The Harbinger (25 page)

“The remission of debt,” said the prophet, “whether temporary or permanent, a form of Shemitah.”

“And in the case of Lehman Brothers…?”

“In the case of Lehman Brothers, the remission took on a different form. The government refused a bailout and the corporation went bankrupt. And by declaring bankruptcy…”

“Its debts were wiped away and its loans were canceled.”

“Another form of Shemitah,” he said, “another remission of debt.”

“So the American and global financial collapse was triggered by the dynamic of the Shemitah…”

“Yes, and not only triggered by it.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Stock markets are built on investment. Money is given on the assumption that the investment will generate a return. In that sense it follows the outward form of credit and debt. Beyond this, the investments come not only from individuals but also from banking institutions, the funds of which represent loans, credit, and debt.”

“But in the year of the Shemitah credit and debt are nullified.”

“Exactly. The fall of Lehman Brothers set off an avalanche of financial collapses from Wall Street to Asia. It would continue to cause the convulsion of stock markets around the world for several months, plunging them to ever-new lows. Massive fortunes were wiped out overnight. The crashing of stock markets across the world meant that the funds invested had vanished and would not be paid back, at least not for the foreseeable future. Both credit and debt, trillions of dollars worth of credit and debt, had, in effect, been canceled. ‘
Every creditor who has made a loan to his neighbor will let it go, will cancel it’
…a Shemitah.”

“How far back did it go,” I asked, “the cancellation of debt in the Shemitah?”

“Back to the end of the last Shemitah,” he replied, “to the last remission of debt.”

“So the Shemitah would wipe away all the debts of the previous seven years?”

“Yes.”

“And when the stock market crashed in September 2008, how much was wiped away?”

“All the gains of the past seven years, and then some.”

“And it touched the entire world.”

“It touched the entire global economy in the form of collapsing markets, vanishing investments, government bailouts, corporate and personal bankruptcies, and foreclosures…each of which was, in effect, a financial nullification.”

“So, in each case, whether by bankruptcy, by aid, or by vanishing accounts, the burden was remitted…released…each becomes a form of Shemitah.”

“Not only each,” he said, “but all…the whole. The global economic collapse was, itself, one colossal Shemitah…made up of countless smaller ones.”

“How far does the cycle go,” I asked, “every seventh year in the past…and into the future?”

“The subject is for another time,” he said. “The point now is the Shemitah as a
sign
of judgment.”

“You spoke of a specific day when financial accounts had to be wiped clean, when credit and debt had to be nullified.”

“The twenty-ninth day of Elul, ‘the end of every seven years,’ the Shemitah’s final and climactic day, when all remaining loans, credits, and debts had to be nullified.”

“So does the twenty-ninth of Elul have a part in the mystery?” I asked.

“With the fall of Lehman Brothers, the stock market would plunge more than 499 points. Over the next several weeks, the world’s financial markets reeled wildly from the impact. In response, the United States Congress worked frantically to come up with a plan to reverse the implosion. The result was a bill proposing the largest government bailout in American history. In a surprise turn of events that shocked most observers, the bill was defeated. That morning, September 29, the New York Stock Exchange began its session with what many saw as an omen—the opening bell wouldn’t sound. When news reached the stock market that the rescue plan had been defeated, Wall Street collapsed. In a single day it plunged more than seven hundred points. It was the crowning day in the first stage of the global collapse and, in terms of point loss, the worst day in the history of Wall Street. One financial analyst would sum up what happened on September 29 this way:

“It was the climactic moment of the global implosion and the greatest single-day stock market crash in Wall Street history. Why did it happen?” he asked. “Why did it happen just when it did?”

I didn’t answer. He paused before revealing the answer.

“The greatest single-day stock market crash in Wall Street history took place
on the twenty-ninth day of Elul
—the critical and crowning day of the Hebrew Shemitah.”

“My God!” I exclaimed. It was the only thing that could’ve come out of my mouth at that moment.

“The day when financial accounts must be wiped away,” he said.

“When credit and debt are nullified…and it all happened on the
exact
biblical day on which it was ordained to happen.”

“On the exact biblical day specifically ordained to touch a nation’s financial realm.”

“And the timing…you said that the Shemitah holds the key to the mystery to the timing of the judgment.”

“Did you verify it,” Ana interjected, “everything the prophet told you…the facts?” There was now an unsteadiness in her voice.

“I did,” he replied.

“And it was all true?” she asked.

“It was all true.”

“It’s mind-boggling,” she said. “The biggest crash in Wall Street history and the collapse of the global economy—all the manifestation of an ancient mystery. It’s mind-boggling.”

“I told you it would be.”

“That you did.”

“And there’s more.”

“Go on,” she said.

