Terrible times like no
other in American history lurk somewhere
in the future, according to FOX News
Channel’s Glenn Beck. He is joined in
his stated apprehension for what is
coming by thousands of American
citizens. Many of these are fear-filled
Christians who look to Beck and others
to inform them of the proposed terrors
to come, and to tell them what to do
about it. I continue to hear from some
of these through email on a weekly, even
daily, basis.
I would like us to
look briefly at developments across
today’s socioeconomic landscape, thus to
examine as analytically and as fairly as
possible the portentous matters that
give Beck and others fodder for their
doomsday scenarios.
Economics-minded
forecasters great and small watched the
stock market bubble build during the
days preceding the Lehman Brothers
collapse of 2008, speculating wildly
what the bubble’s burst might bring.
That financial aneurysm, they
determined, would certainly
rupture--and, of course, it did.
Governmental insanity created by
ultra-liberal politicians saw to it that
people with champagne tastes and beer
drinkers’ budgets for years received
home loans they didn’t have much more
than a prayer of ever repaying.
We are now familiar
with the terms “Freddie Mac" and "Fannie
Mae." We are equally acquainted with
names such as Barney Frank, Charles
Schumer, and others, who--in the name of
“fairness” to those who couldn’t afford
housing like the more affluent--demanded
these be given the loans anyway, despite
the fact the recipients didn’t have the
income or collateral to support that
level of debt.
Rather than govern the
housing industry responsibly, the
elected officials invested with the
responsibility to oversee things, in
concert with their Wall Street cohorts,
foolishly threw caution to the fiscal
winds. A banking crisis of unprecedented
magnitude was thus created, with the
housing bubble rupture setting in motion
bank failures and threats of even
greater crises.
Calls for massive
bailouts to avert what the president of
the United States and others in
government and media speciously screamed
would otherwise be world-rending
calamity brought about the most
devastating crisis of all. Trillions of
dollars were, in effect, created out of
thin air by the Federal Reserve Bank to
save entities "too big to fail.”
The totally
irresponsible sleight-of-hand
accomplished only the creation of an
exploding national debt that most likely
can never be repaid. Decisions made by
some of the same people who help create
the problems strapped on the back of
American citizens financial burdens with
which generations far into the future
will have to deal.
The resulting economic
uncertainty deepened an abyss-like
recession that more soundly thought-out
measures would have surely lessened in
severity. Jobs, as we know, are being
lost; businesses are closing their
doors; deflation or hyper-inflation--the
experts can’t figure which—might
collapse the American economy within a
near-time frame (which the experts can’t
predict, either).
The stability of the
global economy hangs in the balance,
with the other nations and their
monetary gurus wondering about the
financial fate of the U.S. and its
all-important dollar. And, make no
mistake: Under present world economic
structures, the fate of the American
dollar is absolutely critical.
Enter Glenn Beck at
the tip of the gloom iceberg. And
"iceberg" is a viable term here because
the things he and others are forewarning
are indeed chilling. Statements the TV
and radio show host make almost daily
send shivers down the spine of many of
his viewers and listeners. He says
things like (I paraphrase), “Change is
coming, and when it happens, you won’t
recognize your country. You will wake up
next day, and it will no longer be
America as you’ve known it. And, it will
happen just that fast. I can’t tell you
when that transformation is coming, but
it's coming.”
Beck forecasts the
same astonishing change for the entire
world in his proposed overnight
transformational moment. His words sound
almost out of the pages of Bible
prophecy from the Pre-Trib view, don’t
they? But the change he predicts is tied
almost exclusively to the earthly, not
to the ethereal--almost, but not
entirely, as we will soon find.
Economic collapse,
thus societal rearrangements of
apocalyptic dimension, is at the heart
of his fearful forecast. He implies that
we will, perhaps, awaken that morning to
a monetary cataclysm–our dollar as
worthless as the deutsche marks of the
Weimar republic of Germany just before
Hitler’s meteoric rise to power in the
1930s. The FOX program host often raises
the real probability, in his view, that
inflation, which is on the rise, will
skyrocket to astronomical levels when
the great transformation he fears takes
place.
He gives some key
commodity future dollar amounts for what
he claims the experts tell him will be
exponential price rises. A small bag of
sugar could be as much as $60 or $70.
One ear of corn could be $11 or higher.
A loaf of bread will likely be $24. Just
under a pound of coffee could be $77.
Fifteen ounces of orange juice will
likely be $45, according to Beck’s
forecasters.
A Hershey chocolate
bar, standard size, will cost $15.50,
his experts say. Now, that is certainly
a crisis in the making if it is an
accurate prognostication. Chocolate
lovers I know would probably join the
rioters Beck believes will rage in the
streets once cuts to federal government
give-away programs have to be made.
Next week, we will
think a bit on what a changed America
might look like if truly effective
remedies to deal with Mr. Beck’s fearful
vision of a new socioeconomic paradigm
are ever implemented.
