Wake Up! The Stock Market Is Crashing, Layoffs Have Surged More Than 200 Percent, And We Are Being Warned A Depression Is Coming

I am trying to find the words to describe the economic carnage that we are witnessing right now.  Even before President Trump unveiled his new tariffs, the U.S. economy was rapidly heading in the wrong direction, layoffs were soaring, and stock prices were steadily falling.  But now it is as if enormous amounts of gasoline have been suddenly poured on the fire.  Trump’s tariffs have caused a massive wave of panic on Wall Street, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,679 points on Thursday.  That was the biggest decline that we have seen since the early days of the pandemic in 2020.  The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also experienced the largest declines that we have seen since 2020.  Everywhere you look there is carnage.  The small-cap Russell 2000 index has now fallen more than 20 percent from the peak, and that officially puts it in bear market territory.  What we are witnessing is absolutely horrifying.

The reason why there is so much fear is because U.S. tariff rates will now be even higher than they were during the early days of the Great Depression

Trump’s aggressive tariff moves are set to lift the US tariffs rate from just 2.5% last year to 22%, according to Fitch.

That surpasses the roughly 20% tariff rate the United States charged following the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which set off a global trade war that economists say worsened the Great Depression.

Our system is not designed to handle a shock like this.

We needed to address our trade imbalances with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.

The European Union is already telling us that they will retaliate with new tariffs of their own

The European Union has condemned Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs as ‘a major blow to the world economy’, with world leaders going on the defensive as they digest what the bombshell measures will mean for global trade.

‘There seems to be no order in the disorder. No clear path through the complexity and chaos that is being created as all US trading partners are hit,’ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

Responding to the 20 percent tariffs on EU exports to the United States, she said Brussels was ‘finalising a first package of countermeasures’ and preparing to implement more.

And the Chinese are warning that they will be implementing “countermeasures”

Nikkei Asia quoted China’s Ministry of Commerce, warning that it “firmly opposes” Trump’s tariffs and “will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests.”

The Commerce Ministry noted that the US “ignored” the benefits of a global trading system, adding, “The so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs,’ which are based on subjective and unilateral assessments by the United States, are not in line with the rules of international trade, seriously jeopardize the legitimate rights and interests of the parties concerned, and are typical of unilateral bullying.”

Our relations with China have been on a downhill trajectory for a long time, and now Chinese officials are absolutely furious.

They know that their economy is going to get hit extremely hard by these tariffs.

In fact, pretty much all major Asian economies will get hit extremely hard by these tariffs…

“Asian economies will be hit harder than most by U.S. reciprocal tariffs,” said Marcel Thieliant, head of Asia-Pacific at Capital Economics. “Not only do Asian economies face higher tariffs than many others, they are also more dependent on U.S. goods demand than most.”

I have written much about how dependent we have become on imports from China.

But the truth is that we have also become highly dependent on imports from other Asian nations as well.

For example, the new 46 percent tariff on goods from Vietnam will be extremely painful for U.S. consumers, because we import vast amounts of clothing, toys, furniture and shoes from that country.

In fact, almost one-third of all footwear imports “came from Vietnam in 2023”

Nike shares dropped nearly 12% in afternoon trading Thursday. Adidas and other major footwear players also rely heavily on Vietnam.

Adidas said it will evaluate the tariffs and monitor how they will affect its business. Nike did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Nearly a third of footwear imports in the U.S. came from Vietnam in 2023, the most recent full-year data available, according to the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, an industry trade group.

The era of cheap shoes is ending.

Of course the exact same thing could be said about countless other product categories.

Peter Baum, the chief operating officer of Baum Essex, is warning that this “is how you start a global depression”

Peter Baum is the chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Baum Essex, a New York-based manufacturer with licenses to make products for brands like Nautica, Betsey Johnson and Steve Madden. During the first Trump administration in 2019, Baum moved factories from from China to the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and India.

He told CNBC on Wednesday that the reciprocal tariffs would do massive damage to his company.

“This is how you start a global depression. After 80 years and five generations Trump just put us out of business,” Baum said.

As I discussed yesterday, we haven’t seen an economic event of this magnitude in a long time.

Analysts at JPMorgan are warning that we are facing “a substantial macro economic shock” and that U.S. consumers should brace themselves for substantially higher prices…

JPMorgan noted that the tariffs would hike taxes on Americans by $660 billion a year — the largest tax increase in recent memory by a longshot. It will cause prices to surge, too, adding 2% to the Consumer Price Index, a measure of US inflation that has struggled to come back down to earth in recent years.

“The impact on inflation will be substantial,” the analysts said. “We view the full implementation of these policies as a substantial macro economic shock.”

As this economic shock reverberates throughout the U.S. economy, large numbers of people are going to lose their jobs.

Of course this is already happening.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, layoffs in the U.S. were 205 percent higher in March 2025 than they were in March 2024…

Layoffs across the U.S. surged 205% in March when compared with a year earlier, with last month’s 275,240 job cuts fueled by widespread firings engineered by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

March’s layoffs represent the third-highest monthly total ever recorded, Challenger said. The two previous highest monthly totals were recorded in April 2020 and May 2020, when more than 671,000 and 397,000 job cuts, respectively, were recorded, due to the pandemic shuttering the U.S. economy, according to its data.

Read that last paragraph again.

The only time we have seen worse months was during the early days of the pandemic in 2020.

And now the extreme disruption caused by the new tariffs will inevitably result in even more layoffs.  In fact, Stellantis immediately announced a wave of layoffs following the unveiling of the new tariffs…

Stellantis has “paused production” at some of its Canadian and Mexican auto assembly plants due to the newly announced tariffs — and as a result, some US workers will also be temporarily laid off.

Among those to be laid off are 900 US hourly employees who make powertrains and stampings that supply the affected Canadian and Mexican plants, Stellantis said Thursday. The temporary layoffs are due to reduced production prompted by the tariffs.

We are going to witness such a dramatic shift in the auto industry.

Trump is imposing a 25 percent tariff on all vehicles imported into the United States, and this is going to instantly make imported vehicles much more expensive

President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported vehicles to the U.S. have taken effect, but the impacts of the new levies on investors and the global automotive industry will play out over the months, if not years, to come.

The 25% tariffs are on any vehicle not assembled in the U.S., which S&P Global Mobility reports accounted for 46% of the roughly 16 million vehicles sold domestically last year. The White House has said it also plans to place tariffs on some auto parts such as engines and transmissions, but those are set to take effect no later than May 3.

The global economy was already slowing down significantly.

A disruption of this magnitude threatens to throw it into a state of complete and utter chaos.

We haven’t seen anything like this since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and that should deeply alarm all of us.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”“End Times”“7 Year Apocalypse”“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”“The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Boom! Trump’s “Higher Than Expected” Tariffs Will Be An Epic Shock To Our Standard Of Living And To The Global Economy As A Whole

The global trade war is officially heating up.  President Trump just unveiled a series of tariffs that were higher than expected, and business leaders all over the world are absolutely stunned.  For many of those that have made a killing importing goods into the United States, their businesses have now been ruined.  For many of those that manufacture their goods right here in the United States, President Trump’s tariffs are very welcome news.  The tariffs that Trump has just announced will go into effect right away, and stock futures are plunging as I write this article.  During the economic chaos that is ahead, there will be winners and there will be losers.  But without a doubt, the global trade war that has now fully erupted will certainly be an enormous shock to the global economy.

