Chapter Two - continued

“Water, food, clothing, shelter, heat. These are the things we need. The simplest may be the most difficult. Millions of people in this country depend on a government supplied water source. When the government shuts down, and the electricity goes out, many will not have potable water. Even those with their own well depend on electricity to draw the water to the surface.”
“Those with windmill-driven pumps or with running springs will be at an advantage. However, almost everyone lives near water that can be treated to make it safe to drink. My suggestion is to have a good supply of chlorine tablets or other water purifiers such as Clorox on hand.”
“Next, have some canned food on hand or other dry packaged food: some kind of food that doesn’t need a freezer or refrigerator to keep. Perhaps you shouldn’t go overboard on this, like trying to store 2 years supply. Probably a few months would suffice.”
“But, anyone with operating solar panels will be at a great advantage; they will likely be able to generate enough electricity to run a water pump and keep a refrigerator running.”
“I guess that would make them pretty popular in the neighborhood,” Bruce interjected.
“I guess it would,” Dad responded. “Let’s hope those people are the sharing, caring kind.”
“And what you have on hand will only last so long, so seed for next year’s planting should be procured as well and stored in a preserving environment,” Dad added.
“As far as clothing goes, we have enough on hand and it would last a long time but I know I didn’t throw my last pair of shoes away when I got my new ones, just in case. Also wouldn’t hurt to have extra waterproof boots or rubbers and a supply of gloves for winter.”
“Next, keep a good supply of matches on hand and flashlight batteries. We are going to be burning wood or some other fuel and using candles to see at night. So matches will be very important to keep the fires burning, and of course, it would also be good to have a supply of candles on hand or perhaps some sort of lanterns.”
“As we uncovered in the earlier questioning, gold and silver coins on hand certainly wouldn’t hurt. You can’t eat, drink, wear, or burn them to keep warm, but the thought is that they will always have a value and might replace the dollar as a medium of exchange. Then, they could be used to buy or trade for other things you might need.”
“Now not everyone, me included, can afford to buy gold and silver coins. Especially the way the price of them skyrocketed as the dollar lost value. But as the price of gold and silver rose, so did copper and about a year ago a penny became worth more as copper than as 1 cent. So, I started saving them knowing that the copper itself would always have value and could possibly one day be used to purchase needed goods.”
“About a month after I started saving them, the national news reported that it cost about 1.2 cents to make a penny. So I thought they would be hoarded and the supply depleted. But they are still around, so not everyone was thinking like I was. Also the person that truly has lost faith in the dollar would want to minimize his holding of assets on paper and even paper currency. Maybe you can think of other tangible items that can be stored at your home easily, taken with you, and that would still have some value either for your own use or to trade with others for items that you may need?”
“Like bar soap, toothpaste, medical supplies?” Bruce asked.
“Yeah, things like that,” Dad answered. “And there’s one other that I hate to mention.”
“What’s that?” Bruce asked.
“Ammunition. It can serve three purposes. We live in a rural enough area that we can harvest game to stretch our food supply. Second, it can be an item we could use to trade with other people for supplies that we may need. What I don’t like about that whole concept is what the people might use the
ammo for. They may use it to rob and kill others. It’s a thought I don’t like. But it brings me to the last reason to have some ammunition on hand. It equally scares me and I hope it never becomes necessary and that’s for protection. When the collapse finally comes, I have no clue how the population is going to react. In some of the more populated areas that have no gardens or open land to raise food and no livestock operations that can supply meat, chaos might reign. People will have to leave the cities just to search for food, but before that happens, people might just kill each other for the food that is available. I would hope we would never have to revert to killing to protect ourselves and preserve what we have.”
“It will require a paradigm shift to service. We will have to overcome our desire to preserve the self and adopt a community centered approach. Our minds and hearts will have to have the attitude of helping others for the survival of everyone. But it won’t be easy to keep selfish feelings under control when you might not know where your next meal is coming from. Even though I believe this will happen, that the communities will survive because of this change of heart, there still may be a lot of killing and a lot of people dying before it occurs.”
“Do you think the Illuminati will allow this to happen?” Bruce asked.
“The Illuminati?” Dad replied. “What do you know about the Illuminati?”
