Boy did I miss Oliver’s lesson. Clarification on “a Biblical social/judicial/economic view” would have been helpful. If an “others” view is being used to extort, manipulate or pervert true intention, is it valid or of equal weight? I think I got Mr. Norton’s.(Not sure how to make Tex possessive correctly. Tex’s or Texes?) I agree. Most people look back and imagine the outcome they would like, correct other people’s behavior in their minds only, then suggest they have a solution or even more HORRIFYING, presume to have figured out how to “Never again” allow it to happen. This will bring about the non-existence of even God’s people.
First, you have free people, around which a viable economic system is created through their survival actions. Not a “perfect” system which creates free people. Without true choice, there is only enslavement.

The truth is out there, it is very clear, and, all protestations aside, the vast majority of the people (including, sadly, God’s people as well) are going to go down because they believe that a social/judicial/economic solution is achievable (which it is not) and their trust is in reforming the system or surviving the collapse. Individual responsibility does not by definition exclude an “others” view.

Good-bye and God bless.

I find myself at odds with even the contrarians, because in the end, their focus is just like those forming the circle, that being self-motivated and -oriented. That is not what God called His children to be, and I will not apologize for contending for the Truth. If you do not play with the sharks, you will be eaten by them, and in the final analysis, it is not only important how we live but also how we die. As the apostle Paul said, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Virtually no one in the body of Christ that I know is examining the social/political/economic scenario we are presently facing is taking a wholistic view of events from an accurate historical perspective with even a modicum of knowledge of relevant economic theory. As a result, I listen to and read volumes of claptrap daily from people whose sole/soul position is to make money for themselves at the expense of or without any significant thought or concern for other people either spiritually or economically.

I know when/where I am unwelcome, but I will guard my heart, for out of it flow the issues of life. Parenthetically, I have been asked by the head of my ministerial association to speak for at least two days on this subject next February or March (assuming current conditions remain unchanged, which is problematic at best). You may treat me as the Faulknerian idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing, but I know what the Word of God says and am preparing to do what I can to help others regardless of the cost personally. As my former pastor/Bbile college professor said, “Today is a good day to die. Make it a God day.”

There IS a choice, as I just wrote you at length. GET OUT OF THE CIRCLE that will be squeezed and diminished while there is yet time. Short of Oliver Cromwell and his Roundheads, or the excesses of the Puritans, though, I think it safe to say that in general those who wish to oppress others are not to be found on the “Right.” (They call us that because we are, but zealots are zealots, and invariably dismal.) Sure, they can be dreary about sin taxes, no dancing (Uh-oh! I’m asking for it!), not playing cards, and such, but they do not want to order your every move, restrict your every choice, command your every movement, and rob you to pay for votes to keep them in office, mansions, and limousines. The moral here is that Thomas Jefferson was correct and shooting was too good for Alexander Hamilton. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking Saxons vs. Normans, Cavaliers vs. Roundheads, Puritans vs. Hester Prynn, FDR against those who produced, or the current disastrous control of Washington bringing to fruition the policies of at least the last 75 years. Always, always, there are those who are driven to control, abuse, punish, and rob…and those of us who just want to live and produce in peace. The best advice I have is to listen to Tex on all things economic, at the very least, because he has a resume and history that surpasses glittering. Tony De Maio is the resident Mathematical genius. Publisher Michael Rough knows so much I gawp in awe, Richard Marmo is supreme in his fields, we have glorious Ring members you have yet to meet…and I wander around being the little Red Hen.

Welcome again to our circle of sanity. Linda

The entire world economy came within three hours of complete melt-down. The result . . . an increase in the $100,000 FDIC account insurance limit to $250,000 . . . TARP (with the 32 words in Section 8 that give the Secretary of the Treasury virtually unfettered power exempt from congressional oversight or judicial review) . . . an FDIC that is in the red (i.e., broke . . . overdrawn . . . in need of tapping the Department of the Treasury emergency fund . . . and raising the rate and asking for pre-payment of its fees [called premiums in the real insurance world] to keep its doors open.

Look back at the era of the trusts . . . virtually unfettered capitalism . . . short haul versus long haul on the western railroads and its effects on the farmers. . . Standard Oil . . . and what some call the longest recession in history from approxmately 1873 until 1897. The Panics in 1873, 1893, and 1907 . . . were all monetary manipulations that paved the way for . . . the Federal Reserve.

With or without unfettered capitalism . . . or centralized planning and socialism . . . the end result is the same. Those on either wing of the political spectrum join hands . . . form a circle . . . and all those in the inside get squeezed and the outside get . . . left out.

A watched pot never boils . . . and a sound financial system with . . . a full-reserve system . . . and constant currency value and measured growth . . . make a solid economic foundation.

Outstanding article. You’ve run into the same problem of living thru history and reading about it that I have in a slightly different area. Modelbuilding.

Modelbuilding, to begin with, has become basically an adult hobby. The reasons are many and could form the basis of an entire article, so I won’t go into them here. Suffice it to say that the models..and here I speak primarily of aircraft and armor…that sell are of subjects from WW-II to the present time. While there are some exceptions, WW-I and Between the Wars are virtually impossible to sell. That time period is literally ancient history.

Same goes for movies. Westerns, which I and I suspect you, grew up on, are almost extinct today. Even when you do get one, almost no one watching them can relate to them in any way, shape or form. What’s replaced western movies today? Comic book heroes, Japanese Animes and Science Fiction.

It makes you wonder if the Terminator movie series is the ultimate destination of society.

Superb explanations with crisp illustrations. I wish I understood the description of “HTML tags I can use” even a quarter as well. The ability to explain history properly is not common in this day and age, another failure of government funding of the “educational” process. Here’s a thought to ponder: what can we learn from the Cavaliers vs. the Roundheads. The Roundheads this time are religious zealots that worship “Mother” earth and “planned” economies. Do you suppose we far more drably dressed Cavaliers can pull this one out in thirty years? Or will Oliver Obama Cromwell win at last?