Cryptocurrencies

You Might Want To Check On Your “Investments”, Because The Financial Markets Are Starting To Go Haywire

Is the party almost over?  Volatility has returned to Wall Street in a major way, and certain investors are getting absolutely crushed.  On Wednesday, a trillion dollars in paper wealth had been wiped out during the trading session at one point, but those losses were later pared back as cryptocurrencies rallied.  On social media, there has been a lot of weeping and wailing due to the huge financial losses that some people have experienced this week.  But if you think that these losses are bad, just wait until you see what is coming later.

In the old days, investors would carefully select the companies that they were going to invest in.  The key was to identify companies that had something of great value to add to society and that were being run very well.  In those days, strict adherence to the fundamentals would often bring great rewards.  Just ask Warren Buffett.

But these days our financial markets are little more than giant casinos.  Companies that lose giant mountains of money year after year are supposedly worth billions of dollars, and “assets” that have no inherent value whatsoever are endlessly gobbled up by drug-fueled “investors” that are looking for a way to get rich quick.

This speculative environment has driven the price of Bitcoin to absolutely insane heights in recent months, but now it is starting to fall.  After hitting a record high of $64,829 in the middle of April, Bitcoin fell to almost $30,000 on Wednesday before bouncing back a bit…

Bitcoin plunged 30% to near $30,000 at one point on Wednesday, continuing a major sell-off in the cryptocurrency markets that began a week ago.

But don’t feel too bad for Bitcoin investors just yet.  Bitcoin is still up more than 30 percent so far this year, and overall it is up close to 300 percent over the past 12 months.

Other cryptocurrencies that have also soared in recent months took a huge bath on Wednesday…

Other cryptocurrencies also plunged on Wednesday. Ether, the digital currency that powers the Ethereum blockchain, was down more than 22% at $2,620.97, according to Coin Metrics. Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that started as a joke and has been talked up by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, fell 25% to less than 36 cents. Both had substantially larger losses earlier in the session.

Dogecoin is the poster child for the wild speculation that I so often deride on my websites.  It was started as a joke, it is a useless waste of digital space, and it has no inherent value whatsoever.

But at this moment the market cap for Dogecoin is still over 40 billion dollars.

I really wish that I would have started up a cryptocurrency called “Chickencoin” when this craze was first getting started.  It would probably be worth 100 billion dollars by now.

Sadly, at this point the opportunity to get rick quick has passed, because the bubble is starting to burst.  On Tuesday, China set off a wave of panic when a major announcement about the use of cryptos in the country hit the news wires…

The China Internet Finance Association said it will not allow the country’s financial institutions to partake in any business related to cryptocurrency due to the volatile nature of the digital coins, according to a Chinese media report Tuesday that was spotted earlier by Coindesk. This decision isn’t new. China took a similar stance back in 2017, which also resulted in a massive Bitcoin selloff.

The newest crypto investors are the ones that are being hit the hardest.  Many of them got in near the top of the bubble and now they are paying a great price for it…

New entrants to crypto are especially running for the exits, according to a note from Glassnode Insights. About 23% of crypto wallets are now at a loss, and 1.1 million of the addresses have spent all coins they held during this correction.

Needless to say, this is taking an enormous emotional toll on many people.  On Reddit, some users were even posting the telephone numbers for suicide hotlines…

People on Reddit trading boards described losing their shirts and some people even posted telephone numbers for a suicide help line in case the losses led to hopeless feelings.

Some investors have gotten rich by investing in cryptos, but others are literally losing everything.  On Wednesday, those that had made huge leveraged bets that cryptos would keep rising got absolutely monkey-hammered…

As of Wednesday afternoon in New York, about $9 billion of liquidations of leveraged bets had taken place in the previous 24 hours, according to data provider Bybt. The majority were of long positions in which traders bet on an increase in the price of bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. Such liquidations take place when the market moves against a trader who isn’t able to exit from the trade or post enough additional funds to meet the exchange’s margin requirements.

For the moment, the losses on the stock market seem quite tame by comparison.  The Dow has declined for six of the last eight trading sessions, and it was down another 164 points on Wednesday…

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 164.62 points, or 0.5%, Wednesday, paring an earlier drop of as much as 587 points, as investors broadly retreated from riskier assets. The index has fallen in six of the past eight sessions.

But there is a whole lot more chaos going on under the surface.  As Zero Hedge has pointed out, “in the past 7 sessions, stocks have suffered 3 of the largest bouts of concentrated selling pressure in history”.

Insiders and wealthy investors have been bailing out of stocks at a staggering pace recently, and many believe that this summer will be a very troubled time for stock investors.

But whether it happens sooner or later, it is inevitable that the stock market bubble will burst as well.

The Ponzi scheme that we call “our financial system” is destined to fail, and that should be obvious to everyone at this point.

