The Building of an Empire
Commercial Worldwide Dominance
Chapter 5
One of the key identifiers of
Babylon
the Great, that great last days empire, is its commercial dominance throughout
the world. All the nations trade with her by sea “for all the nations have
drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have
committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become
rich through the abundance of her luxury.” (Revelation 18:3) The rest of
Revelation 18 is very descriptive. So who is that great nation? Could the
United States of America be Babylon the Great? I don’t see any other
candidates on the 
horizon.
Do you?
By the end of World War I, the fledgling American nation was challenging for the number one position in the world, but after WWII with Europe, Russia and Japan destroyed by war, America emerged as the undisputed world leader. We are going to focus on the period since then. In addition to USAID, which was discussed in the last section, the U.S. was instrumental in the formation of the United Nations which created three multilateral institutions to oversea the reconstruction of Europe: the World Bank (the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and later the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
These institutions function, for all intent and purposes, independently from the UN. They are governed in secret and the big national powers not only have veto power, but vote according to the “subscribed capital” they put in to it. This ensures American control, since we put most of the money into it. The role of the World Bank initially was to provide funding for European reconstruction but was hardly needed in comparison to the amount sent to Europe under the Marshall Plan.
The World Bank (and sister regional banks) began in the late 1950s and early ‘60s to scour the world trying to create demand for their money. Loans were to be repaid out of the returns from the economic growth stimulated by the loans. Because the borrowing countries were never able to pay off their loans, they got into a cycle of borrowing more and more just to cover the interest. The IMF functioned as the debt collector and became increasingly meddlesome in dictating the policy for debtor nations. This took the form of favors (e.g. voting in the UN for the US position or granting concessions and deals to American companies) to dictating monetary, trade, fiscal and labor policy.
The World Bank lends to governments who then give large procurement contracts to large consulting firms or contractors. Remember, the countries control the World Bank according to their “paid in capital” so each country, especially the U.S., makes sure that American companies get their proportion of the contracts, guaranteeing that the dollars come back home. Again, I worked for these companies, developed and worked on projects. I know who really benefited.
The sad history of many of these projects is that it leads to exploitation of the land and resources of “client countries” and that the poor are often displaced, farmers uprooted, soil destroyed, deforestation, and waters polluted leaving the poor more disenfranchised than ever. Since the oil boom in Ecuador began, the poverty level increased from 50 to 70 percent, the public debt from $240 million to $16 billion and the share of national resources going to the poorest segments decreased from 20 percent to only 6 percent. It is an example of a country drowning in foreign debt, having to devote a huge share of the national budget to paying it off rather than helping its people. The only way they can keep up is to sell more rain forests, give more concessions to oil companies – a vicious downward spiral that has been duplicated across the globe. The result is millions of potential terrorists who are neither communists, nor crazy fanatics – just desperate people who have lost their own means to make a living.
Small subsistence farmers cannot compete with mechanized, high tech agriculture. Farmers are squeezed off the land and instead of producing what the country needs, the big corporations buy up the land planting cash crops (coffee, bananas, etc.) which enrich the United Fruit, ADM and Cargill but send the peasants off to the grinding poverty of the city slums.
The GATT and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO created in 1995), guarantee that the world’s largest corporations control trade. The altruistic idea is to eliminate trade barriers to international trade and investment. They can unilaterally create all kinds of regulations and restrictions that participating nations must adhere to in the name of “free trade.” We have seen the demonstrations and outcry every time the WTO has a meeting. The masses are held off by barbed wire and storm troopers.
So here we have the system. The World Bank is
the loan shark. The IMF is the debt collector and the GATT and WTO is the
enforcer to make sure everyone plays by the rules. What else do we need to
add to the mix? A common currency. On August 15, 1971, Nixon took the dollar
off the gold standard (because there was just too much money being printed and
not enough gold at $35 an ounce to back it); and, all the currencies of the
nations were linked to the dollar! The dollar became the de 
facto
world currency.
Globalization led to mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances between the American corporatocracy and the elites in countries around the world. With computers and automation, it became increasingly possible for cheap labor to do the menial and even skilled tasks that we had to pay high salaried American workers. Downsizing and becoming more efficient led to moving more and more jobs off shore. It started out with factory jobs, assembly line but later led to management, accounting, help desks, and even computer programming. Why pay a high paid American to do a job a perfectly literate, well educated Indian would do for one tenth the salary?
I toured sweatshops in Indonesia, and cities such as Santo Domingo in Ecuador created to serve the new global economy. I’ve seen the hovels people live in, the huge numbers of unemployed and underemployed as people scratch out a living from nothing. I’ve toured the maquiladoras in Tijuana, interviewed management and workers who are worried that plants are being shut down as the multinationals move on to even cheaper labor pools. Now we have China and India growing like wild fire. The elites of the corporatocracy will go wherever they have to in order to get the best deal, cut costs. Countries such as Mexico and Indonesia have to be careful lest the factories move on to ever cheaper markets. And you have to believe that these “cheap” labor markets pay as little as possible and offer no benefits, retirement or any such thing. There is no worker’s compensation, no pension plan – I know because I have been there!
