HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF!

The great German, Hegel, wrote, “History proves that man learns nothing from history.” Unless we as a people heed history’s warnings, we will totally destroy our U.S. dollar.
In the 1980’s the Zimbabwe dollar was one of the most valuable currencies on the planet. It was worth One Zimbabwe Dollar to One and a Half U. S. Dollars. During the early 1990’s they began to have financial problems in their country and decided the way to help pay some of their debt was to print more Zimbabwe Dollars. They came out with a Two Dollar Bill that eventually went from a value of $2 U.S. to $10 U.S! During the 2000’s, their banks and industries went through great difficulty and the Zimbabwe government decided to allow Dr. Gono, the Federal Reserve Governor, to print up trillions of Zimbabwe Dollars and give it out to prevent massive bankruptcies. By 2008, the Zimbabwe Dollar had inflated to a point that it took many pallets of dollars to purchase a loaf of bread! It required a new Fifty Trillion Dollar Bill to equal ONE U.S. Dollar!! Is history about to repeat itself in the United States of America?
Yesterday, the U. S. Federal Reserve made a decision to print up another Trillion Dollars to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ($750 Billion) again and to buy U.S. Treasurys ($300 Billion)! Before yesterday, the U.S. Government was already spending a Billion Dollars a day that it didn’t have, and adding to its debt FOUR TIMES FASTER than it was getting paid down! Government officials said they can pay this debt down by merely inflating the currency! As they do so, gold and silver will go up many times over what it is now!
The New York Times reported that there are now 14 million EMPTY homes in America! The article went on to say that most of the people who lost homes moved into cheap motel rooms, where they will stay until they are put onto the street!
Soon commodities are going to soar like in Zimbabwe and eventually grocery shelves will start to empty and the hurting people are going to really be in pain.
In Deuteronomy 4:1-9, God tells us that Israel was once a great nation. Then HE warns us to learn from history in verse nine. “Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you’ve seen to your children and grandchildren.” THE MESSAGE BIBLE
I am attempting to do this. Are you?

A SKELETON OF WHAT WE ONCE WERE!

In the Bible, God commands us to pray for our leaders. If there was ever a time to pray that our leaders will start making good decisions then that time is now. We need to pray for our country because in the end everything done in our country directly and indirectly affects us and our families. That effect will either be beneficial or detrimental.
For many years now we have been moving to Socialism in our country. The whole mentality of everyday citizen is changing. We want the Government to give us more and more benefits and more and more money. If the government does not have the money, let them take it from those that made wise decisions and made the money and redistribute it.

While our government is sliding into Socialism, many of the Communist and Socialist governments of the world are moving to Capitalism. They are becoming what our nation used to be. A prime example is China. They have taken government hands off their industries and capitalistic markets and have allowed them to operate (sink or swim) on their own with the appropriate awards offered by their own success or failure. A prime example is China’s Shanghai Stock Index which outperformed the USA’s industries and Wall Street by 75%!! China is aggressively protecting its FREE MARKET, while our government is destroying ours with massive bailouts of banks, insurance companies, auto makers, housing markets, States, and just about anybody else needing a handout from the protesting tax payers!!
I loved listening to the words from Socialist Sweden’s Prime Minister this week. To keep GM automakers from going belly-up our Capitalistic (ha ha ha) government gave GM 16 billion dollars. GM is the parent company of SAAB of Sweden. SAAB is ready to go bankrupt unless the Swedish government gives them a bailout. This week, Sweden’s Prime Minister signed SAAB’s death warrant by these words: “NO! The voters of Sweden did not elect me to spend hard earned tax payer’s money to buy loss making car factories!”
Every citizen had better call our congressmen and flood them with opposition to what our government is doing and then they better start praying like crazy, as God directed us to do!! If we don’t, we will only have a skeleton to remind us of what we once were!

A Budget WILL save you!

