Believe me when I tell you that I am by nature, an optimist. I am definitely a glass is half full kind of guy. This is why it pains me to have to point out the obvious. We are all doomed!
Now I am not prone to hyperbole, well ok, actually I am but that doesn’t mean that the sky is not falling. Let me point out just a few items that prove my case.
Total Economic Collapse. This is a given, everybody says so. Worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The Great Depression! Everything about the Great Depression was bad, bad! Well ok the movies were really good, but everything else was really bad.
Rising and Belligerent Russia. Can we be honest with ourselves, we all knew they would do it again, didn’t we? It is only a matter of time until Russia’s expansionist intent becomes undeniable. If we elect the the Big O Commander-in-wuss there will be nobody on the big stage to say no to Putin. Sorry Georgia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States, it was fun while it lasted. On the upside, we can hate the Ruskiis again. I like that kind of clarity.
Señor Crazypants and Venezuela: Crazy Chavez is sitting down their rattling sabres in our own hemisphere. That wouldn’t be so bad except that he controls a lot of oil and is now cozying up with Russia to build Nuclear power plants (Can the centrifuges be far behind?) and buying Chinese fighter planes. Fighter planes and nukes, bad combination.
Iran and Israel: Let’s face it, this is only a matter of when, right? The crazies who run Iran are determined to get a nuclear weapon and Israel is simply not gonna let that happen. What do we have, six months, a year? I don’t know, but I can’t imagine it will be very long. My guess, Israel will go after them between the US election and the inauguration. If Israel takes them out, the Middle East is de-stabilized and we have war. If Israel does nothing, it risks its very existence while allowing the de-stabilization of the Middle East leading eventually to war. Did I mention we are doomed?
Starvation Due to Global Cooling: While Al Gore is out there selling carbon offsets and urging civil disobedience to shut down coal plants, the Sun has completely shut down its solar activity. The lack of Solar wind could lead to a new ice age leading to global crop failures. What Al Gore and the eco-nazis are doing is making it worse. What we need now is all the dirty coal plants we can build to at least keep the the temperature up!
Dear Leader and The Party of Death: This country is poised to elect the most radical left wing proponent of the culture of death to its highest office. This election could possibly set back the life movement a generation with Obama stacking the highest court in the land with pro-death jurists. If this happens, the silencing of the people by judicial fiat will continue for years to come. I have read the bible, well some of it. Anyway, I have read enough to know that this kind of thing eventually provokes divine retribution. We should all pack our bags in advance of our Babylonian captivity.
Oh, and the Mets choked again!
All this and I am just skimming the top off the things that insure our imminent destruction. I think I might buy some land in upstate New York or someplace else remote with access to plenty of fish and game and maybe a winning minor league baseball team. I just like to be prepared.
October 1, 2008 at 4:40 am
As I draw so much inspiration from your site, let me repeat that which you already know, which we should all repeat when the end seems nigh:
” For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. “
God bless.
October 1, 2008 at 5:49 am
On the upside, we can hate the Ruskiis again. I like that kind of clarity.
Haven’t you noticed the amazing rebirth of the Russian Orthodox Church which suffered so severly under the USSR? Ironic that on one side of the former iron curtan, the “evil empire” side, Christianity is a growing force, whilst on the western side it is on the wane.
Both parties need to watch it in attempting to start a new cold war. In a world of a rising China and Islamic world, the USA needs to be on good terms with Russia.
October 1, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Kinda makes the brain tumors from cell phones warning a big ole “Meh?”
October 1, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Darn those public-school teachers.
And President Bush.
And Pope Benedict, the Masons, and the Club of Rome (or is that the Club of Thibodeaux, Louisiana?).
— Mack
October 1, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Anon at 12:49…
I’d be a bit wary of giving Russia any room to maneuver on this, and the Russian Orthodox church is beautiful in many ways but has for quite a long time been highly cesaro-papist. It is becoming as much a force for nationalism as a force for good, and Russian nationalism at this time is highly dangerous, as it tends towards racism and, as we see in Georgia and Chechnya, violence. We should of course encourage pursue relations with them, but we shouldn’t be so favorable towards them over China and the Middle East that we fail to act strongly in pushing them to get out of the dark ages.