It is being reported that Trump’s plan includes a 10 percent baseline tariff rate and “additional reciprocal tariffs” on dozens of nations that have been imposing very high tariffs on U.S. imports…

President Donald Trump announced sweeping 10% tariffs on imports from all countries on Wednesday, fulfilling a pledge to retaliate against countries he says have treated the U.S. unfairly.

Trump is also imposing additional reciprocal tariffs on goods from 60 countries that are the largest contributors to the U.S. trade deficit. The rates of the targeted tariffs will be set at half the rates these countries charge on U.S. exports, Trump said from the White House while holding up a list of dozens of countries that included Japan, Taiwan, India and others.

The White House has released a list of the tariff rates that will be imposed on various nations around the world.  In many cases, we will be imposing a tariff rate that is half as high as other countries are imposing on us…

I think that it makes sense that if other countries are hammering us with ridiculously high tariffs they should expect to get hammered with ridiculously high tariffs in return.

President Trump insists that the U.S. “has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far” for far too long

“My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day,” Trump said during the Rose Garden ceremony attended by Vice President JD Vance, Cabinet members and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike.”

Trump is quite right about that.

We have been getting abused by other countries, and it needs to stop.

But there is no doubt that these new tariffs will hit our standard of living extremely hard.

CNBC has confirmed that the 34 percent reciprocal tariff on Chinese imports will be on top of the 20 percent tariff that has already been imposed on Chinese imports…

The White House clarified to CNBC’s Eamon Javers that the tariff rate on Beijing comes in addition to existing 20% tariffs on Chinese imports, meaning the true tariff rate on China is 54%.

For a moment, I want you to think about all of the products that are “made in China” that fill up the shelves at Walmart, Target and our dollar stores.

Now a whopping 54 percent tariff will be imposed on those products as they enter the United States, and the companies that sell those products will have to pass that cost along to the rest of us.

So thousands upon thousands of products that we all purchase on a regular basis are about to get much more expensive.

It will be an epic inflationary shock, and those on the lower levels of the economic food chain will feel the most pain.

On the flip side, there is some good news.

Canada is our number one trading partner and Mexico is our number two trading partner and at least for now both of them will be exempt from the tariffs that President Trump unveiled today…

The Trump administration announced Wednesday that Canada and Mexico will be exempt from the baseline 10% tariff rate, as well as reciprocal levies for specific countries for now.

The 10% tariff would only kick in when the original 25% duties Trump slapped on Canadian and Mexican imports are terminated or suspended.

As he was revealing these new tariffs, Trump boldly proclaimed that April 2nd would “forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn”…

He said April 2, 2025, “will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.”

And he also stated that jobs and factories “will come roaring back into our country”

Trump lays out his theory that tariffs will bring back a “golden age” for the US, a phrase he also used in his inaugural address:

“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base.”

I do believe that these new tariffs will create a tremendous incentive to make things in America.

And that is a very good thing.

But it will take time for new factories to be built and new jobs to be created.

Meanwhile, everyone agrees that there will be short-term pain.

Trade experts at the Cato Institute are bracing for the worst

Trade experts Colin Grabow and Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said in a statement that the White House’s barrage of new tariffs will raise prices for U.S. consumers, dent business investment, dampen broader economic growth and expose American manufacturers to retaliatory trade measures from other countries.

“The tariffs’ only clear beneficiaries, meanwhile, will be corporate cronies, K Street influence peddlers and American adversaries who profit from the United States’ tarnished international reputation,” Grabow and Lincicome said.

My biggest concern is for low-income workers.

It is being projected that these new tariffs could cost the average U.S. household approximately $4,000 a year

Donald Trump has been warned that his “Liberation Day” tariffs could end up costing the average US household $4,200 (£3,235) a year. A broad 20% tariff would send consumer prices soaring by 2.1% to 2.6%, Yale Unversity’s Budget Lab said. It explained: “This is equivalent to a loss of purchasing power of $3,400-4,200 per household on average in 2024 dollars.”

And the OECD is warning us that the global trade war that has now fully erupted could potentially cause the global economy to shrink by up to 5 percent

According to research by the OECD, a global trade war could shrink the world economy by over 5%, with countries like the UK and Canada among the hardest hit.

If you have been expecting global economic chaos to arrive, the wait is over.

I anticipate that many other countries will retaliate by pushing tariffs on imports from the United States significantly higher.

And Trump will likely respond to that by hitting those nations with even harsher tariffs.

Stock prices are probably going to be flying all over the place during the months ahead, and global supply chains will be thrown into a state of turmoil.

But now that Trump has lowered the boom, there is no going back now.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”“End Times”“7 Year Apocalypse”“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”“The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

172,017 Job Cuts In One Month – Mass Layoffs Rise To A Level That We Haven’t Seen Since The Great Recession

Have you ever not been able to sleep at night because you are stressed out about your finances?  If so, you are certainly not alone.  When there is simply not enough money coming in to pay all the bills, the pressure can be excruciating.  The cost of food, housing and other essentials has been rising much faster than paychecks have in recent years, and now a huge wave of mass layoffs has begun.  According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, employers in the United States announced 172,017 job cuts last month.  That was the highest level that we have seen for the month of February since the depths of the Great Recession in 2009

U.S.-based employers announced 172,017 job cuts in February, the highest total for the month since 2009 when 186,350 job cuts were recorded. It is the highest monthly total since July 2020 when 262,649 cuts were announced, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

February’s total is a 245% increase from the 49,795 cuts announced one month prior. It is a 103% increase from the 84,638 cuts announced in the same month last year.

Look, if the number of job cuts goes up by 245 percent in just one month, your economy is going in the wrong direction.

You don’t exactly have to be a genius to figure that one out.

Overall, employers in the United States announced 221,812 job cuts during the first two months of this year.  That is 33 percent higher than the total for the first two months of 2024…

So far this year, employers have announced 221,812 job cuts, the highest year-to-date (YTD) total since 2009 when 428,099 job cuts were planned. It is up 33% from the 166,945 cuts announced during the same period in 2024.

I keep trying to warn my readers that this is just the beginning.

During this new economic downturn, it is likely that millions of people will eventually lose their jobs.

What will our society look like if that actually happens?

Meanwhile, home sales continue to be depressingly low.

According to economists at Wells Fargo, total home sales in January were “only modestly above the weak rate experienced between 2008 and 2010”

In January, total home sales reached 4.7 million, a figure Wells Fargo economists say is ‘only modestly above the weak rate experienced between 2008 and 2010.’ Before the pandemic, monthly home sales averaged around 6 million.

Housing demand soared during the pandemic, sending prices and mortgage rates to new highs. But now, high costs and borrowing rates are keeping both buyers and sellers on the sidelines.

Homeowners that secured a low mortgage rate during the pandemic or who have paid off their home aren’t selling since they do not want to give up their low rates.

Once again, here is another example where we are seeing numbers that are unlike anything we have seen since the Great Recession.

When will the reality of what we are facing start sinking in for people?

Right now, major retailers are shutting down stores all over the nation.

They wouldn’t be doing this if they thought that good times were ahead of us.

For instance, Kohl’s is telling us that they will be permanently closing 27 “underperforming” stores this weekend

Kohl’s will shut 27 ‘underperforming’ US stores this weekend, but not before slashing final sale prices.

The department store chain will wind down operations at the locations in 15 states on Saturday.

