Not long after World War II, the United States and the British Empire boasted the highest standard of living ever enjoyed by any people since humankind inhabited this earth! Combined, the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand possessed more than two thirds of all the cultivated resources and wealth of the earth! All the other nations combined possessed less than a third! Britain could say the sun never set on her empire. She was “Great” Britain, but this claim is no longer valid. The sun long ago set on the British empire. And now the United States is spiraling downward as a world power. Why?

Perspective    

In the post-World War II period, the Western powers, after the defeat of Germany and Japan, were as they say, “Walking in high cotton.” The U.S ascended above all the nations on earth to become the policeman of the world. 

In ancient times, God made a promise to Abraham long before the birth of Jacob: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).

Interestingly, ascent to great power was among the blessings for obedience listed for ancient Israel in Deuteronomy 28:13: “And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.”

But now our nation is in dire condition—far worse than most Americans can even realize. The economic stability of the nation is in jeopardy because of our ways. We now have a national debt of just over $34 trillion.

In an April 8, 2024, Wall Street on Parade article, “For the First Time in History, the Fed Is Reporting Billions in Losses Weekly,” it is reported:

“The Fed’s ongoing weekly losses have ranged from a high of $3.3 billion for the week ending Wednesday, January 31, 2024, to $1.86 billion for the most recent week ending Wednesday, April 3, 2024. American taxpayers have good reason to sit up and pay attention to the Fed’s giant and ongoing losses. That’s because when the Fed is operating in the green, as it was on an annual basis for 106 years from 1916 through 2022, the Fed, by law, turns over excess earnings to the U.S. Treasury—thus reducing the amount the U.S. government has to borrow by issuing Treasury debt securities. According to Fed data, between 2011 and 2021, the Fed’s excess earnings paid to the U.S. Treasury totaled more than $920 billion.”

An economy in decline 

Even so, the Congress of the United States continues to spend like drunken sailors. “Spending like drunken Sailors” is an idiom that vividly describes reckless and extravagant spending. It implies that someone is squandering money without restraint, much like a sailor on shore leave who indulges in excessive drinking and frivolous expenses.

The U.S. Supreme Court, by a vote of 6-3, ruled that the Biden administration overstepped its authority last year when it announced that it would cancel up to $400 billion in student loans. The Biden administration had said that as many as 43 million Americans would have benefitted from the loan forgiveness program; almost half of those borrowers would have had all of their student loans forgiven. Canceling all student loan debt in the U.S. would cost approximately $1.6 trillion. 

Despite being shot down by the court, U.S. President Biden persists in promising to forgive billions of dollars in student loan debts. It is one more way to garner more support from the younger generation ahead of the 2024 presidential election; many believe it is akin to buying votes. It is just one more way we are going deeper into debt. 

When it collapses, those who will suffer are not those who are rich, but normal hard-working Americans who will have to foot the bill for much higher taxes to pay off the debt. The U.S. economy in decline places all the economies of countries in the west in jeopardy. The United States GDP was $27.37 trillion in 2023. The United States has the largest economy globally, and Canada ranks 9th at $2.326 trillion. The U.S. share of the global market economy, which is estimated at $100.562 trillion, stands at 24 percent in 2019, which is down from 40 percent in 1960. 

How much does Canada's economy depend on the United States? This may surprise you; 65 percent of Canada's economic growth depends on trade with its neighbor. Australia’s economy has a significant relationship with the United States as well. Direct trade and investment with the U.S. contributed more than $130 billion to the Australian economy last year, equivalent to 7 percent of Australia’s GDP.

The way 

The foundation of any nation grown large is family. The marriage institution and the family unit are in the process of being shredded to pieces. The morality of the western world has plummeted. There are just too many troubles that are beyond the reach of governments to solve.

Our troubles are basically spiritual in nature. We operate either through selfishness or thinking of others, being ingoing or outgoing. The late Herbert Armstrong often simplified it by saying it is the way of “give” or the way of “get.” Give is the way of cooperation, serving, helping and sharing. Inevitably the way of give leads to peace, happiness, contentment, joy and a sense of well-being. 
On the other hand, the way of get is the way of vanity, coveting, envy, jealousy, competition and strife. It produces hatred, conflict, violence and wars. This is the path this country has been on for far too long.

