Just this past week, a couple of BOJ governors started making public comments leading the international financial community to believe the BOJ would soon start raising rates (short term Japanese interest is -0.10% – yes they will pay people to borrow money in order to stimulate economic growth).
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Thursday Dec 7th he told Prime Minister Fumio Kishida the central bank will scrutinise the strength of domestic demand and next year’s wage outlook in guiding monetary policy.
The remarks came in the wake of those by Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino on Wednesday Dec 6th elaborating on the potential impact an exit from ultra-loose monetary policy could have on the economy.
The BOJ next meets for a rate review on Dec. 18-19, followed by another meeting on Jan. 22-23 when it conducts a quarterly review of its growth and inflation forecasts.
Yen up 6% in month – 2% in a day
Background Reading / Listening
This is another reminder to “Watch Japan” (click for last discussion write up, illustrations and podcast on this topic).
Japan is the country where the “sun rises first”. There is a prophetic understanding of first goes Japan – then goes the USA / ROW (rest of world). See the last write up for more on this by way of background. Bob Jones prophecy and Rick Joyner Alert.
Economic Financial Troubles Coming
In 2008/9 during the financial crisis, I felt the Lord was sharing a few things:
This is not the end of troubles, but the beginning of troubles
Ezekiel 29-32 is a 7-fold judgment of Egypt, Pharaoh, and Pharoah’s pride. They thought they were like God. Just like the tower of Babble in Gen 11. Just like the pride of Nebuchadnezzar. America has a similar pride today, especially in the strength of its financial markets, its currency, its economic power. I felt God speaking through this scripture that so too would America’s economic power be greatly humbled. The scripture speaks of 40 years. Japan has been going through economic trouble for now 34-37 years depending on how you measure it.
Watchmen on the Wall
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil
1 Thessalonians 5:20-22
Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets
Dec 20th 8-10am – Stephen Burke, The Lord Will Provide ministries will share his perspective on what is going on in Israel, how it relates to a strategic vision he saw, and how this relates to what God is doing on the earth in preparation for His return. You won’t want to miss…
Dec 20th 10am-12pm – Manatee Storehouse Community group. You can join in with this FL community to learn more about the Storehouse from 10am-12pm Dec 20th Wed and hear what is happening in central FL. Gary Crawford, one of our leaders and the Manatee County FL team. This is a Storehouse learning opportunity. Zoom link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88569625162
Roundtable Discussion: Shakings – first Japan, then US/World
A headline caught my attention Dec 20th 2022: Bank of Japan shocks global markets with bond yield shift. What was the shift? The BOJ is winding down the yield curve management that was ushered in by Haruhiko Kuroda as BOJ President starting 2013. He has stated that he will not seek reappointment at the end of his term April, 2023.
Why does this matter? Because it could be a signal that the BOJ reserves the right to raise short-term interest rates at some point in the future. It could happen quickly and by surprise. This could portend/trigger other global financial events, as it did in 2007.
When was the last time this happened? 16 years ago at the end 2006 and the beginning of 2007. The BOJ raised rates. It was unexpected. It was premature for their economy, which was still greatly depressed and had just turned positive for the first time in a long-time.
The Lord visited me with a word on Jan 2, 2007 when our family was in St. Thomas that surprised me. Here is a summary:
This word changed my life. The net result of its coming to pass, for me personally, was that it marked a shift in my way of thinking from simply running a specialized US long-short, public-private hedge fund using Wall Street models, into thinking globally, and paying attention to the macro financial markets (such as currencies), with the opportunity to shift generations of wealth for good. This also coincided with a shift in my business practices away from pure capitalism and into biblical economy (the New Breed of Business reform) and with that, the Storehouse vision. God making ready Storehouses of finance and resources throughout the earth for his Kingdom’s purposes, not adhering to the ways of “Babylon“. Like a type of global endowment of true riches (people and resources) for the Church at large, if you will.
Back to Japan…
Japanese stock market never fully recovered – even 35 years later…
So what emerged from all this is there seems to be a financial pattern: first Japan, then the US/rest of the world. Fittingly, Japan is known as the land of the rising sun. Where does the sun rise first? In the east. In Japan. What happens to the Japanese experiment in monetary policy has then flowed into the rest of the world’s thinking, starting in the US.
Let’s look at some important – not so great – firsts and facts:
FIRST – JAPAN
FOLLOW – USA / EURO
STOCK MARKET CRASH
1989
2008
0% SHORT RATES
1995
2009
0% 10Y TREASURY
2016
2019
DEFLATION
1998
2009
DEBT TO 100% GDP
1999
2013
DEBT TO 200% GDP
2010
CENTRAL BANK QE – GOV DEBT
2001
2009
CENTRAL BANK QE – ETFS
2010
2020
CENTRAL BANK QE – 50% OWN GOV DEBT
2022
Now, I’m not sure exactly why Japan might be a leading indicator for the Western world’s central banks and economies.
