15 Signs That America’s Economic Depression Is Accelerating As We Head Toward The Holiday Season

Hardly anyone expected that things would get this bad in 2020.  Once the pandemic hit and states all over the country started instituting lockdowns, economic activity collapsed dramatically.  U.S. GDP was down 31.4 percent during the second quarter of 2020, and that was a drop without parallel in all of U.S. history.  In fact, that decline was more than three times as large as the previous record.  But eventually states started to “reopen” their economies, and U.S. GDP for the third quarter is expected to show a significant rebound when the numbers are finally released.  Of course we still aren’t even close to where we used to be, but at least things weren’t as bad as they were in the second quarter.  But now as the fourth quarter begins, it appears that economic conditions are heading back in the wrong direction again.  The following are 15 signs that America’s economic depression is accelerating as we head toward the holiday season…

#1 All 546 Regal Cinema theaters in the United States are being shut down, and right now there is no timetable for reopening them.

#2 It is being reported that AMC Entertainment (the largest movie theater chain in the U.S.) will “run out of liquidity” in 6 months.

#3 Over the weekend, I was told by someone that works in the industry that he expects most movie theaters in the country to eventually close down permanently because of this pandemic.

#4 The average rent on a one bedroom apartment in San Francisco is 20.3 percent lower than it was one year ago.

#5 During the 3rd quarter, the number of vehicles delivered by General Motors was down about 10 percent from a year ago.

#6 It is being reported that Anheuser-Busch will be laying off 400 employees in Loveland, Denver, Littleton and Colorado Springs.

#7 Allstate has just announced that they will be laying off 3,800 workers.

#8 JCPenney says that it will be cutting approximately 15,000 jobs as we approach the holiday shopping season.

#9 At least one-fourth of the 28,000 layoffs that Disney will be conducting will happen in Florida.

#10 Collectively, American Airlines and United Airlines let 32,000 employees go last week.

#11 On Thursday, we learned that another 787,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits during the previous week.

#12 Overall, more than 60 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits so far in 2020.  That number is far higher than anything we have ever seen before in all of U.S. history.

#13 Retail store closings in the United States continue to surge along at a pace that is absolutely unprecedented.

#14 Bankruptcy filings in New York City have risen 40 percent so far in 2020.

#15 This number is hard to believe, but it is being reported that almost 90 percent of New York City bar and restaurant owners couldn’t pay their full rent for the month of August.

None of this was supposed to happen.

By now, we were supposed to be well into a “V-shaped recovery” that would soon have Americans forgetting all about the dark days in the middle of 2020.

But instead, millions upon millions of Americans have lost their jobs and are facing a deeply uncertain future.  One of those Americans is an unemployed cook named Juan Jose Martinez Camacho

Juan Jose Martinez Camacho, 59, has been a cook for 30 years, since he was asked to fill in one day when he was working as a dishwasher in a restaurant.

He has worked as a cook at the Crowne Plaza in Redondo Beach, California, for 22 years. When he was laid off on March 23, he was thinking it would be only two or three months before things got back to normal. But late last month he was notified he had permanently lost the job, which paid $22 an hour. He has been looking for other cooking jobs without any luck.

Can you imagine doing the same thing for 30 years and suddenly being out of a job?

Like most Americans, he assumed that the pandemic would soon pass and he would be going back to his old routine.

But that hasn’t happened, and so he is among the millions of restaurant workers that are not bringing in any income right now.

With so many Americans out of work, food banks around the country have been dealing with a tsunami of demand.  In previous articles, I have written about the absolutely massive lines that we have been seeing in certain portions of the nation.  In some cases, people have started lining up at 2 AM in the morning and the lines have gotten up to 2 miles long.

And every week we see more gigantic lines at food banks all over America.  The following is how one local news source described the massive lines that have been consistently forming in the state of Texas…

Thousands of cars form tightly packed lines across the state every week now to receive food. From Chihuahuan Desert border towns and cities to the staked plains of the panhandle, across the piney wood of deep East Texas, down to the Rio Grande and back cars stack, growing into steel and fiberglass caterpillars, hungry.

These events have distributed tens of millions of pounds of food over the past six months.

If you still have your job and you haven’t been forced to visit a food bank during this crisis, you should be thankful for your blessings.

Just like in the 1930s, we are witnessing colossal lines for food all over the nation, and this is just the beginning.

If you have been waiting for a “recovery”, you can stop waiting, because what we witnessed during the third quarter was about all the “recovery” that we are going to get.

Now we are less than a month away from a presidential election that promises to be incredibly chaotic, and the extremely deep divisions that already exist in our nation are likely to get even worse.  Many believe that this election will produce even more civil unrest, and that will likely depress economic activity even further.

I truly wish that economic conditions would “return to normal” and that all of us could get back to our old patterns.

But there isn’t going to be any “return to normal” any time soon.

Instead, very dark days are ahead, and those very dark days will shake this nation to the core.

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

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 EndGet 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 BlogEnd 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 and Twitter, 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.