As for the main point, I’ve been preparing for the apocalypse since the Red Sox actually won the series, and it hasn’t come yet, so I’ve got a lot of ramen noodles if anyone wants some…
~Nzie
October 1, 2008 at 4:01 pm
That’s really funny but I’m a Macaroni and Cheese guy myself.
(If the Cubs win, you might want to hold on to those noodles)
October 1, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Patrick,
Gallows humor is especially funny when thrown into relief by an actual gallows.
Given all the ways in which our society is offending God, there is no reason to be sanguine about the immediate future. There are plenty of reasons to be uneasy on that score alone, much more given that messengers of doom are actually arriving from all points on the compass.
Look, at this point it is simply nuts- to take just one example- for a family man not to have at least a year’s worth of food in the house- for all kinds of reasons.
Just one: If the President declares a bank holiday for two weeks, as Roosevelt did under similar circumstances, will the bank honor your debit card? Will you have access to cash?
This is no time to be satirizing Chicken Little and the Boy who Cried Wolf. There are real dangers that demand serious preparation and an array of contingency plans.
October 1, 2008 at 4:39 pm
I think that there are folks still hiding in caves somewhere in remote Massachusetts — awaiting the destruction of the Cosmos resulting from the 1980 election of Reagan and Bush. If the Great “O” wins they can come out — like a variation on the groundhog theme of Feb 2nd.
October 1, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Dear Mr Gilbert,
I am not sure if you are taking issue with my post or not, but rest assured that I am not satirizing Chicken Little. I suspect that we really are doomed, but it doesn’t mean I have lose my sense of humor about it.
October 1, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Patrick, Patrick, Patrick… to leave China out of your list?
Tsk, tsk.
October 1, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Oh please, Mr. Hetman, say it ain’t so! I live in one of the few non-Democrat-worshiping fortresses, but even the deep walls built up from years of living under the Democrat equivalent of Elizabethan autocracy we may not be able to withstand such an onslaught…
of course, the irony of this is that I actually plan to be in Russia the first half of next year.. ironic esp. in light of my earlier post…. but oh well.. there are many beautiful things about Russia- just a bit befuddingly right now. But I agree with the last poster- China should be on the list. 🙂
October 1, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Good heavens, everyone here is paying way too much attention to the minor issues, and ignoring Patrick’s concluding point: the Mets. Ugh. How terribly disappointing!
October 1, 2008 at 9:06 pm
You know the end is near if the Detroit Lions win their final 13 games of the season…
October 2, 2008 at 3:39 pm
There’s room for you on own farm in Kansas. We’re just starting, but intend to grow and raise our own food and home school our kids.
I’m not too sure of the local baseball, but I think there’s a college near-by that’s usually at the top.
October 2, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Dude, take five.
We are in 2008 far better off than our grandparents were in 1948. Quality of life in healthcare, science, education, employment compensation and economy in general are incomparable to that of previous generations. Of course we have major issues with morality, environment and economy and geopolitics that must be dealt with. But I defy you to name a decade in the last 100 years where this wasn’t the case.
Point being, don’t let the doom and gloom get to you. Who profits by it? Think hard here. And always remember: God never abandons his sheep, so things will always work out in the end.
October 3, 2008 at 1:17 am
God, Assumptions, and The Financial Crisis
Sometimes I think of a definition of God as irony. When mortal human beings have the unmitigated temerity to assume, sometimes God steps in with irony. And the assumptions were and are many.
The current assumption of the financial pundits begging the public to support this bailout, is that the public cares. One interesting call came on the local news affiliate from someone who makes minimum wage. He has no $250,000, or $100,000 to protect. He doesn’t have any 401K or IRA investments. He is living from paycheck to paycheck. His question, why should I care?
The assumptions that were made in the boardrooms, was that risk was someone else’s problem. I spent years in two different boardrooms of financial firms. One in the mid 1990s, where we were urged by the CEO to, “get that man elected”. That man was a Republican candidate running for governor, who was favorable to our interests. The second boardroom was for a mortgage banker, where I was heckled by the COO as Kerry gave his speech. I don’t think it was my silence that was a dead give a way regarding my political leanings, but my adversity to risk.
