The Economy

We Are Much Closer To A Major War With Iran, And Trump Warns That Anyone That Buys Iranian Oil “Will Not Be Allowed To Do Business With The United States Of America In Any Way, Shape, Or Form”

May 1, 2025 by Michael

2025 is going to be largely defined by whether there is a major war with Iran or not. If a verifiable deal with Iran can be reached that prevents Iran from producing nuclear weapons, I will applaud the Trump administration for pulling off the diplomatic coup of the century. But if negotiations fail, it is just a matter of time before the bombing of Iran begins, and that would set the stage for all sorts of apocalyptic scenarios. Unfortunately, it appears that negotiations with Iran are now in the process of collapsing. The next round of negotiations that was scheduled for this weekend has been abruptly “postponed” by the Iranians…

A fourth round of talks between the United States and Iran, which had been due to take place in Rome on Saturday, has been postponed and a new date will be set “depending on the U.S. approach”, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday.

“U.S. sanctions on Iran during the nuclear talks are not helping the sides to resolve the nuclear dispute through diplomacy,” the official told Reuters.

It isn’t a mystery why the Iranians “postponed” the negotiations.

The day before the Iranians made this announcement, the Trump administration unveiled new oil-related sanctions and warned Iran that there will be “consequences” for continuing to support the Houthis in Yemen…

On Wednesday Washington imposed sanctions on entities it accused of involvement in the illicit trade of Iranian oil and petrochemicals.

Separately, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Iran that it would face consequences for supporting the Houthis, who control northern Yemen and have attacked ships in the Red Sea in what the group says is solidarity with the Palestinians.

If you impose new sanctions on a country that you are negotiating with, you should not be surprised if negotiations break down.

Perhaps the Trump administration has finally come to the conclusion that the Iranians were just using these negotiations to buy time.

Ultimately, there is no way that the Iranians are ever going to stop enriching uranium.

But at least an attempt was made to try to talk the Iranians down from the ledge. I very much agree that was the right thing to do.

Sadly, this crisis has now entered an ominous new chapter. On his account on Truth Social, President Trump just announced that anyone in the world that purchases any amount of Iranian oil will be hit with sanctions themselves…

ALERT: All purchases of Iranian Oil, or Petrochemical products, must stop, NOW! Any Country or person who buys ANY AMOUNT of OIL or PETROCHEMICALS from Iran will be subject to, immediately, Secondary Sanctions. They will not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form. Thank you for your attention to this matter, PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

This just happened, and it is absolutely huge.

China is a major purchaser of Iranian oil. What will Trump do if the Chinese continue to buy oil from Iran?

Will the Chinese “not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form”?

If Trump really follows through on this, we are about to see some really dramatic changes.

Just imagine what it would do to the global economy if we suddenly cut off all trade with China and all of the other nations that purchase oil from Iran.

I believe that Trump is not bluffing, and that means that things are about to get very “interesting”.

As for the Iranians, their actions indicate that they never expected talks with the U.S. to succeed. It is being reported that Iran has been feverishly “fortifying its underground nuclear complexes”…

The non-profit Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) reported that Iran was fortifying its underground nuclear complexes ahead of this weekend’s third round of nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration.

Iran insists it will not comply with the administration’s demand for it to suspend all uranium enrichment.

If the Iranians anticipated that they would be signing a deal with Trump, there would be no need to fortify those facilities.

But instead, they have been hastily constructing a brand new “massive security perimeter”…

ISIS said satellite imagery showed Iran building a security perimeter around Mt. Kolang Gaz La, a mountain that sits atop two large underground tunnel complexes linked to the nearby Natanz nuclear facility. The massive security perimeter, which includes road grading and wall panels, isolates a sizable chunk of the mountain to limit access to the tunnel complex entrances. The north side of the new perimeter joins up with the existing barriers around the Natanz facility.

ISIS noted the new perimeter was not easy to build, given the mountainous terrain. The wall appears to be supported by a network of trenches that could hold wiring for communications, camera surveillance, and light poles.

Once the bombing of Iran begins, there will be no going back.

The bombing of Iran would be far more intense than the bombing of the Houthis has been, and the bombing of the Houthis has been extremely intense.

Most Americans have no idea that we have literally bombed over 1,000 targets in Yemen since the middle of March…

Washington has been bombing the Houthis intensively since mid-March, hitting more than 1,000 targets. Tehran says the Houthis act independently.

We are bombing the living daylights out of the Houthis.

What we would do to Iran would be much worse.

Let me try to end this article on a positive note.

Since Mike Waltz was quite hawkish toward Iran, some are seeing his departure as a sign that peace with the Iranians may still be possible…

National security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving their posts in the Trump White House, according to multiple sources familiar with their departure.

President Trump said Thursday he’s nominating Waltz to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as national security adviser, Mr. Trump said. Waltz will need to be confirmed by the Senate for the ambassador role.

Personally, I am not sure if the departure of Waltz had anything to do with Iran.

It is being reported that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles “was so frustrated with Waltz that she has been barely speaking to him”.

If the White House Chief of Staff can’t stand you, normally you aren’t going to last long.

In this case, Waltz is being shipped off to the United Nations.

He never seemed to be a good fit, and we are being told that President Trump regarded him as too hawkish…

A person familiar with the Cabinet’s internal dynamics said Waltz was too hawkish for the war-averse Trump and was seen as not effectively coordinating foreign policy among a variety of agencies, a key role for the national security adviser.

“The system isn’t running properly,” under Waltz, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hopefully whoever Trump brings in next will have a cool head.

Because cool heads are definitely needed right now.

For a long time, I have been warning that a major war with Iran is coming.

If that happens in 2025, it will be one of the biggest events in modern history.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” 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 “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine 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 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.

