I’m Looking Forward to…

1. The Collapse of the Financial System followed by RFID required stimulus package.
2. US Invasion of Iran and subsequent Attack from Venezuela and occupation.
3. Creation of a Palestinian State.
4. Public execution of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
5. Cataclysmic melting of Nunuvut & Greenland and subsequent contact with the inhabitants of the Hollow Earth. Mississippi River extended to Hudson Bay.
6. Mass migration of US citizens to Canada.
7. Nibiru, our Sun’s little binary twin, returns through the inner system. Massive solar storms and magnetic pole shift.
8. Massive Wasatch earthquake in Utah. LDS Church relocation to Missouri.
9. Israeli initiated limited nuclear war.
10. Return of Jesus Christ, with subsequent divine education in regards to geology, physics, history and more. Rebuilding of society and infrastructure using sustainable and free resources.
11. Nibiru leaves the inner system once again, leaving behind spiritual beings and ancient cities used to build the new Earth.

My Bank Part II

It keeps getting better. This morning, our other bank, Wachovia was bought by Citigroup in a “rescue deal.” Now I don’t know a lot about Citigroup, other than it’s an old bank (Citicorp) that’s seen a lot of hard times. I’m not sure what to think about it yet, but I’d like to think that Citigroup would be a much better lender for our auto loan than Wachovia.

I’m also terribly excited about the news from this morning about the bailout plan rejection in congress today. It’s a ridiculous idea, even after it was refashioned by the congress to introduce more oversight and public transparency. No matter how you look at it, $700bn is a lot of money, especially when those who caused this crisis are able to get off without reprimand.

The buyout of Wachovia by Citigroup is a testimony to the markets ability to solve these kinds of issues while remaining in the private sector exclusively. If the bailout had been enacted, for example (figures made up), the committee for the EESA might have offered Wachovia $70bn for their bad debts and allowed them to stay in business. If this had happened, then Citigroup, a respectable company who is doing much better in regards to stability, would not have been able to match the EESA committee’s offer, thus preventing them from making an honest profitable investment in a failing company in which they were prepared to pay $48bn. You see how this interferes with the free market? Healthy companies are being denied healthy investments when the new rich kid comes into town.

Of course there’s going to be huge failures, but we should also think of the huge winners who’ll come out after the water settles. Let the strong absorb the weak in a natural way rather than change the rules altogether like a spoiled kid who isn’t winning. And we all know who that spoiled kid is, don’t we?

My Bank

My very first bank account, and the very one I have today is with Washington Mutual, or WaMu for the abbreviatory-ticker symbol culture of today. I guess I chose them because they used a lot of blue in their advertisements and blue was totally in back in ‘99 and is today to some extent (though I argue that blue, and also orange, are being replaced by red and white, but not Wells Fargo).

I diverge. You may have read that WaMu was bought yesterday by JPMorgan Chase after regulators shut down the bank. I can only assume they got a crazy good deal on the buyout. But upon hearing this I seemed to remember JPMorgan Chase buying another bank recently. I was right! They bought financial giant Bear Sterns just a few weeks ago.

Who is JPMorgan Chase? Why are they doing so well while others are doing so poorly? I’m trying to figure out the latter, but the former I know a little about.

JP Morgan was a rich dude in the early 1900’s who liked boating, investing, assisting in large corporate mergers and secretly scaring the American public. The last element of his character that I mention is best defined during the Panic of 1907 where he mentioned to a newspaper that one of the major NY banks wasn’t solvent. This wasn’t the whole reason for the panic, but I’m sure it didn’t help either. After and during the panic, his bank was able to buy other banks for pennies on the dollar. (I sure love that phrase! Marketing will never be the same.)

But that wasn’t the worst part of the Panic of 1907 – the worst part was that it gave a reason for the government to enact the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 to prevent against a panic happening again. People were happy, babies were born and people were making a boat load (or a yacht load for Morgan) of money. The Federal Reserve had doubled the money supply in the first 10 years and added 60% more up until 1929.

1929. You should know what that means, and you should also know that the Federal Reserve system didn’t do as it promised in assuring a healthy market. And today is no different. Why are the banks failing again? Again, I really don’t know. But Bill Clinton mentioned on Letterman the other night (start at 4:40 in the video,) that new financial instruments, or derivatives were being used the past few years where banks would lend financing for 30 mortgages with liquidity for only 1. I’m not an economist, and I don’t claim to know what this means, but I assume it means this – for every dollar the bank has, they’re lending 30 dollars assuming that they’ll recover the difference through the interest they collect from the monthly mortgages their customers send in. But when customers stop paying, then banks have no liquidity, or actual cash to spend. Crap, I mean, didn’t we learn that this doesn’t work with Enron? They were the masters of assumption.

Back to my point,… what was my point? My point is this – before the 1929 crash, people, investment banks and other banks could buy market stock by only paying 10% and financing the rest. They called them Margin Loans and the people loved them and they all got very rich. Remember, they called it the “roaring 20’s?” The catch was, the banks could call in the loan with only 24 hour notice. So when one person got scared on Wall Street, the banks would call in their margin loans. No one could pay and it led to market collapse.

