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Inflation Is Starting to Bite Hard

The government and liberal media have done an amazing job of managing a person’s perception of inflation. As prices soar higher and higher, we are told all is well and there is nothing to worry about. And so far, the public has remained calm about inflation.

For several years we were warned that inflation was too low. They said our greatest fear should be deflation, which would somehow destroy the global economy. The Fed came up with a 2% target that they hoped to reach. When inflation went above the target range, we were told not to worry because the inflation is only “transitory” and prices would soon return to normal.

When the official inflation number came out last month that showed a 6.2% rise, it became clear that inflation is getting out of control. The left is starting to look like Kevin Bacon’s “All is well” character from Animal House.

Cargill CEO David MacLennan has changed his mind about “transitory” inflation and now believes it will be more persistent with higher food prices in 2022. He blamed elevated food prices on snarled supply chains, labor shortages, and adverse weather conditions, among other things.

There is clearly some type of demonic delusion at work that is blocking people’s ability to understand financial reality. A New York Times writer faced some brutal backlash after she mocked the “inflation hysterics” that she said were actually favoring the poor. Sarah Jeong, a member of the New York Times editorial board, tweeted that inflation was actually hurting rich people and not poor people as regularly reported in the media.

“All the stuff you see about inflation in the news is driven by rich people flipping their [explitive] because their parasitic assets aren’t doing as well as they’d like, and they’re scared that unemployment benefits + stimmy checks + 15 minimum wage + labor shortage is why,” Jeong said, adding the acronym for “just my thoughts.”

Several people known for their understanding of economics blasted her:

“This is idiotic. Asset prices have risen sharply. Inflation is squeezing at the middle of the income spectrum; wage growth is outpacing inflation at the bottom, and people at the top are enjoying asset price spikes,” replied Josh Barro of the Business Insider.

“This is absolutely idiotic gobbledygook. Those most worried about inflation are those whose wages have been eaten up by inflation. The rich, who have their money in assets like stocks and real estate, are making bank,” responded Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire.

“I am once again begging non-econ pundits to talk to econ people before saying this stuff. Stocks are way up. Real estate is way up. Crypto is way up. Every financial asset is way up. REAL WAGES ARE DOWN,” replied Noah Smith, former Bloomberg Opinion Columnist.

“My grocery bill has gone up 25%, which is fine! I can afford it! But not everyone can. I don’t [care] about myself. But it’s a big deal if people can’t afford to buy milk, bread, ground beef, applesauce and yogurt for their kids and have to make choices,” responded writer Emily Zanotti.

The price of several basic food commodities has outpaced the reported inflation rate. Many of them are input costs for various other products. The grains are used in animal feed, which is why meat prices have risen sharply. Here is a list of some of the price increases for items over the past 12 months:

Oats 175%
Cotton 57%
Wheat 30%
Corn 40%
Sugar 30%
Canola 92%
Coffee 71%

The largest factor in driving up inflation is the creation of money and debt. Over the past year and a half, the amount of currency in circulation has increased by 40%. Despite all the talk about tapering, the Fed is still adding $120 billion each month. Congress just added a $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending bill, and it’s working on passing another bill with a $1.7 trillion price tag.

A big factor that is preventing the public from being alarmed over inflation is the stimulus money. The amount of money in checking and savings accounts went from $1.2 trillion to $3.6 trillion. During the Pandemic, people who own stocks saw a $5.6 trillion rise in the value of their holdings.

What will pop the bubble is people finally realizing that inflation is destroying the value of their money. That 6.2% inflation rate number is false. Economists that use the exact calculations used during the 1970s say the real rate of inflation is over 10%. If you had $20,000 in your savings account this same time last year, inflation just stole $2,000 from you.

I’m sure a lot of Christians would react to inflation by saying, “I don’t need to worry about inflation because Jesus is coming soon.” I take the nearness of the rapture into consideration for all adversities. When Jesus said we should “watch” because we don’t know the timing of the rapture, it implied that we should be mindful of anything that leads up to the end times. Since economic hardship is the mother’s milk of prophetic progress, we need to take steps that could buy us time for a monetary meltdown that could come before the tribulation hour.

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13).

–Todd

Diving into the Cultural Cesspool

Billy Graham once told of being invited to a banquet at which celebrities from Hollywood and other segments of society would attend. The evangelist said a certain person was speaking and told an off-color joke. Billy said he, himself, smiled while all the other guests were laughing uproariously with delight over the joke.