Initially the store’s were expected to close by the end of April but the deep discounts have stripped stock down leading the locations to close sooner.

And Macy’s has just identified 66 out of the 150 stores that it eventually plans to shut down…

Macy’s in January named 66 of the 150 stores it is planning to close as part of its revitalization plan, and some stores on the list appear to have already closed or be closing soon.

The retailer announced in February 2024 plans to shut down 150 “underproductive” Macy’s store locations by 2026. The plan “is designed to return the company to sustainable, profitable sales growth,’ Macy’s said in a press release in January 2025.

All over the nation, there are now abandoned buildings where once thriving businesses used to operate.

Boarded up storefronts litter the landscape all over America, and this is particularly true in many of our heavily populated urban areas.

Of course it isn’t just large businesses that are failing.

According to Gregory Mannarino, small business startups are failing at a staggering rate

According to the latest data, a staggering 90 percent of U.S. small business startups fail, this is the highest level in history.

It is incredibly difficult to get a successful small business off the ground in the United States today.

If you have ever tried, you know what I am talking about.

We should have a system that nurtures small businesses, because traditionally small businesses have been the primary engine of employment growth in this country.

But instead, we have a system that ruthlessly crushes most small businesses.

The economic environment that we live in is sick, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

In fact, it appears that economic conditions are about to get even worse.

According to a CBS News poll that was just released, 28 percent of Americans believe that we are already in a recession right now.

That was a five percent jump from last month.

And a different survey just discovered that 51 percent of Americans believe that the stock market could crash soon…

But here’s the real shocker: 51% said they were worried that stocks could be headed for another crash, up from 46% during the fourth quarter.

At the same time, fewer Americans feel comfortable investing right now, with only 26% saying they would feel comfortable putting money in the market, given current conditions.

Stock prices were down once again on Thursday, and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq recently entered correction territory.

In so many ways, it is starting to feel like 2008 and 2009 all over again.

I hope that you are ready, because we are in for a wild ride.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”“End Times”“7 Year Apocalypse”“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”“The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s  books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The Elite Already Control Almost All The Wealth – So Why Will They Need Us Once AI Can Take Over Nearly All Of Our Jobs?

Is your job in danger?  We live at a time when the development of artificial intelligence is growing at an exponential rate.  AI can already perform lots of tasks better and far more efficiently than humans can, and it appears to be just a matter of time before AI can do virtually everything better and far more efficiently than humans can.  So once we get to that stage, why will the elite need us?   Throughout human history, the wealthy have needed the labor of the poor.  But if AI will soon be able to do almost all of the labor that we have been doing, what use will we be?

The elite certainly don’t need our money, because they already control almost all of the wealth.

In America today, the top 50 percent own 97.5 percent of all the wealth and the bottom 50 percent own just 2.5 percent of all the wealth…

The richest half of American families owned about 97.5% of national wealth as of the end of 2024, while the bottom half held 2.5%, according to the latest numbers from the Federal Reserve.

It really stinks to be in the bottom half.

Much of the country is just barely surviving from month to month, and meanwhile the percentage of the wealth that is owned by the top 0.1 percent has risen to a brand new all-time record high

The top 0.1% expanded their share of total wealth to a record 13.8% at the year’s end, up from 13% in the same period of 2020.

For a long time, the rich needed the poor to work in their factories and run their businesses.

But now AI is taking over.

In fact, Bill Gates says that humans will soon not be needed “for most things”

Over the next decade, advances in artificial intelligence will mean that humans will no longer be needed “for most things” in the world, says Bill Gates.

That’s what the Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist told comedian Jimmy Fallon during an interview on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” in February. At the moment, expertise remains “rare,” Gates explained, pointing to human specialists we still rely on in many fields, including “a great doctor” or “a great teacher.”

But “with AI, over the next decade, that will become free, commonplace — great medical advice, great tutoring,” Gates said.

In this particular case, Bill Gates is quite correct.

We are creating ultra-intelligent entities that can absorb vast quantities of information in the blink of an eye.

Gates believes that we are entering an era of “free intelligence” in which many doctors, lawyers and teachers will simply become obsolete…

In other words, the world is entering a new era of what Gates called “free intelligence” in an interview last month with Harvard University professor and happiness expert Arthur Brooks. The result will be rapid advances in AI-powered technologies that are accessible and touch nearly every aspect of our lives, Gates has said, from improved medicines and diagnoses to widely available AI tutors and virtual assistants.

“It’s very profound and even a little bit scary — because it’s happening very quickly, and there is no upper bound,” Gates told Brooks.

In a different interview, Bill Gates envisioned a future in which humans would only work “two or three days a week” because AI is doing so much of the work for us…

In fact, he also says in another interview that he thinks humans could work “two or three days a week”, which would leave time for non-work pursuits. Whether or not that would come with the same wage and living standards is, of course, yet to be seen.

That would be wonderful.

But who is going to pay us the same money for working “two or three days a week” that we used to make working five?

It just isn’t going to happen.

Let’s be real.

The truth is that AI is simply going to replace large numbers of us.

Alarmingly, one recent study discovered that lots of jobs are already being eliminated

Researchers from Harvard Business School, the German Institute for Economic Research, and Imperial College London Business School studied 1,388,711 job posts on a major (but undisclosed) global freelance work marketplace from July 2021 to July 2023, and found that demand for such automation-prone jobs had fallen 21% just eight months after the release of ChatGPT in late 2022.

Writing jobs were most affected, followed by software, app, and web development work, as well as engineering jobs. The large language models that underpin tools like ChatGPT are trained on large amounts of text to predict the most likely next word in a sequence. The model forms a many-dimensional map of words, phrases, meanings, and contexts, and in doing so develops a remarkable grasp on language.

It has been estimated that 60 percent of all jobs in advanced economies are at risk of eventually being eliminated by AI.

So what will all of those people do?

Already, we are seeing very alarming signs on the fringes of our society.  Homelessness is at the highest level ever recorded, and many food banks around the country have never seen more demand than they are seeing right now.

We are witnessing so much economic pain, and it is only going to get worse.

Some experts insist that instead of replacing us, AI will simply make human workers more productive.  And in many cases, the productivity gains are undeniable

According to Nielsen Norman Group, customer support agents using AI handled 13.8% more customer inquiries per hour, business professionals produced 59% more documents per hour, and programmers completed 126% more projects per week. On average, generative AI increased users’ throughput by 66% while performing realistic tasks.

But as AI technology progresses, instead of helping us do our jobs AI will actually be able to replace us entirely.

Sadly, this has already been happening in the field of computer programming

Computer programming was once a foolproof field—one of those career paths that was always going to need workers, like accounting and nursing.

The industry has taken a severe downturn in recent years, specifically the past two years, wherein a quarter of all computer programming jobs have disappeared. There are currently fewer programmers in the United States today than at any point since 1980, reports The Washington Post.

We are a far more advanced society than we were in 1980.

But not as many computer programmers are needed because AI “can generate code with minimal input and can perform a lot of the routine tasks traditionally performed by programmers”…

AI systems like ChatGPT can generate code with minimal input and can perform a lot of the routine tasks traditionally performed by programmers, and a fraction of the time and for significantly less money.

There will always be demand for a certain number of human workers, but it is difficult to imagine a future where there will be enough jobs for everyone.

So what are those that are left out in the cold supposed to do?

