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We are rapidly approaching a point of no return in the Middle East.  So far, more than 28,000 people have died as a result of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, but if a full-blown regional war erupts the final death toll would be many times higher.  Unfortunately, it appears that a full-blown war is exactly what we are going to get.  Day after day there are more escalations, and now the Biden administration has approved plans for “a series of strikes over a number of days” against targets in Syria and Iraq…

U.S. officials have confirmed to CBS News that plans have been approved for a series of strikes over a number of days against targets — including Iranian personnel and facilities — inside Iraq and Syria. The strikes will come in response to drone and rocket attacks targeting U.S. forces in the region, including the drone attack on Sunday that killed three U.S. service members at the Tower 22 base inside Jordan, near the Syrian border.

Speaking at the Pentagon Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters that the U.S. won’t tolerate attacks on American troops.

“This is a dangerous moment in the Middle East,” Austin said, noting that Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen on commercial shipping in the Red Sea were also happening in the region. “We will continue to work to avoid a wider conflict in the region, but we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people, and we will respond when we choose, where we choose and how we choose.”

I don’t remember ever agreeing with Lloyd Austin about anything.

But in this case I definitely agree that “this is a dangerous moment in the Middle East”.

One wrong move could result in thousands of missiles flying in all directions.

Of course the Houthis are already firing off missiles on a regular basis, and on Thursday the U.S. military hit them again…

The U.S. military on Thursday destroyed a ground control station and 10 drones in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthis – the latest operation targeting their assets since the militant group began attacking commercial and Navy ships in the Red Sea.

The strikes were carried out “in self-defense” because the targets “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the U.S. Navy ships in the area,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement. “This action will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy vessels and merchant vessels.”

Hours earlier, U.S. forces shot down a ballistic missile fired from “Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” Central Command said. The military also destroyed three Iranian drones in the area.

The U.S. is already at war in the Middle East, but most Americans don’t seem to realize this yet.

Meanwhile, the IDF and Hezbollah are both preparing for an “inevitable” war in southern Lebanon.  The following comes from ABC News…

The prospect of a full-scale war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia terrifies people on both sides of the border, but some see it as an inevitable fallout from Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

Such a war could be the most destructive either side has ever experienced.

According to the agreement that ended the last war in Lebanon, Hezbollah forces are not supposed to be south of the Litani River.

Israeli officials are determined to restore the buffer zone in southern Lebanon, but Hezbollah will never withdraw north of the Litani River willingly.

So war is coming, and it is likely to get really messy…

A full-scale war would likely spread to multiple fronts, escalating the involvement of Iranian proxies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen — and perhaps even draw in Iran itself.

It could also drag the U.S., Israel’s closest ally, deeper into the conflict. The U.S. already has dispatched additional warships to the region.

Hezbollah has 150,000 to 200,000 rockets and missiles of various ranges, said Orna Mizrahi of the Israeli think tank Institute for National Security Studies. This arsenal is at least five times larger than that of Hamas and far more accurate, she said.

But there is one ray of hope.

A potential deal that would result in at least a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is currently being negotiated…

Hamas has given its initial approval for a ceasefire and hostage deal in the Gaza Strip, the Qatari foreign ministry announced on Thursday evening.

Israel had also agreed to the proposal agreed to in talks in Paris, Doha added. “There is no deal yet.

Hamas has received the proposal positively, but we are waiting for their response,” a Qatar official told Reuters. Hamas received the Paris truce proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza but did not give a response to any of the parties, the media adviser to the head of the political bureau of the Islamist movement told Reuters on Thursday.

There has been talk that a deal could “pause” the fighting for a couple of months.

If that actually happens, the war would not resume until after the winter is over.

And I find that timing to be extremely interesting.

On the other side of the globe, U.S. officials are feverishly preparing for “a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan”…

The United States is rushing to improve its military capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region in preparation for a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Five years ago, anyone that suggested that China would invade Taiwan was laughed at.

But now everything has changed.

In recent months, Xi Jinping has been openly threatening to invade Taiwan, and this has created a tremendous amount of concern…

Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the country’s military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. The U.S. holds a position of “strategic ambiguity” when it comes to defending Taiwan, but President Joe Biden has warned on multiple occasions that the U.S. will have direct military involvement if China invades the island, which the White House has had to continually walk back.

The moment that China invades Taiwan, the U.S. and China will be at war.

And as I discuss in my new book, that is just one of the major wars that we could potentially be facing in the next few years.

So enjoy this period of relative stability while you still can, because it won’t last for too much longer.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  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.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help.  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.

Wow, our economic problems really are starting to accelerate at a shocking pace.  I know that I have been writing about layoffs a lot lately, but what is happening to the employment market right now is definitely big news.   Day after day, more large companies are announcing mass layoffs.  Why would all of these large companies be doing this if the outlook for the U.S. economy is promising?  That wouldn’t make any sense at all.  But if these companies are convinced that the U.S. economy is heading into a recession (or worse), it would make perfect sense to slash payrolls at this time.

To me, the most accurate numbers that we get are those that come from non-government sources.  And so I was greatly alarmed to learn that Challenger, Gray & Christmas has just published a report which shows that the number of layoffs in the United States went up by 136 percent from December to January…

The pace of job cuts by U.S. employers accelerated at the start of 2024, a sign the labor market is starting to deteriorate in the face of ongoing inflation and high interest rates.