Consequently, the U.S. is often demeaned by lesser powers like Iran and North Korea. Other nations have become emboldened to do the same. In many ways, we have become the laughing stock of the world for our failed foreign policies and decisions made by the U.S. Congress, Senate and President. 

A prime example of this is the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Afghanistan. It was a chaotic end to America's longest war. It is a time well remembered by many Americans for its graphic images of crowds of desperate Afghans at the Kabul airport. Some chased a U.S. Air Force plane, some even hanging on as it took off—tragically falling to their deaths. As the U.S. fled the country, multiple billions of dollars in equipment for war was left behind to the Taliban. A suicide bombing killed 13 U.S. service members. It is a moment which will not soon be forgotten by our enemies, to them a show of weakness and defeat. 

The nation desperately needs to repent and change. Sadly, we likely have sped past the point of no return, past the point where there can be a bail out when a collapse comes. If our country does collapse, the entire world would experience the “Great Reset” that the elite of the world have been talking about at the World Economic Forum. It would bring on their draconian visions of a one-world government. It would facilitate what the book of Revelation warns is coming.

Even so, we have great hope for the future, a time when our human nature of “get” is going to be changed! The whole world will eventually be transformed from the “way of get” to the “way of give,” which is the way of love. Before this can happen, because of the stubbornness of humankind, the world will be brought to its knees, to the brink of destruction. Then Jesus Christ will intervene to stop the end-time madness and bring about universal peace, happiness, prosperity and eventually, salvation for all people. Now, that is truly good news! 

This is my Perspective and the current edition of the Prophetic Times follows below: 

Prophetic Times

Israel 'simulates attack on Iran' as country prepares for 'unprecedented strikes'

April 11, 2024 express.co.uk reported:

Israel's air force has carried out joint exercises with Cyprus to simulate an attack in Iran, local media has reported. The exercises involved long range drill practice and an attack on a remote target in coordination with the Cypriot National Guard and US military, according to Israeli Army radio station GLZ.

Military blogger, OSINTdefender, said drills made up of at least a squadron of Israeli fighter jets carried out a simulated retaliatory strike in preparation for an attack by Iran or its proxies on Israeli territory.

News of the reported maneuvers comes as Israeli officials said they are preparing for an "unprecedented" attack from Iran using cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones. US President Joe Biden emphasized the United States' "ironclad" support for Israel on Wednesday (April 10) as Tehran vowed to retaliate over this month’s deadly strike on the Iranian Consulate in Syria.

Biden ‘must threaten Iran with devastating US response’ 

April 11, 2024 telegraph.co.uk reported

Joe Biden must warn Iran that the US will join a “devastating” response if Israel is attacked, Republicans have said. 
The US president is under pressure to provide a public security guarantee to Israel, the day after he said America’s commitment to the country was “iron-clad”.

Ayatollah Khamenei, the Iranian Supreme Leader, has threatened to attack Israel directly in response to a suspected Israeli strike on an embassy building in Damascus earlier this month. US officials believe the strike is “imminent”, and Israel has pledged to respond in kind.

Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, said: “Israel is under threat of imminent attack by Iran. President Biden needs to warn the ayatollahs immediately that the United States will back Israel to the hilt.

Nasrallah: Israel, US know Iranian response to Damascus strike is coming

April 9, 2024 jpost.com reported:

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah reiterated threats that Iran would respond to the alleged Israeli airstrike that targeted the Iranian consulate in Damascus last week, saying, ‘The Americans and Israelis recognize that the Iranian response to the attack on the Iranian consulate is coming.’

Nasrallah noted that the airstrike was the ‘highest-profile Israeli attack in Syria in years,’ warning that Israel had ‘miscalculated’ in deciding to carry out the strike.

The Hezbollah leader noted that there were ‘two new things’ in the alleged Israeli strike on the consulate: the first being that it targeted ‘Iranian territory’ as it hit a diplomatic mission and the second being that it targeted a high-level official, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who Nasrallah referred to as ‘the chief Iranian advisor in Lebanon and Syria.’

