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    Former Guinness World Record Holder for largest book signing ever, Orrin Woodward is a NY Times bestselling author of And Justice For All along with RESOLVED & coauthor of LeaderShift and Launching a Leadership Revolution. His books have sold over one million copies in the financial, leadership and liberty fields. RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions For LIFE made the Top 100 All-Time Best Leadership Books and the 13 Resolutions are the framework for the top selling Mental Fitness Challenge personal development program.

    Orrin made the Top 20 Inc. Magazine Leadership list & has co-founded two multi-million dollar leadership companies. Currently, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of the LIFE. He has a B.S. degree from GMI-EMI (now Kettering University) in manufacturing systems engineering. He holds four U.S. patents, and won an exclusive National Technical Benchmarking Award.

    This blog is an Alltop selection and ranked in HR's Top 100 Blogs for Management & Leadership.

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USA Defaults & World Debt Explodes

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 9, 2015

Still wondering if the gold standard really protected the world’s citizens from increased debt? Here is inarguable data that, in 1971, when President Richard Nixon took America off the last vestige of the Gold Standard (when he killed Bretton-Woods agreement), he launched the debt explosion trapping citizens across the civilized world. For without any commodity to restrict the production of  paper money, it becomes a 100% Fiat standard that can be produced without restraint. This is a huge win for the Financial Elites by increased profits and prosperity and a huge loss for society’s citizens by the destruction of their wealth and wellbeing.

LIFE Leadership has a plan to help people escape the Financial Matrix by learning the Defense, Offense, and the Playing Field (what’s the Financial Matrix and how to protect your family).  Here is the latest data.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

The St. Louis Federal Reserve announced the total US debt (the combination of government, business, mortgage, and consumer debt) in the first quarter of 2014 totaled nearly $59.4 trillion. That’s a boatload of debt! Even at just 5% interest, this amounts to over $3 trillion in interest to service the debt. That’s 3,000,000,000,000 dollars every year!

Compare this to the total debt of $2.2 trillion just forty years ago and it doesn’t take a statistician to recognize something has significantly changed in how society treats debt. Forty years ago, the total debt was less than the interest paid to service the debt today. The debt, unbelievably, has increased more than twenty-seven times in the last forty years! If this doesn’t wake someone up to the increasing debt crisis of Western nations, nothing will.

Fortunately, many people are waking up. Author James Butler is one of them. He wrote in a recent op-ed piece, “In 50 short years, debt has gone from being a luxury for a few to a convenience for many to an addiction for most to a disease for all. It is a virus that has spread to every aspect of our economy, from a consumer using a credit card to buy a $0.75 candy bar in a vending machine to a government borrowing $17 trillion to keep the lights on.”

In other words, households, businesses, and governments (at the local, state, and federal levels) have all been seduced into the web of debt to generate the $59.4 trillion issue. Disastrously, however, it’s the people who end up paying for the debt sins of business and government. Remember, governments do not earn income, but can only income from its citizens. Thus, when government debt expands (surging past $20 trillion now), the people’s taxes are increased in order to pay the growing amount of interest due. Has anyone else noticed how much money is taken out of their paychecks in federal, state, and local taxes? Moreover, when Social Security, property taxes, and various licensing fees are added in, it’s no wonder most people must borrow to live.

Finally, let’s not forget about the corporate debt that amounts to nearly $20 trillion in the United States alone. In order to service this debt, corporations increase the price of the products and services they sell. In other words, a company’s increased debt equates to consumers increased prices. For a company merely combines its corporate taxes, social security taxes, and interests on debt into its other cost to arrive at the price it can sell its product and still make a profit. Shockingly, the already overloaded households must pay, not only for its own lack of fiscal restraint, but also for the corporations’ and governments’ lack of restraint as well. Perhaps a visual representation of the Financial Matrix debt trap will help emphasize the importance of living debt-free.

