The days ahead will be very dark and scary for awhile. The last several reports have likely left some of you concerned about your future, and for good reason. Truly, the America as we know it is soon coming to and end. Forces working against our liberty will prevail for a time.
It appears that we will no longer be a Democracy of Republics but a land ruled through socialism. It also appears that we have forgotten the foundation upon which this land was established and upon which it has been a blessed nation. We have strayed so far from those standards that the “Founding Fathers” would barely be able to recognize it now. You need to recognize what appears to be ahead of us so that you know how to respond to it.
We have prospered as a great nation but forgotten the Lord in these blessed times. We fornicate every day like it is our way of life instead of a diversion from the right. We do despicable evils to one another and kill our unborn because a child does not fit into our plans. How self-centered can we be, and how narcissistic can we be to think we can continue to do such evils and escape the Lords wrath.
You rarely hear me speak to you in this light. I try to keep my faith and theology out of the news, but in this case, after seeing the “handwriting on the wall” through the videos I’ve presented for your viewing, you need to know that our days of freedom as we know it are over.
It’s up to you now on what you choose to do from here on out. I suggest you take your dollars and turn them into things that can be used after the fall of America. I suggest you use those dollars to buy food, alternative power, maybe a motor home or Mobile home and put it on some property in the country. Surely there will be rioting and other undesirable things going on so prepare to deal with that reality as well.
God wants us to always remember that He is greater than any problem that we will ever face. His provisions are greater than any need we will ever have. His love for us is greater than any obstacle that we will ever encounter and all He wants us to do is to open our eyes and see Him in all of His glory and allow Him to win the victory for us. We can be sure that He will take care of any situation that we look to Him to handle. His timing may not be according to our schedule and He may come at what we see as the 11th hour but He will come if we will just trust in Him and in obedience cling to Him and His instruction and direction for our lives.
America is on the verge of collapse and so is the dollar. Not only that, but experts are saying that it will be a global collapse. Watch the videos I’ve posted on this site and see what the experts have to say. They say France is already bankrupt and that Germany may be already. Also in trouble is China, Japan, and England (possibly most of Europe, and many other nations).
Do you know what to do should the dollar collapse and the economy goes belly up? Do you know what your family will do in the interim, before things settle and a new monetary system is set up? They are saying, according to one of the videos I posted, that the new system will not be based on cash but on barcodes. . .remember the Demolition Man and how they used barcode cards to spend money?
So if you have not made plans yet, NOW is the time to do so; delay would be unwise, time is of the essence.
As you already know, Congress and the Big Three negotiations broke down with no bailout awarded. “The Washington Post front-pages, “An eleventh-hour effort to salvage a proposed $14 billion rescue plan for the auto industry collapsed late last night as Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on the timing of deep wage cuts for union workers, killing the legislative plan and threatening America’s carmakers with bankruptcy. ” White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said, per NBC’s John Yang: “It’s disappointing that Congress failed to act tonight. We think the legislation we negotiated provided an opportunity to use funds already appropriated for automakers, and presented the best chance to avoid a disorderly bankruptcy while ensuring taxpayer funds only go to firms whose stakeholders were prepared to make difficult decisions to become viable. We will evaluate our options in light of the breakdown in Congress.”The economic repercussions could be huge. Of course, we know now that the President helped them. But before you get into fuss over this, let us consider the report from a few days ago by Dan Weil, about why we should not bailout the carmakers.
“With congressional Democrats and the Bush administration agreeing in principle during the
weekend to drop a few billion on General Motors and Chrysler,
all signs point to a government-backed auto industry bailout.
But could the crisis in Detroit be the product of myth, spin and outright lies?”
This is the very question I have been wondering. Funny how the television ads just keep going as if nothing is wrong, and then, when they think they have a bailout, suddenly they are advertising they now have money because of they bailout.
So how broke are they really? And if they are that broke, why don’t the head CEO’s take a pay cut instead of taking bonuses? It makes you wonder does it not?
Newsmax answered part of this question for me. “As the nation inches closer to an unprecedented investment in private industry, Newsmax has examined the falsehoods being spread to promote the deal. Indeed, the exact amount of money to be doled out isn’t clear yet. GM and Chrysler executives testified before Congress last week that they need $14 billion to survive until March 31.” This sounds fishy to me. Did Congress or did they not learn a lesson from the bailout of the banks? Now they are ready to do it again.
I completely agree with the conclusion that Newmax determined: “Whatever the total, a number of financial experts say it would be money better left unspent until the Big Three and their supporters agree to level with the American taxpayers. Until the car makers can offer convincing proof that they will be able to produce cars at a reasonable price that customers will want to buy, here are four of the biggest whoppers they are relying on to get a massive infusion of American tax dollars:
1. Detroit’s wages really aren’t out of sync with those of auto workers in other countries.
It has been well established that total compensation for U.S. auto workers, including pensions and benefits, comes in around $70 per hour. That compares to $45 per hour for Japanese workers.” [This amount has been dusputed, saying that figure comes from the total of all workers, retired or not, and the total of their benefit packages and other ridiculous numbers to get that amount. They say it’s more like $22 or so an hour.]
