Money – The Economic Collapse

Why Are So Many Countries Suddenly Warning Their Citizens To Prepare For An Emergency And Stockpile Essential Survival Supplies?

Michael — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 17:14:36 +0000

What in the world is going on? Why are governments all over the planet suddenly encouraging their citizens to become preppers? Do they know something that they aren’t telling us? If it was just one nation that was suddenly instructing people to stockpile food, water and other essential supplies, that wouldn’t be a big deal. But it isn’t just one nation. As you will see below, quite a long list of countries have simultaneously decided that now is the time for everyone to get prepared. So what has prompted this sudden sense of urgency?

For some reason, governments in Europe seem to have more of a sense of urgency than anyone else…

Governments in the UK, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and France have encouraged households to keep food, water, medicines and other essentials available for emergencies.

I can’t recall a time when so many European governments have been so concerned about making sure that their citizens are prepared for an emergency.

In the UK, the “Be Ready campaign” has been launched.

Every citizen is being encouraged to stockpile at least enough food and bottled water to last for 72 hours…

Every Briton is being urged to stock up to nine litres of bottled water and three days’ worth of food in new government guidance designed to ensure that households can survive a weather, cyber or other serious emergency.

The Be Ready campaign is aimed at persuading people to stock up with supplies to last 72 hours, amid growing official concern about the impact of the climate crisis, technological dependency and hostile state threats.

Dan Jarvis, the security minister, said that “those who can follow this advice should follow this advice”. It amounted to “simple steps to be ready for everyday emergencies” as part of a wider, community-oriented effort “to improve our resilience as a nation”, he said.

So why has it suddenly become so important to do this?

The UK’s defense secretary is saying that it is because we “live in a more dangerous and turbulent world”…

UK families are suddenly being told to stock up on emergency supplies – and to prepare for war.

Wes Streeting, the UK’s defense secretary, went on a media blitz to push a new “Be Ready” campaign to boost Brits’ preparedness for crises — which he said could range from floods and wildfires to terrorism and cyber attacks and ultimately even war.

“There’s no sugarcoating the fact that we do live in a more dangerous and turbulent world,” Streeting told BBC’s “Newsnight.”

“It’s about saying to households across the country to be ready by just having some everyday essentials indoors should there be disruption from these sorts of events.”

Yes, our world has certainly become more “dangerous” and more “turbulent”, but I also get the impression that there is something that he isn’t telling us.

In Sweden, citizens are being told that they may have to survive on their own for at least a week “in case of crisis or war”…

In Sweden, the country’s civil defense guidance is warning households to be able to manage on their own for at least one week ‘in case of crisis or war.’

‘The state of the world has worsened drastically in recent years. War is being waged in our vicinity. Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common. Terror threats, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns are being used to undermine and influence us,’ the bulletin stated.

It is noteworthy that Swedish authorities are using the word “war”, because a lot of people out there are convinced that military conflict is what has prompted all of this talk about preparing.

On social media, many are speculating that European governments are getting ready to go to war with Russia…

But if European governments are bracing for a military showdown with Russia, why is the government of Japan urging their citizens to stockpile food, water and other necessary supplies?…

Statements from Japan’s Disaster Management Minister indicate that the government is preparing to issue a national “emergency request”⁠ on November 2, 2026. The request aims to urge all households across the country to stockpile essential survival supplies. The announcement is planned for the same day as the official launch of Japan’s National Disaster Management Agency.

The new national agency will lead coordination efforts across the country regarding disaster planning, immediate emergency response, long-term recovery, and reconstruction.

I can’t remember the Japanese government ever doing anything like this.

Just like in the UK, Japanese citizens are being instructed to have enough on hand to last for at least three days…

The emergency request lays down a self-sufficiency window of at least three days. However, the Disaster Management Minister Gishi Hosono emphasized that a one-week supply is recommended wherever possible.

Here in the United States, Project FORTRESS has just been initiated.

The goal is for the U.S. military to be able to keep fighting for at least 90 days if all civilian infrastructure goes down…

The Pentagon is preparing U.S. military bases to keep operating for at least 90 days without outside support as it prepares for the possibility of a major war that could cripple power grids, disrupt supply chains and threaten critical infrastructure on American soil.

The new requirement is part of FORTRESS, a broader military initiative aimed at ensuring American forces can continue fighting even if the civilian systems they depend on are disrupted, according to documents reviewed by Fox News Digital.

“We don’t want to rely on standard civilian municipal infrastructure to run our national defense. We just simply can’t. It’s an intolerable risk,” Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell told Fox News Digital.

What kind of scenario would “cripple power grids, disrupt supply chains and threaten critical infrastructure”?

I can only think of a few, and most of them involve military conflict.

So what do they think might happen?

Shortly after we learned about Project FORTRESS, former Deputy Director of the FBI Dan Bongino issued a very urgent warning…

The former Deputy Director of the FBI has issued an urgent warning to Americans as countries worldwide start stockpiling supplies for a potential crisis.

Dan Bongino, who left the bureau in January, said the public needs to do what the UK and European governments are telling citizens: Have a preparedness plan and at least three days of food and power ready.

‘Have yourself an emergency radio, have yourself some batteries, get yourself some emergency food, get yourself a rain collection and water filtration, some filtration tablets,’ he said on Monday.

‘Get your stuff today. Please. Do it for your family,’ Bongino added.

Even though he no longer works for the government, Bongino still has lots of contacts inside the government.

Has he been told something that would prompt him to literally beg his listeners to go out and buy emergency supplies?

Someone should really ask him that question.

And why is he urging us to have a “rain collection” system?

You wouldn’t need to collect rain unless you were facing some sort of a long-term catastrophic emergency.

Without a doubt, everything that he is saying is wise advice.

But why has he suddenly developed such a sense of urgency?

I have a feeling that something big is coming.

Perhaps after the midterm elections in the United States we shall find out what it is.

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.

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A Pastor Takes A Second Wife – The Polygamous Relationship Is Revealed During A Worship Service And The Congregation Responds With A Standing Ovation

Michael — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 17:14:05 +0000

During a jaw-dropping Sunday service at LifeWorks Church in Wickliffe, Ohio on October 25th, self-proclaimed “prophet” Israel Ford and his wife Lydia Ford revealed an absolutely shocking secret. With no shame at all, they told the congregation that they have been in a polygamous marriage for three years. Ford and his wife have decided that limiting a man to just one wife is “unbiblical”, and so that would apparently open the door for more wives in the future.

Standing right next to her husband on stage, Lydia Ford welcomed minister Shakayla Ford to the altar as her “sister in marriage”…

In the four-minute video, Lydia Ford described their relationship as a “polygynous marriage,” according to a transcript. Polygyny is a version of polygamy, defined as a marriage of one man to more than one wife simultaneously.

“My husband, our prophet, he has a second wife. Y’all know her. Y’all love her. Y’all benefit from her ministry every week,” Lydia Ford told the congregation.

The first wife then introduced the second as her “sister in marriage.”

You would think that they would want to keep this sort of thing quiet.

But instead, Israel Ford proudly posted video footage of the announcement on Instagram.

As you can see below, the congregation responded to the announcement with a standing ovation…

To me, the way that the congregation reacted is the most shocking element of this story.

They seem to think that it is perfectly fine for their pastor to have a second wife.

On his Instagram account, Israel Ford defiantly declared that those that are teaching that a man should only have one wife are “unbiblical”…

I would like to introduce to the world, my second wife, Shakayla Ford!!! As a nation we have been taught that a man should have one wife only. This is unbiblical. I encourage you to watch today’s sermon in its entirety (uploaded later this week). I understand that this is an unpopular truth that we have gotten away from and many Pastors will not preach. I have no plans to choose pleasing man over what God has revealed. People may not accept this and choose to disconnect, and that is ok! This life will be over soon and we can all laugh about it in Heaven.

Wow.

Perhaps he should have looked into the laws of the state that he is living in before revealing all of this.

According to Google, he could actually go to prison for this…

• Bigamy is illegal: Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2919.01, no married person may marry another person or continue to cohabit with them in the state.

• Criminal penalty: Violating this law is classified as a first-degree misdemeanor, which can carry penalties of up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

But do you think that there is any chance that he will ever be charged with anything?

Of course not.

He will be free to do whatever he wants and nobody is going to stop him.

But if a Christian pastor tries to stand up for what is morally right, that is another matter altogether.

