Is Anyone Really Listening?
By Stephen M. Studdert
Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is calling it a “once in a century” financial crisis. Speaking of the dollar and bankruptcy crisis, another former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker says, ” You don’t have to predict it. We’re in it .”
In recent days the President of the United States addressed the nation with uncommon candor so remarkably rare for any president. Note his astonishing words:
- This is an extraordinary period for America ‘s economy.
- Major financial institutions have teetered on the edge of collapse, and some have failed.
- We’re in the midst of a serious financial crisis.
- I’ve proposed that the federal government reduce the risk . so banks and other financial institutions can avoid collapse.
- This rescue effort . is aimed at preserving America ‘s overall economy.
- The gears of the American financial system began grinding to a halt.
- The situation is becoming more precarious by the day.
- Major sectors of America ‘s financial system are at risk of shutting down.
- America could slip into a financial panic.
- Our country could experience a long and painful recession.
- Our economy is facing a moment of great challenge.
These are astounding statements for a president. Having served three presidents in the White House, I know the depth of careful attention and caution given to crafting such messages, lest a president’s words worsen the fears of the citizenry and precipitate national financial panic. For President George Bush to use such blunt forthright language reveals the true gravity of the present situation.
Today our nation faces a financial catastrophe exponentially worse than Jimmy Carter’s explosive inflation of the late 1970s or the savings and loan calamity of the 1980s and 1990s. The last time a President of the United States spoke such disquieting words was in 1929, when Herbert Hoover warned America . It was the eve of the Great Depression, yet what we face today is far more dangerous.
Knowing officials are raising the alarm at every level. Former Treasury official Paul Craig Roberts, recently said “T he U.S. is bankrupt .” David Walker, who recently resigned in frustration as our government’s Comptroller General, says the nation is “bankrupt”. The Congressional Budget Office recently reported that the federal insolvency crisis is so severe every American household will be forced to pay half-a-million dollars each to save the federal government from bankruptcy!
In my book America in Danger, I predicted this with prescient accuracy even frightening to me. To the strong disagreement of my banker friends, I predicted the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – now involved in approximately 70 percent of all U.S. mortgages, as they hold or guarantee $5.2 trillion of mortgages – and that collapse happened this month. The meltdown in so-called sub-prime mortgages has already amounted to about $900 billion in reckless lending.
But we’re not alone. Britain ‘s Chancellor of the Exchequer, equivalent to our Secretary of the Treasury, says Britain faces “arguably the worst” economic downturn in 60 years, which will be “more profound and long-lasting” than people have expected.
And now it’s October, the month the infamous Crash of 1929 and the Crash of 1987 occurred. Those were nothing compared to the fiscal mess we now find ourselves in. And at the same time, volatile foreign troubles abound – Iran, Russia, Georgia, North Korea, Pakistan, Afghanista , Iraq, Venezuela, and others. I can’t recall anything like this in my lifetime.
As Rome burns, even in the midst of the so-called “national bailout” our elected national leaders remain locked in self-serving partisan bickering and inexcusable gridlock. We can only pray our badly broken political system is capable of thoughtfully and intelligently addressing such critical national issues. We would each also do well to listen carefully to the words of Prophets and Apostles at the upcoming General Conference, and then heed them.
We would each also do well to listen carefully to the words of Prophets and Apostles at the upcoming General Conference, and then heed them.