That is according to a new report published by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which found that companies planned 82,307 job cuts in January, a substantial 136% increase from the previous month.

So what should we call it when the number of layoffs in our country goes up by 136 percent in just one month?

A catastrophe?

A tsunami?

I don’t know.

According to the report, financial companies laid off more workers than anyone else in January…

Financial companies bore the brunt of the job losses in January, with the industry shedding 23,238 employees. That is the highest monthly layoff total for the financial sector since September 2018, when it announced 27,343 job cuts.

The technology sector followed with 15,806 layoffs, the most since May 2023 and a stunning 254% increase from just one month prior.

Let’s talk about the financial industry for a moment.

Our banks are in very serious trouble.  Higher interest rates have hit them very hard, and many institutions have been forced to lay off workers in recent months.

In addition, U.S. banks have been permanently shutting down hundreds and hundreds of branches in a desperate attempt to save money…

Banks are shutting hundreds of branches a year – this month some 41 closures were announced in a single week and among those affected were nine US Bank locations.

Bank of America, Chase, PNC, Citizen, Capital One, First National Bank of Pennsylvania and Huntington also said they were axing branches.

Such closures deal a huge blow to customers looking to visit in person to submit a document, make a withdrawal or deposit, cash in a check or simply run through their finances with a trusted bank manager.

This is a trend that I expect to continue all throughout 2024.

Meanwhile, the tech industry continues to bleed jobs at an alarming pace.

On Thursday, Zoom announced that 150 employees would be hitting the bricks…

Zoom is cutting about 150 jobs, CNBC confirmed on Thursday, the latest tech company to slash headcount this year as investors continue to push for efficiency.

I thought that Zoom was doing quite well.

I guess not.

Identity management company Okta is giving the axe to even more workers than Zoom is…

Identity management company Okta said on Thursday in a message to employees that it would lay off 400 employees, which is about 7% of the company’s headcount. Okta also reaffirmed its fourth-quarter and full-year guidance in a securities filing.

CEO Todd McKinnon said in his message that the “reality is that costs are still too high.”

So many layoff announcements are coming in now that I can’t possibly keep up with them all.

But there is one more that I wanted to specifically mention in this article.  The Messenger is shutting down all operations, and all of their employees will now be searching for new employment…

The Messenger, an online news site that promoted itself to deliver unbiased and trusted news, abruptly shut down Wednesday after eight months of operation.

Jimmy Finkelstein, the founder of The Messenger, sent an email to its over 300 employees announcing the immediate shutdown.

This is such a stunning development.

In less than a year, the publication burned through 50 million dollars…

The Messenger received $50 million in investor money in order to launch in May 2023 with hopes of growing its newsroom relatively fast. With experienced journalists joining their team, Finkelstein’s plan was to bring back the old days of journalism that he and his family once shared.

How in the world did they manage to burn through 50 million dollars in less than a year?

Did they have employees flushing hundred dollar bills down the toilets?

I just don’t understand.

The layoffs that I mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg.

Zero Hedge has put together a list of some of the most notable layoffs that we have seen during the past few months…

1. Twitch: 35% of workforce
2. Hasbro: 20% of workforce
3. Spotify: 17% of workforce
4. Levi’s: 15% of workforce
5. Zerox: 15% of workforce
6. Qualtrics: 14% of workforce
7. Wayfair: 13% of workforce
8. Duolingo: 10% of workforce
9. Washington Post: 10% of workforce
10. eBay: 9% of workforce
11. Business Insider: 8% of workforce
12. Paypal: 7% of workforce
13. Charles Schwab: 6% of workforce
14. UPS: 2% of workforce
15. Blackrock: 3% of workforce
16. Citigroup: 20,000 employees
17. Pixar: 1,300 employees

Needless to say, there are quite a few more that could have been added to that list.

Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and Sports Illustrated are just a few names that quickly come to mind.

We have been anticipating that a massive wave of layoffs would be coming, and now it is here.

Just in time for the most chaotic election season in our history, a great deal of economic chaos is breaking out all around us.

The outlook for the rest of 2024 is not good at all, and the outlook beyond 2024 is even worse.

So many people are going to lose their jobs during the months ahead.

Just pray that you will not be one of them.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  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.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The days of the 99 cent Egg McMuffin are never coming back.  Our central bank has been treating our currency like toilet paper, and our politicians in Washington have been borrowing and spending trillions of dollars that we do not have.  As a result, we are in the midst of an inflation crisis that seemingly has no end.  Of course the mainstream media insists that inflation is “low”, but literally just about everything that we shell out money for on a regular basis costs a lot more these days.  For example, just check out what it will cost you to get a single Egg McMuffin at one McDonald’s location in Connecticut…

A McDonald’s customer was left astounded after paying $7.29 for a single Egg McMuffin in a Connecticut drive through.

Bespoke Investment Group posted a picture of the customer’s receipt with the caption ‘$7.29 for one McDonald’s Egg McMuffin. What has the world come to?? These were 2 for $2 pretty recently.’

The bill records the purchase of two Egg McMuffins for $14.58 and one Bacon, Egg & Cheese McGriddle without two half-strips of bacon for $7.19.

$7.29 for just one Egg McMuffin?

Are you serious?