Financial Matrix Trap

   Financial Matrix Debt Trap

45 Responses to “USA Defaults & World Debt Explodes”

  1. Gyorgy & Anna Veszpremi said

    Orrin

    Thank you for this fantastic post. The size of the debt is absolutely scary. It is good to know the facts. Thanks to Life Leadership and the Financial Matrix we have control over our personal debt. Thank you for your vision. #lovelifeleadership

    Gyorgy & Anna

    • Orrin Woodward said

      You two are breaking free from the Financial Matrix personally plus helping others do the same! 🙂 Keep cranking. 🙂 thanks, Orrin

  2. Donna A said

    Orrin, thank you for painting such a clear picture of what is happening. Without knowing the cause of an “illness”, there can never be a cure or even a vaccine. LIFE Leadership has a cure for the consumer trapped in debt and a vaccine for the next generation to stay out of the matrix. I just hope we’re not too late to save a great nation.

  3. Ralph said

    Orrin, thank you for your excellent description of our country’s and the world’s fiscal problem.
    Part of the problem is that most hourly and salaried employees do not pay any attention to the amount of taxes removed from their pay check, only caring about the net received. Taxes are not very visible and not very painful.
    Private enterprise could easily make employees aware of their taxes and, in addition, make them angry enough so they would demand change.
    A possible answer follows:
    Most employees are paid every two weeks. If employers would follow a different pay regimen, taxes would be made highly visible and very painful. First paycheck, no taxes withheld, so it goes up substantially. Second paycheck all taxes withheld, so there is a huge decrease.
    This can be done by private enterprise and would not affect government revenues.

    • Orrin Woodward said

      Ralph, that’s a really great idea! Although, I believe the Financial Elites like the fact the most people are clueless as to the amount they are paying in taxes, higher prices, and interest charges. It’s easier for them to control people suffering from ignorance and apathy. Thus, why LIFE Leadership has such an opportunity because there is so much to do! 🙂 thanks, Orrin

  4. Cathy K said

    Orrin, thank you for the clarity with which you present this information. In the graphic, I see the banks benefiting from everyone in debt. In a “Show me the money!” moment, I stopped and thought the problem was the greed of the banks. Then I quickly realized that was victim thinking, and looked back at your quote from James Butler. The culprit isn’t banks who profit. It’s human need and greed in all of us, manifested in people who don’t know, don’t learn or don’t choose to practice what knowledge is available about debt free living.
    Signed, A Recovering Debt Slave

    • Orrin Woodward said

      Cathy, Well said! Its systematic enslavement because it’s in every human heart due to fallen human nature and the reign of sin. Once a person has been set Free in Christ, then he/she must follow through on the ramifications of that Freedom in every area of life. Biblical Christians ought to be free in body (financial freedom), mind (freedom to think) and spirit (freedom from sin). Of course, the Financial Matrix Elites practice oppression because they do not follow Christ and most people enslave themselves for the same reason. The tragedy is Christians are no longer living up to their high-calling and have become like the world and have enslaved themselves in the World’s System, which I called the Financial Matrix. The rabbit hole goes pretty deep here as Morpheus stated to Neo. 🙂 thanks, Orrin

  5. Joel said

    Thanks for all you do, Orrin.

    It is very scary. Thomas Jefferson warned us about this.

    “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

    Currency Wars -> Trade Wars -> World Wars

    We are on the brink of WWIII. All wars are banker wars.

    But I believe ‘We the People’ are just as responsible for this mess. We fell asleep behind the wheel. We got complacent. We forgot our roots and culture and history.

    I’m thankful for Life for doing the right thing, not only in terms of trying to wake the People up, but also for trying to develop Leaders who have the courage to make a positive difference.

    God Bless!

    • Orrin Woodward said

      Joel, I think the atomic bomb has kept wars from going global like WWI and WWII. So, in an ironic twist, the atomic bomb, a weapon of destruction, has limited destruction because it has made war and less global and more isolated to specific areas with limited objectives. War begins in the human heart with lusting for power, wealth, and recognition. I agree that each of us are responsible for our own actions and we won’t change government until we change ourselves. 🙂 Keep rocking Joel! thanks, Orrin

  6. Aaron Hutchings said

    Yet another truth to be shared with the people. Thank you Orrin. Over time I believe peoples eyes will open up and the denial will stop.

