Money

We Are Witnessing An Avalanche Of Branch Closings As U.S. Banks Desperately Try To Stay Alive

November 30, 2023November 30, 2023 by Michael

If you do things the right way, in the long run you will get positive results. But if you do things the wrong way, in the long run you will get negative results. Our banks are the beating heart of our entire economy, and unfortunately they have been doing things the wrong way for a long time. As a result, the entire system is being greatly shaken. Loans are starting to go delinquent at a frightening pace, we have seen endless “banking glitches” in recent months, tens of thousands of banking employees have already been laid off, and U.S. banks are sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars of unrealized losses. Sadly, a lot more chaos is on the way. As small and mid-size banks fail, they will get gobbled up by the big boys. Of course the big boys are scrambling to survive too. In fact, it is being reported that JPMorgan Chase will close a total of 159 local branches by the end of this calendar year…

In 2023, JP Morgan Chase has or will close 159 branch locations across the United States. The banking giant is not alone in its decision to scale back its physical presence as banking moves online; Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citi Bank have announced closures at similar scales that will continue into 2024.

Bank of America is not far behind.

We are being told that it will permanently close more than 100 local branches by the end of 2023…

Bank of America is the second largest bank in the United States, and this year, the financial giant has announced that it will close up to 138 locations. To date, 95 branches have been closed this year, and 15 more are to shutter by the end of the year. The remaining locations are planned to close in 2024, meaning that the trend, common among nearly all of the big banks of shutting local branches will continue.

At this point, just about everyone is closing branches.

In addition to laying off workers, this is one of the measures that banks can take to try to save some money.

As I discussed the other day, in just one week in November U.S. banks submitted filings to permanently close another 64 branches.

Of course this “avalanche” of branch closings didn’t just start recently. In 2022, our banks shut down more than 3,000 branches. We have never seen anything like this before, and everyone agrees that more branch closures are coming in 2024.

But many banks have no choice. Right now, U.S. banks are sitting on an absolutely colossal mountain of unrealized losses.

In fact, new numbers that were just released show that U.S. banks are now sitting on a total of 684 billion dollars of unrealized losses…

“Unrealized losses” on securities – mostly Treasury securities and government-guaranteed MBS – at FDIC-insured commercial banks at the end of Q3 jumped by $126 billion (or by 22%) from the prior quarter, to $684 billion, according to the FDIC’s quarterly bank data release on Wednesday.

As long as everyone pretends that everything is fine and there are no bank runs, there will be no need for panic.

But if Americans start pulling their money out of our troubled banks, they will be forced to sell Treasury bonds at massive losses, and there will be more bank failures.

Do you remember when Silicon Valley Bank failed earlier this year?

Well, that is precisely what happened.

So let’s hope that everyone stays nice and calm and leaves their money in the banks.

According to one recent report, there are three banks that are particularly vulnerable at this moment…

Regional banks Comerica, First Horizon and Zions are at risk of being targets for acquisition by larger rivals, according to a new report.

Since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March, the US banking industry has been poised for a reconfiguration that could see smaller regional banks wiped out.

Meanwhile, the housing bubble just continues to burst.

On Thursday, we learned that pending home sales in the U.S. have fallen to the lowest level ever recorded…

Pending home sales, a measure of signed contracts on existing homes, dropped 1.5% in October from September.

They hit the lowest level since the National Association of Realtors began tracking this metric in 2001, meaning it’s even worse than readings during the financial crisis more than a decade ago. Sales were down 8.5% from October of last year.

Let those paragraphs sink in for a moment.

Even during the darkest days of the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, pending home sales never dropped this low.

But the mainstream media continues to insist that the economy is “strong” and that there is no reason for concern.

And during the month of November stock prices surged higher…

The Dow reached a new high for the year Thursday as easing inflation data and strong third quarter earnings from Salesforce shot the benchmark index 520 points, or 1.5% higher.

While it was a mixed day for markets overall, all three major indexes managed to make November one of their top-performing months of 2023.

The S&P 500 rose more than 8% this month and the Nasdaq was up about 10%, marking their best month since July 2022. The Dow, meanwhile, managed to shake off a three-month losing streak, also rising by about 8.8% and notching its best month since October 2022.

Let’s hope that this continues for a while.

Let’s hope that everyone remains calm and continues to conduct business as usual for as long as possible.

