Icebergs in Europe

Gary North was just loaded with good news this week...

WORST FINANCIAL CRISIS SINCE 1931?
German State-Owned Banks on Verge of Collapse
By Wolfgang Reuter

The German government has had to bail out state-owned banks with taxpayers' money after their managements recklessly gambled away billions on subprime investments. But if a state-owned bank were to go under, the consequences could be disastrous for the whole economy....

And German banks are not the only ones being hard hit by the subprime crisis. In the UK, the government earlier this week announced plans to temporarily nationalize the troubled bank Northern Rock until market conditions improved. The bank ran into difficulties last year as a result of the global credit crunch and was forced to ask the Bank of England for a bail-out. The House of Commons passed emergency legislation to nationalize the bank in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and the bill is expected to be approved by the House of Lords by the end of the week.

Amateurism and Greed

Ortseifen and Matthäus-Maier are perfect examples of the fatal mix of amateurism, greed and political protection that is symptomatic for many of Germany's state-owned, partially state-owned and public sector banks. It is an environment that can only thrive in the shadow of the state -- and that has drained more than €20 billion from the public treasury within the last decade

Until now, the government has always been there to pick up the tab in the end. Fully aware of this safety net, the executives at state-owned banks gambled with their employers' assets as if there was no tomorrow. Munich-based BayernLB did it with stocks in Singapore, Bankgesellschaft Berlin with real estate investments, and WestLB with holdings in British companies.

Anyone who is not responsible for bearing the consequences of the risks he or she takes can easily turn into a gambler. And the bets kept increasing in recent years, getting more and more public-sector banks into financial hot water. Now the banks find themselves lacking the assets they need to weather the turmoil of an international financial crisis....

The situation for Germany's public banks has become so dramatic that it threatens to topple what has been one of the key pillars of the country's banking system. The state-owned banks are supposed to bail each other out when necessary, but the problem is that many are in trouble themselves and hardly in a position to help their peers. And things could get even worse.

If an industry giant like WestLB were forced to its knees -- which almost happened two weeks ago -- at least two other state-owned banks and a dozen savings and loan associations would crumple along with it. The member banks of the German Savings Banks Finance Group (Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe) are closely interlinked, and they are required to vouch for each other -- as long as they are in a position to do so, that is. The failure of a major state-owned bank like WestLB would also inevitably affect corporate customers, even forcing some into bankruptcy.

It is a nightmare scenario that the government financial supervisory authority now believes is increasingly likely. Germany's public-sector banks speculated far more heavily than private banks in American subprime mortgage securities. Now these banks' beleaguered executives are calling on the government to bail them out from a disaster of their own making.
....Read more>>

Icebergs..This Is Gonna Be Such A Mess

Gary North pointed this out earlier...

Banks Lose to Deadbeat Homeowners as Loans Sold in Bonds Vanish
By Bob Ivry

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Joe Lents hasn't made a payment on his $1.5 million mortgage since 2002.

That's when Washington Mutual Inc. first tried to foreclose on his home in Boca Raton, Florida. The Seattle-based lender failed to prove that it owned Lents's mortgage note and dropped attempts to take his house. Subsequent efforts to foreclose have stalled because no one has produced the paperwork.

``If you're going to take my house away from me, you better own the note,'' said Lents, 63, the former chief executive officer of a now-defunct voice recognition software company.

Judges in at least five states have stopped foreclosure proceedings because the banks that pool mortgages into securities and the companies that collect monthly payments haven't been able to prove they own the mortgages. The confusion is another headache for U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as he revises rules for packaging mortgages into securities... Read more>>

More Icebergs

Gary North pointed this out...

Homeowners Losing Equity Lines
As House Values Fall, Some Banks Withdraw Credit
By Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 23, 2008; A01

In one brief phone call, Nancy Corazzi's lender yanked away what was left of the $95,000 home equity line of credit that she and her husband took out five months ago.

The lender informed her that her Howard County home had plummeted in value and the company did not want the risk that she would owe more than the house was worth.

"I got off the phone and I was shaking," said Corazzi, who was using the money to pay preschool tuition for her twins ."I was near tears. We needed this credit line to get us through some tough times."

