Good Luck, Mr. President

ByBrooks Alden

By the time our readers have received this month’s issue of Thy Kingdom Come, America will have decided upon the man who will lead them in the critical years ahead. It will be a time of overwhelming challenge, perhaps far more so than any other presidential term of the past century.

You might think this is quite a bold statement considering the great challenges of the presidencies during two world wars, yet, I believe we are embarking into uncharted waters and while we may have weathered the ferocity of individual battering, we have yet to suffer the collective rage of the economic hurricane coming our way.

 

In a “Special News Alert published in the September 2001 issue of TKC and entitled, “Is Economic Babylon of the Brink,” I outlined a number of factors that could contribute to the economic collapse prophesied in Revelation 18: 10. Among other things, I had mentioned the alarming high levels of consumer and corporate debt, the staggering money supply growth, purposeful economic adjustments that encouraged hundreds of millions of imports from a battered Asia and the massive transfer of money and jobs to shore up their economies. I also touched on the calamitous consequences of puffed up equity markets, along with the nation’s gambling fever; the negative savings rates, the adverse effect of not curtailing illegal immigration, the over-capacity of infrastructure caused by years of excessive economic optimism and the bogus Clinton economic miracle. I had ended my article with perhaps the greatest danger of all, the frightening scenario of a derivative market gone mad.

In that article, I quoted Stephen Roach, the chief economist of Morgan Stanley when he wrote, “We’re certainly headed toward (a global recession).” It didn’t arrive, of course, but only, I believe, because it was temporarily derailed by the tragedy of 911, high money supply increases, low interest rates, tax cuts, higher spending for the resulting wars/homeland security and a somewhat rebounding economy. Still, as I said in 2001, it is a cold hard fact that problems unattended invariably get worse and it is equally true that problems that receive a band-aid approach invariably need further treatment down the road. In many cases, even band-aids weren’t applied to the 2001 problems and so, as the President enters his 2005-2008 term, he faces major economic realities, that, if not properly addressed, will prove devastating to the entire world. When we look at the potential of all these taken together the great need to develop a nation survival strategy becomes very clear indeed.

  • A national debt that is soaring toward the 8 trillion dollar mark.
  • An unsustainable foreign trade deficit.
  • Foreign investors pulling their money out of American investments.
  • Downward pressure on an already eroding dollar.
  • A financial system over-loaded with derivatives, the riskiest of all investment vehicles, and because most are off-balance sheet items, no way of measuring the risk factor.
  • An economy that seems to again be sputtering.
  • The continued out-sourcing of American jobs to third-world nations, creating even more unemployment and declining wages at home.
  • Equity markets that are still extremely puffed up and the terrible effect on the economy and its citizens when the inevitable happens, that is, a return to realistic valuations (and that’s a long way down).
  • A possible rupture in an unrealistic housing bubble.

Given these severe challenges, one would wonder why any individual would even want to be president at this juncture. But, the lure of power is addictive. Still, the cost of war, from an economic, human and political standpoint will remain at the forefront of the President’s agenda and the success in managing the terrorist action will go a long way to enable him to get a handle on other problems. It is clear that the economic/security reasons for the wars, whether safety of oil supplies, opening up markets to avoid a derivative catastrophe, weapons of mass destruction, or what have you, have not produced the desired results and the Mid-East strategy will require constant surveillance, particularly as the radical fringe group of those nations has been emboldened to carry out further strikes against America.

To solve the nation’s problems, another factor has to be addressed and that is the realization that corporate power has seemingly surpassed the power of government in today’s world. How the President will address this, if he even does, will determine how much progress can be made with those other problem areas.

Finally, it might be speculated, “Can America return to a nation of the people and for the people?” Or like other Israel nations, will the white flag of surrender to the international corporations continue to fly high? Are we in a no-win situation? Is it now up to God, will w e see the fulfillment of the prophecy, “Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour is thy judgment come?” Time will tell but it is interesting that the possible dual fulfillment of Daniel 9: 24-27 that is, seventy weeks (490 years- TKC May 2004-A Second Fulfillment of Daniel 9) may well pinnacle in 2007, or, within this next presidential term.

Good luck, Mr. President. We pray you have the resolve, the good intentions and the courage to set America on the road to its great destiny once again.