Some believe that the USA missed the opportunity to introduce the gospel and Christianity to Japan in the post WWII reconstruction period. Unlike Europe, the nation of Japan was never rooted in Christianity. Instead, the US helped reconstruct and “Westernize” Japan’s economy post-WWII through introducing democracy and capitalistic economy, banking and financial markets.
But, the absence of any Judeo-Christian moral grounding and guardrails, its implementation led to the decade of Japanese decadence and triumphalism of the 1980s.
Japan’s economy grew twice as fast as the US from 1960-1989. By some measures, Japan was briefly the #1 economy in the world in the late 1980s. Its financial markets were on a tear. Its real-estate was the most expensive in the world. Its manufacturing efficiency and quality was the envy of the world (remember Kaizen and Just-In-Time manufacturing?)
But not anymore.
Bob Jones Earthquake Prophecies
There is a key prophetic pattern to understand that relates the geo-physical to the geo-political/financial: The Bob Jones earthquake prophecies. Both natural and economic earthquakes. First, the big one will hit Japan physically (fulfilled March 11,2011), then the big one hits West Coast USA physically as well as an “economic shaking” to the US/World:
First Japanese Quake -> then West Coast USA quake
First Japanese Quake -> then US/global economic shaking/meltdown
Bob Jones Earthquakes Dream/Vision 1989 (incidentally the year the Nikkei also tanked):
First, N. California Coast quake will be witnessed all around the world (fulfilled Oct 17, 1989 during world series televised game)
Second, a Japanese major quake (fulfilled March 11, 2011)
Third, a major California quake (beyond what has been seen – not yet fulfilled)
Part of the prophecy relates to an “economic unraveling”, a “financial collapse”, “economic meltdown”, that will hit the US and the world. All of this is God lifting his hand which currently is “holding it all together”. It is a remedial judgment of God which we pray for his mercy, and the grace in its aftermath to repent and reform.
Rick Joyner’s advice for Preparation:
Build our houses on the Rock of Jesus Christ
These coming financial shakings are one of the reasons why we work toward the Storehouse Vision.
Rick discusses coming natural and financial earthquakes March 2011
In 2013 Rick repeats warning of coming West Coast “Big One” Earthquake
I am in a Democratic Party convention or celebration of some type. I know this because I look down and see a name on my name tag that is not mine, but instead “Eve Porter” (a young Democrat I used to debate in high school). The convention is set in the grand hall of a train station in Washington D.C. (Union Station?).
The scene shifts to the train platform. I see a brand-new shiny “silver bullet” style passenger train being unveiled at the platform. It was like a send-off celebration of this train. Everyone there got on board. I was in the front car. I marveled at this new train. It was modern, sleek, computer controlled, and had a sweeping windshield through which I could see panoramically out the front. But there were no human controls or any sign of an engineer. The only control was a large red button (like a panic button) mounted on a pedestal. I took this to be the emergency brakes of the train. I looked up and left and saw a digital readout (like you would see on a newer subway car). As the train got going, this readout read “60” mph in red LEDs.
After the train departed the station, I had a sense of time passing. As I settled in and got busy with routine activities, I also had this distinct sense that everything economically appeared to be returning to normal, thus I could just relax and enjoy the ride. The markets were coming back. The economy was on the rise. Everything seemed well.
Since I was in the first car, I could clearly see way down the tracks. We seemed to be in a dimly lit tunnel. There were several train tracks adjacent to ours to the left. I could see the headlights of an oncoming train. At first, I simply assumed it was on one of the adjacent tracks. But as I peered down the tracks, I wondered – is this train on the same track as we are? By the time I figured it was, I immediately hit the red button. But it was too late. The oncoming train didn’t slow much at all, and collided head-on into us at full speed. Catastrophic train wreck.
End of dream.
Interpretation
I had this dream 2 days before the 2008 National elections. On November 4th, the Democratic Party swept the Presidency, Senate, and Congress by sizable margins. So the dream pretty clearly portended the immediate election results. What’s more important though, is the imagery of the silver train.
I believe the “silver bullet” train represents a movement of the Nation into the policies and governance of the Democratic Party in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. Particularly, President Obama’s progressive vision (along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reed and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) of government and public policy being the answer to catalyzing and stewarding recovery. The fact that this train was new and shiny, represented a new direction for the Nation. “Silver Bullet” is a word play on the idiom of a singular solution to a major prevailing problem. The major prevailing problem being the economy and the global financial crisis.
Notably in the dream, as time went on I felt reassured that everything was returning to “normal” economically and in the financial markets, pointing to the economic and financial implications of the dream. This too has been fulfilled in the – all be it weaker than hoped – recovery of 2009-2016. Certainly, the financial markets returned to new highs. However, in the dream I “snapped to” realizing this economic recovery was a false dawn and false hope, and more economic trouble was coming to the nation.
