KEYWORDS: crash, stock, market, time, percent, god

Crash of '87, The

David Berg

DO 237920/10/87

1. The U.S. Stock Exchange has had another "Black Monday"!—A 23% drop!—Almost double the 13% of Black Monday, 1929! Praise God, "All things work together for good to them that love the Lord!"—Rom.8:28. I had a feeling it was going to happen before this year was up! I kept telling Mama & Peter, "I don't see how it can last any longer!" And sure enough, it's happened! And it was October, like 1929, how about that! What do you bet the ACs brought it on because of their plans? All they had to do was dump their stocks, their huge holdings, & boom, everybody followed suit!

2. It's finally happened, the Crash has come! Thank God, there's one thing that never crashes, & that's stocks in the Lord's Work! He yields 10‚000% dividends, & His Work & Kingdom never crashes, it keeps going up! Thank God we got out all those pubs while we had a chance! PTL! Hallelujah! TYL!

3. At last! We don't have to hold our breath & wait for it any longer, it has come! Praise God! TYL! That's double the percent of the Crash of '29, down 500 points in one day, 23%! Thank You Lord we got so much done while we had it, in Jesus' name!

4. Just think, it's taken about 60 years! Somebody was saying in the paper the other day that it's usually about a 50 to 60 year cycle between major crashes. The Crash of '29 followed one that was in 1869. They called it a panic then, whereas they try to give it nice-sounding names nowadays. You notice most of them didn't call it a crash‚ they didn't call it a panic, they just called it a drop! But if you drop in the water & drown, no matter how far you drop or how deep you sink, if you drown, you drown, no matter what you call it!

5. Well‚ the nice thing about it is‚ if it follows the pattern of '29, the prices should go down with the incomes. People are out of work, so they have very little income. I've told you what the prices were like in those days.—Ten cents for a quart of milk, ten cents for 25 pounds of ice, ten cents for a gallon of gasoline‚ ten cents for a loaf of bread! Prices drop so far that even when the income drops you can still afford to live.—We hope!

6. I'm sure the ACs have got this all figured out somehow. They apparently decided it was the right time to do it, to bring on the Crash! Gold has immediately shot up! I'll bet those ACs are loaded with gold, they always are. That's always been their main staple, gold & diamonds, to avoid getting hit themselves.

7. Now the next thing to crash is the banks! After the Crash of '29‚ Roosevelt closed the banks, called a Bank Moratorium. When the Stock Market crashes, everybody gets scared, they panic! They know that if the Stock Market crashes, a lot of banks have invested their money in stocks, so the people start running to the banks to get their money out! They call it a "run" on the banks.

8. The run on the banks got so bad after the '29 Crash that without any notice, while the banks were closed for the weekend, FDR declared the Bank Moratorium, & the Federal Government didn't allow the banks to reopen until they could prove they were solvent! And of course hundreds of them never reopened at all‚ because they were bankrupted.

9. Well, PTL!—It fits the timetable!—According to our new "What If" timetable (see No.2211), I said they'd have to have the Crash very soon to move things along! PTL! Hallelujah! Thank the Lord we got so much done this past year, all those books, & we made a lot of major moves. We're making some of our present missionary pushes just in time!

10. It's really something that this Crash hit in October!—Just like the Crash of '29! Maybe the ACs are celebrating their last Crash! You know they're in control & they have undoubtedly precipitated it! It seems to fit our new "What If" schedule! If the AC is going to arise any time soon, he had to have this Crash pretty quick!

ADVICE FOR OUR FRIENDS!

11. Our friends had better start investing in God's work, then they can't lose!10,000% interest on investments in the Lord's Work, 100-fold‚ that's 10,000%!—Mark 10:30. Our stocks keep going up & never lose, how about that? Eternal dividends! Some of it you see here & the rest in Heaven! TYL!

12. The smartest thing our friends can do is to pull their money out of the banks as fast as they can & put it in the Lord's Work! I would suggest if they're going to do anything with their money at all, they'd better get it out of the banks as fast as they can & get it into something that will benefit the Lord's Work, & then it will be blessed!