Will we simply be regarded as “useless eaters” that need to be eliminated since our usefulness to society has come to an end?

AI is shifting the balance of power between the elite and the rest of us dramatically.  Needless to say, the transition that is ahead of us threatens to be extremely painful.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”“End Times”“7 Year Apocalypse”“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”“The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s  books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

55 Ways That Everything That You Think That You Own Is Being Systematically Taken Away From You

The entire system has been designed to generate as much revenue from your activity as possible until someday you eventually drop dead.  It is tax season, and that means that it is time to feed the largest and most bloated government in the history of the entire planet once again.  Of course the federal income tax is just one of the ways that they are systematically draining your wealth.  As you will see below, there are literally dozens of taxes that Americans must pay each year.  Many of our politicians seem to revel in inventing ways to extract money out of us, and that needs to stop.

Most Americans are working extremely hard, and yet money seems to keep going out the other end faster than it is coming in.

The truth is that the entire system has been designed to take what you have away from you.

There are many ways that this is accomplished – taxation, inflation, debt, interest, fines, fees, tickets, government seizures and good old-fashioned corporate greed.

If you decided to just sit back and do nothing but hold on to the wealth that you already have, you would find out that it would disappear quite rapidly.

It is not an accident that most Americans are experiencing a declining standard of living.  The system is rigged, and the rigging has not been in our favor.

The following are 55 ways that everything that you think that you own is being systematically taken away from you…

#1 Do you think that you own your home?  You might want to think again.  Most Americans that “own a home” are paying a mortgage.  If you stop paying that mortgage you will lose that home.  The number of foreclosures in the United States last year was up 174 percent from 2021, and mortgage delinquencies have been rising in recent months.

When homeowners get booted out of their homes, they don’t get their down payments back.

They also don’t get all of the mortgage payments that they have made back.

The banks get to keep the money and the homes.

Perhaps you have paid off your mortgage.  Does that mean that you now “own your home”?

No, not really.  Just refuse to pay your property taxes and see what happens.  At best, you can say that you have the right to rent your home from the government.

In any event, the reality is that the banks now own more of “our homes” than we do.

Just check out your most recent mortgage statement and see how much “home equity” you actually have.

If you recently purchased your home, it probably isn’t much at all.

Things used to be far different in this country.  Once upon a time, ordinary Americans owned most of the homes and most of the land in this nation.

But now the banks own most of it.  Sadly, most American families that believe that they “own homes” are actually enslaved to 20 or 30 year debt contracts.

And if something happens and you are unable to keep making payments, you could lose everything.

#2 Do you think that you own your vehicle?  You don’t own it if you are still making payments on it.  Of course if you stop making payments you will rapidly lose that vehicle.

But even if it is paid off, you can only operate that vehicle if you do the following…

*You must pay the license fee.

*You must pay the car registration fee.

*You must pay the emissions inspection fee.

*You must pay the property taxes on that vehicle if that applies in your area.

*You must pay the tire taxes.

*You must pay the gas taxes.

If you have paid all of those taxes, then you are permitted to drive only where the government allows you to drive and only under the rules that the government sets for you.

But at least you “own” your vehicle, right?

#3 What about your possessions?  Do you own them?

Well, yes, you probably own some possessions.

But that doesn’t mean that they are not enslaving you.

After all, did you use a credit card to pay for any of them?

If so, you could end up paying far more for your possessions than you originally thought that they cost.

#4 Do you own your education?  Well, it is undeniable that nobody can ever take it away from you.  But if you took out student loans to get your education, that debt may end up enslaving you for decades.

The borrower is the servant of the lender and student loan debt is more of a financial drain on Americans than ever before.  Americans now owe more on their student loans than they do on their credit cards.

Today, Americans owe more than 1.7 trillion dollars on their student loans, which is a new all-time record.

#5 Will you protect your wealth if you put your money in the bank?

No, in fact your wealth will be systematically destroyed in the bank.

Inflation is a hidden tax on every single dollar that you own, because it destroys the value of all dollars in existence.

There are some Americans that have been saving money for decades, but those savings are being taxed into oblivion by inflation.

Just compare the price of a carton of 12 eggs five years ago to the price of a carton of eggs today.

When the cost of living goes up, the value of the money that we have put in the bank goes down.

#6 Insurance costs continue to soar.  After insuring virtually everything in our lives, many of us barely have any money left over to actually live our lives with.

#7 State and local governments all over the nation have turned to ticket writing as a primary revenue source.  They know that most people do not carefully follow the speed limit, and so they have turned that behavior into a revenue-generating tool.

#8 Some states have decided to simply confiscate wealth even if nothing has been done wrong.  For example, some states are now aggressively seizing “unclaimed” safe deposit boxes.  If you have a safe deposit box that you have not checked on in a while, you might want to make sure that it is still there.

#9 You might end up losing your valuables when you cross the border.  U.S. border agents regularly seize laptops and other electronic devices as people cross the border.  In many cases those items are never returned.

#10 If you don’t pay your property taxes, you will lose your home and it will likely be a big Wall Street bank that will end up owning it.  The big Wall Street banks have been buying up thousands of tax liens and are making a killing by socking distressed homeowners with predatory interest, outrageous penalties and almost unbelievable legal fees.

#11 Of course the federal income tax is one of the biggest ways that our wealth is being drained.  One of the primary reasons why the Federal Reserve and the IRS were established back in 1913 was to redistribute wealth.  Wealth is transferred from hard working Americans to the U.S. government, and then it is redistributed to those that aren’t working or spent on some of the most wasteful programs imaginable.

Needless to say, federal taxes are just one of the taxes that we pay.  The truth is that the average American pays dozens of different taxes each year.   The following are just a few examples of the insidious forms of taxation that drain our wealth…

#12 Building Permit Tax

#13 Capital Gains Tax

#14 CDL License Tax

#15 Cigarette Tax

#16 Corporate Income Tax

#17 Court Fines (an indirect tax)

#18 Dog License Tax

#19 Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

#20 Fishing License Tax

#21 Food License Tax

#22 Fuel Permit Tax

#23 Gasoline Tax

#24 Gift Tax

#25 Hunting License Tax

#26 Inheritance Tax

#27 IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

#28 Liquor Tax

#29 Local Income Tax

#30 Luxury Taxes

#31 Marriage License Tax

#32 Medicare Tax

#33 Payroll Taxes

#34 Phone Taxes

#35 Property Taxes

#36 Real Estate Tax

#37 Recreational Vehicle Tax

#38 Road Toll Booth Taxes

#39 Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)

#40 Sales Taxes

#41 School Tax

#42 Septic Permit Tax

#43 Social Security Tax

#44 State Income Tax

#45 State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

#46 Toll Bridge Taxes

#47 Toll Tunnel Taxes

#48 Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)

#49 Trailer Registration Tax

#50 Utility Taxes

#51 Vehicle License Registration Tax

#52 Vehicle Sales Tax

#53 Watercraft Registration Tax

#54 Well Permit Tax

#55 Workers Compensation Tax

When you take all forms of taxation into account, there are some people that hand over more than 50 percent of their incomes to various levels of government each year.

Even the future is being taken away from us.  The future is literally being stolen from our children and our grandchildren.  They will be inheriting the 36 trillion dollar national debt that we have accumulated.

What we have done to future generations is unthinkable, and yet we continue to borrow colossal mountains of money.