“But some auto industry supporters have distorted the argument. They use the American workers’ hourly wage without benefits – about $30 an hour – and compare that number to the $45 hourly total compensation for Japanese workers. Then they claim that U.S. auto makers are actually more labor efficient than their Japanese counterparts.”
“Obviously that’s not comparing apples to apples. If you are looking at apples versus apples, a new auto plant in India offers hourly pay of only $19.” [I’ve been saying for a long time that U.S. factory workers in general are paid too much money and cause businesses to go outside of the United States to take down their costs. The unions are pricing employees right out of a job because of their greed. It never seems to be enough; they want more and more and demand it. Well, let’s see how they like no job at all.]
“And it’s not just line workers who are overpaid. Ford’s chief executive Alan Mulally earned $22 million in total compensation last year – a year that helped push the company toward oblivion. Asked last month if he thought he deserved a pay cut, Mulally said, “I think I’m all right where I am.” [Along with the greed of unions we have the greed of corporate. These people need to lose their jobs, go to prison, or pay some sort of compensation for what they’ve done.]
“Top executives at Bear Stearns, AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch probably felt the same way right before their companies went under.”
2. The auto industry is unique and therefore must be bailed out.
It’s true that auto companies, including suppliers, etc., account for about 3 percent of economic output and employ at least 1 million people. But those numbers aren’t dependent on the financial status of the Big Three.
If the companies go into bankruptcy and come out stronger, the industry will employ about the same amount of people. If not, foreign auto makers will produce more cars in the U.S. and pick up many of these workers.
Plenty other uniquely American industries are taking it on the chin, and no one is calling for a bailout of those sectors. Take newspapers for example. One could argue they are far more important for the functioning of our democracy than the Big Three auto companies.
Newspapers are firing workers right and left and shifting more of their operations to the Internet. And they will have to continue doing so until they can put out a news product cheaply enough and well enough so that readers will pay to read it, and advertisers will pay to appear in it.
That’s called adjusting to a changed market place, something the Big Three have largely failed to do since first facing foreign competition in the 1970s. [Isn’t that what the tax payers have had to do? If the ones who pay for the bailout have to change with the market, so should the too fat Big Three. That’s the way I see it.]
3. Bankruptcy for the Big Three will mean the end of the U.S. auto industry.
That is simply poppycock. A prepackaged bankruptcy actually could leave the major automakers in better shape than they were prior to the financial crisis. Since the mid-1990s, the Big Three made most of their money on gas guzzling SUVs and trucks. That simply won’t cut it anymore. Bankruptcy will force the auto makers to quicken their shift to smaller cars. [The problem is that many Americans don’t want a smaller car. I don’t. I hate the smaller car. Why can’t they make a regular size car that is more gas efficient? I feel clusterphobic in a small car.]
Plenty of companies have emerged stronger from bankruptcy. Nearly all the major airlines have gone through that process and came out stronger than when they entered. Some industry apologists have argued that American consumers won’t buy any cars from the Big Three if they are in bankruptcy because of concern that warranties won’t be honored.
But as long as the companies offer quality autos at reasonable prices and make it clear that warranties will remain in place no matter what happens to the companies themselves, American drivers will want the cars.
Meanwhile, bankruptcy would give the Big Three an opportunity to rework their labor contracts, cutting compensation, and to jettison incompetent executives.
4. A limited aid package now will ensure the industry’s long-term future.
The amount of money being bandied about, $15 billion to $25 billion, is chump change. GM and Chrysler are bleeding $2 billion in cash a month. So the high end of the bailout range keeps them in business for about a year. Then what? Without major changes in their business model, they’ll simply be coming back to Washington with their hands out again.
The Big Three have had so many opportunities to change their practices since the first oil crisis of the early 1970s, yet they have been reluctant to budge. GM still has eight brands of cars, even though critics have pointed out for years that’s probably about seven too many.
As recently as last month, GM CEO Rick Wagoner had the gall to tell Congress: “What exposes us to failure now is not our product lineup or our business plan, or our long-term strategy.” [I don’t agree. If they do not give the consumer a reasonable choice, they will go elsewhere, probably foreign.]
Until Wagoner and others at the Big Three come to realize those are exactly the factors that have put the industry on the brink of failure, there is no hope for improvement. And it’s not a bailout that’s going to make auto companies implement the adjustments they need to survive.
And remember, this current “bailout” bears no resemblance to the rescue of Chrysler in 1980. In 1980, Congress passed, and President Carter signed, a law giving a U.S. government guarantee of a private $1.5 billion loan to Chrysler. Not one dollar of taxpayer funds was ever used in the deal. It’s also important to remember that import tariffs sheltered Chrysler and the Big Three from Japanese competition in the 1980s. And unlike today, Chrysler also had a clear plan to make a comeback and the loan was relatively small.