13. I think they ought to pull their money out of the banks as quick as they can, & out of anything else that's apt to collapse, because this will put a pin not only in the stock market, but in the realty market‚ property prices etc. I wouldn't buy real estate right now. Places that have been having a boom in real estate, this Crash will put the pin in it & the boom will collapse. So if they buy now high, the value will go way down. I would also advise them that if they own any real estate merely for the purpose of speculation, which means just holding it, hoping the prices will still go up, they'd better dump it! This Crash will bring the real estate market down too, & everything will crumble!

14. Any of our friends who are rich & have investments, it's important that we don't fail to give them these warnings! I would certainly advise them to get their money out of the banks‚ which are usually the next thing to fail after the Stock Market. And they should get rid of any, you might say, shaky investments. Just hang on to things they know can survive. But they need to get out of any kind of shaky investments, any speculative property holdings, any kind of real estate which is going to go bust, that they're not using.

15. I hope they already know by this time that they ought to get out of the Stock Market if they're in it. They're probably already getting out of the Stock Market, but they need to get out of the banks too!

PEACE PROPHETS & THE PANIC!

16. It's always been predicted & it's always been the case that the way New York goes‚ so goes the rest of the World! So the Stock Exchanges in London, Paris‚ Hong Kong, Sydney & even Tokyo are also crashing! Of course the soothsayers & the peace prophets are very busy right now trying to pet & soothe the people & calm down the public, "Don't worry, it will probably be back up again tomorrow, blah blah blah!"

17. They're scared to death about their own money‚ so they want the public confidence to be restored so they won't lose too much! So they're all prophesying peace: "The economy is stable, the government is stable, there's no reason for this, we can't understand it, we don't know why it happened! It's not the economy, it's not business, blah blah blah!"

18. Well, most of these Stock Market investors aren't dummies—except when they have too much faith in their system! They're gamblers, that's what they are! My Mother used to say she could see that gambler's gleam in her father's eye when he was reading the ticker–tape from the stock-ticker right there in his study, in his church! He had his study in the back of the church, & he had a stock-ticker installed there so he could keep track of his stocks.

19. Some of these guys are trying to say, "It's just a correction, the market has been too high!" They're trying to show how calm they are & how unconcerned they are‚ the brokers & the stock authorities etc. It just almost makes you sick to think of the way these guys get on TV & lie to the people, just deliberately lie to them!—Including the government!

20. I've got to hand it to Reagan, at least he was honest! He stood there with a newspaper showing the big headline, "Stock Crash!" & the reporters were asking him, "What happened?" He said, "I don't know! I'll ask you, why did it happen?" Can you imagine? Well, it's all a part of losing confidence, losing faith. It's what they call a panic, which is fear! They're afraid, & they've got reason to be afraid!

21. They're attributing it to several different things. The stock market was just booming & going way too high‚ & there was no real reason or excuse for people's faith in the stock market to go that high. Some of the biggest corporations have now dropped down, like IBM & Exxon.—And when people start pulling their stocks out of those corporations & selling, they're expecting something pretty big & bad to happen!

HOW THE CRASH AFFECTS THE WORLD!

22. In the Crash of '29, the rich were hardest hit‚ probably mostly the Gentile rich. The ACs engineered it for their own profit, I'm sure, because it was through the Great Depression & WW2 that they finally got control of the World! So I'm sure they've engineered this one as well.

23. Thank God, along with the collapse of these markets, it also means that prices usually go down, not only the prices of stocks! Of course, in a way, we're living in an entirely different world now, so things may not always follow the exact same pattern as they did before. Gold has almost skyrocketed already‚ it gained nearly $20 in one day! It's up to 470-something Dollars an ounce now, & it'll keep going up, so hang on to your gold!—At least for right now.

24. Of course, the individual people, the small fry who have gone into debt over their heads on time payments on everything from their house to their car to their TV & their furniture & everything at high prices & high payments, will be just wiped out! They will lose everything just like they did in the Depression! And they weren't as bad off at that time as they are now because installment-buying was not as popular & not as easy to do in those days. Things operated much more on a cash basis then.

25. Now some of these peace prophets are trying to reassure the public, saying it just couldn't happen as badly as it did in '29, because in '29 they only required the brokers & buyers to put up a 10% cash deposit on their stock purchases, & they could postpone full payment on a certain schedule for later. Since then, in order to try to guarantee that won't happen again, the stock gamblers have to put up 50% cash, so that they're only in debt 50%! I laughed & said you can lose 50% just as easy as 10%, ha!

