Ready, Aim, Print
It has become so difficult in predicting the movement of the financial markets that several financial newsletters have recently decided to call it quits. Dennis Gartman, the creator of the Gartman Letter, will end publication at the end of January 2020. While Dennis claims that he’s throwing in the towel in order to work on his golf game, the true reason is a number of bad calls made by him in recent years. Someone put together a spreadsheet of his calls, and the success rate with equities was less than 23%. Perhaps Dennis’ most famous call was when he declared crude oil will never be above $44 again in his lifetime.
It is a good thing that I operate a prophecy site that just happens to occasionally overlap into the financial world. People like Peter Schiff, Greg Hunter, and David Morgan are correct in sounding the alarm bells over the likelihood of a coming monetary crash. I think Bible prophecy is the only possible explanation for how global debt has been able to reach such insanely high levels. The financial problems constantly increase but they don’t explode because the rapture is predicted to occur at a time of general tranquility.
“For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will” (Matthew 24:44).
We are entering into the 11th year of the longest period of GDP growth in American history. A decade of record-low interest rates has allowed companies to sell seemingly impossible amounts of bonds to investors, sending total U.S. corporate debt to nearly $10 trillion, or a record 47% of the overall economy.
Some of America’s best-known companies, including AT&T, IBM, Ford Motor and CVS Health, have splurged on borrowed cash. This year, the weakest firms have accounted for most of the growth and are increasingly using debt for “financial risk-taking,” such as investor payouts and Wall Street dealmaking, rather than new plants and equipment, according to the IMF.
Amid the avalanche of debt, the sharp growth in lower-quality corporate bonds, just one notch above junk, represents a special concern. Investors hold nearly $4 trillion in these bonds, including $2.5 trillion from U.S. companies, according to the credit-rating agency Standard & Poor’s.
The Great American Shale Boom could have only occurred with funding from cheap bonds. The shale industry has been built on mountains of debt, and the day of reckoning is drawing near. A total of 32 oil and gas drillers have filed for bankruptcy through the third quarter, with the total number of bankruptcy filings since 2015 now clocking in at more than 200.
The promise of future earning has allowed the surviving drillers to stay in business. As many company executives who hoped to drill their way out of debt are belatedly discovering, trying to squeeze a profit from shale-fracking operations is akin to trying to draw blood from stone with the industry having racked up cumulative losses estimated at more than a quarter of a trillion dollars.
During the month of October, the repro-market suffered a total collapse in liquidity, and the Federal Reserve stepped in with what has quickly become an endless river of money. The total dollar amount is now in the trillions, and the Fed’s balance sheet has risen by $300 billion in just two months. It is absolutely stunning to have a nation’s red ink suddenly doubling overnight, and the stock market has had no reaction.
China has had a record year for corporate bond defaults. Normally, the Chinese government would not allow for state-owned enterprises to go into default. The default rate in China must be so high that Beijing is forced to allow some bondholders to get burned in order to restore discipline. The reported Yuan default amount is up sixfold in the past two years, so the actual quantity of bad loans must be very high.
Several countries have created their own version of a Cryptocurrency in order to escape their national debt. With the value of bitcoin remaining under $200 billion, these electric coins will never work. They are just too easy to create to generate enough trust. The Antichrist will come along and create a financial system that will work because he will use the military to force people to take his mark.
“He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name….” (Rev 13:16-18).
–Todd
Gog’s Persian Partner Prophecy
Threats against America have been coming fast and furiously from the ruling minions in Tehran. Sanctions imposed by America because of Iran’s unabated nuclear program, threats against shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and the regimes continuing hostile activities in the region are putting great pressure on the nation’s leadership.
The people of Iran–at least a considerable number who are resisting the dictatorship–are leading in applying the pressure. Whereas the propaganda from the Iranian news media–and some within the mainstream news in America as well—has consistently proclaimed that the protests of the people have been against America, even those media no longer can hide the facts. The facts show that the protesters, many of whom have died over the last few weeks, are violently against the Iranian ruling regime. This, even the Ayatollahs are having to recognize. The result of the protests and of this recognition is that they’ve found a scapegoat, and have acted in trying to divert attention from what’s really going on.
The real thing going on is that the people are suffering due to the sanctions imposed because of the regime’s dogged determination to develop nuclear military power, thereby going against every agreement they have made to the contrary.
The scapegoat is the Iranian secular office of president (as much as it can be determined that anything about Iran is secular). The following news excerpt gives an indication of the attempted diversion from the ruling religionists being to blame.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi is to submit his resignation, his office says, after more than 40 people were killed on the bloodiest day since anti-government protests began.
Iraq’s top Shia Muslim cleric condemned the use of force against protesters and called for a new government.
About 400 people have been killed in protests since the start of October, and at least 15 died on Friday.