Unfortunately, many self-deluded “investors” will stay in the game until it is far too late, and they will lose everything as a result.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Yikes! Corn Prices Are Up Roughly 50% In 2021 As Americans Brace For Years Of Horrific Food Inflation

It sure didn’t take long for the Joe Biden era to start resembling the Jimmy Carter era.  Prices are going up so fast that even the mainstream media can’t stop talking about it.  This has already become a major national crisis, and it should be exceedingly obvious to everyone that it is only going to get worse.  The Biden administration wants to borrow and spend trillions more dollars on top of all the absurd spending that has already happened, and the Federal Reserve is going to continue to pump gigantic piles of fresh cash into the financial system.  Collectively, our leaders are literally committing economic malpractice, and if most Americans truly understood what was going on they would be out in the streets protesting against it.

Already, a lot of people out there are becoming extremely alarmed that their food bills are so high.  One of the things that is driving this is the price of corn.  Most Americans don’t eat a lot of canned corn or corn on the cob, but corn has become a key ingredient in literally thousands of other products in our grocery stores.  If you doubt this, just wander through a grocery store some time and look for products with these ingredients…

  • Corn flour, cornmeal. corn gluten, cornflakes, etc.
  • Cornstarch, also listed on labels as starch or vegetable starch
  • Corn oil
  • Corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup
  • Dextrins
  • Maltodextrins
  • Dextrose
  • Fructose or crystalline fructose
  • Hydrol, treacle
  • Ethanol
  • Free fatty acids
  • Maize
  • Zein
  • Sorbitol

When you know what to look for, pretty soon you start realizing that corn is in the majority of our processed foods.  They put it in bread, they put it in soda, they put it in baby formula, and food manufacturers are constantly coming up with new ways to stick it into even more products.

Needless to say, this is absolutely horrible for our health, but that is a topic for another article.

In this article, the point I am trying to make is that the price of corn is going to affect the price of most of the things that the average American buys at the grocery store, and at this point the price of corn is up “roughly 50%” so far in 2021…

America’s biggest cash crop has rarely been more expensive. Corn prices have risen roughly 50% in 2021 and a bushel costs more than twice what it did a year ago.

Corn has been one of the sharpest risers in the broad rally in raw materials that is prompting companies to boost prices for goods and fueling concern among investors that inflation could hobble the post-pandemic economic recovery.

Here in the United States, most Americans will be able to absorb the price increases that are coming, but in other parts of the globe a price shift of this magnitude could mean that millions of families will no longer have enough money to buy the food they need.

Of course it isn’t just the price of corn that is going crazy.  As that same Wall Street Journal article noted, we are seeing wild inflation in many areas of the U.S. economy right now…

Lumber prices have shot to more than four times what is typical, pushing up home prices and obliterating renovation budgets. Copper, a cog of industry found throughout the home and in electronics, hit record prices Friday. Crude oil hasn’t cost so much since 2018 and soybeans are trading at their loftiest level since 2012.

Day after day, inflation is making headlines, and this is going to cause a lot of fear.  As a result, hordes of people will be rushing out to their local retail stores “to stock up”, and this will do a couple of things.

First of all, it will make inflation even worse.  When demand rises relative to supply, that pushes prices in an upward direction, and that is just basic economics.

Secondly, it will intensify our ongoing shortages.  As I detailed the other day, the shortages that we are experiencing now are worse than anything that we went through in 2020, and there will be more shortages in the months ahead.

And as if we weren’t already facing enough problems, one of the most important fuel pipelines in the U.S. was just shut down by a very sophisticated ransomware attack…

One of the largest US fuel pipelines remained largely paralyzed Monday after a ransomware cyberattack forced the temporary shutdown of all operations late last week — an incident that laid bare vulnerabilities in the country’s aging energy infrastructure.

The victim of the attack, Colonial Pipeline is a company that transports more than 100 million gallons of gasoline and other fuel daily from Houston to the New York Harbor.

It is very interesting to note that some in the mainstream media are trying to link this attack to Russia.  Whether that is true or not, we all know where all of this is eventually heading.

These are such troubled times, but most Americans still don’t realize what we are facing.

Sending out big government checks made everyone feel good for a little while, but it came at a great cost.  Creating trillions of dollars out of thin air is absolutely destroying the value of our currency, and once the U.S. dollar is dead there will be no going back.

To me, we just hit a milestone that is extremely telling.  If you can believe it, the total value of all cryptocurrencies is now greater than the value of all U.S. currency currently in circulation…

Cryptocurrency has hit a significant milestone: It’s now worth more than all US dollars currently in circulation.

Cryptocurrencies hit a valuation of $2 trillion on April 29, according to The Wall Street Journal. That’s about the same valuation as all US dollars in circulation. However, it has since hit as high as $2.25 trillion — and in the process actually exceeding dollars in circulation.

This is utter madness!

But this is what can happen when the Federal Reserve electronically pumps trillions upon trillions of new dollars into the financial system.

An inflationary collapse is in the process of unfolding right in front of our eyes, and I am certainly not the only one loudly warning about this.  Earlier today, I came across a piece that was authored by Dr. Don Boys…

I am yelling fire because fire is raging. Mixing metaphors, the storm is not coming; it’s already here. America’s financial house of cards will fall, taking other nations with her. Thoughtful Conservatives must inform people of imminent danger because families will be disrupted, businesses will fail, couples will be divorced, and children will suffer immeasurably.

The economy has faltered, is failing, and will fall.