9 Signs That Conditions Are Ripe For A Major Economic Crisis In The United States

April 30, 2025April 30, 2025 by Michael

For years, our economy and our financial markets have been artificially propped up. Since 2008, politicians in Washington have added about 26 trillion dollars to the national debt, and bureaucrats at the Fed have pumped trillions of freshly created dollars into the financial system. If we could go back and undo just those two things, we would be living an economic horror show right now. Piling up the largest mountain of debt in the history of the world has enabled us to live way, way, way beyond our means. On a personal level, if you borrowed and spent millions of dollars that you did not have, you would also be able to live a lifestyle that you do not deserve. Debt is extremely seductive, because it is a way to make the present a lot more pleasant. But there is always a price to be paid in the end.

Here in 2025, government spending is being slashed in many areas, the Federal Reserve is choosing not to step in even though turmoil has erupted on Wall Street, consumer confidence is falling dramatically, home sales are collapsing, mass layoffs are happening all over the nation, and now a global trade war has begun.

At this stage, it should be apparent to everyone that we are headed for big trouble. The following are 9 signs that conditions are ripe for a major economic crisis in the United States…

#1 During the first three months of this year, which was before the trade war erupted, U.S. GDP was contracting at a 0.3 percent annual rate…

U.S. economic growth slowed sharply in the first quarter of 2025 as businesses rushed to stockpile goods ahead of President Trump’s sweeping tariff policies.

The nation’s gross domestic product — the total value of products and services — shrank at a 0.3% annual rate, down from growth of 2.4% in the final three months of 2024, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday in its initial GDP estimate. It’s the worst quarterly performance for the U.S. economy since early 2022, when the economy was in recovery after cratering during the COVID pandemic.

The U.S. economy was forecast to show 0.8% growth in the first three months of 2025, according to the average estimate of economists polled by FactSet.

#2 Consumer confidence is absolutely plummeting…

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell to 86 on the month, down 7.9 points from its prior reading and below the Dow Jones estimate for 87.7. It was the lowest reading in nearly five years.

However, the view of conditions further out deteriorated even more.

The board’s expectations index, which measures how respondents look at the next six months, tumbled to 54.4, a decline of 12.5 points and the lowest reading since October 2011. Board officials said the reading is consistent with a recession.

#3 Major layoffs are being announced on an almost daily basis. For example, UPS just announced that it will be laying off approximately 20,000 workers…

The United Parcel Service (UPS) is expected to reduce its workforce by roughly 20,000 during 2025, citing “new or increased tariffs” and “changes in general economic conditions in the U.S. or internationally” for the cuts.

UPS announced the layoffs April 29 in its first quarter earnings report, in which the parcel delivery service said it made consolidated revenues of $21.5 billion, compared to $21.7 billion around the same time a year ago. The shipping company also said it would be closing roughly 164 facilities by the end of the year.

#4 According to the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, incoming cargo volume will be down more than 35 percent next week compared to a year ago…

Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he expects incoming cargo volume to slide by more than a third next week compared with the same period in 2024.

“According to our own port optimizer, which measures the loadings in Asia, we’ll be down just a little bit over 35% next week compared to last year. And it’s a precipitous drop in volume with a number of major American retailers stopping all shipments from China based on the tariffs,” Seroka said.

#5 It is being reported that container bookings from China to the United States have fallen “by as much as 60%”…

By another estimate, container bookings from China to the U.S. are down by as much as 60%, according to Flexport, a supply chain management company. Bookings from other Asia ports, such as Vietnam and Thailand, are up 5% to 10% as some exporters look to expand production outside of China to avoid steep tariffs.

The decline in bookings from China comes during what is usually a busy period for imports to the U.S.

“We would normally see an increase in bookings across the board, because this is the beginning of the shipping year,” said Nathan Strang, director of ocean freight at Flexport. “It’s when back-to-school items and Halloween items start to come in.”

#6 Apollo Global Management is warning that mass layoffs in the trucking industry are imminent…

The trucking industry, critical to U.S. logistics, faces significant challenges as tariffs disrupt trade, particularly with China. A sharp decline in container ship voyages from China is expected to reduce freight volumes, thereby lowering demand for trucking services. Imports account for an estimated 20% of U.S. trucking volumes, so a decline in imports will have a significant impact on the industry. With fewer goods to transport, carriers will face reduced workloads and underutilized fleets, forcing them to cut labor costs.

Apollo predicts that domestic freight activity will sharply slow by mid-May, with mass layoffs likely to follow as firms strive to maintain financial stability. The slowdown in trucking will put a lot of pressure on trucking companies that have been dealing with the Great Freight Recession, one of the longest and deepest downturns in history.

#7 One recent study found that a whopping 74 percent of all U.S. workers are currently living paycheck to paycheck…

Financial insecurity compounds these workplace stresses, with nearly three-quarters (74%) of workers living paycheck to paycheck.

#8 Student loan delinquencies in the U.S. have soared into unprecedented territory…

But even with this factored in, Nelnet’s data shows a spike in delinquencies compared with before the pandemic. A staggering 15 percent of borrowers are more than 90 days delinquent, which is reported to credit bureaus.

If this wave of delinquencies continues, the Education Department has warned that 10 million borrowers — nearly a quarter of the total — could be in default within a few months.

#9 Almost a quarter of all U.S. adults are currently facing “unmanageable” debt levels…

In honor of Financial Literacy Month, Experian offers a closer look at the financial hurdles many are facing – and how some are overcoming them.

Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. adults currently have “unmanageable” debt, as of April 1, according to a survey of 1,000 respondents. Unmanageable debt is defined as when an individual is forced to choose between debt payments and basic necessities.

We have been living in an economic fantasy world.

But now the bubble is starting to burst and people are freaking out.

The only way to return the economy to the level that we have become accustomed to would be to do the same foolish things that our leaders have been doing for decades.

If our politicians in Washington borrow and spend trillions of additional dollars that we do not have, and if the Federal Reserve feverishly pumps even more fresh money into the financial system, that would buy us a little more time.

But it would also make our long-term problems even worse.