In order to be successful in this economy, every family must stay on a budget. A budget is a plan for success. Without it you automatically have a plan for failure. The Bible teaches that a person is a fool who does not plan for the future. When I do financial seminars I always seem to have somebody come and tell me that a budget would not work for them. They will say something like this: “Budgets may work for some people, but a budget would not work for us. We already have more expense than our total income! There is nothing left to budget.”
This family NEEDS a budget worse than the family with money left over. A budget can effectively help lift you out of debt. Debt is a horrible thing that slowly destroys people’s lives. In Proverbs, the Bible says, “The borrower is the SLAVE of the lender.” Saint Paul in the New Testament, wisely admonishes people, “Owe no man anything.”
Marriage counselors are reporting that finances is the number one marital problem that destroys families. It is hard to believe that something as simple as a budget can be the “lifesaver” people need to save their financial futures and homes!
For a budget to work, IT HAS TO BECOME THE LAW OF THE HOUSE! It becomes the boss, much like a king of old. Nobody can go anyplace or buy anything without consulting the KING (budget). It is necessary to get every member of the family to buy into the idea and agree to work together to make it succeed. People will find it actually becomes fun and very self satisfying to make a budget work.
There are plenty of self helps out there for somebody to get as a guide that needs assistance in getting started. The main thing is to get started NOW!
Make a list of all the bills that are NON-DESCRETIONARY FIXED EXPENSE S. Make sure that you don’t put even one item on this list that isn’t an absolute need for survival. What is the total? How much money per month do you have left after deducting your absolute needs? The remainder is ALL YOU HAVE to pay for the remainder of your expenses. Now you list all the rest of your budget item amounts. Then comes the hardest part of the budget process—prioritizing the remainder of expenses. Sometimes some REAL SACRIFICES will have to be made, but you will find that you can actually survive without some of the things that you thought were absolute necessities. Don’t try to weasel out of this painful process. The most important thing during this time of making a budget is pray and ask God for his help!
In the Bible, James 1:2-5 says, “So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. If you don’t know what you are doing, pray to God, the Father. He loves to help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought.”

GET OUT OF STOCKS BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!

I have been urging all my family and friends to get out of their stocks and get into gold, silver or cash for over a year now. I read Weber’s Global Opportunity Report, and he has always been right on! Recently, I read his story that I will share with you.

A 16-year old paperboy named Chris Weber from Phoenix, Arizona, had just been dumped by his girlfriend. It was a hot summer that year, and Chris thought he'd stay at home and read books. The first book he read was Harry Browne's How You Can Profit from the Coming Devaluation.

"It was a revelation," says Chris. "It is still the best explanation of what money is, and how it develops, that I have ever read. After that, it was 'off to the races...'"

At the time, the world was living in a fixed currency system. The U.S. government had set the gold price at $35 an ounce, and foreign currencies were fixed against the dollar. The U.S., therefore, had the wonderful power to print paper dollars and tell the rest of the world they were redeemable for gold. The problem was, the government started abusing this privilege in the late 1960s, inflating the dollar to pay for Vietnam.

Chris realized the system couldn't last, and sooner or later the country would have to devalue the dollar against gold. So in July 1971, he bicycled down to the local coin dealer and spent $650 – all the money he had saved from his paper route – on British gold sovereign coins. (At the time, it was still illegal for Americans to own gold. Collectors' coins were exempt. The coins cost $12 each.)

His timing was perfect. By the end of the summer, foreign governments had stopped supporting the dollar and were asking for gold instead. On August 15, 1971, President Nixon closed the "gold window." He cut the link between the U.S. dollar and gold. That December, Nixon devalued the dollar against gold by about 8.5%.

As the price started going up, Chris started trading his gold coins back and forth at the local coin shop. “I still don't know how I did it, but when I thought the price was going up too far, too fast, and had gotten ahead of itself, I sold my coins. I waited until I thought the rise was going again and then I would buy them back. By the time I finished high school in Phoenix, Arizona, I was rich," Chris says.

In 1980, by the end of the decade, gold hit $850 an ounce and Chris' little gold sovereigns were over $300 each. When he saw the crowd piling in with gold at its high, he knew the game was up. He dumped his gold coins and invested the profits in 20% Treasury bonds... an investment he still holds today.

The paper route at age 16 was the last job Chris ever had. Chris has since made millions from his investments and spent his life traveling around the world. He thankfully records his thoughts on stocks, currencies, and commodities in his Weber Global Opportunities Report.

Chris Weber now holds all of his money in cash and gold!

Sean Goldsmith interviewed Chris last week. Chris now says "This continues to be a time to be safe and on the sidelines. I believe that the ultimate lows of the stock market are going to be much lower than even today's prices, but it may take years – and months of fake rallies – to get us there."

God says, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” So let’s get smart before it’s too late!!

YOU CAN TURN IDEAS INTO DOLLARS!