“Hey,” Bruce said, “you’re not the only one who listens to Tio Jorge. I’ve listened to a few shows myself on nights when I couldn’t sleep and I heard more than one show referencing the Illuminati.”
Dad asked, “So who do you think they are or what purpose do they serve?”
“Bruce replied, “I don’t know anymore than you do, but according to some of the guests on the radio show, the Illuminati are a group of people who control the world; pretty much by controlling the money. It’s the bankers behind the big bucks and other top business people and world leaders. The Illuminati has been purported to exist for centuries. They’re the people who make things happen in this world. Some say the Illuminati chooses our president and other world leaders through methods that I can’t even explain. Sometimes through assassinations, eliminating candidates or leaders who they don’t think are serving their purposes. They claim it was the Illuminati who start some wars. Spanish-American and the First World War come to mind. Started them to suit their purpose because members of the Illuminati would stand to profit from wars either by loaning the money to finance the war or by selling the munitions outright. The purported purpose of the
Illuminati is to control the world looking at it strictly on the basis of greed. But I wonder sometimes if they think their motive is to save the world.”
“How do you figure that?” Dad asked.
“Well you must have heard that the Illuminati thinks the population of the world is way too great and it’s been reported that they would like to have it reduced to about five hundred million from the six or seven billion it might be now.”
“Yes,” Dad said, “I did hear that.”
“So,” Bruce continued, “if they think that overpopulation is going to ruin the earth and bring about its final demise, then their goal of reducing the population in order to save the world would an honorable one despite the morally wrong aspects of their methods.”
“Do you believe that?” Dad asked.
“No,” Bruce said, “if they exist, I think they exist for their own greed. If they really do wish to make more money, lowering the population would hurt them as they’d be eliminating billions of their customers. You can’t sell anything if there is no one to buy it.”
“So,” Dad asked, “do you really think they exist and would they hold up the dollar to prevent the US economy from failing?”
Bruce said, “It doesn’t matter whether I think they exist or not and I don’t know that even if they did exist that they would have enough power to stop the looming collapse.”
Dad answered, “If they do exist, then whatever they do is out of our control so why concern ourselves with it. And if they do not exist, then they absolutely present us with no problem, so the bottom line is, we shouldn’t base any of our actions on their existence or non-existence.”
Bruce responded, “That makes a lot of sense. And another thing,” he continued, “Many would say that the oil companies come under the influence of the Illuminati.”
“Do you think that’s true?” Dad asked.
“No, I think the oil companies are the small fish in the pond. If it’s true that the Illuminati profit greatly from war then perhaps defense contractors might be part of them or at least might come under their control. Wasn’t it President Eisenhower who warned us against the military-industrial complex?”
“I believe it was,” said Dad.
Bruce said, “And there’s a fear among some of the guests on the radio that the globalist movement is being advanced by the Illuminati to serve their purpose. Do you think that’s true?”
“Globalists? Well we heard that story before; started with NAFTA and that theory that our president, the president of Mexico, and the prime minister of
Canada have made an agreement to become a single union like they did in Europe. I’m not sure that a North American Union would work in the Illuminati’s favor. But irregardless, I’m not convinced that the globalists, whomever they may be, would bring about the destruction of the world. Actually they might just be doing what needs to be done. Jesus never told us to set up borders. One day His kingdom will have no borders. However, He did tell us that at the end of the age nation will rise against nation, so I guess in order for that to happen we must have borders and separate nations. The end result will be Christ’s kingdom but I think the time between now and then will be pretty tumultuous. I would hope that many people will be prepared for many of the things that appear on the horizon.”
“Oh!” Bruce said, “how did he miss that last shot? That would have won the game. But, it didn’t and it’s time to head home.”
“Yep,” Dad said, “I’d like to get home too. I missed ‘Lost’ on Wednesday, no one taped it for me, and it’s being replayed tonight. See ya later.”