Recently, Reverend Patrick Mahoney was arrested for simply “peacefully demonstrating on a sidewalk in front of the Chinese embassy”…

An American pastor has been arrested and charged with a crime for praying and peacefully demonstrating on a sidewalk in front of the Chinese embassy in our nation’s capital. His case is now advancing in the courts after a recent arraignment.

The American Center for Law and Justice, which is defending Rev. Patrick Mahoney in the case, contends that the U.S. government acquiesced to demands from China’s communist regime to arrest the pastor.

The Chinese government didn’t like that he was out there, and so they asked the Secret Service to arrest him.

The Secret Service complied, and Mahoney has been charged with “unlawful entry”…

That’s not what happened on September 28. “Sadly, this time the Chinese delegation was able to persuade the Secret Service to do its bidding and arrest this American pastor right here on American soil. The criminal charge: unlawful entry, as if he were breaking and entering. It’s ridiculous,” Jordan Sekulow of the ACLJ stated.

This isn’t China.

If someone is peacefully protesting on a public sidewalk, that is perfectly legal.

I feel like we are living in a completely upside down society.

Let me give you another example.

In Kansas, the largest United Methodist church in the United States has instructed their workers to no longer use gender specific words like “boys” and “girls”…

The largest United Methodist congregation in America is telling children’s ministry workers to ditch terms like “boys” and “girls” in favor of gender-neutral alternatives, and one source of inspiration listed on the guidance comes from a transgender LGBTQ activist.

A message obtained by Breitbart News reveals that Church of the Resurrection, the Kansas megachurch led by Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Adam Hamilton, circulated a list encouraging staff to use terms like “peep-a-doodles,” “homo sapiens,” “niblings,” “kiddos,” “kitties,” “comrades,” and “folks” instead of addressing children by their God-given sex.

“Hey! In follow up from our conversation on Sunday about our words and working towards being more gender neutral so that all kids feel welcome….here is the promised list of words we can start using instead of boys/girls,” the message reads.

Are you kidding me?

That is happening at a church in Kansas?

Apparently a transgender performer known as “Mila Jam” was one of the sources of inspiration for this new directive…

The image attached to the communication credits Mila Jam as one source of inspiration. Jam, whose full name is Jahmila Adderley, is described as an American transgender singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and LGBTQ activist. Jam has celebrated becoming the “1st Black Trans Artist to co-headline BOSTON PRIDE” and promoted nonbinary identity, writing, “Happy Non-Binary Awareness Week to all my Enby Fam.”

The Church of the Resurrection has an average in-person weekend attendance of approximately 22,000 to 25,000 people across its multiple locations.

And the guy that leads that church, Adam Hamilton, has a really good shot of winning his race for the U.S. Senate.

We aren’t talking about California or New York.

We are talking about the once deep red state of Kansas.

America is in far more trouble than most people realize.

It is time to wake up.

The post A Pastor Takes A Second Wife – The Polygamous Relationship Is Revealed During A Worship Service And The Congregation Responds With A Standing Ovation appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Apocalyptic Scenario: Iran Is Threatening To Attack Oil Producing Facilities, Undersea Internet Cables, Desalination Plants And The Dimona Nuclear Reactor

Michael — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 18:27:27 +0000

Iranian leaders are making all sorts of apocalyptic threats. If they are able to follow through on even some of those threats, the Middle East will soon be thrown into a state of complete and utter chaos. As you will see below, the U.S. and Israel are preparing for a massive campaign of airstrikes on Iran. The Iranians are very well aware of this, and they are pledging to attack oil producing facilities, undersea Internet cables, international airports, desalination plants and the Dimona nuclear reactor in response. If Iran is not bluffing, we really could be facing an apocalyptic scenario in the Middle East.

On Monday, we learned that two U.S. officials just told CNN that the military is ready to hit Iran really hard once President Trump gives the order…

US forces in the Middle East are prepared to launch new, potentially major, military operations against Iran “within 96 hours of receiving” an order from President Donald Trump, according to two US officials.

Sufficient forces are now deployed in the region to carry out the potential attacks, the sources said. The scope of new US military operations would likely go beyond efforts to simply “mow the lawn” or maintain the status quo by striking radars, launchers and other Iranian assets that can be quickly reconstituted — as has been the case since Trump halted full combat operations earlier this year, the sources added.

“It will be a big effort,” one of the officials told CNN. That view has been echoed by other current and former US officials familiar with internal military planning discussions — some of whom say it is a question of when, not if, Trump will issue a go-order. They believe it could come any time before the end of the year, though most likely after the US midterm elections.

To me, this feels like a story that was leaked on purpose.

I think that the Trump administration wanted Iran to read this.

Once the USS Theodore Roosevelt arrives next month, we will have three aircraft carriers in the region…

Two US carrier strike groups, led by the USS George Washington and USS George H.W. Bush, are already operating in the region. A third, led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt, departed San Diego in late September and is heading toward the Middle East. Its arrival is expected in the coming weeks, with earlier reports pointing to November.

An amphibious readiness group led by the USS Makin Island is also heading to the region with more than 2,000 Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The deployment, alongside the carrier movement, is expected to add approximately 9,000–10,000 sailors and Marines to the regional force.

The USS Boxer amphibious readiness group is already operating near the Strait of Hormuz. The expanded deployments come as the US continues its military operations and extends the presence of forces and equipment in the region.

The U.S. midterm elections are on November 3rd.

I know that there are people that disagree with me, but I still think that new airstrikes on Iran will not occur until after the midterms.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted them to begin earlier, but President Trump was reportedly able to persuade him to wait…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing to carry out new attacks against Iran, but US officials have requested he delay until the Trump administration is ready to conduct joint operations, according to two US officials and an Israeli security source.

“Netanyahu really wanted and tried to convince Trump for a joint attack in Iran before the elections, and Trump did not give a green light,” the Israeli security source told CNN.

On Tuesday, we shall see if Netanyahu gets another term or not.

Israeli voters are about to go to the polls, and it appears that it will be another tight election.

Yesterday, Netanyahu shared an AI-generated image of Tel Aviv being destroyed by a nuclear weapon…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday posted an AI-generated image depicting a nuclear explosion in Tel Aviv, warning the public just two days before the election that voting for anyone other than him could expose Israelis to the danger of a “second Holocaust.”

Netanyahu was sharing the words of Yuval Bloomberg, a right-wing activist with roots in the tech sector who once wrote a book against the Oslo Accords. The post by Bloomberg, written last week, included the AI image of the large mushroom cloud rising above Tel Aviv as the city burned from a nuclear blast.

Israel faces a “real and tangible existential threat,” the post shared by Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu considers the conflict with Iran to be a war for survival.

The Iranians also view this as a war for survival, and they are prepared to pull out all the stops if they are attacked…

Iran will strike oil facilities, undersea cables, datacentres and AI facilities across as many as seven countries in the Gulf in the event of a fresh US-Israeli attack, Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, has said.

Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to Mohammad Ghalibaf, the hardliner who led Iran’s negotiations with the US to end the conflict between the two countries, said Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed in principle on an attack, but could not guarantee a successful outcome. He added: “We see the next conflict as an existential threat. The third war in two years means a threat to existence. Our strategy is ‘zero red lines’.”

Mohammadi said: “We break the temporal and spatial dimensions of the conflict. The war will continue longer and in a wider geographical area than the enemy anticipates.”

If there are “zero red lines”, no target will be off limits and the Iranians could conceivably use everything in their arsenal.

Iranian officials have put out a list of potential targets, and desalination plants all over the region are on that list…

Desalination is the most important source of drinking water for many countries in the region.

I asked Google to give me specific percentages, and they were higher than I had anticipated…

Qatar: Over 99%

Bahrain: Over 90%

Kuwait: 90%

Oman: 86%

Saudi Arabia: 70%

Israel: 50%

United Arab Emirates (UAE): 42%

Previously, attacking desalination plants had been a “red line” that Iran would not cross.

But now all bets are off.

The Iranians are also threatening to strike Israel like we have never seen before.

As I discussed yesterday, Ebrahim Azizi is telling us that it will “take less than an hour” to render Israel “uninhabitable”…

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, wrote in Hebrew on his social media account that any action against Iran’s security and national interests would make the occupied territories uninhabitable in less than an hour.

“Know that in the event of any action against our security and national interests, making the occupied territories uninhabitable will take less than an hour,” Azizi stressed.

