State of the Nations: Three Layers of Lies

September 1, 2002

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

All around us today, things are not what they seem. By a just punishment of God, the Devil is in virtual (only virtual) control of the world, and the Devil is the Father of Lies (Jn. VIII, 44). So in politics, in the arts, in the law, in education, in the media and - worst of all - in religion, we are today smothered in lies. For the sake of truth and for the sake of our temporal and eternal survival, we should attempt to discern what is, from what seems.

In the domain of economics, here in the USA, we are being told that the economic recession is only temporary, that the fundamentals are sound, that things will soon take an up-turn, that the good times will continue to roll. Holders of stocks and shares need only sit tight, and they will soon see Wall Street rising again. Here is a first major layer of lies. To establish what is true in economics, let us turn to two writers on matters financial who have their heads on straight, and then let us climb to the corresponding political and religious layers of lies.


FIRST LAYER: ECONOMICS
VIEW FROM USA

The first of these writers is James Cook, based in Minneapolis, MN, who lays out what he foresees for the American economy in his "Market Up-date" of last month, August 2002 (available through (800) 328-1860). With an old-fashioned common sense he explains in general economic terms why hard times must-normally-lie ahead:

"Booms are followed by busts . . . It's an economic premise generally accepted by every historical economist. The boom couldn't get started without artificially low interest rates, easy money and credit. A boom comes from businesses expanding in a way that wouldn't have happened if the market wasn't sending them false signals caused by rapidly expanding levels of money and credit. Low interest rates make it attractive to borrow excessively and to build up overcapacity. When this process ends and contraction begins, then comes a bust. The greater the boom, the greater the extent of the bust. We had (in the 1980's and 1990's) the greatest boom in decades. The bust will be a humdinger and, for a number of reasons, it could turn into a severe depression. In fact, I believe it will alter America like nothing since the Civil War.

". . . A runaway expansion of money and credit has ruined our economy. Savings are at the worst level ever. Profits and capital spending are in the tank. Deep-seated structural problems in the economy preclude better times. The loosest monetary policies in US history have failed to work. There are terrible days ahead. Consumer spending must collapse. The dollar's sure failure spells doom for stocks and bonds. Credit will seize up and paralyze the capital markets, followed by a raging epidemic of bankruptcies and a collapsing housing market. Governments across the nation will see bankruptcy and defaults on their bonds, which will turn this last bastion of security into financial quicksand. Then, in the depths of depression, inflation will rage . . . Blame will become the national pastime."


VIEW FROM SOUTH AFRICA

Possibly James Cook is taking too dark a view of the near future, but his general position is substantiated with many facts and statistics by our second writer, author of the lead article in the "Aida Parker Newsletter" of June, 2002. This newsletter comes out of Johannesburg, South Africa, and is available for US $80 a year from P.O. Box 91059, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa (telephone [27] (11) 726-6856). If I give these details, it is because in a world of lies, Aida Parker is a gallant teller of the truth, and her newsletter tells more truth about what is happening within the USA than the mass of the American media. I have shortened and edited the June lead article, "Armageddon Approaches," only very slightly. Any underlinings are my own:



"ARMAGEDDON"

"We saw it coming: but the US financial and corporate blow-out is now right on top of the bloodiest smash-up in history, far more damaging than anyone could have foreseen. And it becomes evermore critical: already in certain sectors worse than the Great Depression of fearsome memory. The facade of US financial impregnability built up over the past decade is kaput. Its much-delayed recession is here.


US STOCK MARKET

"Of most immediate danger is the staggering stock market debacle. That alone guarantees catastrophe. Total investor losses on the Wall Street meltdown now exceed $6 trillion, all of it from investors' pockets. This crash has destroyed up to half of people's life savings and scrambled the retirement nest eggs of more than 45.7 million "baby boomers" due to retire over the next five years. It has vaporized the prosperity, financial security and retirement dreams of millions.