What were the risks? The mortgage bank I worked for was one of the first companies in the country to use automated underwriting. Before computers and computerized credit scores, human beings underwrote files. Over about a ten year span we progressed from mailing to faxing, copying to scanning, and ultimately trusting the wisdom of a computer.
The first loan I used automated underwriting on was for a man making $8.50 an hour, or $1,462 a month before taxes, health insurance,utilities, gas, etc.. I was asked by the Realtor and his mother, a branch manager at a credit union, to keep running his loan through Freddie Mac’s automated system for the highest loan amount. For the $85,000 home, his payment with taxes and insurance came to $650 a month, or nearly 45% debt to income ratio before taxes, etc.. Using a conservative optimistic estimate, lets say 15% of his check went to taxes and his health insurance was covered, that leaves $1,242.70. After paying the mortgage payment of $650,that leaves $592.70 a month. Lets say he spends $200 a month on food and $200 a month on transportation to work, that leaves $192.70 for electric, heat, water, and trash service. Some would say he shouldn’t have bought a house, but can you see renting most places for less than $650 a month? Can you imagine raising a family? Can you understand why common people may not care about bailing out people who have more than they do?
Later the automated systems of Freddie and Fannie began taking higher debt to incomes, particularly if the person made a large income. The systems also asked for less documentation, “streamlining” the process. The assumption was that good credit scores and the residual income relative to the mortgage payment and cash reserves was sufficient to mitigate the risks. But the production would slow as interest rates went ever so slightly up. So how does one maintain the production levels and the executive bonuses associated with bringing in more production? Push the envelope.
Eventually there would be those with debt to income ratios that went above 50%, 60%. So to get more production the Stated Income Verified Asset, Stated Income Stated Asset,and the No Income No Asset became into play and not only for “sub-prime”companies, but for the GSEs as well. One assumption was that the borrower had a business, which had tax write offs that reflected poorly on their “real” income. The other assumption was that because of the credit score, the borrower could be trusted to figure out how to make the payment.
But production is down again and we’ve cooked the books,changing accounting guidelines to make things look better, (something the Republicans are suggesting now). We need our bonuses, so what to do? Well lets give the borrower who we don’t know if they have an income the “Option” to make a small payment that is essentially borrowing against their home. These Option Arms were particularly popular with Jumbo loans, those loans that went over Fannie, Freddie, and Federal Housing Administration (FHA)loan limits. The assumption was that housing prices would keep going up.
My incorrect assumption was that my bosses wanted to hear about risk. There were many risks, but the last risk was doing business with Bear Stearns and Lehman. They pushed the envelope just a little further on the No Income No Asset. Now the credit scores were lower, the loan to values were higher, and the types of properties included investment homes. The joke was that we might as well take homeless people off the streets and give them a loan. But despite the jokes and reservations, they wanted the production volume.
Now we are in the final assumption. The assumption that corporations will operate in the best interest of the public and save us money over government run institutions like FHA. The assumption that the pharmaceutical industrial complex, the healthcare industrial complex, the military industrial complex, the energy industrial complex will look out for our best interests versus their wallets. Whether it was the General Accounting Office having to drop the suit against energy influence and Cheney after the Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress, or a Bush creating a loophole that put many at risk of loosing prescription drug coverage for the windfall profits to pharmaceutical companies, or how $12 billion in one hundred dollar bills was shipped to contractors like Halliburton, Blackwater, and KBR,who like to build showers that electrocute our troops, or the Savings and Loan crisis, or today, it is all corporate welfare. Corporate Welfare supported by lobby blood money and communist China. The Golden Calf is worshiped at the expense of the American people.
The irony is that the religious have been led down the road to perdition. And now there is confusion with all the lies they have been told, the assumption that government is evil and capitalism, privatization is the savior. To reconcile the reality that communist China’s Yu Yongding, can tell us, “If the U.S. government allows Fannie and Freddie to fail and international investors are not compensated adequately,….`If it is not the end of the world, it is the end of the current international financial system.” Communists who have persecuted religions are now telling us what to do. And the religious have sold the soul of the United States of America for promises of what? A reduction in abortions and gay marriage? No. The opportunity to worship the Golden Calf. I love irony.