Because once a panic begins and people start pulling their money out of the banks, we are going to have a massive crisis on our hands.

At this point, vast numbers of U.S. banks are “financial zombies”, vast hordes of U.S. consumers are “financial zombies”, and the U.S. government is the biggest “financial zombie” of all.

But as long as most people have faith in the system, the game will be able to continue.

Unfortunately, it is just a matter of time before the charade crumbles and a meltdown of absolutely epic proportions begins…

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

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “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 these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible. I have also started a brand new Substack newsletter, and I encourage you to subscribe so that you won’t miss any of my articles. 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 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, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The Significance Of America’s Fallen National Christmas Tree

November 29, 2023November 29, 2023 by Michael

America’s National Christmas Tree fell down this week. That tree is the most important national symbol of our most important national holiday. The National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony has been performed every year since 1923, and so the falling of the tree has happened as we approach the centennial anniversary of this tradition. Do you think that this was just a coincidence? I certainly don’t. I believe that the downing of the most important national symbol of our most important national holiday is significant. On Tuesday, a very powerful gust of wind knocked the 40 foot tree completely to the ground…

The National Christmas Tree near the White House was knocked over Tuesday when strong winds roared through the Washington area.

The National Park Service said the 40-foot tree from Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia fell over during a strong wind gust.

Interestingly, the tree had already been replaced in 2023, because the first one had “developed a fungus”…

This year’s tree was already replaced once, after the tree originally planted for the ceremony developed a fungus, WUSA-TV reported. A wide variety of diseases target Christmas trees, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Once the National Christmas Tree came down, many immediately compared it to the Biden presidency. Here is one example…

“National Christmas tree falls DOWN,” the Republican House Committee on the Judiciary wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Perfectly summing up Joe Biden’s presidency.”

Without a doubt, Joe Biden’s presidency has not gone well.

But the truth is that Joe Biden and all of the other corrupt politicians in Washington are a reflection of the country as a whole.

We are a fallen nation, and we are completely and utterly unprepared to handle the consequences of decades of very foolish decisions.

In our time, Americans are becoming increasingly emotionally unstable. According to the CDC, the national suicide rate just hit the highest level in more than 80 years…

The suicide rate among Americans, which has risen steadily over the past 18 years, has reached its highest point since 1941, preliminary data for 2022 shows.

The suicide rate per 100,000 people in 2022 was 14.3, according to a report from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention released early Wednesday. The rate was 15 in 1941.

The latest numbers also show that men are killing themselves at a far higher rate than women are…

The rate for males was 22.8 and 5.7 for females in 2021.

The number of suicides for males in 2022 was 2% higher than the 38,358 deaths in 2021. For females, the 2022 number rose 4% from 9,825 deaths in 2021.

Meanwhile, the worst drug addiction crisis in our history has resulted in yet another new record high for drug overdose deaths…

Drug overdose deaths reached another record level in the United States this spring, new data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, as 2023 is on track to be another devastating year amid the drug epidemic.

More than 111,000 people died from a drug overdose in the 12-month period ending in April, according to the new estimates.

If our society is so great, why are “deaths of despair” off the charts?

Can anyone answer that question?

And if so many Americans cannot emotionally handle the way that things are now, what is going to happen during the chaotic years ahead?

In 2024 and beyond, there will be more political unrest, more wars, more pestilences, more economic troubles, more famine and more natural disasters.

In particular, one thing that I will be watching in the months ahead is the sun. A cluster of very large sunspots has become extremely active, and scientists are warning that this group could potentially pose a danger for our planet…

A cluster of sunspots has rolled into view of Earth and may send a solar storm our way as early as Saturday.

The cluster includes about a dozen sunspots that are around 125,000 miles wide— about 15 times bigger than our planet, Space.com reported.

The group is very active. It had already shot out three M-class and several C-class solar flares before it came into view, per spaceweather.com.

The article that I just quoted above was written before a “full halo CME” was unleashed on Wednesday…

On Wednesday, SWPC said a fourth CME, known as a full halo CME, prompted forecasters to upgrade the G2 watch to a G3-level geomagnetic storm watch for Friday. Full halo CMEs send out solar material away from the Sun in all directions, appearing halo-like, and usually result in geomagnetic storms at Earth.

“This faster-moving halo CME is progged to merge with 2 of the 3 upstream CMEs, all arriving at Earth on Dec. 1,” according to SWPC.