No Controls
The “run away” aspect of the train (no controls), I believe has a two-fold interpretation. First, it represents the unfettered run from 2008-2010 which the Democratic Party used to implement their vision of governance for the United States. Legislation was passed, regulations were created, taxes were raised and money was spent without much political opposition or restraint. Second, because there has been little or no brakes on spending, the Federal debt doubled by the end of the Obama Administration. The ballooning Federal debt is a financial ticking time bomb and is widely viewed as unsustainable.
Trump Train
With the selection of Donald Trump as the Republican nominee in 2016 came the newly coined phrase: “Trump Train”. At the same time, the Democrat’s progressive “silver bullet” train continued from President Obama to Democratic nominee Secretary Hillary Clinton. This then set up one of the most tumultuous general elections on record.
No one saw the Trump Train coming. The Democrats were certain Hillary would win. But, the Trump Train, taking a page from the Democratic playbook got on the same political “track”, targeting lower and middle-class labor (a traditional Democratic stronghold). The forgotten man in the heartland of America (the “flyover states”), especially the rust belt became the deciding vote. The Trump Train won the election based on surprise victories in three crucial states: Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. All rust belt, traditional Democratic and labor union strongholds.
Train Wreck
The Trump Train crashed into and stopped the Democrat’s Progressive Liberal movement ushered in by President Barack Obama in the 2008 election. That movement didn’t see the Trump Train coming. The crash halted its progress.
Now, a train wreck is not a good thing. There was a cost to stopping this progressive train, and the nation is left deeply divided with many angry people. Many would describe the Trump administration as a train wreck. His campaign was populist, but his popularity numbers aren’t high. That said, stopping a political movement rooted in secular humanism was crucial and really a form of ‘God’s grace shed on thee’. Protecting religious freedom and returning to our Christian heritage also important. Standing against abortion and appointing constitutional constructionist judges, incredibly important. Standing by Israel is maybe even most important of all. However, doubling-down on the American formula of self-effort and supercharging a capitalistic system where the top priority is making money and winning is not the Christ centered answer or way forward.
What does the number “60” mean? I believe 60 biblically represents man (6) being weighed in the balance (10). Given that we the people of the United States have allowed God to be pushed away in one way or another, and instead have turned to man and man’s wisdom to solve the problems of our day, we must remember it is God who weighs us in the balance.
Financial Implications
In the original interpretation of the dream (read the Morningstar article for that), I felt the train wreck was a warning of economic trouble ahead. But now we can see more clearly that the other train was actually another political movement – the “Trump Train” – and that the clash in the political realm (which is ongoing) will also result in economic trouble, division and diminishment as well. A nation divided in sin cannot stand.
In the dream there was this specific economic/market aspect that was highlighted as important (don’t get comfortable that the market recovery was real and lasting). This relates to the message God is sounding the alarm for in this hour: that we remain largely unrepentant of economic sins on both sides of the isle. Of what? Our love of self for one, our pride in our human achievement for another, but also our love for money is to the point of addiction. Most everyone in the US can only agree on one thing right now – we need more money : markets to go up, benefits to increase, taxes to go down, spending to increase, and the economy to expand even if it means expanding debt.
Not only does this financial equation not add up, but more importantly : Who is god in all this? We (both parties and the American people) have become slaves to debt, scrambling to find ever increasing earnings to service our debt and spending habits. Further, no one would claim our financial markets and publicly traded companies are Christ-centered. No, they are unapologetically EPS and returns centered – pure money making machinery hiding behind a robo-veil of “shareholder’s interests” – as ‘god’ if you will.
Who would deny that the financial markets are driven up and down by greed and fear? And what about the banking system being designed to exploit the poor (through charging higher interest and fees or denying credit) instead of helping the poor (charging no interest as the scripture shows)? All of which are sin in God’s sight. So whether we are willing to admit it or not, we continue to worship at a type of altar of Baal and remain on track for further financial judgment (2001, 2008 were the first two rounds) as the God’s way of course correction and repentance.
So, What to Do?
Critically, the answer lies not in unbridled capitalism (worship of self and money), nor in progressive government being provider (worship of self and money), nor blaming people who believe in these approaches, but rather in repenting for our wickedness and return to seek God’s face, trusting Him as our Provider.
Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God
Matthew 4:4
I believe the terror of 9/11 was a harbinger of judgment and a call for the Nation to return to God. The financial crisis of 2008, the same. But, we as a people have not yet filled the bowls of repentance, nor have we changed our wicked ways (worship of self; idolatry of money). Let’s continue to pray for God’s mercy. Let us pray that God’s people – the Church – arise, and we as a Nation return to God’s great purposes and plan.
Jesus remains our great and glorious hope. Let us return to Him as a people.
Return to Me, and I will return to you
Zechariah 1:3
As the Pilgrims and our Founding Fathers honored Him, may we also do.
The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of mankind.” – Thomas Jefferson
