I used to feel like the cartoon character carrying a sign with an ominous message on front and back: “Prepare: The End is Near.” I’m not alone anymore. Famous money man Jim Rodgers said, “Be prepared, be worried, and be careful.” He told the media, “Eventually, the whole world is going to collapse.” He declared, “This is going to end badly.” That’s what I’ve been saying, but few have listened; even some loved ones thought I had run off the rails.

In 2009, the Telegraph warned in a headline for everyone to prepare for potential global collapse within the next two years! That was “global” collapse and while the date was wrong, you can count on the reality taking place! And some of my friends suggest that I am an extremist! Yes, I have said that panic (an out-of-control response to economic collapse) was coming to the U.S., not because I am a prophet but because I connect the dots. Moreover, I expect the panic on Wall Street to reach Main Street where chaos will reign.

Need I remind you that the U.S. is about 19 trillion dollars in debt? However, that is not exactly correct when you add the unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and veterans pensions. Totaled, the amount of the national debt is about 120 trillion dollars!

One hundred twenty trillion dollar bills laid end to end would reach to the sun and back about 62 times! And you thought you had debt problems! Well, you do because a massive portion of that debt is on your back and your children’s backs, and your grandchildren’s backs.

Economic analyst Michael Snyder declared that a financial collapse is imminent “within the next six months.” The choir is getting so loud, but I’m afraid few are listening.

Americans and Canadians should prepare for very difficult days ahead. If you are planning on Social Security or even a corporate pension to support you, you may be standing on a bridge of mist.

I suggest that everyone develop a second profession or trade. A lawyer should learn to install carpet, a physician should learn to refinish furniture; a teacher should learn plumbing; a salesman should learn small engine repair. And everyone should put out a garden—and not only for health reasons.

Make plans now to get out of debt personally and corporately. Churches should start debt retirement projects. If I were a pastor of a church that owned multi-acres, I would seriously consider selling a few acres to pay off the debt and delay the erection of a new building. Of course, churches can’t put every building program on hold and not make moves that circumstances require, but I would move very carefully.

If (when) total financial collapse comes, the cities will be madhouses, so make plans to get your family to safety—that means at least 20-30 miles from a metropolitan area. Property values are still reasonable in small towns and a wise investment might be to buy a rental that you could move to when dangerous times arrive. Or you could buy a lot on a lake or a mountain side and put a mobile home on it. You could always rent it or retire there if the future is rosy.

In 2005 I wrote that in a few years 8 or 10 family members would live in the same house because of difficulty in renting or buying a house. I wrote, “Older people will live with their married children and grandchildren—three generations in the same house. .. Few people will drive a new car and vacations will be short, or non-existent. People will once again learn to ‘make do’ with what they have.” We are almost there!

DUMPies have “confidence in the system” and think “Sure, everything will work out all right.” But their faith is in the wrong place and faith without works is dead.

It would be prudent to purchase some freeze-dried food from some survival outfit and a few five gallon cans of beans and rice. You should also have many gallons of water packed away for an emergency. Most people think such suggestions are extremist, but not so. Our grandparents would not have considered having empty pantries. After all, disasters do happen, don’t they? A wise person plans for all contingencies as much as is possible. And trusts God with the rest.

If there is a financial collapse, you can count on a breakdown of law and order. Surely there is no question about that. In event of riots, it would be wise to have a couple of guns and ammo available! What! A Christian shooting someone? Yes, if a mob kicks down my door, be assured that they will be shot. Then I will expect a commendation from the governor for doing a favor to all people in Georgia! It is very “Christian” to protect your family.

My view of the immediate future is that it will be rough with a very “hard row to hoe” but that doesn’t mean not trusting and resting in the Lord–which doesn’t mean not planting a garden! We must live in the here and now, and Christians would be wise to plan for “hard times” because hard times are coming. What will you do when chaos happens?

Of course, there are massive financial, immigration, and political problems in France, England, Germany, Italy, Greece, etc. Dark clouds cover most of the world indicating a storm is coming. Make reasonable preparations, and lash yourself to the mast. Don’t be a DUMPie.

Troubles, tests, trials, and tribulations are ahead but I can see the Sonlight through the gloom. Finally, remember, Jesus said, In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

Boys’ new book, Evolution: Fact, Fraud, or Faith? was published last week by Barbwire Books; to get your copy of Evolution: Fact, Fraud, or Faith? click here. An eBook edition is also available.

One portentous indication of trouble just surfaced on Jan. 3 when it was revealed in a headline: “Billionaires Dumping Stocks.” The article on Newsmax website reported that Warren Buffet is “dumping shares at an alarming rate.” In fact, he sold 19 million (no misprint) shares of Johnson & Johnson and he is very disappointed in Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, and others.

Billionaire John Paulson also dumped 14 million shares of JPMorgan Chase, and all of his shares in Family Dollar and Sara Lee.

