America’s Looming Financial Collapse

James F. Gauss, Ph.D.
May 23, 2024

To whom can I speak and give warning?
Who will listen to me?
Their ears are closed
so they cannot hear.
The word of the Lord is offensive to them;
they find no pleasure in it.

Jeremiah 6:10

Although these prophetic words were spoken by the Jewish prophet Jeremiah over 2600 years ago, before the Jews of the Kingdom of Judah were taken into Babylonian captivity, the warning holds true for America today.

Our nation is facing many potential calamities this year, but we will focus only on the pending financial one for this posting. Most Americans are aware that the nation’s National Debt is rapidly approaching an incredible $35 trillion (about $110,000 per person in the US). That is the primary financial debt bomb reported by the government and national media. However, that is only the tip of a huge financial catastrophe awaiting Americans in the extremely near future.

In my second post of this new year, Will America Survive 2024?, I stated that 2024 could be the most dangerous year in American history and sighted the main reasons. Unfortunately, that assessment is becoming truer every day.

The National Debt, while alarming, is a microcosm of a much larger view. Make no mistake, the current administration in Washington, D.C. and our Congress have no will or determination to rein in the nation’s out-of-control spending or debt debacle. Despite America drowning in debt, the Biden administration is proposing a FY2025 budget of $7.3 trillion (about $22,000 per person in the US and 4.7% greater than FY2024). This despite the reality that the FY2024 budget has resulted in almost $2 trillion in spending beyond federal revenue. Every U.S. president (except President Clinton who achieved a one-percent decrease) back to Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) added substantially to the nation’s indebtedness. Coolidge, the last Republican president to do so, added a surplus to the U.S. coffers and reduced deficit spending by 26 percent.

Fast forward and today presidents and politicians cannot save a penny, much less billions or trillions of taxpayer monies. They only look to spend increasingly to appease their constituents or advance their own wealth.

“From the least to the greatest,
all are greedy for gain;
prophets and priests alike,
all practice deceit.
They dress the wound of my people
as though it were not serious.
‘Peace, peace,’ they say,
when there is no peace.
Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct?
No, they have no shame at all;
they do not even know how to blush.
So they will fall among the fallen;
they will be brought down when I punish them,”
says the Lord.
This is what the Lord says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Jeremiah 6:13-16

So, what has the nation’s and the politician’s greed brought to our doorstep? Along the way political corruption has run deep and wide. Statesman who put the nation and its people ahead of their own desires and needs are rare, if not extinct.

Now for the rest of the financial picture. The annual interest to be paid on the National Debt is quickly reaching $1 trillion and now exceeds what is spent on the nation’s National Defense. Not a healthy or reassuring reality. Imagine what our economy would be like if we did not have to waste that money on debt service? America’s Total Debt (Household, Business, State and Local Governments, Financial Institutions and Federal Government) now exceeds $100 trillion, up $3 trillion since January. The Federal government’s Unfunded Liabilities (the Fed’s non-payable promissory note to hardworking U.S. taxpayers) is near $216 trillion, $57 trillion more than when Biden took office a little over three years ago.

Add to these harbingers of disaster, the nation’s growing energy crisis (we are importing more and more oil every month); a trade deficit that exceeds $1 trillion/year; over $8 trillion of our debt owned by foreigners (but China is selling off U.S. debt at a record pace); the de-dollarization of the world economy (a signal of the U.S. dollar’s anticipated collapse); personal debt skyrocketing; cost of living increasing; homelessness and those living in poverty increasing; U.S. food shortages likely; unemployment rising; increasing societal instability and a host of other negative financial realities does not bode well for a nation and its citizens who are facing the real possibility of a world war, terrorist threats and the invasion of millions of unvetted illegal immigrants who do not have American’s best interests at the heart of their agenda.

I appointed watchmen over you and said,
‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’
But you said, ‘We will not listen.’
Therefore hear, you nations;
you who are witnesses,
observe what will happen to them.
Hear, you earth:
I am bringing disaster on this people,
the fruit of their schemes,
because they have not listened to my words
and have rejected my law.

Jeremiah 6:17-19

If you believe God is going to bail us out of this mess, or as a Christian you will be “raptured” before it all comes collapsing down, you may be in for a rude awakening.

Pray for America! Pray for Israel! Most of all, pray for the sleeping church in America!

READ Revelation 18 and the Fate of America (2021 Edition) where all this was presented in 2013 and in 2021.

Available on Amazon in paperback and hard cover and on Barnes & Noble as an eBook.

Be sure to visit the author’s website for more offerings.

Also visit this developing link on survival resources.

China IS NOT Our Friend

James F. Gauss, Ph.D.

March 27, 2024

Many years ago, during the Bill Clinton presidency, my wife stopped at a local convenience store. Behind the counter was a high school student. As the student waited on my wife, somehow the casual conversation turned to China and all the Chinese products that were showing up in local stores. The student gleefully declared that her teacher told his class the China was America’s friend and could be counted on and would be good for America and its citizens.

Below is an excerpt from Revelation 18 and the Fate of America (2021 Edition) that describes the post-Clinton era reality of China.