"In sheer $ terms, the collapse since March, 2000, has brought the largest loss of wealth in the history of humanity, dwarfing the great 1929 stock market crash by a factor of 29 to 1. The resources, financial and otherwise, squandered in a vain attempt to keep the Dow between 10,000 and 11,000 "forever" don't bear thinking about.

"The Dow and the S&P are still both gross over-valued. Historically, investors invariably overreact to such a threat, driving stocks well below their historical valuations. Yet not in the US today. As the market moves into its third full year of stock losses, despite everything more than 50% of shareholders remain in it, ensnared by the despicable lies and manipulation of the US Government, Wall Street, Federal Reserve, all aided by the general media.

"The picture gets worse: much worse. With zero savings, householders hold $7.6 trillion in debt. Such debt is at its highest level in US history, with consumers holding $1 trillion in new home mortgages acquired in the last year. Personal bankruptcies last year were more than double those 1990/91. 2002 will be even worse.


THE DOLLAR

"The US Government insists that its "Strong $ Policy" remains intact. Unfortunately the $ does not remain intact. Today it crumbles before the eyes of the world. The $ as a currency is bankrupt. We all know that the US $ is dropping against all other currencies: in some cases, very hard. The US trade deficit is huge and growing.

"Morgan Stanley recently wrote that the trade deficit is now 4.3% of US trade. If the trade deficit of a developed nation reaches as high as 5% of GDP [Gross Domestic Product], there is usually a drop of 20% in that nation's currency within three years. Morgan Stanley projects that the US trade deficit could reach 6% by next year, which means a deficit of $2 billion a day. Net real investment in the US is now nil. Further, the US has been importing far more than it exports.


US CORPORATIONS

"Much of corporate America is in deep trouble. There have been five consecutive quarters of declining corporate profit. US companies now owe a record $4.7 trillion to banks, venture capitalists, bondholders, money funds and other institutions. The Fed says this debt is growing almost three times faster than GDP.

"In 2001, more than 40,000 businesses filed for bankruptcy. Estimates are that 652 big companies will have a tough job surviving another year. Xerox has $162 billion in debt, exponentially more than it has in assets. Nextel had $16.7 billion of debt, only $4.2 billion in cash reserves. Both could fall into bankruptcy. Del Monte, General Mill, Trump Hotels & Casinos, Ford, Kellogg, Campbell Soup, 7-Eleven, all are in trouble.

"Boeing's orders dropped 45% last year. Hotel chains are plagued with very high vacancy rates; steel makers have a ±50% in excess capacity, and the worst earnings in 40 years. The Ford Motor Co. is closing five plants in North America, and has chalked up 35,000 job cuts over the past year.

"Levi Strauss is closing another six plants in the US, laying off 3,600 workers. This means the company will have shut 29 plants in the US, while opening lower wage plants overseas. Sears is closing 89 stores; drugstore chain CVS is closing 200 pharmacies; Toys "R" Us, 64 stores. Heavy truck sales, a measure of US transportation, shipping of raw and finished goods, are down 25% over the past year, Mack trucks down 19.3%.

"Many of America's largest public companies are so weak that they could go bankrupt at any time. As company earnings decline, companies are cutting dividends, adding still further to investor woes. Martin Weiss of Safe Money Report, recently reported: "Corporate America is swamped with debt to the tune of 156% of GDP. That's more than 44% a year ago. It's also bigger than the debt load Japan faced before its stock market bubble burst back in 1990."

"As hundreds of thousands of homeowners are laid off, so the recent real estate bubble bursts. Sales of existing homes dropped 8.3% in March, and continued down in April and May. There's over-capacity and dwindling demand for new office space and shopping malls.


US BANKING

"All of the above is devastating news for the US banks, themselves their nation's curse. The US Government estimates that 9% of banks are "very vulnerable" to a real estate turndown, another 16% "somewhat vulnerable." In other words, on top of all else, it is a banking catastrophe. A reported 4,913 banks suffered an increase in bad loans in the first nine months of 2001.