26. So they're trying to comfort themselves that maybe they're better protected this time. Well, the only way they're protected is that they're going to lose real money instead of just bad debts which they lost last time. They lost less actual cash last time because they only had 10% cash put up. All the rest was bad debts! This time they're losing real cash, 50%, ha! So that's a lot of money in the stock market, & it's going down by the billions! Between 1929 & 1931, stocks lost $50 billion, but this time over $500 billion worth of value was wiped out in one day!—That's half-a–trillion Dollars!

27. The Stock Market will probably be selling all week. That's just what happened in '29. Black Monday was the major crash, but then they were trying to sell all week long as fast as they could. The stocks went down to a dirt cheap level & nobody wanted to buy, everybody wanted to sell. That's probably when the ACs bought it all up, $100 stocks for $1 a share, stuff like that. They know how to manipulate the finances!

28. The thing that I can't quite understand about that "Green Paper Pig" dream is that I was the one who put the pin in the balloon! Can you figure that one out? It wasn't the ACsthey were the ones who were blowing the Dollar up. Well‚ you could look at it this way, since I'm God's representative, therefore it's the Lord Who is actually putting the pin in their balloon, as far as the Dollar's concerned!

29. Now the Stock Market, that's something else again. I wouldn't be surprised that they're doing just like they did last time to create the Crash, & then they'll be the ones that buy it all up for almost nothing!—And then bring in their Superman supposedly to save the World!

HOW THE CRASH AFFECTS US!

30. In a way‚ it almost seems like it's hitting us at a bad time if it's going to hurt our income, which it probably will. People will have less money, less wages & salaries, & are going to get a little tighter about what they spend or give, & we probably won't get as large donations for our tapes & Posters & things like that. But compensating for that, prices should go down because the sellers have to lower their prices to meet the people's ability to pay. As I said, the prices went down dramatically in the Depression!

31. Thank the Lord‚ we had some pretty good practice in our previous wind-down. Because if this is the Crash of the World economy as well as the Stock Market, we can probably expect a drop in our income, which means we need to again put into effect our austerity measures. We tried it before & it worked‚ we found out we could do it. We've kind of let things wind up a little since then, because the Lord has been so good to us, & in spite of all of the World's economic woes, things have gone up for us instead of down, TTL! I'm sure the Lord did that in order to help us get all our major moves & pubs & everything else done before the Crash. Apparently He now figures we're in pretty good shape.

32. I'm glad we've got all of the most needed books published first, but I think we now ought to put a hold on the publishing of anything that is repetitious. We had better stop any printing except absolute essentials! For the time being we can go ahead with our periodicals, our various weekly & monthly publications of new material‚ as long as we're able. If the fat gets trimmed down to pretty lean or even to the bone, we'll have to start cutting down on some of those too!—Depending on our ability to afford'm.

33. It seems like the most foolish time in the World for us to be having some of these big drives & pushes on certain Mission Fields, but that's something that I would not think of pulling back on because that is God's Work & that is something I know is God's Will, that God wants us to do! Only God knows why He is letting us go to such a huge expense of some of these big invasions of these fields right now! I'm sure He has His reasons & He is not going to let us suffer or lose for it. Probably it's so we can gain from it somehow, & He'll bless us financially as well as otherwise! So it may even turn out to be a lifesaver, our invasion & push on these needy fields right now. So don't pull back on that! Just keep it down to a reasonable level‚ a sure level, & don't be extravagant.

34. A lot of our folks have been kind of rolling in the dough, but we're going to have to trim off some of that dough, so we don't try to do too much baking! Let's just be very conservative now & let's be extremely prayerful & know what we really need to keep & do, & what we don't need to keep & do. And as the fellow said, "God help me to know the difference!" Amen?

35. We're going to have to start cutting down on anything which is not absolutely necessary & anything which has not been particularly fruitful which we've allowed to rock along. Let's just be prayerful & careful & start pinching our pennies.

36. Mama, you're always planning more pubs & more pubs & more pubs! Well, we're going to have to now start pulling in a little bit & not being quite so free in our publishing efforts. We just need to start economising & winding down a bit. We've been almost extravagant lately because the Lord has just poured it on, & we've been wildly trying to get everything done we possibly can while we had the means to.

