HARD TIMES A’COMING!
The Economy is crying Out,
Pay me now or Pay
me Later,
Crazy United States Congress,
Collapse Now, Or Collapse Later,
Bad Days Now, or Bad Days Later!
September 26, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
II Timothy 3:1 – This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
The basic inherited carnal nature of man, since the fall, has brought the perilous economic crisis on itself in greed scrambles by individuals in our financial institutions for what man loves most – MONEY. They are caught in a vicious cycle of never being satisfied with how much security they have in their coffers, and are constantly coveting to pile more on top of it because it is their life and security. To such individuals their constant ability to gain
more is their god, and they go through life never finding contentm
ent in their never ending love for more money. Such human characteristics are well described by Paul in his first epistle to Timothy.
I Timothy 6:5-10 – Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. [6] But godliness with contentment is great gain. [7] For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. [8] And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. [9] But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. [10] For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
There is only one solution to the economic crisis we now face, and I am quite certain it will not be employed. The root problem is the character of the men and women in our congress and in our financial institutions – Simply put, the problem is that most of them are ungodly, and the righteousness of God is foreign to their thinking. The financial crisis we now have, considering the character of those who are trying to solve it, can only be solved by a strict set of financial loan laws which are rigidly enforced by harsh penalties for violation of them.
The high financial wizards, who we are now being asked to bail out, are not the good guys, and the only thing they will respond to is unpleasant punishment, or they will do the same thing again that got us into this current financial crisis. One of the reasons God gave the strict law of Moses was to check the carnal activities of man through his fear of the severe consequences of disobeying it.
I Timothy 1:9 – Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
Only a new set of enforced strict regulatory laws by Congress can stop this same scenario from reoccurring in the futute!
In my opinion, congress needs to get off his crooked duff, and bail them out ASAP, then go back in session and pass some laws that regulate the limits financial offices cannot exceed in granting loans. They must not establish their own congressional regulatory bureau. If they do it will turn into a congressional nightmare, a fat cat pork attraction for every political ungodly bum, who misuses his congressional seat to satisfy his or her own personal love of money. Congress needs to appoint one man over an independent regulatory committee, who reports to the congress on a regular basis of all infractions to the regulatory laws it has enacted. Surely they can find one honest man somewhere. I know there are very few honest politicians in office, because it has been difficult to be honest and win an election since Ronald Regan left office.
If congress does not bail the financial bums out quickly, hard times are about to blow in like a tornado.
The question Congress now faces is simple – DO YOU WANT THE HARD TIMES NOW OR AT SOME POINT IN THE PERIOD FROM 2010
TO 2015
?
Speaking for my own carnal cowardly nature, I prefer the hard times later!
If they do not regulate the financial institutions of Wall Street quickly after they bail them out, the United States is going to be blown away by the same tornado in the future.
I expect congress will bail out the stock market this time before really hard times hit us, but I also expect the same love of money will cause the tornado to hit us hard at some point in time between 2010 and 2015, and when it does our economy will collapse.
I do not trust the Congress any more than I trust the Wall Street financial institutions.
However, I do trust in the God the Congress is taking off our currency, and removing from our U.S. Government buildings and monuments. I don’t trust the Congressional leaders of America, or the kings of this earth, but I do trust the King God has set upon his holy hill of Zion. God’s King is the only one who can straighten out the mess carnal man has made since he chose to take on the character of Satan rather than the character of the God who created Adam.
Psalm 2:1-6 – Why do the he athen r
age, and the people imagine a vain thing? [2] The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, [3] Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
[4] He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. [5] Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. [6] Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
Zechariah 14:8,9 – And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. [9] And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.
The primary reason I intend to vote for the Republican candidate for President is that he tried in the past to get the Congress to regulate the Wall Street financial institutions, and they would not. I also believe him to be an honest man, and I consider his running mate to be an honest woman. Barak Obama did not try to regulate the Wall Street financial groups in the past.
I do not believe either Democratic candidate possesses the characteristic of “honest.” I am confident the election of Obama with his inexperience would bring “change” for the worst, in that the “hard times” would return as a tornado much sooner than later. However, in all honesty, I pity the poor fellow who gets elected, because he is in for a very rough ride!
Begin Excerpt from Jerusalem Post
Washington Mutual collapse is biggest in US history
September 26, 2008
Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST
As the debate over a $700 billion bank bailout rages on in Washington, one of the nation’s largest banks – Washington Mutual Inc.
– has collapsed under the weight of its enormous bad bets on the mortgage market.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized WaMu on Thursday, and then sold the thrift’s banking assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co. for $1.9 billion.
Earlier, urgent efforts to lash together a $700 billion rescue plan for the national economy appeared to be stalling Thursday night, hours after key lawmakers had declared they had reached a deal.
Weary congressional negotiators hurried back to work, joined by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in an effort to revive or rework the proposal that President George W. Bush said must be quickly approved by Congress to stave off economic disaster. Congressional leaders said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke might come to Capitol Hill, too, if enough progress was made.
