FINANCIAL CRISIS COMING VERY SOON.....

The Next Financial Crisis - Britt Gillette - http://www.end-times-bible-prophecy.com/the-next-financial-crisis.html A few days ago, marked the 50th anniversary of one of the most significant events in world history. On August 15, 1971, Richard Nixon announced he was "closing the goldwindow," thus ending the U.S. dollar's convertibility to gold. This ended the post-World War II Bretton Woods monetary system where the world operated on a gold-backed U.S. dollar with other world currencies pegged to the dollar. It also began the new eraof fiat currency and sowed the seeds of the next great financial crisis. Fiat currency is not backed by commodities such as gold or silver. Its only value comes from the public's willingness to accept it as a means of payment. Since Nixon's announcement, allthe major governments of the world have used nothing but fiat currencies. Prior to 1971, this had never occurred in human history. The Danger of Fiat Currency Why was Nixon's announcement such a significant event? Fiat currencies are dangerous. They eliminate government financial discipline and accountability. When nothing backsa currency, the government can print unlimited currency units. The more currency units that exist, the less valuable they all become. If you earn and save in fiat currency, you lose purchasing power over time. The government is essentially stealing from youvia inflation. This means government spending is no longer restrained by collected tax revenue or fiscal responsibility. For example, during World War II, the United States launched a massive war bond campaign to raise the money necessary for funding the war. They did so because U.S. currencywas backed by gold and silver. They couldn't simply "print" the dollars needed to fund the war. But that’s no longer true. Since 1971, the U.S. has funded the world's largest standing military, fought two wars in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan, and countless otherconflicts. In doing so, they never once launched a war bond campaign. They simply printed the dollars they needed. Since 1971, the U.S. government has been on a spending binge. In 1971, the U.S. national debt was $398 billion. Today, it's $27.8 trillion. That's an almost 70-fold increasein debt in the past 50 years. To fund this massive rise in debt, they've run the printing press. This means the value of a dollar has decreased significantly in the past 50 years. In 1971, an ounce of gold was $35. Today, an ounce of gold is $1,781. That'sa 98% decline in the dollar's purchasing power. And before you attribute the rise in national debt to the declining purchasing power of the dollar, take a look at the debt relative to national income. In 1971, the U.S.debt to GDP ratio was 34%. Today, it's 127%. That's an almost four-fold increase in real terms, and it's a debt level many economists believe is unsustainable. As bad as this is, the United States isn't alone. In a world awash in fiat currency, debt to GDPratios are terrible all over the globe. Japan's debt to GDP ratio is 256%. Canada's is 116%, and the United Kingdom's is 107%. The Eurozone alone is home to a number of troubled nations – Greece (181%), Portugal (132%), Italy (155%), France (115%), etc. Compounding the problem for these nationsis they owe their debt in a fiat currency they can't print. The European Central Bank controls the euro, and that puts all these nations at potential risk of default if they can't make their debt payments. A default by any of those nations will ripple throughoutthe European banking system which holds billions of euros worth of government bonds. If European banks become insolvent, financial contagion will spread throughout the world and plunge the world into a financial crisis far worse than the Great Recession, onewith the potential to be worse than the Great Depression itself. The Central Bank Conundrum The U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and central bankers throughout the world are well aware of this potential scenario. It's their worst nightmare. More than anything else, they fear an out-of-control deflationaryspiral akin to the Great Depression. This is why central banks engaged in unprecedented measures in 2020 to prop up financial markets as the COVID-19 crisis unfolded. But now they face a conundrum. If they keep these policies in place, we'll have runaway inflation.But if they reverse their "easy money" policies, they risk triggering the very financial crisis they're so eager to prevent. For example, in the United States, interest on the national debt is $378 billion. This is the fourth largest expense in the annual budget. A good portion of the nationaldebt is financed using treasury notes with a maturity of less than ten years. If the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, the interest on the national debt will grow and eat up a larger and ever growing portion of the annual budget. The same is true forother countries. In addition, hundreds of U.S. companies are now "zombie" companies. These are heavily indebted, poorly managed companies that depend on low interest rates to meet theirloan interest payments. If interest rates rise, those companies will go bankrupt. The same is true for many individuals. A large number of consumers carry variable interest debt. If interest