Banks: Run or Walk?

Silicon Valley Investment Bank ("SVIB") in California failed last Friday. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/silicon-valley-bank-crashes-65-halted-pending-news

Believe it or not:

"SVB failed because they parked the majority of their depositors’ money ($119.9 billion) in 10 year US GOVERNMENT BONDS." 

...

"The problem was caused by the Federal Reserve monkeying with interest rates, Quantitative Easing (ie. Buying bonds from the market)."

...

 "In March 2020, for example, interest rates were so low that the Treasury Department sold some 10-year Treasury notes at yields as low as 0.08%." Ref.:  https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/simon-black-unraveling-can-happen-instant

The Canadian government has taken over the SVIB subsiduary bank in Canada, as its SVIB parent was no longer able to financially support, direct, or manage this orphaned bank in Canada.

Other banks, including some Canadian banks,  owned SVIB's shares, and/or their Derivative paper as investments, but these investments are now worthless, or are already significantly reduced in value, or may soon be.

Another bank in New York City, Signature Bank, that focused on crypto,  has also failed for similar reasons. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/12/regulators-close-new-yorks-signature-bank-citing-systemic-risk.html

Silvergate Bank also failed as of March 9, 2023.  Silvergate Bank was an FDIC insured institution located in La Jolla, CA. It was founded in 1988 and has approximately $15.71 billion in assets.  It failed after the crypto market instability due to a huge fraud & Ponzi scheme at FTX by Sam Bankman-Freid.

As the problem spreads from one bank to another, it is called contaigion, like a virus.  Imagine that, a recycled theme from COVID?

Ian Bremmer presented a graphic showing all of the bank or Savings & Loans failures in USA since Year 2000 ,(ie. last 23 years): 

https://mobile.twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1635339819944677376

The blue circle represents the SVIB failure, as the 2nd. largest US bank failure since Year 2000, with the fall of Washington Mutual in 2008 as the largest.  This is a significant event.

Banks are in trouble.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/big-trouble-little-banks-bailout-sparks-buying-panic-bonds-bitcoin-bullion

Money on deposit may be at risk.  Deposit insurance in Canada is just $100,000  and $250,000 in USA, but when will you get reimbursed?  You still have to survive until after the dust settles from a collapse; if they should occur.

I do not suggest you take steps that will unnecessarily cause a bank run, needlessly making things far worse than necessary.  However, you need to take prudent steps to protect yourself and your family.

I suggest all of the following, listed in  priority sequence:

1. You need many rolls of $2 coins (Toonies in Canada, $1 coins in USA), because they have intrinsic value as scrap metal, where paper/plastic currency has none, and may be accepted even during 666 Mark of the Beast (eg. Vending machines, parking meters, laundramats, food, "favors", etc.) when nothing else will be accepted by The Beast system.
2. I suggest a 3 month supply (min.) to a 6 mo. supply (ideal) of cash, as $20.00 bills  for normal monthly operating expenses, or "favors", or emergencies when ATM's go off-lines & banks are forced closed.
3. I suggest paying off credit cards, lines of credit, car loans, and mortgages as much as possible to reduce debt, and stay out of debt.  Interest rates are going to the sky (bank loans likely 20%, or higher, credit card debt in outer space), or current debt will be demanded to be repaid immediately, or no renewal will be permitted in the future.
4. I suggest paying utility bills (eg. electricity, water, sewer, heating bill, fuel, etc. ) & property taxes in advance, assuming they increase at 25% inflation each year from now till 2027 inclusive so as to minimize your cash bank balances at risk.  As a public utility, these pre-paid expenses are likely safer than a private business.  This keeps you in your current home through bad times, rather than evicted for non-payment; a forced savings system, like whole life insurance.. 

Some may choose (or already chose) to buy gold, silver, or crypto currencies; rather than large bank balances.  In the Bible, it warns that at some point, people will be throwing gold & silver into the street as worthless.  We aren't quite there yet, but will be soon enough.  Right now, these alternatives may be ill-liquid at the gas station or grocery store, or may be accepted only if severe discounts for them are taken in exchange for what you need to survive on today.