I am entirely convinced that the behavior of the sun will eventually become a huge story.

We have already seen more activity during this solar cycle than we did during the last solar cycle, and this solar cycle is not expected to peak until next year at the earliest…

Unfortunately, a new study reveals that this solar maximum is coming sooner than expected – most likely in early 2024.

The new forecast comes from an Indian team of researchers and contrasts with the latest forecast from NASA, which puts its arrival at late 2025.

If you think that the past few years have been chaotic, just wait until you see what is coming.

The things that will happen in 2024 and beyond are truly going to be wild.

And much of our population is completely and utterly unprepared to emotionally deal with the very challenging times that are approaching.

We are a fallen nation with a fallen population.

So was it just a coincidence that the most important national symbol of our most important national holiday just violently fell to the ground?

Of course not.

I believe that someone is trying to send us a message, but hardly anyone is listening…

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

The Government Debt Crisis That We Have Been Warned About For Decades Is Happening Right Now

November 28, 2023November 28, 2023 by Michael

For decades we were warned that someday our politicians would push things too far. We were warned that someday our national debt would spiral out of control, servicing that debt would become extremely oppressive due to soaring interest rates, existing bonds would crash thanks to the shift in interest rates, and foreign sources would start stepping back from buying any new debt that we would be issuing. Unfortunately, that time has arrived. The government debt crisis that we have been warned about is here, and it is going to be incredibly painful.

At this moment, our national debt is sitting at $33,836,693,993,860.35.

It is probably going to hit 34 trillion dollars by the end of the year.

To put this into perspective, when Barack Obama first entered the White House we were about 10 trillion dollars in debt.

We are literally committing national suicide, but for a long time most Americans didn’t really care because we were not experiencing any serious consequences.

But now the party is ending.

Thanks to rapidly rising interest rates, U.S. Treasury bonds “are in a bear market worse than the dot-com bust and almost as bad as 2008”…

Elementary economic forces — too much supply and not enough demand — have collided to create the worst stretch for U.S. government bonds since the Civil War. The government keeps borrowing to cover its budget deficits, while once-reliable buyers of that debt, both at home and abroad, have pulled back.

The result: Investors are demanding the steepest yields since 2007. Auctions of fresh bonds that were once routine are now going terribly. And bond portfolios are getting absolutely hammered. The longest-dated Treasury bonds are in a bear market worse than the dot-com bust and almost as bad as 2008.

A bond crash normally precedes a stock market crash.

That is exactly what happened in 2008, and it appears that the same pattern is being reproduced now.

So if you have a lot of money in the stock market, you may want to brace yourself for what is ahead.

In the past, we could always rely on China, Japan and other foreign buyers to keep the party going, but now they are not very interested in our bonds…

China and Japan, once reliable buyers of Treasury bonds, have been selling them to prop up their weakening currencies. A decade ago they held more than 22% of U.S. government bonds; today it’s 7%.

The Ukraine war has dampened demand among Eastern European buyers, said Steve Ricchiuto, the chief U.S. economist at Mizuho. Increasing U.S. oil production means fewer petrodollars in the Middle East to be reinvested through the Treasury market.

U.S. banks, too, are stepping back.

I certainly can’t blame our banks for “stepping back” from buying more bonds.

Thanks to the dramatic shift in interest rates that we have witnessed, they are sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars in unrealized losses.

So who is going to buy our debt in 2024 and beyond?

That is a very good question.

And servicing the debt that we have already accumulated is becoming a major problem.

During the last year, the federal government “had to spend one-fifth of all the money it collected just on debt interest”…

The U.S. federal government has borrowed so much money that, over the past year, it has had to spend one-fifth of all the money it collected just on debt interest—which came to almost $880 billion.

Americans paid some $450 billion less in income taxes for the year, trapping the government in the pincers of a fiscal crunch.

The country teeters on the brink of a debt spiral that could devolve into a fiscal crisis or hyperinflation, several economists told The Epoch Times.

“The problem is serious because, any way you cut it, taxpayers are paying interest on the mountain of debt that has been accumulated,” said Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University. “In short, they are paying something for nothing.”

In 2024, the U.S. government will spend well over a trillion dollars just in interest on the national debt.

That wasn’t supposed to happen until 2030.

A day of reckoning has arrived, and it is just a matter of time before the entire system comes crashing down like a house of cards.