No matter how hard we try, economic reality is going to catch up with us eventually.

And when that finally happens, we are going to witness a societal meltdown that is unlike anything we have ever seen before.

“It Is A Full-Blown Crisis Already”: Farmers Cry Out For Help As Massive Financial Losses Pile Up And Demand For U.S. Agricultural Products Disappears

April 28, 2025April 28, 2025 by Michael

China is normally the largest export market for U.S. agricultural products. In a typical year, we sell tens of billions of dollars worth of agricultural products to the Chinese, but now that door has been slammed shut thanks to the extremely high tariffs that China has imposed on U.S. imports. If that door is not reopened very soon, farmers all over the nation will be facing financial ruin due to massive financial losses that are already piling up. This is not a crisis that may or may not arrive someday. As you will see below, this is a crisis that is already here.

More than 1.4 billion people live in China. We send them massive amounts of soy and pork in a normal year, and that has been a very profitable arrangement for U.S. farmers. Unfortunately, demand has dried up due to the trade war, and this has thrown the U.S. agriculture industry into a state of chaos…

Soy has been severely impacted, with a 125% tariff imposed by China causing a steep decline in exports. Although recent comments from Trump hint at possible tariff reductions, prices for soy derivatives like tofu and animal feed have already climbed. Pork exports have suffered from tariffs reaching up to 72%, leading to higher domestic prices for bacon and pork chops. Dairy products, including cheese and milk, have seen prices spike after China and Mexico introduced new tariffs, affecting popular varieties like cheddar and mozzarella.

Apple exports were curtailed by tariffs from China and India, causing price hikes for varieties such as Gala and Fuji. California’s almond industry has also been hit hard, with China applying a 50% tariff; the additional logistics costs have pushed up prices for products like almond milk. Lobster prices have become increasingly volatile domestically after exports to China fell sharply under tariffs of up to 35%.

There were a few months during the pandemic that got a bit crazy, but if high tariffs persist we are going to witness a meltdown unlike anything we have ever experienced before.

The executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition told CNBC that what we are facing “is a full-blown crisis already”…

Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, or AgTC, a leading export trade group for farmers, told CNBC the number of canceled purchases of U.S. agricultural products should not be described as approaching a crisis. “It is a full-blown crisis already,” he said.

Data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday revealed China made its biggest cancellation of pork orders since 2020, halting a shipment of 12,000 tons of pork.

Even though the tariffs have only been in place for less than a month, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition is reporting that many of its members have already been hit by “massive” financial losses…

AgTC said “massive” financial losses are already being felt by its members as a result of the trade war, based on reports it is receiving from member companies.

It is easy to say that all of the soy, pork and corn that China normally purchases should just be sold to someone else.

But the truth is that “there are no other markets that can quickly replace China’s demand”…

Agricultural exporters warned that there are no other markets that can quickly replace China’s demand and absorb the volume, and that is already affecting prices.

“We have diverted employees and production to other (less profitable) production and dramatically slowed down purchasing from independent venders (loggers, truckers, sawmills),” one lumber exporter reported to AgTC. Some products have already declined 20% in market value, the exporter reported, which it said will influence inventory planning and future investments.

On the flip side, U.S. demand for clothing that is imported from China is plummeting dramatically.

Temu has made a ton of money by selling U.S. consumers fashionable clothes at super cheap prices, but now extremely high tariff rates are forcing Temu to add “import charges” to most orders…

Chinese e-tailer Temu has started adding “import charges” of about 145% in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The fees, which began cropping up over the weekend after price hikes went into effect on Friday, cost more than the individual products consumers are buying and can more than double the price of a typical order.

For example, a summer dress sold on Temu for $18.47 will cost $44.68 after $26.21 in import charges are added to the bill, a 142% surcharge, a CNBC analysis shows. A child’s bathing suit priced at $12.44 will cost shoppers $31.12 when the $18.68 import charge is taken into account, a staggering 150% fee. A handheld vacuum cleaner listed at $16.93 now costs $40.11 when factoring in an import charge of $21.68, which is a roughly 137% markup.

Everything that we buy from China is going to be a lot more expensive from now on, and that is only going to intensify our cost of living crisis.

Inflation has been a major problem for years, and an increasing number of people are turning to debt in order to make ends meet.

Even before the tariffs went into effect, one survey found that the percentage of Americans that have been using “buy now pay later” services has been rapidly growing…

In a survey conducted April 2-3 of 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 79, around half reported having used buy now, pay later services. Of those consumers, 25% of respondents said they were using BNPL loans to buy groceries, up from 14% in 2024 and 21% in 2023, the firm said.

Meanwhile, 41% of respondents said they made a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, up from 34% in the year prior, the survey found.

Those numbers are extremely alarming.

As a society, we are not ready for a major economic downturn at all.

In fact, almost a quarter of the entire U.S. population is currently dealing with “unmanageable” levels of debt…

Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. adults currently have “unmanageable” debt, as of April 1, according to a survey of 1,000 respondents. Unmanageable debt is defined as when an individual is forced to choose between debt payments and basic necessities.

If you are facing severe financial stress at this moment, I want you to understand that there are millions of others that are just like you.

We are just going to have to batten down the hatches, because the economic storm that we have entered is not going to be easy to endure.

Decades of very foolish decisions have brought our country to this point, and now a day of reckoning has arrived.

So I hope that you have been preparing for this time, because things are only going to get crazier from here.

Special Report: We Are Being Warned That There Will Be Empty Shelves Throughout The U.S. “Starting In A Couple Of Weeks”

April 25, 2025 by Michael

Experts are telling us that the supply chain disruptions that we are facing are likely to be more severe than anything that we witnessed during the last pandemic. Anyone that believes that we can easily replace 438 billion dollars of imports from China is just being delusional. There are thousands of products that are made in China that are simply not made anywhere else. Yes, we will do what we can to mitigate the damage, but there is only so much that we can do. I just heard from one business owner that has already received numerous price increase notifications from his suppliers. And apparently there are already hundreds of products on Amazon that have had their prices raised substantially…

Amazon merchants are hiking prices for everything from diaper bags and refrigerator magnets to charm necklaces and other top-selling items as they confront higher import costs. E-commerce software company SmartScout tracked 930 products on Amazon that have seen increased prices since April 9, with an average jump of 29% in categories, including clothing, jewelry, household items, office supplies, electronics and toys.