When you base an entire economy on debt, eventually you end up with money problems that never seem to end.  As a nation, we are now enslaved to a vicious spiral of debt that threatens to destroy everything that our forefathers worked so hard to build.

As the debt loads of our federal, state and local governments become even more burdensome, they are going to want even more money from us.  For decades we gave in to new tax after new tax thinking that it would finally satisfy them.

But it never seems to be enough.  They always want more.

Unfortunately, most Americans are so caught up in the “rat race” that they never take much time to think about who designed the race or why they are running it.

It is time to wake up.

We are being systematically abused by the control freaks that are running things, and it is time to say that enough is enough.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other  books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”“End Times”“7 Year Apocalypse”“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”“The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

We Are Being Told The Odds Of A Recession Are Rising As Economic Conditions Deteriorate All Around Us

Is the U.S. economy headed for a recession?  Nobody can deny that consumer confidence is plummeting, home sales are way down, mass layoffs are being conducted all over the nation, thousands of stores are closing, and a global trade war has erupted.  Meanwhile, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model is currently projecting that the U.S. economy will shrink at an annualized rate of 1.8 percent during the first quarter of 2025.  Needless to say, none of these are good signs.

In recent weeks, the corporate media has been running lots of stories about how the odds of a recession are suddenly surging.  Here is one example from NBC News

Trade tensions have torn into the markets. With stocks sliding into correction territory in the last week, a question emerges: Is a recession next?

Traders on prediction markets — where people wager on such events as the likelihood of a recession — are increasingly betting on an economic downturn. Polymarket, for example, currently places the odds on a recession in 2025 at 40% — a sharp jump of nearly 20 percentage points in under a month.

That is quite alarming.

And earlier today, it was being reported that a Deutsche Bank survey of 400 experts found that nearly half of them now believe that “the U.S. is heading for a recession”…

Chances that the U.S. is heading for a recession are close to 50-50, according to a Deutsche Bank survey that raises more questions about the direction of the U.S. economy.

The probability of a downturn in growth over the next 12 months is about 43%, as set by the average view of 400 respondents during the period of March 17-20.

I haven’t seen this much chatter about a potential recession in a long time, and a lot of people out there are really scared.

In an attempt to help some of those frightened people, USA Today just posted an article with advice about how to prepare for a recession…

If the United States is about to enter a recession, as some economists fear, it will be one of the most widely anticipated downturns in recent memory.

Americans have had lots of time to prepare. But are we ready?

Personally, I like to look at the cold, hard numbers to determine whether a recession is coming or not.

And what the cold, hard numbers are telling us right now is extremely alarming.

Normally tax revenue declines significantly when an economic downturn is upon us, and according to the Washington Post it appears that federal tax revenue in 2025 will be down by about 10 percent compared to last year…

Senior tax officials are bracing for a sharp drop in revenue collected this spring, as an increasing number of individuals and businesses spurn filing their taxes or attempt to skip paying balances owed to the Internal Revenue Service, according to three people with knowledge of tax projections.

Treasury Department and IRS officials are predicting a decrease of more than 10 percent in tax receipts by the April 15 deadline compared with 2024, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share nonpublic data. That would amount to more than $500 billion in lost federal revenue; the IRS collected $5.1 trillion last year. For context, the U.S. government spent $825 billion on the Defense Department in fiscal 2024.

“The idea of doing that in one year, it’s hard to grapple with how meaningful of a shift that represents,” said Natasha Sarin, president of the Yale Budget Lab and a senior Biden administration tax official.

In a season that is full of red flags for the economy, this may be the biggest red flag of them all.

Another really bad sign is that consumer sentiment just plunged to a 29 month low

Consumer sentiment in the U.S. fell for the third consecutive month in March, now down 22% from December 2024 before President Donald Trump took office, a new survey found.

The University of Michigan survey showed consumer sentiment fell to 57.9 this month, a 29-month low. The index showed participants’ expectations for the future of their personal finances and the stock market had deteriorated. It also showed that Americans are expecting inflation to get worse, not better, during a time when many are worried tariffs will raise prices at the checkout aisle.

Economic conditions have not been good for a long time.

So it is quite disturbing to see that so many Americans expect things to get even worse.

One recent survey found that the percentage of Americans that believe that the economy is getting worse is more than twice as high as the percentage of Americans that believe that the economy is getting better…

Nearly half of Americans on Thursday said the economy is worsening, according to a new The Economist/YouGov poll.

Forty-eight percent of respondents said they believe the economy is worsening while 19 percent said it is improving.

The poll took place between March 9 and 11, a period that included rough days for the stock market.

And apparently Warren Buffett is also deeply concerned about where things are heading, because he has been in talks to sell off the fourth largest real estate brokerage in the entire country

Warren Buffett is likely selling his real estate empire – the latest warning sign that the property market is in dire straits.

The real estate market has been on the skids in recent years. Brokerage companies have attempted to consolidate as home sales remain very low.

Compass, the largest real estate brokerage in the country, is in advanced talks to acquire Berkshire Hathaway’s HomeServices of America, the fourth-biggest player in the industry, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The housing market has been in a depressed state for quite a while, and that is not likely to change until interest rates go much lower.

Needless to say, the turmoil in the housing market has been hitting financial institutions quite hard.

Last week, we learned that Morgan Stanley is planning to lay off approximately 2,000 workers

Wall Street heavyweight Morgan Stanley (MS) is planning to lay off about 2,000 employees later this month, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The reduction of 2% to 3% of the company’s workforce, excluding financial advisers, was aimed at improving operational efficiency, the person said, requesting anonymity.

So many employers are shedding employees right now.

This is particularly true in the Washington D.C. area because of all the cutbacks that are happening.

Meanwhile, stores are permanently closing at a staggering pace.  Just check out what Dollar General has decided to do

Another national retailer will be closing stores in 2025.

Dollar General announced in its fourth quarter earnings report last week it is planning to close 96 Dollar General stores and 45 Popshelf stores during the first quarter of 2025, while another six Popshelf stores will be converted into Dollar General stores.

“As we look to build on the substantial progress we made on our Back to Basics work in fiscal 2024, we believe this review was appropriate to further strengthen the foundation of our business,” said Todd Vasos, Dollar General’s chief executive officer, in the earnings report.

Overall, it is being projected that somewhere around 15,000 stores will close in the United States in 2025.

If that projection turns out to be accurate, that will be a brand new all-time record.

All around us we can see very clear signs that a new economic downturn has arrived, and at this point the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model is forecasting that U.S. GDP will shrink at a 1.8 percent annualized rate during the first quarter…

The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2025 is -1.8 percent on March 18, up from -2.1 percent on March 17. After this morning’s releases from the US Census Bureau, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the nowcast for first-quarter real gross private domestic investment growth increased from 7.2 percent to 9.1 percent. Due to FOMC blackout policy, today’s post does not include an update of the version of the model described here that adjusts the standard GDPNow model forecast for foreign trade in gold. That adjusted model will again be updated after our first scheduled post-blackout update on March 26.

If U.S. GDP contracts during the first quarter, all it will take is one more quarter of negative growth for us to officially be in a recession.

Our economic momentum is clearly taking us in the wrong direction very rapidly, and all of the societal chaos that we are witnessing at the moment is certainly not going to help matters.