All of the automakers should follow Chrysler’s 1980s success story: create a viable business plan for the future and get private sources to fund it.
REPOST OF GOPUSA
Spending Our Way Into Oblivion
By Harris R. Sherline
October 20, 2008
How much longer can the United States continue to spend more money than it takes in, and how much longer can we continue our spendthrift ways before something literally gives? The numbers are getting so big that they are beyond comprehension.
For example, billions and trillions of dollars are almost impossible to understand. Generally, we seem to know what a million dollars can buy. We see the number in the prices of real estate and homes, or perhaps the statistics about various businesses. But, we rarely see big numbers illustrated in terms that are easier to visualize. For example, a billion dollars is 1,000 times one million, and a trillion is a 1000 times one billion.
Considering a billion dollars in terms that may be easier to grasp, at an average of $1,000 per month, based on U.S. Social Security Administration statistics, it would cover the social security benefits for over 83,000 seniors (age 65 and over) for one year, and a trillion dollars could pay social security benefits for every senior in America, a total of about 36.8 million, for over two-and-a-quarter years.
America’s politicians are rapidly spending our way into oblivion. Almost a trillion dollars for the Bailout package, including 25 billion for the auto industry, 150 billion for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), an 85 billion loan to insurance giant, A.I.G., along with millions of dollars of “pork” for Hollywood producers (no wonder Hollywood is so anxious to produce anti-Bush movies), stockcar race track owners, Caribbean rum producers, Alaskan fishermen, and who knows what else. Remember, this bill was about 450 pages of text, and since it was handed to Congress only about one day before it was approved, it’s obvious that no one read it or really knew what was buried in it.
In addition, two bills sponsored by Barack Obama are currently working their way through Congress: the Jubilee Act (S. 2166) would cancel as much as another $75 billion worth of Third World Debt and the Global Poverty Act (S. 2433), at an estimated cost of $845 billion.
All this adds up to about two trillion dollars, enough to pay Social Security benefits to the entire senior population for more than four-and-a-half years. We are told the money comes from borrowing, which amounts to putting more currency into circulation.
The ultimate result is inflation. How much and how fast is anyone’s guess, but history is clear about what happens to governments that increase the supply of their currency without appropriate controls and corresponding increases in production. It’s simply a matter of too much money chasing too few goods.
Argentina experienced chronic inflation from 1949 through the 1980s. Hyperinflation exploded to almost 5,000 percent in 1989, when government expenditures reached 35.6 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and subsequently topped out at over 20,000 percent.
A more contemporary example is Zimbabwe, where hyperinflation reached 12,000 percent in 2006, then increased to the point where a single Zimbabwean dollar was eventually denominated as about $10 trillion. The government was finally forced to lop ten zeros from their currency so the calculators could handle the numbers.
When this happens, people refuse to hold their own nation’s currency and convert their money to other assets that they believe will hold their value as their currency continues to rapidly depreciate. In Argentina, wealthy citizens tried to deposit their money in American banks or they bought stock in American companies. The less wealthy attempted to hold U.S. $100 bills or bought houses or gold or commodities, such as rice — anything to get rid of their pesos. They also tried to offset the consequences of unbridled inflation by indexing contracts, which adjusted payments to compensate for the rise in prices over time.
The bottom line is that the currency of a nation that is experiencing runaway inflation becomes worthless, productivity decreases, capital takes flight, and there are a variety of other consequences, such as the government refusing to redeem the bonds it has issued, etc.
The U.S. is rapidly headed down this track. Running continuous deficits and issuing bonds far in excess of our ability to pay is the beginning of the cycle. We’ve been doing this since WWII, and Americans instinctively know that it’s not right. They may not be financial experts, but they know a con when they see one, and most of them seem to recognize what’s happening now with the “$700 Billion Bailout” and have been protesting very vocally. Unfortunately, only a few members of Congress have been listening.
It’s not too late to stop the train, if common sense is allowed to prevail. If not, we can only look forward to more and higher inflation, just as in Argentina or Zimbabwe, with all the consequences that go with it.
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NOTE: Read more of Harris Sherline’s commentaries on his blog at “opinionfest.com.
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Note — The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.
COMMENTARY
How do you see this problem being resolved?
Do you think there is anything you can do to off-set this problem in your own homes?
Are you going to begin putting your assets into other things like foreign currency or gold?
What are your current plans to resolve this issues in your own homes?
Will your own out-of-control spending habits change now that you see the problem our government is experiencing?
What plans can you make now that will help you deal with the coming crash with the situation takes a nose-dive?
Do you have some suggestions for families that you have found helpful?
I welcome your comments on these questons so that your answers can help all of us. I am not an economic experts, but I am sure some of you out there reading this report are, and can help us if you are so inclined. I hope you will be inclined to help us and that we will heed your advice.
Ourdays Report 