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Will The Holiday Season Be RUINED By The Global Supply Chain Crisis?

October 4, 2021October 4, 2021 by Michael

Is this going to be the worst holiday season in modern American history? Some mainstream news outlets are insisting that the upcoming holidays are going to be “ruined” because of the widespread shortages that are being caused by the global supply chain crisis. Of course we should have never allowed any of our holidays to be defined by material goods in the first place. I think that the fact that a “holiday season” can be “ruined” by a lack of goods on the shelves says an enormous amount about where we are as a society. And if we can’t handle some limited shortages during the waning months of 2021, how in the world are we going to handle the severe economic pain that is coming in the future?

No holiday should ever be defined by material possessions, but the vast majority of the population sees things very differently than I do, and so the coming months are going to be a very difficult time for a lot of people. The following comes from a CNN article entitled “How America Ruined Christmas”…

The supply chain nightmare that’s been plaguing the global economy for over a year is about to snarl the holiday shopping season. Think barren shelves, massive shipping delays, and no small amount of sticker shock. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Needless to say, these conditions are likely to cause millions of Americans to throw wild temper tantrums.

And many young kids will be getting very upset as well.

There simply is not going to be enough stuff to go around, and we are being told that supplies of toys will be particularly tight…

“There is going to be a major shortage of toy products this year,” MGA Entertainment CEO Isaac Larian told CNN Business.
“The [shipping] container that cost $3,200 last year is now $22,000,” Larian told the network, blaming Maersk and other shipping giants.
Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun, told CNN: “You’re going to find various times during the holiday season where the store shelves are going to have empty holes in them.”

I know that a lot of you are probably quite horrified by this news, but we can survive just fine without enough toys.

Personally, I am far more concerned about the food shortages that we are starting to see around the nation. One of my readers noticed that inventory levels are getting extremely low at the local Albertson’s…

Wanted to let you know that we went to the store today (Albertson’s) and we are now noticing thin and empty shelf spaces. Pretty much every aisle. Didn’t notice anyone one item being very low except chicken. Otherwise the low or out inventory was pretty uniform aisle to aisle. Don’t know if part of it is because locals are starting to take the shortages issue serious and stocking up or shortages are starting to hit our area or both. The store was packed with people. Interesting how quickly it changed around here in a week or two.

And another one of my readers that lives in the middle of the country says that he is starting to see things happen that he has never seen before…

The lack of workers here is getting worse. Sonic in my small town has resorted to blocking off 40% of their car spots because they simply do not have the Car Hops to service them. They have also resorted to hiring a male Car Hop. I ate their yesterday and they had run out of Onion Rings!!! Never, ever had that happen before!!! Also see more and more Help Wanted Signs around town and everywhere I go.

As I have discussed previously, one of the biggest reasons for the shortages is a lack of qualified workers.

There are millions and millions of jobs open right now, and we just don’t have enough people to fill them. Companies are starting to get desperate, and in some cases that could be potentially dangerous.

For example, in California they are now training teenagers to be truck drivers…

Inside Edition spoke to a California 17-year-old, named Isabella, as she trained behind the wheel.

She’s one of several teens at Patterson High School who are participating in one of the first truck-driving programs for high schoolers in the U.S.

“There is a huge need. We’re short about 63,000 drivers today,” instructor Dave Dein said.

Isn’t that strange?

Over in the UK, there is such a shortage of drivers that the UK has called out the military to help deliver fuel…

The army started supplying service stations in the United Kingdom on Monday in an effort to end more than a week of shortages that have forced pumps to close and left motorists without fuel.

Tanker drivers from the military underwent training over the weekend to deliver fuel across the country starting on Monday. The UK government said in a statement on Friday that almost 100 tanker drivers will be deployed from this week to “further relieve pressure on petrol stations and address the shortage of HGV [Heavy Goods Vehicle] drivers.”

Where did all the drivers go?

In my entire lifetime, I have never seen anything like this.

Elsewhere in Europe, an energy shortage has suddenly erupted, and this threatens to send power bills into the stratosphere. Just check out what is happening right now in Italy…

Household electricity bills will rise by 29.8% for the typical family and gas bills will go up by 14.4%, Italy’s energy regulatory authority Arera confirmed in a press release last week. The new national tariffs came into effect on Friday, the start of the fourth quarter of 2021. The increase comes amid surging energy costs across Europe, and beyond.

The price rise passed on to Italian consumers could’ve reached 45 percent, Arera said, if the government had not stepped in to cap the new rise in rates.

On the other side of the globe, China is experiencing an unprecedented energy crisis as well.

Now we are heading into the cold part of the year in the northern hemisphere, and this will put even more strain on tightening global energy supplies.

Even in a best case scenario, things could get really crazy this winter. So let us hope that a major war doesn’t erupt between Israel and Iran, because that would push energy prices much, much higher.

The global economy is teetering on the brink of a complete and total breakdown, and it wouldn’t take very much at all to push us over the edge.

So let us hope for the best, but let us also prepare for the worst.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

On Top Of Everything Else, Could We Potentially See 2 Major Wars Start Before The End Of The Year?