I see no way out of the coming collapse. Sometimes politicians make such a mess of things that there is no way to correct or solve the mess. It’s almost like being in a small boat on a raging sea, unsure how far you are from the coast you left and the distance to where you hope to dock. You keep going hoping to stay afloat; however, our “boat” is overwhelmed with accelerating debt.

For years we have been marching toward this sort of a disaster, but now that march has evolved into a full-on sprint.

Everything that the “economic alarmists” have been warning about is starting to happen, but this is just the beginning.

Much worse is still to come, and the fall of the U.S. economy is going to absolutely shock the entire globe.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

If We Are Experiencing Severe Shortages Now, How Bad Will Things Get When The Economy Starts Tanking Again?

Inflation and shortages are the two big stories for the U.S. economy this week.  In recent days I have done multiple articles about inflation, and so today I want to focus on the widespread shortages that we are currently witnessing.  At this moment, the U.S. economy is experiencing more shortages than it did at any point during 2020.  I know that statement sounds quite outlandish, but it is true.  During the early stages of the pandemic, there were temporary shortages of toilet paper, hand sanitizer and other items, but now there are severe shortages throughout many sectors of the economy, and quite a few of those shortages will not be so temporary.

On Thursday, Business Insider published a list of some of the most serious shortages that we are going through at the moment…

-Computer chips
-Used cars and rental cars
-Gas
-Plastics and palm oil
-Truckers and rideshare drivers
-Homes and vacation houses
-Lumber
-Household products like toilet paper and tampons
-Furniture
-Chicken
-Bacon and hot dogs
-Imported foods like cheese, coffee, and olive oil
-Chlorine
-Corn

That is quite a list!

The COVID pandemic suppressed output for many industries for an extended period of time, and meanwhile our “leaders” have been pumping trillions and trillions of fresh dollars into the system.

So now we have way too many dollars chasing way too few goods and services, and this is causing tremendous inflation and very painful shortages.

Just look at what is happening to the steel industry.  Changes in supply and demand have pushed up the price of steel to “nearly triple the 20-year average”…

After bottoming out around $460 last year, US benchmark hot-rolled coil steel prices are now sitting at around $1,500 a ton, a record high that is nearly triple the 20-year average.

Steel stocks are on fire. US Steel (X), which crashed to a record low last March amid bankruptcy fears, has skyrocketed 200% in just 12 months. Nucor (NUE) has spiked 76% this year alone.

Much more importantly for the average American, there are now chicken shortages all over the country, and prices have soared into the stratosphere…

After a year promoting takeout wings and crispy chicken sandwiches, restaurants including KFC, Wingstop Inc. and Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. say they are paying steep prices for scarce poultry. Some are running out of or limiting sales of tenders, filets and wings, cutting into some of their most reliable sales.

Independent eateries and bars have gone weeks without wings, owners say. Chicken breast prices have more than doubled since the beginning of the year, and wing prices have hit records, according to market-research firm Urner Barry.

“Weeks without wings?”

Oh the humanity!

If we don’t get this crisis under control soon, the U.S. may not be able to set yet another all-time record for obesity in 2021.

Propane tanks and chlorine tablets are also in short supply.  As a result, many Americans may not be able to enjoy their grills and their pools as they normally do this summer…

A nationwide shortage of pool products is making chlorine tablets and propane tanks hard to come by and increasing prices right as the summer months approach.

“In this heat, if you don’t take care of your pool properly algae will start growing,” said David Sarafyan, a pool supply store employee. “Your pool will pretty much become a swamp.”

Hopefully at least some of these shortages will start to disappear in the weeks ahead.

But if we are seeing this many shortages during a “recovery”, what in the world is our economy going to look like when things start getting really bad again?

This should be a wake up call for all of us, because things are going to start getting really bad again a lot sooner than many people think.

But for now, Americans are swimming in cash thanks to the trillions and trillions of dollars that have been showered on them.

All of that money has to go somewhere, and unfortunately it is going into some of the most ridiculous things imaginable.

My regular readers already know how I feel about Dogecoin.  It is not a “currency” by any stretch of the imagination.  I have been tempted to call it a “collectible”, but normally a “collectible” is something that you can hold in your hands.

At least speculators were chasing something real during “Tulip mania” in 1636 and 1637.  Dogecoin is just a bunch of digital ones and zeros.

Dogecoin does not have any innate value whatsoever, but thanks to Elon Musk and a bunch of Reddit fanboys, the price of Dogecoin is up more than 100 percent this week alone.

For the year, it is up more than 14,000 percent…

That means an investor who paid in $1,000 on January 1 would now have around $120,000.

This year alone it has soared over 14,000%, from $0.00468 on December 31, taking it past more widely used cryptocurrencies such as the Tether stablecoin and XRP to become the fourth-largest by market capitalization.

Yesterday I wrote about something that makes me want to vomit, but now I think that I have found something that may make me want to vomit even more.

If you can believe it, Dogecoin now has a market capitalization that is greater than Moderna, Ford Motor Company or Twitter…

A market capitalization of $78 billion puts Dogecoin, founded in 2013, ahead of other more well established brands and companies including Sherwin-Williams which is valued at $75.8 billion; Dell Technologies, value $75 billion; Moderna, value $63.1 billion; Ford Motor Company, valued $45.2 billion; and Twitter, value $42.1 billion.