This isn’t going to be just another “financial crisis”. As James Rickards has aptly noted, what we will soon experience will be “qualitatively different” from anything that we have ever experienced before…

The next financial crisis will not be merely a bigger version of the 1998 and 2008 crises, it will be qualitatively different. It will encompass multiple asset classes on a global scale. It will exhibit inflation not seen since the 1970s, insolvency not seen since the 1930s and exchange shutdowns not seen since 1914. State power will be summoned to contain panic.

What Rickards is describing is a full-blown economic collapse.

So what will our society look like once such a scenario unfolds?

Already, economic conditions have deteriorated so dramatically that demand at local food banks has risen to “unprecedented” levels in some cities…

The demand for local food banks is on the rise as soaring prices impact average Americans under President Joe Biden.

The increasing demand for food banks demonstrates how soaring inflation driven by “Bidenomics” negatively impacts lower income families.

“We are seeing unprecedented demand,” Jackie DeCarlo, chief executive of Manna Food Center, told the Washington Post on Monday.

If things are this bad now, what will we be facing a year or two from now?

At this point, there is no escape.

All our politicians can do is to keep the party going for as long as they possibly can.

They knew that they were destroying our financial future, and they also knew that they couldn’t keep borrowing and spending insane amounts of money forever.

Of course nobody can say that we weren’t warned.

People like me have been relentlessly warning about our financial condition for years, and now I am warning about what is coming in the aftermath of the approaching financial meltdown.

Our leaders tried to outrun the basic laws of economics for a long time, and for a while they were flying high.

But now reality has caught up with them, and we are all going to pay a very bitter price for their crimes.

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

The Entire Banking System Is Shaking

November 27, 2023November 27, 2023 by Michael

Why are big banks suddenly rushing to shut down so many local branches all over the nation? As I have discussed in previous articles, U.S. banks are currently sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars in unrealized losses. When financial institutions get into trouble, they start getting really tight with their money and they start cutting costs. In addition to laying off workers, our banks have been cutting costs by permanently closing local branches. For example, between November 12th and November 18th, the sixth largest bank in the United States initiated filings to close 19 more local branches…

America’s sixth-largest bank, PNC, has confirmed the closure of 19 more branches nationwide, following a staggering 203 branch closures earlier this year. This decision, aligning with the bank’s shift towards digital banking, is raising concerns among customers who prefer traditional banking methods.

Scheduled for February 2024, the closures will primarily impact Pennsylvania, where the majority of branches marked for closure are located. However, several branches in other states, including Illinois, Texas, Alabama, New Jersey, Ohio, Florida, and Indiana, will also be shutting their doors, leaving customers in these regions with limited access to in-person banking services, The Sun reported.

Of course PNC has lots of company.

During that exact same week, several other prominent banks made similar moves…

JPMorgan Chase followed closely with 18 filings—three in Ohio, two each in Connecticut and South Carolina, and one each in 11 states, including New York, Illinois, Florida, and Massachusetts.

Citizens Bank came in third with eight branch closure filings—six in New York, and one each in Massachusetts and Delaware. Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank filed for seven closures—three in Tennessee and one each in Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Illinois.

Bank of America made five filings—two in New York and one each in Texas, Massachusetts, and California.

Citibank filed for two branch closures, and Sterling, Bremer, First National Bank of Hughes Springs, Windsor FS&LA, and Aroostook County FS&LA made one filing each.

Altogether, banks filed to shut down 64 branches.

Read that last sentence again.

In just one week, U.S. banks decided to shut down a total of 64 branches.

That is stunning.

What we are witnessing right now is a tsunami of branch closures.

Unfortunately, even more trouble is coming for our banks because the real estate industry is a total mess right now.

Existing home sales have fallen to depressingly low levels, and we just learned that new home sales in the U.S. dropped 5.6 percent last month…

New home sales in the United States fell in October as typical mortgage rates reached their highest levels this year.

Sales of newly constructed homes fell 5.6% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 679,000, from a revised rate of 719,000 in September, according to a joint report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Census Bureau.

Prices for new homes are falling as well…

So the median price of new single-family houses sold in October fell by 3.1% from September, to $409,300 (red line), the lowest since August 2021, down by 17.6% from a year ago, which had been the peak, according to data from the Census Bureau today. The three-month moving average is down by nearly 12% from its peak in December last year (green).

