This link from my friend Patrick. The International Monetary Fund has sought to ease fears over the current financial crisis, which has wiped billions of dollars off stock markets across the world. The global fall in share prices began with trouble in the US mortgage market, prompting fears of a looming worldwide credit collapse. Central banks have begun pumping billions of dollars into their financial systems in an effort to stabilize them and restore confidence in the markets.

Quote: "The European Central Bank added 61.05 billion euros ($83.6 billion) on Friday, less than its record-setting sum of 94.841 billion on Thursday. Asian authorities also added cash to their financial systems on Thursday and Friday. What started as trouble with risky U.S. residential mortgages is buffeting world financial markets as the fallout hits banks globally, squeezes once ample liquidity, and threatens to damage world economic growth. 

This news comes as China has threatened to liquidate its holdings of US dollars, if the US moves to impose economic sanctions over the valuation of its currency. China holds a considerable amount of US treasury bonds, helping to maintain the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. If China decided to liquidate its US reserves, this could trigger a depreciation in the value to the dollar and send the US economy into recession. 

The Bible indicates that during the tribulation period, there will be a period of global economic turmoil. The book of Revelation states that a possible combination of hyperinflation and crop failure will cause the price of bread to increase to around a day's wages (Revelation 6:6). A global economic collapse could spell the end of cash, as regional currencies become literally valueless. As a result, world governments could be pressed to introduce a new system of buying and selling, a cashless society, that would be controlled by one central bank and accessed through an electronic tag on the right hand or forehead (Revelation 13:17). The Bible states that gold, which WorldNetDaily is so keen that its readers invest in, will become completely worthless. The only reason why gold can be exchanged for money is because it has a "mystical value". Once you question that "mystical value", you erode its worth. Countries around the world have been coming off the gold standard and selling up their gold reserves, because gold is not the currency of the New World Order. The currency of the New World Order is a electronic number in a computer. The Bible seems to indicate that during the tribulation period, precious metals such as silver and gold will be worthless.

James 5:1-3 
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Ezekiel 7:19 
They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

As Christians we need to make sure we are investing in the right currency. A rich young ruler came running to Jesus one day, seeking how he might inherit eternal life. The Lord knew his heart, and told the man, go and sell all that you have and give to the poor, and take up your cross and follow Me, and you shall have treasure in heaven (Mark 10:21-22). The young man went away sad at that saying, for he had great possessions. Sadly he counted his possessions to be worth more than the salvation of his own soul. The Lord said for us not to lay up for ourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust corrupts and thieves break through and steal. But rather lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven, where moth and rust cannot corrupt and thieves cannot break through and steal, for where our treasure is there will our hearts be also (Matthew 6:19-21). Are you accumulating treasures upon this earth, which Peter states will pass away with the judgement of this world (2nd Peter 3:11), or when the Lord comes will you have treasure in heaven - an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and that fades not away (1st Peter 1:3-4)? I pray that we would all recognize how transient this world is and how eternal heaven will be, and serve the Lord with all our hearts.

Luke 12:33-34
Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Source BBC, Reuters, Telegraph, Time