The mascot from Pets.com eventually came to symbolize the collapse of the dotcom bubble, and I think that the stupid dog on the Dogecoin logo should symbolize this current financial bubble when it finally implodes.

Tomorrow, more keyboard commandos will pour their stimulus checks into Dogecoin hoping to get rich quick.

Those that invested early and get out in time will make a killing.  But anyone that does not get out in time is going to take a major bath.

Of course the exact same thing could be said for our financial markets as a whole.  Everyone knows that a crash is inevitable, and when it happens it will be the greatest loss of paper wealth in all of U.S. history.

But for now, speculators look like geniuses, and happy days are here again on Wall Street.

Enjoy it while it lasts, because it is just a matter of time before the bubble bursts, and then the pain will begin.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Dogecoin Is The Perfect Currency For The United States Of America In 2021

If you wanted to design a perfect currency for the farce that our financial system has become, you couldn’t do better than Dogecoin.  It was created as a joke, it has no real value, but investors are feverishly gobbling it up as if it was the greatest investment that any of us have ever seen.  A lot of people talk about the “Bitcoin bubble”, but Bitcoin is only up about 600 percent over the last 12 months.  Dogecoin is up about 18,000 percent over the past year even though there is no restriction on how many Dogecoins can eventually be created.  There is absolutely no reason why any rational investor should be putting a single red cent into Dogecoin, and yet it just keeps going up.  In fact, at one point this week Dogecoin had a total market value “of almost $42 billion”…

Initially started as a joke in 2013, dogecoin is now the sixth-largest digital coin with a total market value of almost $42 billion, according to CoinGecko. It takes its name and branding from the “Doge” meme, which depicts a Shiba Inu dog alongside nonsensical phrases in multicolored text.

It is hard for me to believe that “investors” are being so incredibly stupid.

Dogecoin was just supposed to be a meme, but thanks to relentless promotion by the “Dogefather”, one “investor” has seen the value of his Dogecoin holdings rise to 11 billion dollars…

THE world’s first dogecoin billionaire watched their stock soar to $11 BILLION as the “joke” cryptocurrency boomed after Elon Musk dubbed himself the “Dogefather”.

Its value rocketed after the Tesla tycoon spoke out ahead of a much-hyped appearance on SNL suggesting he might talk about it on the hit show watched by millions.

This explosion in interest in Dogecoin is obviously going to spur Dogecoin miners to work harder than ever before.

And unlike Bitcoin, Dogecoin miners can keep creating more tokens forever and ever…

Originally, Dogecoin had a hard limit of 100 billion tokens, similar to Bitcoin’s cap of 21 million tokens. However, the developers changed their plans in 2014, eliminating the supply constraints. In other words, as long as miners continue to build the blockchain, more Dogecoin will continue to wink into existence.

In fact, each time a block is verified, the miner receives a fixed reward of 10,000 Dogecoin tokens. Unless the code is rewritten, this will go on forever.

That’s a critical flaw.

“A critical flaw”?

That is quite an understatement.

But of course what is happening to Dogecoin is the same thing that is happening to our financial system as a whole.  Our leaders in Washington have been creating, borrowing and spending money at an absolutely insane pace, and the numbers that we are now witnessing would have been unimaginable at one time…

On the fiscal side, Congress has allocated some $5.3 trillion toward enhanced unemployment compensation along with a variety of other spending programs that helped push the federal budget deficit to $1.7 trillion in the first half of fiscal 2021 and has sent the national debt soaring to $28.1 trillion. Congress also is considering a $1.8 trillion infrastructure plan from the White House.

The Fed also has come through, cutting its benchmark short-term borrowing rate to near zero and buying nearly $4 trillion worth of bonds, pushing its balance sheet to just shy of $8 trillion.

Almost everyone is cheering the fact that the Fed balance sheet is ballooning dramatically.

And almost everyone is cheering all of the “free money” that the federal government is handing out.

But the truth is that we are going down the same road that so many other troubled nations have gone down throughout history, and there is no way that this story is going to end well.

As I have been detailing in recent articles, we are already starting to see very painful inflation, and major corporations are now warning that even more inflation is on the way…

Toilet paper, baby care products, soft drinks and many other everyday products are about to get more expensive.

Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Coca-Cola have all warned that they’ll raise prices on many of their products as raw material costs rise. Plastic, paper, sugar, grain and other commodities are all getting more expensive as demand outpaces supply. Companies are also paying more for shipping as fuel costs rise and ports experience longer delays because of congestion.

Yes, you may cheer when you get a check for a few thousand dollars in the mail from the government, but that is just a temporary sugar high.

Unfortunately, the dramatic increase in the cost of living that we are starting to experience will be permanent.

Of course it isn’t just the U.S. government that is engaging in this sort of behavior.  Governments all over the globe have been flooding their financial systems with money, and this is setting the stage for much higher food prices and “periods of social unrest”…

Today, DB’s Jim Reid picked that chart as his “Chart of the day”, repeating what readers already know, namely that Bloomberg’s agriculture spot index has risen by c.76% year-on-year, noting that “that’s the biggest annual rise in nearly a decade, and there are only a couple of other comparable episodes since the index begins back in 1991.”