October 3, 2021October 3, 2021 by Michael

Historically, the start of most wars has not been a surprise. Usually, there is a very clear build up before hostilities begin, and we are seeing the same pattern today. For example, by now it should be exceedingly clear to everyone that Israel and Iran will be going to war. Both sides have been talking about the coming conflict for years, and everyone knows who has been causing the “mystery explosions” inside Iran and everyone knows who has been attacking Israeli commercial ships. A “shadow war” has already been going on for quite some time, and at some point missiles will start flying back and forth between the two countries. Likewise, by now it should be exceedingly clear that China very much wants to invade Taiwan. “Reunification” is a top national priority for the CCP, and as you will see below, we are being warned that Xi Jinping has apparently decided that Taiwan is “not a problem that will be passed down to the next generation”.

From a U.S. perspective, the goal is to delay these conflicts for as long as possible. But China just keeps getting more and more aggressive with Taiwan. In fact, the Chinese military sent 77 military aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone on Friday and Saturday…

Taiwan has reported a record number of incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defense identification zone (ADIZ) for the second day in a row, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said on Saturday night.

The self-governing island said a total of 39 Chinese military aircraft entered the ADIZ on Saturday, one more than the 38 planes it spotted on Friday.

This shocking provocation led one British news source to boldly declare that China and Taiwan “are on the brink of war”, and that isn’t too far from the truth.

In response, the head of Taiwan’s government had some very tough words for the Chinese…

“China has been wantonly engaged in military aggression, damaging regional peace,” said Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang on Saturday.

And he also referred to the fact that Taiwan is depending on the United States to protect it from China…

“The U.S. commitment to Taiwan is rock solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region,” he added. “We will continue to stand with friends and allies to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values and deepen our ties with democratic Taiwan.”

When China finally invades Taiwan, the U.S. and China will instantly be in a state of war, and everyone understands this.

At one time the Chinese had hoped to peacefully “reunify” with Taiwan like they did with Hong Kong, but that is out of the picture now.

CCP leaders have realized that they are going to have to take Taiwan by force, and so they are looking for an opportunity.

With feeble Joe Biden in the White House and with the American people deeply tired of wars, this may be the best chance that the CCP is going to get, and they certainly realize this.

So could they pull the trigger on an invasion in the months ahead?

Let’s hope not, because such a conflict would throw the entire globe into a state of chaos.

But the clock is ticking, because as I noted above, we are being told that Xi Jinping has determined that Taiwan “is not a problem that will be passed down to the next generation”…

However, President Xi Jinping in China has previously expressed his aims to annex the island by suggesting there is “no room for any form of Taiwan independence.”

Dr Nick Bisley, from La Trobe University in Australia said: “Xi Jinping has made a very public and very clear signal that says Taiwan is not a problem that will be passed down to the next generation.”

Meanwhile, the game of nuclear chicken that Iran and Israel are playing is rapidly approaching a moment of truth.

Just like his predecessor, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has promised to never allow the Iranians to develop their own nuclear weapons, and everyone agrees that day is now closer than ever. The following comes from an Israeli news source…

In his speech to the UN General Assembly last week, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declared that “Iran’s nuclear program has hit a watershed moment, and so has our tolerance. Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning… We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”

With quite dramatic candor, meanwhile, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi publicly declared (in January) that the IDF was preparing fresh “operational plans” for a potent military strike; (in August) that Iran’s nuclear progress has prompted the IDF “to speed up its operational plans,” with a fresh budget to do so; and (in September) that the IDF has “greatly accelerated” preparations for action against Iran’s nuclear program.

Needless to say, a full-blown war between Israel and Iran would also throw the entire globe into a state of chaos, and it is coming.

In fact, a top Iranian official just said that “war with Israel has already started”…

“The war with Israel has already started,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told Maariv. “Israel has carried out attacks that were intended to destroy our nuclear program for peaceful purposes. It murdered nuclear scientists and harmed the Iranian people. Iran is accused of terrorism, but there is no good or bad terrorist. The whole crisis in the region is Israel’s fault.”

If either of the wars that I have discussed in this article were to fully erupt before the end of this calendar year, economic activity all over the planet would be greatly affected and it would make global supply chain problems far, far worse than they are now.

In addition, global financial markets would almost certainly go totally haywire.

Much more importantly, in either case the U.S. would find itself involved in a new war.

If China invades Taiwan, the U.S. military would instantly be forced into action, and if Iran and Israel go to war the U.S. would definitely not stay on the sidelines.

Needless to say, most Americans are not even thinking about war right now. But war is coming, and it won’t be too long before it is here.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

The Streets Of Major U.S. Cities Are Being Flooded With Far More Drugs Than Ever Before

September 30, 2021September 30, 2021 by Michael

An endless tsunami of illegal drugs is turning the streets of our major cities into desolate wastelands, and yet our politicians seem powerless to do anything about it. In fact, in some of our biggest cities the politicians actually don’t seem interested in doing anything about it. As I will discuss below, open air drug markets are operating freely right in the heart of New York City at this moment. Dealers and addicts go about their business without the slightest fear that the police will do anything. Meanwhile, the national death toll just continues to rise. An all-time record 93,000 Americans died as a result of a drug overdose last year. That was an increase of nearly 30 percent from the year before, and authorities are already warning that there will be another huge jump when the final numbers for 2021 come in.