In many other cases, products that are manufactured in China will no longer be coming to the United States at all. In fact, President Trump is even admitting that most Chinese businesses “won’t do any business here” as long as tariff rates remain this high…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said recently that no one thinks the current status quo with China is sustainable. The president was asked by Time if he agrees with that sentiment.

“Oh I agree,” Mr. Trump responded. He said China “won’t do any business here, because at 145%, it’s going to be very rare that you see business.”

Nobody can deny that President Trump is quite correct about this, and the numbers that we are already seeing are quite staggering.

For example, it is being reported that the “volume of goods shipped from China that is scheduled to arrive at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach between the week of May 4 and May 10 has dropped 43%”…

US businesses began scaling back or canceling orders as President Trump ratcheted up the trade war with Beijing after returning to the White House.

The volume of goods shipped from China that is scheduled to arrive at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach between the week of May 4 and May 10 has dropped 43%, compared to the same period last year, according to container-tracking software provider Vizion.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

Container bookings for shipments from China to the United States dropped by a staggering 64 percent during the first week of April compared to the previous week…

The drop in predicted arrivals at Los Angeles follows reports from data provider Vizion of a “crash” in container bookings in April. For shipments from China to the US, bookings fell 64pc in the first week of the month compared to the previous week.

Analysts blamed the crash on importers who were cancelling shipments to “reassess costs, timelines, and broader trade strategy”.

This is leaving more container ships half-empty – and prompting more shipping companies to cancel voyages in a bid to reduce losses and stop fees plummeting.

Imagine a truck that is speeding along at 70 miles per hour and someone slams the brakes all the way to the floor.

That is essentially what we are facing.

FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller is warning that trucking activity out of the L.A. area is likely to drop 50 percent and we are likely to see “massive layoffs”…

Year-over-year trucking activity out of Los Angeles down 23%.

It will likely drop to 50% in the coming weeks if there isn’t trade war resolution.

Massive layoffs coming to the West Coast trucking sector

The bottom line is that a lot less stuff is going to be coming to our stores.

In fact, the president of the U.S.-China Business Council is convinced that “starting in a couple of weeks, we are just going to start running out of stuff”…

Some of the products likeliest to go missing from store shelves in the coming months will be lower-cost footwear, apparel, toys and electronics, for which manufacturing is heavily concentrated in China, Gold said. Other perishable items coming from China, like apple juice and fish, have limited shelf lives and were more difficult for retailers to stockpile.

“Like back during Covid where we had shortages of toilet paper, we are going to start seeing that in more and more goods,” said Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council. “Starting in a couple of weeks, we are just going to start running out of stuff, and if the administration waits to resolve the problem until we have shortages and hoarding, that is just too late.”

His assessment was echoed by an expert that was interviewed by the New York Post…

China accounts for about 54% of all US containerized imports from Asia – from electronics, toys, apparel, furniture and building materials. It generally takes two to three weeks to make the journey from China to the West Coast ports.

“Things that can’t be inventoried, you’ll see (shortages) in a matter of weeks, maybe not even months,” Rita McGrath, strategic management scholar and professor at Columbia Business School, told The Post.

And the CEOs of Walmart, Target and Home Depot essentially told President Trump the same thing…

Earlier this week, America’s most powerful retail executives trooped into the White House to deliver a blunt prognosis: tariffs on Chinese goods risked causing “empty shelves” in two weeks without a change of course.

The three companies who attended the meeting – Walmart, Target and Home Depot – are among the most exposed to the president’s policies, which include tariffs of up to 145pc on Chinese goods and higher port fees for Chinese-made vessels.

We are heading into a full-blown nightmare.

Even if the U.S. and China were to reach a trade deal tomorrow, and that is definitely not going to happen, it would still take an extended period of time before our supply chains returned to normal…

Even if Trump were to reduce the tariffs, the disruption caused to the supply chain could take weeks or months to unravel, given the time it takes for ships to across the Pacific and for the other pieces of the supply chain to snap back into place.

“You have an eight-week period where volumes are going to crash before they can even come back up, and that’s if things return to normal,” said Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT Freight and Analytics. “All this comes at a time of the year when volumes really should start to increase.”

For now, it appears that the Chinese are digging in for the long haul.

On Friday, we learned that China’s Politburo has decided to implement a plan to assist those that are being impacted by the trade war…

In an economic-analysis meeting on Friday, the 24-man Politburo, China’s main decision-making body headed by President Xi Jinping, said authorities would roll out specific plans to support companies and individuals affected by the trade war.

They pledged to “coordinate domestic economic work with international economic and trade engagements, resolutely focus on doing our own affairs, steadfastly expand high-level opening up, and focus on stabilizing employment, businesses, markets, and expectations”, according to a meeting readout released by Xinhua.

“By enhancing the certainty of high-quality development, we can effectively respond to the uncertainties brought by drastic changes in the external environment,” it said.

Here in the United States, those that are getting hammered by the trade war are just going to have to deal with it.

This is a really bad time for this to happen. Economic conditions were already starting to slow down, and a major conflict with Iran could erupt at any time.

It is often said that when it rains, it pours.

It is definitely raining now, and if the U.S. and China cannot reach a deal soon we are going to get absolutely soaked.