America 1950 vs. America 2020

If you could go back to 1950, would you do it?  There would be no Internet, no cellphones and you would only be able to watch television in black and white.  But even though they lacked many of our modern conveniences, people genuinely seemed to be much happier back then.  Families actually ate dinner together, neighbors knew and cared about one another, and being an “American” truly meant something.  Today, we like to think that we are so much more “advanced” than they were back then, but the truth is that our society is in the process of falling apart all around us.  Could it be possible that we could learn some important lessons by looking back at how Americans lived 70 years ago?

Of course there has never been any era in our history when everything has been perfect.  But without a doubt, things are vastly different today than they were back in 1950…

In 1950, Texaco Star Theatre, The Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy were some of the most popular shows that Americans watched on television.

In 2020, a Netflix film entitled “Cuties” is so trashy and so disgusting that four states have sent a letter to Netflix asking for it to be removed because it is “fodder for those with criminal imaginations, serving to normalize the view that children are sexual beings.”

In 1950, television networks would not even show husbands and wives in bed together.

In 2020, “adult websites” get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.

In 1950, people would greet one another as they walked down the street.

In 2020, Americans are too enamored with their cellphones to be bothered with actual human contact.

In 1950, gum chewing and talking in class were some of the major disciplinary problems in our schools.

In 2020, kids are literally gunning down police officers in the streets.

In 1950, people would make an effort to dress up and look nice when they would go out in public.

In 2020, most of the population has become utter slobs and “People of Walmart” has become one of our most popular memes.

In 1950, the typical woman got married for the first time at age 20 and the typical man got married for the first time at age 22.

In 2020, the typical woman gets married for the first time at age 27 and the typical man gets married for the first time at age 29.

In 1950, a lot of people would leave their homes and their vehicles unlocked because crime rates were so low.

In 2020, many that live in urban areas are deathly afraid of all the civil unrest that has erupted, and gun sales have soared to all-time record highs.

In 1950, Americans actually attempted to parent their children.

In 2020, we pump our kids full of mind-altering drugs and we let our televisions and our video games raise our children.

In 1950, Baltimore was one of the most beautiful and most prosperous cities on the entire planet.

In 2020, Baltimore regularly makes headlines because of all the murders that are constantly occurring.  Of course the exact same thing could be said about many of our other major cities.

In 1950, 78 percent of all households in America contained a married couple.

In 2020, that figure has fallen below 50 percent.

In 1950, about 5 percent of all babies in the United States were born to unmarried parents.

In 2020, about 40 percent of all babies in the United States will be born to unmarried parents.

In 1950, new churches were regularly being opened all over the United States.

In 2020, it is being projected that 1 out of every 5 churches in the U.S. “could be forced to shut their doors in the next 18 months”, and the mayor of Lubbock, Texas just said that opening a new Planned Parenthood clinic is like starting a church.

In 1950, we actually had high standards for our elected officials, and people actually did research on the candidates before they cast their votes.

In 2020, more than 4,000 people in one county in New Hampshire voted for a “transsexual Satanic anarchist” in the Republican primary, and she is now the Republican nominee for sheriff in Cheshire County.

In 1950, children would go outside and play when they got home from school.

In 2020, our parks and our playgrounds are virtually empty and we have the highest childhood obesity rate in the industrialized world.

In 1950, front porches were community gathering areas, and people would regularly have their neighbors over for dinner.

In 2020, many of us don’t know our neighbors at all, and the average American watches more than five hours of television a day.

In 1950, Americans used words such as “knucklehead”, “moxie” and “jalopy”.

In 2020, new terms such as “nomophobia”, “peoplekind” and “social distancing” have been introduced into the English language.

In 1950, the very first credit card was issued in the United States.

In 2020, Americans owe more than 930 billion dollars on their credit cards.

In 1950, one income could support an entire middle class household.

In 2020, tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment, and more than half of all households in some of our largest cities are currently facing “serious financial problems”.

In 1950, the American people believed that the free market should govern the economy.

In 2020, most Americans seem to believe that the government in Washington and the Federal Reserve must endlessly “manage” the economy.

In 1950, “socialists” and “communists” were considered to be our greatest national enemies.

In 2020, most of our politicians in Washington have eagerly embraced socialist and communist policy goals.

In 1950, the U.S. Constitution was deeply loved and highly revered.

In 2020, anyone that actually admits to being a “constitutionalist” is considered to be a potential domestic terrorist.

In 1950, the United States loaned more money to the rest of the world than anybody else.

In 2020, the United States owes more money to the rest of the world than anybody else.

In 1950, the total U.S. national debt reached the 257 billion dollar mark for the first time in our history.

In 2020, we added 864 billion dollars to the national debt in the month of June alone.  In other words, we added over three times more to the national debt in that one month than the total amount of debt that had been accumulated from the founding of our nation all the way to 1950.

In 1950, most Americans were generally happy with their lives.

In 2020, the suicide rate is at an all-time record high, and it has been rising every single year since 2007.

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

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.  By purchasing the book 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 BlogEnd 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.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  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 and Twitter, 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.