These are contract prices and do not include the costs of mortgage-rate buydowns and other incentives such as free upgrades. But they do reflect the lower price points due to smaller footprints and the “de-amenitizing.”

Meanwhile, the commercial real estate crisis just continues to intensify.

Just check out these new numbers that were released several days ago by Trepp…

The volume of CMBS loans that are classified as delinquent increased by 49.4% during the 10 months through October to $27.91 billion. That volume amounts to 5.07% of the $601.98 billion universe tracked by Trepp. In contrast, delinquencies at the end of last year amounted to 3.03% of the $616.15 billion universe then extant.

Wow.

It turns out that office buildings are the primary reason why delinquencies are rising at such an astounding pace…

The driver of the increase was the office sector, which had a 261% increase in delinquency volumes over the 10-month period through October. A total of 199 loans with a balance of $9.59 billion, or 5.91% of all CMBS office loans were at least 30 days late with their payments, as of the end of October. At the end of last year, 115 loans with a balance of $2.65 billion, or 1.63% of office loans, were delinquent.

The sector’s prospects are unlikely to improve as office occupancy rates have declined in most of the country’s major markets. That’s been driven by a substantial pullback in demand from office-using tenants.

All of this reminds me so much of what we witnessed in 2008.

When the real estate industry falls on hard times, a financial crisis is usually right around the corner.

Needless to say, it isn’t just U.S. banks that are in trouble right now.

Major banks all over the globe are getting hit really hard, and that includes Metro Bank in the UK…

Metro Bank shareholders have backed a multi-million pound rescue deal aimed at securing the bank’s future.

The vote was on a package the bank agreed last month to raise extra funds from investors and refinance debt. Metro’s share price had plunged in September following reports it needed to raise cash to shore up its finances.

In the days ahead, we are going to hear about a lot more banks that need to “shore up” their finances.

And it is inevitable that more banks will fail.

A number of people have asked me questions about their banks lately, and I have told them the same thing that I tell everyone.

It is never wise to put all of your eggs in one basket.

We are moving into a period of time that is going to be extremely chaotic, and so you don’t want to have all of your assets in a single place.

What we have seen so far is just the beginning. Our banks are going to get into even deeper trouble during the days ahead, and that is really bad news for all of us.

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

Say Goodbye To The Middle Class: Half Of All American Workers Made Less Than $40,847.18 Last Year

November 26, 2023November 26, 2023 by Michael

If you are wondering why so many Americans are stressed about their finances these days, just look at the numbers. The Social Security Administration just released national wage statistics for 2022, and the figures that they have given us do not paint a pretty picture at all. In particular, we should all be deeply alarmed that the median wage earner brought home just $40,847.18 last year. That breaks down to about $3,400 a month, and that is before taxes. Needless to say, you cannot live a middle class lifestyle in America today on just $3,400 a month before taxes. So in most households more than one person must work, and in many cases more than one person is working multiple jobs.

During our current inflation crisis, the cost of living has been rising much faster than paychecks have, and this is squeezing American families like never before.

Right now, the national median price of renting a home is $1,978 a month, and so after paying rent on a home the average worker wouldn’t have much left over for anything else.

Meanwhile, actually owning a home is the most unaffordable that it has been since 1984…

Buying and paying for a house costs Americans more now than at any point in almost four decades. Thanks to strong demand and a limited supply of new homes – even as mortgage rates have more than doubled in the past year – it now takes nearly 41% of the median household’s monthly income to afford the payments on a median-priced home, according to research from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). The last time housing payments cost that much was in 1984.

Of course it isn’t just the cost of housing that has gone crazy.

Just about everything has soared in price over the past few years, and those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest…

But when compared with January 2021, shortly before the inflation crisis began, prices remain up a stunning 17.62%.

Inflation has created severe financial pressures for most U.S. households, which are forced to pay more for everyday necessities like food and rent. The burden is disproportionately borne by low-income Americans, whose already-stretched paychecks are heavily impacted by price fluctuations.

If things are hard for you and your family right now, please understand that you are not alone.

Most of the country is in the exact same boat.

In a desperate attempt to maintain their middle class lifestyles, millions upon millions of Americans have been taking on debt like never before, and as a result we are now facing an unprecedented consumer debt bubble…

Inflation has also impacted spending on major purchases. Balances on non-housing loans have more than doubled since 2003, totaling roughly $4.8 trillion, according to data from the New York Federal Reserve. More than $500 billion of that debt accumulated just in the past two years – a bigger jump than any other two-year period since 2003, the earliest year available.