One of the targets that Iran has threatened to strike in Israeli territory is the Dimona nuclear reactor…

Striking an active nuclear reactor is a “red line” that nobody in the world has been willing to cross up to this point.

If the Iranians were to actually severely damage or destroy Dimona, that would create a major nuclear emergency in Israeli territory.

Needless to say, the war would go to an entirely different level at that stage.

There had been hope that some sort of a diplomatic breakthrough could be achieved when top officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey visited Iran today…

Saudi Arabia’s Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud, Pakistani Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and the chief of National Intelligence Organization of Turkey Ibrahim Kalin held a meeting with the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) secretary Major General Mohsen Rezaei and President Masoud Pezeshkian as well as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The meeting was held in Saadabad Palace in the north of the Iranian capital.

Unfortunately, the Iranians made it very clear in advance that their nuclear program would not be on the agenda.

Iran is never going to make the nuclear concessions that the Trump administration is seeking.

So there will be more war.

All of the preparations have been made, and both sides have itchy trigger fingers.

Up to this point, both sides have been able to steadily escalate matters without causing the entire region to erupt in flames.

But one of these days someone will push things too far, and then we really will have an apocalyptic scenario on our hands.

The post Apocalyptic Scenario: Iran Is Threatening To Attack Oil Producing Facilities, Undersea Internet Cables, Desalination Plants And The Dimona Nuclear Reactor appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Over The Past 55 Years The Standard Of Living Of American Workers Has Fallen Much More Than Most People Realize

Michael — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 17:03:56 +0000

If you go to bed at night worried about money and you get up in the morning still worried about money, you are far from alone. In 2026, financial stress is an inescapable reality for most Americans. There is still a very small segment of the population that is doing really well, but the vast majority of us are just trying to find a way to scrape by from month to month. When you work as hard as you can and it just isn’t enough, it can be absolutely soul crushing. As I discussed last week, 44 percent of Americans struggle to even afford the most basic necessities. We can all feel that the middle class is steadily eroding, and in this article I am going to share some shocking new numbers that absolutely prove that this is happening.

When I was growing up, it seemed like almost everyone was living a middle class lifestyle. Homes were very affordable, nobody had anxiety about paying for healthcare, gasoline was extremely cheap, and grocery prices were not a concern at all.

Beef was so cheap in those days, and we ate like kings.

But now who can afford to eat beef on a regular basis?

Perhaps the wealthy can, but for most of us a simple visit to the grocery store is very painful.

In fact, many Americans now skip meals on a regular basis just to save money.

And a single trip to the hospital can mean financial ruin.

This is what life is like in America today.

Yes, we are making far more money than we once did.

But the purchasing power of our money has declined much faster than our paychecks have risen.

Adam Livingston has shared some numbers that show just how dramatically our standard of living has gone down since the U.S. went off the gold standard in 1971…

The fact that median household income is 9.7 times higher than it was in 1971 sounds like great news.

But the bad news is that the amount of gold that the median household income can buy has dropped by 88 percent since 1971.

If you look at the chart above, you will see that our standard of living has really been going downhill since the year 2000.

Needless to say, those at the bottom of the economic pyramid have been hit the hardest.

In a different post, Adam Livingston also pointed out that the federal minimum wage has lost about 95 percent of its value since 1971 when measured in gold…

Nobody can survive on the federal minimum wage today.

$7.25 times 40 hours a week is just $290.

And that is before taxes.

Nobody can afford rent, utilities, food and healthcare on such an income.

In fact, much of the country cannot afford rent, utilities, food and healthcare at this stage.

For 46-year-old Cindy Banda, just keeping the house, providing the basics for her kids and paying for her cancer treatment has become a seemingly impossible task…

The Ford Expedition rumbled to a stop and Cindy Banda’s bedazzled flip-flops landed on the asphalt of the Houston cancer center’s vast parking lot. She threaded through the rows of cars, a tally of patients who gather here to sit with chemotherapy needles or lie on radiation machines.

The elevator dinged open. A year ago in this building, surgeons removed Banda’s right breast, and she still didn’t know whether treatment had expunged the cancer from her body. Doctors had told her it would be tough to beat.

“I’m more of a positive person myself,” Banda said, now sitting with a white wristband in a dim waiting room. But the bills are harder to dismiss, and the single mother with six children in her care repeated something like a mantra. “Keep the house. Keep the cars. And just keep the kids stable.”

Can you identify with her?

I know that a lot of you can.

Even if you have a decent job, trying to survive in this harsh economic environment is exceedingly difficult.

And now decent jobs are disappearing all around us.

31-year-old Lissette Ramos has submitted hundreds of job applications over the past year, and she still can’t find anything…

Gone is the daily office commute. Now, after tending to her cats in the morning, Ramos heads straight to her desk to check the daily job alerts. She spends four to eight hours scouring sites like LinkedIn, Indeed and HiringCafe, customizing her resume for positions that fit her qualifications. At 5 p.m., she feeds her cats, goes for a walk to get in her 10,000 steps and returns home to lift weights before settling in for the evening.

Yet one year and hundreds of applications later, she is still stuck in a job search catch-22 – overqualified for entry-level work yet sidelined for junior and mid-level roles.

I feel so bad for those that are out of work right now.

Most resumes get discarded by AI hiring screeners before they are ever seen by a human…

New technology has made applying for a job easier than ever, flooding recruiters with resumes and creating massive bottlenecks. What’s more, these AI hiring screeners can filter out and reject candidates so employers often don’t see their application.

Rutgers public policy professor Carl Van Horn, who has studied unemployment trends for 40 years, frequently hears from applicants who submit hundreds of resumes without a single human reply. Omit the right keywords and “they’ve put their resume into the abyss,” he said.

If you don’t have personal connections, searching for a job can be so daunting.

Unfortunately, more good jobs are being eliminated with each passing day.

For example, American Express just announced that they will be cutting thousands of jobs…

American Express is cutting thousands of employees as the leading credit card company prepares for artificial intelligence to take over more of its internal processes.

Amex is eliminating 5% of its global workforce and taking a $336 million restructuring charge, CEO Stephen Squeri told analysts Friday on the company’s third-quarter earnings call. The firm had almost 77,000 employees at the end of 2025.

Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC in an interview that the restructuring was to make American Express “leaner, more agile, and also to prepare for AI.”

AI has become the number one reason why companies are laying people off.

As AI models become even more sophisticated and even more efficient, the number of jobs lost to AI will only go up.

We have also just learned that Comcast is “gearing up for significant job cuts”…

Comcast is gearing up for significant job cuts in its cable and telecom business in the coming weeks, as the media conglomerate restructures ahead the expected spin-off of NBCUniversal in 2027.

On the company’s third-quarter 2026 earning call, CFO Jason Armstrong said Comcast expects to take a restructuring charge of more than $1 billion in Q4.

“We expect to have a significant charge in the fourth quarter related mostly to our transformation efforts, and I would quantify that at over $1 billion,” he told analysts.

This is just the beginning.

A lot more layoffs are on the way.

If you currently have a good job, my advice would be to hold on to it as tightly as you can, because competition among those that are looking for good jobs has become extremely fierce.

Ultimately, most of us just want to live a middle class lifestyle just like our parents did.

But more seats are being pulled out of the middle class every single day, and economic stress is on the rise all over the nation.

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Both Sides Are Preparing To Greatly Escalate The Great Middle East War, And So The Global Energy Crisis And The Global Food Crisis Will Both Intensify

Michael — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 17:53:33 +0000

For months, the skeptics kept assuring us that peace was coming to the Middle East. They were wrong. Anyone that believes that there will be peace in the Middle East has a fundamental misunderstanding of what is at stake. Israel and Iran consider one another to be existential threats. The Iranians will never stop until Israel is completely defeated, and Israel will never stop until the current regime in Iran is gone. As for the U.S., President Trump keeps telling us over and over again that Iran will never be allowed to produce nuclear weapons, but the Iranians will never make the nuclear compromises that he is seeking. So more conflict is coming. In fact, both sides are feverishly preparing to greatly escalate the Great Middle East War, and that is going to have enormous implications for every man, woman and child on the entire planet.

I have been telling my readers that the next chapter of the Great Middle East War is not likely to erupt until after the midterms, but if one side suddenly decides to make a really dramatic move more fighting could erupt at any time.

