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So many seniors that were once so full of life are now just shadows of their former selves.  It can be really easy to assume that they are “just getting old” and that nothing unusual is happening to them.  But the truth is that in so many cases the reason why America’s seniors are shutting down is because they are simply being overmedicated.  Our entire medical system has been designed to push pills, and so when our seniors seek medical help that is usually the solution that they are offered.  As you will see below, the proportion of our seniors that are on at least 8 pharmaceutical drugs is truly alarming.  Of course those that consume pharmaceutical drug cocktails on a daily basis for an extended period of time are quite likely to experience very serious consequences.

Most people don’t realize that modern terms such as “pharmacy” and “pharmaceutical” originally come from the Greek word “pharmakeia”…

The word “pharmacy” has a fascinating origin story that’s as complex as the practice itself.

It comes from the Greek word “pharmakeia”, which referred to “the practice of the druggist”. But here is the twist: “phármakon”, the root of the term, was a double-edged sword – it meant a plant or herb that could be used for either healing or harmful purposes, blurring the line between medicine and poison.

No society in the entire history of the planet has taken “pharmakeia” to the extremes that we have.

We are the most drugged nation that the world has ever seen, and this is particularly true for our seniors.

The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed an 83-year-old woman named Barbara Schmidt that has “filled prescriptions for more than a dozen different drugs in the past year”…

For years, Barbara Schmidt’s family feared an illness was behind a pattern of terrifying falls that repeatedly landed the 83-year-old great-grandmother in surgery with broken bones. Instead, Schmidt’s frequent tumbles might have been tied to something else: medications intended to make her better.

Schmidt, who lives with her husband of 65 years in Lewes, Del., filled prescriptions for more than a dozen different drugs in the past year, according to pharmacy and medical records.

After taking so many medications in such a short period of time, it really is a miracle that she is still alive today.

But she is far from alone.

The Wall Street Journal discovered that one out of every six seniors that is enrolled in Medicare’s drug benefit has been prescribed at least 8 different pharmaceutical drugs…

That isn’t unusual for America’s seniors, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Medicare data. One in six of the 46 million seniors enrolled in Medicare’s drug benefit, which pays for most drugs taken by older Americans, were prescribed eight or more medications.

Millions upon millions of our seniors are literally being drugged into oblivion.

One of the problems is that seniors often visit multiple physicians, and that can result in a lot of confusion…

Pharmacists who work with seniors say doctors might not be aware of their patients’ full medication list. Patients don’t always mention what their other doctors have prescribed when a history is taken, and specialists might not have access to a shared medical record.

The Journal analysis found that, among seniors taking eight or more drugs, it was common for the prescriptions to come from a large number of doctors.

Of course it isn’t just seniors that are being overmedicated.

One recent survey found that 70 percent of U.S. adults are currently taking at least one pharmaceutical drug, and nearly a quarter of U.S. adults are currently taking at least four pharmaceutical drugs…

Recent CivicScience poll results reveal the picture of maintenance prescription drug use in the U.S. has shifted dramatically. The number of U.S. adults who report taking at least one prescription medication per day is now 70%, a 14 percentage-point increase from 2019 data.

Additionally, the percentage of people taking four or more prescription medications daily in the US has increased by six percentage points, from 18% to 24%. An increasing number of prescriptions equals less and less wiggle room in budgets already tightened due to inflationary prices.

It is an insanely profitable industry, and that is why we constantly see ads for pharmaceutical drugs on television.

They desperately want more “customers”, and seniors are the easiest target.

According to the official CDC website, 89 percent of Americans that are 65 years or older are currently taking at least one pharmaceutical drug…

Among adults aged ≥65 years, men (89.0%) and women (89.3%) were equally likely to take prescription medication. Prescription medication use increased with age, from 48.4% for those aged 18–44 years to 89.2% for those aged ≥65 years, and this pattern of increasing use with age was observed for both men and women.

We take more pharmaceutical drugs than anyone else in the world.

So why is our life expectancy below average compared to other industrialized nations?

I think that is a really important question.

When our seniors go to see their doctors, they are often not properly informed about the potential side effects of the drugs that they are being prescribed.

Let me give you an example.

Zoloft is the number one antidepressant in the United States, but most of those that are taking it do not realize that it has an extremely long list of side effects.

But don’t just take my word for it.  The following comes from the official Zoloft website…

ZOLOFT may cause serious side effects. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms, or call 911 if there is an emergency.

1. Suicidal thoughts or actions:

ZOLOFT and other antidepressant medicines may increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some people 24 years of age and younger, especially within the first few months of treatment or when the dose is changed.

Depression or other serious mental illnesses are the most important causes of suicidal thoughts or actions.

Watch for these changes and call your healthcare provider right away if you notice new or sudden changes in mood, behavior, actions, thoughts, or feelings, especially if severe.

Pay particular attention to such changes when ZOLOFT is started or when the dose is changed.

Keep all follow-up visits with your healthcare provider and call between visits if you are worried about symptoms.

2. Call a doctor right away if you or a person you know who is taking ZOLOFT has any of the following symptoms, especially if they are new, worse, or worry you:

-thoughts about suicide or dying
-attempts to commit suicide
-new or worse depression
-new or worse anxiety
-feeling very agitated or restless
-panic attacks
-trouble sleeping (insomnia)
-new or worse irritability
-acting aggressive, being angry, or violent
-acting on dangerous impulses
-an extreme increase in activity and talking (mania)
-other unusual changes in behavior or mood

3. Serotonin Syndrome. This condition can be life-threatening and symptoms may include:

-agitation, hallucinations, coma, or other changes in mental status
-racing heartbeat, high or low blood pressure
-coordination problems or muscle twitching (overactive reflexes)
-nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
-sweating or fever
-muscle rigidity

4. Increased chance of bleeding: ZOLOFT and other antidepressant medicines may increase your risk of bleeding or bruising, especially if you take the blood thinner warfarin (COUMADIN®, JANTOVEN®), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs, like ibuprofen or naproxen), or aspirin.

5. Manic episodes. Symptoms may include:

-greatly increased energy
-racing thoughts
-unusually grand ideas
-severe trouble sleeping
-reckless behavior
-excessive happiness or irritability
-talking more or faster than usual

6. Seizures or convulsions.

7. Glaucoma (angle-closure glaucoma). ZOLOFT may cause a certain type of eye problem called angle-closure glaucoma. Call your healthcare provider if you have eye pain, changes in your vision, or swelling or redness in or around the eye. Only some people are at risk for these problems. You may want to undergo an eye examination to see if you are at risk and receive preventative treatment if you are.