Like us, Reid then patiently tries to explain to all the idiots – like those employed in the Marriner Eccles building – that the importance of this record surge “extends far beyond your weekly shop, as there’s an extensive literature connecting higher food prices to periods of social unrest.”

Needless to say, the scenario that we are seeing play out right in front of our eyes is perfectly in line with warnings that I issued in my most recent book.

At this point, the powers that be have shown no indications that they plan to reverse course, and so that means that we will be steamrolling into a future of much higher prices, growing global hunger and widespread civil unrest.

That is what is real.

What isn’t real are all of the absolutely ridiculous bubbles that we are witnessing in the financial markets.

Dogecoin may be the most absurd of them all, but every single one of them will end up bursting by the time it is all said and done.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The Price Of Plywood Is Absolutely Ridiculous – But It Is Also A Sign Of The Times…

Would you pay $100 for a sheet of plywood?  I know that sounds absolutely crazy, but we are almost there.  The price of plywood has been soaring into the stratosphere in recent weeks, and analysts are telling us that it will remain high for the foreseeable future.  Memes about plywood have started to pop up all over social media, but this is no joking matter.  These extraordinarily high prices are causing a lot of pain in the homebuilding industry, and many Americans have had to postpone construction plans indefinitely.  Unfortunately, our national leaders continue to flood the system with even more new money, and that is going to cause even more extreme inflation in the months and years to come.

Prior to the pandemic, any discussions about plywood on social media were likely to be painfully boring, but now everything has changed.  Thanks to skyrocketing prices, plywood has suddenly become a very hot topic, and one post on Facebook that circulated quite widely ended up getting national attention…

“Food for thought — 3/4″ Plywood Standard:

March 2020 – $37.98 /sheet

February 2021 – $72.49 /sheet

March 2021 – $83.49 /sheet

April 2021 – $95.98 /sheet

That is 252% price increase on one of the most used piece of common lumber for construction.”

Not surprisingly, this post got flagged on Facebook for being “misinformation”.

But then PolitiFact looked into this, and they confirmed that the price of plywood really has risen to such levels…

Shawn Church, editor of Random Lengths, which publishes price data on the wood products industry, gave us figures for 23/32-inch plywood produced in the Pacific Northwest and the South.

The price in the Northwest for Fir 23/32-inch sheathing for the first week of April was $1,610 per thousand square feet, up 287% from $560 a year earlier.

In the South, the price of that panel was $1,500 per thousand square feet, up 230% from $455 one year ago.

Personally, I could never see myself shelling out $100 for one piece of plywood, because that just seems nuts.

But our world has become a much different place over the past year.  The system has been absolutely flooded with new money, and there is no going back to the way that things once were.

Let me give you another example of the sort of extreme inflation that we have been witnessing.  According to the Guardian, an old pair of Kanye West’s Air Yeezy sneakers that are being auctioned off have been valued at one million dollars…

Kanye West’s Air Yeezy sneakers are being auctioned for $1m, making them Sotheby’s most expensive shoe listing ever. They are expected to break the record set by a pair of Nike Air Jordan 1s worn by Michael Jordan, which sold for $615,000 last year.

The black, size 12 Nike Air Yeezy 1 prototypes, designed by West and Nike’s Mark Smith in 2007, were groundbreaking. Aesthetically they altered the shape and form of sneakers in the decade that followed.

Who in the world would be dumb enough to pay a million dollars for a pair of old sneakers?

That is literally insane.

Speaking of insane, Dogecoin now has a total market value of approximately 50 billion dollars…

Dogecoin, which is pronounced dohj-coin, has already leaped to roughly 39 cents, up more than 8,000% for 2021 so far. That towers over the roughly 11% return for the U.S. stock market, which itself is getting criticism for rising too high. Collectively, dogecoins have a total market value of roughly $50 billion, according to CoinDesk. That puts it on par with Dow Inc. or Kimberly-Clark, which makes Kleenex and Huggies.

Are you kidding me?

Dogecoin doesn’t even pretend to be a serious cryptocurrency.  It was started as a total joke, and nobody ever thought that it would have any real value.

But thanks to Elon Musk and other proponents, Dogecoin really has gone to the moon.

In the end, I believe that Dogecoin will be the “Pets.com” of this financial bubble, but for the moment Dogecoin investors are loving life.

Of course it won’t last, and those that are comparing it to “tulip mania” are right on target…

“This is like a cross between a pyramid scheme and tulip mania,” one user on Reddit, named hazardousmeme, said in a discussion about Dogecoin after another user asked if it’s a safe investment. “Safe is the absolute last thing that this is.”

“Let’s hope this goes up!” another Reddit user, Enough-Construction5, wrote after saying they bought $500 worth of Dogecoin. “Better than putting it into a slot machine!”

No, it is exactly like putting it into a slot machine.

Maybe social media hype can drive Dogecoin even higher, but eventually it is going to zero.