Then there’s billionaire George Soros, the radical leftist that conservatives love to hate, who sold almost all his shares of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs. Obviously, George doesn’t have any confidence in financial stocks. Humm, wonder what he and his fellow billionaires know that we don’t know?

Maybe these wealthy elite know that a massive correction is coming on Wall Street. Highly revered economist Robert Wiedemer, author of the best seller Aftershock, says that the stock market could fall 90%! Wiedemer predicted the collapse of the housing market in an earlier book.

Standard and Poor’s suggested that Wiedemer’s prediction “demands our attention,” while Philip Gross, founding CFO of American Online said the book was “A compelling argument for a chilling conclusion.”

CNN reported that about half of Americans agree with the doomsday predictions: “48% [of Americans] see a second Great Depression.” I think it will be called, “the Greatest Depression.”

We must remember that our government is $17 trillion in debt, almost $150,000 per taxpayer! But then we must take our pencil from behind our ear and add Social Security obligations, Medicare, etc., totaling more than $100 trillion!

The average American needs to look at the facts, analyze his personal financial condition, and make some difficult decisions. Does he believe Obama who said, “The private sector is doing fine,” or does he consider that statement like Obama’s assurance that “You can keep your doctor, period.”? Or maybe he believes the Washington Post that assured us with a headline: “No Housing Bubble to Pop” or the Washington Times’ headline, “No Housing Trouble,” or the conservative National Review’s article, “Hate to Burst Your (Housing) Bubble, But There Isn’t One.” Or the revered Wall Street Journal: “Housing Bubble? The Market Won’t Pop.” Pop, pop, pop. They were all wrong!

Or the average American could believe the financial wizards on the television shows who never said a word about the imminent massive collapse of Enron in December of 2001. The financial experts were telling us to buy right up to the collapse! And they never apologized!

Everyone knows that those experts and many others were wrong about the housing bubble as they have been wrong about many things.

So, when the stock market hits bottom, 50% of Americans are out of work, bankruptcies soar skyward, and cities and states go belly-up as is happening as I write, you will know the nation is on the cusp of a shutdown mode. Does that mean riots in the streets accompanied by martial law? Wiedemer thinks not, since “that did not happen in the Great Depression.” However, the astute economist may know finances but he apparently doesn’t know human nature: this disaster will be far worse than the 1930s and Americans today don’t have the character those citizens had. Plan on it: panic, suicides, hunger, food riots, gang violence, etc. A recent British study declared that we were “nine meals from anarchy!” I don’t feel lonely anymore!

How do the optimists in their rosy glasses defend their positive view in light of our massive debt? Today, the U.S. has more government debt than any country in the history of the world! In fact, we have more national debt than all the nations in the European Union put together!

So, what is the Fed’s answer? Well, the Federal Reserve has been printing $85 billion per month; that’s more than a trillion dollars a year! That means the dollars in your pocket are worth less, or is that worthless?

Presently, when a nation wants to purchase a product from us or any other nation they usually make payments in U.S. dollars. They could choose the British pound sterling, the Chinese yuan, or the euro; however, only a few nations bypass the dollar. That is going to end. We have begun to see the “flight from the dollar.” China, Russia, and the United Nations, as well as some Muslim nations are already on record that they want to back off the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

Why is the U.S. dollar so special and is used by almost 70% of nations as the reserve currency? It is because the market for U.S. Treasury securities is “liquid and deep.” “Liquid” means the dollar can be sold quickly and “deep” means a large amount of dollars can be sold without impacting the price of the currency.

When I have traveled in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, etc., I never changed dollars into the currency where I was traveling. I always used U.S. dollars but those days have changed. It is now common for the dollar to be refused as I experienced in Africa and Japan.

Sam Zell, the 60th richest man in the U.S., told CNBC: “My single biggest financial concern is the loss of the dollar as the reserve currency. I can’t imagine anything more disastrous to our country…I think you could see a 25% reduction in the standard of living in this country if the U.S. dollar was no longer the world’s reserve currency.”

James Richards wrote in his Currency Wars, “If the currency collapses, everything also goes with it…stocks, bonds, commodities, derivatives and other investments are all priced in a nation’s currency. If you destroy the currency, you destroy all markets and the nation.”

In light of the above facts, it seems we are in the slowdown, and the shutdown or collapse is starring us in the face. So, how will the politicians extricate the U.S. from the bottomless pit– dug by the same politicians? Enter the shakedown phase.

The London Telegraph of January 4, 2014 reported, “Much of the Western world will require defaults, a savings tax and higher inflation to clear the way for recovery as debt levels reach a 200-year high, according to a new report by the International Monetary Fund.” Author Ambrose Evans-Pritchard opined that the debts of many nations are so huge that it “will require a wave of haircuts, either negotiated 1930s-style write-offs or the standard mix of measures used by the IMF in its ‘toolkit’ for emerging market blow-ups.” He says that what debtor nations must and will do is use huge taxes, massive inflation, and debt repudiation to stay afloat. He says we will all get a close-cut financial “haircut.” I think he means a scalping, not a haircut.