8. Changes in appetite or weight.

9. Low salt (sodium) levels in the blood. Elderly people may be at greater risk for this. Symptoms may include headache, weakness or feeling unsteady, confusion, problems concentrating or thinking, or memory problems.

10. Sexual problems (dysfunction). Taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), including ZOLOFT, may cause sexual problems.

There are many other drugs that literally list “death” as one of the potential side effects.

And earlier this year it was being reported that adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs have now become the third leading cause of death in the United States…

In 2021, the American Society of Pharmacovigilance (ASP) launched the Fourth Cause Campaign to raise awareness that adverse drug events (ADEs) were the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Today, new data confirm a troubling and unacceptable reality—ADEs have now surged to become the third leading cause of death. An internal analysis conducted by ASP projects that adverse drug events now account for over 250,000 deaths annually, surpassing stroke and respiratory disease, making it the third leading cause of death in the United States.

What we are witnessing is truly a national tragedy.

But the big news networks aren’t going to talk much about it, because the pharmaceutical companies are their biggest advertisers.

And our politicians are unlikely to push for major reform, because the pharmaceutical companies pour vast amounts of money into their campaigns.

Money is power, and the pharmaceutical industry is absolutely swimming in cash.

If you are waiting for major change to happen, you may find yourself waiting for quite a while.

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.

2025 has been a smashing year for those that invested in precious metals.  The price of copper is up about 30 percent since the start of the year, and the price of silver has risen 128 percent during that same time period.  I have been saying “we have never seen anything like this before” a lot lately, but this is yet another case where that is entirely true.  Needless to say, what we have been witnessing is not welcome news for those that have been trying to keep silver prices and copper prices suppressed.  In recent weeks, big losses have turned into even bigger losses as things haven’t gone their way.  The big financial institutions in the western world that have been attempting to suppress prices are fighting a losing battle, because the “AI revolution” is going to require vast amounts of physical silver and physical copper.  At this stage, it would take a truly apocalyptic event to stop the construction of the thousands of colossal data centers that are currently going up all over the globe.

At the same time, there has been a worldwide explosion in demand for physical silver from individual investors as paper currencies rapidly lose their purchasing power.

This has particularly been true in Asia.

In fact, there was so much demand for physical silver in India a couple of months ago that it actually caused “severe physical shortages”…

The Indian silver market has been gripped by an unprecedented “silver squeeze” in October 2025, sending prices to historic highs and creating severe physical shortages. This crisis, fueled by a unique blend of festive demand, speculative buying, and a constrained global supply, has had immediate and significant implications, not only within India but also across international bullion markets. The traditional festive season of Dhanteras and Diwali has ignited a buying frenzy, pushing domestic silver prices to record levels, with physical market premiums skyrocketing and global ripple effects causing scarcity even in major bullion hubs.

You could argue that what has been going on in India lately is just temporary hysteria.

But what isn’t temporary is the steadily increasing industrial demand for physical silver…

High industrial demand for silver, too, has been driving up prices for months, the Silver Institute, an international nonprofit industry group, has observed. A December report from the institute further declared silver the “next generation metal,” calling it “an essential component across multiple high-growth sectors as industries race to embrace digital innovation and meet clean energy mandates.”

Physical silver is literally used in thousands upon thousands of high tech products, and many are convinced that what we are witnessing today is just the beginning.

For example, Samsung has been working on a new generation of solid-state batteries that threatens to revolutionize the marketplace…

Solid-state batteries have long been viewed as the next major evolution beyond conventional lithium-ion systems. Their promise—higher energy density, faster charging, and improved safety—has attracted sustained research investment from major automotive and electronics manufacturers.

Recent disclosures from Samsung SDI suggest that progress in this field has accelerated, particularly through the use of a silver–carbon (Ag–C) composite anode layer. While media coverage has focused on headline performance metrics such as extended driving range and reduced charging times, the material implications of this design choice have received comparatively limited attention.

Specifically, Samsung’s approach positions silver as an active electrochemical material, rather than a marginal conductive input. This distinction has meaningful consequences for long-term silver demand and supply dynamics.

If the adoption of solid-state batteries becomes widespread, the demand for physical silver in many industries could go through the roof…

Historically, silver usage in vehicles has been relatively modest. Internal combustion vehicles typically contain 15–20 grams, while electric vehicles use 30–50 grams, primarily in electronics, power management systems, and connectors.

Solid-state battery designs incorporating Ag–C anodes change this profile. Instead of milligram-scale dispersion, silver is deployed in gram-scale quantities per cell, making it a structural component of the battery system.

Even under conservative assumptions, partial adoption of solid-state batteries could introduce tens of millions of ounces of incremental annual silver demand by the late 2020s. Under more aggressive adoption scenarios, the impact would be materially larger.

I was quite stunned when I read that.

Our society is being transformed at a pace that is difficult to comprehend.

Just look at how many data centers are going up all around us.

Needless to say, every single one of those data centers requires large amounts of physical silver…

Industry association The Silver Institute and Oxford Economics reinforced that view in a report released on Tuesday, saying AI’s rapid expansion is helping drive growing demand for silver across digital economy applications.

“As digitalisation and AI adoption accelerate, so too does the demand for critical materials involved in their applications — silver a critical one among them,” they wrote.

Data centers increasingly rely on next-generation chips such as GPUs and TPUs equipped with high-performance semiconductors that use silver in their internal connections and packaging, the association wrote.

There is no telling how high the price of silver could eventually go during the AI boom.

The same thing is true for the price of copper.

This may be difficult for many of you to believe, but a single AI data center “can require up to 50,000 tons of copper”…

A conventional data center uses between 5,000 and 15,000 tons of copper. A hyperscale data center, on the other hand—the kind being built to run artificial intelligence (AI)—can require up to 50,000 tons of copper per facility, according to the Copper Development Association.

Think about that for a second. A single AI data center that uses more copper than three conventional facilities combined.

That’s why I think the AI story is about much more than just raw compute power. It also involves electrical infrastructure at a scale we’ve never seen before. And these massive facilities have an insatiable appetite for copper.