Let me give you an example.

The IRGC just announced that if commercial vessels continue to attempt to travel through the southern route through the Strait of Hormuz near the coast of Oman, the Iranian military will respond by striking U.S. bases in the region…

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatens to strike American bases across the Middle East if the US military continues to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

“The US military must know that if this trend continues, the conflict will extend to its bases in the region,” the Guards say in a statement on their Sepah News website.

The Iranians know that if they launch missiles at our bases, the U.S. military will strike back really hard.

But apparently they are quite serious about this…

This isn’t going to stop tankers from trying to get through.

Overnight, Iran attacked four more oil tankers, and three others that were attempting to sneak through the southern route hit Iranian mines…

Iran said Thursday its navy hit seven oil tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to exacerbate regional tensions and the global energy crisis that is driving inflation.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’s (IRGC) navy claimed in a statement to have hit four tankers that were transferring oil. The other three ships hit naval mines and were immobilized as a result, according to The Associated Press. The IRGC added in its statement that some of the vessels remained ablaze as of Thursday morning.

Iranian state TV also reported that seven ships were hit while traversing the strait. If confirmed, it would mark the largest single-day incident involving vessels in the waterway since the start of the war in February.

Now we shall wait to see if Iranian attacks on U.S. bases begin.

If they actually follow through on this new threat, there will be fireworks.

General Mohsen Rezaei just told Drop Site that Iran has already selected valuable U.S. targets to hit in case more fighting erupts…

Iran’s top security official, Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and personal representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, told Drop Site that, in the event of an attack, Iran still has capacity to continue launching missiles and drones at various U.S. assets across the region in retaliation and that it would expand its range of targets.

“If the question is whether Iran still has the ability to continue missile and drone operations, the answer is yes,” Rezaei said in an exclusive written interview. “The United States has valuable assets in the region. In the event of war, cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities could also come within range. If the conflict begins again, we will have a broader plan.”

And Rezaei is also warning that Iran still has “capabilities” that it has not shown yet…

Rezaei said Iran did not use all its capabilities in previous stages. It introduced more capabilities into operations in proportion to the intensity of the war and is ready for the next stage.

I have written about these capabilities over and over again.

But the mainstream media wants all of us to pretend that they don’t exist.

In the end, we shall see who was right and who was wrong.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has been pulling staff from embassies all over the Middle East and evacuating troops from bases that are likely to get targeted by the Iranians…

The US military has been quietly evacuating its troops in the Middle East and the State Department is reducing its staff at diplomatic posts across the region amid ongoing threats and as President Donald Trump considers launching a major strike on Iran.

Troops stationed at bases in Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait have been ordered to move in recent days, a US official and two people familiar with the orders told NBC News.

Meanwhile, the chiefs of mission at multiple diplomatic posts in the Middle East were notified on Wednesday that their posts would begin operating with a reduced staff, two US officials told the outlet.

This reminds me so much of what we witnessed just prior to previous rounds of fighting with Iran.

Obviously preparations are being made for something big.

An anonymous U.S. official that is being quoted by Drop Site has admitted that “CENTCOM is putting all the pieces into place to renew major combat operations”…

A U.S. official confirmed to Drop Site that military assets are being moved rapidly into place in preparation for an expected green light from Trump. Among the American officials pushing for renewed attacks is U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Bradley Cooper, the official said. “CENTCOM is putting all the pieces into place to renew major combat operations,” added the official, who is not authorized to discuss war plans. He was skeptical the war would resume before the Israeli elections, but conceded, “We did start Epic Fury without all our assets in place.”

The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit are heading to the Middle East, bringing approximately 10,000 additional sailors and Marines to the region. The Roosevelt, which departed Japan on Monday, could reach the region by the end of next week ahead of its initially expected deployment slated for late November. It will join the USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington, both currently in the Arabian Sea.

It appears that it is just a matter of time before we start bombing Iran again.

According to The New York Times, plans have already been drawn up for a massive campaign of airstrikes following the midterm elections…

The United States and Israel have drawn up plans for renewed military strikes on Iran following the American midterm elections on November 3, according to a Wednesday report.

Citing US officials and others briefed on the matter, The New York Times reported that the US and Israel have ramped up military drills ahead of what it said would be “a short but intensive operation,” including flyovers of Iran’s western neighbor Iraq to simulate strike maneuvers.

Possible targets are Iranian energy sites, nuclear facilities, and arsenals of missiles and drones, the report said. Officials quoted by the newspaper claimed another major round of strikes could crater the Islamic Republic’s economy and, in doing so, force Tehran into diplomatic concessions.

It is being reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t want to wait until after the midterm elections for fighting to resume.

He intended to conduct airstrikes on Iranian targets earlier in October, but that move was vetoed by President Trump…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to carry out strikes against Iran earlier this month, but US President Donald Trump opposed reigniting the fighting before the US midterm elections, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources.

Three people familiar with the matter told the UK newspaper that the Israel Defense Forces was ready to carry out strikes on the weekend of October 10 to target Iranian nuclear facilities and regime sites, as well as civilian infrastructure including energy plants.

However, the unnamed sources said that Trump decided not to restart the conflict before the US midterms on November 3. Israel is also imminently heading to the polls, with Netanyahu facing a tough reelection battle in next Tuesday’s Knesset election.

So for now we wait, but without a doubt Israel is ready to go.

In fact, the Times of Israel is reporting that dozens of Israeli aircraft just flew toward Iran as part of a “military exercise”…

Dozens of Israeli fighter jets and refueling aircraft reportedly flew over Syria and Iraq toward the Iranian border earlier this week, following a flight path resembling an attack on Iran.

The aircraft turned around shortly before reaching Iranian territory and returned to Israel, according to an Axios report citing unnamed US and Israeli officials, following an earlier Fox News report on the matter.

Israel informed Washington of the sortie in advance, saying it was a military exercise and a show of force intended to deter Iran from attacking ahead of next week’s election, the sources told Axios.

If the Iranians had decided that a huge wave of airstrikes was imminent, they could have responded by launching dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel.

We came far closer to a major incident than most people realize.

Of course it is inevitable that more missiles will soon be flying back and forth.

This week, Netanyahu once again publicly stated that ending the regime in Iran is the goal…

Overthrowing the Islamic Republic is the only way to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, accusing Tehran of trying to revive its nuclear program.

Speaking at a military officers’ graduation ceremony, Netanyahu said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and had “pulled the pin.”

“There is only one way to remove this threat: toppling the regime in Iran,” Netanyahu said.

Israel is not going to stop.

Neither will Iran.

A lot more fighting is on the horizon, and the global energy crisis is going to get even worse.

On Thursday, the price of Brent crude briefly hit $113 a barrel…

Oil prices climbed Thursday on worries over a possible escalation in the Middle East conflict as the U.S. reportedly plans to resume strikes against Iran.

Brent crude futures rose 2.8% to $111.81 a barrel as of 11:07 a.m. ET after nearly reaching $113 earlier. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.7% to $98.83 after breaking $100 earlier.

Needless to say, the global food crisis is going to get even worse too.

Painfully high fuel and fertilizer prices are financially crippling farmers, and the Super El Niño in the Pacific is causing widespread droughts in key agricultural areas all over the globe. For example, just check out what is happening in France…

France’s 2026 grain-maize yield is forecast to fall to 6.3 tonnes per hectare (2.81 short tons per acre), its lowest level since 1991, after repeated heatwaves and persistent drought damaged crops. Agreste estimates production, including seed maize, at 7.3 million tonnes (8 million short tons), nearly half the 2025 level, as grain-maize area fell 28% and yield declined 27%.

The world is not going to grow enough food this year, and hunger will intensify.

Already, severe hunger is at historic levels in nations such as Sudan and Afghanistan…

Drought tied to the El Niño weather pattern has hit over half the country, causing crop failures in some places and costing households food and income, the IPC said. Crops are growing poorly on 64% of farmland in North Darfur, and on roughly half the land in West and South Kordofan and South Darfur.

In May, close to 19.5 million people, over 40% of Sudan’s population, faced acute food insecurity at high levels, the IPC found. The IPC placed 135,000 of them at Phase 5, its worst category, which means starvation, very high malnutrition and people dying of disease or hunger.

In Afghanistan, malnutrition has reached record levels and more than a third of the population is going severely hungry, the United Nations warned earlier this month.