Nasrallah insisted that the IRGC commanders killed in the Israeli strike were only ‘advisors’ meant to provide guidance and logistical support and weren’t military forces.

Israel threatens to bomb nuke sites as Iran backs down from direct attack – report

April 9, 2024 timesofisrael.com reported:

Following last week’s strike in Damascus and threats of retaliation from Iranian officials, Israel has signaled that it will attack targets in Iran if it were to launch a direct attack, according to an Arab report Monday.

Citing an anonymous ‘Western security official,’ the London-based Elaph News reported that Israel has been conducting air force drills in recent days that include preparing to target Iranian nuclear facilities and other key infrastructure.

Unnamed US intelligence sources told CNN, however, that Iran is unlikely to attack Israel directly out of fear of American and Israeli reprisal, and will instead urge its various proxies in the region to launch attacks on its behalf in the coming days.

For the First Time in History, the Fed Is Reporting Billions in Losses Weekly

April 8, 2024 wallstreetonparade.com reported:

As of April 3, of this year, the Federal Reserve (Fed) has racked up $161 billion in accumulated losses. We’re not talking about unrealized losses on the underwater debt securities the Fed holds on its balance sheet, which it does not mark to market. We’re talking about real cash losses it is experiencing from earning approximately 2 percent interest on the $6.97 trillion of debt securities it holds on its balance sheet from its Quantitative Easing (QE) operations while it continues to pay out 5.4 percent interest to the mega banks on Wall Street (and other Fed member banks) for the reserves they hold with the Fed; 5.3 percent interest it pays on reverse repo operations with the Fed; and a whopping 6 percent dividend to member shareholder banks with assets of $10 billion or less and the lesser of 6 percent or the yield on the 10-year Treasury note at the most recent auction prior to the dividend payment to banks with assets larger than $10 billion. (This morning the 10-year Treasury is yielding 4.41 percent.)

Operating losses of this magnitude are unprecedented at the of Fed, which was created in 1913. In a press release dated March 26, the Fed stated this: “The Reserve Banks’ 2023 sum total of expenses exceeded earnings by $114.3 billion.”

As of March 13, of this year, the Fed’s accumulated losses stood at $156.24 billion and yet on March 20 the Federal Reserve voted to sustain those high 5+ percent interest rates to its member banks – making it look like the captured regulator it is considered to be by millions of Americans.

As the chart above indicates, the Fed’s ongoing weekly losses have ranged from a high of $3.3 billion for the week ending Wednesday, January 31, 2024, to $1.86 billion for the most recent week ending Wednesday, April 3, 2024.

American taxpayers have good reason to sit up and pay attention to the Fed’s giant and ongoing losses. That’s because when the Fed is operating in the green, as it was on an annual basis for 106 years from 1916 through 2022, the Fed, by law, turns over excess earnings to the U.S. Treasury – thus reducing the amount the U.S. government has to borrow by issuing Treasury debt securities. According to Fed data, between 2011 and 2021, the Fed’s excess earnings paid to the U.S. Treasury totaled more than $920 billion.

The loss of remittances from the Fed means the U.S. government will go deeper into debt, putting a heavier tax burden on the U.S. taxpayer and raising the risk of another credit rating agency downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt.
The way the Fed is accounting for these losses is straight out of Alice in Wonderland.

China conducts ‘combat patrols’ as US holds drills with allies in disputed waters

April 8, 2024 spacewar.com reported:

China conducted ‘combat patrols’ Sunday in the South China Sea, its army said, the same day the Philippines, the United States, Japan and Australia held their first joint drills in the disputed waters.

The maritime activities took place days before US President Joe Biden was due to hold the first trilateral summit with the leaders of the Philippines and Japan, with growing tensions over the hotly contested South China Sea on the agenda.
Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command said it was organizing ‘joint naval and air combat patrols in the South China Sea’.

‘All military activities that mess up the situation in the South China Sea and create hotspots are under control,’ it said in a statement, in an apparent swipe at the other drills being held in the waters.

The Philippine military said its drills with the United States, Australia and Japan ‘demonstrated the participating countries’ commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific through interoperability exercises in the maritime domain.’

Dubbed the ‘Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity’, the drills included naval and air force units from all four countries.