Several of the nation's largest lenders, along with smaller ones, are shutting off access to home equity lines in areas where home values are declining. It's an unusually aggressive move as the industry grapples with fallout from the mortgage crisis that began unfolding last year...Read more>>

More Icebergs

By way of Gary North

Mortgage Crisis Triggers Walk Aways
Desperate Decisions Mark a Shift in Home Ownership Attitudes

By Mary Kane

o understand why the next phase of the nation’s housing crisis might mean financially troubled owners just give up and walk away from their homes, look no further than the winding roads and carefully tended lawns of the Piedmont subdivision in the once-booming exurbs of Washington.

Here, in Virginia farmland 40 miles south of the nation’s capital, builders in the last decade carved out development after development – hundreds of homes in gated communities that sold in a snap. At Piedmont, people camped out in line to get a contract, buying into plans for 2,000 spacious, traditional-style brick homes with decorative lamp posts on every lawn. The prices – at $600,000 and up – might seem high in softer markets elsewhere in the country. But in this expensive area, they felt affordable to people willing to trade a long and trying commute for a much larger home, adjacent golf course and community pool. Helped, of course, by interest-only loans, little or no down payments, and adjustable-rate mortgages.

Housing prices haven’t just dropped – they’ve tanked, falling by as much as $200,000 to $250,000. But Piedmont’s amenities don’t mean as much to many of its homeowners these days. Housing prices haven’t just dropped – they’ve tanked, falling by as much as $200,000 to $250,000. By one estimate, some 80 percent of new listings here are either foreclosures or short sales, in which owners give their houses back to the bank at a fire-sale price...Read more>>

Why It's so Hard to Elect Someone That's Against The System

From Lew Rockwells site.

Why Senator Snort Is Not a Libertarian
by Gary North

...A quarter of a century ago, I sat down with Paul Weyrich. I asked him about what it takes to get conservatives – not libertarians – to run for office. He was forthright. "They will not run for a local office. I can get lots of people to run for the Senate, if I agree to raise the money. But they refuse to put in years in the trenches. They are not interested in lower offices."

I wrote my piece, "The Dogcatcher Strategy," in response to his statement. It sat in my files unused for almost twenty years. A much-shortened version of it was published on LewRockwell.com in 2000.

The Senate is a vetted organization. The party's hierarchy screens the candidates. Then the media screen the two rivals. If one of them deviates from the acceptable limits of discourse, the media come down on the side of the candidate who accepts today's Federal government. No one gets through the party's vetting who is hostile to the state...whole thing here

DVD Review "Money, Banking, And The Federal Reserve System"

I picked up this DVD from the Mises Institue. It trys to use simple language, graphics to show how the "Fed" causes inflation and uses monetary policy to secretly tax Americans.

It was made in 1996 and has Ron Paul commenting on the Federal Reserve System a number of times.

Overall very good. It just seems impossible that they are accountable to know one. But I have never seen this refuted.

Anyone who knows the Terry family can borrow it.

We Have Work To Do

2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

I submit, that right here, Paul's reference to "rightly dividing the word of truth," that he was specifically speaking of the Old Testament. The New Testament cannon was still 300 yrs from being recognized.

Of the New Testament writers God had Paul do the Lions share. Question..Of the New Testament writers who probably had the deepest most thorough understanding of the Old Testament?.....Coincidence?

Thankfully while much of the church has been picnicking quietly, waiting for the Lord's return, there have been some Christians who have been obediently applying God's word to all of Life.

If you have not taken the time to have gone through the string of Douglas Wilson columns I sent around then you are the poorer for it. I just love seeing God's principles held up to different areas of life! Yes!!!!!

This is not easy. This is work. Partly because we must disengage, foolish ways of seeing life that we were inculcated with. And partly because we are so not used to handling the Old Testament and New Testament Like a brace of revolvers.

Like the guy I sold a gun too. He had someone try to break into his house in the middle of the night. Having been woken by his wife with the panic stricken voice “that someone is trying to force open the sliding glass door” to their bedroom. He grabbed the gun and box of ammo and promptly scattered bullets all over the floor. So in the dark on his hands and knees he’s feeling around for the bullets and screaming out “you better go away or I will shoot you”. They left.

I do feel like that myself, I am frantically on the floor trying to gather together a coherent world view that now includes the Old Testament and as I’m picking up bullets I am noticing that these are “elephant” rounds…Lordy! These will do some damage Praise God!

There is a temptation for me to weary as I am making up for my disobedience. (yes that’s what I call it) just having to admit that I have misunderstood how wide , vast, and all encompassing the claims of Christ are to all of life is humbling to me and my flesh doesn’t like it. Rather than have to press myself, and wait before the lord and meditate on these things I have been constantly whispered at by the enemy “maybe we should not be sidetracked by this minor stuff and we should stay focused on the real work of the Lord”.