We are facing a global energy crisis, a global fertilizer crisis, a Super El Niño and World War III all at the same time.

And every single one of them is expected to intensify during the months ahead.

We really are in unprecedented territory, and I have a feeling that global events will soon spiral completely out of control.

The post Both Sides Are Preparing To Greatly Escalate The Great Middle East War, And So The Global Energy Crisis And The Global Food Crisis Will Both Intensify appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

5 Signs That The Housing Market Will Be Deeply Frozen For The Foreseeable Future

Michael — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 17:39:07 +0000

The housing market in the United States has never been more paralyzed than it is right now. For years, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates at artificially low levels, and during that time most homeowners in this country were able to lock in fixed mortgage rates that were extremely low. Now that mortgage rates are soaring, many of those same homeowners feel trapped because selling would also mean getting a mortgage on a new home at a much higher rate. Meanwhile, most prospective homeowners feel like they are on the outside looking in because a combination of ridiculously high prices and painfully high mortgage rates has made homes more unaffordable than ever before.

There are only two ways that the housing market will get unfrozen.

Either mortgage rates have to come way down or home prices have to come way down.

Of course neither of those two things is likely to happen any time soon.

So we have a real mess on our hands.

The following are 5 signs that the housing market will be deeply frozen for the foreseeable future…

#1 Pending home sales are trending in the wrong direction very rapidly. According to the NAR, pending home sales were 11.3 percent lower in September 2026 than they were in September 2025…

Fast-rising mortgage rates in September took a harsh toll on the housing market, according to new monthly data released today.

Pending home sales, a measure of signed contracts on existing homes, dropped 7.3% from August and were down 11.3% year-over-year, according to the National Association of Realtors.

This count reflects buyers out shopping in September, when the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage rose sharply. It started the month around 6.8% and hit 7.6% by the end of the month, according to Mortgage News Daily.

This isn’t just a downturn.

This is a historic disaster.

At this point, pending home sales have fallen to the lowest level on record…

#2 Just like we witnessed just prior to the Great Recession, foreclosure filings are way up. In the month of August, they were a whopping 13 percent higher than last year…

ATTOM’s August report showed 40,277 properties with foreclosure filings, up 13 percent from a year earlier. Foreclosure starts rose 7 percent. Completed bank repossessions jumped 42 percent to 5,794 homes. South Carolina, Nevada, Florida, Texas, and Maryland posted the highest rates.

#3 We desperately need more homes to be built, but home construction numbers are just dismal. Last month, single family housing starts and building permits were both down a lot more than the experts were anticipating…

Home construction also took a hit in September. Both single-family housing starts and building permits fell much more sharply than analysts had predicted. Starts were down 4.56% to 859,000 annualized, according to the U.S. Census. That is the lowest level since September 2025. Building permits, which are a measure of future construction, fell 4% for the month.

#4 Homebuilders are not optimistic about the future at all. In fact, homebuilder confidence just dropped to the lowest level in 14 years…

The mood among America’s homebuilders is grim.

Homebuilder sentiment fell three points to 29 in October, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.

October’s reading marks the lowest homebuilder sentiment the US has seen since June 2012, the NAHB said, when the housing market was still moving through the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. It shows just how much builders have soured on the housing landscape amid rising costs and a record-breaking slowdown in home sales.

#5 The housing market has already been in a depressed state for an extended period of time, and now economist Jim Paulsen is warning that his “Walmart Recession Signal” is peaking just like it did before the start of the Great Recession…

Economist Jim Paulsen calls his theory the “Walmart Recession Signal” (WRS). When Walmart’s stock goes up and shares of luxury companies in the S&P Global Luxury Index go down, it’s a sign that the country may be headed for a recession.

“As economic activity slows and recession risk builds, retailing purchasing patterns tend to gravitate toward discounters like Walmart and away from overall or luxury retailers,” Paulsen wrote in a Substack post Monday. “Consequently, a rise in the WRS could warn of a potential recession or at least a significant economic slowdown.”

And that warning is getting louder, he said. Just as it did before the Great Recession and two recessions in the 90s, the WRS is peaking.

What we are experiencing now reminds me so much of the middle of 2008.

Except this time around those on the bottom rungs of the economic food chain are in far worse shape.

As I discussed the other day, 44 percent of all Americans struggle to even pay for the basic necessities each month.

And millions upon millions of Americans are now living either on the streets or in their vehicles.

For example, in the Bronx there is a very long corridor known as the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” where large numbers of homeless Americans have been living in “old RVs, trailers and trucks”…

Residents along an unsightly stretch of the Bronx are fed up with an eyesore corridor where the homeless have been bedding down in old RVs, trailers and trucks for years, The Post has learned.

The “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” along a section of Webster Avenue has been a headache for locals for at least two years — but the desperate folks calling the rundown vehicles home said they were driven to a bare-bones existence by the Big Apple’s sky-high rents.

These people aren’t living there because they want to live there.

These people are living there because they can’t afford a real home…

Those people told The Post they were driven to live in RVs and trucks by the city’s rents — which left them a choice between the streets, risky city shelters or the vehicles they now call home.

“We need housing,” said Rita Freeman, who said she’s lived in her RV since last November. “I mean, this is absurd. This is bizarre. There’s so many of us.

“I went into hotels, I maxed out my credit card for the first time since I had it since 1994,” she added. “Because I did not want to go to a shelter or the street. It’s very dangerous.”

This is happening all over the nation.

Every single day, even more Americans fall out of the middle class and into poverty.

We need affordable homes, but the housing market is not properly responding to market forces any longer because the Federal Reserve’s insane policies have thrown everything out of whack.

It has been said that if you play stupid games, you should expect to win stupid prizes.

Sadly, the Federal Reserve has been playing stupid games for a very long time.

Foolish actions have foreseeable and predictable consequences.

Now we are reaping what they have sown, and there will be no easy way to fix this mess.

There is a reason why I have been ranting about the Federal Reserve for nearly two decades.

The choices that they make have a very real impact on all of us.

Now we are steamrolling toward a major economic downturn, and they are actually thinking of raising rates again.

So much pain is ahead, and much of it could have been easily avoided.

The post 5 Signs That The Housing Market Will Be Deeply Frozen For The Foreseeable Future appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

We Are Facing A Global Energy Crisis, A Global Food Crisis, A European Financial Crisis, The End Of The AI Bubble And A Super El Niño All At Once

Michael — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 17:45:25 +0000

We have never seen a year quite like 2026, and we are certainly not prepared for what is coming in 2027. There has never been a time when we haven’t had problems, but now we have entered an era when we are just getting hammered by crisis after crisis after crisis. At the moment, we are simultaneously facing an unprecedented global energy crisis, an unprecedented global food crisis, an epic meltdown in Europe, the end of the biggest financial bubble in history and the most powerful Super El Niño ever recorded. To say that we have a lot on our plate would be a massive understatement, and what we have experienced so far is only just the beginning.

For a few months a decent amount of oil was sneaking through the Strait of Hormuz, but now Iran is trying to slam the door shut.

The Iranians have been attacking more oil tankers than ever before this month, and earlier today yet another oil tanker hit an Iranian naval mine…

A violating oil tanker struck a naval mine in the southern Strait of Hormuz, causing an explosion and a fire in its engine room, the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps Navy said in a statement.

The vessel, which was trying to exit the Strait of Hormuz, had switched off all its positioning and navigation systems from the start of its voyage and was attempting to cross the unauthorized southern route of the strait in disregard of its regulations when the incident occurred.

The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps Navy said any ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf that turn off their navigation and identification systems will be dealt with severely and decisively.

The southern route through the Strait of Hormuz near the coast of Oman used to be clear of mines.

Not anymore.

Every time a single oil tanker is put out of commission that is a major loss.

A new oil tanker costs somewhere between $60 million and $140 million, and once an order is placed it takes 9 to 15 months to build it.

Investors are starting to realize that the global energy crisis is not going to end any time soon, and on Monday the price of Brent crude nearly hit 110 dollars a barrel…

Brent crude futures briefly tagged $109.99 a barrel in overnight trading before retreating from five-month highs during the Asian session and into European trading, as signs of recovering Middle Eastern supply offset renewed attacks on energy infrastructure and critical maritime shipping lanes.