This is not what a lot of people were expecting, but the truth is that it appears that a lot of economic pain is ahead.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other  books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”“End Times”“7 Year Apocalypse”“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”“The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems

Most Americans have absolutely no idea how we got into the mess that we are in today.  The reason why the U.S. government is 36 trillion dollars in debt and our society as a whole is 102 trillion dollars in debt is because the system is performing exactly as it was designed.  We have a system that was literally designed to create colossal amounts of debt.  But if you ask most Americans about this, they cannot tell you what the Federal Reserve is or why it is at the heart of our economic problems.  When Americans get into discussions about the economy, most of them still blame either the Democrats or the Republicans for our rapidly growing economic problems.  But the truth is that the institution with the most power over our economic system is the Federal Reserve.  So exactly what is the Federal Reserve?  Most people would say that it is an agency of the federal government.  But that is not entirely accurate.  In fact, the Federal Reserve itself has argued in court that it is not an agency of the federal government.   The truth is that the Federal Reserve is a privately-owned banking cartel that has been given a perpetual monopoly over our monetary system by the U.S. Congress.  This privately-owned central bank has been destroying the value of the U.S. dollar for decades, it has run our economy into the ground, and it has driven the U.S. government to the brink of bankruptcy.  The Federal Reserve operates in great secrecy  and it acts as if it is not accountable to the American people.  Yet the decisions that the Federal Reserve makes have a dramatic impact on the lives of every single American citizen.

If you really want to understand what is causing our economic problems, it is absolutely crucial that you understand exactly what the Federal Reserve is and how it is systematically destroying our economy.  Once you understand the truth about the Federal Reserve, you will view economic issues a whole lot differently.

The following are 19 reasons why the Federal Reserve is at the heart of our economic problems…

#1 The Federal Reserve is the central pillar of our debt-based financial system.

The way our system is designed, normally no money comes into existence without more debt being created.

But this creates a huge problem, because when a new dollar is created, the interest that will be owed on that new borrowed dollar is not also created at the same time.

Therefore, the amount money that is created is not equal to the larger amount of debt that is also created.

This is a Ponzi scheme that is designed to drain wealth from the American people and transfer it to the elite.

Today, the amount of debt in our economic system is far, far, far greater than the total amount of money.

The only way to keep the game going is to create even more money which creates even more debt.

#2 The Federal Reserve and the bankers have a monopoly on the creation of this debt-based money.

In the United States today, the only people that can create money are the bankers.

You cannot create money.

You would go to jail if you tried.

Even the U.S. government is not permitted to create money.

Although the U.S. Constitution specifically gives Congress the power to create money, the U.S. Congress has relinquished that power to the Federal Reserve.

This gives the Federal Reserve an enormous amount of power.

If you pull out a dollar bill, you will notice that it says “Federal Reserve Note” right at the top.

In the financial world, a “note” is an instrument of debt.

According to Investopedia, a “note” is “a debt security obligating repayment of a loan, at a predetermined interest rate, within a defined time frame”.

So is a “Federal Reserve Note” actually a “debt security”?  Investopedia says that it is…

Technically, yes, a federal reserve note is a promissory note that does not pay any interest. It is defined as such because it states that “this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private,” indicating a promise for the government and private citizens to accept and honor the note as legal tender.

Our financial system is nothing but a giant pile of debt.

Ultimately, the entire system is designed to drain our wealth and put it into the hands of the bankers.

#3 The power of money creation and debt creation is in the hands of private banks – not the government.

The Federal Reserve has claimed that it is an “entity within the government, having both public purposes and private aspects”.

That sounds so reasonable, but the truth is that the Federal Reserve is a legalized banking cartel that is privately-owned.

In fact, the Federal Reserve is about as “federal” as Federal Express is.

In defending itself against a Bloomberg request for information under the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Reserve objected by declaring that it is “not an agency” of the U.S. government and therefore it is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

So if it is not a government agency, who owns the Federal Reserve?

On the official website of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, we learn that the Federal Reserve Banks “are not a part of the federal government” and that private banks “hold stock in the Federal Reserve Banks and earn dividends”…

The Federal Reserve Banks are not a part of the federal government, but they exist because of an act of Congress. Their purpose is to serve the public. So is the Fed private or public?

The answer is both. While the Board of Governors is an independent government agency, the Federal Reserve Banks are set up like private corporations. Member banks hold stock in the Federal Reserve Banks and earn dividends.

#4 The Federal Reserve itself is not a profit-making institution.  Rather, it is a tool that enables others to make obscene amounts of money.

There are many that think of the Federal Reserve as an evil profit-making machine.  But the truth is that the Fed itself wasn’t designed to make money.  Rather, the system was set up so that others could make an obscene amount of money from all of the debt that the system creates.

If the U.S. government had been issuing debt-free money all this time, the U.S. government would likely not be spending one penny on interest payments.  Instead, the U.S. government will spend over a trillion dollars just on interest on the national debt in 2025.  This is money that belongs to U.S. taxpayers that is transferred to the U.S. government which in turn is transferred to wealthy international bankers and other foreign governments.

This is the magic of the Federal Reserve system.  It is about getting the U.S. government enslaved to debt and using that debt to transfer trillions of dollars of our wealth into the hands of others.

As interest rates go up, this transfer of wealth is going to become even more brutal.

As you fill out your tax return this year, just keep in mind that vast quantities of our money is going to pay interest on debt that the U.S. government never needed to take on.

There are some very happy people out there that are becoming fabulously wealthy at our expense.

What a system, eh?

#5 The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine.

As mentioned above, the U.S. government is enslaved to debt.

So how did it get enslaved?

Well, instead of printing up and spending the money that it needs, the U.S. government borrows it through the Federal Reserve system at interest.

In fact, as noted above, the U.S. government cannot create a single new dollar without borrowing it.

But each new dollar that the U.S. government borrows creates more than a dollar of new debt.

As a result, the government eventually has to collect more in taxes than what it has borrowed.

This phenomenon creates an endless debt spiral.

Is that not what we have in the United States today?  In fact, you see this in almost every nation on Earth where a similar central banking system has been established.

Did you know that the U.S. national debt is more than 10,000 times larger than it was 100 years ago?

Back in 1910, prior to the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, the national debt was only about $2.6 billion.

Now we are more than 36 trillion dollars in debt.

The only way that the U.S. government can inject more money into the economy is by going into more debt.  But when new government debt is created, the amount of money to pay the interest on that debt is not also created.  In this way, it was intended by the international bankers that U.S. government debt would expand indefinitely and the U.S. money supply would also expand indefinitely.  In the process, the international bankers would become insanely wealthy by lending money to the U.S. government.

However, things did not have to turn out this way.

If the Federal Reserve had never been created, and the U.S. government had been issuing debt-free currency all this time, it is entirely conceivable that we would have absolutely no federal government debt at this point.

Unfortunately, we are now trapped in a debt-based system.

The U.S. national debt simply cannot ever be paid off.  U.S. government debt has been mathematically designed to expand forever, and it has become a trap from which there is no escape.

#6 The Federal Reserve system is designed to cause inflation.

As U.S. government debt expands at an exponential pace, it inevitably causes inflation.

Most Americans believe that inflation is a fact of life, but the truth is that the United States has only had a major, ongoing problem with inflation since the Federal Reserve was created back in 1913.

Sadly, the U.S. dollar has lost about 99 percent of its value since the Federal Reserve was created.

If the Federal Reserve did not exist, it is theoretically conceivable that we could have an economy with little or no inflation.  Of course that would greatly depend on the discipline of our government officials (which is not very great at this point), but the sad truth is that our current system is always going to produce inflation.