Look for chapter three next week… Mort

CHAPTER TWO - PREPARATIONS

Summer progressed. Dad had his garden. That made Mom plenty of work. I went to summer camp. It was pretty hot that week. My brothers played softball. I got to see a couple of the games. My sister, Mel, and I went to hunter safety training. There are a lot of things people say about the Pennsylvania Game Commission and not always nice things, but Dad always says, give credit where credit is due and the Game Commission’s hunter safety training program is an excellent program. I did not know if I was going to go hunting one day or not. In Pennsylvania, it’s a requirement that you have this safety course before you are allowed to buy your first hunting license. So even though I did not know for sure if I would want to go hunting this was the time do to it. I went along hunting sometimes with my dad. I enjoyed seeing him and my brothers shoot, especially that black powder rifle. So maybe, someday, I will hunt too.
My sister, however, must have had other reasons to attend the class. Whether she was ever going to go hunting one day or not was debatable. I heard her and Dad talking a little bit about it. She’s looking one day to be employed in the business arena and that might entail moving to an urban area and I guess her thinking was she would just like to be familiar with firearms and know the safety procedures involved with handling them. And again, Dad had stated that the Game Commission’s program was an excellent one that everyone should take advantage of.
The course went well. Eventually soccer practice started. I was ready for that but I was not ready for school, middle school; just didn’t like the whole idea. For my brothers and sister, school was easy. It wasn’t for me. I managed. Teachers turned out to be very helpful and so were my friends, and Dad, and especially Mom.
Mom had been having some interesting feelings. I heard her expressing them to Dad. She had feelings like there was a life-changing event coming. She couldn’t explain it. She did not know what it would be and she said it wasn’t ominous. She did not think it was going to be anything bad but for months she just had a funny feeling that things were going to change in our lives.
Dad had a little different dilemma. He was still on his economic disaster kick and doing little things to prepare for it. He described his dilemma thusly: even as faith-filled as he was, he wasn’t always certain if the
messages he was receiving and the insight that he had was coming from God through the Holy Spirit or whether it was coming from Satan and trying to mess us up. He prayed a lot about that. Prayed for that gift of discernment. Our minister used to tell him that you can make the judgment if it’s from Satan or from God by whether or not the action or the ideas are good or bad. That wasn’t always crystal clear.
But to further confuse him was the thought that if Jesus was revealing things and Dad chose to ignore them then he was refusing to accept a mission given to him by Christ. That he’d be demonstrating an unwillingness to serve as he was called to do. It certainly wasn’t easy to figure out but Dad just kept plugging along.
He didn’t always have to initiate the conversations either. One night we attended my cousin’s basketball game and I overheard him talking with my Uncle Bruce.
Bruce said, “I just got my oil tank filled, largest bill I ever had, over $1200.”
“Yeah,” Dad said, “oil is up again; sure glad I filled my tank in summer. Really glad I have that coal stove. Coal isn’t cheap either, but I can burn wood if I have to. How has it been affecting your business?”
Bruce worked at a local branch of a national bank. “Not real well,” he answered. “The feds upped interest again. We have to adjust peoples’ mortgages and loan payments. People just can’t afford it. Some are going to lose their homes. Others are cashing in their savings bonds. Doesn’t pay to keep them. People need the money. My colleagues say it’s a national trend. People are scared. No one likes what’s happening to the dollar.”
“Saving bonds are kind of interesting,” Dad said. “The government has this big debt, nine trillion plus dollars, and some of it’s to us. Everybody that buys a savings bond is contributing to the national debt.”
“Also helping the government pay their bills which they sure don’t have any problem running up,” Bruce said. “A lot of people have lost in the stock market, too.”
“But don’t they say there’s a winner for every loser?” Dad asked.
“Ha!” said Bruce, “might be true, but I’m not hearing about many winners. I’m starting to believe bad times are ahead.”
“So,” asked Dad, “how many people are taking the attitude that the government will keep us and save us and take care of any problems that develop, just like they did in the 1930s?”
“Maybe too many,” Bruce answered.
“Dad replied, “So some people are not putting their faith in Washington?”
Bruce said, “Perhaps the smart ones aren’t. Name something that Washington did right in the last fifty years.”
Dad thought a little bit and then answered, “Well, it’s actually easier to name the things they did wrong, running up the debt, Waco, taking prayer out of schools, legalizing abortion, Vietnam. The only good thing I can think of at the moment would be the civil rights legislation that brought some semblance of equality to black Americans. I guess there are some others, but right now they allude me.”