That is a lot of copper!

As the price of copper has soared, it has become an increasingly appealing target for thieves…

Often strung from utility poles or buried beneath our feet, copper wire has played a critical role in powering America’s electrical grid for more than a century.

But brazen thefts are threatening the grid, with thieves climbing onto car roofs to cut down telephone lines or prying open manholes in broad daylight to strip copper wiring.

The effects have been felt nationwide: roads and bridges going dark, 911 calls that fail to connect and higher utility bills as replacement costs get passed on to consumers.

If you live in an urban area and your power suddenly goes out for seemingly no reason, this might be the cause.

In a recent 12 month period, there were 15,000 attacks on domestic communication networks, and copper theft was one of the biggest factors…

There were more than 15,000 destructive attacks nationwide on domestic communication networks between June 2024 and June 2025, with copper theft a major driver, according to the TV and internet industry trade group, NCTA. More than 9.5 million customers were affected, with California and Texas alone accounting for over half of the incidents.

Copper theft is particularly bad in Los Angeles.

Law enforcement officials in L.A. openly admit that this is something that they are forced to deal with on a daily basis.

No matter how hard they try, they can’t seem to stop it from happening.

Just look at what has happened to the Sixth Street Bridge.  It opened in 2022, and since then thieves have ripped seven miles of copper wire out of it…

When Los Angeles unveiled its newly built Sixth Street Bridge in 2022, it was hailed as a new city landmark. At night, the 3,500-foot bridge, with wide pedestrian walkways, would light up in shifting LED colors.

Three years later, the bridge sits dark.

Thieves have stolen more than 38,000 feet, or seven miles, of copper wire from the bridge, causing $2.5 million in damage, according to Mark González, the local assemblymember who represents the area.

It is very hard to deny that we are rapidly becoming a third world country.

There is so much crime all around us, and I am entirely convinced that the worst is yet to come.

This is one of the reasons why so many data centers are being put up in very remote areas.

If a data center is located in the middle of nowhere, it is much less likely that criminals will mess with it.

And as long as the data center construction boom continues, the price of silver and the price of copper will both continue to rise.

For those that have positioned themselves wisely, that is very good news.

But for those on Wall Street that desperately need the price of silver and the price of copper to stop soaring, that is very bad news indeed.

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.

Hundreds of millions of people all over the western world are enjoying the holiday season as if nothing has changed.  But meanwhile the pounding of the war drums just continues to intensify.  If the world keeps going down this path, next year’s holiday season could look completely different.  Unfortunately, most people seem to assume that everything will magically work out just fine somehow.  That greatly frustrates me, because ignoring the reality of the crisis that we are facing is not going to fix anything.  If ordinary citizens in the western world truly understood what was at stake, they would be going completely ballistic right now.  Global war is rapidly approaching, but the vast majority of our entertainment-addicted population doesn’t seem to get this.

Over the weekend, there were some very alarming new developments.

On Saturday, U.S. forces seized another Venezuelan oil tanker…

In a pre-dawn operation on Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard seized a Panama-flagged vessel called Centuries. A U.S. official told CBS News that the interdiction of the vessel followed a similar playbook to an earlier U.S. seizure of an oil tanker near Venezuela.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said on social media that the vessel on Saturday was “a falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to traffic stolen oil and fund the narcoterrorist Maduro regime.”

Needless to say, the Venezuelans were furious.

They accused the U.S. of committing a “serious act of piracy”…

In a statement on Saturday, the Venezuelan government condemned the vessel’s seizure, saying it was a “serious act of piracy.”

“The colonialist model that the U.S. government seeks to impose through such practices will fail and be defeated by the Venezuelan people,” the statement said.

Of course now that the ball is rolling, the U.S. does not intend to stop.

On Sunday, it was being reported that U.S. forces were pursuing yet another oil tanker…

The United States is pursuing an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, according to multiple reports, just a day after the Coast Guard seized a different tanker in the same waters amid a rapid U.S. military buildup in the region.

If seized, it would mark the third U.S. interception of an oil tanker in less than two weeks. An official told Reuters on Dec. 21 the tanker was under sanctions, and it had not been boarded so far. Officials did not give a specific location for the operation or name the vessel being pursued, according to Reuters. Bloomberg was among the first to report on the operation.

The pursuit of the tanker comes less than a week after President Donald Trump ordered a “blockade” of all sanctioned ships from entering and leaving Venezuela, further pressuring the oil-rich nation’s economy.

U.S. Senator Rand Paul is calling the seizure of these tankers a “prelude to war”.

He is quite right about that.

And now that the Venezuelan Navy will be escorting at least some of these tankers, the shooting could begin at any time…

Venezuela has ordered its navy to escort its tankers carrying petroleum products from its ports after President Trump declared a “complete and total blockade” on “sanctioned” tankers going into and out of Venezuela, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The report said that several ships sailed from Venezuela’s east coast with a naval escort on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. US forces already boarded and seized one tanker last week and intend to steal the cargo. If the US attempts to seize another tanker, it could now lead to a direct clash with the Venezuelan Navy.

People need to understand that it isn’t just Venezuela that we are making angry.

Approximately 40 percent of the oil that Cuba imports comes from Venezuela, and we are being told that if that oil is cut off the Cuban economy could collapse…

Venezuela remains Cuba’s most important energy supplier, covering roughly 40% of the oil Havana needs to import. While shipments have already fallen sharply from their peak years ago, analysts warn that any further disruption could have catastrophic consequences. Energy experts say a sharp drop in Venezuelan crude would likely trigger a full-scale economic collapse on the island, the Journal reported.

And as I discussed last week, China imports more oil from Venezuela than the rest of the world combined.

This blockade is going to be really bad for our relationship with China, and that could end up having enormous implications for all of us.

Meanwhile, the Russians continue to take control of more territory in Ukraine…

Russian forces have taken control of the settlements of Vysoke in the Sumy region and Svitloe in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported in its daily briefing.

Svitloe is located between Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, while Vysoke lies close to the border with Russia’s Belgorod region. The Defense Ministry regularly reports on settlements coming under Russian control in the zone of the military operation. According to the ministry, eight settlements came under Russian control in the week leading up to December 12, including Seversk in the DPR. On December 17, the ministry also reported the capture of the village of Herasymivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Every time the Russians move forward, our European allies will become more desperate to stop them.