Federal law enforcement authorities are trying to do what they can, but they know that they are fighting a losing battle. On Thursday, they announced that they just seized 1.8 million counterfeit pills, but in the big picture that is only a drop in the bucket.

Right now, federal officials are warning that more fake medications are circulating on our streets than we have ever seen before, and a very large proportion of them contain fentanyl. According to the DEA, the number of fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills that they have been able to intercept has risen by almost 430 percent since 2019…

Counterfeit pills are more lethal than ever before. The number of DEA-seized counterfeit pills with fentanyl has jumped nearly 430 percent since 2019. DEA lab testing reveals that 2 out of every 5 pills with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose.

This is one of the biggest reasons why vast hordes of mindless addicts now endlessly roam the streets of our major cities like zombies.

For these addicts, their primary goal in life is always the next fix, and what most Americans don’t realize is that “most of the counterfeit pills coming into the United States are produced in Mexico and China”…

“Drug traffickers, both here and abroad, are increasingly using counterfeit pills to package and distribute the poison that illicit fentanyl is,” said Thomas Hodnett, acting special agent in charge of the DEA’s Philadelphia Division. Law enforcement officials say most of the counterfeit pills coming into the United States are produced in Mexico and China.

You see, the truth is that the drug war never actually ended, and it is being won by the Mexican drug cartels and the Chinese.

And thanks to social media, counterfeit pills are now easier to distribute than ever before…

The DEA said the counterfeit pills — made to look like real opioid medications such as oxycodone, Percocet or Adderall — are sold on the street by dealers or online, including through social media platforms.

“If you have a smartphone and you’re sitting on the sofa at home … your drug dealer is right there in your hands,” DEA spokesperson Anne Edgecomb said in an interview with NPR.

Of course dealers are constantly having to search for new customers because so many of their existing customers end up dying.

Fentanyl is extremely potent, and it only takes a couple of milligrams to kill you…

Mexican drug cartels increasingly are manufacturing the pills with fentanyl, which is at least 30 times more potent than heroin and is fatal in doses of as little as two milligrams.

“It’s everywhere,” says Robert Bell, head of the DEA’s Chicago field division. “They’re available in street deals, for purchase online, in schools. It’s very scary.”

This is a major national security crisis, because it is absolutely devastating communities all across the nation.

But as I stated at the top of the article, many of our politicians don’t even seem interested in finding a solution.

In New York City, the Garment District has become a horrifying drug-infested cesspool…

The block bordered by 35th and 36th streets, and Seventh and Eighth Avenues, is “littered with used needles, broken glass crack pipes, trash, urine, and feces” as junkies shoot up and dealers brazenly sell drugs, lamented one neighbor on social media. “I’ve personally seen dozens of deals go down. I’ve seen a person OD and nearly die.”

During a single walk around the block last week, The Post witnessed three different people injecting needles in their wrists or fingers in the middle of the afternoon. Each addict sat on the sidewalk or in empty storefronts. Dozens of other junkies sat or lay nearly comatose, many of the men shirtless, on the same block.

But instead of doing something about it, the politicians in New York have apparently told the police “to let junkies roam free”…

The NYPD appears to have only a token presence. Two cops stood on Eighth Avenue between 35th and 36th, leaning up against a police van while staring into their phones, as illicit activities swirled around them.

But cops have been “effectively ordered” by city and state leaders to let junkies roam free, said Manny Gomez, a former NYPD sergeant and FBI special agent who now heads MG Security Services.

Of course whenever you have large numbers of addicts concentrated in one location you are going to see a spike in crime, and that is precisely what we are witnessing in the Garment District…

Crime in the Midtown South Precinct, which includes the Garment District, is up 41 percent this year through Sept. 19 compared to the same period in 2020, according to NYPD crime data.

The most eye-popping spikes are in the number of robberies – which increased 189 percent from 97 to 280 – and felony assaults – which increased 151 percent from 131 to 329.

Sadly, New York is far from alone. For a very long time I have been warning that major cities all over America were being transformed into crime-ridden, drug-infested hellholes, and it is getting worse with each passing year.

It has been estimated that approximately 23 million Americans are addicted to drugs, but nobody knows the real number. It isn’t as if there is any sort of a “drug census” that would give us a more accurate count.

But what we do know is that the problem is bigger than it has ever been in our entire history.

We have raised entire generations of Americans to believe that their only purpose in life is to serve our soulless, corrupt system. Of course millions of people do eagerly get on the hamster wheel and try to grab as much money and stuff as they can because they think that they will eventually achieve fulfillment that way. But millions of others quickly realize that the game is meaningless and they search out other ways to make themselves happy. A lot of drug addicts didn’t start out as bad people, but their search for happiness ended up taking them down some paths that they never should have gone down.

If you are searching for meaning in life, our society doesn’t have any answers for you. Those that run things just want to control and manipulate you as they make themselves even richer and more powerful.