The CEOs of Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s Warn That Store Shelves All Over America Could “Soon Be Empty”

April 23, 2025April 23, 2025 by Michael

If you are going to need anything made in China, I would buy it now while you still can. Many companies have already decided that it no longer makes any economic sense to import Chinese-made products into the United States because tariff rates are so high. As a result, there are certain things that will soon no longer be available to U.S. consumers. On Monday, when I posted an article warning about “empty shelves” in the months ahead, some people thought that I was exaggerating. But of course the truth is that I was not exaggerating at all. On Tuesday, the CEOs of Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s specifically warned President Trump that store shelves all over the country could “soon be empty” during a meeting at the White House…

The CEOs of Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s, all of whom delivered a blunt message about interruptions in the supply chain and its effects on consumers, were invited to the White House as part of an ongoing internal campaign to make the case to Trump about the real-world impact of his policies, administration officials said.

Trump’s tariffs have placed significant pressure on the retail sector. The business leaders warned that store shelves across America could “soon be empty,” two people familiar with the meeting said, as they presented a dire economic picture that could come into sharper view within weeks.

Those CEOs are not bluffing.

Our biggest retailers normally import massive amounts of goods from China, and there is no easy short-term way to replace that production.

According to Axios, the CEOs “flat out told him [Trump] the prices aren’t going up, they’re steady right now, but they will go up”. They also told President Trump that “shelves will be empty” if current tariff levels persist.

I am so glad that President Trump is getting input from these CEOs.

That is very important.

The CEO of Walmart reportedly told President Trump that his supply chains are already being disrupted…

Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart who has developed a cordial relationship with Trump through meetings at Mar-a-Lago and several mutual friends, bluntly told Trump that the trade war with China had already started to disrupt the supply chain, officials said, and would only intensify by summer.

We should have never become so dependent on imports from China.

I have been ranting about this for years.

Now we find ourselves in a situation where our economy literally cannot function properly without Chinese-made goods.

According to Zero Hedge, scheduled import volumes at the Port of Los Angeles are beginning to plummet dramatically…

The Trump administration is likely monitoring sliding scheduled import volumes at the Port of Los Angeles—the largest container port in the Western Hemisphere—amid President Trump’s overnight remarks hinting at a potential de-escalation in the trade war with China. The president’s comments to ease trade tensions with Beijing come as scheduled import volumes at the LA Port indicate possible inbound trade disruptions on the horizon.

According to Port Optimizer, a tracking system for vessel operators, scheduled import volumes for the LA Port for the week ending May 3 show a 38.53% week-over-week plunge. Year-over-year, the data shows a 9.79% decrease. For the week ending May 10, scheduled import volumes continued to slow, with a year-over-year change down around 35%.

Those numbers might not mean anything to you now.

But you will be quite upset when you go to a big box store and the item that you are looking for is not there.

The reality of the matter is that our supply chains have already been thrown into a state of chaos.

One industry insider warned CNBC that more than 700,000 truckloads “have evaporated nationally” in just the last week…

The fallout from the ocean freight slowdown is beginning to hit ground transport linked to ports.

“We are at a tipping point on the West Coast,” said Ken Adamo, chief of analytics at DAT Freight & Analytics. “Looking at how many truck loads are available versus trucks, we’ve seen a precipitous drop, over 700,000 loads have evaporated nationally in the past week compared to two weeks prior,” he said.

That is cataclysmic.

In all my years, I have never seen anything even close to this.

And the outlook for the weeks ahead is even more troubling. We are being told that “ocean container bookings from China to the United States are down over 60%”…

In the 3 weeks since the tariffs took effect, ocean container bookings from China to the United States are down over 60% industry wide.

But there is some good news.

After his meeting with the retail CEOs, President Trump told the press that tariffs on Chinese imports will “come down substantially” and that we “are going to have a fair deal with China”…

Mr Trump told reporters late on Tuesday that levies on China would “come down substantially”.

“We are going to have a fair deal with China,” the president told reporters on Wednesday, without addressing the report.

The suggestion that tariffs could be halved sent stocks soaring on Wall Street, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq stock index up as much as 4pc at one point.

Unfortunately, this is not going to happen right away.

According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, it is still the position of the Trump administration that there will be “no unilateral reduction in tariffs against China”…

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday said on Fox News there will be “no unilateral reduction in tariffs against China.”

“The president has made it clear China needs to make a deal with the United States of America, and we are optimistic that will happen,” Leavitt said. “And when that continues, it will be up to the president what the tariff rate on China will be.”

What this means is that the tariffs will remain where they are until a deal with China is reached.

That could take weeks, that could take months, or that could take years.

Or it may never happen at all.

At least the Chinese are willing to talk. In fact, a top Chinese official just declared that “our doors are wide open”…

China said “our doors are wide open” for talks after President Donald Trump softened his tone on the unfolding trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

Guo Jiakun, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, made the comments at a press briefing on Wednesday, according to Chinese state media.

That is a promising sign.

But the Trump administration has no intention of going back to the way that things were before. According to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the Trump administration is seeking a deal that will fundamentally rebalance trade between the United States and China…

“Recent data shows the Chinese economy tilting even further away from consumption toward manufacturing. China’s economic system, with growth driven by manufacturing exports, will continue to create even more serious imbalances with its trading partners if the status quo is allowed to continue,” he said.

“China’s current economic model is built on exporting its way out of its economic troubles. It’s an unsustainable model that is not only harming China, but the entire world,” Bessent said. “China needs to change. The country knows it needs to change. Everyone knows it needs to change, and we want to help it change, because we need rebalancing too.”

Negotiating such a deal with the Chinese will not be easy at all.

And even if a deal is eventually reached, President Trump is warning that tariffs on Chinese goods “won’t be zero”…

Trump yesterday said the current tariff is ‘very high, and it won’t be that high. … No, it won’t be anywhere near that high. It’ll come down substantially. But it won’t be zero.’

The bottom line is that Chinese goods will never be more affordable than they are right now.

And until a deal with China is reached, many Chinese goods may not be available at all.

So you might want to stock up while it is still possible to do so.