But the only way that Ukraine can win the war is if we get directly involved in the conflict.

According to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, that is “ultimately what the EU and NATO want”…

She went on to accuse the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of wanting to pull the U.S. into direct battle with Russia.

“[Deep-staters] foment fear and hysteria as a way to justify the continuing of the war and their efforts to undermine President Trump’s efforts towards peace,” Gabbard said. “And do so in this case in order to try to pull the U.S. military into a direct conflict with Russia, which is ultimately what the EU and NATO want.”

“We cannot allow this to happen,” she declared.

Right now, the Ukrainians and the Europeans are working on a “deal” that they know with 100 percent certainty that the Russians will reject.

When the Russians inevitably reject that “deal”, that will be used as justification for what they want to do next.

And what they want to do next is certainly not a mystery, because they have been feverishly preparing for it.

Unfortunately, events in the Middle East are heading in a very alarming direction as well.

On Sunday, the IDF conducted more strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon…

The Israeli military said Sunday that it targeted Hezbollah operatives in strikes in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese health ministry reported one person was killed and another wounded.

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure or operatives violating the November 2024 ceasefire.

Hezbollah is supposed to disarm, but that never was going to happen.

So the IDF is just going to keep hitting them.

And according to NBC News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon be presenting options for attacking Iran again to President Trump…

Israeli officials have grown increasingly concerned that Iran is expanding production of its ballistic missile program, which was damaged by Israeli military strikes earlier this year, and are preparing to brief President Donald Trump about options for attacking it again, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans and four former U.S. officials briefed on the plans.

Israeli officials also are concerned that Iran is reconstituting nuclear enrichment sites the U.S. bombed in June, the sources said. But, they added, the officials view Iran’s efforts to rebuild facilities where they produce the ballistic missiles and to repair its crippled air defense systems as more immediate concerns.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to meet later this month in Florida at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. At that meeting, the sources said, Netanyahu is expected to make the case to Trump that Iran’s expansion of its ballistic missile program poses a threat that could necessitate swift action.

The Israelis and the Iranians both clearly understand that their fight is not over.

So both sides are getting ready for the next round.

2025 has certainly been a chaotic year.

But I expect 2026 to be even crazier.

The drumbeats of war are steadily getting louder, and if we don’t turn back now the death and destruction that we will witness will be off the charts.

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.

Will 2026 be a year of great shaking for the United States?  Coming into 2025, I thought that seismic activity would be a major global theme, and that has certainly turned out to be the case.  This has been an extremely unusual year for earthquakes along the Pacific Ring of Fire, and volcanoes that have been dormant for ages are suddenly roaring to life all over the world.  Here in the United States, we have been experiencing lots and lots of little earthquakes, but thankfully we have not been hit by a really bad one yet.  Will our luck run out in 2026?

According to the Daily Mail, the dozens of earthquakes that have been rattling the New Madrid fault zone since the middle of November are “renewing fears of a catastrophic natural disaster soon”…

A giant seismic zone in the heart of the US has seen dozens of tiny earthquakes break out in the last month, renewing fears of a catastrophic natural disaster soon.

Since mid-November, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has detected at least 38 low-level seismic events along the boundaries of the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) in Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee.

The threat that the New Madrid fault zone poses should not be underestimated.

In a previous article, I discussed the series of catastrophic earthquakes that occurred along that fault zone in 1811 and 1812.  Everyone agrees that they were the most powerful earthquakes in the entire history of the continental United States…

The New Madrid earthquakes were the biggest earthquakes in American history. They occurred in the central Mississippi Valley, but were felt as far away as New York City, Boston, Montreal, and Washington D.C. President James Madison and his wife Dolly felt them in the White House. Church bells rang in Boston. From December 16, 1811 through March of 1812 there were over 2,000 earthquakes in the central Midwest, and between 6,000-10,000 earthquakes in the Bootheel of Missouri where New Madrid is located near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

In the known history of the world, no other earthquakes have lasted so long or produced so much evidence of damage as the New Madrid earthquakes. Three of the earthquakes are on the list of America’s top earthquakes: the first one on December 16, 1811, a magnitude of 8.1 on the Richter scale; the second on January 23, 1812, at 7.8; and the third on February 7, 1812, at as much as 8.8 magnitude.

Scientists tell us that it is just a matter of time before another great earthquake strikes this region.

Six years ago, the USGS determined that a magnitude 7.7 quake would shake major cities all over the Midwest…

In 2019, USGS scientists modeled what a 7.7 magnitude earthquake would look like if it erupted along the Arkansas-Tennessee border, in an area near Memphis.

The shockwaves of this hypothetical mega quake spread for hundreds of miles, reaching cities including Kansas City, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Birmingham.

Buildings in that area of the country are typically not constructed to withstand an event of that size, and so the USGS is projecting that hundreds of thousands of buildings would be damaged and the economic damage would run into the hundreds of billions of dollars…

Since this region is not well equipped to deal with a massive seismic event, studies of such an earthquake projected that a magnitude 7.7 earthquake would cause over 86,000 injuries or deaths, damage 715,000 buildings, and knock out power to 2.6 million homes.

That report, by the University of Illinois, Virginia Tech, and George Washington University, also estimated that the cost could hit $300 billion directly, with indirect costs due to lost jobs possibly taking the damage to $600 billion.

An earthquake like that could hit us at any time.

But when the “really Big One” finally arrives, it will be much, much worse than the USGS is anticipating.

Experts are also urging us to keep an eye on the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

We are being told that when it finally goes, “the Pacific Northwest could change in a matter of minutes”…

Beneath Cascadia’s forests and coastlines lies a 600-mile fault capable of producing a magnitude-9 earthquake. The last one struck in 1700, shaking the region for minutes and sending a massive tsunami all the way to Japan. Today, nearly 17 million people live on top of the same silent threat. Scientists warn that when it breaks again, the Pacific Northwest could change in a matter of minutes.

The reason why the Cascadia Subduction Zone is so dangerous is because it has the potential to produce “megathrust” earthquakes…

At depths shallower than around 30 km, the two plates of the CSZ are locked together by friction. Strain (deformation) slowly builds as the subduction forces continue to act upon the locked plates. Once the fault’s frictional strength is exceeded, the rocks slip past each other along the fault in a “megathrust” earthquake.