We Should Mourn For What Is Happening To America

This week it was Kenosha, Wisconsin and next week it will probably be somewhere else.  Yet another senseless police shooting was followed by more rioting, looting and violence.  Of course rioting, looting and violence have basically become a nightly occurrence in America at this point anyway.  The protests never seem to end in some cities, and crime rates are absolutely skyrocketing all over the country.  Much of what is written about all of this chaos is focused on trying to pin the blame on someone, but even if we correctly identify who is to blame, will that actually stop the violence?  I don’t believe that it would.  In fact, I don’t think that anything is going to stop the violence any time soon.

I just feel so sad today.  We are literally watching the meltdown of our society, and that process is going to continue no matter what happens in November.  I have never seen so much anger in America, and the frightening thing is that the level of anger seems to just keep growing.

I wish that we could learn to truly forgive one another, love one another and come together as a society.  For years I have been telling my readers that civil unrest like this was coming, and there is an entire chapter in my new book entitled “Civil Unrest and Martial Law”.  So many of the things that myself and others have been warning about are now playing out right in front of our eyes, but there is absolutely no joy in being correct.  There is only sadness.  I love the United States of America and what I see happening to our nation grieves me very deeply.

Whenever I write articles about our need to love one another, those articles tend not to get much attention at all.  In America today, we would much rather hate our enemies than love them.  The corporate media has trained us to hate those “on the other side”, and they have done that job very well.  They have been stirring the pot for years, and now much of the population has been perfectly primed to explode.

In such an environment, it was inevitable that there would eventually be eruptions of violence.  On Sunday night, it was Kenosha’s turn

Armed rioters shut down streets in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday night as the city fell into chaos after a police-involved shooting earlier in the evening.

A large group of rioters – including at least two armed rioters – blocked a police armored car from proceeding down a street. After a standoff, the police began throwing tear gas canisters from the top of the vehicle to disperse the crowd. Moments later, gunshots rang out after one of the protesters appeared to open fire.

The police shooting that caused these riots only happened a few hours earlier.

That means that some of these rioters were already armed and were ready to cause chaos on very little notice.

And it seems that these sorts of riots are almost always accompanied by widespread looting

The violence quickly spread and eventually large mobs began looting shops and stores throughout the city.

Later in the night, vehicles at several car dealerships were set ablaze. Including one at a dealership next to a church which displayed a Black Lives Matter sign.

And just like in so many other cities, police officers in Kenosha quickly became targets.  In fact, it was reported that one officer was actually knocked down with a brick.

Protesters were promising to come back Monday night, but Governor Tony Evers called out the National Guard in a desperate attempt to keep that from happening…

In a bid to stave off another night of chaos, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said 125 members of the National Guard would be in Kenosha on Monday night with responsibility for ‘guarding infrastructure and making sure our firefighters and others involved are protected.’

The Kenosha Police Department declared a state-of-emergency curfew for Monday night beginning at 8pm until 7am the following morning, according to a post on the police department’s Twitter feed.

Meanwhile, we witnessed yet another senseless riot in Portland on Sunday night…

A tumultuous weekend in Portland ended late Sunday night with Portland Police declaring a riot outside of the bureau’s North Precinct.

Police said they made 23 arrests over the course of the night on various charges like interfering with a peace officer and rioting.

During the riot, protesters were literally hurling anything that they could find at the police…

Demonstrators lit dumpsters on fire, and threw fireworks, rocks, and “sharp chunks of ceramic” at officers, police said.

Just after 10:30 p.m., police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly.

Sadly, a similar scene unfolded in Denver just the night before…

Dozens of armed Black Lives Matter anarchists descended on the Denver Police Headquarters and damaged buildings, set fires and shot fireworks at cops.

The mob, consisting of between 50 to 75 demonstrators, were said to be wielding numerous weapons — from axes to guns — during the incident.

Of course the riot in Denver didn’t even make many headlines around the nation because this sort of thing has become so commonplace in our major cities at this point.

We have basically entered a period of semi-permanent civil unrest.

And now that lawlessness has been unleashed in our streets, new eruptions of violence will be easily sparked with each new incident that comes along.

I am particularly concerned about this upcoming election season.  It is easy to imagine quite a few scenarios which would unleash widespread rage and fury.

I just wish that things could be different.

Americans should not be fighting other Americans in the streets, and it deeply grieves me whenever I see it happening.

If everyone simply treated others the way that they would like to be treated, we wouldn’t see senseless police shootings and there wouldn’t be rioting and looting in our streets.

Unfortunately, the very basic values that this nation was founded upon were rejected by our society long ago, and now we are paying a very great price for that choice.

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

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.  By purchasing the book 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 BlogEnd 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.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  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 and Twitter, 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.

Does America Worship “A God Of Money”?

The one that you serve the most is the one that you really worship.  In America today, we don’t actually get down on our knees and pray to our stock market portfolios and the money in our bank accounts, but has our wealth become more important to us than anything else?  It is well known that material comfort greatly motivates most Americans.  We tend to vote for the politicians that we perceive will be the best for our economy, we religiously track the performance of our investments, and for many of us our financial goals are more important to us than any of our other goals.  We desperately want to “do well”, and we tend to exalt others that are “doing well”.  Of course “doing well” is defined primarily in financial terms in our society, and that is extremely unfortunate.  A poor man that has greatly loved his family and those around him his entire life is generally not considered to be “successful”, while a billionaire that may actually be living in emotional misery every day of his life is lifted up as an example for all of us to follow.  Our priorities are all messed up, and I believe that we will ultimately deeply regret the great love that we have developed for the debt-fueled “prosperity” that we have been enjoying for so many years.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned us that we cannot serve two masters…

“No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Unfortunately, most Americans gave up on trying to serve God long ago.  Today, most of us are primarily interested in pursuing money, and this has created a society that is filled with endless greed.