12 Signs That U.S. Consumers Are Experiencing Far More Financial Stress Than Most People Realize

April 22, 2025April 22, 2025 by Michael

Consumer sentiment is plummeting, delinquency rates are rising, and nearly three-quarters of all U.S. consumers admit that they are “financially stressed”. If U.S. consumers are experiencing this much pain now, what will things look like six months from today if there are empty shelves and widespread shortages? We witnessed a brief period of severe financial stress during the early days of the last pandemic, but we would have to go all the way back to the Great Recession to find a time that is truly comparable to what we are enduring now. U.S consumers have been getting hammered for years, and now it appears that our problems are about to go to an entirely new level. The following are 12 signs that U.S. consumers are experiencing far more financial stress than most people realize…

#1 According to the University of Michigan, consumer sentiment in the United States has fallen to the second-lowest reading ever recorded…

Americans are rarely this pessimistic about the economy.

Consumer sentiment plunged 11% this month to a preliminary reading of 50.8, the University of Michigan said in its latest survey released Friday, the second-lowest reading on records going back to 1952.

#2 According to a new CNBC/SurveyMonkey poll, a whopping 73 percent of U.S. consumers admit that they are “financially stressed”…

Americans are growing increasingly uneasy about the state of the U.S. economy and their own personal financial situation in the face of stubborn inflation and tariff wars.

To that point, 73% of respondents said they are “financially stressed,” with 66% of that group pointing to the tariff wars as a main source, according to a new CNBC/SurveyMonkey online poll.

The survey of 4,200 U.S. adults was conducted April 3 to 7.

#3 Approximately two-thirds of U.S. adults feel like they are “behind on their savings goals”, and half of U.S. adults believe that they will never reach their savings goals at all…

67% of Americans feel behind on their savings goals, with nearly half (47%) believing they’ll never reach their targets

#4 More than 60 percent of U.S. adults that currently have savings accounts have taken money out of them since the start of this year…

63% of people with savings accounts have withdrawn money since the beginning of 2025, primarily for unexpected expenses (48%) and everyday necessities (36%)

#5 The percentage of U.S. credit card accounts that are at least 90 days past due has reached the highest level in 12 years…

The percentage of credit card accounts that were at least 90 days past due hit a 12-year high in the fourth quarter of 2024.

According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, 0.90% of accounts were delinquent, the most since the Fed bank began its report.

#6 5 million student loan borrowers in the United States have not made a single payment in the last year, and 4 million other student loan borrowers will soon reach that status…

Of the more than 42.7 million student loan borrowers in the U.S., who owe a collective $1.6 trillion, the department says that more than 5 million have not made a payment in the past year. That number is expected to grow as an additional 4 million borrowers are approaching default status.

#7 For the first time in about 5 years, the Department of Eduction “will resume collections of its defaulted federal student loan portfolio”. This is going to put additional financial stress on millions of U.S. households…

The U.S. Department of Education today announced its Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) will resume collections of its defaulted federal student loan portfolio on Monday, May 5th. The Department has not collected on defaulted loans since March 2020. Resuming collections protects taxpayers from shouldering the cost of federal student loans that borrowers willingly undertook to finance their postsecondary education. This initiative will be paired with a comprehensive communications and outreach campaign to ensure borrowers understand how to return to repayment or get out of default.

#8 The average credit score in the United States just dropped at the fastest pace since the Great Recession…

America’s credit score just took its biggest hit since the 2008 crash.

The average FICO score in the US has dropped to 715 from 717 — the largest one-year drop since the Great Recession, according to new data from the credit-rating giant FICO.

#9 U.S. consumers are eating out less, and as a result restaurant chains all over the country are in financial distress…

Once rapidly growing commercial marvels, casual dining chains — sit-down restaurants where middle-class families can walk in without a reservation, order from another human and share a meal — have been in decline for most of the 21st century. Last year, TGI Fridays and Red Lobster both filed for bankruptcy. Outback and Applebee’s have closed dozens of locations. Pizza Hut locations with actual dining rooms are vanishingly rare, with hundreds closing since 2019.

According to a February survey by the market research firm Datassential, 24 percent of Americans say they are having dinner at casual restaurants less often, and 29 percent are dining out less with groups of friends and family.

#10 U.S. consumers are visiting shopping malls a lot less than they once did, and as a result many mall retailers are going belly up…

Merry Go Round, Bon-Ton, Lord & Taylor, The Limited, Loehmann’s, Bonwit Teller, Chess King, and Anchor Blue are just a few once-successful clothing retailers that no longer exist.

Now, a once-trendy fashion/clothing retailer finds itself having to make massive cuts and shut down 100s of stores in a fight to avoid bankruptcy.

#11 U.S. consumers are not spending as much money at hair salons, and Bloomberg is telling us that this is an indicator that a recession is coming…

Stylists from Manhattan to rural New Hampshire are seeing regular clients start to skip cuts and blowouts. In from the Maine town of Brewer, hairstylist Alyssa Dow said customers are choosing cheaper, “more low-maintenance” looks—and tipping less. In affluent Longmeadow, Massachusetts, where “people don’t like to walk around with roots” showing, clients who previously got color every two or three weeks are stretching it to four or five, citing the “political situation” and implying they’ve lost money in the stock market, said Michelle LaValley. “They’re cutting back in other areas as well, so it’s not just us,” said the salon owner, who has 28 years in the business. The wider pullback in spending seems to go beyond the general grumpiness that accompanied the so-called vibecession that started years ago when inflation rose, interest rates spiked and yet the US kept growing.

#12 According to the Fed, U.S. consumers are becoming more concerned about inflation and unemployment…

The central bank’s monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations showed that respondents saw inflation a year from now at 3.6%, an increase of half a percentage point from February and the highest reading since October 2023.

Along with concerns over a higher cost of living came a surge in worries over the labor market: The probability that the unemployment rate would be higher a year from now surged to 44%, a move up of 4.6 percentage points and the highest level going back to the early Covid pandemic days of April 2020.