A large enough “megathrust” earthquake could cause a tsunami that is hundreds of feet high to violently slam into the west coast.

In such a scenario, the death toll would likely be cataclysmic.

So that is why any seismic activity in the region gets so much attention.

On Monday, a magnitude 2.9 earthquake not too far away from Seattle caused quite a stir…

Reports of a massive explosion in Washington state sent residents in the Pacific Northwest into a state of confusion Monday morning.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) sent out an alert just before 11.30am ET, warning that an explosion with the force of a magnitude 3.0 earthquake has just taken place near the town of Concrete.

USGS quickly retracted the false explosion warning and reclassified the seismic event as a magnitude 2.9 earthquake, less than 70 miles north of Seattle.

Scientists assure us that a “megathrust” earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone is in our future.

And when it finally occurs, it could also trigger the San Andreas fault system…

Successfully predicting earthquakes sounds like a dark art.

However, new research hints it may be possible: Sediment cores extracted from the Pacific seafloor suggest that two major fault systems along the western coast of the United States and Canada might be partially synchronized. After an earthquake on the southern part of the Cascadia subduction zone, an earthquake soon after on the northern part of the San Andreas fault appears to occur roughly half of the time, the new findings reveal. These results, published in Geosphere, provide evidence of stress triggering, which has long been invoked to explain how activity on one fault might lead to activity on another nearby.

Fault zones persist across wide swaths of our planet, but the one that stretches onshore and offshore from California to British Columbia, Canada, is particularly complex. The vertical strike-slip San Andreas fault, in the south, intersects the Cascadia subduction zone off the coast of Northern California at a point known as the Mendocino Triple Junction.

When the San Andreas fault system finally rips wide open, the geography of the state of California will be permanently altered.

And it won’t just be Southern California that is affected.

Over the past couple of months, Northern California has been getting pummeled by literally hundreds of sizable quakes…

While California ranks second in the US in seismic activity, most quakes are small and go largely unnoticed. That has changed in recent weeks with two swarms impacting the Bay Area: one is east of San Francisco near San Ramon; the other is north of San Francisco near The Geysers.

Over the last 30 days, USGS has reported 1,470 earthquakes around The Geysers; in just the last 7 days, there have been 286. Most of these have been weak, with only 5 earthquakes rated a magnitude 2.0 or higher intensity over the last week. While the volume has been eyebrow raising, the intensity hasn’t.

The opposite has been the case near San Ramon. There, over the last 30 days, there have been 139 earthquakes reported by USGS; over the last 7 days, that number has been 25. But the intensity of these earthquakes have been greater, with 39 rated magnitude 2.0 or greater and 6 rated 3.0 or greater over the last 30 days.

This is definitely not normal.

San Ramon has been getting shaken so frequently that one social media user has compared it to “a massage chair”…

“Wee bit nervous,” one person wrote on Threads, adding that she planned to stock up on water and earthquake supplies.

“San Ramon is basically a massage chair today … but like, the stressful kind,” another person wrote on the social media site. “Dear Earth: we get it, you’re active. You can stop now.”

The Calaveras Fault is a major branch of the San Andreas fault system.

This is the fault that has been causing so much shaking in San Ramon lately, and it has the potential to produce very large earthquakes…

Historically, the southern half of the central segment of the Calaveras Fault has been the most seismically active segment of the fault.

It produced the 6.2 Morgan Hill earthquake in 1984. The 5.9 Coyote Lake earthquake in 1979 ruptured slightly to the south of these other earthquakes.

When you are driving your vehicle and one of those little warning signals on the dashboard lights up, what do you do?

Hopefully you take it to a mechanic or you fix it yourself.

Ignoring a warning signal like that is a really bad idea.

Similarly, the New Madrid fault zone, the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the San Andreas fault system have all been sending us lots of warning signals lately.

Sadly, it appears that most of the population will continue to ignore those warning signals until it is too late.

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.

The slow-motion disaster that we are witnessing on the west coast is unlike anything we have ever seen before.  A series of atmospheric rivers has already dumped trillions of gallons of water on the region, and trillions of gallons of additional water will fall before the end of the year.  This has caused some rivers to rise to the highest levels that we have ever seen.  Meanwhile, some areas in the Northwest have been repeatedly pummeled by extremely high winds.  As you will see below, some of the wind speeds that have been recorded are difficult to believe.  For a long time I have been warning my readers that weather patterns have been going nuts all over the globe, but of course many people will never be convinced until it actually happens where they live.  For tens of millions of Americans that live along the west coast, a wake up call has finally arrived.

According to the Weather Channel, the parade of storms that we have been witnessing will continue to roll on into next week…

A parade of Pacific storms accompanied by atmospheric rivers will continue to march into the West Coast into Christmas week, spreading the threat of heavy rain from already flooded areas of western Washington to Oregon and California.

To say it’s been a terrible stretch of weather in parts of the West has been an understatement.

The last sentence in that quote made me smile.

Yes, “a terrible stretch of weather” would most certainly be an understatement…

First, record flooding hit parts of western Washington. Then, as flood-ravaged areas were recovering, a powerhouse windstorm blasted much of the Northwest and Rockies Wednesday, with winds clocked up to 144 mph and over 160 reports of wind damage in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

I can’t recall a windstorm of this magnitude ever hitting the Pacific Northwest in modern times.

It is being reported that at least nine different states experienced wind speeds of over 100 mph…

High winds slammed the Pacific Northwest and Rockies Wednesday and Wednesday night, cutting power to three-quarters of a million customers at peak, according to PowerOutage.US. That number was down to 325,000 as of Thursday morning.

The highest wind gusts in the region were on mountain tops — 144 mph at Mount Coffin, Wyoming, 142 mph at Coldwater Ridge, Washington, and 138 mph at Mount Hood, Oregon. Winds gusted over 100 mph on mountaintops in at least nine different states.

Now that storm has moved into the middle of the country, and blizzard conditions are expected in much of the Northern Plains…

“Wind gusts of 80+ mph, several feet of mountain snow, and blizzard conditions are in the forecast for the northern and western U.S. today and tomorrow,” the forecast said.

A map included with the post on X showed that while the entirety of the Northern Plains was expected to see some impacts from the storm, some states will likely be hit by widespread major impacts. These include Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Colorado and Idaho.

