Is America on the Brink of Collapse?
by Dene McGriff
Some experts are convinced that America is in decline. They have been predicting her demise for the past 40 years. There is no doubt our borrowing and spending is out of control at levels never before seen. The theory is that once the world realizes we are destroying our own currency, they will cease to support us. The dollar will no longer be the world’s reserve currency and will be replaced by a basket of currencies. Dollars will flood back into America causing the dollar to hyperinflate destroying its value.
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The question is would this be the end of America?
- Would America fall into obscurity? What if America defaulted on its debt?
- What if it could no longer pay for Social Security, ObamaCare or foreign debt?
- Can a country as big as America be brought down this fast? Is America without hope?
- Is it broke? Bankrupt?
- Are the experts predicting the crash right?
- Would a financial collapse destroy America or reduce it to a third world backwater?
Let’s look at this carefully. Countries have destroyed their currencies in the past. What happened to them? Can a country be brought down by financial collapse? Many Christians see this as the way of getting America off the prophetic stage. Let’s look at recent history.
Historical Perspective
The first country to come to mind is Germany which was crushed by debt at the end of WWI by being forced to pay reparations.
At the end of the war in 1919, 6.7 Marks equaled one U.S. Dollar.
By 1921 it was 310 Marks to the Dollar but by November, 1923 one dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 Marks!
Germany, 500,000 Mark Banknote from May 1923. Source >>
One would think that’s it. Germany is gone forever. It will never recover.
But in a few short years Germany was back threatening the entire world with war and came very close to winning it! Defeated again and surely she’s out for good! Not quite. Today, Germany is the largest economy in Europe and the fifth largest in the world (after the U.S., China, Japan and Russia). Today Germany has one of the highest trade surpluses in the world.
In 1991 the iron curtain fell and the USSR broke into pieces. In 1992 inflation hit 240%. In 1998 Russia defaulted on its debt. Today it is the fourth largest economy in the world, an energy giant flexing her muscle again. It is the main oil and gas supplier to Western Europe.
There are many other examples of countries that have gone through hyperinflation. Argentina has had several bouts of inflation reaching 12,000 percent in 1989.
Example. Argentina, 1,000.000 peso. Source >>
But in spite of government corruption and mismanagement, Argentina is a country rich in natural and human resources. Many countries have suffered inflation: Greece, Poland, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, the Ukraine and more recently Zimbabwe. These countries recover. They don’t disappear.
Wealth is not based on the value of paper money but the resources of the country.
Destruction of currency does not spell the end of the country.
One of the most outstanding examples is Japan. After its humiliating loss in WWII, it was rebuilt and became the economic miracle growing to the second largest economy in the world. But in 1989 after years of double digit growth, the bubble popped and assets such as real estate and the stock market dropped in value by 75 percent! They have still not recovered. The government did everything it could to turn the country around. They printed money, increased the national debt to double their GDP. They bailed out banks and businesses, did public works projects, dropped interest rates to zero, but nothing helped. Twenty five years later, Japan is still struggling to recover. But did Japan fall off the map? Did it disappear? No, it maintained its status as the second largest economy in the world until passed by China recently. Now it is down to number three! Poor Japan!
Japan is a tiny island nation of 127 million people, with an aging population in decline, few natural resources, no energy now that it has closed down all fifty plus of its nuclear power plants. It has had to import its energy from other countries at a tremendous cost. Yet it continues to thrive. Why? It knows it doesn’t have the labor force so long ago it moved manufacturing to low cost countries in the region. I worked with some of these companies in Indonesia. Japan has a global network of influence just as we do. Their greatest asset is their people. And as we shall see later in this article, “necessity is the mother of invention” and the Fukushima disaster forced Japan to find and develop new sources of energy.
So we see that historically economic collapse or even defeat in war doesn’t mean the end of a nation. A nation’s wealth is more than the value of the paper we call money. Default or bankruptcy may give a country a fresh start. Leaders of nations may do foolish things, contrary to their best interest and suffer the consequences, but those who suffer the most are the little people. The elites usually come through pretty much with their wealth intact. I spent years in Latin America and most of the elites I knew maintained accounts in European or American banks (just in case). Yes, in periods of hyperinflation the average person’s bank accounts were wiped out completely. I know this first hand from people in countries like Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and other countries. But the elites, banksters and politicians survived.
During the Great Depression* many businesses failed, but others were started and grew to be huge corporations. People made and lost fortunes. But the common folk muddled along and somehow survived and got through it, including my parents who came through the greatest War the world has ever known and built America into what it was in the 60’s and 70’s. But did we learn our lesson?