So that means that the price of an Egg MucMuffin in Connecticut is now more than 7 times higher than it was during the Reagan administration…

Watching old commercials like that makes me sad, because our country has become a completely different place since that time.

Of course it isn’t just the Egg McMuffin that has become ridiculously expensive.

One customer in Idaho was stunned when he recently had to shell out $16.10 for his value meal…

Another customer in Idaho was also shocked to discover the prices of combo deal in December.

Topher Olive, was visiting one of the restaurant’s locations in Post Falls when he picked up a Smoky BLT Quarter Pounder with Cheese, a large fry, and a large Sprite setting him back $16.10.

He shared a video of his meal on, where he has more than 334,000 followers, admitting that he was shocked over the price.

I clearly remember when I could get a combo at McDonald’s for just five bucks.

Now only the wealthy can afford to eat at McDonald’s on a regular basis.

Needless to say, the definition of “wealthy” has changed too.

Once upon a time, if you had a million dollars you were set for life.

But now Kevin O’Leary says that you need at least five million dollars in the bank…

Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank star and investor, sparked significant discussion with his assertion that individuals need $5 million in their bank accounts to ensure lifelong financial stability.

In an August 2023 YouTube video, O’Leary said, “You have to get to a place where you have $5 million in the bank,” emphasizing the importance of this amount to “survive the rest of your life, no matter what happens.” This statement, along with his detailed financial advice, has been a subject of both support and criticism among viewers and financial experts.

Only a tiny percentage of the population has that kind of money.

In fact, one recent survey found that 60 percent of the U.S. population has 500 dollars or less in their checking accounts.

And only 12 percent of the U.S. population has $2,001 dollars or more in their checking accounts.

Just 12 percent.

We are a nation that is literally living on the edge.

Amazingly, in this very tight economic environment there is a campaign to increase the salaries of members of Congress by 70 percent…

A campaign has started to raise the salaries of House and Senate members by 70% to $294,000 from the current $174,000 in return for better “performance.”

Federal analyst Steven Kopits, the president of Princeton Policy Advisors, argued that since most members are lawyers, salaries should at least be equal to what first-year associates in Manhattan receive, plus a 20% bump up.

“Most legislators are lawyers by trade, and we — or at least I — would hope that the public would prefer the best and the brightest to become members of Congress. First year law associates in New York are the best and brightest of their year, typically from Ivy League universities, and their salaries are tied to the market for premium legal services in the U.S. Therefore, if we believe we would like to recruit top-line legal professionals to serve in Congress, then first year associate salaries are a plausible comparable,” Kopits said in a memo.

Just like the rest of us, they are also being crushed by the terrible inflation that they played a major role in creating.

Considering how poorly they have performed, there is no way in the world that they should be getting a raise.

It is the rest of the country that needs help.  The middle class is shrinking, food banks are facing unprecedented demand all over the nation, and homelessness is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded.

And our politicians are making things even worse by bringing in vast numbers of extremely desperate people from other countries.

In Denver, 40,000 new migrants have arrived during the past year, and they are absolutely overwhelming the city’s social services…

Nearly 40,000 migrants have arrived in Denver over the past year, making a city with a population of just over 710,000 the top destination per capita for newly arrived migrants crossing the U.S. southern border and traveling north in buses from Texas.

The influx is taking a toll on the city’s public safety net. Starting Feb. 5, Denver will limit the number of days migrants can stay in shelters and send those who exceed their stay out onto the streets.

One Venezuelan family, a mother, father and their three daughters, told NBC News they’ve been staying at a hotel paid for by the city, but they’ve just received notice that they’ll be evicted.

“Just yesterday they started throwing away the toys, the bicycles in the common area,” the mother said. “We don’t know where we will go next.”

This is happening all over the nation, and there is no end to this crisis in sight.

Meanwhile, we are being warned that the economy will “cool considerably” during the months ahead…

The U.S. economy is set to cool considerably in the coming months as once-rampant spending by American consumers finally comes to an end, according to Wells Fargo.

In a recent note to clients, Wells Fargo senior global market strategist Scott Wren warned that retail spending is likely to slow over the course of 2024 as the job market eases and layoffs start to rise.

“Americans with jobs and money in their pockets are going to spend,” Wren wrote. “However, as the economy slows as we move through the middle portion of this year and the labor market softens, we continue to believe the holiday spending that occurred last year was a bit of a last hurrah for the consumer.”

Of course there are lots of signs that the economy is already heading in the wrong direction quite rapidly.

Sales of iPhones are typically a very good indicator of where things are going, and right now projections for 2024 are quite dismal…

Apple stock, which on any given day is either the most or 2nd most valuable company in the world, rotating with MSFT, reversed earlier gains and slumped to session lows after widely-read TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (best known for gathering intelligence from his contacts in Apple’s Asian supply chain) reported that Apple has lowered its 2024 iPhone shipments of key upstream semiconductor components to about 200 million units, which correspondents to a decline of 15% year-on-year.

As a result, he notes that iPhone 15 series and new iPhone 16 series shipments will decline by 10–15% year-on-year in 1H 2024 and 2H 2024, respectively (compared to iPhone 14 series shipments in 1H 2023 and iPhone 15 series shipments in 2H 2023, respectively). Even worse, Apple’s weekly shipments in China have declined by 30–40% year-on-year in recent weeks, and this downward trend is expected to continue.

And layoff announcements continue to roll in from coast to coast.

