuations of the world’s currencies so reliable contracts and transactions cannot be made.
Again, the Bible does not set specific dates for Revelation 17-18 to be fulfilled, so neither will I. However, I hope that you have been making appropriate preparations for such a crisis to ensure you and your family have essential supplies when this prophesied crisis hits. When it does hit, the biblical language strongly indicates it will be sudden and without warning. I urge readers to review my article, Should Christians Prepare for Future Hard Times?, as a balanced way to make such preparations. For an in-depth examination of the prophesied global financial collapse in the latter days, please read my article, Is “Babylon the Great” about to Fall…Ushering in a New Beast System? For an understanding of why Revelation 17-18 refer to the modern global financial system as “Babylon the Great,” I urge you to read my article, The Babylonian Origin of the Modern Banking System.
- http://www.shadowstats.com/
- https://tulsaworld.com/article_7e5b096e-73ca-11ec-96b8-dbfbf0229370.html
- https://www.startribune.com/ports-around-the-world-remain-congested-a-hurdle-to-economic-recovery/600143386/
- https://bdnews24.com/world/2022/01/30/us-sanctions-aimed-at-russia-could-take-a-wide-toll
- https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Datawatch/Central-banks-accelerate-shift-from-dollar-to-gold-worldwide