It is imperative that we all learn to think for ourselves, because many of those that don’t learn to think for themselves end up being stuck in their little game for their entire lives.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

Even The Liberal Media Is Warning Of A “System Collapse” Due To The Failure Of Global Supply Chains

September 29, 2021September 29, 2021 by Michael

If CNN starts sounding like The Economic Collapse Blog, what does that mean? Unfortunately, the truth about what is in our immediate future is becoming apparent to everyone. Global supply chains are in a state of complete and utter chaos, and this is driving up prices and causing widespread shortages all over the country. Over the past couple of weeks, I have written five articles with either “shortage” or “shortages” in the title, and some have accused me of being a little alarmist. If that is the case, then CNN is being alarmist too, because one of their top stories today openly warned of a “global transport system collapse”…

In an open letter Wednesday to heads of state attending the United Nations General Assembly, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and other industry groups warned of a “global transport system collapse” if governments do not restore freedom of movement to transport workers and give them priority to receive vaccines recognized by the World Health Organization.

For decades, we have all been able to take our extremely complex supply chains for granted. Things have always been where they need to be when they needed to be there, and many of us just assumed that it would always be that way.

But now organizations that represent 65 million transport workers around the globe are openly warning that “global supply chains are beginning to buckle”…

“Global supply chains are beginning to buckle as two years’ worth of strain on transport workers take their toll,” the groups wrote. The letter has also been signed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). Together they represent 65 million transport workers globally.

“All transport sectors are also seeing a shortage of workers, and expect more to leave as a result of the poor treatment millions have faced during the pandemic, putting the supply chain under greater threat,” it added.

Things are particularly bad at our ports. Right now, there is a backlog of approximately 500,000 shipping containers waiting on ships off the west coast waiting to be unloaded…

As an estimated 500,000 containers are sitting on cargo ships off the Southern California coast, many are wondering how to handle the backlog.

Needless to say, we have never seen anything like this before.

But what most Americans don’t realize is that the backlog off the coast of China is even worse…

There are over 60 container ships full of import cargo stuck offshore of Los Angeles and Long Beach, but there are more than double that — 154 as of Friday — waiting to load export cargo off Shanghai and Ningbo in China, according to eeSea, a company that analyzes carrier schedules.

The number of container ships anchored off Shanghai and Ningbo has surged over recent weeks. There are now 242 container ships waiting for berths countrywide. Whether it’s due to heavy export volumes, Typhoon Chanthu or COVID, rising congestion in China is yet another wild card for the trans-Pacific trade.

If you are waiting for something to come in from overseas, you may be waiting for a very long time.

Because of all the chaos, we are being warned that this could be a holiday season like no other…

Retailers are sounding the alarm on the upcoming holiday shopping season due to serious supply chain issues that are slowing shipments of manufactured goods around the world.

Chaos theory in it’s simplest form says if a butterfly flaps its wings in China, it means rain in Central Park. Well, that applies not just to weather, but supply chains as well, and in the Bay Area, it will impact everything from computer parts for your car to the gifts and toys on your holiday shopping list.

If there is something that you really want to get your hands on, you might want to order it now, because it may not be available later.

In addition to shortages, supply chain issues are also pushing prices significantly higher.

For example, we just learned that the price of bacon has risen almost 28 percent over the past year…

The average price for that slab of bacon to accompany the Sunday morning spread has jumped nearly 28% during the past 12 months, inflation-adjusted Consumer Price Index data show.

The supply chain issues and inflationary pressures that have become all-too common in these pandemic times certainly have played theirs roles in the pork price hikes, alongside a slew of industry-specific influence.

A lot of people may be forced to stop eating bacon as a result of soaring prices, and from a health perspective that is not a bad thing.

And the price of bacon is going to continue to go higher, because U.S. hog herds are shrinking at a brisk pace…

US hog herds experienced the most significant monthly drop in two decades, according to new data from the USDA. The reason behind the drop is because farmers decreased hog-herd development over the last year due to labor disruptions at slaughterhouses plus high animal feed.

USDA data showed the US hog herd was 3.9% lower in August than a year ago. It was the largest monthly drop since 1999 after analysts only expected a decline of about 1.7%, according to Bloomberg.

Many of you already don’t eat bacon, and so what I just shared may not affect you, but what about a shortage of potatoes?

Incredibly, it is being reported that some fast food outlets are now running out of French Fries. The following comes from Matt Stoller…

My favorite story is quintessentially American, and un-American, at the same time. It’s from a Florida realtor who was in a hurry and stopped at a Burger King for lunch. He saw a sign, “Sorry. No French Fries with any order. We have no potatoes.” At first he thought he was imagining things. What kind of fast food place runs out of fries? Is this, he wondered, a sign of things to come?

It’s a good question. Fast food exists in a land of plenty, of surplus, of mass produced food with a reliable infrastructure of trucks, trains, farms, and distributors. Shortages of everyday goods conflicts not only with most of our lived experiences, but also with our very conception of who we are. There’s a name for this framework, and it’s called affluence.

I really like how Stoller made that last point.

So many of us think that since we are the most prosperous nation on the entire planet that long-term shortages could never happen to us.

But they are happening.

And if you think that what we are experiencing now is bad, just wait until we get a few more years down the road.

From the very top to the very bottom, our entire economic system is being shaken.

If you are expecting our national leaders to come in with some sort of a quick fix to this crisis, you are going to be waiting a really, really long time.