In such an environment, it is easy to understand how the stock market has become such a national idol.  We take great pride in the performance of the stock market, and on Tuesday headlines all over the nation gleefully trumpeted the fact that the S&P 500 closed at an all-time record high

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 3,389.78, eclipsing its previous Feb. 19 high to finish at the highest closing level on record. That means this year’s bear market, or a drop of more than 20% from a peak, from the February high to the lows on March 23 was the shortest in history, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Of course it doesn’t actually make any sense at all that stock prices are hitting all-time highs right now.

We are in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and 56.2 million workers have filed new claims for unemployment benefits over the last 21 weeks.

But the Federal Reserve was absolutely determined to rescue the financial markets when they started to implode during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Fed has been successful in accomplishing that mission.

In particular, the big tech stocks have really benefitted from this latest rally, and on Wednesday Apple actually became the first 2 trillion dollar company in U.S. history

High-flying stocks like Apple, Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet have powered this year’s rally, far outpacing the rest of the market as investors bet heavily they could prevail in a stay-at-home economy. On Wednesday, tech giant Apple was the first publicly traded company to top a $2 trillion valuation.

As stock prices have soared, this has sent the net worths of America’s tech billionaires into the stratosphere.

In fact, if you add up the wealth of America’s 12 wealthiest billionaires, it now comes to a total of more than 1 trillion dollars

New research published Monday by the Institute for Policy Studies shows that the dozen richest American billionaires now collectively own more than $1 trillion in wealth, a finding one analyst described as “a disturbing milestone in the U.S. history of concentrated wealth and power.”

According to IPS, a progressive think tank, the 12 top U.S. billionaires have seen their combined wealth soar by 40%—or $283 billion—since the coronavirus began spreading rapidly across the U.S. in mid-March, sparking widespread economic shutdowns and mass job loss.

To most people in our society, these billionaires are people to be greatly admired.

In fact, most of them are treated like celebrities.

These days, names like Gates, Musk and Zuckerberg make national headlines even more frequently than our most cherished Hollywood stars.

Meanwhile, tens of millions of “ordinary” Americans are deeply suffering.  We have never had a year when more than 56 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits, and more Americans are losing their jobs with each passing day.

Mortgage delinquencies are rising at a very frightening pace, tens of millions of Americans can no longer pay their bills, food prices are starting to get totally out of control, and hordes of people are moving away from the major cities on both coasts.

For decades, the U.S. middle class has been eroding, and now that process is rapidly accelerating.  In fact, one new study has found that the average American now needs 53 weeks of income per year just to pay for the basics

As Bank of America points out, while the recent covid shutdowns has thrown the economy into disarray with millions laid off and living on government stimulus checks, life for the vast majority of workers – i.e., those who comprise the country’s middle class – was already precarious before the pandemic, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Cost of Thriving Index.

Consider that in 1985 it took 30 weeks at the median wage to pay for big fixed costs like housing, health care, a car, and education; fast forward to today when it takes a mathematically impossible 53 weeks of a 52-week year to buy those things.

Needing 53 weeks of income just to pay for the basics is a huge problem, because there are only 52 weeks in a year.

Unfortunately, this new economic crisis is just getting started.  Conditions are going to get much, much worse in the years ahead, and the economic pain is going to be off the charts.

So what do you think is going to happen to our society when our “god of money” finally crumbles?

When Americans realize that the thing that they have been living for more than anything else has been taken from them, we are going to see a nationwide temper tantrum that will be unlike anything that we have ever seen before.

In the end, life is not about how much stuff we can acquire or about how much money we can stash in our accounts.

Unfortunately, we have raised several generations of Americans that don’t understand what really matters in life, and our entire society will pay a very great price for our negligence.

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

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.  By purchasing the book 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 BlogEnd 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.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  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 and Twitter, 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.

A Mass Exodus Away From Big Cities On Both Coasts

In all of U.S. history, we have never seen anything like “the mass exodus of 2020”.  Hundreds of thousands of people are leaving the major cities on both coasts in search of a better life.  Homelessness, crime and drug use were already on the rise in many of our large cities prior to 2020, but many big city residents were willing to put up with a certain amount of chaos in order to maintain their lifestyles.  However, the COVID-19 pandemic and months of civil unrest have finally pushed a lot of people over the edge.  Moving companies on both coasts are doing a booming business as wealthy and middle class families flee at a blistering pace, and most of those families do not plan to ever return.

Los Angeles is a perfect example of what I am talking about.  Once upon a time it attracted wealthy and famous people from all over the globe, but in 2020 it is “a city on the brink“…

Today, Los Angeles is a city on the brink. ‘For Sale’ signs are seemingly dotted on every suburban street as the middle classes, particularly those with families, flee for the safer suburbs, with many choosing to leave LA altogether.