So I hope that the guy that is currently holding close to 15 billion dollars worth of Dogecoin is able to sell while he still can…

There is little we can add here that David Einhorn didn’t already say yesterday, but it’s probably worth noting for those keeping track of where in the bubble we are now, that in the magical world of dogecoin – a cryptocurrency that was specifically created as a joke spoof on the crypto concept and which has been promoted aggressive by such luminaries as Elon Musk – there is now a holder residing at address “DH5yaieqoZN36fDVciNyRueRGvGLR3mr7L” who owns 36,711,935,369.11 dogecoins or whatever the plural is, and whose holdings – which started accumulating back in Febriary 2019 – after the latest surge in dogegoin which has sent the joke crypto up 150% in the past 24 hours and 5x in the past week…

… are worth just under $15 billion.

In the old days, investing was all about fundamentals, and rational investors were often greatly rewarded.

But now the “markets” are all about meme stocks, crypto speculation and following whatever moves the Federal Reserve is making.

We are in the financial bubble to end all financial bubbles, and the eventual implosion of this epic bubble is going to be spectacular.

But in the current environment, Dogecoin investors are laughing all the way to the bank, and a single deli in rural New Jersey can have a value of close to 100 million dollars.

The markets are completely broken, and the current insanity on Wall Street will not last for much longer.

On the other hand, the rampant inflation that we are witnessing is here to stay, and it is going to be a major issue in our society from this point forward.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The Global Inflation Nightmare That You Have Been Warned About Is Here

If you thought that authorities all over the planet could print, borrow and spend money like there was no tomorrow without any consequences, you were being delusional.  Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, we have witnessed the greatest monetary binge in world history.  Of course that was going to cause enormous problems.  Of course that was going to cause nightmarish inflation.  Anyone with an ounce of common sense should have been able to see that.  When the value of money is tied to nothing, “more money” is always such a tempting solution for those in power.  But as history has demonstrated over and over again, going down that path almost always leads to tragedy.

In our case, it will be the poorest people on the planet that suffer the most.  According to Bloomberg, basic food staples are dramatically spiking in price all over the globe…

Global food prices are going up, and the timing couldn’t be worse.

In Indonesia, tofu is 30% more expensive than it was in December. In Brazil, the price of local mainstay turtle beans is up 54% compared to last January. In Russia, consumers are paying 61% more for sugar than a year ago.

And as Albert Edwards has pointed out, annual inflation in cereals has hit 20 percent, which represents “the highest annual rise since mid-2011 when the Arab Spring was in full flow!”

If prices continue to rise like this, it is just a matter of time before we see widespread food riots all over the globe.

In explaining why this is happening, Bloomberg got half the answer correct…

Emerging markets are feeling the pain of a blistering surge in raw material costs, as commodities from oil to copper and grains are driven higher by expectations for a “roaring 20s” post-pandemic economic recovery as well as ultra-loose monetary policies.

No, there is definitely not going to be a “roaring 20s” post-pandemic recovery.

That is a complete and utter fantasy.

But it is quite true that we have seen “ultra-loose monetary policies” all over the globe.  Not since the days of the Weimar Republic have we seen anything like this in the industrialized world.

As the global money supply continues to expand at a frightening pace, other factors will weigh very heavily on global food production.

For example, the other day I wrote about the giant hordes of locusts that are currently ravaging East Africa, and now Saudi Arabia is being hit hard as well…

Horrifying footage shows a swarm of locusts filling the sky in the town of Mahayil in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia.

In a nightmarish clip, filmed by someone standing in the street on February 23, the locusts hang overhead like a swirling black cloud as they fly around outside people’s homes.

As the camera is turned around 360 degrees, it becomes clear nearby buildings are all completely surrounded by the ravenous insects as far as the eye can see.

The head of the UN World Food Program has publicly stated that there will be “famines of biblical proportions in 2021”, but here in the United States many people don’t take warnings like that seriously because we still have plenty of food in the stores.

And so far, food inflation in this country has not been overly dramatic.

But we are seeing crazy inflation show up in other ways.  If you can believe it, a Luka Doncic rookie card just sold for 4.6 million dollars…

At $4.6 million, the most expensive basketball card ever sold is a signed Luka Doncic rookie card featuring the NBA Logoman patch from a game-worn Dallas Mavericks jersey.

Collector Nick Fiorello bought the 1-of-1 card on Feb.28, which is second in all time in sports cards to a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card that sold for $5.2 million. It was first sold for $2.8 million in April of 2018. It then became the largest known sale of all time in January of 2021 when Rob Gough purchased it for $5.2 million, according to actionnetwork.com.

When I was a kid, I loved to collect sports cards.

It looks like I should have stayed with that hobby.

Even more bizarre, a 10 second video clip just sold for a whopping 6.6 million dollars…

In October 2020, Miami-based art collector Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile spent almost $67,000 on a 10-second video artwork that he could have watched for free online. Last week, he sold it for $6.6 million.

The video by digital artist Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, was authenticated by blockchain, which serves as a digital signature to certify who owns it and that it is the original work.

Why in the world would anyone spend more than 6 million dollars for a video clip that can be watched online for free?