“Well,” Bruce said,” at least our men and women soldiers are finally coming home from Iraq.”
“Oh, that’s true,” Dad said.
“And you know what?” Bruce said. “You had once said that as soon as Saddam Hussein was executed, the boys would start coming home and you were right. Since he was executed last month, the plans have been put in place for us to end our involvement.”
“Yeah,” Dad said, “I was pretty sure that despite President Bush’s shortcomings, he wasn’t going to leave Iraq before that job was finished. I always wondered what the real military objective was in Iraq, but I was almost sure he would not make the mistake his dad made and come home leaving Saddam there as a threat.”
“So, I guess,” Bruce said, “the government can do good things sometimes. But back to what I asked you before, how can anyone be prepared for what’s coming up?”
“Well,” Dad said, “not completely prepared, but little things can be done.”
“Like what?” Bruce asked.
“Well, you tell me,” Dad responded. “If the dollar fails, are the banks still in business?”
“No,” Bruce said.
“How about the stock market?”
“Complete collapse,” Bruce said.
“Insurance companies?”
Bruce answered, “No money to pay out, none coming in.”
“How about the government?”
“Barring a miracle or a foreign government taking over --- powerless,” Bruce answered.
“So then,” Dad said, “what happens to the money in your checking account?”
“Gone,” Bruce said.
“How about your stocks?”
“Gone,” Bruce said.
“Your retirement fund?”
“Disappears, Bruce said.
“Your insurance policy?”
“Worthless.”
“Your municipal bonds?”
“No one there to pay them.”
Dad continued,” How about silver dollars and gold pieces?”
“Oh,” Bruce said, “they’ll still have their value.”
Dad answered, ”That is if you physically have them. How about if they’re on paper?”
Bruce said, “Then they’re gone too.”
“So,” Dad went on, “I guess that means that you can’t depend on those items for your existence and for your well-being, so what can we depend on. What can we put our faith in? Who can we put our faith in?”
“Oh, no, you’re not pushing Jesus on me again, are you?” Bruce asked. Now Dad did not push Jesus on anyone. He even considered it one of his shortcomings. He would have liked to spread the Gospel more and when he did, it was subtle.
“Not exactly,” Dad answered, “can you answer a couple more questions?”
“Sure, go ahead,” Bruce said.
“Who did the Romans put their faith in?” Dad asked.
“The emperor,” Bruce answered.
“And what happened to them?”
“They’re history.”
“How about the European kingdoms in the Middle Ages? Who did they put their faith in?”
“The king.”
“Where are they now?” Dad asked.
“Other than England and a few other figureheads, they’re a thing of the past.”
“And the Nazis in Germany. They’re faith was in whom?”
Bruce answered, “The Fuehrer.”
“And where are they now?”
“Defeated,” Bruce said.
“How about Communist Russia?”
“Ah, their faith was in an ideal.”
“Was it a lasting ideal?” Dad asked.
“No, they’re finished also,” Bruce said.
Dad responded, “Well, that remains to be seen. Who do the Jews put their faith in?”
“Okay,” says Bruce, “you’ve gotten there now. God, of course, and they’re still around.”
“At this point,” Dad said, “but even they seemed deserted by God for almost twenty centuries. Our country has put its faith in God over the last 200 years but maybe more so like Russia in an ideal, democracy. But faith in both God and democracy has declined and has been replaced by faith in the dollar and its parent government.”
“Too much faith,” said Bruce. “We need to put our faith in something more substantial and someone more everlasting.”
“Now, who’s evangelizing?” Dad responded.
“Got me,” said Bruce.
Dad continued, “So you see, Christ is the answer. However, even though he will always be there for us, he did tell us that until he comes again, we would have to live in this world. He keeps our soul and spirit safe but to answer your original question about preparing, here are a few things we can do to preserve our bodies and to provide us with the things we need to survive.”

To be continued… Tune back in next week

ARE YOU READY ?