British-born Danny O’Brien runs Watford Moving & Storage. ‘There is a mass exodus from Hollywood,’ he says.

Almost half of the entire homeless population of the entire country now lives in the state of California, and a large proportion of them are addicted to drugs.  Needless to say, this has created a nightmarish environment

Junkies and the homeless, many of whom are clearly mentally ill, walk the palm-lined streets like zombies – all just three blocks from multi-million-dollar homes overlooking the Pacific.

Stolen bicycles are piled high on pavements littered with broken syringes.

Could you imagine trying to raise a family in such a community?

I certainly couldn’t.

And the worse economic conditions become, the worse the problem gets.  Crime is skyrocketing in L.A., and some residents have been shocked to discover strangers actually “defecating in their front gardens”

TV bulletins are filled with horror stories from across the city; of women being attacked during their morning jog or residents returning home to find strangers defecating in their front gardens.

Of course Los Angeles is definitely not the only major city dealing with such issues.

On a per capita basis, drug use is even worse in San Francisco, and it is being reported that there is “a mass exodus of people looking to get out of San Francisco real estate”

According to online real estate company Zillow, there is a mass exodus of people looking to get out of San Francisco real estate – as the housing market is on fire in the Bay Area suburbs, all the way to Lake Tahoe.

According to the company’s “2020 Urban-Suburban Market Report,” home prices in the city have fallen 4.9% year-over-year, while inventory has jumped 96% during the same period, as a flood of new listings hit the market.

In the end, a lot of people may have to take losses on their homes, but it will be worth it simply to get out of California.

And the state legislature has apparently decided that the mass exodus is not happening fast enough, because a bill is being introduced that would impose a new “wealth tax” on the very wealthy

Fast forward to today when the ultra-liberal state of California is now ready to take this “socialist” idea from concept to the implementation phase, with the SF Chronicle reporting that a group of CA state lawmakers on Thursday proposed a first-in-the-nation state wealth tax that would hit about 30,400 California residents and raise an estimated $7.5 billion for the general fund.

The proposed tax rate would be 0.4% of net worth (most likely ended up far higher), excluding directly held real estate, that exceeds $30 million for single and joint filers and $15 million for married filing separately.

In the old days, a lot of Californians would just head north to Portland or Seattle, but those two cities are not exactly desirable options at this point.

The civil unrest in Seattle never seems to end, and Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf recently said that there had been “twelve official riots” in the first ten days after federal law enforcement officials left Portland.

Sadly, the east coast has experienced plenty of chaos as well, and the mass exodus out of New York City has been particularly dramatic.

In a previous article, I discussed the fact that the the New York Times had reported that 420,000 New Yorkers had moved out of the city between March 1st and May 1st.

But the exodus certainly didn’t end there.

According to the local Fox affiliate, between May and July there was “a 95 percent year over year increase in interest in moving out of Manhattan”…

According to the most recent data from United Van Lines, between May and July, there was a 95 percent year over year increase in interest in moving out of Manhattan. That compares with a 19 percent increase in moving interest in the U.S., overall.

The top destinations for people who moved out of New York City between March and August were Florida and California – which together comprised 28 percent of relocations. Texas and North Carolina made up 16 percent of moves.

And it isn’t just residents that are leaving.

Business after business is shutting down, and that includes some of the most iconic retailers in the city

J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus, the anchor tenants at two of the largest malls in Manhattan, recently filed for bankruptcy and announced that they would shutter those locations.

The Subway restaurant chain has already closed dozens of locations in New York City in recent months,

Le Pain Quotidien has permanently closed several of its 27 stores in the city and plans to leave others closed until more people return to the streets, an executive at the chain’s parent, Aurify Brands, told the Times.

Earlier today, I watched a video that someone had taken of all the boarded up shops along 5th Avenue.

If you have not seen that video yet, you can watch it right here.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  At one time 5th Avenue was a playground for the elite of the world, but now it essentially looks “like a demilitarized zone”

De Blasio’s New York has finally hit an all-time low: the once bustling city is now on the verge of looking like a demilitarized zone. Between the pandemic and the riots in the city, iconic 5th Avenue now looks more like a dystopian nightmare in a recently shot video posted to Twitter.

The video follows a car driving down a deserted 5th Avenue, with almost all of the area’s high end stores boarded up and shut down. There are few people seen on what is usually a busy street.

“Look at everything. Everything’s boarded up. Even the hotel. Boarded up,” the video’s narrator, who is obviously fed up with how the city looks, says.

In about six months, most of the progress that New York City has made since the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s has completely disappeared.

Homelessness and poverty are both exploding, and crime rates are shooting into the stratosphere.

If you can believe it, the number of shootings in July was 177 percent higher than for the same month last year.

If the deplorable conditions in our major cities were just going to be temporary, I don’t believe that we would be seeing such a mass exodus.

But at this point it should be clear to all of us that things aren’t going to turn around any time soon, and many people are convinced that things are just going to continue to get even worse.

