Global economic crisis.

‘I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards – and good luck.’ This note was left behind by Liam Byrne, outgoing treasury Minister for his successor, David Laws. Massive overspending by the Labour government has left the financial cupboard bare and the new government has to make big cuts to prevent the next wave of financial disaster. This would be caused by Britain losing its AAA credit rating which would mean that international lenders dramatically increase the rates of interest they charge. UK banks would have to follow suit to match these rates, putting unsustainable pressure on our struggling economy.

Back in November 2009 the Daily Mail carried an article by James Palumbo, ‘On brink of financial Armageddon,’ outlining what would happen then: ‘Thousands of businesses already hit by the recession will go bust. Trapped by soaring unemployment and welfare benefits, the Government will have to borrow more. And so the vicious debt cycle will continue to spiral down towards national insolvency - and, potentially, social anarchy.’

Meanwhile in Europe a ‘$1 trillion package’ has been brought in to prop up the Euro. At the same time drastic slashing of social services are taking place across Europe as countries like Greece, Spain and Italy tackle massive debts that have been built up by a decade of overspending. Angela Merkel described the crisis affecting the Euro as the biggest test Europe has faced since the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957. ‘If the Euro fails, Europe fails,’ she said warning the consequences for the whole of Europe would be incalculable.

So can the Euro (and the EU) fall? Obviously this is a possibility. If it were to happen, it would be impossible to replace national currencies again in a short time and the effect of the fall of the Euro on the economies of Europe would be catastrophic. If this happened it would not just affect Europe. The collapse of a major world currency would be likely to bring the global trading system down and leave a vital part of that system without a currency to trade with. This would make the 1930s pale into insignificance. Because of this alarm bells were ringing as world leaders from America to China and Japan urged a solution to the problem.

Can the Euro (and the EU) survive? The basic problem illustrated by the Greek crisis and also the debt problems in Spain, Italy and Portugal is that countries are using the same currency but setting their own budgets and massively overspending. This leaves the countries that have surpluses (mainly Germany) in effect having to pay the bill. To solve this problem cries have gone up for the EU to be transformed into a proper economic government with control over national budgets and the power to raise taxes.

European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said ‘You can’t have a monetary union without having an economic union. Member states should have the courage to say whether they want an economic union or not. And if they don’t, it’s better to forget monetary union altogether.’ French President Sarkozy has proposed a European ‘economic government’ and EU President van Rompuy spoke of the need to ‘strengthen economic governance.’ This means control from the centre at the European Council over the governments and economies of the EU which means a further loss of sovereignty for national governments.

At the same time a number of leading economists from USA are saying that the present level of American debt and government spending is unsustainable. They believe this will lead to an economic crisis in the latter part of 2010 which could cause the fall of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Russia, China and India have proposed replacing the dollar with a form of special international reserve currency administered by the IMF. Russia’s President Medvedev even produced a sample coin of what he described as a ‘united future world currency’ at the G8 conference in Italy in 2009. The coin bears the words ‘unity in diversity.’

So could we see the collapse of the Euro / the dollar / the world trading system? Or will this crisis lead to the further unification of the world system as outlined in Revelation 13? As we have shown in previous articles, the EU has many features of the revived Roman Empire prophesied for the last days, even using symbols like the Tower of Babel (the design of the EU parliament building in Strasbourg) and the Woman riding the Bull / Beast (sculpture outside the EC building in Brussels). So we would expect it to be around in the last days’ scenario, although it may well be changed in its nature and even its boundaries in coming days.

On the global front it is significant that an economic crisis in one region affects countries on the other side of the world in ways which were completely unknown until the present era. This illustrates the point made by Tal Brooke in his book ‘When the World will be as One’ page 11: ‘There is the economic call for globalism. Virtually every major name in banking has spoken of the reality of an interlocking global economy - that what happens on Wall Street one minute is felt in London or Tokyo the next, that the complex jigsaw puzzle of world economy is moving into an oscillating ball that will eventually unify nations and currencies in the global marketplace, and that the economic forces of the earth are moving relentlessly toward a unified world system.’

In such a system elected governments of the west and communist governments like China will in effect be controlled by the powers controlling the global economic system. You will have a hidden world government which, if we are heading towards the Revelation 13 scenario, will eventually become an open world government.

From a prophetic point of view it would seem most likely that the Antichrist will arise as the ‘man with the plan’ who is given power by ‘10 kings’ (power brokers in a grouping of nations which emerges out of this crisis). Inspired by Satan he appears as the saviour of the world, when in fact he is bringing the final deception leading to the worst time of trouble the world has ever seen. Control of the world economy is implied in the famous ‘666’ prophecy of Revelation 13: ‘He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.’