It doesn’t make any rational sense at all, but this is what can happen in a highly inflationary environment.

All of the money that our authorities have been creating has to go somewhere, and one of the places where it has been going is in to cryptocurrencies.

Coming into this year, the price of Bitcoin was just under $30,000, and now as I write this article it is sitting at $49,160.

If you have done well investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, I would take advantage of these extremely high prices while you still can.

At any time, governments around the world can decide to crack down on them, and New York Attorney General Letitia James gave us another reminder of that fact on Monday…

New York Attorney General Letitia James sent a blistering warning to investors and industry members about the dangers of cryptocurrencies on Monday.

“We’re sending a clear message to the entire industry that you either play by the rules or we will shut you down,” she said in a press release.

As conditions in this country continue to deteriorate, eventually there will be a huge shift in demand.

When things get really bad, people are not going to be so interested in collectibles and speculative investments.  Instead, there will be tremendous demand for food, commodities, farmland and other essential assets.

I really wish that our authorities weren’t destroying the value of the U.S. dollar, but this is the path that they have chosen.

So now we all get to suffer the consequences, and they won’t be fun.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Another Sign The Bitcoin Bubble Is Ending? China Launches An Unprecedented Crackdown On Cryptocurrencies…

Those that sold their cryptocurrencies at the peak of the market made a tremendous amount of money, but those that hold on to the bitter end are going to be gravely disappointed.  For a while there, it seems like cryptocurrency prices were going to go up forever.  2017 was the best year for cryptocurrencies ever, and lots of investors were becoming millionaires on paper.  But now the “Bitcoin bubble” has burst, and the losses are absolutely staggering.  Unfortunately for crypto investors, it looks like things are about to go from bad to worse, because China has just launched an absolutely unprecedented crackdown on cryptocurrencies.  Potential government intervention was always the “elephant in the room” for cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and now it is becoming a reality in a major way.

How would you feel if the value of your investments fell by 75 percent in just 7 months?

Well, that is precisely what has happened to cryptocurrency investors.  The following comes from the New York Times…

After the latest round of big price drops, many cryptocurrencies have given back all of the enormous gains they experienced last winter. The value of all outstanding digital tokens has fallen by about $600 billion, or 75 percent, since the peak in January, according to data from the website coinmarketcap.com.

Sadly, this could potentially be just the beginning of big trouble for the cryptocurrency industry.

China has not completely banned cryptos yet, but they appear to be moving in that direction.  As Robert Wenzel recently noted, the crypto crackdown in China is becoming very intense…

Financial officials in an eastern district of Beijing issued a notice last week to stores, hotels and offices urging them not to host any cryptocurrency related speeches, events or activities. The document also asked that any activity be reported to local officials and said authorities were acting on behalf of a working group led by the central bank to clean up cryptocurrency trading, reports The Wall Street Journal.

In a commentary published in state media on Friday, according to the Journal, Sheng Songcheng, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China, said that after fundraisings called initial coin offerings were banned last year, government regulation will become even more restrictive. He wrote that earlier this week, authorities blocked a number of public accounts involving ICOs on the popular messaging app WeChat.

In addition, we have just learned that China has decided to permanently block over 120 offshore cryptocurrency exchanges…

More than 120 offshore cryptocurrency exchanges have been blocked by Chinese authorities, the South China Morning Post reports. The exact reasoning is not entirely clear — the central bank didn’t respond to calls from SCMP reporters — though some speculate that the crackdown is a response to increasing financial risk and instability.

The government will continue to monitor for any new crypto news sites and announcements of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). If any appear, the government will shut them down immediately and deny user access by blocking their IP addresses.

That is an absolutely devastating blow to the cryptocurrency industry.

On top of everything else, Chinese tech giants have decided to ban crypto-related transactions…

In a move that will likely make it even harder for cryptocurrency aficionados to trade Bitcoin and its ilk in China, the mobile payments titans of the country have barred crypto-related transactions.

WeChat Pay and Ant Financial’s Alipay are monitoring their platforms for transactions related to cryptocurrencies, with WeChat saying Friday that it would prohibit users from sending funds related to such digital assets on its social media platform. Its a notable move, Chinese citizens have rapidly adopted the technology. Over $12 trillion changed hands via mobile in the first 10 months of 2017 alone in the Middle Kingdom.

A coordinated effort to kill the cryptocurrency industry in the second largest economy on the planet appears to be well underway, and this is going to have very serious implications for cryptocurrency prices.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency industry just suffered another blow at the hand of U.S. regulators…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected another round of attempts to list exchange-traded funds backed by bitcoin, blocking ETFs from ProShares, GraniteShares and Direxion, on concern prices could be vulnerable to manipulation.

In a trio of orders posted on the agency’s website Wednesday, the commission said proposals to allow the funds failed to show how exchanges seeking to list the products would “prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.”

For a long time I have warned that the ultimate fate of the cryptocurrency industry was going to be determined by what national governments decided to do.

They seemed to have a “hands off” policy for quite a while, and the cryptocurrency industry thrived.

But now a global crackdown has begun, and it could ultimately mean the death of the entire sector.

This article originally appeared on The Economic Collapse Blog.  About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is publisher of The Most Important News and the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.