Its nothing like first claiming the moral high ground before I take a position as a slothful servant.

The world has enough Alfred E Neuman Christians , just enjoying fellowship while you wait for the bus,(what me worry?).

We must stay on our hands and knees, in prayer, in meditation, looking for the rest of our bullets. You will have to ignore the pagans running around claiming that, “this is neutral" and "its not relevant” and try to help the other believers who think that the claims of Christ are a little too loud…“Put on your earmuffs."

You should see the holes these things make.

As was spoken to the Ephesians in 3:17 so also we are commanded to... no longer walk as the rest of the gentiles walk in the futility of of their minds. He would not have warned them to no longer do it...if it wasnt possible for them to do it. Hey I did it for a long, long time and catch myself still doing it.

Col:1:16,17...all things were created through him and for him. and he is before all things,and in him all things consist ....that in all things he may have preeminence...

Quick study on Govt and Economics

This is a quick snapshot that shows the futility of govt claims of "helping" the economy. by Gary North via Lew Rockwell.

An Introduction to Macroeconomics
[This is a lecture to a class in macroeconomics at a university whose president had no warning that I was scheduled to lecture. This is called hit-and-run higher education.]
Ladies and Gentlemen. . . .

I have been invited to address this class by your distinguished professor who, not being on a tenure track, is probably putting his academic career on the line. But, since he is old enough so that, should he ever be granted tenure, he will by then reside in a retirement facility, he figured "Why not?"... whole thing here

1,740 pages on the economics of Leviticus

Whoa,1740 pages! Gary North had sent around his list of ten books that shaped his life...some are free.

Ten Books That Shaped My Life, and One of Mine That May Shape Yours
by Gary North
Here are ten books that have shaped my life. I recommend them to everyone, whether young or old. The younger, the better.

How to Read a Book, by Mortimer Adler. This is the best book ever written on how to read carefully. It is also a good book on how to write carefully. It is a great book on how to think critically. I was given a copy of it as my high school graduation present by my friend Neil Jardine, Al's older brother. And who is Al Jardine? He's the "Help me, Rhonda" guy.

The Bible. Read all of it at least once, although not necessarily in the order found in the Bible. I read the King James Version, although it's more difficult and out of favor. My fall-back version is the New American Standard. Begin with the New Testament. Then go to Genesis. Be prepared to get bogged down in Leviticus. (I have written a 1,750-page commentary on the economics of Leviticus. You may safely skip it.)

That You May Prosper by Ray Sutton. It's the best book I've seen on making sense of the Bible. It's free on-line at my web site, www.freebooks.com.

The Law, by Frederic Bastiat. This book, written in 1850, is the classic statement against using politics to steal through taxation. It's on-line for free: http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html

Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt. The classic introduction to free market economics, written in 1946.

What Has Government Done to Our Money?, by Murray Rothbard. This is the best introduction to monetary theory I have ever seen. It's short. It's easy. It's on-line for free. www.mises.org/money.asp

Dedication and Leadership, by Douglas Hyde. Hyde was a leading Communist Party organizer in Great Britain in the 1940s. This short book tells how they recruited, trained, and motivated new members. He later became a Roman Catholic.

Isaiah's Job, by Albert Jay Nock. It's really an essay, not a book. It's really about Elijah, not Isaiah. It shows why devoting your life to persuading the masses is a big mistake. It's on-line for free: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/nock3b.html

The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber. This book is a good introduction to starting a business. It shows what to do and what not to do.

Modern Times, by Paul Johnson. This is the best history of the twentieth century.

Plus:

Inherit the Earth, by Gary North. This is my brief introduction to economics, written in two weeks. It's easy. It's on-line for free here: http://www.garynorth.com/public/508.cfm

In it, But Not of It, But for Sure Not Standing on the Sidelines

One of the more un-Christlike positions that was taken up by the church over the last 100 years was the piatism movement. The denial of the Lord ship of Christ over those "messy" areas of life. Here Wilson puts a torpedoe into just one of the many areas surrendered to the world.

..."Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but not My kingdom is not from here'" (John 18:36).

There are two errors to avoid here. One is that identifying Christ's kingdom with the affairs of this world. The other is that of detaching the relevance of Christ's kingdom for this world.