The meetings were to continue into the night.
After six days of intensive talks on the unprecedented package proposed by the Bush administration, with Wall Street tottering and presidential politics intruding six weeks before the election, there was more confusion than clarity.
On Friday morning, Seattle-based WaMu, which was founded in 1889, scored the doubtful record of being the largest bank to fail by far in the country’s history. Its $307 billion in assets eclipse the $40 billion of Continental Illinois National Bank, which failed in 1984, and the $32 billion of IndyMac, which the government seized in July.
One positive is that the sale of WaMu’s assets to JPMorgan Chase prevents the thrift’s collapse from depleting the FDIC’s insurance fund. But that detail is likely to give only marginal solace to Americans facing tighter lending and watching their stock portfolios plunge in the wake of the nation’s most momentous financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Because of WaMu’s souring mortgages and other risky debt, JPMorgan plans to write down WaMu’s loan portfolio by about $31 billion – a figure that could change if the government goes through with its bailout plan and JPMorgan decides to take advantage of it.
“We’re in favor of what the government is doing, but we’re not relying on what the government is doing. We would’ve done it anyway,” JPMorgan’s Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said in a conference call Thursday night, referring to the acquisition. Dimon said he does not know if JPMorgan will take advantage of the bailout.
WaMu is JPMorgan Chase’s second acquisition this year of a major financial institution hobbled by losing bets on mortgages. In March, JPMorgan bought the investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. for about $1.4 billion, plus another $900 million in stock ahead of the deal to secure it.
JPMorgan Chase is now the second-largest bank in the United States after Bank of America Corp., which recently bought Merrill Lynch in a flurry of events that included Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. going bankrupt and American International Group Inc., the world’s largest insurer, getting taken over by the government.
JPMorgan also said Thursday it plans to sell $8 billion in common stock to raise capital.
The downfall of WaMu has been widely anticipated for some time because of the company’s heavy mortgage-related losses. On Wednesday, it suffered a ratings downgrade by Standard & Poor’s that put it in danger of collapse.
WaMu “was under severe liquidity pressure,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair told reporters in a conference call.
“For all depositors and other customers of Washington Mutual Bank, this is simply a combination of two banks,” Bair said in a statement. “For bank customers, it will be a seamless transition. There will be no interruption in services and bank customers should expect business as usual come Friday morning.”
Besides JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc., HSBC, Spain’s Banco Santander and Toronto-Dominion Bank of Canada were also reportedly possible suitors. WaMu was believed to be talking to private equity firms as well.
The seizure by the government means shareholders’ equity in WaMu was wiped out. The deal leaves private equity investors including the firm TPG Capital, which gave WaMu a cash infusion totaling $7 billion this spring, on the sidelines empty handed.
WaMu ran into trouble after it got caught up in the once-booming subprime mortgage business. Troubles then spread to other parts of
WaMu’s home loan portfolio, namely its “option” adjustable-rate mortgage loans. Option ARM loans offer very low introductory payments and let borrowers defer some interest payments until later years. The bank stopped originating those loans in June.
Problems in WaMu’s home loan business began to surface in 2006, when the bank reported that the division lost $48 million, compared with net income of about $1 billion in 2005.
At the start of 2007, following the release of the company’s annual financial report, then-CEO Kerry Killinger said the bank had prepared for a slowdown in its housing business by sharply reducing its subprime mortgage lending and servicing of loans. Alan H. Fishman, the former president and chief operating officer of Sovereign Bank and president and CEO of Independence Community Bank, replaced Killinger earlier this month.
As more borrowers became delinquent on their mortgages, WaMu worked to help troubled customers refinance their loans as a way to avoid default and foreclosure, committing $2 billion to the effort last April. But that proved to be too little, too late.
At the same time, fears of growing credit problems kept investors from purchasing debt backed by those loans, drying up a source of cash flow for banks that made subprime loans.
In December, WaMu said it would shutter its subprime lending business and reduce expenses with layoffs and a dividend cut.
The bank in July reported a $3 billion second-quarter loss – the biggest in its history – as it boosted its reserves to more than $8 billion to cover losses on bad loans. Over the last three quarters, it added $10.9 billion to its loan-loss provisions.
JPMorgan Chase said it was not acquiring any senior unsecured debt, subordinated debt, and preferred stock of WaMu’s banks, or any assets or liabilities of the holding company, Washington Mutual Inc. JPMorgan also said it will not take on the lawsuits facing the holding company.
JPMorgan Chase said the acquisition will give it 5,400 branches in 23 states, and that it plans to close less than 10 percent of the two companies’ branches.
The WaMu acquisition would add 50 cents per share to JPMorgan’s earnings in 2009, the bank said, adding that it expects to have pretax merger costs of approximately $1.5 billion while achieving pretax savings of approximately $1.5 billion by 2010.
“This is a definite win for JPMorgan,” said Sebastian Hindman, an analyst at SNL Financial, who said JPMorgan should be able to shoulder the $31 billion writedown to WaMu’s portfolio.
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