Our major cities are degenerating right in front of our eyes, and there doesn’t seem to be any hope of reversing this process now that it has started.

In life, the decisions that we make always have consequences, and the consequences for the decisions that we have made as a nation as a whole will be very bitter indeed.

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

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.  By purchasing the book 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 BlogEnd 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.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  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 and Twitter, 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.

100,000 Pasta Boxes And Enough Peanut Butter To Make Nearly 3 Million Sandwiches

If everything is going to be just fine, why are officials spending millions of dollars to stockpile giant mountains of food?  What has just been revealed about the “new food warehouse” in Washington state should be a major red flag for all of us.  Most Americans seem to believe that the COVID-19 pandemic, the enormous economic problems that have erupted and the nightmarish civil unrest that has been raging in our major cities are all just temporary phenomenons and that life will eventually get back to normal.  Meanwhile, authorities in Washington state are acting as if what we have experienced so far is just the beginning.  According to the Seattle Times, stockpiles of food are being stacked all the way to the roof in “Washington state’s new food warehouse”…

In Washington state’s new food warehouse, there’s enough Jif peanut butter to make nearly 3 million sandwiches.

Barilla pasta boxes stretch to the ceiling, 100,000 in all. Large stacks of TreeTop applesauce, pancake mix and canned green beans sit on pallets, like soldiers waiting to be sent into duty.

That seems like quite an odd thing to do if happy days are right around the corner.

So what prompted authorities in Washington state to do this?

Well, we are being told that the purpose is to “ward off a shortage in the months ahead”

After seeing food banks struggle to meet demand once the pandemic hit and the economy tanked, the Washington state Department of Agriculture (WSDA) began preparing to buy and stockpile tons of food to ward off a shortage in the months ahead.

A “shortage” of food in the months ahead?

That is quite a statement to make.

In a previous article, I detailed that we are already witnessing periodic shortages of aluminum cans, soda, flour, canned soup, pasta and rice.  But what is happening in Washington makes it sound like they believe that what is ahead will be far, far more severe.

Up to this point, Washington state has spent a total of 6.1 million dollars on 4,000 pallets of food, but only about one-fourth of the orders that they have placed have already arrived.

So why hasn’t the rest of the food arrived yet?

Could it be possible that the other 49 states and the federal government are doing the exact same thing?

Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer to that question today.  If anyone out there has any leads or intel that will help me to answer that question, please let me know.

Meanwhile, we continue to see unprecedented lines at food banks all over the nation.  On Tuesday, vehicles lined up “for a mile” to receive free food at a distribution event in Dallas…

Thousands of people have lined up at a Texas food bank, with cars stretching for a mile as the state struggles with being the third worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

Fair Park in Dallas County held its fourth food drive since the pandemic was declared in March but the event on Tuesday was the first mega distribution that offered an option for several hundred walk-up clients without transportation.

As I discuss in my new book, we were specifically warned in advance that this was coming, and it certainly appears that poverty is only going to continue to grow in the months ahead.

One man that was interviewed by the local CBS affiliate said that his family would “probably go hungry” if it wasn’t for food distribution events such as this…

“If it wasn’t for this, we’d probably go hungry,” shared Richard Archer.

Archer says his daughter heard about the food giveaway on the news and sent him to get food.

“With unemployment benefits cut, her husband’s been laid off for three months. So, it’s just been a struggle. If it wasn’t for church, and food giveaways, the kids would be going hungry.”

So many families are deeply struggling out there right now, and they need our prayer.

Food supplies are tight nationwide, and they are only going to get tighter.  And this week food production was hit by another substantial blow when an extremely powerful derecho roared through several important farming states in the middle of the country…

The rare storm known as a derecho hit Monday, devastating parts of the power grid, flattening valuable corn fields and killing at least two people. It produced winds of up to 112 mph near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and toppled trees, snapped poles, downed power lines and tore off roofs from eastern Nebraska to Indiana.

“It feels like we got kicked in the teeth pretty good,” said Dale Todd, a member of Cedar Rapids’ city council. “Recovery will be methodical, and slow. But right now, everybody is working to ensure the critical services are restored.”

As I discussed yesterday, millions upon millions of acres of crops were ruined.  In fact, 10 million acres were affected in the state of Iowa alone

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said Tuesday that about 10 million acres of Iowa’s nearly 31 million acres of agricultural land sustained damage. About 24 million acres of that is typically planted primarily with corn and soybeans.

In addition, tens of millions of bushels of grain that were stored at co-ops and on farms were damaged or destroyed when bins blew away.

Throughout 2020, we have been hit by one disaster after another.

We keep being told that everything will “return to normal” soon, but meanwhile authorities in Washington state are stockpiling food on a scale that we have never seen before.

And if we discover that officials in other states are doing the same thing, that would suggest some sort of nationwide pattern.

I have never used Washington state as a positive example before, and I may never do it again, but in this instance I would recommend doing exactly what they are doing.

Stockpile food while you still can, because very difficult times are approaching.  Yes, things are already quite chaotic out there, but I would use the month of August to finish your preparations because things are only going to get even crazier in the months ahead.

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

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.  By purchasing the book 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 BlogEnd 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.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  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 and Twitter, 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.