Of course Iran is not able to export much oil either, because the U.S. naval blockade is having a devastating impact on their economy…

In a video message posted on Friday, U.S. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper said the naval blockade has prevented Iran from exporting at least $25 billion worth of crude oil. The U.S. and its partners have also frozen nearly $350 million cryptocurrency assets, he added.

The effects have rippled throughout Iran’s economy, forcing the regime to withhold salaries, pensions, and benefits to workers in the energy, manufacturing, construction and security sectors, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Cooper said.

“The financial strain on Iran’s military has become so significant that there are reports of Iran-aligned militia groups across the region withholding payments to their soldiers in order to funnel money back to the IRGC, which also is not paying its troops,” he explained. “The Islamic regime is clearly feeling the economic pain, and the IRGC is increasingly showing signs of greater desperation as a result.”

What we really need is for the war in the Middle East to end.

But that isn’t going to happen.

In fact, it appears that it could soon greatly escalate.

The fighting in the Middle East has also really driven up fertilizer prices.

Farmers all over the world are paying far more for fertilizer and far more for fuel, and those costs are going to get passed along to everyone else.

Global food prices increased by 13 percent during the third quarter of 2026, and we are being warned that even higher prices are ahead…

Global agricultural prices jumped 13 percent in the third quarter of the year, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which warned a “global food crisis is looming”.

The surge in energy prices due to conflict in the Middle East has sparked a sharp increase in the cost of fertilisers and fuel this year, driving up agricultural production and transport costs.

“Over the next six to nine months, we will see continued increases related to food prices, but also I would say even inflation in terms of food, which will impact most of the populations that actually can afford it less,” IFAD President Alvaro Lario told AFP in an interview on Tuesday.

When food prices go up, more people go hungry.

That is just the way that it works.

The outlook for 2027 is extremely grim, and we are already at a point where the number of people in the world experiencing acute hunger has doubled over the past ten years…

Acute hunger has doubled over the last ten years and now affects 266 million people across 47 countries and territories, according to a new report from Action Against Hunger.

But at least the wealthy countries will be fine, right?

Actually, they won’t be fine at all.

We have been witnessing horrifying riots in France, Belgium, Italy and Albania in recent days.

The rioting has been particularly intense in France, and on Monday French stocks were way down…

French markets tumbled on Monday, with bonds, Paris-listed stocks and even the euro falling after widespread protests across France underscored difficulties the government faces in reducing its large deficit.

Already contending with weak growth and ballooning debt, the euro zone’s second-biggest economy witnessed some of its worst unrest in years over the weekend. Thousands of people were arrested and shops were looted during protests over high prices and declining public services.

France just kept borrowing gigantic amounts of money year after year, and currently they are absolutely drowning in debt.

Now French bond prices are crashing hard and everyone is freaking out…

A slide in bond prices on Monday pushed France’s 10-year yield up 13 basis points to 4.9%, on track for its largest one-day rise since late September, while the German 10-year yield, the benchmark for the euro zone, rose 4 bps to 3.45%.

The difference between those two yields, which is a reflection of the premium investors demand to lend to France rather than Germany, was 146 bps, its highest in two weeks, though it has eased from the nearly 160 bps hit in early October.

French banks are facing nightmarish unrealized losses on the French bonds that they are holding.

If there is a run on the banks, we are being warned that many of them could start collapsing as a result of this crisis.

I certainly wouldn’t want my money in French banks at this stage.

Germany is in a lot of trouble too.

The German economy has been in stall mode for years, bond yields have been rising, and even Volkswagen has fallen on hard times…

In another episode of the “death of Europe,” a new report from Germany brings more troubling news for struggling automaker Volkswagen, suggesting to us that globalists in the bloc have squandered not just their inheritance but their economic future through a failing progressive experiment that has neutered Europe’s industrial base.

German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reports that Volkswagen plans to freeze salaries through the end of the decade as it expands its cost-cutting push after lowering its outlook and doubling its job-reduction target.

“Internal documents reveal that hundreds of thousands of employees are to forgo pay raises. These latest plans represent a further escalation in the conflict between management and employee representatives,” SZ wrote in the article.

Germany, France, Italy and Spain are supposed to be the pillars of the European Union.

Unfortunately, all of them are currently on shaky ground.

This is a story that is still in the early chapters, and I am convinced that the whole world will be shocked by what is about to happen to Europe.

Meanwhile, the AI bubble in the U.S. is beginning to burst.

Many AI stocks have fallen substantially this month.

Investors are starting to realize that AI will never be the income-generating miracle that it was touted to be at one time.

So now there is a lot more hesitancy to fund new data center projects, and some projects are either being delayed or canceled…

More than three years into the AI boom, these ambitious data centre plans are running into reality. At least 47 large projects have been delayed, withdrawn or blocked in 2026, according to data shared by RegLayer, a regulatory intelligence company, which described it as a “conservative estimate” focused on the largest sites.

When there is a stock market bubble, you only get rich if you get out at the top.

Those that hold their AI stocks all the way to the bitter end are going to end up deeply, deeply disappointed.

On top of everything else that I have discussed in this article, we are also facing a Super El Niño.

According to the NOAA, there is an 83 percent chance that this will be the most powerful El Niño ever recorded…

As of October, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts there is an 83 per cent chance that this will be the strongest El Niño since records began in 1950.

Meanwhile, NASA’s satellite measurements show that sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific are currently 1.7°C (3°F) above the long–term average, and could jump another fraction of a degree higher in the coming months.

This band of warm water expanded throughout the spring and now covers millions of square miles in an area stretching from the coast of South America to the heart of the Pacific.

In some parts of the world, this Super El Niño has caused monster storms.

In other parts of the world, this Super El Niño has caused crippling droughts and widespread crop failures.

Sadly, this Super El Niño is expected to persist well into 2027.

That is not good news at all.

At the same time, the global energy crisis and the global food crisis are both going to continue to intensify as we roll into next year.

We really are in the midst of a “perfect storm”, and I anticipate that global financial markets will go totally nuts in the months ahead.

The post We Are Facing A Global Energy Crisis, A Global Food Crisis, A European Financial Crisis, The End Of The AI Bubble And A Super El Niño All At Once appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

What Is Happening In France Will Also Happen Here In The United States Too

Michael — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 18:08:26 +0000

The same alliance that is doing it in France will also bring rioting, looting and civil unrest to the United States as well. It is known as “the Red/Green alliance”, and their shared goal is “revolution” all over the western world. Right now we are witnessing an unprecedented tactical convergence between far-left/Marxist movements (“red”) and radical Islamist groups (“green”), and this should deeply alarm all of us. Ultimately, the long-term goals of far-left organizations are much different from the long-term goals of the radical Islamists. But they both deeply hate the same people, and they both want to see the established order overthrown. So for now they are allies of convenience, and they are not afraid to use violence to achieve what they want.

It is certainly true that a relentless cost of living crisis that stretches all the way back to the beginning of this decade is causing immense economic distress both here in the United States and all over the western world. The far left and radical Islamists are attempting to use this economic turmoil to help fuel their anti-government riots.

What we are witnessing in France is a perfect example of this.

It is being estimated that 550,000 people participated in the riots on Saturday, including 110,000 in the Paris metro area alone…

Chaos exploded across France on Saturday as 550,000 protesters flooded the streets, torched cars and buildings, looted from posh stores including Louis Vuitton and Hermès, and even threatened to storm the Élysée Palace—prompting a defiant President Emmanuel Macron to rage: “Let them come and get me!”

In Paris alone, an estimated 110,000 demonstrators took to the streets, with masked protestors backed by the country’s far-left opposition leader smashing storefronts, targeting luxury business and confronting riot police armed with tear gas and water cannons.

The mainstream media tried to frame the riots as “mostly peaceful protests”, but everyone could clearly see that was not true at all.

Many of the rioters seemed to revel in the destruction that they were causing.

In one particularly disturbing incident, a historic town hall that had somehow survived both world wars was purposely set on fire…

The iconic Limoges Town Hall, which was built in 1883 and survived both world wars, came tumbling down in a blaze after it was torched by rioters in the south-west of France.

A video seen by 1.4 million people on X showed the building, which played a significant role in the French Resistance during the Second World War, collapsing, with its bell tower engulfed in flames.

So where were the police?

They were on the run.

The rioters vastly outnumbered them, and one official described the chaos in the streets as “apocalyptic”…

‘It was apocalyptic,’ a senior commander told Sunday’s Le Parisien newspaper. ‘Law enforcement was unable to contain the multitude of simultaneous attacks occurring across the country, and was quickly overwhelmed by determined protesters.’