The blind are leading the blind, and the months ahead are going to be very challenging.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

We Are On The Verge Of The Greatest Shortage Of Healthcare Workers In U.S. History

September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 by Michael

It didn’t have to be this way. After sacrificing so much over the past couple of years, thousands of heroes of the COVID pandemic are now being forced to make a heartbreaking choice. Either they will have to violate very deeply held convictions and beliefs, or they will have to give up their careers. The way that our healthcare workers are being treated is utterly shameful, and it is a stain on this nation that will not soon be erased. And thanks to these “mandates”, the next time you go to the hospital the lack of workers may mean that you don’t get the treatment that you desperately need.

We already had a shortage of healthcare workers before the pandemic came along, and this is something that I have written about multiple times over the years. When COVID started sweeping across America, many healthcare facilities were absolutely overwhelmed, and there were some healthcare workers that couldn’t handle the pressure. Many ended up leaving, and that resulted in the shortages getting even worse.

Of course countless numbers of healthcare workers have been faithful to keep showing up for work day after day throughout this entire crisis, and now thousands upon thousands of them are being ruthlessly discarded. Mandates that have been instituted by major healthcare providers, state governments and the federal government are going to force the firing of countless numbers of COVID pandemic heroes.

I can’t even begin to describe how heartless this is.

And considering the fact that we are already experiencing shortages of healthcare workers all over the country, this appears to be a really, really foolish thing to do. According to Fox Business, healthcare institutions all over America “are bracing for worsening staff shortages”…

Hospitals and nursing homes around the U.S. are bracing for worsening staff shortages as state deadlines arrive for health care workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

With ultimatums taking effect this week in states like New York, California, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, the fear is that some employees will quit or let themselves be fired or suspended rather than get the vaccine.

I really don’t know what leaders in these states are thinking.

You can’t just create more healthcare workers out of thin air. It takes years of training to become a doctor or a nurse, and so you can’t just hire random people off the street to fill empty positions.

In many states, officials have no idea how they are going fill all of the empty positions that they are creating, but they are moving ahead anyway. For example, this just happened in North Carolina…

A North Carolina-based hospital system announced Monday that roughly 175 unvaccinated employees were fired for failing to comply with the organization’s mandatory coronavirus vaccination policy, the latest in a series of health-care dismissals over coronavirus immunization.

Novant Health said last week that 375 unvaccinated workers — across 15 hospitals and 800 clinics — had been suspended for not getting immunized. Unvaccinated employees were given five days to comply.

Good luck filling those jobs.

In New York, a statewide mandate just went into effect, and hundreds of healthcare workers are on the verge of losing their jobs…

Hundreds of unvaccinated health care workers across New York were suspended Tuesday and could soon lose their jobs entirely as the state’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers went into effect overnight.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul appears to be a particularly delusional politician. She says that she will steal medical professionals from other states to fill empty positions, and if that isn’t good enough she seems to think that she can just plug in members of the National Guard…

New York state officials are bracing for staffing shortages when the state’s health care worker vaccination mandate takes effect on Monday, and could be looking to the National Guard — as well as medical professionals from other states and countries — to help address them.

Gov. Kathy Hochul released a plan on Saturday, outlining the steps she could take to increase the workforce in the event that large numbers of hospital and nursing home employees do not meet the state’s deadline.

Needless to say, the biggest mandate is the one that is going to be instituted on the federal level.

The Biden administration is attempting to force 17 million healthcare workers that are employed by institutions that accept Medicare and/or Medicaid to be vaccinated.

That is going to result in the largest loss of healthcare workers that we have ever seen, and that will likely mean that the national shortage of healthcare workers will soon grow to epic proportions.

Sadly, the Democrats are not backing down.

In fact, just look at what they are trying to sneak through in Congress…

Buried on page 168 of the House Democrats’ 2,465-page mega bill is a tenfold increase in fines for employers that “willfully,” “repeatedly,” or even seriously violate a section of labor law that deals with hazards, death, or serious physical harm to their employees.

The increased fines on employers could run as high as $70,000 for serious infractions, and $700,000 for willful or repeated violations—almost three-quarters of a million dollars for each fine. If enacted into law, vax enforcement could bankrupt non-compliant companies even more quickly than the $14,000 OSHA fine anticipated under Biden’s announced mandate.

These people are playing for keeps.

Earlier today I was reflecting on the events of the past couple of weeks, and it made me very sad.

There is no going back. Very dark times have arrived, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

I know that sounds really bad, but I’m not going to sugarcoat things for you.

Some of you are going to have to find new jobs. Others will have to find entirely new careers.

Of course a lot of you are going to have to move out of the states that you are living in right now entirely.

Sadly, there isn’t anywhere that you can go inside this country to escape the federal mandates.

And all over the nation, we are going to see very serious shortages of healthcare workers. As our healthcare institutions are flooded by the incapacitated and the dying, there simply is not going to be enough people to treat them all.

It is going to be a complete and utter nightmare, but as I said in the opening paragraph, it didn’t have to be this way.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

Where Did All The People Go?

September 14, 2021 by Michael

Why are companies all over the world suddenly desperate for workers? In my entire life I have never seen anything like this. When the labor shortage started in the United States, a lot of people blamed overly generous government handouts, but that doesn’t explain why the exact same thing is happening in nation after nation all over the globe. There aren’t enough factory workers, there aren’t enough truck drivers, there aren’t enough port workers, there aren’t enough employees to properly staff our stores, and the shortage of doctors and nurses is becoming a major crisis in some areas. During normal times, we were always told that the global economy was not producing nearly enough jobs for everyone, but now for the very first time we are facing an enormous worldwide labor shortage. It is almost as if millions upon millions of people suddenly disappeared from the system.