This week, we learned that UPS will be laying off approximately 12,000 workers…

UPS plans to layoff nearly 12,000 employees following a massive year-over-year decline in revenue, company officials told USA TODAY Tuesday morning.

The workforce reduction is part of an effort to align resources in 2024 and will save the company nearly $1 billion, the Atlanta-based company’s CEO Carole Tomé said on a company earnings call.

A slow-motion train wreck is playing out day after day right in front of our eyes.

So many of the things that we have been warning about are literally happening right now.

But most of the population still appears to be in a deep state of sleep.

What will it take for them to finally wake up?

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  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.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The Great American Eclipse of 2024 is just a little bit more than two months away, and amazingly the very first city that the path of the eclipse crosses over when it enters the U.S. is Eagle Pass, Texas.  There are more than 19,000 incorporated cities, towns and villages in the United States, and out of all of them Eagle Pass is the very first that the eclipse will touch.  On April 8th, 2024 the entire world will be watching as the Great American Eclipse travels across America.  Prior to this historic event, the last total solar eclipse visible from the U.S. was the Great American Eclipse of 2017, and there will not be another total solar eclipse visible from our country until 2044.

So this is a really big deal.

During the Great American Eclipse of 2017, approximately 216 million Americans were watching either in person or online…

On April 8, 2024, an eclipse will cross the continental United States from Texas to Maine. It has been seven years since the “Great American Eclipse” of 2017, when the Moon cast a shadow on Earth that raced from Oregon to South Carolina, watched by around 216 million Americans in person or online.

This time around, that number is expected to be even higher.

We are being told that Texas will likely be the best state for viewing the Great American Eclipse of 2024 in person, and the entire Dallas metropolitan area just happens to fall directly within the path of totality…

Texas boasts the best weather forecast along the path in April, and has an excellent highway system and abundant accommodations in Dallas, Ft Worth, Austin, and San Antonio. Some cities with long durations of totality include Eagle Pass, Uvalde, Kerrville, Fredericksburg, Llano, Lampasas, Killeen, Waco, Sulphur Springs, and the southeastern suburbs of Dallas.

A remarkable fact is that the entire metropolitan area of Dallas and Fort Worth, a megalopolis of 7 million people, is entirely inside the path of totality! In fact, 12 million people in Texas reside within the path of totality, by far the largest of any state in the US.

According to GreatAmericanEclipse.com, the first city in Texas that the eclipse will reach will be Eagle Pass.

A partial eclipse begins in Eagle Pass at 12:10 CDT, and a total eclipse begins at 1:27 CDT.

Considering everything that has been happening in Eagle Pass in recent months, do you think that it is just a coincidence that the eclipse crosses over this city first?

After the path of the Great American Eclipse of 2024 leaves Texas, prime viewing will also be available in these states…

• Oklahoma
• Arkansas
• Missouri
• Illinois
• Kentucky
• Indiana
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• New York
• Vermont
• New Hampshire

You will also be able to view the total eclipse is some parts of of Tennessee and Michigan.

When you put the path of the Great American Eclipse of 2024 on a map with the path of the Great American Eclipse of 2017, a giant “X” is formed…

As I have discussed previously, this has happened before.

If you put the path of the solar eclipse that occurred on June 16th, 1806 on a map with the path of the solar eclipse that occurred on September 17th, 1811, you will see a giant “X” over the New Madrid fault zone.

Just three months after the solar eclipse of September 17th, 1811, a series of catastrophic earthquakes began to erupt along the New Madrid fault.

Now two solar eclipses are forming another giant “X” over the New Madrid fault zone.

What will happen this time around?

And as I have repeatedly explained to my readers, if you add the “Ring of Fire eclipse” that happened on October 14th, 2023 to the map with the giant “X” on it, you get a paleo-Hebrew Aleph.

So many people are talking about this remarkable phenomenon.  For example, the following comes from an excellent article by Kelly Ferrari Mills…

Because this next eclipse begins its path down in the Southwest and makes a swath up through New England, some say it will form an X across America (combined with the eclipse in 2017). But since there was another solar eclipse that traversed our nation in October of 2023, it is fascinating to see that these THREE ECLIPSES ACROSS AMERICA FORM THE HEBREW LETTER ALEPH!

If you think that everything that I have shared with you in this article is simply the result of completely random coincidences, you are stretching your credibility to the breaking point.

We have reached one of the most pivotal moments in our entire history, and now something truly extraordinary is taking place in the skies above America.

If you haven’t been paying attention, you need to wake up, because some really crazy things are going to start happening.

Of course the truth is that crazy things are already starting to happen all over the globe.

For example, Anchorage has already gotten more than 100 inches of snow this winter…

Alaska is on track to break snowfall records after Anchorage was blanketed with more than 100 inches − the earliest accumulation ever of that amount − collapsing roofs and closing schools.

The city, which was hit with almost 16 inches of snow over the weekend, has now had more than 8½ feet this winter, the second year to break the 100-inch mark. If the trend continues, Anchorage could break its all-time record of 134½ inches recorded in the winter of 2011.

I couldn’t even imagine dealing with that much snow.

It is being reported that the weight of the snow on some roofs has reached “more than 30 pounds a square foot”…

The snow’s weight reached more than 30 pounds a square foot, meaning a 1,500-square-foot roof would be supporting the weight of “eight full size light duty pickup trucks,” according to the notice.

