Revelation 18 posts:
5: Second Angel’s Proclamation (18:1-3)
6A: Warning Voice from Heaven (18:4-8)
6B: Voice from Heaven Continues! And the Crash? (18:9-11)
6C: No More Trade, No More Luxury (18:12-20)
7: A Mighty Angel’s Millstone (18:21-24)
Appendix 4: Rise of the Merchant Class (Colonial Era)
Appendix 5: Rise of the Merchant Class (20th Century and Beyond)
6B: Voice from Heaven Continues! And the Crash? (18:9-11)
9 The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning,
10 standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, “Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.”
11 And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore:
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9 The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning,
10 standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, “Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.”
Again we read, “the kings of the earth… committed fornication” with the Harlot, and as a result those ruling classes (the 1%ers as they are often called) “lived luxuriously”. And of course, they (and “the merchants”) will “weep and lament” over the fall of the Harlot, for it signals their downfall also… into poverty and disgrace.
“They see the smoke of her burning” and stand “at a distance for fear of her torment,” which comes suddenly “in one hour”. As mentioned earlier, this passage seems an obvious and ominous reference to the devastation caused by nuclear warfare. If only it were not so, but with a little knowledge of American atrocities perpetrated all over the world and over several decades, it is not hard to understand how this is nothing less than the just reward for decades of destruction and warmongering that she the Harlot has inflicted on nations everywhere.
11 And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore:
This passage reveals an odd feature about the Harlot’s financial power. Despite America’s enormous trade deficit, and enormous debt, which in any business situation should have caused bankruptcy, here we see that the Harlot’s economic collapse doesn’t happen until her military collapse. If “no one buys their merchandise” until after the Harlot’s military defeat, then apparently, the Harlot has maintained enough of her wealth to keep on buying merchandise. Somehow she is able to delay the economic crash right on up until the bitter end of her crushing military defeat before the forces of the Beast.
In the Great Depression of the 1930’s, America and the world experienced what we would call a real economic “crash”. The capitalist economic system, without any government regulation, resembled a house of cards, and it crashed. This did not bother the ultra-wealthy wheelers and dealers; they used the crisis to increase their wealth.
Since those days, the private money handlers must have learned their lesson and figured out how to better manage the financial system – not in a moral sense with a view to sharing/distributing the wealth, but rather, how to maintain and keep their wealth without causing drastic repercussions amongst the general populace. As a result the American economy experiences milder “recessions”… through which the upper crust still manages to profit, it seems.
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Will the “Crash” Ever Come?
The following discussion will try to clarify the behind-the-scenes machinations that are creating this peculiar situation in the Harlot’s economic realm – why the “crash”, which should have happened long ago, hasn’t happened. The discussion of this intricate and difficult-to-understand subject will center around a couple of articles written shortly after the Coronavirus Pandemic started, when it was thought that the resulting financial strain would cause the American economy to collapse.
In fact, this “crash” of the American economy has been predicted for many years, but somehow, contrary to all logic, it has never materialized. And there are reasons for this, for which the following article excerpts seem to offer some reasonable explanation. The articles referred to are
No, the dollar will only strengthen post-corona, as usual: it’s a crisis, after all (16 April 2020) and ZeroHedge, a response to Mr. Littlejohn & the future of dollar dominance (30 April 2020) – both written by Ramin Mazaheri.
There is a lot of chatter about how the coronavirus economic overreaction and subsequent US bailouts will end the dollar’s reign as the global reserve currency – such wishful thinking is shortsighted and ignores even recent Western capitalist history.
The author goes on to explain that, in spite of the many theories about the dollar’s soon collapse,
For better or for worse (certainly worse), the US and their greenback are still the gold standard when it comes to 1%er perceptions of a safe harbour in a crisis.
The “1%ers” are the rich elite – or as the Revelation Book puts it – “your merchants… the great men of the earth” by whose “sorcery all the nations were deceived.” (18:23) And their greatest deceptions exist in this murky realm of financial skullduggery.
People are acting as if Western neoliberalism hasn’t worked, LOL? It has worked spectacularly well… but only for their 1% and not for “the nation”, exactly as designed.
The “1%ers”, or “great men of the earth”, intend to stay that way, regardless of how it affects the rest of the 99%. So, while the lower and middle classes of the West and poorer nations get poorer, the rich “merchants” get ever richer and profit even more when nations encounter crises of various kinds.
The US as well as their allies (capitalism is collusion) will use all their political and probably military tools to postpone the monetary/political/historical revolution which is fundamentally implied by the end of dollar dominance.
And some of those “tools” the author mentions are
Rounds of QE rotated among different allies, massive Western propaganda campaigns, very watered-down but socialist-inspired concessions to the 99%, debt moratoriums, military distractions and maybe even World War III…
QE (quantitative easing) is a term for the banks’ injection of new money into the money supply. Here is an analogy: Criminals can create counterfeit money and become wealthy as a result. But of course, it comes with the risk of getting caught and imprisoned. If, however, you have a private corporation that is legally allowed to print money, then you have a great advantage – one that modern financial power-brokers are enjoying to the hilt, it would seem.
