The South African financial slowdown has now accelerated into a plunge into an official recession this month as second-quarter growth domestic product (GDP) figures showed a shrinkage of 0.7%, the second straight quarter of decline. This, after a decade of economic stagnation.

Such a slide into a financial nightmare will only accelerate into political rebellion and anarchy.

The main culprit causing the recession, according to South Africa’s Business Day, was a sharp contraction in the agricultural sector which has been under political assault this year as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) pledged expropriation of farm land “without compensation.” Consequently, the nation is “reeling” because of an unexpected recession following the government’s reported worse-than-expected GDP numbers.

South Africa’s long-term foreign currency credit rating is rated junk by S&P Global Ratings and their currency has been battered. Platinum prices are flagging near the lowest in a decade while diamond and gold production are now well below their peaks, although South Africa is number 5 of the world’s gold producers. It used to be ranked number one. Moreover, the most shocking number in the statistics is the “precipitous 29.2% decline in agricultural production over the second quarter.”

Could the Communist government’s taking land from white farmers and giving it to Blacks who often know nothing about farming, have something to do with the slowdown at least in agricultural production? A London Times journalist wrote, “Once-productive maize fields now grow only weeds. Citrus orchards are dying, their valuable fruit rotting on the branches. Machinery lies about rusting. Irrigation pipes have been looted and farm sheds are derelict and stripped of roofing.”

You think maybe that would have an impact on farm production rates?

Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene said growing the economy is “now critical” to expand the tax base. If tax collections stumble—a portent of bad times ahead—the government will have difficulty in borrowing money at reasonable interest rates. Tax collections have been down in recent years but does anyone question why? Since the government has not been receiving tax income they need in recent years, they did what most politicians do: they raised personal income taxes and increased the value-added tax (VAT)!

Over 6,000 white South African workers kicked off a go-slow protest that is now a full strike with the support of their Solidarity Union. The Whites who work for a petrochemicals firm are protesting against discrimination over a share scheme offered exclusively to Blacks. The ANC whined that the white workers are obsessed “with perpetuating racial polarization.” Sure, they demand they be treated equally since that’s what the liberation was all about under Mandela.

But there are more reasons for the poor economy than lack of tax income and strikes.

Remember South Africa has a Communist-run government. The Communist-controlled ANC has been in power starting with President Mandela’s election. He promised them, “Under a Communist Party government, South Africa will become a land of milk and honey. Political, economic, and social rights will cease to be enjoyed by whites only. They will be shared equally by whites and non-whites. There will be enough land and houses for all. There will be no unemployment, starvation, and disease. Workers will earn decent wages; transport will be cheap and education free.”

That did not happen, as everyone in South Africa knows. Poor people do get some freebies and that’s one reason for the spiraling economy. Poor people and some wealthy people receive a minimum of free water and electricity but at the end of the day, someone has to pay the bills. There has been some success in providing housing for the poor but 2.3 million poor Blacks are still standing in line waiting for a free home and a set of house keys.

This, after 24 years of waiting for the Gravy Train to stop at their station, but that train is already loaded with Members of Parliament and their cronies and officials at the province level and their cronies.

Planned and unplanned blackouts are common with hundreds of people stranded on electric trains and hundreds more standing on train platforms. Such a consequence, happening often, would impact the production rates in all sectors of the economy.

Leon Louw head of the Free Market Foundation, a major South African think tank said, “This is a simple manifestation of the breakdown of the state,” he said. “Government is just appallingly bad at everything it does: education, healthcare, infrastructure, security, everything that is a government function is in shambles.”

There are quota laws mandating that all government townships, cities, utilities, transportation companies, schools, civil service, police, and businesses hire non-whites first and keep white percentage to 10%. It’s called Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) that mandates businesses to adhere to quotas on black ownership, employment, and acquisition. The motive was to increase job opportunities for Blacks at middle and managerial levels within the public and private sector of the economy. Small businesses are not mandated since many would be run by families.

ANC parliamentarian Mario Rantho declared it “imperative to get rid of merit as the overriding principle in the appointment of public servants.” That was to “get rid of merit”! As a result, municipal budgets in the billions are now often under the control of uneducated Blacks. The black editor of the Sunday Times has admitted, “My African colleagues who manage large companies or government departments tell me that to get a job done, you usually have to employ a white.”

Sounds racist to me, but that can’t be since he’s a rather famous black newspaperman.

But there are other ramifications of the BEE because many white-owned companies go to corrupt black ANC officials who do a lucrative business renting themselves out as front men to white companies seeking government contracts. The law applies to formerly all-white companies that must have Blacks in their top management even though the black manager may not even know what the business does! About 91 percent of publically traded companies are still owned by Whites and this requires a large number of black front men.

Private companies must apply the codes if they want to do business with any government entity.

Government officials tell everyone who will listen that BEE is not affirmative action and not discriminatory; however, all honest people know it is affirmative action on steroids.

According to international banking and affairs analyst Dennis Santiago “reverse apartheid” is a “strategic mistake for the country….This is a ticking time bomb.”

The government has a land reform process in which it uses tax revenue to purchase land owned by white people to give to Blacks. However, it is not happening fast enough and Blacks are getting restless.

Even South Africa’s one time world-class mining industry is declining. It was the world’s biggest gold producer but since Communists got control, it is now fifth on the list and tumbling. Does one have to be a rocket scientist to understand that international investors don’t want to develop mines in a nation where the political party Black First Land First motto is “Land or Death!”

Nor are foreign investors encouraged to write a check when Lindsay Maasdorp, the Black Land First spokesperson, yells that all white people in South Africa “are criminals by virtue of their existence.” He also repeated his party’s slogan, “land or death,” as reported in The Citizen on September 17, 2018.

International investors are smart enough to know that a blood-bath is in the future of South Africans, so they wisely invest elsewhere.

Nedbank provides a wide range of wholesale and retail banking services and asset management services in southern Africa, and according to The South African, farmers have been warned that their debts will have to be paid in full even after their property is confiscated by the government!

Of course South Africa in headed for financial turbulence because the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme. Deep in the human heart of all people is the desire to be treated equal. President H. W. George Bush, applying pressure for all globalists during the hated apartheid days, told President de Klerk that black South Africans should enjoy not merely “equal opportunity” but “equality of outcomes.” Marx, Lenin, and Stalin could not have said it better.

Well, the Blacks are in control and they are purposefully working to produce a system of reverse apartheid.

But, like the white apartheid, it is discrimination—even hate—with pigmentation.

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published recently by Barbwire Books; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

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!

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. Every downturn 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. However, I don’t believe there is much safety anywhere.

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. bail out 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!

Don’t become a DUMPy.