CHAPTER 1 – SIGNS

“Nine trillion dollars! Can you believe the federal government is nearly nine trillion dollars in debt?” my father asked at supper one evening. Daddy had a lot of opinions about government and the economy. He often shared them with us at suppertime. Our family wasn’t always together for supper. Sometimes Dad worked nights and therefore was sleeping then. My older siblings were often still at work, even me, at 11 years old had to be at soccer practice, music lessons or youth club at suppertime some days. But tonight we were all here. My full grown older brothers, Josh and Jake, an older sister, Melanie, Mom, Dad, and me, Alyssa, daddy’s little girl. Of course, I didn’t always understand what the grownups were talking about at mealtime, but I did recognize the gravity of them and I can still remember things that were said then.
"Nine trillion divided by our population 300 million is $30,000 of federal debt for each man, woman, and child in the US,” Daddy continued. “This debt will be the downfall of this country one day.”
It was sometime in late winter 2006 when Congress had raised the debt limit. I certainly could not fathom how much nine trillion dollars was nor could anyone at the table but we all realized how dangerous it was if for no other reason than Daddy’s temperament level.
“And it is on what the federal government spends all that money is the problem,” Melanie added. Mel was a junior in college and a finance major, therefore, she could usually inject important information into many discussions, or at least she could crank Daddy up about it.
“Some of this is because of the illegal immigrants,” Josh chimed in.
“How so?” Dad asked. Josh really didn’t have a good answer. He was just prompting Dad to more feverish discussion.
“Well,” he said, “it’s going to take money to build this fence on the Mexican border and to deploy the National Guard to patrol the border. Actually, that’s future spending, but Congress is great at spending money they don’t have. I’m right, aren’t I Dad?”
“You hit the nail on the head, son,” Dad answered. “But even right now, we, the taxpayers, are already paying for social services such as medical care that illegals are receiving in this country but that’s just a small portion of the spending the federal government does on social services for all of us.”
Mom jumped in, “I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t blame our government’s poor fiscal policy on the illegal immigrants. Just like them, our forefathers came to this country seeking prosperity and religious or other freedoms.”
“For the most part though, they entered legally,” Josh added.
“That’s true,” Mel said, “but remember that they are our brothers and sisters, simply separated by a man-made border, a border that perhaps should be torn down, not built up. Of course, I don’t like the fact that they are breaking the law, but the employers that knowingly hire them without proper paperwork, pay them under the table and don’t deduct the appropriate taxes are breaking the law, too. They should be held just as accountable. Additionally, the loss of that revenue isn’t helping the federal debt or the budgets of state and local government.”
“Well said,” Jake said, “the high oil prices can’t be helping either.”
“In more ways that one,” Dad continued. “Since oil has skyrocketed, the cost of everything has gone up with it; even the federal government has to pay more for the gasoline and heating oil that they use. Therefore, more tax revenue is needed and every business’s costs will be greater to pay for transportation, heat, and air conditioning. Their profits will be less, so tax revenues will drop, thereby, increasing the debt even more.”
“It’s not a pretty picture, is it?” asked Josh.
“Not at all,” Dad responded. “Do you think the founding fathers ever imagined a runaway central government such as ours?”
“Not according to our 12th grade social studies teacher, Mr. Adam,” responded Mel. “He thought the founding fathers recognized that the central government had to be controlled.”
“That’s why we have two senators from each state,” said Josh. “They were trying to maintain a balance of power. They also assigned certain powers to the federal government and reserved some for the states."
“That’s right,” said Dad. “But there is one state right that has been usurped by Washington and further drives up the federal budget and because revenue is short, up goes our debt even more.”
“Which right is that?” Mom asked.
“Education,” said Dad. “Education is a state right and responsibility but Washington has their fingers way too deep into it to suit me.”
“You mean like the ‘No Child Left Behind Act’?” asked Mel.
Dad continued, “That’s only one example of central government interference in our lives. A part of our lives that we’d prefer to have local control over. It truly is one major expenditure that could be completely eliminated from the federal budget. I know I’d vote it out if I was a congressman.”
“So what else is driving up our federal debt?” Mom asked.
“Well, the war in Iraq certainly isn’t helping,” responded Jake. “Why are we there, anyway?”
“Oil,” said Josh.
“The Monroe Doctrine,” said Mel. “We have to convert the whole world to democracy.”
“We’re the UN’s police. We had to enforce the sanctions Saddam Hussein had agreed to but reneged on. He really is an evil man, isn’t he?” Jake added.