rates rise, they'll no longer be able to meet their debt obligations.In short, raising interest rates will plunge the U.S. economy into a depression. And the same is true for all the other major world economies. According to Bloomberg, world debt now stands at $281 trillion. This is the total amount owed by governments, companies, and households. It represents 355% of global output.That's nearly four times what the world produces in a year. This level of debt can never be paid back. Either it will end in default or it will be paid back with devalued currency. The first option will lead to immediate pain and suffering, with bankruptcies, defaults, massive unemployment, and widespread social unrest. The second option offers analluring promise of a way to avoid such pain. Which option do you think politicians and central bankers will choose? The Next Economic Downturn When the next economic downturn arrives, it will be in the form of a severe global depression. Unable to service their massive debts, many individuals and companies willdefault. Those defaults will leave the banking system on the verge of bankruptcy and politicians scrambling to put together another series of bailout packages. The government and central bank response to this crisis will be bigger than their response to theCOVID-19 crisis. What will they do? They'll run the printing press. They'll bail out companies on the verge of bankruptcy. They'll buy stocks and corporate bonds. They'll backstop people'smortgage and student loan payments. They'll do anything and everything they can in an effort to avoid the inevitable economic pain. And then they'll institute something they've wanted for a long time - universal basic income. Every man, woman, and child willreceive a monthly stipend equivalent to an average worker's salary. A desperate population will welcome it. But it won't be enough. When the prices for rent, food, and energy double as a result of all this printed currency, the government solution will beto double the amount of the monthly payments to combat the rising prices of the "greedy" corporations. But the problem won't be rising prices. The problem will be a failing currency. This process will play itself out over and over until all the world's currenciesare driven into hyperinflation and the entire system comes crashing down. A Dangerous Time Hyperinflation has ravaged individual nations in the past - Weimar Germany, the post-war Austro-Hungarian Empire, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and others. But hyperinflation hasnever hit all the world's nations simultaneously. Maybe it won't this time either. But keep this in mind, never before have all the world's major economies simultaneously been run on fiat currencies. This experiment is only 50 years old, and it's quickly comingto an end. What happens when it inevitably falls apart? What happens when lives are ruined, life savings are lost, and the streets are filled with hungry people? We don't know. Buthistory provides us with clues. In times of chaos and economic instability, dangerous political leaders and demagogues often rise to power. They capture the public imagination with promises to end the chaos and restore stability. Past economic crises led toevents such as the rise of Napoleon, the launch of the Bolshevik Revolution, and the consolidation of German state power in the hands off Adolph Hitler. All these events had grave consequences for the entire world, not just the individual nations involved.Why should this time be any different? What the Bible Says The Bible describes just such a scenario in the end times. Revelation 6 says an entire day's wages will barely buy enough food to survive (Revelation 6:5-6). This describesa world ravaged by hyperinflation, and it's the backdrop against which the Antichrist makes his drive for global conquest (Revelation 6:3-4). Ultimately, the Antichrist will implement a global economic system which requires the people of the world to worship him. The Bible says he will require everyone on earthto receive a mark, and no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark (Revelation 13:17). We see the beginnings of this system today as paper currencies give way to digital currencies. Once this transition is complete, government will be able to controlall buy/sell transactions, just as the Bible foretold. This is one of the many Tribulation events casting its shadow on our day and time. Along with the restoration of Israel (Jeremiah 23:7-8) and the many signs Jesus and prophetssaid to look for, all these events are converging for the first time in history. Jesus said when you see this happen, you can know His return is soon (Luke 21:28). So rather than hang your head at the trials and sorrows set to come upon the world, lift youreyes to heaven. He's coming soon! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another Shipping Nightmare Is About To Play Havoc With Global SupplyChains – Tyler Durden - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4904 Yesterday we reported that with container shipping rates already blowing out to never before seen levels amid continued chaos in Transpacific shipping as a result of massiveport backlogs and production delays in China due to the relentless onslaught of covid, a new and even greater price surge was on deck. An outcome which would nuke hopes for renormalization in soaring inflation - as a result of the partial (for now) shutdown of China's busiest port by volume (and third-largestcontainer port in the world after Shanghai and Singapore) when operations at the Ningbo Meishan Container Terminal, were immediately suspended following positive Covid test results. Well, it didn't take too long for Bloomberg to report that the spread of the delta variant could "lead to a repeat of last year's shipping nightmares", and for confirmationlook no further than the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest post, which in June saw its volumes dip because of a Covid outbreak at the Yantian port in China, and which is bracing for another potential decline because of the latest shutdown at the Ningbo-Zhoushanport in China, a spokesman said. Anton Posner, chief executive officer of supply-chain management company Mercury Resources, said that many companies chartering ships are already adding Covid contract clausesas insurance so they won't have to pay for stranded ships. And here is the core problem with all those endorsing a "transitory" inflation spike captured in a perfect soundbite: just when it seemed as if things were just startingto calm down, "and we're now into delta delays," said Emmanouil Xidias, partner at Ifchor North America LLC. "You're going to have a secondary hit." And then a tertiary, then quaternary, and so on because after Delta - we have Lambda, and then a whole lot of other Greek letters, ensuring that the "pandemic" persistsat least through the Nov 2022 midterm election which - for obvious reasons - will have to be mail-in, and thus the pandemic will have to last at least until then. Meanwhile, prices are about to go into the stratosphere: the shutdown at Ningbo-Zhoushan is raising fears that ports around the world will soon face the same kind of outbreaksand Covid restrictions that slowed the flows of everything from perishable food to electronics last year as the pandemic took hold. Infections are threatening to spread at docks just as the world's shipping system is already struggling to handle unprecedented demand with economies reopening and manufacturingpicking up. The good news so far, Ningbo-Zhoushan Port said in a statement late on Thursday that all other terminals aside from Meishan have been operating normally, and that the portis actively negotiating with shipping companies, directing them to other terminals, and releasing information on a real-time data platform. To minimize delays, it's also adjusting the operating time of other terminals to make sure clients can clear their shipments. A spokesman for the port told Bloomberg therewere no further updates when contacted Friday. Despite the port's cheerful take, some ships that docked at the Meishan terminal before the closure have suspended cargo operations until the terminal re-opens, accordingto a notice sent by shipping line CMA CGM SA to shippers. Other vessels which usually call at the Meishan terminal will stop at the Beilun terminal instead, according to a statement Thursday from A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S. One ofthe company's ships will skip Ningbo next week, it said. "We are working on contingency plans in order to mitigate the likely impact on our vessel schedules and cargo operations," Orient Overseas Container Line, a subsidiary ofOrient Overseas International Ltd. container subsidiary said via email. While Ningbo city which hosts the busiest port in the world is still considered a low risk virus area, at least according to the city's health commission, flights to andfrom the capital Beijing have been canceled. And herein lies the rub: authorities in Ningbo said the port worker was fully vaccinated with an inactivated vaccine and had the second dose on March 17. The worker wasasymptomatic as of Thursday afternoon despite the "breakthrough" infection. He was infected with the delta strain, genetic sequencing showed, and epidemiological investigation shows the worker had come into close contact with sailors of foreigncargo ships. In other words, if Delta really is that contagious, all hell is about to break loose not only in Ningbo but across global shipping lanes. Meanwhile, as Chinese shippers brace for the worst, they are busy daytrading various hyperinflationary indicators such as the Baltic Dry Index which serves as a global benchmarkfor bulk shipping prices, and which is up more than 10% since a month ago as the delta variant began to spread rapidly. As shown in the chart top, container prices also have soared, with the benchmark cost of shipping a container from Shanghai to Los Angeles up more than 220% over the pastyear to $10,322 this week. And if the Ningbo port closure escalates, those numbers are about to go exponentially higher. Finally, commenting on the emerging shipping chaos, Rabobank's Michael Every ties it in to the latest wholesale inflation data, writing this morning that "the US PPI printyesterday laid bare the surge in input costs still coming through the pipeline, most notably in that while the headline was up 1.0% m/m, almost double expectations, and 7.8% y/y, the core component ex- food and energy also spiked 0.9% m/m and 6.2% y/y. As we have already seen in China, somebody is going to have to swallow that. Will it be producers, compressing