If they have not already done so, officials in Alaska are urging residents to clear the snow off of their roofs while they still can…

Officials in Anchorage are urging people to clear the snow off their roofs to prevent them from collapsing, as has happened with some city buildings. Over the weekend alone, more than 16 inches of snow fell, pushing Alaska’s largest city past the 100-inch mark faster than ever before. With much of winter still ahead, Anchorage is on track to break its all-time record of 134.5 inches of snowfall.

Of course all of this snow will be forgotten by everybody living outside Alaska in a few days, because new things will come along to dominate the news cycle.

We live at a time when crazy things are happening in rapid fire fashion.

As I discussed yesterday, there were more billion dollar disasters in 2023 than ever before.

This year is certainly off to a dramatic start as well, and now the Great American Eclipse of 2024 is coming.

So buckle up and hold on tight, because I have a feeling that we are in for a wild ride.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  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.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help.  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.

How can anyone out there possibly believe that the U.S. economy is doing well?  As you will see below, the number of homeless Americans has risen to the highest level ever recorded, and large companies all over the country are laying off workers in droves.  As I have discussed previously, the number of Americans that were laid off in 2023 jumped 98 percent compared to the year before, and now during the first month of 2024 it feels like we are being hit by a tsunami of layoffs.  It literally seems like someone has turned a fire hose on, but the Biden administration continues to insist that unemployment is “low” and that the outlook for the U.S. economy is positive.

Honestly, I don’t understand how the Biden administration can say that the outlook for the U.S. economy is positive when the number of Americans that are homeless has been increasing at the fastest pace ever recorded.  According to a brand new report that was just released by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, the number of homeless Americas has increased 48 percent since 2015…

According to a Jan. 25 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, roughly 653,000 people reported experiencing homelessness in January of 2023, up roughly 12% from the same time a year prior and 48% from 2015. That marks the largest single-year increase in the country’s unhoused population on record, Harvard researchers said.

Homelessness, long a problem in states such as California and Washington, has also increased in historically more affordable parts of the U.S.. Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas have seen the largest growths in their unsheltered populations due to rising local housing costs.

We can see evidence of this all around us.

Tent cities are popping up like mushrooms in our major cities and countless Americans are living in their vehicles and RVs.

One of the primary reasons why homelessness has been surging so dramatically is because rental costs have soared to unprecedented heights…

Rent in the U.S. has steadily climbed since 2001. In analyzing Census and real estate data, the Harvard researchers found that half of all U.S. households across income levels spent between 30% and 50% of their monthly pay on housing in 2022, defining them as “cost-burdened.” Some 12 million tenants were severely cost-burdened that year, meaning they spent more than half their monthly pay on rent and utilities, up 14% from pre-pandemic levels.

People earning between $45,000 and $74,999 per year took the biggest hit from rising rents — on average, 41% of their paycheck went toward rent and utilities, the Joint Center for Housing Studies said.

Tenants should generally allocate no more than 30% of their income toward rent, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But Joe Biden insists that inflation is “low”.

You believe him, don’t you?

Sadly, more Americans will soon be hitting the streets because we are witnessing an insane wave of layoffs all over the nation.

Right now, it is being reported that Salesforce has decided to conduct another round of layoffs…

Salesforce is cutting about 700 employees, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The job cuts, which amount to about 1% of its global workforce, follow a series of workforce reductions last year.

In 2023, Marc Benioff’s company laid off about 10% of its total workforce as it grappled with a swarm of activist investors who wanted margins increased faster than planned.

And we have just learned that REI will be giving the axe to 357 workers…

REI is laying off 357 workers, mostly in the outdoor retailer’s headquarters and distribution centers. In a letter to employees, CEO Eric Artz noted that “outdoor specialty retail has experienced four quarters of decline – and that trend has been worsening.” While REI was able to outperform this for much of last year, he said, this trend caught up to the company in the fourth quarter, and difficult conditions are expected in 2024.

Difficult conditions are expected in 2024?

Oh really…

Who could have seen that one coming?

After their deal with Amazon fell through, iRobot announced that 31 percent of its staff would be hitting the bricks…

Amazon and iRobot, the maker of the popular Roomba vacuum, mutually called off their estimated $1.7 billion acquisition deal Monday, citing numerous regulatory hurdles.

Immediately after the deal was publicly squashed, iRobot announced it would lay off 31% of its staff and that founder Colin Angle would step down from his role as CEO, citing a focus on profitability, stability and growth. Glen Weinstein will serve as interim CEO.

Shares of iRobot (IRBT) were down around 9% in noon trading following the news. Amazon (AMZN), which was up about 0.5% in noon trading, will pay iRobot a previously agreed-upon $94 million cancellation fee.

Google, Microsoft, Levi’s, TikTok, Riot Games, eBay, Wayfair and Macy’s are some of the other big names that have also announced layoffs so far in 2024.

But no industry is being hit harder than the mainstream media…

Journalists across the country burst into flames of panic this week, as bad news for the news business crested and erupted everywhere all at once.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire publisher of the Los Angeles Times, laid off 20 percent of his newsroom. Over at Time magazine, its billionaire owners, Marc and Lynne Benioff, did the same for 15 percent of their unionized editorial employees. This latest conflagration had ignited at Sports Illustrated the previous week as catastrophic layoffs were dispensed via email to most staffers. Business Insider (whose parent company Axel Springer also owns POLITICO) jettisoned 8 percent of its staff while workers at Condé Nast, Forbes, the New York Daily News and elsewhere walked out to protest forthcoming cuts at their shops.