Today I hear of more people losing their jobs and some having their hours cut back. If there was ever a time to make a budget and cut spending it is now! One of the best tips is to make a list of items necessary for purchase before going to the store. Discipline yourself to buy only the items on the list. Marketing psychologists already have an unfair jump on the average consumer, and will sometimes cause even the best of us to end up purchasing something we really didn’t need. There is a difference between “wants” and “needs.” The Bible says, “I will supply all your needs through Christ Jesus.”
I listened to an interview this morning with America’s #1 inventor. He said most of the great inventions have come from good people suffering hard times during depression. In the Bible, God says that he will give those that serve him “witty inventions.” The game of Monopoly, the car radio, and many other things we use today were all invented during the great depression of the 1930’s. The inventors were blessed by God with millions of dollars! In other words, if we will turn our lives over to Jesus Christ, he will give us “ingenious ideas” (as one Bible translation says), for making extra money even if we are not making enough or have lost our job. In the Bible’s Book of Psalms, David says that he has “never seen the righteous forsaken or God’s children begging for bread.”
Many have turned their hobbies into something fun and profitable. Study well about something before you attempt it and you can make money at it. My brother and I loved collecting coins from childhood days. We both helped put ourselves through college with our collections and then continued on with it to this day. Many times at gun shows, yard sales flee marts, and antique shops, we have found astounding bargains. We have purchased silver coins at a fraction of their melt value. I have purchased old British Queen Victoria Sovereign Gold coins or old U.S. gold coins, like the one pictured, for a fraction of their gold value because they were being sold as a 12 or 14 Karat piece of jewelry just like the gold in which they were mounted. The person selling them must not have taken into account when they priced them that unlike the bezel and chain, the coins are almost pure gold, NOT 14 KARAT GOLD! With the increase in the gold price over time I am sure that they still made money over what they originally paid when they purchased the coin jewelry.
One of the greatest things anybody can do in order to start prospering is to put God first in their lives. God is not intimidated by a depression nor is he afraid that he can’t give you everything you need. God actually wants to give his children that serve him healthy, wealthy, happy lives. In Third John, of the Bible, it says: “Beloved, I desire above ALL things that you prosper and also be in health, to the same degree that your soul is growing and prospering.” This verse is saying, If our souls get fed on God’s Word and prayer, and thereby prosper, then the other parts of our lives will be healthy and prosper too! Jesus also says in Matthew 6:33, “If you put first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these other things you need will be multiplied into your life!” THE MESSAGE BIBLE says, “You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met”

SILVER IS THE POOR MAN'S GOLD

Today I listened on T.V. to Jim Cramer urging everybody to buy silver. He called it the poor man’s gold and tried to show how underpriced it is in relationship to gold. He said that the day will come when it will be worth as much as gold. I also listened to the news stations telling more of the crimes committed by AIG, one of the world’s largest corporations, and how the USA is bailing them out again with no hope in sight for them to recover or pay back a dime of taxpayer money. I also heard than the world’s biggest swindler, Bernie Madoff, is having his first day in court today.
God has a warning and a blessing for all of us in Proverbs 11:3-8
“God hates cheating in the marketplace; he loves it when business is aboveboard…
The integrity of the honest keeps them on track; the deviousness of crooks brings them to ruin. A thick bankroll is no help when life falls apart, but a principled life can stand up to the worst. Moral character makes for smooth traveling; and an evil life is a hard life. Good character is the best insurance; crooks get trapped in their sinful lust. When the wicked die, that’s it—the story’s over, end of hope. A good person is saved from much trouble; a bad person runs straight into it”. MESSAGE BIBLE
In the long haul silver is supposed to do better than gold for an investment and as an insurance against runaway inflation. Cramer and other financial counselors are now recommending that a person puts at least 20% of their assets into silver. Every family should have at least a half bag ($500 face value) for each family member of “junk silver” (pre-1965 dimes, quarters and halves), which are valued not for their face value, but for their silver content. These can be purchased at coin shops or on eBay. As in other countries and in other times of history, when there is hyper-inflation, a person can use these to purchase goods at the going price of silver. If you wanted cash, any coin store will act as a bank and give you paper money for your silver at that day’s spot price for silver with a small commission for the transaction. (For example: $1.00 for an old silver dime.) Buying some silver regularly is smart like regularly buying extra grocery items to save in your pantry for a rainy day. Sacrifice now. When hard times come you will win!
Proverbs 11:21 says, “Count on this: The wicked won’t get off scot-free, and God’s loyal people will triumph!” MESSAGE BIBLE