Dad had a strong opinion about war. He hated it. He defined war as when old men who are supposed to be wise make decisions that cause young men to die. He pined for the day when war would not be an acceptable method of conflict resolution. About the time we were having this supper discussion, there were some Marines on trial for murdering civilians in Iraq. Dad went on, “what they did was wrong and probably a crime but maybe more of a crime was the fact that 537 elected officials in this country and countless other appointed United States government officials and military leaders, not to mention other nations’ leaders, had put our young men in harm’s way. I also feel war should be horrific. Many people should die or be maimed, burned alive, civilians murdered, cities destroyed, women raped, children carried off into slavery. The suffering should be monumental. Pillaging, looting.”
“Gettysburg, Hiroshima, Stalingrad, Iwo Jima, the Holocaust comes to mind. That is what war should be like. Forget rules of engagement, forget honor. Kill or be killed. Annihilate the enemy. Of course, no prisoners, and torture should be an integral part of any war. The uglier the war, the better. War has to be so terrible that no one will ever choose to take part in one again.”
“Leaders who think they can engage an enemy and because of integrity, technology or special weapons, have that engagement be sterile with few deaths, no civilians being hurt, or property damage are fools.”
“Gone are those days when kings would line up their armies in a green field, some blue coats and others red coats. The nobility would watch from a nearby hill in fancy dress and the women with parasols. They would shoot at each other until one commander would choose to retreat. The other side’s king would declare victory. The issue decided, the nobles happy and safe, while the commoners headed to the once lovely, but now bloody field, to retrieve the dead and wounded, many to die later from infection. But today, we still go to war and for what reasons. We fight for democracy, idealism, nationalism, imperialism, or economic reasons. So, for which of these reasons did we invade Iraq?” Dad concluded.
“I guess only President Bush knows for sure,” Mel said.
Dad answered, “I guess he does. But what I don’t guess is that God had a hand in it.” Now it did not take long for dad to bring God, Jesus, or the Bible into our discussions. For dad was faith-filled. It drove him. It guided him. He believed in the power of prayer. He used the Bible often to explain his positions. Dad didn’t mean that this war that we’re fighting was for God, what he meant that God’s will was being done. He knew this because he had prayed before we went to war while that decision was being made that God would give George Bush the right answer, the answer that God wanted, and that God’s will would be done. So, when the decision was made to go to war, even though dad hated it, he accepted it because he knew that’s what God wanted. That day when they pulled Saddam Hussein’s stature down, he realized it all the more that God’s will had been done and he recognized that the Iraqi people had been relieved of their suffering. It was God’s will and that was wonderful. The problems that come since, the high price of oil, whatever, that is just some of the consequences. The world is full of consequences.

week two
“So what is making the price of oil so high?” Josh asked.
“Well,” Dad said, “a lot of it has to do with greed. Many people would say it is the oil companies but some of it is out of their control. Crude oil is traded on the commodities market and the commodities market, like the stock market, is where the people are trying to make money without working anything, which I always felt was less than honorable, and somewhat unproductive. At the commodities market, speculators are trying to determine what the future price of things are going to be and with all the instability in the world, they’re bidding the contracts, the future contracts of crude oil, higher and higher and higher. Then once the prices of the future contracts go up, the cash prices follow. That’s the price that even the oil companies have to pay for the crude oil that they buy, and henceforth, everything goes up after that.”
“But the futures market has a real purpose doesn’t it Dad?” Josh asked.
Jake chimed in, “Sure does. In the futures market manufacturers can buy the inputs that they need ahead of time and then therefore know what their costs of production are going to be. A flour mill can buy its wheat. A trucking company can buy its fuel. An aircraft manufacture can buy its aluminum. This enables them to determine the price they will need to charge before production starts so their sales department can sell their products ahead of schedule at a known profit. Also, the wheat growers, the oil drillers, and the aluminum refiners know what they are going to receive for their commodities, insuring a profitable venture before they plant, drill or smelt. The whole process brings stability to the marketplace. So you see, the futures market does serve a purpose.”