War On Cryptocurrencies: Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup And Capital One Have Banned Their Customers From Buying Bitcoin With Credit Cards

A war on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin has begun, and it threatens to destroy the entire cryptocurrency industry.  If you think that I am exaggerating, just keep reading.  Government agencies are cracking down hard, Bitcoin traders that don’t file the proper paperwork are being sent to prison, Facebook and other online ad platforms have banned all cryptocurrency advertising, and now major credit card companies are banning their customers from using their credit cards to buy cryptos.  What is an industry supposed to do if it can’t advertise and it can’t take credit cards?  Such moves would kill virtually any consumer-oriented industry, and right now the cryptocurrency industry is absolutely reeling.  If this war on cryptocurrencies continues to intensify, I honestly don’t know how the industry is going to survive.

On Monday, another shot was fired in the war.  Wells Fargo formally announced that their customers would no longer be permitted to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with Wells Fargo credit cards…

Wells Fargo customers can no longer buy cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin on their credit cards, the company announced Monday. But they can still buy firearms.

The San Francisco-based bank joined some of its Wall Street peers in banning the purchase of cryptocurrencies on credit cards and said its decision is “in line with the overall industry.”

Of course this follows decisions by virtually all of the other major credit card companies to ban cryptocurrency transactions as well…

J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup announced in February they would no longer let customers buy cryptocurrencies using credit cards, and like Wells Fargo cited credit risks and market volatility.

Capital One Financial said it has decided to ban cryptocurrency purchases with its cards, and Discover Financial Services has effectively prohibited cryptocurrency purchases with its credit cards since 2015.

All of these banks are deeply tied in to the existing world order, and obviously the elite have decided that now is the time to make a move against cryptocurrencies.

In the online world, cash and checks are rarely used.  And so if people can’t use their credit cards to buy cryptocurrencies, what are they supposed to do?

There is always Paypal and other online platforms, but it is probably only a matter of time before they start banning cryptocurrency transactions as well.

And the same big banks that have already banned credit card transactions could very easily start banning direct bank transfers as well.

The 800 pound gorilla in the room has started to wake up, and that is really, really bad news for the cryptocurrency industry.

It is absolutely absurd for banks to be telling us what we can and cannot buy with our own money, but unless somebody does something they are going to get away with it.  A few of them have even started putting restrictions on gun transactions, and they will keep pushing the envelope until they are stopped.

Meanwhile, government agencies have decided that now is the time for a crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry as well…

The SEC investigation, which Bloomberg reported last month, is the U.S.’s latest effort to crack down on the booming Bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry and will look into illegal practices that can influence prices.

On Friday the Wall Street Journal reported U.S. government investigators demanded several bitcoin exchanges hand over trading data, putting the price on the back foot ahead of today’s sell off.

Federal prosecutors are working with the U.S. financial regulator that oversees derivatives tied to Bitcoin, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

And it isn’t just the exchanges that are getting hit.

Individuals that have not filed the “proper paperwork” with the government are being arrested and sent to prison…

This week in Southern California a Los Angeles woman who called herself the ‘Bitcoin Maven’ will be sentenced this Monday after pleading guilty for illegal money transmission. According to law enforcement, the woman made close to $300,000 USD annually by selling BTC on the peer-to-peer exchange Localbitcoins.

U.S. law enforcement has arrested and convicted another Localbitcoins seller who reportedly made $300K per year selling digital assets. The 50-year-old Theresa Tetley used the alias ‘Bitcoin Maven’ and sold bitcoins without registering with the financial authorities. Prosecutors say Tetley’s operations “fueled a black-market financial system in the Central District of California that purposely and deliberately existed outside of the regulated bank industry.”

So where do things go from here?

Are these just temporary bumps in the road to a promising future for the cryptocurrency industry, or is this the end of the road?

Well, cryptocurrency evangelist John McAfee believes that now is a perfect time to buy more coins…

“Do not panic about the drop in Bitcoin’s price. It is an overreaction to the news that Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit, and Kraken are being investigated for price manipulation. This will delay the bull market by no more than 30 days. Don’t buy into the fear. Buy the coins.”

On the other hand, Mike Adams believes that we are witnessing the collapse of a Ponzi scheme that was always destined to implode at some point…

Even though Bitcoin is clearly an electricity-wasting Ponzi scheme built on zero real assets, some newbies are just now hearing about it, and they think they’ve discovered a perpetual motion get rich quick scheme that will allow them to acquire wealth without effort. (This is, of course, the key selling point among Bitcoin speculators, who have convinced themselves they’re actually “shrewd investors.”) In truth, they’re just being suckered into a collapsing crypto-fairy tale that never panned out because it was based on bad economics in the first place. Remember when Bitcoin enthusiasts promised that Bitcoin transactions would be extremely low cost and almost instant? Yep, and Obama said if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, too. Both promises turned out to be utter nonsense.

If the major banks and governments around the world had left the cryptocurrency industry alone, it probably would have done just fine.

But now a full blown war against the cryptocurrency industry has begun, and it is going to be exceedingly difficult for “crypto mania” to survive in this type of environment.

Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.

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