But it is the west coast that has been getting hit harder than anyone else.

Some areas of Washington state have already had about 2 feet of rain, and more rain is on the way.

Yes, Washington state always gets rain, but this is truly unusual.

If you can believe it, approximately 5 trillion gallons of water fell on the state in just a 7 day period…

Warm water and air and unusual weather conditions tracing back as far as tropical cyclone flooding in Indonesia helped supercharge stubborn atmospheric rivers that have drenched Washington state with almost 5 trillion gallons (19 trillion liters) of rain in the past seven days, threatening record flood levels, meteorologists said.

The Skagit River rose to the highest level ever recored.

So did the Snohomish River.

Needless to say, many other bodies of water flooded as well.

According to Governor Bob Ferguson, a 49 mile stretch of US Highway 2 will be closed for months as a result of the flooding…

Massive flooding conditions persist across western Washington as another round of heavy rain and wind targets the region, adding to the damage from last week’s historic flooding and raising renewed concerns about vulnerable levees, landslide risks, and long-term transportation disruptions.

On Tuesday, Gov. Bob Ferguson said a 49-mile stretch of US Highway 2 between Skykomish and Leavenworth will be closed for months after floodwaters and mudslides heavily damaged the roadway.

Unfortunately, more rain is in the forecast.

In fact, it is being projected that some areas of western Oregon could get more than 10 inches of rain from this next storm…

A general 4-8 inches of rain is forecast to fall on western Oregon, with slightly less in the Interstate 5 corridor near Portland. From 8-12 inches of rain with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 16 inches is projected for the western slopes of the Oregon Cascades.

This amount of rain will be enough to unleash moderate to major flooding along both small streams and rivers in western Oregon. A few locations may experience crests close to record levels, such as in the Portland area. Motorists should be prepared for areas of high water and road washouts. Mudslides are also a danger with the storm.

Meanwhile, meteorologist Ryan Maue is telling us that the Sierra Mountains in California could see up to 30 inches of precipitation from the “firehose of moisture” that is approaching…

California is looking at historic precipitation from onslaught of atmospheric rivers in next 10-days.

Could be 20″ or 30″ mostly rain in the Sierra from “firehose of moisture” directed right at coast with strong jet stream.

This going to be really bad.

He isn’t exaggerating.

It certainly looks like the next couple of weeks will be really bad.

If you live in an area along the west coast that is prone to flooding, you should be doing what you can to get prepared.

Of course this is just the beginning.

Global weather patterns have been getting increasingly unstable for quite a while, and I am entirely convinced that what is coming in the years ahead will be much worse than anything that we are experiencing now.

We really are living in extremely chaotic times, and the insane weather that we are currently witnessing is just one element of “the perfect storm” that is now upon us.

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.

Guess which nation has the most proven oil reserves?  It isn’t Saudi Arabia, although the Saudis rank a close second.  It isn’t Iran or Iraq either.  In fact, the country with the largest proven oil reserves isn’t even in the Middle East.  Canada has a lot of oil, and so does Russia, but neither one of them tops the list.  At a whopping 303 billion barrels, the nation that currently possesses the most proven oil reserves is actually Venezuela…

Venezuela holds the largest proven crude oil reserves globally, estimated at approximately 303 billion barrels as of 2024. These reserves are predominantly located in the Orinoco Belt, containing extra-heavy crude oil that requires advanced extraction techniques.

Oil is what makes Venezuela important.

We are being told that we must go to war with Venezuela to stop the flow of illegal drugs, but the truth is that the amount of drugs coming into this country from Mexico absolutely dwarfs the amount of drugs coming into this country from Venezuela.

So if stopping the flow of drugs is the priority, why aren’t we going to war with Mexico?

We are also being told that Nicolas Maduro is a tyrant and that the elections in Venezuela are rigged.

Of course these days elections are rigged in lots of countries, and there are far worse tyrants than Maduro out there.

Kim Jong Un is one name that immediately comes to mind.

He is so tyrannical that he makes Nicolas Maduro look like Mother Theresa.

So why aren’t we going to war with North Korea?

If we are going to go to war, there needs to be a really good reason.

On Tuesday, President Trump told the world that the U.S. will be stopping all sanctioned oil tankers from traveling to or from Venezuela…

Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us. The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping. For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela. The Illegal Aliens and Criminals that the Maduro Regime has sent into the United States during the weak and inept Biden Administration, are being returned to Venezuela at a rapid pace. America will not allow Criminals, Terrorists, or other Countries, to rob, threaten, or harm our Nation and, likewise, will not allow a Hostile Regime to take our Oil, Land, or any other Assets, all of which must be returned to the United States, IMMEDIATELY. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Did you notice that President Trump repeatedly focused on the subject of oil throughout that Truth Social post?

Imposing a blockade is a very serious step, and a Justice Department memo from 1961 makes this very clear…

A Justice Department memo from 1961, when tensions were running high between the US and Cuba, said the president could institute a blockade of Cuba, but noted “a blockade is a belligerent act which, as a matter of international law, is ordinarily justified only if a state of war, legal or de facto, exists.”

Throughout human history, a naval blockade has always been considered to be an act of war.

Needless to say, the Venezuelans are absolutely furious…

The statement from Venezuela’s government decried the move, saying Trump “seeks to impose, in an absolutely irrational manner, a so-called naval military blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the riches that belong to our Homeland.”

The government reaffirmed Venezuela’s sovereignty and said its ambassador to the United Nations “will immediately proceed to denounce this grave violation of International Law.”

It is not going to be a small job to enforce this blockade.

According to CNBC, there are currently 34 sanctioned oil tankers in the Caribbean…

At least 34 U.S.-sanctioned oil tankers with a history of carrying Venezuelan oil are currently at sea in the Caribbean, according to a new analysis obtained by CNBC on Wednesday.

And at least 12 of those tankers appear to be filled with crude oil from Venezuela, according to vessel location data from Kpler, a global trade intelligence company.

Are we just going to start grabbing all of them?

The oil that the tanker that the U.S. seized last week was carrying was reportedly worth somewhere between 60 million and 100 million dollars…

The “Skipper” was loaded with an estimated 1.8 million barrels of oil earlier in December before transferring an estimated 200,000 barrels just before its seizure, Reuters reported.