"The final nail in the banks' coffin is derivatives: high-risk bets on stocks, bonds and foreign currencies that now stand at truly staggering levels. In 1998 US banks held about $27 trillion in derivative contracts. Today, according to the US General Accounting Office (GAO), US banks are exposed to more than $40.5 trillion in derivatives. All told, more than 400 commercial banks are in financial derivatives.


GOVERNMENT SPENDING

"Financially, the US Federal government stands with a deficit budget, with deficit spending blowing out while tax revenues fall. The US needs to import $1.6 billion of capital a day just to fill the deficit. That's no longer happening. Just as the fertilizer hits the fan, so the international community has decided to take its money away from the US.

"According to the US Treasury, foreigners sold a net $16.9 million of US securities in the first two months of this year. Japanese banks are already dumping the $447 billion in US stocks and bonds they hold.


FEDERAL RESERVE

"The raw economic facts are terrifying. The physical US economy is cluttered with massive over-investment, malinvestment and horrendous mismanagement, all of it held up by minuscule investment rates and- very fancy bookkeeping. The Fed lowered interest rates eight times before the Great Depression: without effect. Alan Greenspan has cut interest rates eleven times, till rates now are very near zero. Still with no effect.

"Dr. Kurt Richebacher, in his Richebacher Letter, writes: "While the Bank of Japan deliberately pricked its bubble in the late 1980's with tight money, the Fed has tried to sustain the US bubble with ultra-loose money policies. Such an effort has no precedent in history. Such madness was bound to fail. On the other hand, the unsustainable excesses are of such preposterous magnitude that in any case they would come too late to avoid disastrous consequences."


US PROSPECTS

"Summing up: What we are seeing is the troubled homecoming of ALL the US economic chickens. US financial powers are now embattled on all fronts. The US $, the US stock market, the entire US economy stand with their collective backs to the wall. Result? The US economy has entered a period of observable decline. And the real economic problems have not even begun to be tackled yet.

"Indeed, prospects are that the position will continue to get much worse, not better. In the face of worldwide economic recession; escalating geopolitical tensions, with Israel on the boil and Mr. Bush threatening war against Iraq's Saddam Hussein and the US market now in its 35th month of bear market decline, US recovery prospects appear nil.

"Former World Bank chief Economist and Nobel Prize winner, Joseph Stiglitz, is advising Asian economies to pool their vast foreign reserves as a step towards a reshaped monetary system that would be less of a tool for US interests, the IMF and other agencies . . .

"Many hearts elsewhere will probably not bleed too much for the US and its dire calamities. To quote Bill Buckler of The Privateer newsletter: "America has imposed a draconian clampdown on the freedom and liberties of its own citizens. It has dived headlong into deficits. It has lost control of government spending. It has antagonized its friends and allies with import tariffs, demands for military alliances and ultimatums that you are with us or against us. No neutrality is allowed."



Again, it is possible that the Aida Parker Newsletter is taking too dark a view of events, but it is not likely. Those are too many hard facts and statistics. The truth is that for some years now American "prosperity" has been upheld by smoke and mirrors, of which "fancy bookkeeping" (as the APN calls it) is merely one now notorious example. There is a whole house of cards to come crashing down, and the longer the crash is delayed, the harder the crash will be. The interesting thing is the deeper layers of lies in politics and religion which make such fantasy possible in economics.


SECOND LAYER: POLITICS
A FIRST LIE

The first political lie is that economics is independent of politics. It is true that there are laws of economics, like the law of supply and demand, which operate independently of the politicians, but how a nation will navigate in amongst those economic laws is still a political decision. For instance, in the 19th Century, selfish capitalists pretended to justify their selfishness by the inexorable working of economic laws, but all the time they were choosing which of those laws to set in motion, and how, so that labor would be cheap. President F.D. Roosevelt is famous for saying, "If something happens in politics, you can be sure it was planned that way," and that will include economic booms and busts.