37. So let's now prepare accordingly & start all the various Crash prep that we had in effect before in the big wind-down of 2 or 3 years ago. Let's now put that machinery back into operation & all those various cuts & things that we did to wind down then.

38. I hate to cut anybody's budgets but I think we are going to have to gauge budgets according to the circumstances, & if our income goes down fairly substantially, we may have to make budget cuts accordingly. For example, if our income goes down a substantial 10% or something like that, we might have to turn around & reduce all of the budgets by 10% as well. I think we'll have to reduce the pioneer gifts also, I think we'd better start trimming those down too.

39. Some of these measures are going to be the first cuts‚ & our folks will need to realise that there may be more measures coming which we may have to put into effect‚ depending on how things develop. They should take this as a warning that they may have to start economising & preparing to live less affluently & a little more economically & maybe not take such financial steps that they wouldn't otherwise take if they didn't have it.—Since we may not have it or be able to give it to them any longer. In other words, there may be budget cuts if this is the Economic Crash & things keep going down.

40. Of course‚ our big push on some of these fields right now may seem like a big expense to go to at this point, but who knows, the Lord may know it may turn out to be some kind of a lifesaver in the long run! So we shall see! The Lord works in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform, & He doesn't gauge everything necessarily by conditions. He frequently operates contrary to natural expectations.

41. So that's faith!—To go ahead & do what God wants us to do, what needs to be done, whatever it costs! We need to spend money on what has to be done, & we know God will repay. "Whatsoever thou spendest I will repay!"—Luke 10:35.

42. These missionary pushes really need to be made, so I'm not a bit afraid of pushing & spending on something that I know God wants done because I know He'll pay! Where God guides He provides, & "whatsoever thou spendest," He said, "I will repay!" So let's do it! Let's not be chintzy or cheap about it, let's just be prayerful & careful & make sure we're making the right choices & not being extravagant, & not moving people who don't need to move, who will not be any great asset. Don't move people around unless they really need to be & are going to be really needed!

HOW IT HAPPENED!

43. The thing that caused the Stock Market to nosedive on Monday was that on the previous Thursday to Friday it was already on its way down in a big bad drop of around 235 points! Along with some previous drops in the week‚ it was the largest drop in history! See, all those gamblers with that gleam in their eye, they've been hoping it would go up. But if the gambler sees that his winning streak has come to an end & it looks like he lost this game & then he loses the next game, if he's smart he'll get out! The trouble is that some of them are so possessed that they keep thinking, "Well, I've got to stay in so I can get back what I lost", & they lose more & more! And that's what happens to some of those guys, they hang on to the hope that it will stop & go up again & they can recoup what they lost.

44. It's happening just like it did in October 1929! The fall began on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday & that's why everybody was trying to sell on Monday. It did the same thing exactly this time, the collapse began on the previous Wednesday, just enough to scare everybody to figure, "This looks like it's it!" I think the day before it went down 30-some points, then 91 etc., until it had gone down all the past week well over 200, I think it was 235 or more. In other words, they wanted to make sure it was on the steady downgrade before they got out, it wasn't just another temporary drop from which it would recover & go up higher again.

45. Up until now it's been dropping once in awhile & then going up higher, one step down & two steps up. But last week it went down about 3 days in a row, stepped down, down, down last week‚ & then Friday it made this record drop of 90-some points! So by that time, everybody was ready to sell on Monday! And they say the panic, the madhouse began, the place was just packed with people when they rang the bell & the market opened!—And everybody started selling. Everybody was selling! And it crashed, over 500 points in one day, Brother! It dropped 23%, which is almost twice as big a fall as on Black Monday of 1929 which was 13%!

46. The smaller investors actually own the largest total quantity of stocks. So those little boys are the ones that get scared first because they have a lot more to lose in a way because they have so little compared to the really big money boys. They can't afford to lose, so they start clearing out fast! They're the ones who own the most stocks as a group, believe it or not. If you were a small investor, what would you think when you saw the Stock Market going this way? (Peter: Sell now!) Brother, I'd get out fast!—And they did!

47. (Later, while reading about the Great Depression of 1929:) They say it contributed to the rise of Adolf Hitler. Well, this one is going to contribute to the rise of you-know-who!—The AC!—God help us!—And He will!—TYJ! GBAKY, in Jesus' name, amen!