Welcome to the globalized market, created by America the beautiful, the land of the free, the home of the brave or should we say “the land of those who think they are free and the home of those who think they are brave” as they pummel backward little countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq into dust – those who would dare to stand in the way of our pipelines and oil, the Halliburtons and Bechtels!
We are not alone—although we sit on top of the pyramid. There are many willing participants in this global economy that is so mixed up that national boundaries no longer mean anything. Ford, GM, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda – all are in bed with one another, as are the drug companies, the media, and so on. Your family car is a true multinational product. There is plenty of collusion in this conspiracy from Europe, Japan, Canada – the big eight – as well as the elite members of this exclusive club in little countries around the world.
There are a few countries who have successfully defied us (America and the global community) such as Iran, Panama, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, etc., but we are dealing with them one at a time using honey to attract them or the sword to vanquish. The choice is theirs – the carrot or the stick! And, I remind you, the American elites are calling the shots! We are the only ones who have the military might and the will to be the ultimate enforcer.
I’m sorry to tell you but it no longer matters to the elites if you have a job or not. They want to keep you in a stupor with the appearance of being wealthy, successful and happy, but they don’t really care. This is strictly business. And the fact that you may not be able to consume so much in the future doesn’t bother them either. There are vast new markets. America is doing to you exactly what we have done to the world – making you a complete and total obedient, compliant slave of the system. This is what your beloved country is doing to you:
· Americans are losing key manufacturing jobs. America has gone from a nation of 70% producer and 30% consumer to 70% consumer and 30% producer. Your consumption is the only thing keeping the economy going. They tell you jobs are being created – but not of the same quantity and quality.
· Americans are losing ground every month – spending more than they earn. The past three years, only capital extracted from homes and cheap credit have kept people going. The average personal debt has grown from nothing a few decades ago to an astronomical amount per person. Just like the poor nation, the piper has got to be paid and they will come after us! Bankruptcy laws have been changed. It is no longer possible to discharge all debt. The elites own your soul! You must keep playing their game!
· Just like the poor nation, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. This is a fact. There is a “third worlding” of America going on and it isn’t just from immigration. The elites live like kings. My daughter works for an American multinational corporation in Mexico City. She tells me their budgets are constantly being squeezed, salaries actually being cut by reclassifying people from expatriate to national. Plants are being closed; pennies (in this case, pesos) are being pinched. Yet, the CEO’s total compensation last year was $140 million!!!
· The Mexican Peso was wiped out by inflation and devaluation and brought back time after time. The same thing has happened across the world – hyperinflation in Germany, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil… you name the country. Yet our currency is worth about 3 percent of what it was worth less than a hundred years ago. Inflation is the greatest hidden tax we pay. Right now we see the dollar slipping against other currencies and the cost of everything from milk to fruit and vegetables doubling in the past couple of years and they tell us inflation is only at 2 percent! Friends, we are being lied to. The government statistics about GDP growth, unemployment and inflation aren’t worth anything! What happened in developing countries is going to happen here. It is just a matter of time.
· Wages are flat or declining. Well paying jobs are being replaced by service industry jobs. An economy grows when you produce something – not just when you consume.
· You have the illusion that you’re wealthier if your home increased in value, but what really happened? Are you sure you are better off today than you were a year ago? How many people can really afford to buy a home today?
Americans are being buried in a mountain of debt they will never be able to pay off. They are being tied into the same system that enslaved the nations. If they are loyal and good citizens, they think they will be taken care of – or at least that is the hope and promise of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and private retirement plans. The government will take care of you. Right! Believe that and I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you!Is this the only possible scenario? If we had another 500 or 1000 years before the return of our Lord Jesus, I would say, “Sure, America could decline.” China and India would have their day and things would rock on… but I don’t think that will happen and here’s why: First, the prophetic clock is ticking in the Middle East. Second, America is a “Christian” nation; the sole superpower; and it has its economic tentacles in every country in the world. The Bible clearly indicates that the “end times” Babylon is an apostate Christian country (and that doesn’t describe China, India or even Russia). It took America two hundred years to become the commercial power she is (and in spite of obvious problems today we are still the greatest commercial power in the world) and it would take a long time for any other nation to supplant us in that role. Finally, America is Israel’s only real friend and the only nation with the will and the capacity to sign a treaty to defend her.
For those who think the action will turn to Europe, the EEC is hardly united and is so antiquated and socialistic it is a joke. They don’t have a unified military or commercial presence around the world. They can hardly agree on anything and have a very hard time cooperating among themselves except on a superficial level. The United Nations is nothing more than a forum for the nations to rant and rave at us and Israel. They have no power or resources that aren’t given to them. We have already showed our complete disdain for the UN by our actions in Iraq. We consider them to be nothing more than a corrupt third world debating society!
No, America is the only country that fits the description. Europe even considers itself to be post-Christian. America is the only developed nation (in contrast to the suffering church in lesser developed nations, including China) with evangelical Christian zeal; and a sense of destiny and calling (a destiny our President seems hell bent on fulfilling). So in the next section we will look at America as the superpower – the master of the most incredible global empire in the history of the world.