The oil on the tanker is likely worth $60 million to more than $100 million, based on current average oil prices. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for any additional comment on the estimated price tag of the oil but did not immediately receive a reply.

When we seize oil that has been produced by Venezuela, we aren’t just hurting Venezuela.

This is such a critical point.

In 2025, China has been purchasing approximately 76 percent of all the oil that is being exported by the Venezuelans…

Venezuela has produced around 900,000 barrels of crude oil and condensate so far in 2025, accounting for roughly 1% of the total global supply.

Kpler data indicates China buys about 76% of Venezuela’s output.

The Chinese need this oil.

Do you think that they are just going to sit there and let us steal vast amounts of oil that the Chinese economy depends on?

Following the announcement of the blockade, the Chinese accused the U.S. of “bullying” Venezuela…

China has accused the US of “bullying” Venezuela, after Donald Trump ordered a “total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

In a phone call on Wednesday, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi told his Venezuelan counterpart, Yvan Gil, that Beijing supported Caracas in defending its sovereignty.

If we keep going down this road, we are going to destroy our relationship with China.

Just imagine how we would feel if some other country started grabbing oil tankers that were bringing desperately needed oil to the United States.

There is not a president in history that would have hesitated to order military action.

But we just expect China to sit there and take it.

If we push the Chinese too far, it could have very serious consequences.

It is easy to imagine a scenario in which the Chinese decide that it is an opportune moment to invade Taiwan while U.S. forces are tied up with a regime change war in Venezuela.

And why in the world would anyone think that another regime change war is in our national interest?

Didn’t we learn anything from our misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq?

2025 has certainly been a year of war, but a war in Venezuela would have the potential to take things to an entirely new level in 2026.

Let’s hope that cooler heads prevail.

Let’s hope that President Trump pulls us back from the brink before it is too late.

But from where I am sitting, it appears that the decisions have already been made.

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.

Frustrated job seekers all over America just got more bad news.  The unemployment rate just hit the highest level that we have seen in four years, and that is yet another indication that the labor market is getting even tighter.  If you currently have a good job that you highly value, hold on to it, because finding a replacement for that job would not be easy in this very challenging economic environment.  In previous articles, I have shared heartbreaking stories from unemployed Americans that have been unable to find work no matter how hard they have tried.  I am going to share more of those stories today.  When you are unemployed and month after month goes by without finding a job, it can really do a number on your self-esteem.  If you have ever been through a stretch like that, you know exactly what I mean.

37-year-old Anna Whitlock thought that it would be relatively easy to find another tech position when she was laid off in November 2024, but nearly a year later she is still searching for work…

When Anna Whitlock was let go from her job in the technology industry in November of 2024, she wasn’t worried about lining up a new position. The Washington state resident had 11 years of experience managing network infrastructure projects, a specialized role that involves equipping buildings with internet access, cameras and wifi security systems.

“The last time I had to job search, I found something pretty easily,” she said.

Almost a year later, the 37-year-old is still without a job. Whitlock said she has applied to hundreds of jobs — even for positions she’s overqualified for — to no avail.

Whitlock is highly qualified and has a ton of experience.

But even though she has applied for hundreds of positions, her job search has gone nowhere, and now her unemployment benefits have run out…

“The more I looked, the more I wasn’t getting responses. If I did have an interview, I only made it the first one or two rounds,” said Whitlock, who has a 16-year-old daughter. “Things got really real when my unemployment ran out.”

There are countless others that are going through the same thing, and their ranks are growing with each passing day.

In fact, even the government bureaucrats at the BLS are admitting that the unemployment rate has risen to the highest level that we have seen in more than 4 years…

The unemployment rate in November rose to 4.6%, the highest level since September 2021.

The November employment report offers a fresh picture of the labor market after a six-week blackout in official data caused by the recent government shutdown. The data suggests that employers in industries ranging from manufacturing to hospitality are hitting the pause button on hiring amid concerns about economic growth and tariff costs, some economists noted.

“Businesses are not hiring as they adjust to tariffs, uncertain conditions and AI. The result is about 700,000 more unemployed Americans than there were a year ago,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, in an email.

In 2021, we were still recovering from the massive spike in unemployment that we experienced during the initial stages of the pandemic.

What excuse do we have now?

According to one prominent economist, the U.S. economy is now “in a jobs recession”…

“The U.S. economy is in a jobs recession,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “The nation has added a mere 100,000 in the past six months. The bulk of those jobs were in healthcare, an industry that is almost always hiring due to America’s aging population.”

It takes approximately 150,000 new jobs a month just to keep up with population growth.

So over a six month period, the U.S. economy must produce 900,000 new jobs just to keep up with population growth.

So the fact that we have added only 100,000 new jobs over the last six months means that we are 800,000 new jobs short of what would be required just to be treading water.

Digging deeper into the numbers that the BLS released, we discover that the number of full-time workers in the U.S. fell by nearly a million between September and November…

In November, the number of full-time workers plunged by 983K from September to 134.17 million. At the same time, in the two months since Sept, the number of part-time workers soared by over 1 million (1.025 million to be precise) to 29.486 million…

Wow.

I knew that we were losing good paying full-time jobs, but I didn’t think that it was happening that fast.

Throughout 2025, large companies have been ruthlessly laying off highly paid workers all over the nation.

In fact, Challenger, Gray & Christmas has reported that the number of announced job cuts through the first 11 months of this year was 54 percent higher than the number of announced jobs cuts through the first 11 months of last year…

Americans are growing increasingly terrified about layoffs – and with good reason. Cuts are accelerating, and no industry feels safe. All told, employers have announced roughly 1.2 million cuts so far this year, according to layoff tracker Challenger, Gray & Christmas – that’s 54 percent more than during the first 11 months of 2024. Perhaps the most unsettling is that industries once seen as safe harbors for employees – tech, manufacturing and even small business – are now among the hardest hit.

Most of the jobs that are being cut are good paying full-time jobs.

We are talking about the sort of jobs that college graduates work.

Once upon a time, a college degree was a ticket to a good job and a middle class lifestyle, but these days a college degree is a lot less valuable than it once was…

Not so very long ago, the accepted wisdom (or at least the advice that your parents told you over and over again) was that going to college to get a degree would set you up for more success in life, opening doors to interesting careers and bigger wage checks. But new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland suggests that this may no longer be quite so definitive today. In fact, some kids who are fresh owners of high school diplomas may be finding it easier to land jobs than their more educated colleagues.

