An old college friend asked me recently where I really think America is headed. I basically said that our nation is an out-of-control train running top speed with an incompetent and suicidal engineer at the throttle. To change metaphors, our country is a packed jumbo jet with an unlicensed pilot at the controls. (While he’s not a real pilot, he did have breakfast with one at one of those local motels a few years ago.)

To be fair, the incompetent “pilot” has had help from Republicans and Democrats, in and out of Congress, including George W. Bush. With that, Republican fanatics just turned me off and went to the fridge for a can of adult refreshment.

While I have been an optimist all my life, believing a sovereign God is in control of our lives and over this world; I am convinced God permits us to hang ourselves. Believing that we will reap what we have sowed and we will reap proportionally, I think, out of various possibilities, we are going to experience the worst-case scenario. Yes, that is positive pessimism.

In no obvious sequence, I see the following taking place.

We are facing almost total rejection of mainline political parties with an infusion of new blood coming to power that may or may not keep their word once they get to Washington. It seems that when politicians arrive in D. C. they turn to the left. Power usually does that. They contract “Potomac fever” and become raving, lying, power-hungry aristocrats as the fever makes them think they really deserve all the praise, perks, and power that are handed over to them. However, even if the soon-to-be elected crowd is very courageous, competent, and committed it is too late, in my opinion, to do much more than delay the dismantling.

The stock market could fall far below 5,000 and gold pass $5,000 an ounce and unemployment pass 25%, producing tent cities or shantytowns across the nation. Soup lines in every city will be as common as political ads in October, straining churches and charity groups to the breaking point.

With fewer Americans working, the state and federal governments will be unable to pay their bills causing the printing of even more money (more inflation) or repudiating debt, including Social Security, Medicare, Military pensions, etc. That would result in Americans feeling abandoned, angry, and alarmed. Their protests could make the storming of the French Bastille look like a schoolroom fuss.

As America comes apart at the seams, I will be shocked if a coup d’état does not occur carried out by retired and presently serving military personnel who have been horrified watching America become a third world nation. When they are convinced that America has been taken over and is being dismantled, it will not be difficult for men to convince themselves that they have a duty to “do something” to save this country. After all, they will justify their action because “We took an oath to defend our country against domestic and foreign enemies.”

Muslim fanatics will take advantage of our problems or may be used as the trigger for these problems by launching a massive attack against our churches, governments, police departments, schools, and any place easily accessible to them. Alternatively, the attack may be low tech such as suicide bombers or mass random shootings since those are not complex and can be easily carried out causing unrest, uncertainty, and unlawfulness throughout every hamlet, town, and city in America.

Our largest, glitziest malls will be turned into ghost malls with only a few retail stores still in business.

We may see astronomical crime rates with child abuse, armed robbery, kidnappings, shootings, extortion, etc., doubling within months, and prisons packed and seething with angry, desperate, and hopeless people ready to explode

Frustrated, fearful people living on the edge will force divorce, abortion, and suicide rates into the stratosphere.

With crime exploding, police forces will be cut to the bone, leaving citizens without any promise of protection, forcing homeowners to defend themselves. .

As funding to cities and counties stops, so will the services as garbage stacks up, school buses stop running, all unnecessary classes eliminated such as all sports, foreign languages, home economics, shop, art, music, etc. Teachers and students will protest to no avail since if no funds are available, no checks can be written. I.O.U.’s will be normal for state and federal workers.

Gangs, KKK, skinheads, and other opportunists may control parts of major cities even into the suburbs. A spark such as the killing of a political demagogue or religious leader could ignite irrational actions resulting in major cities going up in flames. Gangs and mobs (but then, I repeat myself) would then take over neighborhoods and move to the countryside in search of food, fuel, and fun. Blood may run in the streets and neighborhoods as citizens fight back in self-protection.

My view of the immediate future and for decades ahead is one of gloom but long-term it is glory for Christians! However, we must live in the here and now, and Christians would be wise to plan for “hard times” because hard times are coming. During the trials, trouble, and turmoil ahead of us, men will finally realize that toys and things don’t matter and are not in the league with faith, friends, and family.

That’s what I think is really ahead of us. I hope and pray that I am wrong.