Right now, economists all over the country are arguing about whether a recession is ahead of us or not.

But to millions of hard working Americans, it feels like a recession has already begun.

If you are currently experiencing financial stress, I want you to know that you aren’t alone.

Countless others are in the exact same boat, and the outlook for the months ahead is not promising at all.

This Is Why Empty Shelves And Painful Shortages Of Certain Items Are Coming

April 21, 2025April 21, 2025 by Michael

We are about to find out what happens when thousands of very popular products are suddenly no longer available for sale. A lot of Amazon shoppers have been shocked to learn that some of their favorite products have already disappeared. In fact, there are entire stores on Amazon that are now completely gone. Of course it isn’t just Amazon that is facing an unprecedented crisis. Walmart, Target, Home Depot and our largest dollar store chains are all going to have to figure out new ways to fill their shelves in the months ahead.

Those that wish to export products to the United States will soon have to pay enormous port fees on top of the tariffs that have already been announced.

For certain products coming from China, that will mean paying port fees on top of tariffs of up to 245 percent.

Some companies will still attempt to sell Chinese-made products in the United States, but they will be forced to hike their prices extremely high.

But in many other cases, companies will simply decide that it no longer makes economic sense to sell those products in the United States.

This will increase demand for similar goods that are produced right here in the United States.

Of course there are a lot of instances where there are no similar goods made in the United States.

And even if all of our factories were running at full capacity, there is just no way that we could hope to replace the tsunami of products that is normally imported from China.

Yes, we can build new factories, but that will take years.

It also comes with a lot of risk.

Less than four years from now, a new administration could come in and totally reverse current trade policy.

If Chinese goods started pouring back into our country at that point, what would happen to those that invested giant mountains of money into new U.S. factories?

I don’t think that we will see a huge wave of factory construction, because the risk of being wiped out when a new administration comes in is just too great.

I haven’t heard anyone else talk about this.

Businesses do not like to make huge investments unless there is certainty about the outcome.

While U.S. CEOs debate about what to do, our stores will not be able to fill their shelves with things that are made in the United States.

We simply are not able to produce enough stuff.

So if other nations stop sending us the things that we need, there will be shortages.

Last week, we learned that Chinese-built and Chinese-owned trade vessels will soon be hit with massive new port fees every time they make a voyage to the United States…

The Federal Register notice posted by the US Trade Representative (USTR) on Thursday said the US government will charge fees on all Chinese-built and -owned ships docking in US ports based on net tonnage or goods carried on each voyage.

The new fees will be enforced in around 180 days’ time, rolled out in a phased manner, and may be raised in coming years, according to the USTR notice.

The latest announcement backtracks from proposals floated in February to charge China-built ships of up to $1.5 million per port call, which had prompted a widespread industry backlash, Reuters reported.

So in addition to facing tariffs of up to 245 percent, a Chinese container ship that is carrying Chinese products across the Pacific could be hit with a port fee of up to 1.5 million dollars when it arrives.

This is going to absolutely kill trade with China.

Once these port fees go into effect, I don’t know why anyone would still want to ship products from China to the United States.

Of course these new port fees will have a tremendous chilling effect on trade with everyone else too, because Chinese-made vessels will soon “represent 98% of the trade ships on the world’s oceans”…

Many warned the government in letters and in testimony that the U.S. was in no position to win an economic war that placed ocean carriers using Chinese-made vessels in the middle. Soon, Chinese-made vessels will represent 98% of the trade ships on the world’s oceans.

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that Chinese-built ships that are coming to the U.S. from nations other than China will be facing significantly lower port fees…

From October 14, Chinese-owned and operated ships will be charged $50 a net ton, a rate that will increase by $30 a year over the next three years.

Chinese-built ships owned by non-Chinese firms will be charged $18 a net ton, with annual fee increases of $5 over the same period.

But even at a lower level, these port fees are still going to really sting.

So what is the bottom line?

The bottom line is that if you want to buy a foreign-made product, you should get it now while you still can.

This is particularly true for anything made in China.

Already, we are witnessing a stunning increase in “canceled sailings by freight ships out of China”…

U.S. importers are being notified of an increase in canceled sailings by freight ships out of China as ocean carriers try to balance the pullback in orders resulting from President Trump’s tariffs and the escalation of tensions in the trade war.

A total of 80 blank, or canceled, sailings out of China have been recorded by freight company HLS Group. It wrote in a recent note to clients that with the trade war between China and the U.S. leading to a demand plummet, carriers have started to suspend or adjust transpacific services.

We have never seen anything like this before.

As trade across the Pacific dries up, it is going to have a tremendous economic impact up and down our supply chains…

The impact of the diminished freight container traffic to North America will be significant for many links in the economy and supply chain, including the ports and logistics companies moving the freight. If each sailing was carrying 8,000 to 10,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), that would equal a decline in freight traffic of between 640,000-800,000 containers, and lead to decreased crane operations at the ports, lower fees that could be collected, and declines in container pick-ups and transports by trucks, rails, and to warehouses for storage.

It isn’t going to take long for us to start experiencing a lot of pain.

According to a report that was posted by Zero Hedge on Saturday, there are some cases where Chinese exporters “have opted to surrender their cargo to the shipping companies mid-voyage rather than deal with the new tariffs”…

The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based English-language outlet, reported on April 10 that some Chinese exporters have opted to surrender their cargo to the shipping companies mid-voyage rather than deal with the new tariffs.

“No one will buy them after the tariffs are imposed,” the publication quoted one client as saying to a Chinese exporter.

Mainland Chinese outlet Caixin reported that the port of Shanghai—normally bustling with ships—was virtually empty on the day after the United States imposed its 145 percent tariff. The outlet expects U.S.–China shipping to fall by half in the near future.

I have never seen this happen before.

We are talking about Chinese-made goods that were literally on the way to this country.

Needless to say, those exporters won’t be sending anything else our way for the foreseeable future.