In order to understand this complicated subject, we must keep a fundamental distinction in the forefront of our minds. There is a difference between separating the Church from partisan politics, which must be done, and separating the world of politics from God's standards (as declared and preached by the Church) which must never be done. All of us need to be faithful citizens, family-members, and church-members, and each under the law of God. And our involvement in civic affairs must be explicitly Christian....Read more>>

One of Gods Fingerprints

I saw this article from Michael Chrichton on Lew Rockwells site,very good. Complexity is a fingerprint of Gods handiwork.


Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy
Washington DC
November 6, 2005


..all right. Then in summary, when I went back to examine old fears, the first thing I found was that newspapers were focused on momentary concerns; the second thing I found was that the language employed was excessively frightening, and the third thing I found was that a lot of advocacy was encouraging what was happening anyway. But I learned some other things, too.

One interesting feature is the tendency to reversals: a benefit becomes a hazard and then becomes a benefit again. Butter is good, then bad, then good again. Saccharine is good, then bad, then good. But this is also true for some much larger scares, like cancer and powerlines, which hit the media in 1989... whole thing here

America the Shallow

No one knows squat about Obama, but they want him to be president. Insane. This is from American thinker.

...A few days ago at the urging of Sean Hannity, Frank Luntz asked a polling group at a Democratic debate to name one of Senator Obama's accomplishments. A whole section was polled and no one could name a single feat. It didn't matter to them, they liked him. Obama profits hugely from his plainness. His oratory may stir liberals, but much of that perception comes from the juxtaposition against the blandness from which that it emanates.


Another Hannity moment illustrates Obama's success well. Awhile back, maybe a year or more, he was talking to some random teens on his radio show asking questions to demonstrate how poorly our young people are educated in government and politics. One young woman responded that she wanted Obama in the White House because she was "tired of all the drama" since 9/11...whole thing here

Why Modern Chrisitans are Retarded

At Legacy, having rejected the sacred secular distinctions as we see them, we have been groping forward and kicking the political football around. Lunch seems a little louder.

But just because you reject something, it doesn’t mean that you now know what exactly should be in its place. So pick any topic or sub category of a topic about life and you spot your error… “Oh no! I have been thinking like a humanist, well no more!”… you don’t then automatically by default think biblically… Rats!

Rather what I have noticed is that you then usually move forward in spurts and lurches. Now it was because I had never been trained to have a biblical world view is the whole reason that I embraced humanism as a way of thinking, I had never been shown the correct way, even in church.

As a Christian it is imperative that we grasp, embrace and become inculcated with the whole Bible. Old and New Testament. Think of it like the Old and New as being a complete string of DNA to make up a Christian. If as a Christian you are missing some DNA, you will be retarded or deformed. To me, this explains so much about modern Christianity…..

When it came to how I had been choosing who gets my vote, Kevin Swanson’s talk at the UCFC Conference exposed my pragmatism and disobedience to God. Nothing has ever hurt so much or felt so good at the same time. And then Doug Phillips lately released a talk he gave on this topic and it was excellent, to help fill in the blanks as it were. Kevin stripped off error, Phillips gave understanding for going forward.

We Have to Understand This

If God's own chosen people, his called out ones will not stand by his declaritive Word then we can not be surprised that so much of humanity says "any law except God's Law!" That is what the world says. I am ashamed to say, that it is so much of what modern evangelicalism says! Horrors!

Now maybe the modern church doesn't come out so much and say it. But Jesus wasn't kidding when he said "if your not with me, your against me." No neutral ground. Is he God or not? As God, does he have the right, authority, to decide what the basis for Law should be or not? How can we as finite men, have the chutspah to just brush aside God's Law on the basis that "we are an advanced society now"....Our arrogance is galactic in it's proportions.

Now us sophisticated modern New Testament "brand" Christians won't say that. But that we will take Christ himself and use him to try and beat off his very own Law word causes me to shudder now as I think about it. I hope we have progressed to the point where we have left behind the unbiblical idea that just because were saved that we could never be found to be opposing God. On this point we should see ouselves standing next to Peter when Jesus turned on him and said "Get thee behind me Satan!" I don't believe that Peter was unsaved at that moment, just stupid, or human (istic).

We have been charged to disciple the nations. I am convinced now, that it is absolutely impossible to disciple anyone, as God defines it without using his Law as the basis, the beginning point for a view of life, for a worldview. Only he is worthy! Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty! I need my emergency sack cloth and ashes kit.

It is God's Law or it will be some flavor of Humanism. Is there any other perspective? Who wants to trade God's justice for anything else. Sinners want to, that's who, saved or not.