The prophet spoke of the number seven. “The Shemitah,” he said, “revolves around the number seven—it’s the
seventh
year. It begins and ends in the month of Tishri, the
seventh
month of the biblical year. It’s a mystery of sevens. So could there be a mark left by the Shemitah…a sign of the mystery in the number seven?”

“I’m not getting it,” I replied.

“The greatest stock market point crash in Wall Street history took place on the last and crowning day of the Shemitah. That evening, as the sun went down, it was the beginning of Tishri, the
seventh
month of the Hebrew year. What triggered the crash was the rejection of the largest government bailout in American history…a sum of…”

“…
seven
hundred billion dollars,” I said.

“And how much of the stock market was wiped away that day?”

“Tell me.”

“That which was wiped away added up to
7
percent. How many points did that
7
percent amount to? How many points were wiped away in that largest crash in Wall Street history?”

“I don’t know,” I replied.

“
Seven
hundred
seventy-seven
points were wiped away that day.”
7

“
Seven, seven, seven
.”

“On the final day of the seventh year.

“Do you realize,” I asked, “how many things would have to be in place for that all to happen…to come out like that? All of Wall Street, the entire American economy, the entire world economy, every transaction, every stock bought and sold, everything…everything had to be in its exact position for it all to happen exactly as it did, at the exact time, and to that exact number. Who could have orchestrated all that?”

“God,” he replied.

“I guess He’s the only one who could have.”

“Everything I’ve told you thus far, Nouriel, concerns the
end
of the Sabbath Year. But what about the
beginning
? Did anything happen to signal the beginning of the Shemitah?”

“Good question,” I said. It was a rare opportunity to say such a thing to the prophet.

“The years leading up to the Shemitah were fat and prosperous. Buying, spending, investing, the stock market, the housing market, the credit markets—everything was booming. But as the Shemitah Year drew closer, more and more signs of economic danger began to surface. The rate of loan failures and housing foreclosures began to rise. The financial institutions backing up those loans and mortgages now found themselves in crisis. But the first definitive sign of what was yet to come took place a year before the global economic collapse. It happened in Britain, but as a repercussion of the failing American housing and credit market. In early September 2007, Northern Rock, Britain’s fifth largest mortgage lender, collapsed. It was the first British institution to suffer a bank run in over a century. By the end of the crisis, Northern Rock would be nationalized.”

“The remission of debt.”

“It was the first such collapse in the growing credit crisis and a foreshadow of the failures, the collapses, and the interventions that would soon overtake the American and global economy.”

“A first Shemitah.”

“The fall of Northern Rock happened on September 13, 2007. September 13, 2007, on the Hebrew calendar, was the first day of the month of Tishri. The first day of Tishri is the day that
begins the Shemitah Year
. So the first major sign of the Shemitah took place on the exact day on which the Shemitah begins.”

“So then, the day of Northern Rock’s fall to the day of the greatest stock market crash in history should mark the beginning and end of the biblical Shemitah.”

“And so it does,” said the prophet.”

“The exact beginning and end?”

“The exact beginning and end.”

“And what happened in between?”

“In less than a month from the start of the Shemitah, the stock market, which, for the previous several years, had been rising, reverses its momentum. By early October, its long ascent comes to an end. It begins to fall. As the Shemitah year progresses, the stock market continues its descent, a slow motion crash. Billions and billions of dollars are wiped away.”

“The remission of credit and debt.”

“With the tightening of credit markets and the plunging of housing prices, increasing numbers of homeowners find themselves unable to make their mortgage payments. More and more begin defaulting on their mortgages, entering foreclosure.”

“The cancellation of loans, another wiping away of credit and debt.”

“And as they default, the firms standing behind those mortgages now find themselves absorbing greater and greater losses.”

“Every creditor must release his debt.”

“And so the economy continues to deteriorate as the absorbing of losses sets off still more crises. Shock waves reverberate throughout the financial world as some of the nation’s most powerful lending institutions begin to fail. Some are bailed out or bought out through government intervention; others go bankrupt. Each failure, each remission, each Shemitah triggers the next and the next as the global economy continues disintegrating. Then, in late August, early September, as the year of Shemitah enters its last and climactic phase, so too does the financial crisis.”

“With the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

“Yes,” he said, “and then of Lehman Brothers, and then of the global economy—everything reaching the climax on September 29, 2008, the last and climactic day of the Shemitah.”

“Everything following the ancient pattern.”

“Speaking of the ancient pattern, Nouriel, read back to me what you took down.”

So I took out my notepad and began reading back the words of his dictation:

“Thus,” said the prophet, “the global crisis began in the financial realm but didn’t stop there. Before long virtually every economic indicator and every major sector of the economy was affected. The crisis quickly spread into the realms of labor, commerce, production, and consumption. Continue.”