This Global Depression Will Be Brutal – Tens Of Millions Of Americans Can’t Pay Their Bills And Are In Danger Of Eviction

Most of us have never experienced anything like this in our entire lifetimes.  Fear of COVID-19, endless civil unrest in major U.S. cities and a whole host of other factors have combined to plunge us into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.  On Friday, the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate in the U.S. fell to just 10.2 percent last month, and if that number was actually accurate that would be pretty good news.  Unfortunately, it simply does not square with all of the other numbers that we have been seeing.  According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if honest numbers were being used the unemployment rate would actually be 30 percent right now, and I believe that figure is much closer to the reality that we are facing.  In February, 152 million Americans were working, and since that time more than 55 million have filed new claims for unemployment benefits.  Unless tens of millions of those people have been filing fraudulent claims, there is no way in the world that the unemployment rate should be about 10 percent right now.

Other numbers tell a similar story.  According to one recent study, 24 percent of all Americans have missed at least one bill payment since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic…

Indeed, paying off bills are an unavoidable part of life, even during a pandemic. Unfortunately, a new survey of 2,000 Americans finds that one in four (24%) have already missed at least one payment since the pandemic began.

Among that group, 26% say they haven’t paid their cell phone or cable bills. Another 25% failed to pay for streaming services, and perhaps more worryingly, some of their electricity or utilities bills.

That doesn’t sound like a recovery.

What that sounds like is an economic depression.

Americans are also missing their rent and mortgage payments at a staggering rate as well.  In fact, more than one-fourth of the entire country did not pay their rent or mortgage payment during the month of July…

An estimated 27% of adults in the U.S. missed their rent or mortgage payment for July, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau weekly over the last three months. Among renters alone, just over one-third (34%) said during the waning days of July that they had little to no confidence that they could make their August rent payment, a stark measure of the ongoing economic devastation for households stretched to the brink by coronavirus pandemic.

But we are supposed to believe that the unemployment rate is only about 10 percent right now.

Right…

In some states, the looming eviction crisis threatens to be absolutely catastrophic.

For example, we are being told that in South Carolina a whopping 52 percent of all renters “are at risk of eviction”

In South Carolina alone, 52 percent of renter households can’t pay their rent and are at risk of eviction, according to an analysis of census data by the consulting firm Stout Risius Ross. About 185,000 evictions could be filed in the state over the next four months.

That doesn’t sound like a recovery.

What that sounds like is an economic depression.

And we see similar numbers when we look at businesses owners around the country.  If you can believe it, 83 percent of all New York City restaurant owners did not pay all of their rent in July…

The state of the New York City restaurant industry is in dire straits. July proved to be another disastrous month for restaurants, bars, and nightlife establishments across the city with a majority unable to pay rent in July, a new survey found.

NYC Hospitality Alliance surveyed about 500 owners and operators of eateries in the city, with 83% of respondents indicating they couldn’t pay the entire rent in July while 37% paid no rent at all.

83 percent.

Let that number sink in for a moment.

That doesn’t sound like a recovery.

What that sounds like is an economic depression.

And I am certainly not the only one using the “d-word”.  The following originally comes from a Time Magazine article entitled “The Next Global Depression Is Coming and Optimism Won’t Slow It Down”

First, the current slowdown is without doubt global. Most postwar U.S. recessions have limited their worst effects to the domestic economy. But most were the result of domestic inflation or a tightening of national credit markets. That is not the case with COVID-19 and the current global slowdown. This is a synchronized crisis, and just as the relentless rise of China over the past four decades has lifted many boats in richer and poorer countries alike, so slowdowns in China, the U.S. and Europe will have global impact on our globalized world. This coronavirus has ravaged every major economy in the world. Its impact is felt everywhere.

You have probably noticed that things are really starting to get crazy out there.

People are getting very desperate, and very desperate people do very desperate things.

In one community in Texas, it is being reported that someone is actually killing horses and eating them…

At least five horses have been killed around Pearland, Texas since late May — but it’s the way they’re being killed and what’s being done to their carcasses that’s particularly disturbing to locals.

Pearland police made their first discovery June 10. Responding to an animal cruelty call along the 14000 block of Kirby Drive, they found a horse, dead and butchered.

You would have to be incredibly twisted to do such a thing, but as I have been warning for a very long time, we are going to see much crazier things in the years ahead.

Of course countless other Americans can also see that society is starting to come apart at the seams, and this has helped to fuel an unprecedented spike in gun sales

Gun sales surged 135% year-over-year in July to about 2 million and have already matched all of last year, according to a report released earlier this week by research consultancy Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting. Sales were up 145% in June, 80% in May and 71% in April.

We live at a time when rioting, looting and violence are becoming commonplace, and crime rates are absolutely skyrocketing in our major cities.

And the worse economic conditions become, the worse the chaos is going to get.

So I would very much encourage you to set your affairs in order and to get prepared for what is ahead, because the time remaining to do such things is very limited.

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

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.  By purchasing the book 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 BlogEnd 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.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  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 and Twitter, 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.