Iraqis are demanding jobs, an end to corruption and better public services.
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- Is a new Arab Spring unfolding in the Middle East?
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned over reports of the continued use of live ammunition against demonstrators” and called for “maximum restraint.” [Abdul Mahdi’s resignation] came after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for a new government.
“In response to this call, and in order to facilitate it as quickly as possible, I will present to parliament a demand [to accept] my resignation from the leadership of the current government,” the statement signed by Mr. Abdul Mahdi said.
The statement did not say when his resignation would take place. On Sunday parliament will hold an emergency session to discuss the crisis. (Iraq Unrest: PM Abdul Mahdi to resign after bloodiest day in protests – BBC News)
Sources are setting off alarm bells that Iran is putting its nuclear production facilities into high gear. And, it’s not for peaceful, nuclear energy. The following excerpt frames the story.
The Iranian government is shortening its nuclear breakout time–the amount of time required to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear weapon. Tehran has accomplished this through several steps in the last few months.
Iran’s government first increased its enriched uranium stockpile beyond the 300 kilogram limit; it enriched uranium to levels beyond the cap of 3.67 percent, and then activated 20 IR-4 and 20 IR-6 advanced centrifuges. The Iranian leaders even boasted that their government is now exploring new uranium enrichment programs and producing centrifuges.
Most recently, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, declared that Iran has an adequate supply of 20% enriched uranium., “Right now we have enough 20% uranium,” he told the Iranian Students News Agency, ISNA, “but we can produce more as needed”. He added that the country is resuming uranium enrichment at a far higher level at the Fordow nuclear facility — an underground uranium enrichment facility which is reportedly located on one of bases of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — injecting uranium gas into centrifuges, and operating 60 IR-6 advanced centrifuges. (“Iran to Have Nuclear Bomb in a Few Months?” by Majid Rafizadeh, Gatestone Institute)
A major part of all this that might be of interest to prophecy watchers, in my thinking, is whether the current and building resistance to the Muslim rulers of Iran will bring stepped up activity in fulfilling their nuclear ambitions (as the above excerpt seems to indicate). They will almost certainly not step up dismantling that program. Becoming a nuclear power, thus a hegemonic regional force, is, I believe, a supernaturally induced desire, placed there by the Prince of Persia, or that minion’s superior, Lucifer, himself.
If the Ayatollahs determine their own positions are threatened, might they go all out to complete getting the ultimate weaponry that they think will assure their continuing rulership?
It has long been my contention that something prevents the Gog-Magog force from storming toward Israel, using nuclear weapons. At least, that’s the way I read the Gog-Magog forces in regard to their weaponry.
It seems there are no nukes involved–at least, none used by these evil attackers. The Lord, Himself, seems to use something at least as horrific as nuclear weaponry in dealing with those attackers, but their forces seem to be conventional. Salem Kirban, in his novel 666, portrayed the attack as from weaponry exactly described in Ezekiel 38-39. Real horses, real, ancient weapons, etc., the novelist thought, might be used because of something catastrophic happening, causing technological collapse.
Another prophecy comes into view, I think, considering why Persia –Iran— apparently hasn’t any nuclear weapons at the time of the attack on Israel.
My friend Bill Salus has written about this prophecy a number of times, including in his book, The Now Prophecies. He outlines the prophesied destruction of Persia’s (Iran’s) war-making capabilities. He, like I, see things shaping now in the mountainous regions of Iran as building up to the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program.
Bill writes the following.
At the top of my timing list for the NOW predictions is Jeremiah 49:34-39. This prophecy, authored around 596 B.C., seems to deal with what is presently taking place inside of Iran. This ancient foretelling breaks down into two parts, both of which are occurring NOW!
Jeremiah 49:34-37 appears to be alluding to Iran’s military matters, specifically its nuclear and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM’s) programs. then shifts topics to the religious element and the burgeoning conflict between Islam and Christianity…
Elam is the area of Iran that hugs the Persian Gulf. Elam represents about one-fifth of modern day Iran and Persia spreads across the remaining four-fifths of the nation. Persia was the name for Iran until 1935.
About 2700 years ago, two prophecies were issued about future judgments that would come upon Iran. Ezekiel 38:5 addressed Persia, and Jeremiah 49:34 concentrated on Elam. Notice on the map that Elam is the location of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor. It sits upon the convergence of three tectonic plates and is a nuclear disaster waiting to happen. In addition to this reactor, Iran has contracted with Russia to construct several more of these nuclear facilities in the same general area. (The Now Prophecies, Bill Salus, ms page 21)
We should, I think, keep our spiritual senses attuned to what Iran’s tyrannical leadership does next. If they push to complete their nuclear program, the Elam prophecy of destruction might be quite near to fulfillment.
–Terry