Earlier today, I was stunned to learn that a new survey has discovered that 69 percent of global companies are having a hard time finding enough people to hire…

A survey of nearly 45,000 employers across 43 countries showed 69 percent of employers reported difficulty filling roles, a 15-year high, according to employment-services provider ManpowerGroup Inc. At the same time, 15 countries — focused in Europe and North America — reported their highest hiring intentions since the survey began in 1962.

Just a few years ago, any company that was willing to pay decent wages would be absolutely flooded by job applications.

But now everyone can’t stop talking about the “shortage” of workers.

So where did all the people go?

Normally, global supply chains run as smooth as butter, but now they are in a complete and utter state of chaos.

And the biggest reason why they are in a complete and utter state of chaos is because there simply is not enough workers for them to operate as they usually would.

On a very basic level, we need people to make stuff, pack stuff, ship stuff, transport stuff, unload stuff and sell stuff.

Every step along the way, shortages of workers are causing major headaches, and now we are being told that this supply chain crisis “will last well into next year”…

A supply chain crunch that was meant to be temporary now looks like it will last well into next year as the surging delta variant upends factory production in Asia and disrupts shipping, posing more shocks to the world economy.

Manufacturers reeling from shortages of key components and higher raw material and energy costs are being forced into bidding wars to get space on vessels, pushing freight rates to records and prompting some exporters to raise prices or simply cancel shipments altogether.

But if we had enough people to do all the jobs that needed to be done, this crisis could be resolved very rapidly.

So where are they?

As inventories get tighter and tighter, that is invariably going to drive up prices.

Earlier this week, one of my readers emailed me about the shortages and price increases that she is seeing in her local area. I asked her if I could share this with all of you, and she said that I could…

You can’t find frozen turkeys, frozen hens, frozen cornish hens…the supply chain HAS indeed been cut. There was 1…just one box of oatmeal on the shelves of our local food store that are normally stocked through the gills with food. Prices are higher…tomato sauce, in a can: what used to cost $0.99 cents last year now costs $1.50. Chicken drumsticks—we usually throw a bunch in a crockpot with some bbq sauce and put it over rice for our kids, they love it….chicken drumsticks, last year were $0.89/pound….now they are $ 1.39 per pound. We only buy meat that has been reduced….a rump roast, for instance, was marked down from $18 dollars to $7….that’s a huge price cut, so we look for deals like that. But they are hard to find!!! Everything is higher, packaged in smaller boxes and cups and there is not much of it. We all knew this was coming….it’s going to get worse, for lots of people who don’t know what’s happening. We have goats for goat milk and meat if we need, chickens for eggs and we’ve put back lots of produce we found on sale over the summer, in the freezer to booster our garden. It’s shocking how much just is not there…the shelves are empty, moved closer together, and bare spots are everywhere in grocery stores these days.

Unfortunately, what we have experienced so far is just the beginning. Global food supplies are going to continue to get tighter, and that is going to continue to drive up food prices.

Another sector of the economy where the labor shortage is having a big impact is in the healthcare industry.

Lately, I have been coming across lots of stories about people dying because they can’t get the care that they need. Just before I started writing this article, I came across a heartbreaking story about a 70-year-old woman in Canada that dropped dead after a six hour wait in a local emergency room…

Bonnie Marie Hall was with her 70-year-old mother — Susan Tasson — when she died early Wednesday in a Kamloops, B.C., hospital emergency waiting room after a six-hour wait for care.

Hall says her Ontario-born mother had an infectious laugh and a “warrior” spirit. She had three sons and two daughters, loved her grandchildren and had lived in Kamloops since 1987.

“Nobody wants to die in a waiting room. Nobody,” said Hall.

Nobody should ever have to die that way.

But it is going to keep happening, because there is an acute shortage of healthcare workers right now.

All over the nation, the shortage of nurses has become a really big deal, and new mandates are just making things even worse…

Hospitals are struggling to comply with the state’s nurse staffing requirements as pandemic-induced burnout has exacerbated an already chronic nursing shortage nationwide.

But burnout isn’t the only thing compounding California’s nursing shortage: The state’s new vaccine mandate for health care workers is already causing headaches for understaffed hospitals before it is even implemented. Some traveling nurses — who are in high demand nationwide — are turning down California assignments because they don’t want to get vaccinated.

There is a serious shortage of doctors as well, and this is a phenomenon that we are witnessing all over the globe.

For example, over in the UK it is being reported that there is a “shortfall of more than 50,000 doctors” right now…

The NHS may be unable to cope this winter because of a “frightening” shortfall of more than 50,000 doctors, the head of the British Medical Association has warned.

Here in the United States, our healthcare system has never been so close to a state of collapse.

In fact, one doctor recently wrote an article in which he claimed that it has “already collapsed”…

As a resident physician who has only trained in an era of COVID—I was asked to consider graduating from school early in April 2020 to help with medical staff shortages—my time as a doctor has been defined by working in a system that has already collapsed. The American health system I work in has featured limited personal protective equipment, oxygen shortages, and the construction of field hospitals in convention centers and parking garages. Last winter, many hospitals across the country instituted crisis standards of care, forced to ration health services based on criteria that few people envisioned would be used outside of a mass casualty event, like a terrorist attack. Today, hospitals are full in much of the country, with patients requiring an ICU being airlifted thousands of miles in search of a staffed bed. These are not features of a health system that is approaching failure. These are features of a health care system that has broken down spectacularly, forcing doctors and patients to climb through the rubble looking for help.