The party is ending and the hangover is here.

Copyright 2013, Don Boys, Ph.D.

An old college friend asked me recently where I really think America is headed. I basically said that our nation is an out-of-control train running top speed with an incompetent and suicidal engineer at the throttle. To change metaphors, our country is a packed jumbo jet with an unlicensed pilot at the controls. (While he’s not a real pilot, he did have breakfast with one at one of those local motels a few years ago.)

To be fair, the incompetent “pilot” has had help from Republicans and Democrats, in and out of Congress, including George W. Bush. With that, Republican fanatics just turned me off and went to the fridge for a can of adult refreshment.

While I have been an optimist all my life, believing a sovereign God is in control of our lives and over this world; I am convinced God permits us to hang ourselves. Believing that we will reap what we have sowed and we will reap proportionally, I think, out of various possibilities, we are going to experience the worst-case scenario. Yes, that is positive pessimism.

In no obvious sequence, I see the following taking place.

We are facing almost total rejection of mainline political parties with an infusion of new blood coming to power that may or may not keep their word once they get to Washington. It seems that when politicians arrive in D. C. they turn to the left. Power usually does that. They contract “Potomac fever” and become raving, lying, power-hungry aristocrats as the fever makes them think they really deserve all the praise, perks, and power that are handed over to them. However, even if the soon-to-be elected crowd is very courageous, competent, and committed it is too late, in my opinion, to do much more than delay the dismantling.

The stock market could fall far below 5,000 and gold pass $5,000 an ounce and unemployment pass 25%, producing tent cities or shantytowns across the nation. Soup lines in every city will be as common as political ads in October, straining churches and charity groups to the breaking point.

With fewer Americans working, the state and federal governments will be unable to pay their bills causing the printing of even more money (more inflation) or repudiating debt, including Social Security, Medicare, Military pensions, etc. That would result in Americans feeling abandoned, angry, and alarmed. Their protests could make the storming of the French Bastille look like a schoolroom fuss.

As America comes apart at the seams, I will be shocked if a coup d’état does not occur carried out by retired and presently serving military personnel who have been horrified watching America become a third world nation. When they are convinced that America has been taken over and is being dismantled, it will not be difficult for men to convince themselves that they have a duty to “do something” to save this country. After all, they will justify their action because “We took an oath to defend our country against domestic and foreign enemies.”

Muslim fanatics will take advantage of our problems or may be used as the trigger for these problems by launching a massive attack against our churches, governments, police departments, schools, and any place easily accessible to them. Alternatively, the attack may be low tech such as suicide bombers or mass random shootings since those are not complex and can be easily carried out causing unrest, uncertainty, and unlawfulness throughout every hamlet, town, and city in America.

Our largest, glitziest malls will be turned into ghost malls with only a few retail stores still in business.

We may see astronomical crime rates with child abuse, armed robbery, kidnappings, shootings, extortion, etc., doubling within months, and prisons packed and seething with angry, desperate, and hopeless people ready to explode

Frustrated, fearful people living on the edge will force divorce, abortion, and suicide rates into the stratosphere.

With crime exploding, police forces will be cut to the bone, leaving citizens without any promise of protection, forcing homeowners to defend themselves.

As funding to cities and counties stops, so will the services as garbage stacks up, school buses stop running, all unnecessary classes eliminated such as all sports, foreign languages, home economics, shop, art, music, etc. Teachers and students will protest to no avail since if no funds are available, no checks can be written. I.O.U.’s will be normal for state and federal workers.

Gangs, skinheads, and other opportunists may control parts of major cities even into the suburbs. A spark such as the killing of a political demagogue or religious leader could ignite irrational actions resulting in major cities going up in flames. Gangs and mobs (but then, I repeat myself) would then take over neighborhoods and move to the countryside in search of food, fuel, and fun. Blood may run in the streets and neighborhoods as citizens fight back in self-protection.

My view of the immediate future and for decades ahead is one of gloom but long-term it is glory for Christians! However, we must live in the here and now, and Christians would be wise to plan for “hard times” because hard times are coming. During the trials, trouble, and turmoil ahead of us, men will finally realize that toys and things don’t matter and are not in the league with faith, fellowship, friends, and family.

