By now I’m sure all readers are aware that there was a stunning shutdown of all trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on July 8th. This shutdown lasted three and one-half hours before technical people working behind the scenes could restart any trading. Trading was restarted just in time to close the markets for the trading session, and I watched the confusion on the trading floor live on CNBC-TV. The on-camera reporter was Bob Pisani, if I recall correctly, and he wasn’t sure if the market had really opened or not as the trading session ended. He was talking to one trading desk staffer who assured him they were open, but Pisani kept pointing out that the trading screens were almost all inactive as if no trading was actually occurring. The cable-TV talking heads did point out that the NYSE would try to open briefly just in time to close trading for the day and set all stock closing prices so there could be an orderly opening the next day. The first link and second link detail the events of the unexpected shutdown of the NYSE.
As this rather unprecedented event was unfolding, United Airlines was also hit by a computer crash which resulted in over 1,000 flights being halted or delayed. The Wall Street Journal website crashed. Most of the cheerleaders on the financial networks tried to reassure the public that all was OK and that NO ONE SHOULD PANIC (see third link)! The fourth link thought that it really was a good time to panic and it details a set of other computer crashes that also occurred along with the three crashes cited above. The entire NYSE shutdown was attributed to a “computer glitch.” Excuse me, but that terminology so minimizes what happened that it doesn’t sounds credible. Indeed, the White House and other “official” sources quickly reassured everyone it was just a “computer glitch.” What is not reassuring to me is that they were all issuing such glib reassurances before there had been time to actually investigate in any detail what had caused the crash. What happened was definitely not a “computer glitch.” The word “glitch” implies a very minor hiccup in a computer–for example if you have to do a hard shutdown and re-boot your computer. An NYSE incident where a few trades got garbled at a trading desk for a few seconds and had to be re-executed would be a “computer glitch.” What happened was a massive systemic failure of all computer systems at the entire NYSE so no stocks could be traded on the NYSE for 3 and 1/2 hours. This is way beyond a “glitch” folks.
The respected Money and Markets website didn’t sound very convinced that the real cause of this systemic failure was a mere “computer glitch” either (fifth link). To my way of thinking, the long list of systemic computer crashes that occurred almost simultaneously (as listed in the fourth link) looks like an intentional cyber-attack to me. There are reports on the Internet that North Korea claimed responsibility for a cyber-attack on the NYSE, but other Internet sources say that such a thing couldn’t have happened. You can decide for yourself on that matter.
Actually, there is much more cause for concern (or dare I say PANIC) if this NYSE shutdown and other systemic computer failures were all naturally-occurring incidents and wasn’t the result of a destructive cyber-attack. If it was all accidental and coincidental, then it means that the nation’s financial and infrastructure computer platforms are so fragile and ill designed that a bunch of them can shutdown simultaneously at any moment. If it was a naturally occurring accidental “glitch,” why did so many other “glitches” occur at the same time in other computer systems that were not inter-connected to the NYSE’s computers? I don’t want to PANIC anyone, but if United Airlines (UAL) decided their own computer system had suddenly become too unreliable to safely fly 1,000 of their flights on pre-set schedules, that is a serious matter. Are they going to blame the major systemic failure at the UAL computer system on the “computer glitch” at the NYSE (that was really also a major systemic failure). How secure would you feel if you are riding in an airliner some day and the cabin attendant announces, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are sorry to announce that our airliner’s operating computers have all shut down and the pilots cannot use any of them to fly this aircraft. Do not panic. We expect to have the problem fixed in about three and 1/2 hours.” Thankfully, stock traders were still on the ground when they received that kind of message from the NYSE executives.
Perhaps all these simultaneous systemic computer crashes were all accidental and it was a gigantic coincidence that they all occurred on the same day at about the same time. However, like one of my favorite TV characters, Agent Gibbs on NCIS, sometimes says; “I don’t believe in coincidences.” At least not ones that are this gigantic.
This entire episode further reinforces my view that a titanic struggle is occurring behind the scenes between two massive and rival financial/monetary alliances: the US dollar-based and US Federal-Reserve-based banking/monetary system and the emerging global alliances to create rival global reserve currencies and to squeeze the US dollar out of bilateral national trades and trading blocs of entire nations. The former alliance, as longtime readers of my blog realize, is called the “Babylon the Great” bloc in Revelation 17-18’s prophecy and the latter emerging blocs are called the “seven heads and ten horns” in that same prophecy. Computer cyber-attacks and vast nation-based financial and political espionage and computer surveillance of other nations and mega-corporations are symptoms of that struggle. Revelation 17-18 prophesy that the emerging alliance (the “seven heads and ten horns”) will ultimately win this financial/monetary war, but it will cause major casualties on the global financial, monetary and political landscapes. Given that the current Babylon the Great system uses the US dollar as its life-blood, it seems inevitable that the US dollar-based economies, global corporations and markets are going to suffer a seizure some day that cannot be fixed. Revelation 17:16 prophesies that the seven heads and ten horns alliance will tear down the incumbent Babylon the Great system with extreme prejudice. Maybe Americans ought to watch carefully what is happening in Greece as the world realizes that Greece cannot possibly pay its national debts. It may someday happen that the same thing will unfold within the USA when the world openly acknowledges that the USA cannot possibly pay its national debts, and the IMF and other major nations demand the USA drastically cut its federal budget deficit without having the Federal Reserve Board creating fantasy money to bail out the federal government. I wonder if the American media will all initially say it is all just a “computer glitch” when that prophesied crisis strikes suddenly.
- http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/08/nyse-united-airlines-wsjcom-hit-with-computer-issues/
- http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/07/08/nyse-mysteriously-halts-all-trading/
- http://www.cnbc.com/id/102818664
- http://gawker.com/ladies-and-gentlemen-its-time-to-panic-1716514222
- http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/new-cyber-war-underway-just-coincidence-72108#.VZ8hVvkslwo