Remember, Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau, as a star student of Klaus Schwab at WEF (World Economic Forum) said, Mar. 2023 will see an economic reset, where all of us (except their billionaire "friends") will own nothing & be happy.  

I assumed he meant cars & houses too.  This WEF master plan likely applies to all NATO countries & their Western friends, as WEF plans to collapse their economies, creating a world-wide crisis, then WEF will pretent they have the solution for the crisis they caused, or significantly contributed towards, thereby enabling a 1-world government (ie. No longer soverign countries like Canada, USA, UK, Germany, China, etc.), as the whole world will be under the absolute control of a authoritarian, tyrannical Dictator, chosen by WEF and their friends.

Oh joy!

From now to Apr. 2027, the world will likely be similar to the enslaved Israelites in  Egypt under Pharaoh, as described in the Bible (Genesis 47:13-26; and Exodus 1:8 to 23:33).

Good luck!

We are only protected by God ftom all the above, and much worse.  Draw near to God.

Fear God; know God, and know that Jesus willingly died as a blood sacrifice for their sins, then God raised Him from the dead; believes in God, their Creator, Lord, & Saviour; loves God (ie. God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit) with all their heart, mind, body, soul, & strength; loves their neighbours as themself; understands both God & sin through reading God's Word every day; believes God's Word is truth, God-breathed and inspired, & preserved by God; learns to study & rightly divide God's Word; learns God’s commandments; confesses & repents to God all their sins (both known & unknown); is humble & contrite, and admit they are a broken person without God; turns away from sin and turn towards God; fully forgives all those who trespassed against them or hurt them; prays to God for God's forgiveness of their sins & His cleansing of them; lets their old sinful self (ie. a slave to sin, and a child of Satan) die off, so that their new, obedient, righteous self can be Born Again as a child of God; invites Jesus into their life, to dwell in their heart through faith; gets baptized by full immersion in water in the name of God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit; remembers God's promises that temptation will never be greater than what they can resist, and there will always be a path to escape from sin & temptation; gets all iniquity (ie. pre-planned, pre-meditated, or chronic sin) out of their life; obeys all of God's commandments to the best of their ability; prays to God that He hedges them in, & keeps them away from sin and Satan’s fiery darts; flees from sin & temptation, and when they fail, stops (ie. the sooner they stop sinning, the better) & repents & confesses their sins to God and asks for forgiveness & wisdom & strength to resist all same & similar sins in the future; does not grieve nor quench the Holy Spirit; dresses, acts, & thinks in a modest & humble manner; carefully studies alleged Prophets & prophesies, testing them against God's Word, rejects what is false, and keeps what is good; does not pray to, nor worship, nor sacrifice to anything other than God; rejects all False Gospels & heresies; praises & worships God; prays continuously to God the Father; obeys the righteous laws of man, & pays their tributes (taxes); pays a tithe of 10%; help widows, orphans, the poor, the sick, strangers, & neighbours; is joyous & thankful; avoids pride, boasting, grumbling, & murmurring (ie. rebellious complaining); lives each day by being & acting through the Fruit of the Holy Spirit (ie. faith, longsuffering, patience, meekness, gentleness, temperance, goodness, righteousness, godliness, joy, peace, truth, and love); denies themself, then lives for their Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ; shares their testimony & preaches the Gospel to every living creature; prepares themself to serve God each day, and to be mocked, scorned, rejected, persecuted, &/or martyred in the name of Jesus Christ.

If anybody consistantly & whole heartedly does all the above, they will be one of the saved souls who avoid Hell, and spends all eternity in Heaven with their loving God, and live there in peace, love, joy, and fulfillment.  Those who don't have a deep, loving relationship with Jesus Christ (see above) are doomed to Hell.

