The European Union: The Revived Roman Empire The ongoing proposal for a "free trade agreement" first drew the lines between northern and southern Europe. TAFTA (Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement) gained the support of Germany, Britain, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries while France, Italy and the other southern European nations spoke out against it.  This is of particular interest since Biblical prophecy points to a revival of the old Roman Empire in the "end times". In order to accomplish this, it would literally take southern Europe aligning with Northern Africa (Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Ethiopia) and even parts of the Middle East. Is this a possibility? It is difficult to envision Italy--specifically Rome--as having that significant of an impact in the next decade. However, much of the influence could be subtle. For example, the European Community was started in 1948, but did not receive credibility until 1957 when France, Germany and ITALY joined and all six nations (Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands included) signed "The Treaty of ROME". One of the sponsors was "The Club of ROME". From that point forward, incoming nations must accept ROMAN treaties under "ROMAN law". The Bible talks about this empire having spiritual--and economic--control over the world. What one single place in the world has the most spiritual influence...and is one of the wealthiest... operating as its own nation? The Vatican...in ROME!  (Even the current Pope fears the next one could be an apostate and abuse the power of the papacy. He went to the extent of calling all the Cardinals together to discuss the election of his successor. One of his major concerns was the growing number of Cardinals and Bishops denouncing the theology of Jesus Christ’s deity. He fears that this could drastically influence the election of the next Pope.) The Revived Roman Empire There is no doubt in my mind that over the next decade that Biblical prophecy & market action will go hand in hand as the "revived Roman empire" rises to global domination. If this seems unbelievable to some, consider the following "coincidences" (along with the many I have already identified in recent issues)... In Revelation, it states "And [the beast] causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."  Revelation 13:16--17 The three countries in the foundation of the European Community in 1948 were Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Of these, Belgium was the most influential and remains one of the key players (though more behind the scenes) to this date. Precious Metals players may also recognize the recent role Belgium has played--since they have been the big sellers of Gold over the last year or so. This has helped to keep inflation in check--allowing many of the EU countries to keep interest rates lower than would be possible if not for the manipulation of Gold. It is interesting that Brussels, Belgium has remained on the forefront of computer technology--possessing for decades vast computers (one originally nicknamed "the beast" for its massive size which covered several city blocks) which are able to hold information on billions of individuals. More recently, Belgium has aspirations for (and--according to Newsweek--will have by 1997) a massive super-computer able to process 1 trillion pieces of information per second.  They are also calling it the "BEAST"--an acronym for "Belgian Electronic Accounting Surveillance Terminal". (‘Accounting Surveillance’ are the two words which really jump out!) They seem to have an affinity for that name.  Coincidence? Maybe. But what about... The fact that Brussels, Belgium is also spearheading the drive to unify the 32 different bar code systems in the world today (one of which is our UPC code...which one of our elected officials--and a potential President--was amazed by the rapid transition to ‘scanning’ in almost all grocery stores since he had last visited one).  In a moment, I will explain why this is so critical, but first let me quote information from the ‘Uniform Code Council’ and the ‘International Numbering Association’ (groups which you were probably unaware even existed).  They have "completed new barcode standards for use in the global distribution of retail, industrial, commercial, pharmaceutical and other products. Previously, every nation set its own standard for laser and other barcoding. But now, increasingly, all commercial outlets will be adopting the new global numbering and coding system." ("The Mark Is Ready"...Dr. David Webber) Later in this same book, Dr. Webber quotes David C. Alice from the 2/16/82 Scientist--describing barcode symbology, theory and practice..."...the bar is actually the dark element of a barcode. This might cause you to think about bars, as incarcerating a person...A barcode symbol contains a leading quiet zone, a start character, one or more data characters, including a check character, a stop character and a trailing quiet zone..." The final piece to the barcode puzzle is provided by Ken Cline in "The False Prophet"... "The symbol can be read as two halves by the laser scanner beam and then combined in the computer system to yield the full twelve digit code...The numeric characters are not readable to the computer, since it only reads the barcodes...The guard bars are, however, different in function than the data bars. The guard bars actually operate the computer. They are computer programming characters.... The vital information is the binary value of the guard bars. The first data character next to the center bar is the data character with the equivalent numeral value of six. If you look at the design of that character, it is exactly the same width as the guard bars...the numeral value of the UPC guard bars is 666. The most amazing thing is that although the guard bars encoded with three and five modules, has one zero one, or zero one zero one zero, operate on the same root as the data character six, which is configured with seven modules. The three bars within the UPC that operate the computer are all in binary one, zero one, and zero one, zero one, zero, are the equivalent of the date character six...." ("The Mark Is Ready"...Dr. David Webber) More coincidence? Possibly. But what does this have to do with the "mark of the beast"?... According to the May 1996 edition of "Midnight Call", "The U.S. Department of Defense is now issuing an entirely new type of identification device to all U.S. military personnel globally. The new I.D. device has been named the "MARC"! According to Pentagon documents, ‘MARC’ stands for Multi-technology Automated Reader Card. As its name implies, the ‘MARC’ is no ordinary I.D. system, and it has not been designed solely for military use. Rather, it is a sophisticated ‘smart card’ prototype for a new National Civilian I.D. Card--an all-in-one card...the Pentagon indicates that ‘MARC’ is "an individually carried SMART CARD that utilizes the technology of several media as follows: a standard ‘3 of 9’ bar code, magnetic strip, embossed data, printed information, an electronic (digitized) photograph, an Integrated Circuit (IC) computer chip...The use of the ‘MARC’ as the DOD’s "Smart Card’ for patient care and tracking follows closely with national efforts to define Universal Health Care Benefits, and access to such benefits using smart card technologies." (5/96 Midnight Call) Another coincidence (including the vital role which bar codes play in international commerce)? Less likely.  