If there are products that you depend on that normally come from China, you should stock up now.

There will be shortages.

Of course not everything will be in short supply.

For many things, we can definitely produce the quantities that we need even if Chinese imports went to zero.

But in other cases, there will be supply crunches that will surpass anything that we witnessed during the pandemic.

Those that were hoping for a “hard reset” with China certainly got their wish.

Now the fun begins.

Drugged Into Oblivion: More Than 60 Percent Of U.S. Adults Admit That They Are Taking Pharmaceutical Drugs

April 17, 2025April 17, 2025 by Michael

Americans watch more television than anyone else in the world, and as we watch television we are constantly being bombarded by commercials from pharmaceutical companies. As I discussed in a previous article, pharmaceutical companies spend more than 15 billion dollars on television advertising each year. The reason they do this is because it works. We are the most drugged nation in the history of the world, and the pharmaceutical companies are absolutely swimming in cash.

According to polling that was conducted by KFF, a whopping 61 percent of all U.S. adults admit that they are currently taking at least one pharmaceutical drug.

That is a solid majority of the population.

And once they have you on one drug, they are much more likely to be able to get you on another.

The KFF survey found that 13 percent of U.S. adults are taking one pharmaceutical drug.

The KFF survey found that 11 percent of U.S. adults are taking two pharmaceutical drugs.

The KFF survey found that 10 percent of U.S. adults are taking three pharmaceutical drugs.

And most shocking of all, the KFF survey found that 27 percent of U.S. adults are taking at least four pharmaceutical drugs.

That means that more than a quarter of the adult population is currently on at least four prescription medications.

That is insane!

But this is where we are at as a society.

Elderly Americans are the biggest victims. One study found “that an estimated 89 percent of older adults” took at least one prescription medication within the past 12 months.

Even if you aren’t sick, the system is designed to find a reason why you should become a customer of the big pharmaceutical companies.

For example, the percentage of Americans that have been diagnosed with depression has more than tripled since 2005…

Today, new CDC data showed that nearly 18 percent of Americans had depression in 2023, an all-time high. In 2005, when Cruise’s controversial interview aired, that figure was about 5.4 percent.

At this stage, it is so easy to be diagnosed with depression.

Just act a little bit sad, and they will gladly start giving you pills.

This is particularly true for women. According to Google AI, women in the United States are using antidepressants at a rate that is more than twice as high as men…

According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted in 2015-2018, approximately 17.7% of women aged 18 and older reported using antidepressants in the past 30 days. This is significantly higher than the rate for men, which was 8.4%.

If you have been on antidepressants, you already know how they can mess with your head.

I have seen it happen to people that I know personally.

So what is going to happen to the millions of Americans that are highly dependent on these drugs if they suddenly can’t get them anymore?

Today, we import approximately 75 percent of our essential medicines, and most of those essential medicines come from either China or India…

According to Exiger, the U.S. currently imports 75% of its essential medicines, with most of them coming from China and India. While India produces about half of the generic drugs the U.S. imports, it relies heavily on China for 80% of its active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). More than 500 generic drugs rely on one country’s APIs, including treatments for diabetes and heart conditions as well as antibiotics.

Another factor putting Americans at risk is the use of forced labor in the production of pharmaceuticals. Exiger found that multiple suppliers, including Sinopharm, Zhejiang Shindai Chemical Group and Zhejiang Chemicals Export Corp., relied on Uyghur forced labor in Xinjiang. Customs and Border Patrol is supposed to block goods made with forced labor; however, some still get through.

We have got a real mess on our hands.

Many pharmaceutical drugs will soon become much more expensive, and in other cases we could witness extreme shortages.

Millions of U.S. adults are about to experience a very rude awakening.

Of course it isn’t just adults that are being drugged into oblivion.

Today, millions of American boys are being given drugs for ADHD…

More than 21% of 14-year-old boys in this country now supposedly suffer from this condition. The number goes up to 23% for 17-year-old boys. As a result, prescriptions for drugs like Ritalin and Adderall have skyrocketed. From 2012 to 2022, the total number of prescriptions for stimulants to treat ADHD increased dramatically by nearly 60%. Boys between the ages of 10 to 14 were the demographic that saw the highest increase in these prescriptions.

What we are witnessing is a national tragedy.

Most of the boys that are taking these drugs simply do not need them.

As Glenn Back has accurately pointed out, our “feminized education system” tends to punish normal male behavior…

“The truth is we’ve been told not that a feminized education system has increasingly punished normal male behavior it doesn’t understand; it’s not that schools have lost their capacity to educate male students; it’s not that smartphone use and electronics in general have become distractions teachers have been unable to control. Instead, we’re led to believe that boys have suddenly become afflicted with a severe psychological disorder,” Glenn reads from the Daily Wire piece.

He agrees that what’s being done to boys in education is a travesty.

“Everything is just push the girls, push the girls, push the girls — ‘you can be anything.’ ‘Shut up, sit down, have some Ritalin’ to the boys,” he condemns.

The boys who are being written off as distractible and out of control are really just being typical boys.

He is right.

We have been trained to think that typical male behavior is abnormal when it most certainly is not.

Sadly, an increasing percentage of U.S. adults now believe that children are such a “burden” that they don’t want to be parents at all…

A new study shows the number of U.S. adults who do not want to have children has doubled in 20 years.

“We found that the percentage of non-parents who don’t want any children rose from 14% in 2002 to 29% in 2023,” Jennifer Watling Neal, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Michigan State University (MSU), said.

“During the same period, the percentage of non-parents who plan to have children in the future fell from 79% to 59%,” she added.

The relentless propaganda that they have been feeding us is working.

More U.S. adults than ever before are completely rejecting parenthood.

Needless to say, this is a recipe for societal suicide.

If we do not reproduce ourselves, we can’t expect to have any sort of a positive future.

Sadly, millions of Americans simply do not care about the future at this point because they have already been drugged into oblivion.

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