Explaining how a number of districts fell into ‘the hands of rioters’, the source said ‘there weren’t enough personnel or ammunition.’

The ‘apocalyptic rioting’ followed intense violence in recent weeks which saw gangs of agitators taking part in running battles with the forces of law and order.

Of course whenever there is rioting, there will also be looting.

In Paris, very large groups of “masked men wearing black hoodies” were grabbing whatever they could get their hands on…

Smashing shop windows and snatching boxes of goods, looters in Paris poured into stores across the capital on Saturday, facing no resistance from authorities as nationwide protests degenerated into violence.

Crowds of masked men wearing black hoodies yanked at metal store shutters until they gave way, clearing shelves of cigarettes, sunglasses, clothes, jewellery and food.

It appears that in many cases the looting was not spontaneous at all.

In fact, it appears that some groups of looters were “highly organized”…

According to AFP, some looting appeared highly organized. Groups of approximately six young men, wearing masks and gloves, approached stores and first disconnected their security cameras. Only then did they smash the windows, break into the premises and steal merchandise. The businesses targeted included supermarkets, pharmacies, luxury boutiques, clothing stores, electronics retailers, cosmetics shops and opticians. In Paris, footage showed looters stripping mobile phone stores of their merchandise and throwing products to accomplices waiting outside.

One widely circulated video, said to have been filmed in Paris, showed a woman desperately trying to stop masked looters from breaking into a supermarket. “Why are you doing this?” she shouted as the intruders pushed through the entrance. One initially placed a hand on her back, apparently trying to move her aside gently, but others surged forward and forced their way into the store. “Stop! That’s not the point!” she cried as she was pushed away. Her appeals failed to stop the looting.

This is what the far left does.

They riot, loot and commit acts of random violence.

The largest far left party in France knew what would happen, but they publicly backed the “protests” anyway…

The disorder is backed by the far-left opposition leader La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party. Its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is second in the polls for next year’s presidential elections, which take place in six months.

Mélenchon blamed the authorities for blocking protesters from reaching Place de la République in Paris, which he said had been designated as the start of the protest.

It would be bad enough for leaders of France Unbowed to openly encourage the rioters.

But the truth is that many of them have also been active participants in the “protests”…

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu took a more direct approach than Macron, saying the student movement has been “instrumentalized by the allies of France Unbowed (LFI)… for electoral reasons.” The left-wing LFI’s presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, even participated in one of the Paris protests this week, while LFI councilors, deputies, and mayors have joined student blockades in multiple cities.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to turn France into a communist nation.

And he is thrilled to have hordes and hordes of young Muslim radicals as his allies.

Many of those young Muslim radicals proudly carry Palestinian flags with them, and that flag has become the most visible symbol of the French riots…

“Palestinian flags were visible among demonstrators as violence spread through French cities. A municipal police station was also attacked, shops were vandalized, and riot police deployed tear gas. Storming government buildings and attacking police are acts of political violence, not peaceful protest. President Macron called for calm before the violence erupted. The question now is what his government will do to restore order,” Pamela Geller reported.

The civil unrest is far from over.

Of course it isn’t just France that has been thrown into a state of turmoil.

Yesterday, protests in Italy got quite violent…

Italian police fired tear gas at Italian protesters in the square in front of Milan’s Gothic cathedral, after rioters allegedly threw stones at officers, France 24 reported.

Protesters in Milan also gathered in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II – a luxury shopping centre. Shop owners put down their shutters and tourists appeared to flee the central area as the clashes turned violent, with the central Duomo metro station being temporarily closed.

And the riots in Albania just continue to escalate…

Thousands of young Albanians gathered outside the Education Ministry in the center of the capital Tirana on Saturday on the fifth day of a growing student-led movement ‌to force Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign.

The protest turned violent when a group of young people wearing masks hurled rocks at riot police, who responded with stun grenades, tear gas and a water cannon.

We are being told that people all over Europe are angry about the rising cost of living.

And that is true.

But it isn’t conservatives that are rioting.

It isn’t Christians that are rioting.

It is always the far left and the Muslims.

That same alliance is going to bring rioting, looting and civil unrest to the United States too.

We have seen various instances when this has occurred in recent years, but much worse is coming.

As Americans become increasingly frustrated with our seemingly endless cost of living crisis, “the Red/Green alliance” will use economic pain to stir up anger.

But rioting, looting and civil unrest is not going to fix anything.

The far left and the radical Muslims know this.

They do not intend to fix the current system.

Instead, they want “revolution” so that the current system can be completely wiped out.

The post What Is Happening In France Will Also Happen Here In The United States Too appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

44% Of Americans Have Trouble Paying For Basic Necessities And The Lifetime Cost Of The American Dream Has Risen To $5.3 Million

Michael — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 17:07:49 +0000

How did we get to a point where nearly half of the entire population is struggling to even pay for the most basic necessities? A lot of people talk about “economic collapse” as something that will occur someday in the future. The truth is that “economic collapse” has been slowly happening for decades as the middle class has been systematically eviscerated. It now takes 5.3 million dollars to live the American Dream over the course of a lifetime. Who can afford that? Most Americans aren’t even going to come close to making 5.3 million dollars during their working years. Of course in this economic environment, much of the population is just concerned with trying to survive from month to month. The cost of living crisis that has been raging for this entire decade is absolutely crushing millions upon millions of U.S. households, and now we just learned that the official inflation rate has gone up again.

If financial stress has become a major theme in your life, I want you to know that you are not alone.

According to a shocking new survey just released by the Pew Research Center, 44 percent of Americans struggle to even pay for the most basic necessities…

More than four-in-ten Americans (44%) indicate they have had trouble paying for at least one of these basic necessities in the past year

We aren’t talking about having difficulty paying the phone bill.

The survey found that an alarmingly high percentage of the population can’t even afford to pay for housing, food and medical care.

It also discovered that a whopping 27 percent of Americans can’t pay their monthly bills in full…

60% say they do not currently have enough income to lead the kind of life they want.
53% say they do not have emergency funds that would cover their expenses for three months.
27% cannot pay some of their monthly bills or can only make partial payments.
32% say they worry every day or almost every day about the cost of healthcare and the amount of debt they have.

More than a quarter of the population is getting behind on their debts.

That is what you call a crisis.

And there is no end in sight.

Most Americans don’t want to be rich.

Most Americans just want to live a middle class lifestyle like their parents did.

Unfortunately, it now costs 5.3 million dollars to live the American Dream over the course of a lifetime…

The cost of the American dream is rising at a faster pace than household earnings, driven by notable increases in the cost of homeownership, raising children and paying for college, according to a new report.

An analysis by Investopedia finds that the lifetime cost of the American dream rose 4.1% from 2025 to 2026, with the cost increasing by more than $208,000 from $5.11 million a year ago to $5.32 million this year.

Are you going to make more than 5 million dollars during your working years?

If not, you are out of luck.

Housing costs have been eroding the middle class faster than just about anything else…

Homeownership costs rose the most in dollar terms, with the lifetime cost rising by over $91,000 from $1.184 million in 2025 to $1.275 million in 2026. That rise amounts to a 7.7% increase year over year.

That figure includes a 20% down payment on a median-priced single-family home of $420,000, with a 6.32% 30-year mortgage that brings the total cost with interest to about $837,000, as well as $3,057 a year in insurance costs, property taxes and 30 years of upkeep and utilities which adds another $438,000 to the price tag.

Of course the figures quoted above no longer apply, because the average rate on a 30 year mortgage is now well over 7 percent.

So now homeownership is even more unaffordable.

And just about everything else is becoming more expensive too.

Today we learned that the official rate of inflation just went up again…

September brought little relief to the accelerating cost of living, as consumer prices increased again and kept the inflation rate well above the Federal Reserve’s goal.

The consumer price index, a broad measure of goods and services costs across the U.S. economy, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6% for the month, putting the 12-month rate at 3.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected respective gains of 0.6% and 3.6%.

The formula that is used to calculate the official rate of inflation has been changed dozens of times since the Jimmy Carter era, and at this stage it doesn’t even come close to accurately reflecting how quickly prices are actually going up.

But the fact that even the government is admitting that inflation is rising is not good.

