Part I:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlDNMB6wYmI

Part II:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=78ddURofMWs

If you are interested in his views on the emerging “new world order” and “world government”, check these out too:

Will It Be World Government? The “New World Order” Strategy – Part 1: Private Power
Will It Be World Government? The “New World Order” Strategy – Part 2: Orchestration

If what Salbushi says is true, then it’ll mean Nietzsche’s idea of the Over-man, the strong-willed elites of the world, will eventually rule over the Last-man, the rest that is apathetic, weak, and indulges in the comfort of entertainment. It is apparent that whenever economic hardship becomes unbearable, the people will almost always be willing to give up all power and control to the state or whichever party that promises to fix things for them. And it is usually during these times absolute totalitarian regimes arise (e.g. Hilter, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao).

Given that the U.S. government is gobbling up more and more assets and attaining more and more control over the economy, and if Salbushi is right that the nucleus of world power centers in the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, I hope we are not heading towards a global-scale totalitarian regime.

Well, or perhaps this is all bull and part of an anti-American conspiracy theory.

But it’s good we can meditate on Psalm 2 and find comfort that the Lord still reigns over all of this.

With currently $5 trillion dollars of credit card line outstanding in the U.S., some predict there’ll be over a 57% contraction by the end of 2010. That means, if you have a $1000 credit line limit, you’ll end up having only $430. But as credit card companies lower consumer credit limits during touch economic times, something bad happens. You get into a revolving credit card crunch — a downward spiral that makes people harder and harder to pay back. (click here for a graphic illustration on what that means)

When people start defaulting in their credit card bills (esp. those who never pay off their bills and keep sinking deeper and deeper into debt), imagine what will happen to the banks. The 52″ LCD HDTV has been bought, the vacation has been taken, the wine and food has been enjoyed (and processed down the intestinal organs) . . . but no one is there to pay the bills . . . except the banks with minuses in front of their numbers and many trailing zeros. Yeah, banks are in deep shit, if you would excuse me . . . real deep shit excreted by their borrowers.

So, is that a good thing or bad thing? It’s pretty bad when financial systems continue to collapse. And when people start evading collection companies by moving around and changing names, that creates a lot of social instability too.

But on the other hand, I always see the real antidote to the current financial crisis not as continually encouraging people to spend, but to repent of our ways of consumeristic spending, and start spending less and saving more. Our credit card debt is way out of proportion against our real wages. So maybe this is a good thing. It’s like mama’s way of smacking our buttocks and limiting our teenage monthly allowance when we are naughty. It’s discipline time.

For more, read this: Reflections on the Current Economic Crisis: Sub-prime: Sub-normal or Sub-human? Part 1, Part 2
or watch this: Confessions of a Shopaholic (My wife dragged me to watch this with her on Valentine’s Day, but hey, it’s not that bad. It got me thinking about credit card debt and the whole issue of consumerism.)

Related posts:

1. Credit Crisis for Dummies

http://www.capitalismproject.org/

The Capitalism Project seeks to examine the relationship between Christianity and the political economy of capitalism. Arguably, the most dominant ideology in the world is that of capitalism.  This project seeks to evaluate its implicit and explicit claims, both within the economic sphere and increasingly in its influence on all areas of life.

The site contains a blog with regular posts by Christian economists and other Christian thinkers reflecting on the theory, praxis, and implications of Capitalism. Furthermore, the site contains book reviews of recent or historical works in the area of economics. We have also included a list of relevant articles and lectures that can serve to increase understanding on what a Christian response might look like in today’s society.

The Capitalism Project is an initiative run by the Marketplace Institute, a public theology think tank based at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada.

Good stuff.

Some say using a more accurate accounting method that includes future social security and medicare payments that the U.S. government is already committed to pay out, it should result in 65 trillion dollars — a figure that is more than the entire GDP of the whole world.

So how much is a trillion dollars? This stunning visual presentation will help you to visualize how much space this amount of cash will occupy. Now just multiply that 65 times.

I’m glad I did not choose to stay in the states and become a U.S. citizen.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

The Short and Simple Story of the Credit Crisis.

Crisisofcredit.com

The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. This project was completed as part of my thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

For more on my broader thesis work exploring the use of new media to make sense of a increasingly complex world, visit jdjarvis.com.

Related posts:

1. Credit Card Crunch