* The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in 1930 and lasted until the late 1930s or middle 1940s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the world’s economy can decline. The depression originated in the U.S., after the fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929, and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 (known as Black Tuesday). The Great Depression had devastating effects in countries rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25%, and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by approximately 60% Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as cash cropping, mining and logging suffered the most. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. In many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until after the end of World War II. [ — Wikipedia ]
I have written extensively about the Federal Reserve and central banking, going off the gold standard in 1971, the evils of derivatives and the massive debt we have been building.
Does this mean the end of America?
It certainly is not a sustainable path, but in spite of our irresponsible policies and feckless leadership, our commercial empire is far more pervasive with interlocking directorates and financial tentacles that reach into the board rooms of nearly every major corporation in the world. Our military/industrial complex is far more powerful than any of us can imagine.
We are through with ground wars and insurgencies. We are into an era of drones and starwars (energy infrared directed pulse laser) which can be fired from drones, ships, the ground or satellites with one hundred percent accuracy. The new Lightning II F-35 fighter jet is next generation to say the least resulting in complete dominance of the sky. Obama may be cutting troops, but the defense budget is increasing by $150 billion. All things said and done, we are a resource rich country, a global empire with a small population. What about our biggest competition?
There is no doubt that China is an economic powerhouse, but is it sustainable? It is a daunting task to take care of nearly 1.5 billion people but all of these people need food, water, air, shelter, etc. and that comes at a huge price. China is currently importing raw materials, food, minerals, etc. at a breath taking rate. Why? Because they don’t have enough and need to buy it. Let’s be fair for a moment and ask, is China sustainable at current growth rates? The fact that their economy still has central control, the government is subsidizing industry it shouldn’t, building cities no one is moving into and making a lot of decisions that would never be made in a true market economy. Basic college classes in world history tell you that nations grow their economy by forced savings (either by sweat shops the West had in the 19th Century) or by the low wage, planned economy China has had the past 30 years. But that has to change. China will fall under its own weight.
We have to ask ourselves, what constitutes the wealth of a nation? Even if America lost its standing as the world reserve currency; even if hyperinflation destroyed the dollar; even if it defaulted on debt or tried to pay off China and other countries with low value dollars, so what? Is that really the end of America? Or is that cleaning the slate so it can get back on track? This is the worst case scenario but I don’t even see that happening.
I take a slightly different approach than secular economists. I see America as the prophetic Babylon of the last days, the Final Babylon. It meets all of descriptions given in Revelation 16 to 19 as the apostate Christian, commercial and military empire and the only friend of Israel willing, ready and able to sign a Defense Treaty. In other words, does any other country fit this description? If we are looking at end time events happening in the near future, is there time to grow a replacement? What about an Islamic antichrist?
My contention is that even if the American economy were to collapse, it wouldn’t collapse completely! Germany didn’t. Neither did Japan, Russia, Argentina or even poor Zimbabwe (historically one of the wealthiest countries in Africa). The essential wealth of America is its natural resources, agriculture, institutional wealth, the intelligence and skills of the people (in spite of the seemingly purposeful dumbing down of the population), not to mention our commercial empire and global relationships. It took Rome a thousand years to fall, even though the seeds of destruction were there at the time of Christ. The world does not turn on a dime. It takes time to build a nation and even longer to tear it down. But wait! That’s not the end of the story.
Game Changers
I have talked about game changers in the past but there is another one that just came to my attention. The main thing that led to the industrial revolution was learning how to harness cheap energy and that has mainly revolved around oil. It started in North America with the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859 followed by discoveries across the country over the next 50 years. It was cheap oil that fueled growth, the industrial revolution and development in America. From Wikipedia, we see the price of oil for the past 150 years.
In the 1970’s oil production began to decrease and we were becoming increasingly dependent on oil production from the Middle East. Along comes the embargo of 1967 (after the 6 day war) and 1973 (the Yom Kippur War) and the price of oil began to climb. Oil hit the equivalent of $150 a barrel. It wasn’t long before America was spending billions every year importing oil and producing less. By the turn of the century, the word was “Peak oil” (still touted on websites such as http://www.oildecline.com) declared the end of a limited resource. Only so many dinosaurs and so much vegetation was turned into oil which could be captured for our use. And unfortunately, it seemed to be concentrated in the Middle East, an area of the world that didn’t turn out to be that friendly with the West.
As the price of oil hovered around $100 a barrel, the little companies – the equivalent of “wild catters” – began looking at new ways to drill for oil. The big oil companies didn’t bother. The idea of fracking has been around for a long time but it was only perfected in the last ten years, and only the high cost of oil drove the industry to do it. Even though the government, environmentalists and industry are fighting it, the costs are falling and the technology is improving. The idea that fracking is dangerous to the environment is part of the campaign against it. The fracking itself occurs a mile or more below the surface, but since it is under pressure, if the concrete sleeve near the surface is not done properly, there is the possibility of leaks and ground contamination.