The eagerness of U.S. politicians and businesspeople to reap the financial rewards of a burgeoning Chinese market led to extremely poor judgments (intentional or unintentional) that greatly compounded America’s financial condition and will plague Americans for decades to come. China can single- handedly credit its rapid rise to economic and world power to the ill- advised decisions of America’s powerbrokers and left-leaning political socialists.

It All Started Here. While on the campaign trail on March 9, 1992, Democratic presidential candidate, William Clinton, professed that he was adamantly against granting China Most Favored Nation (MFN) status. However, only seven months after Clinton won the presidential election with only 43 percent of the vote in a three-way contest, he rapidly reversed his campaign position, granting China MFN status with his Executive Order 12850 on May 28, 1993.

In promoting his decision before the American people, Clinton stated, “Yesterday the American people won a tremendous victory as a majority of the House of Representatives [of which 59 percent were Democrats] joined me in adopting our plan to revitalize America’s economic future.” But, did the American people win?

He went on to proclaim that, “The core of this policy will be a resolute insistence upon significant progress on human rights in China. To implement this policy,” Clinton continued, “I am signing today an Executive order that will have the effect of extending most- favored-nation status for China for 12 months. Whether I extend MFN next year, however, will depend upon whether China makes significant progress in improving its human rights record.”

Despite his bold and stern proclamation, China made no progress with its human rights record over the next year and Clinton had no intention of denying the renewal of China’s MFN status. One year later, without much fanfare, he quietly renewed the status on May 27, 1994, claiming that, “This decision offers us the best opportunity to lay the basis for long-term sustainable progress on human rights and advancement of our other interests with China.”

Senate Majority Leader, George Mitchell (D-Maine), disagreed with Clinton’s decision. “This decision,” he stated, “will confirm for the regime the success of its policy of repression on human rights and manipulation of trade.” Indeed it did. To date, 26 years later, China has made no significant progress on human rights abuses and flagrantly manipulates trade in its favor—basically thumbing its nose at Washington.

In fact, the United States, during Clinton’s final year in office, on September 12, 2000, and with an 83-15 Senate vote, overwhelmingly approved Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status for China.

How it Worked Out for America and Americans. To further justify his position, President Clinton offered this dangling carrot: “China will open its markets to American products from wheat to cars to consulting services, and our companies will be far more able to sell goods without moving factories or investments there.” With that enticement, American businesses, from family-run farms to mega corporations, had visions of unrestrained wealth rolling in from the land of over one billion “consumers.”

Representative Bill Archer (R-TX), the lead sponsor of the bill, commented, “The American people support this agreement because they know it’s good for jobs in America and good for human rights and the development of democracy in China.”

However, it was never good for the American people, even though they readily feasted on an ever-expanding supply of cheap products that were once made in America. It was never good for American jobs. Many were “shipped” overseas to China as thousands of businesses re-located their manufacturing to China and wages of the American worker stagnated or decreased in real dollars. Also, it has never been good for human rights in China or the development of democratic ideals.

In an article in the Washington Times on September 11, 2020, the day before the 20^th anniversary of the granting of PNTR status to the communist country, the writer, Michael McKenna, referred to the Clinton PNTR agreement as a colossal mistake. In his short piece, McKenna commented, “catastrophic miscalculations of Chinese intent by Congress played a significant role in shattering the postwar foreign policy consensus . . .”

During his 2016 presidential run, Donald Trump offered his assessment of the PNTR deal. “China’s entrance into the WTO has enabled the greatest job theft in the history of our country.” He was right on target. According to McKenna, since 2000, an estimated five million U.S. manufacturing jobs have been lost as American companies fled to China for cheap labor and production costs. It was, indeed, a gross miscalculation and sellout of the American people by their political leaders, from which America will never recover. It “was uniform sentiment among the political class,” McKenna wrote, “that inviting China into the community of nations would eventually produce changes inside of China, undermine the power of the Chinese Communist Party, and reduce its indifference toward killing its own citizens.” America’s leaders could not have been more mistaken.

As an example of the imbalanced trade impact, McKenna cited Youngstown, Ohio. This once prosperous manufacturing city in eastern Ohio, had a growing population that peaked in 1930 at 170,002. By 1990, three years before Clinton’s MFN declaration for China, Youngstown had contracted to 95,695. By 2000, the year Clinton conferred PNTR status for China, the city had further declined to 81,720. Youngstown residents, like those of thousands of cities across America, were hoping for a revitalization of their community with new Chinese markets and new jobs to bolster its flagging economy. It never happened! In fact, Youngstown’s 2019 census indicated the city’s population had dropped another 20 percent to 65,469 or 61.5% less than the peak of 1930. While indicative of communities across the nation, Youngstown was just the tip of the destructive iceberg known as China. As McKenna noted, when manufacturing or other major businesses in a city are forced to fold, soon to follow are hundreds of small business employers (restaurants, salons, retail shops, malls, etc.), and the tax base declines, affecting schools and essential city services.

To be continued . . . .

Revelation 18 and the Fate of America (2021 Edition) is also available as an eBook on Barnes & Noble and Kobo.

Visit the author’s website for more book options.