Federal Reserve officials try to keep the official rate of inflation in single digit territory, but they are not always successful.

#7 The Federal Reserve has decided to play bizarre games with our money supply.

In a desperate attempt to revive the dying U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve has resorted to chucking gigantic quantities of money into the financial system.

Remember how earlier I explained that normally whenever new money is created that more debt is created?

Well, in recent years the Fed has been resorting to a trick called “quantitative easing”.  What “quantitative easing” means is that the Federal Reserve zaps massive amounts of money into existence out of thin air and injects it into the financial system.  This has primarily been done by purchasing large quantities of U.S. Treasuries.

But isn’t that “monetizing the debt”?

Of course it is, and it is a blatant Ponzi scheme.

However, what is even more alarming is what this is doing to our money supply.

Just look at what has happened to our monetary base since the later stages of 2008….

It was inevitable that this rapid expansion of our monetary base was going to cause horrifying inflation.

Anyone that thought otherwise was just being delusional.

Now we are in a cost of living crisis that has no end in sight, and most Americans still do not understand who is responsible.

#8 The Federal Reserve is undemocratic.

What makes the central economic planning that the Federal Reserve does different from the central economic planning that communist China does?

Sadly, there really isn’t much of a difference.

Only in our case, the central planners don’t have to answer to anyone.

President Trump cannot order the Federal Reserve to do anything.

The Federal Reserve does not have to answer to Congress either.

It has been called “our fourth branch of government”, and it is totally out of control.

#9 The Federal Reserve runs the U.S. economy.

Most Americans want to blame Joe Biden or Donald Trump or the U.S. Congress for the state of our economy.

But the truth is that it is the Federal Reserve that sets interest rates, it is the Federal Reserve that determines the size of the money supply, it is the Federal Reserve that sets the “target rate” of inflation, it is the Federal Reserve that determines if unemployment is too high or too low, and it is the Federal Reserve that watches over all of our banks.

Yes, the politicians in Washington all have things to answer for as well.

But the politicians in Washington do not have the direct power over the economy that the Federal Reserve does.

#10 The Federal Reserve favors the big banks.

Not all financial institutions are treated equally by the Fed.

The truth is that the big banks (particularly those in New York) are treated with great favor by the Federal Reserve.

During the global financial crisis, the Federal Reserve made over $9 trillion in overnight loans to major banks and large financial institutions.

Wouldn’t you like to be able to zap trillions of dollars into existence and loan it out to your friends at very favorable terms?

Sadly, most of the “help” from the Federal Reserve always seems to go to the big boys.

When “small enough to fail” banks need assistance, they are usually told to go sell themselves to one of the big banks.

#11 The worse the debt problems caused by the Federal Reserve become, the more money the IRS needs to collect from the rest of us.

If the U.S. government could issue debt-free money, it is conceivable that we would not even need the IRS.  You doubt this?  Well, the truth is that the United States did just fine for well over a hundred years without a national income tax.  But in the same year the Federal Reserve was created, a national income tax was instituted as well.  The whole idea was that the wealth of the American people would be transferred to the U.S. government by force and then transferred into the hands of the ultra-wealthy in the form of interest payments.

If the Federal Reserve was shut down, it is entirely possible that we would be able to shut down the IRS as well.

But the only way that the current system works is if massive amounts of wealth continue to be drained from the American people.

#12 The Federal Reserve creates artificial financial bubbles.

When you look back over the last several decades, you will find financial bubble after financial bubble.

So who created all of those bubbles?

It was the Federal Reserve.

The ridiculous policies of the Fed have wrought disaster after disaster and yet most of our politicians still will not even consider major changes to the Federal Reserve.

#13 The Federal Reserve is anti-free market.

In a true free market system, the marketplace would determine what interest rates are.

In a true free market system, the marketplace would determine which financial institutions survive.

In a true free market system, artificial financial bubbles would be far less likely.

But we don’t have a true free market system.

#14 The Federal Reserve tells the rest of the our banks what to do.

Most Americans don’t understand just how much power the Federal Reserve actually has over our local banks.

The Fed is the chief regulator of the banking system, and that is extremely unfortunate.  The following comes from the Fed’s official website

The Federal Reserve’s supervision activities include examinations and inspections to ensure that financial institutions operate in a safe and sound manner and comply with laws and regulations. These include an assessment of a financial institution’s risk-management systems, financial conditions, and compliance.

That paragraph makes it all sound so benign.

But the truth is that the Fed can be quite tyrannical.

For example, Fed officials once walked into one bank in Oklahoma and demanded that they take down all of the Bible verses and all of the Christmas buttons that the bank had been displaying.

#15 The people currently running the Federal Reserve pretty much have no idea what they are doing.

You may have noticed that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has a very long track record of incompetence.  Nearly every major judgment that he has made since taking over that position has been dead wrong.

If one of us could go down the street and appoint the manager of the local Dairy Queen as the Chair of the Federal Reserve, it is very doubtful that person would do a worse job than Powell has done.

#16 Even though the Federal Reserve has such extraordinary power over the financial system, the American people are not permitted to examine their books.

The Federal Reserve claims that it is regularly audited, but when some members of Congress attempted to push through a true comprehensive audit Federal Reserve officials threw a hissy fit.

The truth is that the Federal Reserve has never undergone a true comprehensive audit since it was created back in 1913.

Whenever the subject of an audit comes up, the Fed keeps repeating the mantra of how important “the independence of the Federal Reserve” is.

Sadly, Ron Paul’s proposal to audit the Federal Reserve when he was still a member of Congress ultimately failed.

Instead, a very limited examination of Fed transactions that occurred during the global financial crisis was approved.

So what did that limited examination reveal?

Well, the Federal Reserve was forced to reveal the details of 21,000 transactions stretching from December 2007 to July 2010.  It turns out that the Federal Reserve was just handing out gigantic piles of nearly interest-free cash to their friends at the largest banks, financial institutions and corporations all over the globe.

Many members of Congress were absolutely stunned by these revelations.

So what would a more comprehensive audit reveal?

#17 The Federal Reserve has way too much power.

If the Federal Reserve did not exist, we would not have an unelected, unaccountable “fourth branch of government” running around that has gotten completely and totally out of control.

Today, global financial markets react instantly whenever a Fed official makes a public statement.

And when the Fed hikes interest rates or monkeys around with the money supply it has a dramatic impact on all of us.

Ron Paul once told MSNBC that he is convinced that the Federal Reserve has actually become more powerful than Congress…

“The regulations should be on the Federal Reserve. We should have transparency of the Federal Reserve. They can create trillions of dollars to bail out their friends, and we don’t even have any transparency of this. They’re more powerful than the Congress.”

#18 The Federal Reserve is dominated by Wall Street and the New York banks.

The New York representative is the only permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, while representatives from the other regional banks rotate.  The truth is that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has always been the most important of the regional Fed banks by a very wide margin, and in turn the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has always been heavily influenced by Wall Street and the major New York banks.

#19 The Federal Reserve has brought us to the brink of economic collapse.

If the Federal Reserve had never been created, the American people would not be so enslaved to debt.

Nobody can deny that debt is at the very core of our economic problems.  U.S. consumers are drowning in debt, state and local governments are facing horrific debt problems from coast to coast, and our federal government has piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.