their margins? Or will it be consumers, depressing their realincomes? Considering around 25% of capacity at China's third-busiest port just closed down again due to Covid-19, which will push global shipping further past its limits just asthe US needs to restock for Black Friday and Xmas, the one thing that does not seem likely is a rapid drop-off in supply-side inflation." -------------------------------------------------------------- Food Productions Update – Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ Farmers all around the world are unable to get a break from bad weather. In a previous article, I noted that China has had record flood damage to many crops. This is thesecond year in a row that China has had a failed growing season. The corn and soybean crop in the US has been a mixed bag. Some of the northern states like North and South Dakota and Minnesota have been too dry. The crops in the restof the Midwest are rated as being in excellent condition. The crop is not safe until it makes it into the silo. Last year’s Derecho that ripped through Iowa proves that point. The drought in California continues to get worse. The water levels of many reservoirs are at all-time lows. California already had 500,000 acres not get planted this yearbecause of the lack of water. California grows more than a third of our vegetables and two-thirds of our fruits and nuts. Millions of trees have had to be cut down because the farmers could not get thewater needed to keep them alive. Salt damage, caused by the lack of drainage with fresh water, is taking tens of thousands of acres of farmland out of production. Southern Africa is suffering through its worst drought in several decades and perhaps a century. Diminished and late rainfall, combined with long-term increases in temperatures, has jeopardized the food security and energy supplies of millions of people in the region,most acutely in Zambia and Zimbabwe. The drought in South Africa is bad because it is normally a major exporter of grains to other nations. The only good news I could find is in Australia. Grain production down under is expected to be strong in the 2021-22 marketing year following a record-breaking wheat productionyear, according to a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Food production in South America has been an absolute disaster. In Brazil, drought and frost caused second corn yields in the country’s center-south to hit their lowestlevel in 10 years. Crop losses due to unfavorable weather may result in shortages and persistent food inflation due to Brazil being a top player in global corn production. Reuters, citing a new report via agribusiness consultancy AgRural, said drought, then frosts destroyed much of the crop this year. Brazilian farmers expect to harvest around51.6 million tons of corn, down 19 million from last season’s 70.5 million. “Failure of the 2021 corn crop, planted with much delay due to the later soybean harvest, was the result of the lack of rain in most of the producing areas in April andMay,” AgRural said. “The frost starting at the end of June and lasting until now reduced yields and also caused quality problems.” Besides corn – citrus trees, coffee, and sugar cane in Brazil have also been heavily impacted by adverse weather conditions. Prices for coffee beans are up 50% in the past12 months, hitting seven-year highs in July on news of the frost. Chile is not a major producer of food but is suffering such a massive drought, it raises concern for its neighbors. The drought in Chile is now in its 10th year, going frombad to worse due to a scorching July, a month which typically brings midwinter weather showering the capital Santiago in rain and snow. The USDA’s quarterly Grain Stocks report, released with the June 30 Acreage report, shows sharp declines in corn, soybean, and wheat stocks. Corn stocks totaled 4.11 billion bushels, down 18 percent from the same time last year. Soybeans stored totaled 767 million bushels, down 44 percent from last year. Allwheat stored totaled 844 million bushels, down 18 percent from a year ago. What helped draw down US grain stocks is China importing a record amount of grains in 2020. The nation bought 11.3 million tons of corn, exceeding the annual quota, set at 7.2 million tons, for the first time. It also importeda record 8.38 million tons of wheat. As China works to rebuild its swine herd, the country imported over 100 million tons of soybeans, with nearly 40 million tons coming from the United States. It was just two years ago that China said it was going to boycott America’s grain supplies. With Brazil a bust for this year, Chinese grain ships are going to be liningup at American ports. Washington DC is probably starting to wonder how much grain we can afford to sell to our Asian trading partner. As we get close to the last days, food production is likely to become more problematic. Since the Bible predicts a deadly famine will take place in the tribulation, it explainswhy we are having one bad year after another. “And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in hishand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine” (Rev. 6:5-6). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISIT: PROPHECY WATCHER WEEKLY NEWS: HTTP://PROPHECY-WATCHER-WEEKLY-NEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM