The Economy

Two-Thirds Of Americans Now Believe That The American Dream Is Unattainable

August 28, 2024August 28, 2024 by Michael

When we were young, most of us believed that we would achieve “the American Dream” someday. Today, two-thirds of us believe that the American Dream is unattainable. That is a searing indictment of a system that is coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes. As a child, it seemed like just about everyone was part of the middle class. In those days, people just took for granted that you could have a nice home, a beautiful family, a couple of vehicles and a comfortable retirement. But now that kind of middle class lifestyle is out of reach for most of the country. In fact, a brand new Wall Street Journal/NORC poll discovered that only about one-third of the population thinks that the American Dream “is still alive”…

Only about a third of U.S. adults believe the American dream is still alive, a Wall Street Journal/NORC poll published Wednesday found.

A survey of 2,501 people conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute twelve years ago found more than half of respondents believed the American dream “still holds true,” but now only a third feel that way, according to a recent WSJ/NORC poll of 1,502 adults. The study also found an increasingly large gap between people’s economic goals and what they think is actually attainable — a trend that was consistent across gender and party lines, but was especially common amongst younger generations.

Those numbers are yet more evidence that the middle class is dying.

Once upon a time, we had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the entire history of the planet.

But now most of the country is deeply struggling.

So please don’t try to convince me that the U.S. economy is in good shape.

Our standard of living has been steadily going downhill for a long time, and things have been getting worse for almost everyone.

The same Wall Street Journal/NORC poll also found that only 10 percent of Americans believe that becoming a homeowner is “easy or somewhat easy”…

The decline in faith in the American Dream coincides with a decline in the share of Americans who believe homeownership and financial security are attainable, the poll shows. Only 10% of respondents to the WSJ poll believed becoming a homeowner is “easy or somewhat easy,” despite 89% of respondents viewing homeownership as “essential or important to their vision of the future.”

The same was true of financial security, with only 9% of respondents claiming achieving financial security is “easy or somewhat easy,” despite 96% believing financial security is “essential or important,” according to the WSJ.

These days, you can’t get about 90 percent of Americans to agree on just about anything.

But when it comes to this, there is an overwhelming consensus.

Everyone can see that housing has become incredibly unaffordable.

In fact, we just learned that home prices just set another brand new all-time record high…

Even as mortgage interest rates were rising, home prices reached the highest level ever on the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index.

On a three-month running average ended in June, prices nationally were 5.4% higher than they were in June 2023, according to data released Tuesday.

Overall, U.S. home prices are up more than 1,000 percent since 1974.

Those that bought homes in the 1970s are in great shape today.

But I feel so sorry for those that are currently trying to buy homes.

A big part of the problem is that much of our housing inventory has become financialized.

Millions of homes are being purchased as investments, and this even includes large numbers of low-priced homes…

Real estate investors bought 26.1% of low-priced U.S. homes that sold in the fourth quarter. That’s the highest share on record and is up from 24% a year earlier.

Today, we have an absolutely massive housing crisis in this country.

This is one of the reasons why millions of people are now living in their vehicles.

Our middle class is being systematically eradicated and we are just standing aside and letting it happen.

Today, vast numbers of Americans are living as paupers in the nation that their forefathers conquered.

Throughout our history, most young people could safely assume that they would do better than their parents did.

But that started to change several decades ago. According to a couple of very well known economists, “only around half of children in 1980 ended up wealthier than their parents”…

For many young people, the issue stems from feeling that they are worse off and face a tougher economic future than their parents dealt with at their age.

According to MIT economics professor Nathaniel Hendren and Harvard University economist Raj Chetty, only around half of children in 1980 ended up wealthier than their parents.

In 1940, this figure stood at around 90 percent – with the gradual decline only increasing since the 1980s.

Needless to say, those that are being born now are facing a future that is very dismal.

But this is what we voted for as a society.

We just kept sending the big spenders back to Washington. As a result, it now takes a boatload of money for the average family to live the American Dream…

The GoBankingRates analysis determined the American Dream now costs more than $150,000 a year for a family of four, but that figure differs widely depending on where you live.

If you live in Hawaii, it takes an annual income of $260,734 for a family of four to live the American Dream.

If you live in Mississippi, it takes an annual income of $109,516 for a family of four to live the American Dream.

Of course making over $100,000 a year is out of reach for most of the country at this point.

Now we have reached a stage where many people have simply given up, and the economic outlook for the future is not good at all.

Previous generations handed us the keys to the greatest economic machine that the world had ever seen, but we allowed our leaders to wreck it.

We have debased our currency, we are drowning in debt, and a big chunk of the population is no longer capable of supporting themselves.

We thought that we could defy the laws of economics, but we were wrong.

So now we are headed into a period of severe economic pain, and that will certainly not be pleasant.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” 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 “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “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 Blog, End 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.

If Everything Is So Great, Why Are Millions Of Americans Sleeping In Their Vehicles?

August 26, 2024August 26, 2024 by Michael

Have you noticed an unusual number of vehicles in the parking lots of major retailers in your area at night? If you look closely enough, you will see that many of those vehicles actually have people sleeping in them. At this point, millions of Americans are sleeping in their vehicles every night. This is happening even though we are being told that the economy is just fine. But of course the truth is that the system is failing all around us. So if you get to sleep in a very warm bed in a very warm home, you should consider yourself to be very blessed, because vast numbers of people are really struggling right now.

The primary reason why so many people are living in their vehicles is because the cost of living has soared to unprecedented heights.

In particular, the cost of housing has become extremely oppressive. In fact, housing in the United States has become more unaffordable than it has ever been before.

This week, I was stunned to read about a 33-year-old man named Ishan Abeysekera that is paying $2,100 a month to share a house with 23 other people…

In a city as notoriously expensive as New York, it’s common to see people in their late 20s and early 30s living with roommates to help manage the high cost of living.

But Ishan Abeysekera has taken that to the next level with his current living situation in Brooklyn: a communal building that he shares with a whopping 23 other people.

“When I say I have 23 housemates, people are like ‘What? That sounds wild,’” Abeysekera tells CNBC Make It. “But actually, it’s quite nice.”

That is nuts!

Who would pay that much to live with 23 total strangers?

Of course most Americans can’t afford to pay $2,100 a month for housing.

For example, it is being reported that some flight attendants that work for American Airlines are “sleeping in their cars” because the pay is so low…

Most new flight attendant hires are required to live in cities like Dallas, Miami, and New York, which have high costs of living that they cannot afford, Hedrick noted.

American flight attendants are sleeping in their cars, she said. Some of them fight for trips just for the chance to eat the plane meals, if the pilots don’t take their meals first.

“Our new hire flight attendants are struggling,” Hedrick said, adding that new hires most strongly rejected the 17% hike.

When I was growing up, I always thought that those that were selected as flight attendants had very good jobs.

But those days are long gone.

In this economy, many flight attendants can’t even afford a place to live.

Of course there are millions of others in a similar position. In recent years, “van life” has become quite trendy, and more than 3 million Americans now fall into this category…

“Van life” or “van living” is a term that is becoming more popular around the country. People packing up their lives, moving into a mobile unit and exploring the states.

According to Yahoo Finance, the number of American van lifers has increased by 63% over the last couple of years, going from 1.9 million in 2020, to 3.1 million in 2022.

In the old days, if you lived in a van down by the river you were considered to be a bum.

But in this economy, living in a van down by the river is just considered to be normal.

Needless to say, there are some “van lifers” that choose the lifestyle because of the freedom it offers.

But there are many others that have been forced into this lifestyle. A woman named Michelle Rose that used to own a home in Montana is one of them…

Three and a half years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, Michelle Rose was about to lose her Montana home, was having issues with her job, lost her mother, and put everything she owned into a van to live in it permanently.

“I was like let’s just do this, let’s just sell the house and get on the road and we will figure out things as we go. It has sort of been a by the seat of my pants kind of life,” said Rose.

Michelle says that finances are the hardest part of van life for her, it is a constant worry and finding work is also challenging.

Another woman named Katie that “works as a manifestation coach and at a local coffee shop” admits that it was a tough mental adjustment when she started to live out of her vehicle…

Katie J., who works as a manifestation coach and at a local coffee shop, spoke about the mental legwork she had to work through in order to reach a sense of belonging in the community.

“Van life is fun and cool and saves money and it’s flashy on Instagram and stuff,” Katie J. said, “but it will bring up a lot for you to work through when it comes to not having roots somewhere … I’m a black woman and I’m already rare in Truckee as is, so to be also living in a van, I had so much stuff around that, so much shadow work to do around the limiting beliefs and feeling like I’m not supposed to be here, and I shouldn’t be parking here and I’m gonna get in trouble.”

A lot of these people have jobs, and a lot of these people would not be officially classified as “homeless”.

But the cost of living crisis has driven them to the brink of losing everything.

Unfortunately, our leaders never seem to learn. They keep borrowing and spending money at an unprecedented rate, and this continues to create even more inflation.

If you can believe it, our government is even spending “up to a quarter million taxpayer dollars” to teach Iraqi kids how to be climate activists…

The State Department is offering up to a quarter million taxpayer dollars to an eligible nonprofit to teach Iraqi teenagers about climate activism.

Iraqi high schoolers could receive “Eco Action Clubs” bankrolled by taxpayers that will teach them how to advocate for environmental reform in their home country, according to a grant solicitation posted by the State Department earlier this month. The clubs will have several objectives, ranging from developing an “eco-agenda and action plan” which will generate “climate change solutions” to running a social media campaign to increase awareness of the climate crisis.

We are literally committing national suicide, but most of the population doesn’t seem to care.

Every election cycle, the big spenders are sent back to Washington over and over again.

Meanwhile, more Americans are being forced to sleep in their vehicles with each passing day.

Please do not look down on those that have been forced to sleep in a vehicle, because with a bit of bad luck just about anyone could end up in the same situation.

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

So Hundreds Of Thousands Of Those “Jobs” Were Completely Fake?

August 20, 2024 by Michael

Every month, it is almost always the same story. The government releases a number that indicates that the U.S. economy has been creating plenty of “jobs”, and then later on that number is dramatically revised lower. But by the time it is revised lower, nobody really cares anymore. The fake numbers that are initially released month after month have given the American people the impression that the economy is performing far better than it actually is. Now we are about to get another major revision to the employment numbers which only happens once per year…

Once a year, the BLS benchmarks the March payrolls level to a more accurate but less timely data source called the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which is based on state unemployment insurance tax records and covers nearly all US jobs. The release of the latest QCEW report in June already hinted at weaker payroll gains last year.

On Wednesday, everyone is expecting that we will be told that hundreds of thousands of fake “jobs” that were originally reported never actually existed at all…

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. economists expect the government’s preliminary benchmark revisions on Wednesday to show payrolls growth in the year through March was at least 600,000 weaker than currently estimated — about 50,000 a month.

While JPMorgan Chase & Co. forecasters see a decline of about 360,000, Goldman Sachs indicates it could be as large as a million.

Why don’t they just try to give us an accurate number in the first place?

By now, everybody pretty much realizes that the initial monthly employment numbers are usually grossly overstated.

So why not just tell us the truth?

Of course telling us the truth would destroy the carefully crafted illusions that they have worked so hard to create.

Even though large corporations are conducting mass layoffs all over the nation, we are supposed to believe that everything is just fine.

Unfortunately, we have reached a point where even the official government numbers are starting to show signs of trouble. It takes about 150,000 new jobs each month just to keep up with population growth, and the initial number that we were given for last month was well below that level…

Employers added 114,000 jobs last month, which was far below the Dow Jones estimate of 185,000.

The unemployment rate also edged higher to 4.3 percent – the highest level since October 2021.

It should be obvious to everyone that more Americans are unemployed these days.

In fact, most of you probably know someone personally that is looking for a new job right now.

According to a survey that was recently conducted by the New York Federal Reserve, an all-time record high 28.4 percent of all U.S. adults are currently looking for work…

The New York Federal Reserve’s latest poll of consumers found 28.4% of respondents were looking for a job — the highest reading since March 2014 and up from 19.4% a year ago. That includes both individuals already out of a job and ones currently employed but seeking new roles.

The readings, from the New York Fed’s thrice-annual Survey of Consumer Expectations Labor Market Survey, add to evidence that the U.S. economic outlook is worsening, even as some economists dial back their odds of a recession.

A 9 percent increase in one year is absolutely terrible.

Why aren’t more people talking about this?

We are definitely moving in the wrong direction very rapidly, and many are concerned that this could have troubling implications for the financial markets. If the employment revision that we get on Wednesday is large enough, it could potentially spark another round of selling on Wall Street…

While the stock market has now recovered, a data revision showing a large decline could reignite fears that the economy is headed for a downturn.

‘Markets, having recently experienced a growth scare that led to concerns that the Fed is behind the curve, will be monitoring Wednesday’s release of the benchmark revision to see if the market’s initial reaction was, in fact, correct,’ Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial, told Bloomberg.

It is getting very difficult for even the most blind optimists to deny where things are heading.

The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has been falling for 29 months in a row.

You would think that just about everyone would be getting the message by now.

At the same time that economic activity is slowing down, most Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet due to our seemingly endless cost of living crisis.

According to a brand new survey that was just released, 82 percent of Americans believe that “their money does not go as far as it used to”…

A growing number of Americans are pumping the brakes on spending as they continue to face elevated prices for everyday necessities like food, rent and auto insurance.

New findings published by Empower show that 62% of Americans feel their purchasing power and income in relation to prices is decreasing due to persistent inflation. Another 82% said their money does not go as far as it used to. Additionally, 79% of respondents noted that many household goods like cereal and chips are dwindling in terms of serving sizes.

Our standard of living has been going down.

Everyone can see that.

When our leaders started creating, borrowing and spending money like crazy during the pandemic, I relentlessly warned my readers that this would create tremendous inflation, and that is precisely what happened.

Now I am warning that a truly terrifying economic horror show is in front of us.

The people that are running the system literally do not know what they are doing, and now all of us will get to suffer the very bitter consequences of their very foolish decisions.

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

Thanks To The Cost Of Living Crisis, U.S. Household Debt Has Soared To The Highest Level Ever Recorded

August 19, 2024August 19, 2024 by Michael

Our entire economy is fueled by debt. In fact, if going into more debt was suddenly banned the U.S. economy would instantly hit a brick wall. For the vast majority of us, our lifestyles simply cannot be funded by what we actually make. So we use debt to bridge the difference, and this has particularly been true during the cost of living crisis. Total household debt has now reached a grand total of 17.8 trillion dollars, and we continue to pile up more with no end in sight…

A quarterly report published this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on household credit and debt found that between the first quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2024, credit card debt surged 48.1% while household debt — which includes mortgages and auto loans — rose by 21.6%.

In dollar terms, credit card debt rose from $770 billion in early 2021 to $1.14 trillion in the most recent quarter, while household debt increased from $14.64 trillion to $17.8 trillion in the same period.

I did not realize that credit card debt had risen by more than 48 percent since the first quarter of 2021.

That is extremely alarming, because it indicates that millions upon millions of households are literally living on the edge of financial disaster.

And the fact that delinquency rates have been climbing just underscores how serious things have become…

Amid American households’ rising debt burdens, delinquency rates have grown as well. In the last 12 months, about 9.1% of credit card debt balances and 8% of auto loan balances moved into delinquency — the highest levels since early 2011 and the end of 2010, respectively.

The primary reason why U.S. households are racking up so much debt these days is because the cost of living crisis has made it very difficult to make ends meet.

One voter that was interviewed by Fox News admitted that her money “went a lot further four years ago”…

“My family’s income hasn’t changed, but our comfort level has significantly decreased,” stay-at-home mom and homeschool teacher Persson said. “Money went a lot further four years ago. We were able to cover our bills and still have money saved. The economy has plummeted with the current administration, and to add on to that, where I live in California, the cost of living is much higher.”

Additionally, 44% of the survey respondents said they aren’t making enough take-home pay to cover their daily expenses.

Did you catch that last sentence?

Almost half of the entire nation is not “making enough take-home pay to cover their daily expenses” at this point.

Wow.

According to a recent survey that was conducted by CNN, the cost of living crisis is a major issue for approximately two-thirds of the country…

However, there are still times when the truth seeps out. CNN commissioned a well-constructed poll of about 2,000 random people to find out where they stand on personal finances. The headline number: nearly 40 percent of Americans are struggling to pay their bills. That is up from 28 percent from only three years ago, and a higher number than back in 2008–09, the period known as the Great Recession.

Two-thirds of people say that the number one issue they face is the cost of living and paying their bills. The typical American is spending nearly $1,000 more per month compared with three years ago just to pay living expenses. That is according to Moody’s, but it also fits with the intuition we all have.

This is why household debt levels have been exploding.

Most people are just trying to find a way to make it from one month to another.

Unfortunately, economic conditions are really starting to deteriorate and large employers are conducting mass layoffs all over the nation.

For example, General Motors just announced that over 1,000 salaried employees will be getting the axe…

General Motors is laying off more than 1,000 salaried employees globally in its software and services division following a review to streamline the unit’s operations, CNBC has learned.

The layoffs, including roughly 600 jobs at GM’s tech campus near Detroit, come less than six months after leadership changes overseeing the operations, including former Apple executive Mike Abbott leaving the automaker after less than a year in March due to health reasons.

Considering all of the credit card debt that is being piled up, you would think that Mastercard would be doing well, but they have also decided to fire lots of workers…

Approximately 3% of Mastercard’s workforce are facing layoffs, with the payment services company slated to finish a “majority of the notifications” in the third quarter, the company said in a Friday statement to FOX Business.

Not to be outdone, Cisco has determined that it is time for “7% of the company’s workers” to hit the bricks…

Cisco is embarking on a restructuring to “allow it to invest in key growth opportunities and drive more efficiency in its business.” That effort will involve laying off 7% of the company’s workers, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

Last but not least, Intel has started the process of laying off approximately 15,000 workers…

Intel’s layoffs, announced Aug. 1, will result in some 15,000 employees losing their jobs.

They will arise out of a “comprehensive reduction in spending” that the tech giant said it was pursuing to “resize and refocus.” The company aims to trim costs by $10 billion in 2025 through its overall cost-reduction plan.

This is just the beginning.

A lot more layoffs are coming.

So if you have a job that you greatly value, try to hold on to it with all your might.

Meanwhile, we continue to get more economic numbers that indicate that the U.S. economy is rapidly heading in the wrong direction.

In fact, we just learned that the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has fallen for the 29th month in a row…

And now, we have US Leading Economic Indicators down for their 29th straight month – at a level worse than the trough of COVID lockdowns…

How can anyone claim that our economy is moving in the right direction when our most important leading economic indicators have been falling for more than two years?

Let’s be honest.

Economic conditions are not good right now, and the outlook for the future is absolutely dismal.

We have been living on a sugar high. We have accumulated the largest mountain of household debt in the history of the world, the largest mountain of business debt in the history of the world, and the largest mountain of government debt in the history of the world.

Now all of those bubbles are starting to burst, and that means that a tremendous amount of pain is dead ahead.

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

Red Alert! Virtually All Of Our Personal Information, Including Social Security Numbers, Has Been Stolen And Posted Online By Hackers

August 15, 2024August 15, 2024 by Michael

Most Americans don’t even realize that virtually all of their personal information has been stolen and posted online for free. The personal records of 2.9 billion people were stolen from a major data broker known as National Public Data earlier this year, and this month almost of the information that was stolen was posted online for anyone to freely take. We are talking about names, addresses, phone numbers, employment histories, birth dates and Social Security numbers. This is one of the most egregious privacy violations in the history of the world, but hardly anyone knows what has happened. So please share this article as widely as you possibly can.

USA Today is reporting that the original theft of this data occurred “in or around April 2024″…

An enormous amount of Social Security numbers and other sensitive information for millions of people could be in the hands of a hacking group after a data breach and may have been released on an online marketplace, The Los Angeles Times reported this week.

The hacking group USDoD claimed it had allegedly stolen personal records of 2.9 billion people from National Public Data, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, reported by Bloomberg Law. The breach was believed to have happened in or around April 2024, according to the lawsuit.

The company that this data was stolen from is a Florida-based background check company known as National Public Data. The following is what Wikipedia has to say about this particular firm…

Jerico Pictures, Inc., doing business as National Public Data[1][2] is a data broker company that performs employee background checks. Their primary service is collecting information from public data sources, including criminal records, addresses, and employment history, and offering that information for sale.

Of course there are hordes of other data brokers out there these days.

They collect vast troves of information on as many people as they possibly can, and then they monetize that information in various ways.

Equifax, Epsilon and Acxiom are the three largest data brokers in existence today. Each one of them brings in more than 2 billion dollars of revenue annually.

As you can see, collecting and selling our personal information is very big business.

And when one of these data brokers gets hacked, it is a major disaster for all of us.

One member of the hacking group that stole this data claims to have “the full NPD database”…

Last week, a purported member of USDoD identified only as Felice told the hacking forum that they were offering “the full NPD database,” according to a screenshot taken by BleepingComputer. The information consists of about 2.7 billion records, each of which includes a person’s full name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and phone number, along with alternate names and birth dates, Felice claimed.

How much damage could criminals do to your life if they had your name, address, phone number, employment history, date of birth and Social Security number?

You might want to think about that.

According to a law firm that is involved in litigation over this matter, a total of 277.1 gigabytes of data were stolen…

The class-action law firm Schubert, Jonckheer & Kolbe said in a press release that the stolen file includes 277.1 gigabytes of data, and includes names, address histories, relatives and Social Security numbers dating back at least three decades.

According to a post from a cybersecurity expert on X, formerly Twitter, USDoD claims to be selling the 2.9 billion records for citizens of the U.S., U.K. and Canada on the dark web for $3.5 million.

You may not want anyone to know where you were living 30 years ago.

But now just about anyone can easily find out, because the vast majority of the information that was stolen has been posted online for free…

About four months after a notorious hacking group claimed to have stolen an extraordinary amount of sensitive personal information from a major data broker, a member of the group has reportedly released most of it for free on an online marketplace for stolen personal data.

The breach, which includes Social Security numbers and other sensitive data, could power a raft of identity theft, fraud and other crimes, said Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

“If this in fact is pretty much the whole dossier on all of us, it certainly is much more concerning” than prior breaches, Murray said in an interview. “And if people weren’t taking precautions in the past, which they should have been doing, this should be a five-alarm wake-up call for them.”

Read that last paragraph again.

An entire dossier on your life is just sitting out there, and virtually anyone that has a vendetta against you can access it.

So what can we do to protect ourselves?

Some experts are encouraging people to make certain that their antivirus programs are up to date. I think that is definitely a good idea, but I don’t know how that will protect anyone from information that has already been stolen.

It is also being suggested that people should update their passwords. Needless to say, this is something that everyone should be doing on a regular basis anyway.

In the weeks and months ahead, keeping a close eye on your credit report will be important. If your identity is being used by someone, you don’t want that to go unchecked for very long or else your credit could be ruined.

But ultimately there is not much that you can do to keep nefarious individuals from accessing personal information that is being freely copied and passed around the Internet.

To a very large degree, the damage has already been done.

It is being projected that cybercrime will cost the world 10.5 trillion dollars annually by the year 2025.

Just like everywhere else in our society, there are vast hordes of predators on the Internet that are relentlessly searching for new victims, and this is yet another sign that our society is in an extremely advanced stage of decay.

We should have never allowed ourselves to become so dependent on the Internet, but there is no going back now.

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

Vast Stretches Of America Are So Depressed That They Look Like Something Out Of A Horror Movie

August 14, 2024August 14, 2024 by Michael

The wealthy are doing just fine at the moment, but they don’t seem to understand that much of the country is deeply hurting right now. 59 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. economy is currently experiencing a recession, and that is because most of them are personally experiencing economic pain. Literally just about everything is substantially more expensive in 2024, more major layoffs are being announced with each passing day, and thousands of businesses are going bankrupt. We haven’t seen a tsunami of economic suffering like this in a long time.

If you live in a wealthy area in a good part of the country, you may wonder what all of the fuss is about.

If you and everyone around you is still doing well, life may still seem quite good.

But the truth is that there are vast stretches of this country that are so depressed that they literally look like something out of a horror movie.

There are many communities that are so plagued by poverty, drugs, homelessness, violence and theft that it seems like there is no possible way that things could ever turn around.

A man named Drew Binksy recently visited one of the poorest parts of West Virginia, and he discovered that most of the people there are living in poverty…

‘Most of [the residents] live below the poverty line and life expectancy is well below the national average.

‘Many families rely on Government assistance just to get by and there’s limited access to healthcare.’

Today, tens of millions of Americans are heavily dependent on the checks that they get from the government each month.

In areas where most people have lost hope of ever finding a better life, drug addiction often runs rampant, and that is precisely what Binksy witnessed…

He also notes that ‘crystal meth and Fentanyl addictions run wild’ in the state, while many people are ‘living so isolated, they have their own dialect.’

The content creator starts his journey in Bluefield and as he wanders through the once prosperous manufacturing city, he says it feels like he has stepped into ‘a forgotten world.’

He continues: ‘Empty streets and closed shops stretch as far as the eye can see. It’s like life just stopped.’

This is where the entire country is heading.

Just a few days ago, I wrote about the “retail apocalypse” that is rapidly spreading across America.

Thousands upon thousands of stores are closing, and most of those abandoned stores will not be filled any time soon.

But at least they will make convenient locations for drug addicts to gather.

According to one woman that Binksy interviewed, 30 percent of the people in her community are into illegal drugs…

One woman in the store tells the camera crew: ‘We’re the poorest county in the United States or we were.

‘About 30 per cent of our community are dopers, druggies… more than 30 per cent!’

The same conditions are being repeated in rural community after rural community all over America.

Sadly, the standard of living in our rural communities is going to continue to go down because the cost of living just keeps going up…

The cost of frozen noncarbonated juices and drinks has risen by 19.2 percent from July 2023 – the most of any grocery item.

Eggs, meanwhile, have increased by 19.1 percent in price, and frankfurters are now 9.7 percent more expensive.

The cost of bacon, beef roasts, pork chops and butter have also risen notably in the last year.

In terms of non-food items, car insurance is the biggest riser in the last year – with an 18.6 percent price hike.

We have already reached a stage where a large portion of the population cannot even afford the basics.

As I shared yesterday, I was absolutely shocked to learn that 39 percent of Americans have been forced to skip meals so that they will have enough money to make their housing payments…

39% of Americans say they’ve skipped meals to make housing payments, per Clever Real Estate survey.

And among millennials, that figure rose to 44%. Among Baby Boomers, it was 20%.

It is no wonder why so many voters are so deeply frustrated with the current state of the economy.

This is our country now, and the outlook for the future is not positive at all.

In fact, it appears that very alarming changes are starting to happen in the employment market as large companies lay off large numbers of workers…

Another domino falls for recession as job creation turns negative for small businesses, which employ nearly half of all Americans.

In the past year, payrolls for companies with under 50 employees plunged by nearly 100,000, while job trends were flat for midsized businesses up to 500 employees.

The only bright spot was big businesses—which might be changing, given recent layoff announcements, including 2,500 at Chrysler, 4,000 at Cisco, 12,000 at Dell, and 15,000 at Intel. Paramount and the left-wing Axios both cut 10% to 15% of their workforce.

20 years ago, most American families were clearly thriving.

Today, most American families are clearly struggling.

This change occurred so gradually that most people didn’t even realize what was happening.

The gap between the wealthy and the rest of us is now larger than ever, and our major cities are teeming with millions of highly desperate people.

This story is not going to end well, but most of you already knew that.

When people feel like they have nothing left to lose, it doesn’t take much to push them over the edge.

Unfortunately, it appears that the next few months represent a major tipping point, and it won’t be too long before all of the frustration that has been building up in this country starts to boil over.

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

Thousands Of Businesses Are Going Bankrupt, But The Economy Is “Fine”

August 13, 2024August 13, 2024 by Michael

Businesses are declaring bankruptcy at a much faster rate than they did last year. Thousands upon thousands of once thriving businesses are failing, but this just must be another sign that the economy is “fine”. No matter how bad the numbers get, we are assured that the people running things have everything under control and that the outlook for the future is wonderful. Of course I understand that this is an election year and virtually everyone is trying to put their own unique spin on things. But there is no possible way that you can make numbers like these look good…

Personal and business bankruptcy filings rose 16.2 percent in the twelve-month period ending June 30, 2024, compared with the previous year.

According to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, annual bankruptcy filings totaled 486,613 in the year ending June 2024, compared with 418,724 cases in the previous year.

Business filings rose 40.3 percent, from 15,724 to 22,060 in the year ending June 30, 2024. Non-business bankruptcy filings rose 15.3 percent to 464,553, compared with 403,000 in the previous year.

Read that last line again.

Business bankruptcy filings were up by more than 40 percent in just one year.

But don’t worry.

Everything is “fine”.

Sadly, more businesses continue to file for bankruptcy with each passing day. Earlier this week, I was saddened to learn that even Avon has been forced to file for bankruptcy…

Avon Products filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday as the beauty brand looks to address its debt and legal liabilities stemming from lawsuits that alleged its talc-based products were contaminated with cancer-causing substances.

The holding company hasn’t sold Avon products in the U.S. since it divested its North America business in 2016, but remains the holding company for the Avon brand’s operating entities outside the U.S.

Once upon a time, Avon was one of the most iconic brands in the beauty industry.

But now times have changed.

Also on Monday, a chain of gyms that has more than 100 locations in seven states announced that it had filed for bankruptcy…

Gym chain Blink Fitness announced Monday that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Chapter 11 filing is meant to help the Equinox Group-owned chain “execute an efficient and value-maximizing sale process to optimize its footprint and position the business for long-term success,” according to a news release.

Blink said it will keep its gyms open in the meantime. It has more than 100 locations spread across seven states.

I could give you endless examples if you would like.

LL Flooring is another big name that has decided that it is time to file for bankruptcy…

One of America’s biggest flooring suppliers has filed for bankruptcy – the latest in a long line of retailers this year to face money problems.

LL Flooring will shut 94 of its 442 stores, which are spread out across 47 states, to cut costs and make the company attractive to a buyer.

The retailer, which specializes in hardwood flooring, has faced falling sales over the past year as families cut back on remodelling their homes.

Needless to say, this tsunami of bankruptcies is going to cost a lot of people their jobs.

When Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy protection, they originally indicated that 154 stores would be closing…

After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October, Rite Aid announced it would initially shutter 154 underperforming stores across a dozen states.

Since that time, Rite Aid has announced the closing of an additional 702 locations…

Rite Aid has now shut almost all of the stores it once had in Michigan and Ohio – as it cuts all ties with the two Midwest states.

In total across the US, the drugstore has now closed 856 stores since October 2023 – more than a two-fifths of the roughly 2,000 locations it operated before it fell into bankruptcy.

The latest closures – 74 so far in August- were all in the two Midwest states apart from one each in California and Washington. That is on top of 169 in July, all in Ohio and Michigan.

It is probably just a matter of time before the entire chain goes belly up and everyone that works for Rite Aid loses their jobs.

Speaking of failing drug store chains, Walgreens is in the process of closing more than 2,000 locations…

Walgreens Boots Alliance will close a significant portion of its roughly 8,600 U.S. stores as the pharmacy chain seeks to turn around its struggling business, which has been hit by inflation-weary customers paring their spending.

“The current pharmacy model is not sustainable,” CEO Tim Wentworth told investors on a Thursday earnings call.

With 75% of the company’s U.S. stores accounting for 100% of its adjusted operating income, the company plans to examine the remaining 25% of its stores for closures, which would occur over the next three years, said the executive, who took the company’s helm in 2023. Shuttering 25% of its 8,600 U.S. locations would result in about 2,150 store closures.

Of course it isn’t just retailers that are laying off workers.

According to Fox Business, Paramount has started the process of laying off approximately 15 percent of its total workforce…

Paramount has begun laying off a significant portion of its workforce, with hundreds of employees expected to be cut in the coming weeks.

A memo signed by co-CEOs Chris McCarthy, Brian Robbins, and George Cheeks was leaked to entertainment outlets on Tuesday, including Deadline, in which the chief executives braced employees for the cuts.

“This process will take place in three phases, starting today and continuing through the end of the year,” the memo reads. “We expect 90% of these actions to be complete by the end of September.”

Employers all over the country are conducting mass layoffs, but the government is telling us that unemployment is low.

Thousands upon thousands of businesses are declaring bankruptcy, but the government is telling us that the economy is booming.

The cost of just about everything just keeps going up, but the government is telling us that inflation is under control.

You can believe them if you want.

But they aren’t going to be able to hide the truth for long.

Decades of very bad decisions are starting to catch up with us in a major way, and unprecedented chaos is ahead.

So instead of using this summer to party, I am encouraging all of my readers to prepare for the very difficult months and years that are in front of us.

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

A “Retail Apocalypse” Is Gaining Momentum All Over America. Is Your Favorite Chain Closing Stores?

August 11, 2024August 11, 2024 by Michael

Why are retailers closing thousands of stores if the U.S. economy is in good shape? Of course the truth is that the U.S. economy is not in good shape at all. The cost of living crisis is absolutely crushing working families all over the nation, and U.S. consumers simply don’t have as much discretionary income as they once did. Needless to say, our retailers are highly dependent on discretionary spending, and many of them have been reporting very disappointing sales numbers recently. Sadly, the problems that our retailers are experiencing are only going to intensify as U.S. economic activity continues to slow down.

According to CBS News, U.S. retailers have announced the closing of more than 3,000 locations in 2024…

The retail industry is going through a tough time as it copes with inflation-weary consumers and a rash of bankruptcies, prompting chains to announce the closures of almost 3,200 brick-and-mortar stores so far in 2024, according to a new analysis.

That’s a 24% increase from a year ago, according to a report from retail data provider CoreSight, which tracks store closures and openings across the U.S.

The closing of 3,200 stores sounds really bad, but it is important to note that the quote above is from a CBS News story that was published on May 13th.

Since that time, there have been a lot more store closing announcements.

For example, last week we learned that Big Lots plans to close nearly 300 stores…

Two months after announcing plans to close about 40 stores nationwide due to financial woes, Big Lots has indicated on its website it intends to close almost 300 stores.

The discount retailer announced in June it was facing several areas of financial strain that would result in 35-40 stores closing across the country. However, an audit of the Big Lots website on Aug. 2 reveals almost 300 stores are slated to close in the United States, including 18 in New England.

Meanwhile, a home goods retailer that has been in business since 1890 is preparing to permanently shut down over 170 stores…

A home goods retailer is closing all of its more than 170 stores after filing for bankruptcy.

Conn’s HomePlus, based in The Woodlands, Texas, operates stores in 15 states, including 11 in Louisiana. The company began in 1890 in Beaumont, TX. The Conn’s HomePlus store on Derek Drive in Lake Charles is included in the closures.

Burdorf Interiors has been in business for even longer, but now they have also reached the end of the road…

Burdorf Interiors, a 157-year-old local business, is shutting down, according to Louisville Business First.

The company announced the closure in a news release Wednesday.

“It’s with a heavy heart that we are announcing the closing of Burdorf Interiors,” the release said. “The business has been open in several locations throughout Louisville since 1867.

Just think about that.

They opened their doors just after the end of the Civil War, and now it is all over.

Drug store chains have been hit particularly hard by our ongoing retail apocalypse.

Rite Aid was once a retail powerhouse that was expanding like crazy, but now they plan to close 780 stores…

Rite Aid, which was based in East Pennsboro Township near Camp Hill for decades and is now based in Philadelphia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October to begin restructuring to significantly reduce its debt.

Since October, the company has announced in bankruptcy filings the closing of 780 stores.

Of course Dollar Tree has Rite Aid beat.

During the course of the next few years, Dollar Tree plans to close almost 1,000 stores…

Dollar Tree on Wednesday said it plans to close nearly 1,000 stores over the next several years, after disclosing significant losses in its latest earnings report.

The discount store chain lost $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter, down sharply from earnings of $452.2 million a year ago.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

Analysts at UBS are projecting that approximately 45,000 stores will be permanently shut down in the U.S. during the years in front of us…

About 45,000 retail stores may close in the coming years as retail’s physical footprint increasingly shifts to serve as fulfillment and distribution centers, UBS analysts led by Michael Lasser said in an April 22 report.

Can you imagine what this is going to look like?

Our landscape is going to be peppered with thousands upon thousands of derelict buildings that have been boarded up to keep criminals out.

Of course some of our core urban areas already have lots and lots of empty commercial spaces that used to be thriving retail locations.

One of the primary reasons why retailers are shutting down so many locations in core urban areas is because shoplifting in this country has risen to unprecedented levels.

According to a recent survey that was conducted by LendingTree, close to a fourth of the entire population admits that they have shoplifted…

Nearly one-quarter of American adults have shoplifted, according to a new survey from LendingTree, the personal finance site. Roughly 1 in 20 consumers have shoplifted within the past year.

Shoplifting is a complicated crime. The motive can range from adolescent rebellion to adult thrill-seeking to hand-to-mouth poverty. Many of us steal things we don’t need and won’t use.

“I’ve learned that a lot of people have given shoplifting a try for lots and lots of reasons,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.

At this point, shoplifting has become one of our primary national pastimes.

And it is increasingly becoming a “team sport” in many parts of the nation.

On Friday night, a team of approximately 50 teens stormed a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles and completely ransacked it…

A large group of juveniles used “bodily force” to ransack a 7-Eleven store in Los Angeles Friday night, authorities said.

A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson confirmed to KTLA that about 50 teens descended upon the 7-Eleven at the corner of Olympic and La Cienega boulevards in Pico-Robertson at 7:50 p.m.

The teens, many of whom were wearing masks, forcibly stole property from the store, the spokesperson said.

This particular incident barely made a blip in the news cycle.

Why?

These days, giant mobs loot stores so frequently that this sort of thing isn’t even considered to be very newsworthy anymore.

The thin veneer of civilization that we are all depend upon is disintegrating right in front of our eyes, and our once great country is descending into complete and utter chaos.

If things are this bad now, what will our cities look like once economic conditions become far more painful than they are currently?

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

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