This is a major task before us today, to study God's Word and prepare ourselves to show how God has laid the basis for economics, law, justice, governments, church government, work, families, relationships, yes, even international relationships or he will raise up someone else to do it. He has declared his Lordship over each of these areas, over all of creation. "The earth is the Lords and everything in it" It is implicit that we as believers would be involved in all these different areas of life if we are to disciple the nations. There is no area of life wehre the Lordship of Christ comes up to and then stops. We need to "Get this" that we may first pass it on to our little ones. This is how we glorify God, by repeating back what the creator has already said about life, that as Christ did , we may only say what the Father says, only do what we see the Father do. This gives us the proper guidelines for applying dominion to all that we touch in life.

We must show how everyone (everyone!) is coming from a religous perspective, that everyone is advancing a faith that they believe is correct. As Christians, the word commands us to take every thought captive, it commands us that we need to be ready to tear down strongholds and every high thing that exalts themselves against the knowledge of God. The Law is part of the knowledge of God. His word warns us not to be taken captive by hollow human philosophies. Without the solid unchanging Law of God we as modern Christians will continue to be carried off all over the landscape. For Petes sake the girl scouts could take some parts of the church captive, thats how removed we have been from Gods Law.

Let me say, been there, done that. But as for me and my house, no more!

From world net Daily, when a peoples Identity is Stolen

This is from Joseph Farah...And speaks of the importance of maintaining control of education. The People who were in charge of British education decided history wasnt inportant. History is the record of Gods Providential hand and should be seen as vitally important by us. This is funny. But not really.

Thus ends Western Civilization

The London Daily Mail reports this week that one in four Britons don't believe Prime Minister Winston Churchill actually existed.

They suspect he is a mythical character, rather than a historical one.

Likewise, they think historical figures such as Florence Nightingale, Sir Walter Raleigh, Mahatma Gandhi and Cleopatra were also fictional personalities created for literature or films.

On the other hand, they believe Sherlock Holmes was a real person.

You can laugh about a survey like this, but I suspect we should all be very, very angry about it – at least the three-quarters of us who understand Churchill was not only a real guy but an important one in the history of Western Civilization...Read it All

Christianise the Christians,Can we start with me?

I believe it was Douglas Wilson who coined the term Christianise the christians...

Pass out the towells because we all need to keep drying off...

Again the paramount issue for any and every area of life is “who says?” By what Standard? We are at least to the place where we are noticing that there seems to be a lot of areas that the confessing church has thrown up for grabs. Hallelujah that we have eyes that are starting to see!

Our Evangelical forefathers took the Westminster confession and hucked them into some bush and just started playing it by ear.

The guy Rob was talking to is probably just the tip of the Iceberg of this next generation who have through the public schools and consumed enough culture that his thinking processes have been soaked, washed and put through the spin cycle. You can be saved, but if the church you then attend doesn’t put you through detox it is those embedded world views that then color how you see Gods Word. It is a reletivised faith that is being taught. It harmoniously fits in with a humanist worldview rather than challenging it.

Discipleship. Which I am afraid has been going on, but it has not been reproducing biblical ways of thinking for all of life. No its not all wrong. There is much good that is being taught, but even that gets twisted if the rest of the worldview isn’t there. You cannot pass on what you don’t have. We have all been there.

The 501c3 issue that Jason brought up is just symptomatic of where we are. Amen for more prayer. It is an un-challenged presupposition that of course you have to be a 501c3 to be a real Church.

Don Hart has more than once driven home the point that if you are a 501c3 your church is a creature of the state. It is a government defined entity. When you define, it means you have authority over what it is you are defining. That is a biblical view. So the state was in its rights to tell the U.S. Government versions of church that they must shut their mouths about certain issues or not to name names. But it is not understood. And the guy Rob talked to, of course he doesn’t understand. Like the Ethiopian. “ how can I understand this if someone doesn’t explain it to me…?”

Puritan or Pilgrim? More and more I get this feeling that we have this giant ball of knotted tangled string that as you see more of how tangled the church is with worldly ways of thinking you wonder can it be undone? Can it be untangled? I have experienced for myself how fast it can be unwound, but I was already removed from the normal church scene. Looking back I can see that I “could’ve” also been squished and run off .

I have also seen how fast others can see and move forward. All by Gods grace. But the freedom to see aright is tied to some discipleship process, even if it is only a shadow of how God wants it implemented. You can be discipled by dead men through books and at least get closer to bayonet range than you can get from most churchs Im afraid. We must be patient and vigilant like Phillip, ready to be used by God to try and help any who will listen. But in the interim, at the very least, we must inculcate into our families this understanding. Sola Scriptura! That is the Standard! Who Says? God says! Amen

We have done nothing to be proud of, but we have much we will be thankful for.

See Rob don’t appologise over length, you just have to go for it. Real men like their jerky thick. We are not gonna make up for 150yrs of going down the wrong road using post it notes!

Oh and at our Friday night at the fights mens meeting we were in 1Peter , chapter1 verse 15 and 16 just cleaned my clock….” But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “be holy, for I am holy” ….

What a rube, someone forgot to tell Peter that we are under grace now. And quoting Leviticus11:44 no less, what is that?

Be Aware of the Times

I do think this is gonna be a doozy of a recession. Lew Rockwells site and Gary North have been a great source for serious discussion on why we are here. This article is sobering.


What if House Prices Fall by 30% Worldwide?By Gary North

In the midst of local house-buying manias, the classic mark of the end is when buyers line up to buy a house and bid against each other. This is the best way to sell a house and the worst way to buy one.

Why do buyers do this? Because they have missed out again and again by offering less than the listed price. The buyers who offered the listed price bought the house.


[I did this in February, 2005 for my home. The other family thought that $90,000 for a 4-bedroom house was too much to pay. They were wrong.]

Then the panic escalates. Those offering the listed price get left behind. They wait too long. "Too long" means more than one day after the house comes on the market. They hesitate. He who hesitates is lost in a seller's market.

[In late 2004, I found a 2-acre commercial property listed at $30,000. The normal price in the area was $90,000 an acre. I got there on the first day it was listed. There was no For Sale sign. I visited it again the next day, a Sunday afternoon. A For Sale sign had been up for one hour, I later learned. I submitted my offer – $30,000 (no haggling) – on Monday. When something is priced 83% below market, don't dilly-dally.]

Then panic appears. A group of buyers will line up in front of a property before it officially goes on sale. The list price is merely the minimum bid in what soon becomes an auction. In an auction, buyers overpay. They become frantic that they will miss out again. The presence of other bidders makes them desperate. They think: "This is the last time I will be able to buy. It's now or never." This is always wrong. They are in fact buying at the peak...
Read it All

Time to Hide the Bodys

Lets not forget this. For over a decade,Banks and mortgage companys were pressured to reduce standards for home loans so more minoritys and those struggling could get home loans. All this did was give more rope for people to get hurt. This will be forgotten by mainstream media and all the blame will fall on greedy wall street and corrupt mortgage lenders. Governmental pressure's and the feds reckless monetary policy will get a free ride.

THE REAL SCANDAL
HOW FEDS INVITED THE MORTGAGE MESS

February 5, 2008 -- PERHAPS the greatest scandal of the mort gage crisis is that it is a direct result of an intentional loosening of underwriting standards - done in the name of ending discrimination, despite warnings that it could lead to wide-scale defaults.

At the crisis' core are loans that were made with virtually nonexistent underwriting standards - no verification of income or assets; little consideration of the applicant's ability to make payments; no down payment.

Most people instinctively understand that such loans are likely to be unsound. But how did the heavily-regulated banking industry end up able to engage in such foolishness?

From the current hand-wringing, you'd think that the banks came up with the idea of looser underwriting standards on their own, with regulators just asleep on the job. In fact, it was the regulators who relaxed these standards - at the behest of community groups and "progressive" political forces...Read it All

More Modern Myths

Just a great article displaying mans foolishness when he trys to function in life apart from God...

The Recycling Myth
By Per Bylund

As a Swede I get to hear a lot of the myths of how wonderful a country Sweden supposedly is — the "prosperous socialism" it stands for, a role model for the rest of the world. For instance, quite a few friends from around the world have commended me on Swedish recycling polices and the Swedish government's take on coercive environmentalism.

The way it has been presented to me, Sweden has succeeded with what most other governments at best dream about: creating an efficient and profitable national system for saving the environment through large-scale recycling. And the people are all in on it! Everybody's recycling.

The latter is actually true: everybody is recycling. But that is the result of government force, not a voluntary choice. The state's monopolist garbage-collection "service" no longer accepts garbage: they will only collect leftovers and other biodegradables. Any other kind of garbage that accidentally finds its way to your garbage bin can result in a nice little fine (it really isn't that little) and the whole neighborhood could face increased garbage collection rates (i.e., even larger increases than usual — they tend to increase annually or biannually anyway).Read it All

Awesome Message for the Christian Voter

This was an email From vision forum today....

Dear Friends:

More important than who wins or looses the 2008 election is this: Will Christians look to the Bible as their absolute standard for determining what principles must guide their voting practices? Will the Scriptures govern our thinking and consequently our actions. At stake is far more than the presidency. The question concerns the conscience of the Church. We can “win” an election, and yet sell our spiritual birthright. Conversely, we can “lose” an election, yet remain faithful to the Word of God, thus preserving the conscience of the body of Christ, and enjoying the favor of the Lord.


Elections matter. They matter a great deal. But what matters the most is that the Church remains faithful to her bridegroom by following the only infallible standard ever written for the selection of civil magistrates. That standard is the Bible, and there is none other that perfectly reflects the mind of God. It is our source book for determining what guidelines must govern the selection of our leaders.


Some believe that the Bible is silent on the question of what standards should govern the selection of a civil magistrate. But to reach this conclusion is to deny the sufficiency of Scripture and to substitute autonomous human reason for biblical revelation. Others are so fearful of certain outcomes that there is little reasoning with them. These individuals are (no doubt, unwittingly) fixed on specific outcomes, not commitment to biblical guidelines. They want to condemn their brethren by saying that a vote for X is really a vote for Y. Their election fears seem sometimes to rise to a self-righteous hysteria, governed more by emotions than objective standards. None of these approaches are helpful.


The Bible is the only answer for fearful Christians in an age of politics. The Bible has the answer to the ethical chaos of fear-driven voting, pragmatic voting, “ends-justifies-the-means” voting, and “lesser-of-two-evils” voting. The Bible does not require Christians to vote for perfect candidates, but it does require that Christians support biblically qualified candidates. Biblical Principles of the Ballot Box explores the scriptural standards for selecting civil magistrates and offers great hope for Christians living in an age in which our leaders have broken covenant with the God of their fathers. It explores the blessing presented in Scripture to all who will enter the ballot box with supreme confidence that the Lord sovereignty reigns, that He is more pleased with our obedience than with our rationalistic, extra-biblical voting strategies, and that the greatest hope for America is not found in the outcome of any one election, but in the persevering witness of the Church as God’s representative in America to uphold his non-negotiable standards and righteousness. This message is a 2 CD series. Run time 106 minutes.


The mission of Vision Forum is to encourage Christ-centered, multi-generational faithfulness, and the reformation of the Christian family in America. Biblical Principles of the Ballot Box is our gift to anyone who supports this vision and the ministry Vision Forum Ministries with a donation of any amount, now through February 12th.get it here"
Persevero, Doug Phillips

This message is so needed today!

More $$$ woes

First it was subprime issues, than warnings over the insurers and now cracks are being seen in the commercial end of property. The fed has already done a monster drop in interest rates, what rabbit will he try now. this is from the financial times

Risk of property defaults growing
By Daniel Pimlott in New York and Gillian Tett in London

There is a growing risk of defaults on loans on commercial property this year, in a trend that could spill over into tumbling values and create more jitters in the credit world, analysts and bankers warn.

US property companies that took out big short-term loans to finance acquisitions in the past couple of years at low-interest rates are now struggling to refinance this debt, as banks curb lending and commercial property prices fall.whole thing here

More Economic Hiccups

First it was subprime issues, than warnings over the insurers and now cracks are being seen in the commercial end of property. The fed has already done a monster drop in interest rates, what rabbit will he try now. this is from the financial times

Risk of property defaults growing
By Daniel Pimlott in New York and Gillian Tett in London

There is a growing risk of defaults on loans on commercial property this year, in a trend that could spill over into tumbling values and create more jitters in the credit world, analysts and bankers warn.

US property companies that took out big short-term loans to finance acquisitions in the past couple of years at low-interest rates are now struggling to refinance this debt, as banks curb lending and commercial property prices fall.whole thing here

Can You Get Wetter?

The mainstream media is concerned (Oh my!!) about how sexual the commercials during the superbowl might be. What a bunch of Puritans. The fact that their eyebrows are raised, with one hand over their mouth, while the other hand continues to grease the wheels for our culture to slide further into the pit is amazing.

That untold millions of Christians will open the spigot again to let the world dump its junk onto them, all in the name being relevant. Or worse, that it is not even in the name of reaching the lost, but rather we will pay the price and let the world splash its garbage on us if that's what it costs for us to "enjoy" the Super Bowl.