Perhaps if they had not made a habit of blatantly lying to us over and over again during the past several years they would not have lost all of their remaining credibility and they would not have had to lay off so many workers.

But even though so much is going wrong with the economy right now, many of the “experts” continue to tell us that happier times are just around the corner.

For example, Ed Yardeni insists that we will soon relive the Roaring Twenties…

Ed Yardeni, a veteran market strategist, thinks the US economy might be about to relive the “Roaring ’20s.”

The Yardeni Research president said during Friday’s episode of Bloomberg’s “Merryn Talks Money” podcast that he’s expecting a combination of loose post-pandemic monetary policy and rapid technological change to drive growth higher over the next decade.

Wouldn’t it be great if he was actually right?

Of course the truth is that he is just being delusional.

Things are bad now, and things are going to get really bad during the second half of 2024 and beyond.

If you still have a good job and a warm home to come back to at night, you should be very thankful.

Because more Americans are losing their jobs and losing their homes with each passing day, and the level of economic suffering that we are witnessing is already off the charts.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  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.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help.  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.

U.S. lawmakers are calling for military strikes inside Iran in the aftermath of a horrific terror attack that left three U.S. service members dead and dozens wounded.  So if the U.S. does hit targets inside Iranian territory, how will the Iranians respond?  It is theoretically possible that they could back down, but I doubt it.  All of the airstrikes that we have conducted so far against Iranian-backed terror groups in Iraq and Syria have not caused them to back down.  And the airstrikes that we have hit the Houthis in Yemen with have not caused them to back down either.  The truth is that the U.S. is already at war in the Middle East, and it appears that it could soon take an apocalyptic turn.

U.S. forces in the Middle East have been attacked time after time over the past couple of months, but Sunday’s attack was the first one that actually killed members of the U.S. military…

Three U.S. service members were killed and dozens may be wounded after an unmanned aerial drone attack on U.S. forces stationed in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, President Joe Biden and U.S. officials said on Sunday.

Biden blamed Iran-backed groups for the attack, the first deadly strike against U.S. forces since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October and sent shock waves throughout the Middle East.

It was just a matter of time before something like this happened.

Overall, U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria have been attacked more than 150 times since October 17th…

Iranian-backed militias have mounted more that 150 attacks since Oct. 17 on bases occupied by U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, according to the Pentagon. The majority of the attacks have been with rockets and one-way attack drones, most of which have been intercepted.

When someone attacks your forces more than 150 times, you are at war with them.

Anyone that thinks otherwise is just being delusional.

In response to Sunday’s attack, Joe Biden told the world that “we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing”…

“While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq,” Biden said in a statement.

“Have no doubt – we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing,” he said.

Needless to say, this was not strong enough for many Republican hawks in Congress.  Here are just a few of their quotes that have been compiled by Axios…

-Mitch McConnell: Senate Minority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called for “serious, crippling costs” to Iran, “not only on front-line terrorist proxies, but on their Iranian sponsors who wear American blood as a badge of honor.”

-Lindsey Graham: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said in a statement the attacks the U.S. has carried out on Iranian proxies outside Iran “will not deter Iranian aggression,” calling to “strike targets of significance inside Iran.”

-Tom Cotton: “The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being commander-in-chief.”

-John Cornyn: Sen. John Cornyn, in a post on the social media site X, said: “Target Tehran,” later specifying that he wants the U.S. to strike Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. and its Quds Force branch.

Okay, so let’s imagine that Biden does what they want.

Would the Iranians respond by launching missiles at U.S. targets in the region?

And how would we respond if the Iranians made such a move?

When it comes to geopolitics, one must always be thinking several moves ahead.

Meanwhile, one of Israel’s most prominent politicians is warning that Iran has become a “legitimate target” for Israeli missiles…

Iran is now a “legitimate target” for Israeli missile strikes, one of the country’s most senior ministers has told the Telegraph, raising the prospect of an all-out war with Tehran.

In a wide-ranging interview, Nir Barkat, Israel’s economy minister, also said Palestinians from the West Bank would never be allowed to work in the country again and would be replaced by more than a quarter of a million imported foreign workers.

He also complained that the war in Gaza had not been fought aggressively enough.

Those that are urging military strikes against targets inside Iran are assuming that the Iranians only possess conventional weapons.

But what if this isn’t true?

In fact, for a long time there have been many that have tried to warn us that this isn’t true.

The Iranians are not showing us all their cards, and they have been preparing for this showdown for decades.

Interestingly, the Iranians just launched three new satellites into space…

Iran says it has successfully launched three indigenous satellites into orbit using the Simorgh carrier rocket, marking the first time the country has simultaneously sent three satellites into space.

The satellites launched early on Sunday include Mahda, weighing 32 kg, and two nano-satellites, Keyhan 2 and Hatef 1, of less than 10 kg, sent to a minimum orbit of 450 kilometers (279 miles) and a maximum of 1,100 km (683.5 mi), state media reported, citing the public relations wing of the Defense Ministry.

The Simorgh satellite carrier that carried the three satellites to space has been developed by Iran’s Defense Ministry, the ministry statement noted.