Oil is one of the most manipulated commodities in the world.
Just recently, the price of oil spiked up 25 cents a gallon (before the Ukraine uprising) and we were told in the news that it was because of violence in the Sudan. Give me a break! How much oil do we import from the Sudan, or anywhere else for that matter? But the traders, banks and industry use every excuse they can find to keep the price high. They hoard oil in tankers off shore until prices go up. They do everything in their power to pump up the price (pun intended). But in the end, it is a losing game and the speculators will be wiped out.
Fracking is revitalizing oil fields around the world. I was in Texas recently and it is a boom town. No unemployment and money is flowing. The same can be said for North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and around the world. Played out fields in Mexico and the Baltic are back. New finds in Australia, Canada, Brazil, Venezuela and more are coming on line. The price of oil is about to drop like a rock back to $10 a barrel.
The U.S. alone has more oil and gas – many times over – than the rest of the world combined. (see my article) This will wipe out the Middle East that has grown dependent on $100 a barrel oil. But that isn’t all.
Let’s say the environmentalists and “powers that be” have their way and somehow squash fracking, there is something else on the horizon that is even more revolutionary. What if there was a source of oil that is an endless supply that constantly renews itself? No, I am not talking about “abiotic” oil. This has also been around for a while, but just as the oil embargo is going to backfire on the greedy oil producers, another disaster has resulted in the development of this new technology. As I mentioned above, Japan shut down all of its nuclear reactors and it can’t afford to import all of its energy long term, so what is it going to do? They were desperate to discover a new source of energy so they started a “Manhattan Project” of their own.
It took the Fukushima disaster to drive the research to a new and innovative solution – an unlimited amount of energy found in the ocean called methane hydrate. It is sometimes called inflammable ice, a sherbert like substance consisting of methane trapped in ice. You drill down below the surface a half mile or so and separate the water and methane gas. Planets, stars and even the earth consisted of methane gas. According to Wikipedia, “One litre of fully saturated methane clathrate solid would therefore contain about 120 grams of methane.” The USGS estimates there are massive amounts of gas in the oceans of the world, perhaps 300 million trillion cubic feet. This makes fossil fuels obsolete and even removes the fears of fracking. Every day more methane gas seeps into the ocean where it is trapped in the deep cold water off shore.
According to Scientific American the oceans hold many times more natural gas than all of the shale of the world. Environmentalists are going to raise the flag of fear that this is going to exacerbate global warming because “methane is a very potent greenhouse gas”. It will be hard to stop because any country with an ocean on their border could contain the gas and this will rewrite the energy map of the world.
Analysis
I believe it is safe to say that “peak oil” is a thing of the past but these discoveries will destabilize the world economy and wipe out the banks that have been speculating in oil. You think the real estate bubble was bad. This will be worse. Speculators (funded by banking derivatives) will be wiped out as the price of oil falls. It will also destabilize the Middle East as the price of oil plummets leaving the Islamic Fundamentalists without resources to carry out their plans of world domination and the destruction of Israel. They know their time is short and will have to act quickly if they are to accomplish their mission.
This brings us to the final countdown – to the Gog-Magog War, which is essentially a war between Islam and Judeo/Christian countries and Islam’s ultimate destruction. What does this do to that great apostate nation know as the “Final Babylon”? Far from disappearing off the map, America experiences a resurgence fueled by huge energy reserves that will quickly take care of any debt, make America the largest exporter in the world of oil and gas and provide funding for the many campaigns the Antichrist will wage.
Far from being destroyed, America will see a resurgence never before experienced. Are we rich yet? I doubt it. These things just don’t trickle down. You have probably not even heard anyone talk about this on the news. No, these are best kept secret. They want us to believe we are on the brink of destruction, the dollar will fail, we will have to come up with a new currency, a new banking system. Sorry you lost your savings. Times are tough. You understand. The government will take care of you. Be happy. Don’t worry.
America could be the greatest exporter of oil and gas in the world. It could have the largest trade surplus of any nation and no debt! The price of oil could drop to 50 cents a gallon. Your energy bill could drop by 75 percent. But instead, the government blocks drilling and pipe lines, talks of global warming, fear of pollution. I have never been into conspiracies but we really are living in one today. No one is telling us there is a way out. They are pumping fear rather than oil. I don’t see much hope for the little people. The elites will be fine.
You want to know the truth? It is the opposite of what you read or see on television.
We are so easily brainwashed and manipulated and this applies to everyone. Why?
Because deception is the main characteristic of the “last days.” Only revelation and a relationship with God will save us from the coming trouble.
Dene McGriff, Sacramento, March 2014
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