But just like every other industry, if we had enough people to do the jobs that needed to be done, we would be fine.

In all the years that I have been writing about the economy, finding enough workers has never been a problem.

Yet here we are in the middle of 2021, and all of a sudden there are millions and millions and millions of empty jobs all over the globe.

Once again, there is a question that I must ask.

Where did all the people go?

This is a question that everyone should be asking, because the people that are currently running things are not telling you the truth.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

Why Are Food Prices Going Up So Rapidly?

September 8, 2021September 8, 2021 by Michael

For a long time I have been warning that global food prices would rise dramatically, and that is precisely what we have witnessed over the past 12 months. Unfortunately, global wages are not rising nearly as quickly as global food prices are, and so this has pushed millions and millions more people into poverty and hunger. Here in the United States, nobody is currently in danger of starving to death, but many Americans have been getting a severe case of sticker shock when they go to the grocery store. Not since the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s have we seen prices escalate like this, and people are starting to get angry.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, global food supplies have been getting tighter and tighter. When I first started writing about this, certain individuals derisively dismissed what I had to say, but now the truth is becoming apparent to everyone.

Very tight supplies and growing demand have pushed global food prices 32.9 percent higher over the past year…

Central banks and mainstream media continue to peddle the notion that soaring food inflation is temporary and the average Joe and Jane should not worry about it. But in a new report via the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global food prices are on the rise, once again, and back to near-decade highs.

FAO released a statement Thursday that detailed after two consecutive months of declines, world food prices in August jumped due to solid gains in sugar, vegetable oils, and cereals.

FAO’s food price index, which follows international prices of globally traded food commodities, averaged 127.4 points in August, up 3.9 points (3.1%) from July and 31.5 points (32.9%) from the same period last year.

Unfortunately, experts are telling us that food prices are going to continue to climb.

In fact, one is estimating that food prices will continue to go up like this “for the next two years or so”…

Grocery prices have been on an upward trend for most of the year, and some experts say that this will continue for at least the next several years.

“We’re going to continue to see price increases, probably for the next two years or so,” says Phil Lempert, an analyst and food trends expert perhaps best known as the Supermarket Guru.

This is really bad news.

So why is this happening?

Well, the Biden administration is blaming the greed of the meat processing industry…

During Wednesday’s press briefing, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke about the actions the administration was taking to help alleviate what Deese called ‘pandemic profiteering’ from the top meat processing companies.

‘One of the interesting findings of the report that we put out today, is that about half of the overall increase in grocery prices can be attributed to significant increases in prices in three products – in beef, in pork and in poultry,’ Deese said from the podium.

Certainly greed is playing a role, but as Zero Hedge has pointed out, a whole host of other factors are contributing to this crisis as well…

A combination of global droughts, volatile weather, labor shortages, and supply chain disruptions persisting from COVID, among others, have contributed to the rapid rise in food prices over the last year.

Heading into fall, soaring food inflation shows no signs of abating and may worsen. This may cause socio-economic turmoil in emerging market economies, mainly because people in those countries allocate more of their daily budgets to food.

The pandemic was supposed to be subsiding by now, and so by this time of the year prices were supposed to be starting to stabilize.

But instead the Delta variant is causing widespread panic, and this is causing more disruptions throughout our entire society…

The summer that was supposed to mark America’s independence from COVID-19 is instead drawing to a close with the U.S. more firmly under the tyranny of the virus, with deaths per day back up to where they were in March.

The delta variant is filling hospitals, sickening alarming numbers of children and driving coronavirus deaths in some places to the highest levels of the entire pandemic. School systems that reopened their classrooms are abruptly switching back to remote learning because of outbreaks. Legal disputes, threats and violence have erupted over mask and vaccine requirements.

We already had a shortage of nurses and other health care workers before this pandemic, and now all of the various mandates that have been instituted threaten to cause a meltdown of the entire system…

Fortune.com reported last week that about 39 percent of U.S. hospitals have announced vaccine mandates for staff members.

“It’s not just nurses at stake with vaccine mandates. Respiratory techs, nursing assistants, food service employees, billing staff and other health care workers are already in short supply. According to the latest KFF/The Washington Post Frontline Health Care Workers Survey, released in April, at least one-third of health care workers who assist with patient care and administrative tasks have considered leaving the workforce,” according to Fortune.

I can’t even begin to describe how foolish it is to institute mandates that could potentially force thousands upon thousands of health care workers to leave their jobs right in the middle of a pandemic.

But that is what we are now facing.

The way that we have responded to this pandemic has been a complete and total nightmare, but those running things seem entirely convinced that they are on the right track.

Moving forward, there is going to be more panic, more chaos, more shortages and more price increases.

So even though food prices are already ridiculously high, now is the time to stock up, because food prices are only going to go higher from here.

I have been doing my best to sound the alarm, but sometimes I feel like I am pounding my head into a wall.