Soaring energy costs were the primary reason for the spike in the inflation rate…

Energy costs drove inflation in September, and high retail prices in October suggest pain at the pump will continue. Prices have soared since the Iran conflict started at the end of February.

Gasoline prices last month rose 9.1% from the prior month—a faster pace than August’s 3.9% increase—and are up 34% over the past year. Fuel-oil prices, meanwhile, are up 74% since last September.

When this inflation report was released, it really spooked investors, and bond yields spiked dramatically…

The 10-year Treasury note yield rose on Wednesday following the latest U.S. inflation print.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note — the main benchmark for mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt — jumped more than 7 basis points to 5.289% and reached the highest level since Oct. 8.

The longer-dated 30-year U.S. Treasury yield — which tends to react most to geopolitical events — was up more than 3 basis points to 5.602%.

The U.S. Treasury has been working really hard to keep bond yields under control.

I think that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is going to need a bigger boat.

During most economic downturns, normally we are either facing an inflation crisis or an unemployment crisis.

This time around, it appears that we will have both.

Mass layoffs have been occurring all over the nation, and on Wednesday we learned that Netflix is joining the party…

Netflix is reportedly laying off 1,000 workers – the streaming giant’s biggest cuts since 2022.

Staff were told Wednesday that about 6% of the workforce – within product, tech, legal, and human resources teams – was being slashed, according to a memo obtained by the Post.

I thought that Netflix was doing well.

I guess not.

Kroger is another company that was once thriving, but now they have decided to give the axe to about 3,000 highly-paid corporate workers…

Kroger is planning to eliminate approximately 3,000 corporate positions over the next three years as the grocery giant expands its use of artificial intelligence and looks to cut costs, according to a report.

The planned cuts would affect roughly 37% of Kroger’s approximately 8,200 corporate employees, Reuters reported Monday, citing an internal memo from CEO Greg Foran.

The restructuring comes as Kroger faces pressure to improve sales, keep grocery prices competitive and streamline operations through increased use of AI.

Every time more highly-paid jobs are wiped out, the middle class gets even smaller.

If you still have your seat in the middle class, you should be very thankful, because more chairs are being pulled out of the game with each passing day.

The top 10 percent of all income earners are still thriving, but for almost everyone else life is a struggle.

It didn’t have to turn out this way.

Decades of insanely bad decisions have brought us to this point, and now the cost of living is the number one political issue during this campaign season by a very wide margin.

The post 44% Of Americans Have Trouble Paying For Basic Necessities And The Lifetime Cost Of The American Dream Has Risen To $5.3 Million appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Yes, Donald Trump Really Did Just Say That “An Economic Depression Much Like 1929” Could Be Coming

Michael — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 17:28:29 +0000

A lot of people may not like what Donald Trump just said about the economy, but it is accurate. As you will see below, he recently warned that we could soon be facing “an economic depression much like 1929”, and without a doubt the stage has been set for a downturn of that magnitude. Right now, we are in the midst of a global bond crisis, the housing market is paralyzed by high mortgage rates, stores and restaurants are closing all over the nation, there have been mass layoffs in the tech industry, demand at food banks is soaring, and we are experiencing a seemingly endless cost of living crisis that stretches back all the way back to the beginning of this decade.

So I very much agree that we are potentially facing a full-blown economic depression.

Earlier this month, Trump caused quite a shock when he publicly stated that the U.S. “will have an economic depression much like 1929” if the Democrats win the midterms…

Trump made the warning while promoting his pledge to give every adult American $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate.

“If the Democrats win, you will have an economic depression much like 1929,” Trump said in a video posted to Truth Social on Saturday.

He also argued that Republican control would allow the administration to return money to Americans, citing record tariff revenue and economic gains.

Trump has estimated the proposed “Trump dividend” would cost about $1 trillion.

Of course Trump is convinced that an economic depression can be avoided if Republicans win the midterms.

At the moment, pollsters are telling us that such an outcome is very unlikely.

The latest surveys indicate that Democrats are almost certainly going to take the House, and there is a good chance that they will also take the Senate.

Needless to say, the pollsters have been wrong before, and they could be wrong again.

So we will just have to wait and see what happens.

But without a doubt, our economy is teetering on the brink of disaster.

Today, we learned that pending home sales in the U.S. just hit their lowest level in more than 12 years…

U.S. pending home sales are down to their lowest level since spring 2014–with the exception of April 2020, when the onset of the pandemic ground the housing market to a halt.

Pending home sales declined 4% from a month earlier in September on a seasonally adjusted basis–the biggest monthly drop in more than three years. This is a real-time indicator of what’s happening in the housing market; fewer homes went under contract in September largely because mortgage rates rose steadily, surpassing 7% by the end of the month.

The bond crisis has driven mortgage rates to absurd heights, and this is absolutely crushing the housing market.

The areas that are being hit the hardest were once some of the hottest during the boom years…

The declines were biggest on the West Coast: Seattle posted the biggest drop (-24.4% year over year), followed by Los Angeles (-16%), San Diego (-15.8%) and Anaheim, CA (-15.5%). Those Southern California metros are among the priciest in the U.S., so rising mortgage rates hit them hard, pricing many on-the-fence buyers out. Seattle is also expensive, and a bumpy local job market is curbing demand.

It appears to be inevitable that home prices will fall substantially.

In fact, this has already started to happen in some parts of the country.

That may sound like good news, but the last time this happened our economy plunged into “the Great Recession”.

What will happen this time around?

Right now, U.S. households are struggling to keep up with their debts at a level that we haven’t seen since 2010…

The ability of U.S. families to stay current on their debts worsened over the past three years, hitting levels not seen since the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the Federal Reserve reported Friday.

In the central bank’s Survey of Consumer Finances, researchers found that while wealth disparities narrowed somewhat, the ability to meet debt payments deteriorated significantly.

“Families were more likely to be behind on their financial obligations than at any point since the 2010 survey,” stated the survey, a data-rich document the Fed releases every three years to chronicle the nation’s financial health.

The country in 2010 was just emerging from what became known as the Great Recession, a period that ran from December 2007 to June 2009.

The reason why so many Americans are struggling to stay afloat financially is because we are in the middle of the longest multi-year cost of living crisis in U.S. history.

For years, I pleaded with our politicians to stop borrowing and spending so much money.

For years, I pleaded with the Federal Reserve to stop flooding our financial system with fresh cash.

But they didn’t listen.

Now the purchasing power of our money has fallen dramatically and the cost of living crisis is strangling the life out of communities from coast to coast.

In West Virginia, just trying to survive has become a daily struggle for countless numbers of people…

Those forces have hit especially hard in areas that were already struggling economically, like West Virginia’s once-flourishing coal mining communities. The spike in gas costs means a 45-minute drive to the nearest grocery store can set residents back more than $15. And West Virginians who must comply with the new work requirements to receive food benefits are confronting a lack of jobs and training programs. Since last summer, about 24,000 people, including 8,000 children, have lost food stamps, according to the West Virginia Department of Human Services.

“It’s like the pandemic on steroids without funds,” Kirkhart said. “I don’t believe the government needs to provide everything, but if you’re going to ask us to, please help.”

Of course it isn’t just our rural areas that are dealing with hard times.

Our major cities are teeming with the impoverished, the homeless and the addicted.

In some cities, homeless encampments stretch on for block after block, and hordes of drug addicts wander around like zombies and defecate in the streets.

Such an environment is perfect for rats, and it is no surprise that New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are the most rodent-infested cities in the United States…

A national pest control company has released its annual list of the top 10 most rodent-infested cities in the U.S. — and one Midwest city has now joined the list for the first time.

The list is based on rodent control service data from more than 300 Terminix branches nationwide in 2025, ranking cities where residents most frequently used the company’s services.

While New York and Los Angeles held onto the top two spots, Philadelphia moved up one spot to No. 3.

If things are this bad now, what will they look like if “an economic depression much like 1929” soon hits us?

When I was growing up, our major cities were quite clean and there were no homeless encampments anywhere to be seen.

When I was growing up, drug addicts were not publicly urinating in front of children.

When I was growing up, millions of Americans were not living in their vehicles.

The middle class has been eroding for decades, and now millions upon millions of U.S. citizens live in third world conditions.

This is what long-term economic decline looks like, and now we are being told that “an economic depression much like 1929” could be in our future.

Brace yourself, because we are moving into times that are going to be extremely challenging for all of us.

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