We are in a DEFLATIONARY PERIOD...TEMPORARILY

The easiest way to explain "deflation" and "inflation" is with this simple example.
If a man sold his very rare 10 karat diamond to one person for $10,000, there would be several people who would be able to pay $1,000 for it and many others would pay $100 for it. Now suppose the man figures out how to make fake diamonds that even the best jewelers in the world cannot determine if they are genuine. Now he has an opportunity to sell several for the $5,000 offers. Once people find that more of these gems that exist than what they originally thought, what do you suppose is going to happen to the value of the original diamond? Then the man decides to mass produce his huge diamonds and sell them at whatever the market will bring. He sells many of them for even $100, but eventually he can’t sell any of them for even a $100. He keeps producing the fakes until anybody can buy one for $1. The value has been “deflated” because of the increased supply.
To simplify things, the nations of the world, including the good old USA, have flooded the planet with more than 100 trillion dollars in fake money! It has no gold or silver to back it up. The bubbles have all popped and now all commodities are temporarily crashing because people are not buying. They are not buying houses, oil, gasoline, automobiles, and even food. Some commodities naturally depreciate after purchase like automobiles, furniture, and clothing. However, there are other commodities that are a great investment. When gasoline deflated to $1.39 per gallon a couple of months ago, that would have been the buy of the century! But, where would you store all of the 50 gallon barrels of gasoline that you could buy at that price?
In Ecclesiastes 11, God tells people to invest in at least seven different areas, so when “ill winds” or catastrophes happen, it will not affect all your assets. One of the best things a family can do right now is to buy grocery items that can be easily stored. They are better than money in a savings account, and in a few months “deflation” will turn into “inflation.” When that happens, food costs, like gasoline is doing now, will start to go up. There will eventually be shortages that will compound the problem and grocery items could start to go through the roof! Eventually we will have “hyper-inflation.”
Watch for sales and start to accumulate soap, cases of tuna, coffee, paper towels, toilet paper, tissue paper, all kinds of canned veggies and meats. We called some of the canning companies and asked them about the danger of canned goods going past their expiration date. They said that most canned goods will be safe many years past the expiration date as long as the can has NO DENTS and still has its vacuum seal. This can save a family a ton of money in the future!

God says in Proverbs 21:31: “Do your best, prepare for the worst—
Then trust God to bring victory!” MESSAGE BIBLE

SURVIVING IN THIS ECONOMY

With everything around us crashing, what is a person to do? The news stations all say we are in unchartered territory and nobody knows what is going to happen. After I hear of all the nations over the earth that are in financial trouble I agree that this has never happened before. However, I don’t agree that we don’t know what is going to happen.

Since the beginning of recorded history there has never been a paper currency that has survived. China tried it unsuccessfully over and over for hundreds of years before other nations gave it a whirl. Each time it failed miserably. The third time they tried it was with Kubala Khan . He made paper money from tree bark and forced everybody to use it and give him all their gold. Anybody not accepting his bark money in transactions was executed!

After World War I, the German Republic tried to print enough paper money to buy their way out of debt. With no gold or silver backing their “Ponzi” scheme, eventually nobody wanted the valueless paper money. It got so bad that it took a wheelbarrow of German Marks to buy a loaf of bread. That was called “hyper-inflation.”

In our own time we watched the nation of Zimbabwe destroy its money by printing trillions of dollars, that had no backing of gold or silver, that was used for bailouts. A few years ago their dollar was equal to one of our dollars. Now it takes millions of their dollars to buy one of ours! Another case of hyper-inflation.
The second thing that has never survived since the beginning of recorded history is banks. Eventually they all used marginal lending (lending many times over the amount on deposit) and went broke when there was default. Even putting people in debtor’s prison did not help the banks to recover their bad loans.

The banks were so stupid to allow people to use their home equity as an ATM machine, and because of greed make loans to more borrowers that couldn’t or shouldn’t be in a purchased home in the first place! And now we are printing trillions of dollars for bailouts! And the money is worthless...people just aren't smart enough yet to figure that out..give them time..they will!

History seems to prove that people are stupid and never learn anything from history.
God says in Proverbs 19:3, “People ruin their lives by their own stupidity, so why does God always get blamed?” THE MESSAGE BIBLE

The only thing that has survived since the beginning of man and never had its value go to ZERO is GOLD! (and silver)

It is the ONLY investment to consistently gain value for every year of this new century. Look at the price of gold per ounce on the close of each year: 2000=$273.60
2001=279.00
2002=348.20
2003=416.10
2004=438.40
2005=518.90
2006=638.00
2007=838.00
2008=885.50
Don’t be stupid. Buy some gold for financial insurance. Make sure you buy the kind you take possesion of and not the kind somebody holds for you and gives you a certificate of ownership for it!