Hell, also called the Lake of Fire, was primarily for Satan and his evil demons.  However, all those who do not have a deep loving relationship with Jesus Christ, or are "workers of iniquity", or commited the Unforgiveable Sin, or took the Mark of the Beast (666) or worshipped The Beast, or modified their DNA (eg. genetic mutations via gene therapy or hacking, chimeras, AI augmentation, hybrid humanoids, possibly COVID-19 &/or its vaccination, etc.) so that they are no longer fully human, then they are doomed to the Lake of Fire.

Those thrown into the Lake of Fire will have no rest, neither day nor night, but will suffer burning and torment for ever & ever.  There will be gnashing of teeth (ie. Severe anger) and weeping forever.  Once somebody enters the Lake of Fire, there is no escape, there is no death, there is only an eternity of torment and burning.

To help you get started (or fill in the gaps) on all the above, I suggest God's 26 Commandments for Christians, a summary of 276 Bible verses, arranged into The 10 Commandments, plus 16 more teachings from Jesus Christ, The Apostles, and The Bible.

https://et-manitoulin.blogspot.com/2019/12/gods-26-commandments-for-christians.html

Islam: A Religion of Convenience?

Will Islam soon become a "religion of convenience", siphoning off everyone with a half baked faith in God?

Today, Christianity is the leading religion of the world, but Islam is on the rise, and Christianity may soon be left behind in the Islamic dust.

I have learned that Christianity is the largest faith on Planet Earth (31.5% of all humans, about 2.4 Billion people).  Islam is in second place (23.2%, or 1.6 Billion people).  The Muslim population is growing far more rapidly than Christian families, so Islam is projected to overtake and pass Christianity in the next 50 to 100 years if past trends continue.  Pew Research[1] has found that historically for United States, 23% of those who were born and raised Muslim will lose their faith and become apostate (ie. non-Muslim).  Pew has also found that 23% of today's Muslims were raised in a different faith, then converted to Islam; therefore the in and out flows (conversion and apostasy) cancel each other out.

Unlike the past, will there be a growing number of Christians, agnostics, and atheists who convert to Islam in the future?

I understand that Islam gangs inside prisons claim total control over all or most US prison inmates (see here and here).  It is reported that 80% of the prisoners who "find faith" while in prison convert to Islam.

In Ontario, prisoners have been reported to convert to Islam so as to receive better food (Halal freshly prepared individual meals, rather than mass produced cook-cool-reheat slop served to everybody else) and/or more food while in prison.  Unfortunately, these recent reports of "food forced Islamic conversions" have been scrubbed and removed from Internet history for unexplained reasons.

In the UK, prisoners are converting to Islam so as to receive protection from the powerful Islamic gangs inside UK prisons.  Similar conversions to Islam are happening in the EU and  Australia.

It isn't just prisoners who convert to Islam for safety and fringe benefits.

Under Sharia Law, no Muslim is allowed to charge another Muslim usury interest on borrowed money.  Wikipedia reports that in 2009, there were over 300 banks and 250 mutual funds around the world complying with Islamic principles.  In 2014, they had around $2 trillion in assets that were Sharia-compliant; approximately 1% of total world assets.  The Globe & Mail reported that the first Islamic home-financing agreement was drafted in Halifax in 1975.

Toronto-based Ansar Co-operative Housing Corp. is a Sharia mortgage lender..  After the Ottawa Citizen ran a story on Ansar in 2002, the co-op was inundated by queries from many non-Muslim Canadians, all of whom were turned away.  What will happen during the next financial crisis, when Canadians are truly desperate, and they risk losing their home unless they find an affordable mortgage?  Will the desperate convert to Islam so that they can get an affordable mortgage?

When CMHC (Canadian Mortgage & Housing Canada) commissioned a study of Sharia-based loans, CMHC was attacked as aiding and abetting the entry of Sharia law into Canada. 

In the Western and Christian world, we aren't so lucky at avoiding the blood sucking leaches of bank financing.