A SECOND LIE

So the second political lie is that the present threat of a severe economic crash was not planned. The foolishness of a people (not only in the USA) believing in a free lunch, or loving a party and wanting the party to go on for ever, has been skillfully exploited to create either the threat or the reality (it little matters which) of a severe crash, to drive the nations into a Third World War. Well over a century ago Judeo-Masonry is known to have been envisaging three World Wars to achieve its unified global domination.

By lies, Judeo-Masonry brought about the first two World Wars. To get Americans to enter the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson told them that it would be the "war to end all wars." In fact, WWI established the Masonic League of Nations in Geneva and the Communist Revolution in Russia, and crushed numerous Christian monarchies, in particular the Catholic Austro-Hungarian Empire. And the Masonic Treaty of Versailles ending WWI deliberately paved the way for WWII, of which President F.D. Roosevelt promised it would "make the world safe for democracy." In fact, WWII established the Masonic United Nations, hugely promoted socialism in the USA and in the Western "democracies," and crushed the Eastern "democracies" under Communism.


WORLD WAR III

By lies, Judeo-Masonry is preparing for the Third World War. As the Depression of the 1930's necessitated WWII, triggered for the US by the supposed treachery of the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, so we see all the conditions created for another much worse Depression in the US, with the supposed treachery of Arabs last year against the Twin Towers in New York already igniting American public opinion to go to war against Afghanistan and now Iraq. And as we now in 2002 know with certainty that our governments and media told us far from the complete truth in 1941 as to who was truly responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor, so we will eventually know that those truly responsible for the attack on the Twin Towers were certainly not those primarily held up as being responsible by our governments and media.

And if some decent men in the US and Western governments wish to resist this insane drive towards World War III in the form of an overpowering drumbeat for an attack upon Iraq, then their hands will be forced by the economic crisis which will cause such troubles at home that they will be virtually forced to fight a war abroad. As Shakespeare's dying Henry IV said to the imminent Henry V (who successfully acted upon the advice): "Busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels."


A THIRD LIE

However, let none of us think that minds are giddy only under monarchies. Pearl Harbor and the Twin Towers are classic examples of how modern democracies must be led with lies, and we come to a third great political lie behind today's economic crisis, and that is the lie that only "democracy" is an acceptable form of government.

In either a monarchy or an aristocracy where there is an authority recognized above the people, the people could be told, with authority, "There is no such thing as a free lunch. The party is over. These and these are the measures which all of us must take to get over the crisis." As it is, if in Western democracies today a politician dares to breathe a word, for instance, against welfare or against the Jews, he knows he will be shouted down and voted out at the next election. In other words, the politicians are virtually controlled by public opinion, which is fabricated by the media, which are tightly controlled by a handful of Judeo-masons, the people who also control finance and the governments.


A FOURTH LIE

Therefore, a fourth great political lie making possible today's economic crisis is the lie that modern "democracies" are government of the people, by the people, for the people. The truth is that they are secret aristocracies, i.e. government by the few, and those few are hidden.


CATHOLIC TRUTH

What the Catholic Church teaches about democracy, aristocracy and monarchy (rule by all, by a few or by one) is that all three are acceptable and all three are corruptible. So God leaves any nation free to choose whichever of the three forms of government it prefers, so long as all authority is recognized to come from Him. In other words, contrary to what most people think today, the choice of democracy or aristocracy or monarchy matters much less than the godliness or godlessness of the people involved. A bad system with good people is much preferable to a good system with bad people.




THIRD LAYER: RELIGION
DEMOCRACY IDOLIZED

This priority of goodness over systems leads by itself to the third and by far the most important layer of lies: the religious lies which make possible the political and economic lies. For when all common sense says that the people of a nation cannot lead themselves, how can it be that the mass of people, as in the West today, hold the quasi-religious belief that only rule by the people, or "democracy", is acceptable? Democracy for the Catholic Church means not that the people rule themselves, but that the people choose the ruler upon whom authority to rule the people descends from God (see Leo XIII's "Diutumum Illud"). "Democracy" for the modern world means on the contrary the sovereignty of the people. Then how did the West come not only to believe in sovereignty of the people, but also to make out of it a quasi-religion, a worldwide crusade?