I feel so badly for young college graduates that are trying to find work right now.

When Jake Fishman graduated from Cornell, he assumed that his degree would open up all sorts of doors for him.

But after applying for over 300 jobs, he is still without a job…

Each morning, Jake Fishman ’25 opens his laptop to repeat the same ritual. Scrolling through Handshake, LinkedIn and Indeed, he submits countless cover letters and resumes that, according to him, rarely get a response.

Since graduating from Cornell’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration in May, Fishman estimates that he has applied to more than 300 jobs and has only heard back from five.

A lot of people assume that those that are unemployed are idle.

But of course that is not true at all.

Searching for work in this environment is essentially a full-time job, and Fishman says that he is “somehow busier than ever”…

“Despite being unemployed, I’m somehow busier than ever,” Fishman said. “Basically, applying for a job is a full-time job.”

While Fishman tells himself that he is bound to find a job as a Cornell graduate, months of unanswered applications made him question that assumption.

I wish that I could tell job seekers that conditions will soon improve.

But I can’t do that.

Yes, economic conditions are really rough right now, but I am convinced that they will continue to deteriorate during the months ahead.

So if you are without work, I would encourage you to grab whatever is available while you still can.

A major economic storm has now arrived, and the intensity of that storm is only going to increase as we head into 2026.

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.

We possess technology that would have been unimaginable to people living 100 years ago, we have access to more entertainment than any other generation in human history, and we have been enjoying an artificially-inflated standard of living that has been fueled by an unprecedented debt binge for decades.  So why are so many of us so miserable?  One out of every eight Americans is taking an antidepressant, more than 48 million Americans have a substance use disorder, the suicide rate has been trending in the wrong direction for years, and according to Gallup the percentage of U.S. adults that are currently dealing with depression has nearly doubled since 2015…

The percentage of U.S. adults who report currently having or being treated for depression has exceeded 18% in both 2024 and 2025, up about eight percentage points since the initial measurement in 2015. The current rate of 18.3% measured so far in 2025 projects to an estimated 47.8 million Americans suffering from depression.

We like to think that we are smarter than all of the generations that have come before us.

If that is true, then why can’t we figure out how to be happy?

What we are doing now is clearly not working, and this is particularly true for our young people.

One study found that approximately 42 percent of Americans that belong to Generation Z have been diagnosed with “anxiety, depression, ADHD, PTSD” or some other mental health condition…

In fact, an estimated 42% of Gen Zers have been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, ADHD, PTSD or other mental health condition, with a staggering 60% reportedly taking medication to manage their mental health, according to a study on the respected Psychiatrist.com website.

Nobody can deny that we have failed our young people, and now we have a colossal mess on our hands.

We have never seen a group of young adults that is as unhappy as Generation Z is, and without a doubt they are feeling an enormous amount of pressure from many different directions…

Analysts point to a host of difficult, anxiety-producing issues facing Gen Z, including widespread financial worries – with college costs in the stratosphere, food more expensive than ever, home ownership out of reach for most, and two jobs often needed just to pay the rent.

Then there’s the disconcerting reality that many Gen Zers are not dating or getting married and having families – partly due to economic pressures, high anxiety and insecurity about the future, disillusionment with marriage due to the high level of divorce in their parents’ generation, and widespread reliance on dating apps. But also because they are spending so much time living in a virtual world where they can plug into and commune with every imaginable – and unimaginable – type of individual, cause, “influencer” and community on earth, all recruiting 24/7.

I think that all of the reasons mentioned in the quote above are valid.

But I think that there is another that is more important than any of them.

Over the years, Gallup has found that there is a very close link between loneliness and depression…

Gallup research has shown a strong link between depression and loneliness, as one-third of those who had experienced loneliness the day before were also currently suffering from depression, compared with 13% among those who had not.

After declining from pandemic-era highs of 25% to a range of 17% to 18% through much of 2022 and 2023, reports of individuals experiencing significant loneliness “a lot of the day yesterday” have inched upward again since the latter half of 2024 to 21%.

Even though we are more “connected” to one another through the Internet in this day and age, the truth is that we are more isolated than ever.

As a result, much of the population is desperately lonely.

We were designed to love others and to be loved by others, and if we want to turn our mental health crisis around we need to rediscover the importance of making real human connections.

But instead, many Americans are turning to drugs and alcohol to ease the emotional pain that they are feeling.

A report that was put out two years ago by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration revealed that 48.5 million Americans have a substance abuse disorder…

According to a 2023 report by the federal agency Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 48.5 million Americans aged 12 and above have a substance use disorder.

This is a national epidemic that is getting worse every single year.

It has been estimated that substance use disorders are now costing the U.S. economy more than 90 billion dollars annually…

A new study has found that substance use disorders (SUD) cost the U.S. economy just under $93 billion in 2023 from a combination of missed work, reduced work productivity and lost household productivity.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on December 8, was conducted by a team at the Division of Injury Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Needless to say, drugs and alcohol are not the answer.

So a lot of people that go down that road end up giving up completely.

For decades, the suicide rate in this country has been steadily moving higher…

Since the 1950s, the suicide rate in the United States has been significantly higher among men than women. In 2022, the suicide rate among men was almost four times higher than that of women. However, the rate of suicide for both men and women has increased gradually over the past couple of decades.

This breaks my heart.

So many people are needlessly ending their own lives.

According to the CDC, an American now dies by suicide every 11 minutes…

The level of suicides among our young adults is particularly alarming.

It is being reported that the suicide rate for young adults in the 18 to 27-year-old age bracket jumped by almost 20 percent from 2014 to 2024…

The suicide rate for U.S. adults aged 18-27 increased nearly 20% between 2014 and 2024, rising from 13.8 per 100,000 people to 16.4, per a new analysis of CDC data from Stateline, a nonprofit newsroom.

We have failed our young people.

Here we are at what many believe to be “the happiest time of the year”, and yet much of the population is soul-crushingly miserable.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Previous generations of Americans were much happier, and today there are lots of people that are living lives that are absolutely teeming with joy.

So if you are feeling depressed right now, I want you to know that there is hope.

You may not realize it yet, but you are greatly loved.

Once you learn how to respond to God’s love and the love that others have for you, everything will start to change.

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.