Canadian mortgage rates are set by the Canadian bond market.  HELOCS (Home Equity Lines of Credit) float at the Canadian prime interest rate charged by Canada's Big Five banks (RBC, TD, Scotia, BMO, CIBC).  Canadian rates have exploded upwards, and have a lot further to go.

Canadian bond market interest rates are climbing rapidly.  With Canadians overloaded with debt,will conversion to Islam
and free loans be used as an escape route?

source: tradingeconomics.com

On Garth Turner's Canadian real estate blog,  he notes that Canadians owe $211 billion in HELOCS, 40% of Canadians pay nothing on these loans, another 25% pay just the interest, so 65% of mortgage borrowers haven’t been reducing their mortgage debt load.

The Greater Fool Blog notes that a 0.25% interest rate increase means Canadian must pay $1.6 billion more in bank charges in 2018.  Garth also notes almost half the households in Canada have less than $200 available after paying the monthly bills.

Add to this the B20 rules for Canadian mortgages that limit the "loan to value" amount that can be borrowed, and mandatory qualification to stress test interest rates, set significantly higher than the interest rate you will eventually pay to your mortgage lender.

The coup de grace is the dropping real estate values.  Mortgaged to the hilt, and no longer able to sell to a "greater fool", Canadians will be getting letters from their mortgage lenders saying they must pay down their current mortgage debt before they qualify for a mortgage renewal.

Garth reports:

Richmond Hill [in Greater Toronto Area] detached median sold price has dropped a whopping $122k, down to $1,100,000, or a full 35% down from the peak in April [2017],” says Toronto real estate broker Alex Prikhodco in his monthly report to us. “In January-February [2018] sellers are going to get crucified.  Expect a further drop of 10-15% before March 2018.” And, yikes, look at this. The average sale price of almost $1.7 million nine months ago is now $1.1 million. If Alex is correct, these houses are on their way to the $900,000 range, for a plunge of about 45%.

If non-Muslim Canadians can no longer afford the rising interest rates for their McMansions housing excesses, and the Muslim world makes their oil & gas wealth petro-profits available for the masses, will this encourage conversion to Islam as an interest rate relief "religion of convenience"?

For the young Canadians who covet a house of their own, rather than living in their parent's basement, how will they ever afford a house of their own at rising interest rates, sky high prices (that are slowly deflating), windfall profit potential from a real estate bubble no longer available, and tighter mortgage rules?  Some may choose to sell their soul to the Devil so as to enjoy hedonistic housing today.

There is a growing chorus (see here and here ) who say the US Federal Reserve may soon be forced to rapidly raise interest rates so as to rescue a predicted collapse in the US dollar in the near future; likely in 2018.  This would instigate similar response from the Bank of Canada, fully nailing on the lid of the Canada's real estate coffin; hopefully with a decent Christian burial six feet under.

A hundred years ago, conversion to Islam for financial gain would be unthinkable.  However, with the luke warm Christianity of today, plus the hedonistic, instant gratification world we live in, will people stand loyal to Jesus Christ?

Some may rationalize that they can convert to Islam, get their interest-free loan, then convert back to Christianity later.  Others may "pretend" to be a Muslim, so that they get the usury fringe benefits.

Don't be fooled.

"Surely, there is at this day a confederacy of evil, marshaling its hosts from all parts of the world, organizing itself, taking its measures, enclosing the church of Christ as in a net, and preparing the way for a general apostasy from it.  Whether this very apostasy is to give birth to Antichrist, or whether he is still to be delayed, we cannot know; but at any rate this apostasy, and all its tokens, and instruments, are of the Evil One and savor of death.

Far be it from any of us to be of those simple ones, who are taken in that snare which is circling around us!  Far be it from us to be seduced with the fair promises in which Satan is sure to hide his poison...

He prompts you what to say, and then listens to you, and praises you, and encourages you.  He bids you mount aloft.  He shows you how to become as gods.  Then he laughs and jokes with you, and gets intimate with you; he takes your hand, and gets his fingers between yours, and grasps them, and then you are his."

J.H.Newman, The Times of Antichrist