So that was the “solution” to the 2008 Recession – QE. But to interject money all at once from one source can result in runaway inflation. So the web of “merchants” connive to do it gradually and from different nations.
So if we understand this passage in Revelation correctly, it would appear that the “merchants” are able to postpone that “revolution – the end of dollar dominance” right up until the bitter end when the Beast finally makes his move to destroy the center of their empire (the U.S.). Perhaps without meaning to, the author throws out a hint along this line:
Open socialist combat is the only way to defeat modern Western capitalism.
“Open socialist combat” refers to the rising nations of China and Russia whose economies are guided more by the state, rather than privately by the “merchants”. Their stiff resistance against Western capitalism is an uphill climb:
The reality is that a socialist victory against predatory capitalists is long, hard and unyielding
But “predatory capitalism” finally does come to its end with the military defeat of the Harlot. But from the looks of it, not before. There may not be a “crash”, but rather a slow decrease, which will affect living standards and bring along a good deal of turmoil amongst the 99%. They will bear the brunt of the sacrifices needed to keep the 1% afloat.
In his analysis the author explains that the 1%ers in the U.S. work together with the 1%ers in other countries, especially in Europe:
The US colluded with other G20 nations for over a decade so that the QE machine could keep going “brrrrrrr” – just at different nodes… The Fed works with other G20 central banks, it must be recognised.
Nationalism does not supersede a class analysis.
Further ahead in this chapter is the statement that “your merchants were the great men of the earth.” (18:23) Not the “great men of the Harlot” – meaning, it would seem, that the “merchants” class is located all over the world, not just in America. This web of “merchants”, these financial power-brokers, are international and could care less about how their own nations are doing. And it is becoming even more so in the U.S., as evidenced by recent changes in how the Federal Reserve operates:
The new Fed-Treasury open alliance, with BlackRock as their bureaucratic arm, is a problem for the American citizen in that the priority is not the elevation of American corporations/individuals, but of Western/international high finance.
What also happened in March? [as the Corona virus started] Just like in 2008 [Recession], the US immediately opened more “currency swaps” – loaning scores of billions of dollars to their main client states to satisfy dollar demand… and make them even more beholden to maintaining dollar supremacy.
And prior to Corona
Recall that the global 1% forced first Japan then the Eurozone… to take on austerity, bailouts and multiple Lost Decades which made their debt-to-GDP ratios explode. So this bringing down of the competition is only giving US Treasuries more leeway and power. Modern capitalism IS always international collusion…
The Yen and the Euro, which once had the capacity to replace the Dollar, were sidelined by U.S.-imposed monetary policies that served to weaken the economies of Japan and the European Union.
The dollar will only strengthen post-corona, as usual: it’s a crisis, after all.
The US and EU will continue to collude. Ergo [therefore], not only does the Fed want that “enormous political leverage” but the European 1% wants the Fed to have it, too. The dollar needs to remain in charge for the Western financial system to profitably continue for Europe’s 1%…
Europe’s 1% may publicly gripe against the Fed’s decisions but they cannot go against them without effectively declaring war on the dollar. The US, Eurozone, Japan, and Saudi economies, plus their clients, are all intertwined – happily, for their 1%.
The euro, the yen and the dollar will all strengthen in a crisis because that is when investors seek safe havens and these are three of the four biggest global economies in what is soon to be an increasingly economically-depressed global market. All three also collude to fix their currencies relative to each other, due to the interconnected nature of the Western 1%, so while they will jockey for position for export power it is only within agreed-upon limits… united against the yuan, the champion currency of the socialist-inspired bloc.
US bonds are still the best, safest place for the 1% to park their savings.
The rich elite, fearing their investments might go bust due to the Corona epidemic (or any other crisis), still rush to the U.S. Dollar.
The US is well-aware that its money machine can go brrrrrr [continue printing] and the dollar will not crater.
The dollar is used in 40% of the world’s debt, 80% of global payments and nearly 100% of its oil sales – again: the world’s rich want to use dollars.
Those amounts may be less, now that Russia and China are coming up with payment systems that exclude use of the dollar. If there’s anything that could bring on a “crash” of the Western financial system, this would be it. But in the opinion of this article…
Bankers are not as dumb as you think
The Western 1% can indeed collude to create more dollars as they need… QE Infinity is a term which… shows that the Western 1% has a very sound, but immoral, grasp on reality.
As verse 23 in this Revelation chapter explains further ahead, these “merchants were the great men of the earth”, and to be “great men”, they would, as the author of these articles notes, need to have “a very sound grasp of reality”, which he makes clear is “immoral”. As that same Scripture goes on to explain, it is by “sorcery” that “all the nations were deceived”. It is the devilish (immoral) wisdom of the “merchants” that has deceived the world and kept it under their bondage and control.