A List Of 50 Things You Should Get Right Now To Prepare For The Chaotic Events Of The Next 12 Months

People have been asking me to do an article like this for quite some time.  In all the years that I have been writing, I have never seen so many of my readers so alarmed about our immediate future.  Over and over again, I have been getting emails from people asking for advice about how to prepare for what is ahead, and so many of them are using the word “urgency” to describe what they are feeling.  And I can definitely identify with that, because around the middle of last year that is a word that I started using constantly.  I felt an urgency about 2020 that I had never felt about any other upcoming year, and there were certain things that I knew that I had to get done.  One of those things that I had to get done was my new book, and it is now finished.  The plan is to release it this month, and after reading it there will be no doubt about why I have been feeling such a sense of urgency in recent months.

I want to warn you in advance that the list below is not an exhaustive list.

Instead, it is meant to be a very basic starting guide.  There are many other things that could (and probably should) be added to this list, and I very much encourage readers to leave comments after this article with their own suggestions and recommendations.  We should always be willing to learn from one another, because nobody is an expert on everything.

To me, the four primary priorities for preparing for an emergency scenario are food, water, energy and shelter.  Once you have got those four basic areas covered, you can certainly build on that foundation by addressing other considerations.

In the title of this article I use the phrase “the next 12 months”, but I do not mean to imply that everything will be fine after those 12 months are over.  In fact, I am convinced that our problems are only going to intensify as time rolls along.

And I certainly hope that you will not need everything on this list during the next 12 months.  Hopefully, you will not need to use some of these items for a few years.  But this is definitely a great opportunity to purchase many of these things, because a lot of them are only going to become more expensive and more difficult to acquire the worse conditions get.

In putting this list together, I was envisioning a scenario in which most of you will be sheltering at home rather than “bugging out” to an alternative location.  In a “bugging out” scenario, this list would look quite a bit different.

Also, I didn’t address self-defense in this list, but without a doubt it is very important.  In fact, if you live in or near a major city, it is imperative to have a plan for defending yourself and your family.  For years, I have been encouraging readers to move away from the major cities, but for a lot of people that simply isn’t possible at this moment.  More than 51 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment so far this year, and so a good stable job is an extremely valuable thing to have at this moment.  If your job is keeping you in a potentially dangerous area right now, you will also want to have a plan for “bugging out” to a more remote location if the need arises.

With all of that being said, the following are 50 things that I am encouraging everyone to stock up on in order to prepare for the chaotic times that are coming…

#1 A Generator

#2 A Berkey Water Filter

#3 A Rainwater Collection System If You Do Not Have A Natural Supply Of Water Near Your Home

#4 An Emergency Medical Kit

#5 Rice

#6 Pasta

#7 Canned Soup

#8 Canned Vegetables

#9 Canned Fruit

#10 Canned Chicken

#11 Jars Of Peanut Butter

#12 Salt

#13 Sugar

#14 Powdered Milk

#15 Bags Of Flour

#16 Yeast

#17 Lots Of Extra Coffee (If You Drink It)

#18 Buckets Of Long-Term Storable Food

#19 Extra Vitamins

#20 Lighters Or Matches

#21 Candles

#22 Flashlights Or Lanterns

#23 Plenty Of Wood To Burn

#24 Extra Blankets

#25 Extra Sleeping Bags

#26 A Sun Oven

#27 An Extra Fan If You Live In A Hot Climate

#28 Hand Sanitizer

#29 Toilet Paper

#30 Extra Soap And Shampoo

#31 Extra Toothpaste

#32 Extra Razors

#33 Bottles Of Bleach

#34 A Battery-Powered Radio

#35 Extra Batteries

#36 Solar Chargers

#37 Trash Bags

#38 Tarps

#39 A Pocket Knife

#40 A Hammer

#41 An Axe

#42 A Shovel

#43 Work Gloves

#44 N95 Masks

#45 Seeds For A Garden

#46 Canning Jars

#47 Extra Supplies For Your Pets

#48 An Emergency Supply Of Cash

#49 Bibles For Every Member Of Your Family

#50 A “Bug Out Bag” For Every Member Of Your Family

Are there certain key items that you would add to this list?  If so, please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below.

I understand that there are a lot of people out there that are feeling extreme financial stress during this severe economic downturn, and acquiring all of the items on this list may not be possible.

And that is okay.  Our job is to do the very best that we can with what we have, and we shall trust God with the rest.

I know that a lot of people out there don’t like it when I write such “negative” articles.  But I wouldn’t be doing my duty if I didn’t warn people about what was coming, and I actually believe that articles like this give people a lot of hope.

There is hope in understanding what is coming, there is hope in getting prepared, and there is hope in connecting with others that are also preparing.

Just like we witnessed during the early stages of this COVID-19 pandemic, the people that will be freaking out when things get really crazy will be those that do not understand what is happening and haven’t made any preparations in advance.

Millions upon millions of Americans will not be able to handle the times that are coming, but we prepare because we believe that with God’s help we can make it through all of the storms that are ahead.

If you wish to mock us for being preppers, please feel free to do so, but you also need to be prepared to issue one whopper of an apology when you are forced to turn to one of us for help one day.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse BlogEnd 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 have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. 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. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, 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.