Now, the enemy is the housing market. Banks would do that crazy thing Clinton talked about while also lending to risky people with their sub-prime plans and when they needed to call in their debts for liquidity, it wasn’t available. Now the congress is asking the American people to front the bill to add liquidity back into the market, but I’m sure the American people have other liquid they’d like to soak those plans in.

I don’t think we should bail out the banks. It’s happened before, the depression was a terrible part of American and world history, but at least corrupt people lost their jobs along with the poor, and with hard work we pulled out of it eventually.

What am I trying to say? I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I’ll figure it out soon and let you know.

Deep Thought After a Nap

I know it sounds odd, but I feel obligated to offer a thought I had after a nap. It relates to prophesy and religious matters in the current world scene, specifically with some highly notable figures in todays media.

First, it’s important to be familiar with Revelation 11. Go ahead and read it, then return. This speaks of the two witnesses who are killed by the beast in the last days, lie dead is the streets for days, them miraculously rise again.

The passage mentions the ‘beast’ which is often referred to as the antichrist, or a system that is antichrist. We often hear of a ‘mark’ or ‘number’ associated with the beast that is placed on all of it’s subjects and without the mark “no man might buy or sell.” (Rev. 13:17) Whether this be a biochip in the hand or forehead, or simply the credit cards that we hold in our hand and remember the pin in our heads, it doesn’t really matter. All we know is that a financial institution is central to the ‘beasts’ empire of control.

Back to the two witnesses; they will be two men who testify to the world calling them to repent and forsake the beast and his control over mankind. They will “torment them that dwell on earth,” wear “sackcloth” and testify for “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” (or around 3 1/2 years.)

They’ll fight the financial institutions that are built like temples to man’s greatness, have these systems declare war upon them and be hated to the extent that the entire world will rejoice when their dead. So I present to you the two men to the right. On the left Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden. If you’re so inclined, please, please, please read this letter to the American people by Osama Bin Laden. Start with section Q2, where he states “What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?” FULL ARTICLE.

The letter is powerful, and nearly every faithful person in the US cannot say that he is wrong in the majority of his statements. We have permitted immorality in our system. We are controlled by evil corporate empires that are destroying the environment, impoverishing weaker nations and enslaving mankind. He even mentions AIDS as a “Satanic American Invention” (Which is something I personally believe. Maybe in a future blog post.) Again, I encourage you to read the letter above.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I believe what I’m writing. I’m simply putting forth an idea, a possible explanation for a religious prophesy that most Americans are familiar with. The God that I understand isn’t always predictable, doesn’t always make sense at first; even allowed Sampson (a noted terrorist,) to kill hundreds, had Joshua (another terrorist,) to brutally invade Israel, and commanded Nephi (Book of Mormon prophet,) to assassinate the king of Jerusalem. So assuming that these two terrorists could have been called of God shouldn’t seem too far fetched.

I fully support Barack Obama as our next president, but I also need to be weary. He seems to have come from nowhere, rallied the world behind him with his enthusiasm and energy and will undoubtedly aim to remedy the economic crisis the US and world is enduring and reignite the war against radical islamists in favor of an unnecessary war in Iraq. These ingredients could easily produce the ideal environment for the ‘beast’ to come to power and set the stage for the two witnesses to be killed. The world today can change so rapidly that almost any conceivable idea could become reality in only months and it’s up to those with a watching eye to warn against calamities that could befall the best of men.

Don’t read this as doctrine, fact or even speculation. It’s probably best to read this as entertainment until we know more about what’s really going on in the world. So this concludes my odd post-nap thought.

It Makes Sense Now.

NPR reported that four US oil companies may win exclusive rights to drill Iraqi oil. Big deal, right? We all suspected since the beginning of the war in 2003 that we were only there for oil, but it’s now a reality. The radio program said there are 100 billion barrels of oil at stake in the bidding.

Now here’s why it makes sense; 100 bil. barrels x $140.00/barrel = $14 Trillion. Yes, trillion – or otherwise, 14 thousand billion. Why wouldn’t we fight a war for a $14 trillion booty. The Spanish Conquistadors fought wars in South America for far less money.

I say we let them do it. If the US companies are taxed for their revenue at 35%, that brings 4.9 Trillion in corporate taxes into the system that could pay for half of the national debt.

On top of that, we should demand $50 gift cards to the GAP.

Evolution of Safe Transportation

In 1900, two Waverly automobiles collided in Providence, Rhode Island leaving all with bruises. The cars were light, exposed and slow.

In 1970, Martha’s Honda Civic smooshes Pete’s Daihatsu. Pete buys a Audi 500 in 1985 and smooshes Martha in her Honda. Martha picks up a Buick Regal in 1988 and smooshes Pete’s Audi. Pete then bought a Ford Ranger in 1990 and runs over Martha’s Buick. Martha runs to the dealership and gets a GMC Suburban to host a monster truck rally in her neighbor hood and smooshes Pete’s little truck. People jeer. Pete rides the bus for 10 years then buys a Hummer H2 and drives in through Martha’s living room window, smooshes the piano, drives through the wall and into the garage and smooshes her Suburban. Martha waits for the settlement to clear and buys this:

Perhaps if they were riding bicycles back in 1970, Martha and Pete’s collision would have been less devastating and perhaps they would have just laughed.