The author does not hold out much hope that the Dollar will collapse without the rise of Chinese socialism. And as this passage in Revelation 18 seems to indicate, the Dollar collapse won’t happen until the military conquest of the Harlot takes place.
Thus there is no saviour – individual or national – to be had – there is only long, hard opposition via socialism, which is an entirely new system that has fixed the errors of the old capitalism-imperialism system. Therefore the only entity which could cause the system to explode – if we are being pragmatic – is a bloc led by China. Only they have the weight, combined with their allies, to ever break the dollar’s dominance…
They are not economically strong enough, nor are their few allies, nor do they have enough allies, nor could they be aided within a Western society which has nearly no “5th columnists” but merely “semi-dissidents”…
This inability to provide an alternative to dollar dominance, is why Iranians will tell you: China is not going to “save” anyone except for China, because they are not strong enough…
However, what China will do is work with you – they will create long-term plans with you (as China and Iran have done on the Belt and Road Initiative)…
China is indeed now a threat to the West but it is not yet what the USSR was for decades – a concrete alternative which was willing to foot your bills… while your national culture reforms itself away from imperialist ideals in order to… break the grip of international high finance on your people.
Thus, the dollar will not be beaten next Tuesday.
As for the Corona crisis, or any crisis…
This is why corona hysteria will ultimately be manipulated by the Western 1% to strengthen the dollar, i.e. – their dollar and not America’s dollar. Barring reforms – and I have seen none which hyper-financialisation did not take advantage of since 2008 – 2008 will only largely repeat itself.
Indeed, it would take a revolution for a Western crisis to be unsuccessfully manipulated…
Will the European Union ever break away from the American Dollar empire?
Talk of a “Third Way” has proven to be merely a way for Europeans to arrogantly assert their alleged exceptionalism/chauvinism. At some point they will give up and embrace “Eurasia”, but that is a ways away.
Maybe some European nations will embrace “Eurasia” soon, and certainly when the U.S. has been defeated militarily, then they will have no other choice but to join the victorious new world order – which in its early stages will seem benign but eventually, will turn into a new tyranny under the Beasts of earth and sea – the regimes of Antichrist and False Prophet.
The author’s conclusion:
So the corona bailouts are NOT going to end global dollar dominance…
Until then, please believe me: Western globalisation/neoliberalism has a LOT of ammo, clout, clients, banks, real money, real gold, fake money and paper gold to keep their mighty dollar on top.
These articles were written at the start of the Corona Pandemic. Has the situation changed in light of the turmoil in Ukraine and the inauguration of payment systems and more cooperation between Russia and China? Perhaps. But if things don’t change much, that is, if the Western Capitalist system does not experience a real “crash”, we’ll have a better idea, at least, of how its financial system could manage to stay afloat for some time yet.
And from the looks of it, the Dollar will benefit from the war in Ukraine. Europe has been persuaded to stop trading with Russia in favor of trading with the U.S. who will reap the monetary benefits of the EU’s slide into poverty.
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In addition to the above quotes, here are a couple more revealing news article excerpts:
So the most pressing U.S. strategic aim of NATO confrontation with Russia is soaring oil and gas prices, above all to the detriment of Germany. In addition to creating profits and stock-market gains for U.S. oil companies, higher energy prices will take much of the steam out of the German economy. (from “America Defeats Germany for the Third Time in a Century: The MIC, OGAM and FIRE Sectors Conquer NATO” by Michael Hudson, 28 February 2022 )
The war in Ukraine has brought an end to the Russia-to-Germany Nordstream Pipeline. Germany now must get its gas from the U.S. at a much higher price. And those pipelines from Russia were even destroyed in a mysterious act of sabotage in September, 2022 – which, conveniently, slams the door against any possibility that Russian gas could enter Europe via Germany.
Noting that there is always money to be thrown at the finance industry but little for social needs is by now about as startling as noting the Sun rose in the east this morning. But what is eye-opening is the truly gargantuan amounts of money handed out to benefit the wealthy.
We’re not talking billions here. We are talking trillions
For example, the amount of money created by the central banks of five of the world’s biggest economies for the purpose of artificially propping up financial markets since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic totals US$9.94 trillion (or, if you prefer, €8.76 trillion). And that total represents only one program of the many used by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, Bank of England and Bank of Canada.
That is on top of the US$9.36 trillion (or €8.3 trillion at the early 2020 exchange rate) that was spent on propping up financial markets in the years following the 2008 global economic collapse.
So we’re talking approximately US$19.3 trillion (€17.1 trillion) in the span of 14 years for five central banks’ “quantitative easing” programs, the technical name for intervening in financial markets by creating vast sums of money specifically to be injected into them and thereby inflating stock-market bubbles.
(from There’s no money? Then how can there be $10 trillion for financiers in two years? by Systemic Disorder, 15 February 2022)