That’s what I think is really ahead of us. I hope and pray that I am wrong.

The party is ending and the hangover is here.

DUMPies are Destitute Unprepared Mature People who had “confidence in the system” and who were “sure everything will work out all right.” However, their faith was in the wrong place.

My view of the immediate future is one of gloom but long-term it is glory! However, we must live in the here and now, and Christians would be wise to plan for “hard times” because hard times are coming.

The financial experts (those talking heads who never told people to sell before the dot.com crash and the present popping of the real estate bubble) always put a positive spin on every negative problem. It is always a “buying opportunity.” However, when you look at the unemployment figures, plunging real estate values, consumer spending, manufacturing, savings, bankruptcies (personal and corporate), credit-card debt and loan defaults, it is obvious that the nation’s economy is in deep trouble.

Those of us not trained in economics can understand a simple fact: when falling income and rising debt converge on the same family or business, the result is financial disaster. We are at that juncture today, even a Harvard professor knows we are in a recession and speeding swiftly into a major depression! Yet the wise guys on Wall Street and media pundits tell us “we are in recovery.”

However, remember that not one famous Wall Street oracle told us to SELL before the market started sliding. No, it is always a “buying opportunity.” You see they are called “brokers” because if you deal with them very much you will be broke! Do you know that none of the Wall Street hot shots or television pundits told us to sell Enron even as close as a couple of weeks before it sank! As the ship was going down, it was time to buy more shares of the Titanic!

I expect many large corporations, banks, S & Ls, and insurance companies to go belly up. If one has money, he should diversify. In fact, rather than have savings or CDs in banks, I would have some in Swiss annuities.

Swiss insurance and annuities are 100% funded by a currency not backed by gold but “as if it were.” There is no reporting to the IRS or any other agency and no taxes are paid until one receives payments, usually when one is much older and is required to pay less taxes. These financial instruments are easily purchased (at the present time) from US representatives—at no commission although Swiss companies may not solicit business in the U.S. One may buy directly from Swiss companies or use a U.S. rep. The interest on Swiss annuities is higher than what U.S. companies are paying.

My point is to do what the very wealthy have done for 300 years: send some of your money where it is safe. Often the very wealthy are greedy but they aren’t stupid. They send their wealth outside the states before the blood flows in the street—Wall Street, that is.

Our problems are not exclusively American. Japan had been sinking into recession for many years after many of their high dollar U.S. investments went south a few years ago. You may remember that Japan walked away from their investment in Rockefeller Plaza. Recently, Japan’s large banks have improved their financial standing.

Japan is the lender to the world—the source of 60% of the world’s loans. Where will the money come from when Japan dries up like an old Jersey cow?

The party is over in South Africa and disagreement, disdain, and distrust rule the day. The silver lining is gone and a dark cloud hangs over the nation in which liberals had put much hope. Mandela promised homes and jobs and was not able to produce, and the natives are restless on the reservations. It is a nation of malcontents, and any small spark could set off a powder keg that would reverberate around the globe.

Mexico has problems in at least 14 states besides Chiapas. Two political assassinations and about 200 extortion kidnappings have not helped stabilize the nation where the peso was devalued in 1994. The U.S. bailout was too little too late. I expect massive bankruptcies, social unrest, assassinations, political corruption and general turmoil. Moreover, it is folly to think it will not cross the Rio Grande. Everything else has!

Putin may lose control of Russia and a new “strong man” may appear who will try to reconstruct some of their losses after Communism’s collapse. I see many more problems between Russia and former members of the Soviet Union. Many of the “republics” have “former” Communists in the driver’s seat, and they can’t drive since they always turn left! In addition, the Russian mafia is almost running the nation. It is sure running many of the banks. Bribery, political corruption and intimidation are widespread. Not only could the economy collapse, but also anarchy could be their future.

Of course, there are massive problems in France, England, Germany, etc. The dark cloud covers most of the world indicating a storm is coming. Make reasonable preparations, and lash yourself to the Mast. Finally, be of good cheer for the Son is above the storm!

I am suggesting that the party is over. Difficult days are ahead for all of us. It is time to save, cut back, make do, do without, plant a garden, fill a large pantry with food and water, and buy some gold and silver. Abraham did!