We are living in an absolutely massive debt bubble, and when it bursts the world is going to experience financial chaos like it has never seen before.

Things did not have to turn out this way.

We did not have to adopt a debt-based financial system, and we did not have to allow the bankers to enslave us with debt.

But that is what happened.

Sadly, most Americans and the vast majority of our politicians are still clueless about these issues.

In 1922, Henry Ford wrote the following…

“The people must be helped to think naturally about money. They must be told what it is, and what makes it money, and what are the possible tricks of the present system which put nations and peoples under control of the few.”

Hopefully this article will help people understand our debt-based financial system a little bit better.

Until we fundamentally change our system, many of the economic and financial problems that we are currently experiencing will never go away.

The borrower is the servant of the lender, and by allowing ourselves to become enslaved to debt we have become the servants of the international banking system.

Not only that, we have also sold our children and our grandchildren into perpetual debt slavery.

Thomas Jefferson tried to warn us about this.

He believed that when the government borrows money in one generation which must be paid back by future generations it is equivalent to stealing

And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

In fact, Thomas Jefferson said that if he could add one more amendment to the U.S. Constitution it would be a ban on all government borrowing

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.

Where would we be today if we had chosen to listen to Thomas Jefferson?

The amount of government debt that we have racked up is a great evil.  We have stolen the future away from our children and our grandchildren.  We have put them in a position where they will spend the rest of their lives paying off our debts to the bankers.

We owe it to future generations to fix the problems that we have created.

That is why so many of us believe that it is time for the U.S. Congress to shut down the Federal Reserve.  Our current financial system is a complete and utter failure and we need to start over.

Michael’s blockbuster entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”“End Times”“7 Year Apocalypse”“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”“The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Here Are 7 Astonishing Economic Charts That Will Absolutely Blow Your Mind

As a nation, we have literally been in the process of committing financial suicide for decades.  Sadly, some people have responded to the new administration’s efforts to get debt levels under control by committing acts of extreme violence.  Our society is deeply addicted to debt and that must stop.  The 7 economic charts that you are about to see are incredibly shocking.  If you know anyone that still does not believe that the United States is in the midst of a long-term economic decline, just show them these charts.  Sometimes you can quote economic statistics to people until you are blue in the face and it won’t do any good, but when those same people see charts and pictures suddenly it all sinks in.  What is great about charts is that you can very easily demonstrate what has been happening to the economy over an extended period of time.  As you examine the economic charts below, pay special attention to what has been happening to the U.S. economy over the last 30 or 40 years.  The truth is that what is wrong with the U.S. economy is not a great mystery.  All of the economic problems that we are experiencing now have taken decades to develop.  Hopefully the charts in this article will help people realize just how nightmarish our economic problems have become, because until people start realizing how incredibly bad things have gotten they will never be willing to accept the dramatic solutions that are necessary to fix our financial system.

The sad fact of the matter is that we are living in the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world.  All of this debt has made the present more pleasant, but it has also destroyed the bright economic future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to enjoy.  If they have the opportunity, future generations of Americans will look back on what we have done to them in absolute horror.

The 7 economic charts posted below are meant to shock you.  Most Americans today need to be shocked before they will be motivated to take action.  Please share these charts with as many people as you can.  If we can wake enough people up, hopefully something will be done about all of these problems while there is still time.

1 – Government spending is expanding at an exponential rate.  As you can see from the chart below, federal spending is now roughly 14 times higher than it was back in 1980.  And federal spending is about three trillion dollars higher per year than it was during the last full year before the pandemic.  Once the pandemic subsided, federal spending went down a bit, but now it is starting to rise at an exponential rate once again…

2 – U.S. government debt is absolutely exploding.  The United States government is 36 trillion dollars in debt.  How insane is that?  Our national debt is approximately 36 times larger than it was when Ronald Reagan first entered the White House.  Unfortunately, it continues to grow at breathtaking speed.  Even with the budget cuts we are witnessing, we will add trillions more to the debt this year.  Can we afford to continue to accumulate debt at this rate?…

3 – The growth of our money supply is a horror show.  Just look at how rapidly M1 has been skyrocketing over the last couple of years.  During the pandemic, M1 went from about 4 trillion dollars to more than 20 trillion dollars.  The Federal Reserve is clearly guilty of economic malpractice.  Is there any way that we are going to be able to avoid paying a very serious price for all of this reckless money printing?…

4 – Household debt has soared to almost unbelievable levels over the last 30 years.  The sad truth is that it is not just the U.S. government that has a massive debt problem.  U.S. households have also been accumulating debt at a staggering rate.  Total household and nonprofit organization debt did not pass the 2 trillion dollar mark until the mid-1980s, but now total U.S. household and nonprofit organization debt has surpassed the 20 trillion dollar mark.  Household debt alone accounts for approximately 18 trillion dollars of this total…

5 – The total of all debt (government, business and consumer) in the United States is now well over 100 trillion dollars.  If anyone doubts that our society is addicted to debt, just show them this chart.  This is a debt bubble that is absolutely unprecedented in U.S. history…

6 – More than 100 million U.S. adults that do not have jobs are considered to be “not in the labor force”.  When a U.S. adult is not working, they are put into one of two buckets.  For years, government bureaucrats have kept the number of Americans that are “officially unemployed” at a very low level, while the number of Americans that are dumped into the bucket labeled “not in the labor force” has just kept going up and up.  During the Great Recession, the number of Americans that were considered to be “officially unemployed” plus the number of Americans that were considered to be “not in the labor force” never exceeded 100 million.  Today, the number of Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force” alone exceeds 102 million…

7 – The price of gold has gone absolutely nuts, and that is not a good sign.  When instability hits the financial markets, many investors flock to gold.  This is especially true in inflationary times.  Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by close to 99 percent.  One of the reasons given for the creation of the Federal Reserve was that the Fed was supposed to help control inflation.  But that didn’t exactly work out too well.  The truth is that the United States never had consistently rampant inflation until the Federal Reserve took control.  In particular, once the U.S. totally went off the gold standard in the 1970s inflation really started escalating out of control.  When the gold standard ended, an ounce of gold was worth 35 dollars.  Today, an ounce of gold is worth more than 3,000 dollars…

Needless to say, if the economic trends documented by the charts above continue to persist, we will have an enormous nightmare on our hands.

The U.S. economy as it currently exists is unsustainable by definition.  It is only a matter of time before we slam into an economic brick wall.

We have developed an economy that cannot function without massive amounts of debt, and at this point it seems like almost everyone is drowning in red ink.  The federal government is massively overextended, most of our state and local governments are massively overextended, most of our major corporations are massively overextended, and the majority of U.S. consumers are massively overextended.

The only way that the game can continue is for our leaders to continue to borrow and spend increasingly larger mountains of money.

But no debt spiral can go on forever.  At some point this entire house of cards is going to collapse.

When that happens, there is going to be economic pain that is greater than anything that this country has ever seen before.

Everything that I have been warning about for more than a decade is playing out right in front of our eyes.

We can’t keep piling up debt like this.

We just can’t.

But look at what has happened as a result of Elon Musk and his team making some modest cuts to government spending.

A significant portion of the population is losing their minds.

Our society cannot handle large spending cuts, and our society cannot handle what will come after a financial crash either.

We are in far more trouble than most people realize.

Michael’s blockbuster entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”“End Times”“7 Year Apocalypse”“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”“The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.