IMF to audit the US

Finally! The hanky panky Wall Street funny business that the average Joe on the street has suspected for years has finally tweaked the curiosity of International Monetary Fund Powers That Be, who announced today that they are swooping down on the Fed to scrutinize confidential papers, in effect, putting an X-ray on the entire United States Banking system.

It's about time!! Key quote:

"Officials with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have informed Bernanke about a plan that would have been unheard-of in the past: a general examination of the US financial system. The IMF's board of directors has ruled that a so-called Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) is to be carried out in the United States. It is nothing less than an X-ray of the entire US financial system.

Above, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reacting to the audit news.

As part of the assessment, the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the major investment banks, mortgage banks and hedge funds will be asked to hand over confidential documents to the IMF team. They will be required to answer the questions they are asked during interviews. Their databases will be subjected to so-called stress tests -- worst-case scenarios designed to simulate the broader effects of failures of other major financial institutions or a continuing decline of the dollar. "

Anyone taking bets on whether we will pass the 'stress test'? No? How about bets on how bad we will flunk it? How about bets on how long before our own Main Stream Press publishes the news? I read it in an Australian paper this morning. Hmmm.

Meanwhile, back at the war ranch, President Bush declared a United States national emergency. Yup, that's right, during the same week we lifted sanctions on our new best friend, North Korea, and sent 37 tons of wheat to aid their starving population, Bush declared that North Korea is a national threat and put us under an emergency. I'm scratching my head, I'll tell ya.

Someone yell fire in a crowded state! News reports that over 1400 fires are burning in California today and that the firefighters are barely holding their own is enough to make one almost grateful for the occasional tornado.

Floods are getting worse, helicopters crashing in Arizona, bears attacking teens in Alaska, warnings to avoid the dollar at all costs, five earthquakes over 6.0 mag in the last four days, makes one wonder, how far into the end times are we?

What's That Smell In the Air? Why, It's NorCal Burning Down!

From SFist

"If you've noticed over the past couple of days, it's smells a bit smoky, a bit ashy in Baghdad by the Bay. It seems, according to CBS 5, Northern California is suffering from about 950 wildfire right now. The top half of the state is, in essence, on fire. Yikes! So far, Carmel Valley residents have been forced from their homes due to the massive blaze in the Los Padres National Forest over in Monterey County, which is the largest blaze yet."

"Overall, 58,000 acres have been torched over the past couple of weeks. Firefighters from Oregon and Nevada have been imported to help tame the blazes running rampant."

And scientists are "perplexed".

From CBS5: "The storm was unusual not only because it generated so many lightning strikes with little or no rain over a large geographical area, but also because it struck so early in the season and moved in from the Pacific Ocean. Such storms usually don't arrive until late July or August and typically form southeast of California. "You're looking at a pattern that's climatologically rare. We typically don't see this happen at this time of summer," said John Juskie, a science officer with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. "To see 8,000, that's way up there on the scale."

I wonder what could be happening? Could it be a world gone haywire? Associated Press thinks so. I don't. I believe that this 'great unraveling' is expected, orderly, and right on schedule. It is the birth pangs of the End Times described by Jesus at the Mount of Olives, in response to the apostles' query as to what the signs of His return be.