It is believed that these satellites have been sent into orbit for the purpose of guiding ballistic missiles.

We are so close to the unthinkable.  Once missiles start flying all over the region, the Middle East will never be the same again.

Meanwhile, the Chinese continue to probe Taiwan’s defenses…

Taiwan’s defense ministry announced on Saturday that over 30 Chinese warplanes were headed toward its country, in addition to navy ships.

Thirty-three aircraft were sent by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army from 6 a.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday, officials said. The aircraft included SU-30 fighters.

An apocalyptic conflict in the Middle East would give China the perfect opportunity to try to “reunite” with Taiwan by force.

So let’s keep a close eye on the Chinese.

And let us not forget about the Russians.  Over the weekend, they took even more territory from the Ukrainians.

This is a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and those that are familiar with my work will not be surprised to hear that I believe that things will greatly escalate later this year.

We should hope for peace, but we should also prepare for war.

Because war is definitely coming, and it will shake billions out of their current state of complacency.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  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.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

We live in an environment of complete and utter lawlessness.  When predators boldly roam the streets without fear but good people are literally afraid to leave their own homes, that is clearly a sign that our societal collapse has reached a very advanced stage.  Even in the rare instances when they are actually caught and convicted, our system will still often allow violent criminals to go free.  For example, a woman in California that was convicted of stabbing her boyfriend more than 100 times was given a sentence that didn’t include even a single day in prison…

The family of a man who was murdered by his date after she stabbed him more than 100 times has voiced their outrage after the California woman was sentenced to just 100 hours of community service with no jailtime.

Bryn Spejcher, 33, was given the lenient sentence after psychiatrists said the incident was ‘100 percent’ caused by cannabis-induced psychosis, which she suffered after taking two hits of the victim’s bong.

The judge ruled Ms Spejcher ‘experienced a psychotic break from reality’ and ‘had no control over her actions’ when she killed Chad O’Melia, who was 26 years old at the time of his death, on Memorial Day weekend 2018.

This is America now.

Our major cities have become places where literally anything goes, and that is particularly true for members of Generation Z.

In fact, one recent survey discovered that about one-third of that entire generations openly admits that “they shoplift while cashing out at self-check”…

More than half of Gen Z shoppers prefer self-checkout lines — and would even switch their store of choice for the ease of self-serve kiosks, according to new data from Avery Dennison — but it’s not necessarily because they’re independent or introverted.

In fact, one-third of the young shoppers admitted that they shoplift while cashing out at self-check.

According to a recent LendingTree survey of 2,000 Americans, nearly half of Gen Z respondents said they steal the most expensive item from their cart, while only 37% said they would only lift necessities.

This is one of the reasons why self-checkout lanes are now being taken out at stores all over the nation.

I certainly won’t miss self-checkout lanes.

Honestly, I am not fond of them at all.

Of course taking away self-checkout options won’t do much to stop the tsunami of theft that we are witnessing from coast to coast.

In Oakland, the very first In-N-Out Burger location ever established is being closed down because the crime in that particular neighborhood never stops…

The In-N-Out slated for closure is in a busy business corridor that attracts travelers headed to the airport and baseball fans who attend A’s games at the Coliseum. Since 2019, police have logged 1,335 incidents in the vicinity of the restaurant on Oakport Street — more than any other location in Oakland, the newspaper reported.

They were far more patient than I would have been.

Needless to say, I wouldn’t have waited for 1,335 crimes to be committed before shutting that restaurant down.

In San Francisco, KPMG is actually moving out of the KPMG building because conditions in the city have deteriorated so dramatically…

Accounting firm KPMG is set to move out of its $400 million namesake building, another high-profile exit from San Francisco’s beleaguered downtown.

The consulting and accounting giant first leased space in the 25-story office tower when the building opened in 2002. Its name hangs above the entry to the skyscraper where the company currently occupies more than 100,000 square feet.

It comes as shoe store Alto prepares to exit San Francisco Centre, the city’s biggest mall, next week.

Businesses and residents have fled downtown San Francisco since the pandemic with groups blaming crime, homelessness and work-from-home keeping people from downtown.

It is easy to point a finger at the west coast, but things have gotten really crazy on the east coast as well.

As I discussed earlier this week, a CVS store in Washington D.C. is being permanently closed because teens would loot it multiple times per day…

A Washington D.C. CVS store is shutting its doors after being repeatedly ransacked by thieves, the chain has confirmed.

The pharmacy, located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, went viral last October when videos emerged of it totally stripped of all its products after being targeted by a teen gang.

Staff claim more than 45 schoolkids would go into the store and steal chips and drinks in the morning, after their classes and late at night. It will close on February 29, according to WTTG-TV.

This is what a lawless society looks like.

At this point, things are so bad that Walmart and Target “have begun locking up underwear and socks”…

Walmart and Target have begun locking up underwear and socks – the latest items to be protected against shoplifters.

As thefts have surged over the past year, stores have been increasingly keeping items behind lock and key.

But these have tended to be electronics and toiletries.

As you can see, my headline was not an exaggeration at all.

We really are locking up underwear and socks, and we really are allowing violent criminals to go free.