A RELIGIOUS PROBLEM

The answer lies in the last 500 years of the history of the West. Before the so-called Reformation, the Catholic Church possessed the total Truth with certainty, and taught it with a divine authority to all the nations. "Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel," says St. Paul (I Cor. IX, 16). Woe to the Catholic Church if it does not authoritatively teach God's truth to the nations! (Mt. XXVIII, 18)

But then came Protestantism which disputed that Truth and denied that authority, whereupon Truth at least appeared to be disputable and authority questionable. Then came the liberals - secretly led by the Freemasons - who said that since Truth is unknowable and there is no divine authority, then there only remains for the people to decide for themselves, i.e. sovereignty of the people. (And indeed if truth were unknowable and if no authority were more than human, then sovereignty of the people would be reasonable. But Catholic Truth is not made questionable merely because Protestants question it!)

It should now be clear why sovereignty of the people, like liberalism, has a quasi-religious status in so many minds today. Since Protestantism, to this day, replaces Catholicism wherever it can, it sets itself up as a replacement religion, and since liberalism unceasingly pretends to resolve all religious clashes, then it too presents itself as a substitute religion. That is why Freemasonry claims both that it is not a religion and that it is, because it is not a religion like Catholicism or (supposedly) Protestantism, but it claims to take the place of both of them, and of all other "religions," so that it serves an entirely religious function. That is why Masons and liberals push sovereignty of the people with a religious fervor. And all people who believe in no Truth or Authority are ready to follow them.

Thus the deep-seated problem of modern politics is religious, and it began with the apostasy of the West from the Catholic Church, from Our Divine Lord, and from God. That this God, His Son and His One True Church are in fact sovereign is the reason why - in reverse order of the political lies listed above - sovereignty of the people is necessarily a lie, "democracy" is not the only acceptable form of government, this economic crisis was planned to promote the interests of the enemies of God's sovereignty, and nations do not drifton self-moving economic currents but are either led towards God by His friends or are led away from Him by His enemies.

Thus as economics is directed by politics, so politics is directed by religion. So economics is directed by religion? Our Lord says so: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things (food and clothing, etc.) will be added unto you" (Mt. V, 33). Food and clothing are, after all, the basics of economics.


BISHOPS' LIE

That economists, politicians, Freemasons and Jews should miss out on these truths is progressively graver, but when Catholic bishops miss out on them, we have a problem far graver still, because it is then the highest ministers of God, appointed by Him to guard the religious Truth, who are betraying it. Yet what do we hear of in the last few days? The American Conference of Bishops has issued a declaration of policy that no attempt should be made any longer to convert Jews to Catholicism, because they have a still valid Covenant of their own with Almighty God!

Poor dear American Jews! You may not think it, and you may hate me for saying so, but you are being horribly betrayed! The Old Covenant between the Israelites and God came to an end with the death of Our Lord upon the Cross. From that moment on, a soul can be saved only within the New Covenant, sealed by the Blood of Our Lord flowing from the Cross. Howsoever it be with your interests in this world, which are comparatively of no importance, the eternal salvation of your souls can be secured only by your becoming members of the one true Church. And if you wanted to martyr me or anyone else for saying so, I pray we would have the courage to give you that Catholic witness!

Dear Catholics, let us, as Our Lord commands us to do, love for their eternal salvation the agents of our poor world's corruption, which is our own fault. Wars come from our own evil desires, says St. James (IV, 1). Let us, as Our Lord commands us to do, respect the lawful authorities and governments over us, but not always believe them. Let us put no trust in the media. Let us get out of debt, as far and as soon as possible, or at least get into no new debt. Let us pray the Rosary, and let us put our trust in God and in His Blessed Mother alone.

He seems to be bringing to Winona this year some 18 new seminarians. Never despair. May He bless you.

Sincerely yours in His Divine Son,

+ Richard Williamson