That many believers won’t even notice is another mark of how wet we are. Can you get wetter?

Even years ago we would watch nothing live, it would all be taped so we could fast forward through the commercials. Back then they could make a coffee commercial too sensuous for crying out loud.

Because we have lost sight of how the Old Testament was Gods frame work, how it is the basis of a Godly world view (how the creator of the world has declared it to be), and might I say it should also be the basis of a born again Christian's world view! We only need to look at Christ's life to see that it was the starting point for all that he did. He worked from it, and never once dismissed his Fathers standard for life.

So most of the church has lost the understanding of discipleship . Even thinking of showing new believers anything besides how they must now be more loving, would be seen as legalistic. Who is influencing whom? So with each new generation that enters the church, those who are being redeemed from a culture that is ever more pagan and has left them even further desensitized it is now "they" who influence the flock. If the church has lost the understanding of what discipling is, how can they show fathers how to disciple their own kids. I would venture that they cannot and don’t.

It would be like letting children decide for themselves what is best for them. But that is how our culture approaches that subject too.

We lower expectations in the name of loving people. But it is an affront to the God of the universe because it is his expectations and standards that are left unsaid in favor of allowing all to have an individual understanding of what God calls us too. But you cannot pass on what you don't have, and for too much of the church the Old Testament is seen as just a bit of a patch job, something to get us by till Christ could come. Rather than words of life, honey from the honey comb and sweet to the soul.

If we are no longer salty, what good are we?

You see what You Want to See

I read this article back in July 07 and it really took me aback. I fit perfectly with what he is talking about. One of the many believers trying to see our Nation repent before judgment comes. To hear him say that what we are seeing is some of the judgment itself was not something I had thought of.

Recently the family watched the unknown history of the 20 century. It starts just before the scopes trial, in the 20’s. But to see the Christian church of that time had fully embraced the state as an instrument of salvation took me aback. It was not even a point the movie was trying to make. But it was very clear the Christians of that day were a powerful voting block that wanted to use government for “good”. Because their idea of "good" was based on mans reasoning and not Gods word it was missing the mark to say the leaste.

Now I can see that for a very long time so much of what I was trying to restore was a counterfeit version of Christianity. I was trying to restore ethical values minus the King and his standard as the source of the morality.

So its like the culture has been on a slide downhill. But all I was trying to do would have been to push the culture back up the slide a little ways. Now no doubt, that is a better place than where we now are. But it would eventually have to come to where we are, and then continue going down hill. Because it is still on the slide. A combination of Americana and the residue of Christianity. Without Gods Law as a standard you will become pragmatic, you will lose your bearing. I do understand now that so much of the church climbed onto the slide in the mid 18oo's.

Now I see that God wants his people to move off the slide all together and onto a foundation based on his word. Its gonna be one family at a time, one church at a time. Botkins statement that we are living in a transitional period as we move from error to truth is so dead on.

From Douglas Wilson last july "Away from the Judgment -- and Back to the Sin"

...There are countless examples of this. Consider for a moment the abortion carnage. We still think that abortion-on-demand will cause God to visit us with some horrible judgment. But we should consider for a moment the possibility that this judicial frenzy is a blow from the hand of God. Our Supreme Court is clothed in black robes and blindness. In the abstract, if someone were to tell us about a nation that executes a million and half babies a year, legally, the conclusion ought to be that this was the result of God’s anger with them. What did they do that He would visit this horror upon them? Of course, more judgment is to come, but rightly considered, the judgments have already begun to fall...

...Instead of seeking to persuade others that we should confess these sins lest God respond in judgment, we in the church should begin to confess the sins for which these things are the judgment. This is hard for us because when we think back to the time before this cultural meltdown began, we do not see a self-satisfied complacency which angered God. Rather we see a paradise of traditional values. Conservatives like to look back at that golden age, before the Beatles came to America, before Harriet divorced Ozzie and left him for a New Age lesbian. We want to think that we had it good back then, but we threw it all away. But we actually were in high rebellion against God back then, but liked to pretend we were not. This means that in the judgments that have befallen us since, God is stripping away our illusions. And about the only people today who are seeking to retain those older illusions are the Christians. More than a few Christians are urging us to try to get away from the judgments – and back to the sin. But the prophet Jeremiah warned about the sin of healing the wound lightly, crying peace where there is none. But this is what we in fact do...

whole thing here