Some of that debt comes from skyrocketing car prices, but credit card balances are growing the fastest of all – roughly 34% from the fall of 2021.

Unfortunately, the consumer debt party is coming to an end because financial institutions are starting to become significantly tighter with their money.

A credit crunch has begun, and it is only going to intensify in the months ahead.

Of course that is more bad news for our rapidly shrinking middle class.

More formerly middle class Americans are falling into poverty with each passing day, and this is causing an alarming surge in demand at food banks from coast to coast…

As families across the nation prepare for the holiday season, some food banks across the United States dedicated to fighting hunger say they are experiencing an increase in demand following the end of pandemic-era SNAP benefits, an increase in inflation, and other regional factors.

Caroline De La Fuente helps care for her 16 grandchildren while their parents work to make ends meet and is one of the thousands of people who, according to data, depend on food banks. She told ABC News that without the San Antonio Food Bank, her family and others in the community wouldn’t eat.

“A lot of people would go hungry,” she said. “Kids would go hungry at night. People would not be able to celebrate Thanksgiving.”

The number of homeless Americans is spiking as well.

In fact, the Wall Street Journal has reported that homelessness in the United States has been increasing at the fastest pace ever recorded in 2023….

The U.S. has seen a record increase in homeless people this year as the Covid-19 pandemic fades, according to a Wall Street Journal review of data from around the country.

Yes, this is really happening.

The middle class really is coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes.

And this is one of the reasons why so many people have such short fuses these days.

Even the smallest things can turn some people into raving lunatics at this point. For example, one woman actually drove her SUV into a Popeyes restaurant because an order of biscuits was missing…

A woman drove her SUV into a Georgia Popeyes building after the manager said she became angry over a missing order of biscuits Saturday, according to an incident report filed by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.

The manager said that prior to the crash, restaurant staff gave 50-year-old Belinda Miller biscuits to rectify the error, but she was still not happy and “…would drive her vehicle into the building.”

According to the incident report, a witness who allegedly waited in line with Miller told them to hurry and get their order “because she was coming back.”

Miller did return, according to the incident report, and allegedly drove her SUV into the chicken restaurant, narrowly missing an 18-year-old employee.

I wish that I could say that this was an isolated incident, but it isn’t.

There are so many crazy people running around out there, and you never know who will be the next one to totally lose it.

If things are this bad now, what is going to happen once the economy totally falls apart and our society descends into complete and utter chaos?

Economic conditions have deteriorated substantially in 2023, and I am entirely convinced that 2024 will be even worse…

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

106.4 Million U.S. Adults Do Not Have A Job Right Now

November 20, 2023November 20, 2023 by Michael

19 months in a row! The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now fallen for 19 months in a row. When something happens for 19 consecutive months, that is definitely a trend. The economy is clearly in big trouble, and conditions are getting worse with each passing day. But the mainstream media continues to insist that the economy is doing just great. They tell us that inflation is low, but if it was still measured the way that it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation would be well into double digit territory. And they tell us that the unemployment rate is low, but if honest numbers were being used the official rate of unemployment would be about 25 percent right now. There are highly qualified people that can’t even get an interview even though they are sending out hundreds and hundreds of resumes. What are they doing wrong?

Of course the truth is that they aren’t doing anything wrong. The employment market is far tighter than we are being led to believe, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

When a working age American is not working, the government puts that individual into one of two categories.

Right now, there are only 6.5 million U.S. adults that are officially considered to be “unemployed”.

But another 99.9 million U.S. adults are considered to be “not in the labor force”. So they don’t count as being “unemployed”.

When you add those two numbers together, you get a grand total of 106.4 million U.S. adults that do not have a job right now.

At no point during the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009 did that number even reach 90 million.

So don’t let anyone convince you that unemployment is low.

The elite are trying to do their best to convince us that everything is just fine, but meanwhile the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now fallen for 19 months in a row…

A key measure of the direction of the U.S. economy fell for the 19th straight month and once again indicated that a recession is looming.

The leading economic index fell 0.8 percent in October, the Conference Board said Monday. The LEI is based on 10 indicators that tend to forecast the direction of the economy.

Economists had expected a milder decline of 0.8 percent.