  7. David Kangas said

    Hi Orrin. Excellent article, congrats to you. I once thought of the national debt as the “white elephant” in the corner of the room; if no one talks about it, the elephant doesn’t exist.
    Thanks to Life Leadership I now realize the elephant exists, but better yet, there is a systematic way of taming our own elephants. Thanks and take care!

    • Orrin Woodward said

      So true David. So many people treat debt like the ostrich when he is in danger, who sticks his head in the sand. It’s time to lead our families, communities, and societies. God Bless, Orrin

  8. Steve Meixner said

    Orrin, I Call this UNBELIEVABLE!! I can’t believe I didn’t know about this till I became involved with Life Leadership. All the Years of Struggling now makes sense. Please continue to spread the Word and I will do all I can to help! Thank You for Everything You Do!!!
    Steve

    • Orrin Woodward said

      Steve, I am so happy to see another person get it and be motivated enough to do something to set himself free. Keep moving ahead! God Bless, Orrin

  9. David Smale said

    Great Post Orrin
    You spell it out in a way that average Joe can understand, where some government Financial advisor explain it in a way that you believe everything is rosy and I’m richer than I think. Thanks again
    Dave

    • Orrin Woodward said

      David, The only way you can change the facts in the future is to understand the current fact properly. 🙂 Most people would rather believe comfortable lies than uncomfortable truth. Not, however, in LIFE Leadership. 🙂 thanks, Orrin

  10. Ross Goldsmith said

    Orrin,

    Again another awesome post. Thank you and the other Founders of Life for helping me and my family learn true principals of finances. We aren’t out yet but with the Financial Fitness Program and the help of some GREAT mentors we are getting there! Thanks again for all that you do for us!

    Ross

    • Orrin Woodward said

      Keep nailing it Ross! 🙂 Step by step you will break free from the Financial Matrix. Thanks, Orrin

  11. Steve Duba said

    Thanks Orrin . As we educate these families and help them make better decisions by beginning to disengage from and unplug from this MATRIX of control we will actually remove the head of the snake. I often here the complaint about our government and recognize that I at one time complained the same way. What I did not understand was that the government is a direct reflection of its people. As my wife and I learned from the Lifeleadership education system how to stop participating in the fraud, we became free after much pain and humbling ourselves. We are truly blessed to be part of this organization. God Bless

    • Orrin Woodward said

      Way to go Steve! Breaking free from the Financial Matrix! Now it’s time to pay it forward! 🙂 God Bless, Orrin

  12. Rob Brown said

    Orrin,
    Really great insights yet again! Thank you for your time, commitment, and example. God bless you! I loved Ralph’s idea about withholding taxes. My teacher’s would lose their mind’s! See you soon, Rob

  13. Phil said

    Staggering Numbers!! And if the numbers are coming from the Federal reserve likely the REAL debt total is higher. People are starting to wake up thanks to the simple yet powerful messaging of the Financial Matrix. Thank you Orrin.

    • Orrin Woodward said

      Phil, The great news is LIFE Leadership has a plan and path out of the Financial Matrix! 🙂 Keep rocking! thanks, Orrin

  14. Eli Bowman said

    Orrin,

    You nailed it…you absolutely nailed it. This information needs shared!

    Eli & Abby

  15. Lloyd weiler said

    Amazing article, I know our position is to be debt free and we have been lining up with the 47 principles as fast as possible!! Any good place to look for information as to what will happen when we/USA defaults?

  16. Great post Orrin,
    Seems like so many people would just rather stick their head in the sand like the ostrich, but these numbers can’t be avoided! It starts as you teach that we each individually need to break FREE from the Financial Matrix!! We’ve paid off $100,000 + on our way to Debt Freedom! Thanks again for all you do!
    Abraham & Nancy

  17. Nancy Monsipapa said

    Thank you for always simplifying the complicated!

  18. Elaine Mallios said

    Wow. Three trillion just to service debt. They are making so much money why would they want to stop or at least curtail the windfall. You said one time, “Our debt is their asset.” Shout it from the rooftops! Thanks for the great article.