“All that is very true,” said Dad. “It does have a purpose, but it seems like the speculators, investors whose only stake in the process is their money, overreact once in a while to every touchy world situation or weather report and drive the process out of whack.” Now Dad did not know everything. He was quick to admit that, but he learned a lot from a late night radio show that he listened to. Tio Jorge. They had a lot of different guests on. They had economists, political analysis, scientists, futurists, and so some of the things he knew about the world he learned from them, but other things he had learned in school. He learned from the Bible and from talking to many, many people.
“What do you think about inflation, Dad?” Mel said.
“Well, it’s not a nice word,” Dad answered. “I know it can’t go away as long as the price of oil continues to climb, because the cost of oil figures into the operational cost of almost every business whether it’s the production part or the transportation part. I do know the government is making a crazy mistake raising interest rates to combat inflation.”
“Yeah,” Mel said, “I don’t understand that one either, even though some of my professors try to explain it, that you stop inflation by raising interest rates.”
Dad answered, “No basis in my mind. You have to look at the cause of inflation. The cause of inflation is higher prices. Specifically, in this case, higher oil prices. What good does raising interest rates do to lower them? I think they are blind and I really think they are going to cause big trouble yet. Raising interest rates even reduces revenue for the federal government, increases their costs because the federal government is borrowing money all the time. Less revenue, more expenses, up goes the debt. It is a no-win situation. High interest is bad for everything and everyone except for the rich and the banks who get to charge the higher rate.”
“We’re back to that federal debt again, Dad,” said Josh. “It’s just no good, is it?”
“So,” Jake said,” what’s going to be the sign? How are we going to know when everything is going to collapse?”
“I don’t know,” Mom said. “It’s probably when this war with Iran kicks up.”
“Whoa,” said Mel, “we’re going to have a war with Iran?”
“I don’t know,” Mom said, “you just hear little things; they’re trying to negotiate this and that. We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. Israel is up in arms about it,” she concludes.
“It doesn’t look so good,” Dad chimed in, “I don’t really understand it. It’s all right for us to have nuclear weapons but it’s not all right for Iran to have nuclear weapons. It doesn’t sound like it’s fair to me. Just another reason to have a war, I guess. But I don’t really see this one happening. I think something else is going to happen to bring about the collapse or the next calamity.”
“What are you thinking, Dad,” Josh asked. “Well, one of those analysts on the Tio Jorge show a few months ago mentioned that Iran is the third largest exporter of oil in the world. Can’t remember who was first and second. I think Venezuela was first, maybe the other is Saudi Arabia. One of Iran’s biggest customers is China. Iran has hinted that they want to trade their oil in euros instead of in dollars. This analyst said that it’s a big problem because our debt is in dollars and our debt is to a lot of these countries that buy oil from Iran, whether it’s China or Japan. They are going to have to call in our debt. They are going to have to replace our debt with euro debt and our dollars are going to become even more worthless. So, in a sense, the next war that we have might not be a military war, it might be an economic war. We are already getting so many things from China.”
“That’s right Dad,” Jake said. “Everything at Wal-Mart is Chinese.”
“Well,” Dad answered, “I guess not everything, but there are a lot of people in China that can produce things and at a much cheaper cost than we do here but that is what China’s holding over us and perhaps one day that is what is going to finally finish our dollar off. The dollar has not been getting stronger. Silver was up to $14 an ounce. It used to be around $6 or $7. Gold went over $600 for the first time in fourteen years. Oil over $70 a barrel. Whenever it takes more dollars to buy something than it did before, that means the dollar is getting weaker and becoming more worthless all the time and that’s what is going to bring our downfall one day. I wished I was wrong, but that’s what the next war is going to be about. It’s going to be an economic war.”
“So,” said Mel, “the next war is not going to be Armageddon like we read about in Revelation?” Dad said, “That we don’t know. The Bible tells us only God knows when that’s going to be and personally, I think it is foolish to be guessing about it all the time. What I do know is whatever happens, we have to trust Jesus to take care of us. Although we can be prepared spiritually for tough times there are also some things we can do to prepare. But we can talk about that some other time. What’s for dessert?”
To be continued... look for more next week.
Note: I added the rest of chapter 1 to last week's blog so, at least for this week, new readers would not have to go to archives to catch the beginning of the story. Mort