So both the ‘MARC’ and the ‘BEAST’ are close to reaching fruition. But what about this crazy notion that this type of totalitarian tracking system would be implanted in humans’ "right hand, or in their foreheads"? Who in the world would ever go for that? Maybe that question should be posed to Jon Van of the Chicago tribune who compiled an article for the 5/07/96 issue, entitled "In The Future, Tiny Chip May Get Under Skin" (recounted in the 7/96 "Intelligence Briefing")... To quote from this article, "A tiny chip implanted inside the human body to send and receive radio messages...is likely to be marketed as a consumer item early in the next century...technologies already available or under development will enable electronics firms to make implantable ID locators...and our yearning for convenience and security makes them almost irresistible to marketers." It was one of the latter quotes in this article that really stuck out, however. It quoted a representative of the ‘World Future Society’ as stating that such chips will be voluntary at first but "things that are voluntary today have a way of becoming compulsory tomorrow." How true it is!  It is easy to ignore these developments (‘yellow flags’) and stick one’s head in the sand. However, as Patrick Henry so profoundly stated over two centuries ago, "I am willing the know the truth, to know the worst and to provide for it". M. U. M.’s the Word Monetary Union Mutiny is escalating. Just as the League of Nations in the 1920’s never reached its intended structure (but paved the way for the United Nations later on) the ultimate European Monetary Union will probably look different from the current EMU structure.  Since it is the Southern countries that need it most, and the Northern ones resisting the most, a Southern European Union -- with Spain and Italy in the driver’s seat -- may be the end result. This would be a more accurate reflection of the original Roman Empire -- which encompassed almost all the land around the Mediterranean. These countries -- nicknamed ‘Club Med’ by some of the Northern cynics -- have been making alliances with N. African nations and it would not take much (like a snubbing during the first round of monetary integration) to push them into a closer alignment. The other scenario, which some observers may now start to believe -- is that earth/climate upheaval could take Germany out of the economic picture for a while. With that in mind, the following statement out of Bonn, Germany is of little surprise: "Europe’s single currency should be delayed by five years to give European Union states extra time for carrying out deep-rooted structural reforms and prove lasting fitness for monetary union, a prominent member of ...Kohl’s ruling Christian Democrats said...neither Germany nor France currently fulfill the EMU’s precondition... ‘Whoever lacks the courage to discuss the risks of EMU isn’t sure of the facts,’ he added, referring to Kohl." -- 7/29/97 Investor’s Business Daily This fits with last month’s comment that "[EMU] is looking like it will be less and less disciplined when it does take place. Since this should actually be bullish for the Dollar, it may take additional factors to spur weakness in the equities’ markets (Germany could demand stricter criteria or threaten to somehow divide this unity)." -- 7/01/97 INSIIDE Track I do not expect each of the alternatives to occur. In many cases, it will be only one of these possibilities. I still see both German problems and Spanish successes leading to this change. The latter of these two was highlighted in an August 12th Wall Street Journal editorial, entitled "Spain Shows the Way". I do not want to bore you with all of the details, so I will only reprint the most salient ones... "...one year later [after Jose Maria Aznar became prime minister of Spain], Spain is posting some of the best economic numbers in the European Union...He cut inheritance tax and simplified the capitals-gains tax...Unemployment is Spain’s biggest millstone. It stands at 21.5%, the highest in the European Union. A good part of the blame rests with Spain’s powerful trade unions...Yet, even here, Mr. Aznar has managed some progress. Despite the problems, Mr. Aznar has accomplished more in the past year than most of his Northern European friends. They may have stopped sniffing at Spain’s chances at getting into EMU some time ago, but now it’s time for them to start taking notes." Spain may be the emerging market of the next decade if several different potentials come to fruition. For now, investors should keep their eye on the Southern European countries and see how long it takes -- whether out of frustration, desperation, or actual successes -- to unite against even their Northern European counterparts. As Germany and France battle between each other for domination within EMU, the real star may only be beginning to shine! Another aspect of my European analysis will likely receive more attention in the coming months -- if my conclusions are accurate. Over a year ago, I began discussing the possibilities for the ultimate European Union and how it would probably look different than it is expected to today. I discussed the importance of Southern Europe -- in particular Italy and Spain -- and described how I thought it might be a two-tiered system, joined economically and militarily. I still believe this to be the case and I am beginning to confront more and more information supporting this theory and describing why Spain may be the rising power in Europe that no one is yet paying attention to. Before I share an interesting article from this past month, I want to repeat the highlights of what I said in this regard last month… Europe Not Ready To Unite... was the headline of a 9/11/97 IBD article quoting well-known economist Milton Friedman. He stated:  "Europe is not ready for currency union and risks serious economic damage and political discord if it goes ahead with the project...Europe exemplifies a situation that is unfavorable for a joint currency." Of course, we already knew this. However, one quote was of particular interest to me. It was the phrase that Europe "risks serious economic damage and political discord". Now... what would both of these lead to? You got it!... a unifying figure rising up out of the turmoil and despair... a ‘white knight’.  At least one current European leader already fits the bill for much of what the Bible prophecies will be a leader of the revived Roman empire. But, I will save that for a future discussion. I realize that many readers are still trying to comprehend how the Bible could have accurately prophesied the coincidence of Israel becoming a nation and the Roman empire being revived... over 2,000 years ago. So, Monetary Union Mutiny (MUM) is not just from within but now is also appearing from the outside. Europe has little choice but to attempt this union, so that part of the equation is not in doubt. The question remains who will be in, who will be out, and who will end up leading after all the dust settles. Time will tell. In the interim, keep your eye on Spain and Italy (both of which have recently passed new budget agreements which allegedly will adhere to the 3% deficit target for monetary union). INSIIDE Track.