The thin veneer of civilization that we all depend upon on a daily basis is breaking down all around us, and you never know when someone will totally flip their lid and start shooting at you…

A Las Vegas pastor was murdered in front of his family following a feud with a neighbor over the chickens and dogs she kept in her property

A disturbing image shows the moment Grace Point Church pastor Nick Davi, 46, was fatally shot by his female neighbor Joe Junio, 36, who also wounded his wife Sarah Davi on December 29.

The shooting happened after Junio had allegedly harassed the family for weeks, throwing feces on their backyard, flooding their home, and issuing threats after the Davis complained to the gated community’s homeowner’s association.

Now we are moving into the most chaotic election season in our entire history, and I believe that will usher in widespread chaos all over America.

Our society is not ready for the changes that are coming.

So I hope that you are doing your best to get prepared.

If you think that our country is lawless now, just wait until you see what conditions will be like a couple of years from now.

Social order is literally imploding right in front of our eyes, and life in America will never be the same as it once was.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  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.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help.  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.

Okay, so they want us to believe that the U.S. economy grew at a very brisk pace during the fourth quarter of 2023 even though mass layoffs are happening all over America, sales of previously owned homes are at the lowest level in 28 years, homelessness is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded, and survey after survey is showing that most Americans are just barely scraping by from month to month.  Needless to say, something does not add up.  The American people are deeply frustrated with how the economy is performing, but the government keeps giving us numbers that indicate that everything is just great.  On Thursday, we were told that the U.S. economy grew at a 3.3 percent annualized rate during the fourth quarter of 2023…

The economy grew at a much more rapid pace than expected while inflation eased in the final three months of 2023, as the U.S. easily skirted a recession that many forecasters had thought was inevitable, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced, increased at a 3.3% annualized rate in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to data adjusted seasonally and for inflation.

That compared with the Wall Street consensus estimate for a gain of 2% in the final three months of the year.

If that number actually reflected reality, it would be very good news.

But how is it possible that layoffs were up 98 percent in 2023 while the U.S. economy was supposedly “growing” all year long?

To me, it appears that something fishy is going on.

And that is precisely what we see when we take a deeper look at the numbers.  According to Zero Hedge, “GDP-boosting gimmicks” are being employed to make things look better than they actually are…

Turning to the all important consumption, we can’t help but smile when noticing that the BEA is again resorting to such favorite GDP-boosting gimmicks of the old Obama administration as spending on healthcare and… RVs! The two contributed to roughly half the growth in consumer spending in the fourth quarter.

Other numbers that don’t come from the Biden administration tell a much different story.

For example, the Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index was negative in December, and it has been negative for 8 of the past 12 months…

Against expectations of a small rise from 0.03 to 0.06, The Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index (which draws on 85 economic indicators) tumbled to -0.15 in December. 2023 ends with 8 of the 12 months in negative territory…

So how in the world can the economy be “growing” if national economic activity was in negative territory for two-thirds of last year?

It doesn’t make any sense at all.

And if the outlook for the future is positive, why are so many mass layoffs happening?

Business Insider had already conducted one round of mass layoffs, but they just decided that another round has become necessary…

In the latest wave of layoffs to hit the digital media biz, Business Insider said it will cut 8% of its staff in a restructuring aimed at positioning the company for growth.

Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng announced the job cuts in a memo to staffers Thursday. “We have already begun to refocus teams and invest in areas that drive outsize value for our core audience. Unfortunately, this also means we need to scale back in some areas of our organization,” she wrote.

Back when it first started, Business Insider was actually quite good.

But those days are long gone.

Microsoft is another big name that is putting large numbers of workers on the chopping block…

Microsoft will lay off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox, the latest tech company to announce cuts so far in 2024.

The layoffs represent about an 8% cut of its video gaming staff of 22,000 workers and come months after Microsoft acquired Activision in a blockbuster deal. The $69 billion transaction in October represented one of the largest tech deals in history as Microsoft took over the studios behind bestselling games like Call of Duty, Diablo and Overwatch for its Xbox console.

And even though things are looking up for IBM these days, they are planning job cuts too…

IBM also said it will also cut a percentage of positions in the low single digits in 2024.

The planned job cuts follow similar announcements in January by major tech companies, including Alphabet’s Google and Amazon.com.

Chief financial officer James Kavanaugh said IBM will likely spend the same amount on restructuring as it did in 2023 – US$400 million – when it reduced its workforce by about 3,900 jobs.

Day after day, I share examples of very large companies that are conducting mass layoffs.

Why would they be doing this if tremendous prosperity is ahead of us?

It wouldn’t make any sense at all.

Of course the truth is that an economic downturn has already begun and it is going to get even deeper in 2024.

Those on the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest.  Earlier today, I was saddened to read about homeless people in California that are being evicted from caves that they had dug into the banks of a river…

Rough sleepers in California were found living inside furnished caves dug into the banks of a river 20 feet below street level.

The groups were removed from the eight caves – along the Tuolumne River in Modesto – over the weekend, and they were emptied of belongings, furniture and 7,600 lbs of rubbish, filling two trucks and a trailer.

Some of the caves were decorated with murals, had broken floor tiles and one even had a makeshift fireplace with a chimney.

There are countless others just like them all over the country.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that homelessness was rising at the fastest pace ever recorded in 2023.

But don’t worry about any of that.

According to Joe Biden and his minions, the U.S. economy is growing steadily and everything is just great.

You believe them, don’t you?

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  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.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help.  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.