At that moment, Graham said, he looked directly across the large banquet table from where he sat. His eyes immediately met the beautiful, famous, violet eyes of a friend. It was those of Elizabeth Taylor, one of the legends of Hollywood history.

They were staring almost sleepily at him. Her beautiful features were a mask of disappointment as she almost imperceptibly shook her head negatively, showing her disapproval.

“You shouldn’t be condoning by your smiles such ungodly conversation,” was her meaning.

Billy said he never forgot that lesson: that the believer is under constant surveillance by the world around us. It was a lesson well-learned, taught by a person, although his friend, who was by all accounts caught up in a wicked, show-business.

We sometimes—at least yours truly does—get frustrated and even angry when the media types, whether in news or entertainment, attack a minister or other Christian for one perceived misstep or another. As a matter of fact, there doesn’t even have to be a true misstep. The media people will just make up things while supposedly reporting the story.

Yet those within their own ranks who do truly wicked things, more often than not –unless there is a political purpose in condemning those acts—refuse to report the incident. Those among their own ranks are given passes, with no reportorial consequences.

We know that it is Satan and his minions, both human and supernatural, who are at the heart of fomenting such unfair, hypocritical vitriol against those who claim the name of Christ.

But is it really unfair?

The very fact that there is such a hypocritical stance in being held to a different set of standards offers proof of the fallen state–the depravity of man.

The world is becoming an increasingly stench-laden cesspool. The difference between good and evil, between the godly and ungodly, is painfully discernable. The good seems to be losing–the wickedness seems to be winning.

It is by “witness” that we present the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have no choice in this time of growing corruption at every level of human activity but to be in this cesspool environment.

We cannot be effective witnesses if we close off our ears, eyes, words, and actions from all that is going on around us—i.e., we must be in the world, but not of the world. It is our commission to go unto the entire world with the Good News–the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This was why Billy Graham told the true story of his own failure–or perceived failure—by Miss Taylor. Perhaps the greatest evangelist of modern times, Billy was not wrong in being among those hedonist banquet goers. He was wrong, he thought, by appearing to not condemn the speaker’s dirty joke.

His friend, Liz Taylor, was holding him to a different standard–a much higher standard. And, Graham concluded, this was not unfair. Christians being held to a higher standard by the lost of this world proves they are convicted of their sin. They might cast their condemning mockery in our direction, but all it proves is that they are without excuse. They know the difference between godliness and ungodliness.

By all accounts, Elizabeth Taylor truly loved her friend and admired his always adhering to Bible truth. She was rightfully disappointed when she saw him smile–out of the awkwardness of the moment, no doubt, but smile he did, nonetheless.

Now this takes us to the point that brings out another failure of recent days within the community of believers. And, to me, it is an egregious failure because it opened the great cause of Christ to media mockery of every sort.

Everyone knows of the chant that went viral and remains at the forefront of the political world. “Let’s go Brandon,” is the chant, produced by a reporter interviewing a race driver after his victory. The background chant that was heard in her interview with the driver was one I won’t put here, but most readers know its verbiage. It was invective against the present occupant of the White House.

The unedited version–the one the reporter quickly changed to avoid embarrassment of her network—is now heard at many college football games and in other venues. A word that not long ago would never be spoken –or rarely so—in so-called mixed company, now is used brazenly among many of the fairer sex, as well as by the male population.

For me to even state such shows the generation of which I’m a part. There seem to be no guardrails, and it is troubling to me.

Now we hear the congregation of a church with a national and international audience chanting the so-called cleaned-up version of the original chant. The media has played it incessantly. The media, which is itself proving every news cycle to be as wicked as any part of this debased culture, is pointing to the fact that this church, representing the Christian community that claims God’s message that you must be saved, is using the same ungodly language as found on the streets that church claims as sinful.

This is a fair accusation. The media in this case is right in condemning the hypocrisy.

To have allowed the congregation to get the chant started was bad enough, in my view. But to let them continue, while broadcasting before a national and international audience, was a horrendous thing.

We are to be in the world. We have no choice. But to be of the world is something to be avoided at all cost.

The church body in question has done the equivalent of diving headlong into the cultural cesspool. I hope there is repentance forthcoming for this body of believers and its pastor, both of whom have been followed and respected across America and throughout the world.

— Terry

https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/