  19. Olivia Shaw said

    Thank you very much for this article Orrin! When I saw the visual at the major paired with your talk – wow – everything clicked! Seeing and hearing you explain “The Financial Matrix Debt Trap” created more personal urgency for me to do the right things. Thank you for your passion to PERSISTENTLY pursue your purpose! There is so much hope in knowing truth – AND knowing/having the tools to protect our families 😊 Also, I loved reading all your responses to the comments! I appreciate the additional insights! Thank you for always leading 😊

  20. Jeremy Pottberg said

    Really enjoyed hearing you cover this at the Major, can’t wait to read more of your thoughts on this, I love hearing your perspective.

  21. Orrin, Thank you for your brilliant simplification of a complex issue. I believe the Fed stopped reporting the M1, M2 and M3 money supply in 2006. I’m surprised they let this $59.4 Trillian debt report slip out! Maybe it’s the Fed crying out for help to stop the printing presses. Sort of, “Help us help you!” Then again maybe not! Meriel and I are using Financial Fitness to get out of our debt of circa $400K with mortgages here and in England. Yes, we are making a profit on the mortgaged properties but they are still debt hanging over our heads and eating our profit. Our home is debt free. Your insights have given us the urgency to get out of debt and stop looking at debt as OK. Ours will be a great story when we have escaped all debt! God bless and strengthen you and Laurie as you lead this organization to millions around the world.

    • Orrin Woodward said

      Go Bart and Meriel! Your example will inspire tens of thousands of others to do the same! 🙂 thanks, Orrin

  22. Micah Kramer said

    It’s been alarming for quite some time, but hard to find the truth in all the noise. Orrin – thanks for being a beacon of truth for average Joe and average Jane, setting up for one of the greatest comeback victory stories of all time. Millions of people practicing the right principles, getting out of debt and leading others will have a trim tab effect around the world for decades to come.

    There will be those who watch what happens, those who make it happen and those who wonder what happened! Regardless, it’s our choice.

    God bless you, Laurie and all committed to making a difference. Thank you.

  23. Bob Rasmussen said

    Educating us again as only you can. Facing the truth is the hardest thing for everyone, every biz, every gov. I love how you are always doing the work, finding the truth and “bringing it”, we are with you in the battle and blessed to be.

  24. Jesus said

    When I heard this mentioned on one of your talks In Chattannooga TN, I was shocked! Thanks Orrin for the insight! I’ve been out of debt for almost a year and I’ve learned the secret to staying out of debt is having discipline! Thanks to FInancial Fitness I know my future looks a lot brighter than 95% of people my age, I’m 24 now and I’m just about to enter my prime. I thank God for Life Leadership!

  25. The replies to the comments are just as informative as the post Orrin! Thanks for a concise post to leverage when promoting Financial Fitness and setting people free!

  26. Danny Kellenberger said

    Orrin,

    Great article! It was shocking to see that many zeros in a trillion! Almost looked like a typo. I am so glad for my association with this organization to learn financial truths. We need another campaign, “Just say no to debt”
    Danny
    Carpe Diem

  27. Orrin,

    Thanks for that article. I knew things were bad, but didn’t know how bad the States debt was. I know here in Canada aren’t any better.

    I’m so glad that my wife and I were introduced to Life Leadership. Because of the Financial Fitness Program, we have been able to eliminate over $80,000 of consumer debt. We were able put down 20% on our mortgage which saved us over $10,000 in CMHC fees, and enables my wife to be a stay at home mom, (because I promised her before we got married). Oh, and have some money in that thing called savings! That program alone has changed our lives forever!

    Thanks for shining a light on the subject of finances.

    Mike and Danielle

    • Orrin Woodward said

      Mike and Danielle, that is a phenomenal testimony of the power of the Financial Fitness Program materials! Please send in your story to be featured on our LIFE site because this is EXACTLY what should happen when people follow our program, namely, people get free from debt bondage to live the life they’ve always wanted! 🙂 thanks, Orrin

  28. Rob wilcox said

    Orrin thank you We are so blessed to be able to read listen and understand what we need to about the Financial Matrix thanks to your research and studies. Orrin your Legacy is touching lives all over the world … Just to sit and think about that leaves me with goosebumps! It makes me want to grow every single day. Thank you

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