That amounts to a shakedown. There will be no other choice. Weary, worn, wrathful citizens will be forced to pay for the failure and corruption of generations of pompous, prissy, profligate politicians.

Slowdown, shutdown, or shakedown? All three are in your future ending with a showdown! I’m afraid that the sky is falling after all.

http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY  Watch these 8 minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota: “A Christian Challenges New Atheists to Put Up or Shut Up!” And pass it on!

Copyright 2014, Don Boys, Ph.D.

It was a fantastic year when the stock market boomed and major U.S. companies made huge profits in domestic and foreign markets. New technology totally changed many industries, and financial pundits told us that we were on the edge of a new level of prosperity. Politicians, business leaders, and economists told us that the future was incredibly bright. No, that was not in recent years but in 1929! From May of 1928 to September of 1929, stocks jumped forty percent! In fact, trading in 1929 was more than twice that of 1928.

Newspaper headlines on Oct. 24, 1929 (Black Thursday) screamed, “Wall Street in Panic as Stocks Crash.” President Hoover (not “President Roosevelt” as our newly elected VP declared!) assured the American public that it was only a little correction, but the prosperous became paupers overnight. The best stock on Wall Street was General Motors, selling for 73 and after the crash, it fell to eight!

Men jumped from skyscrapers when their wealth was wiped out in the market. Powerful men were reduced to selling fruit on the streets for pennies. Bread lines were a block long. U.S. unemployment was 25% and about 10,000 banks failed. In addition, our nation did not come out of that depression until the Second World War, twelve long years! Better keep that fact in mind.

It must be kept in mind that even after the stock market crash, political, business, and financial leaders were telling all who would listen that it wasn’t really that bad! The U.S. Secretary of Commerce reported in early 1930 that business was doing well! He said that 1930 would be a “normal” year and those who predicted prolonged depression were “foolish.” Then, on Dec. 6, 1930, when the market had plunged through its 1929 low, unemployment was rising sharply and business and bank failures were setting records, he said in a radio speech, “We have weathered the storm and signs of stability and recovery are already appearing.” He must have been president of the League of the Willfully Blind!

Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon assured the nation in early 1930, “I see nothing in the present situation that is either menacing or warrants pessimism.” Mellon must have been vice-president of the League.

The New York Times jumped into the parade in its Jan. 24, 1930 issue with headline blaring,
“TRADE RECOVERY NOW COMPLETE—No Stimulants Needed—PROGRESS IN ALL LINES BY EARLY SPRING IS FORECAST.” Many major leaders gave such false assurances with no solid, sensible, or sane reason to believe them. America was being broken, and our leaders were playing politics to keep everyone from panicking.

We are hearing the same kind of assurances today as the world is brought to its knees. (May not be a bad position!) So get ready for a wild ride that may last for years and be far worse than the hot shots in Washington and New York are telling us. Remember that these are the same people who only now are using the word “Recession” while some of us are using the word “Depression.” It may be that in a few weeks everyone will use the word, “Panic.”

Economist Richard Yamarone said recently, “There is no light at the end of the tunnel, and the outlook is pitch black.” With stocks in a free fall, U.S. jobless number is now at 10 million, major banks and corporations going belly-up, it is almost too late to lash yourself to the mast to keep from being washed overboard. Don’t even open your monthly 401-k statement. It may be worth only $401.00!

While pessimism is not my nature, I see a dark cloud on the horizon. First, a major Depression followed by massive inflation. Informed Americans should make plans for some very difficult years ahead. Because life is so uncertain, every thoughtful person should always be prepared for anything. Another terrorist attack is coming with only the date unknown; a major natural catastrophe totally unforeseeable; a major race war touched off by some religious or racial nut; or a total collapse of the economy resulting in no jobs, no money, no gas, no food, and no silver lining. Get ready today for whatever may come tomorrow.

I have written before that we don’t have to know the future to prepare for the future. So prepare today. The most compelling preparation is spiritual. Do you know Christ in forgiveness of sins? Are you in a good church that helps provide support? Take care of those things immediately.

Then head for the store and purchase what you need to stay alive. Humans need, that is absolutely need, air (can’t do much about that), water, food, and shelter. Everyone should maintain a rotating food pantry of non-perishable foods such as dried beans, rice, salt, honey, and canned foods (which don’t require cooking) to name a few to get you thinking. Also, think about essential personal products and include toilet paper, soap, and medicines.

This is a good time to prepare a garden spot if you have any ground to use so you would need garden tools and other supplies as well as non-hybrid seeds. It would be good to plant some fruit trees.

Simply put: For the storm that is approaching, you need God, groceries, gold, guns, and a garden. Forget about living well because those days are gone for a long time, if not forever. Look for this headline: PANIC ON WALL STREET AND MAIN STREET!

And that’s from an optimist!