Most people just have an absurd amount of faith in the strength and durability of our system, and so they refuse to believe that it could ever fail.

But it is failing, and what we have experienced so far is just a preview of coming attractions.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

This Is What Is Going To Happen Nationwide In The Not Too Distant Future

August 31, 2021August 31, 2021 by Michael

When order really starts breaking down in this country, we know exactly what is going to happen. And the reason why we know exactly what is going to happen is because the exact same pattern keeps playing out every time there is a major disaster or crisis in one of our large cities. Just think about it. Over the past couple of years, violent social justice protests in our major cities have often been accompanied by widespread looting. When the Texas power grid went down last winter, there was looting. When wildfires force people from their expensive homes in California, the looters are often the first people that show up. And just about every time there is some sort of a major storm, the looters come out of the woodwork.

And so it should not surprise anyone that New Orleans is being plagued by looters in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

One pair of enterprising looters decided to try to break into an ATM machine, but thanks to a drone they now have become famous all over the country…

It is not clear if the pair from the drone video were apprehended or got away with any cash from the ATM machine they are seen in the footage trying to pry open.

One of the men in the video is seen toying with the machine. Another stands beside him and sees the drone before turning his back and leaving the destroyed business.

The video, which was posted to Twitter by WXChasing (Brandon Clement), has yielded 19,100 views and is captioned, ‘The moment looters realize a drone is watching them try to break into an ATM [machine] in burned down St. Claude market in the lower 9th ward.’

In other cases, looters were taking a more conventional approach….

In another incident, witnesses used their cell phone to record several people looting a store in New Orleans East.

Looters often take advantage of disasters like Ida and New Orleans is all too familiar with this as it became a hotbed of criminal activity in the wake of Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago.

How many times have we seen this sort of chaos break out over the past few years?

It is more than I can count, that is for sure.

On Tuesday afternoon, authorities in New Orleans pledged to do their best to try “to deter mass looting”…

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson held a press conference Tuesday afternoon at City Hall regarding a citywide curfew to deter mass looting and an update on the power situation.

Cantrell told reporters, effective immediately (8 pm local time), a citywide curfew will be enforced until 6 am Wednesday. New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) has deployed an anti-looting task force with National Guard members to protect business districts.

Sadly, virtually every major city in America is just one major crisis away from a total breakdown of law and order.

And when a truly nightmarish national emergency strikes, law and order will break down all over the country.

Our blood-soaked culture has become increasingly violent as moral standards have deteriorated across our land, and in many of our core urban areas brutal cold-blooded attacks by groups of heartless criminals have become way too common.

A particularly vile attack that happened in Chicago the other day is a perfect example of what I am talking about…

The video, first posted by the crime website CWB Chicago, initially shows three men beating up another man as traffic crawls past. Another man walks by and is sucker-punched and falls to the pavement.

The group keeps attacking the other man until both are down on the pavement. The attackers then rummage through their pockets, walking with a bag, shoes and other items, the video shows.

Women dance in the street while people appear to record the fight.

More specifically, the women were “twerking” as they celebrated the robbing of the innocent victims.

If hearts are this cold already, what will things be like when economic conditions get really bad in this country?

Yes, there are still millions of Americans out there that try to respect the law, but there are also lots and lots of really twisted people out there.

Just today, I came across a news story about how “hundreds of decapitated goats” have been getting dumped into the Chattahoochee River…

Channel 2 Action News is investigating headless goats found floating in the Chattahoochee River. Someone has dumped hundreds of decapitated goats over the past few years.

Channel 2′s Dave Huddleston cruised up the Chattahoochee River with Jason Ulseth, who works for the environmental group the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper.

More than one person has got to be involved in this terrible crime, because on one recent Friday a total of 30 decapitated goats were found in the river…

As they approached the Interstate 20 bridge near the Fulton County and Cobb County border, “There’s a goat,” Ulselth said.

Channel 2 found a headless goat in the river, then another and another.

“Lately it’s become a lot more frequent, and on Friday we were out here and saw 30 of them floating down the river,” Ulseth said.

Why aren’t CNN and the other big networks covering this story?

You would think that something like this would be good for ratings.

Of course the truth is that it doesn’t fit any of the agendas that they are currently trying to push.

But without a doubt we will hear more about the Delta variant from the major news networks tomorrow, and apparently all of that fear is starting to cause another major run on toilet paper…

Please don’t run straight to the supermarket, but some shoppers are buying up all the toilet paper – again.

Why is toilet paper always such a high priority when Americans decide that it is time to do some more panic shopping?

I will never understand that.

In any event, it is being reported that the fear of new lockdowns is causing many to start hoarding toilet paper “in bulk”…

This latest rebound in toilet paper demand comes as the delta variant drives COVID-19 cases and deaths up across the U.S., with some folks foreseeing another lockdown. Many Americans have used up their stockpiles and some have begun buying again in bulk, The Wall Street Journal reports.

If Americans are going to get this crazy over a relatively minor threat like the Delta variant, what in the world are they going to do when truly apocalyptic events begin to take place?

COVID is not the worst thing that can happen to us.

Not even close.

If our society can’t even handle COVID, what kind of meltdown would transpire if a much bigger crisis suddenly erupted?

You might want to think about that, because many believe that it won’t be too long before we actually find out.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five others that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

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