The last time the index declined for 19 months in a row was during the Great Recession when it fell from the end of 2007 through 2009.

The last streak of this magnitude started in 2007.

But we didn’t have a recession in 2007.

And things still seemed relatively fine in early 2008 too.

Of course then we got to the end of 2008 and everything fell to pieces.

That is why they are called “leading” economic indicators.

They tell us what is coming.

And what is coming in our time is not going to be fun.

Needless to say, most of the population is not prepared at all for a major economic storm.

Survey after survey has shown that most of the U.S. population is currently living paycheck to paycheck…

The majority of U.S. adults are living paycheck to paycheck heading into this holiday season, a report shows.

LendingClub’s latest report shows that as of October, 60 percent of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck. Around 40 percent of consumers consider themselves to be worse off now than in 2022.

Even higher earners are struggling to get by, with 42 percent of those making six figures also living check-to-check under President Joe Biden.

According to a separate CNBC survey, the number of adults struggling to save between checks is up from 58 percent in March.

As long as those paychecks keep coming in, they can keep scraping by from month to month.

But now layoffs are starting to surge again all over the nation.

Young Americans are in particularly dire straits.

Millions upon millions of young Americans have low paying jobs and are deeply struggling with student loan debt, and this is one of the reasons why the average age of a U.S. homebuyer just keeps going higher and higher…

The average American homebuyer is now 49-years-old – 18 years older than in 1981 – as inflation, college costs and house prices make it harder for young people to get a foot on the ladder.

Research by the National Association of Realtors has revealed that the median age of all homebuyers has steadily crept up over the past forty years.

The most shocking contrast is for first time buyers where the median age is now 35, up from 31 in 2013 and 29 in 1981.

The American Dream is now out of reach for most of the nation, and that is especially true among those that are under the age of 40.

But the mainstream media absolutely refuses to acknowledge the truth.

They just keep telling us that things look great for the U.S. economy in 2024 and beyond. The following comes from a Yahoo Finance article entitled “The election year economy looks good for Biden”…

The much-predicted recession still hasn’t arrived. Will it materialize in 2024, at the worst possible moment for President Joe Biden, as he’s trying to convince voters to give him a second term?

It’s not looking that way. As economists roll out their forecasts for 2024, the prevailing theme is moderation: slowing but still-positive economic growth, a declining rate of inflation, and continued low unemployment.

Seriously?

Come on man.

Do they actually expect us to consume that pablum?

We are already in an economic crisis right now, and things are going to get so much worse during the years ahead.

You can stick your head in the sand and pretend that everything is okay if you want.

But nothing is going to change the fact that the “endgame” has arrived.

Decades of very foolish decisions have brought us to this stage, and now we are truly going to reap what we have sown.

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

11 Signs That U.S. Consumers Are In Very Serious Trouble As We Head Into The Final Stretch Of 2023

November 19, 2023November 19, 2023 by Michael

U.S. consumers are getting weaker and weaker and weaker. Today, debt levels have risen to unprecedented heights, but thanks to roaring inflation our standard of living has been steadily going down. Most Americans are working extremely hard, but they have very little to show for it. And now the latest economic downturn is really starting to bite. Layoffs are starting to surge again, once thriving businesses are shutting down all over the nation, and hunger and homelessness are exploding. If economic conditions continue to deteriorate at this pace, what will things look like a year from now?

For decades, we have been able to count on U.S. consumers to just keep spending money no matter what the economic outlook was, but now things have changed.

The following are 11 signs that U.S. consumers are in very serious trouble as we head into the final stretch of 2023…

#1 U.S. renters are spending 30 percent of their incomes just on rent…

Renters remained burdened in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2023 despite a slight improvement as insurance costs to landlords mounted, according to a new report by Moody’s Analytics.

Moody’s Analytics found that in Q3, the U.S. rent-to-income ratio (RTI) declined slightly by 0.5% and ended at 30%, a level that is the threshold for being rent-burdened. Renters are considered “burdened” if their rent payments consume 30% or more of their gross, or pre-tax, income. This comes after last year marked the first time that the median renter household in the U.S. paid over 30% of their income on an average-priced apartment when the national RTI reached a high of 30.8%.

#2 One food bank executive just told USA Today that she is seeing “the worst rate of hunger in my career” right now…

“This is the worst rate of hunger in my career,” said Morgan, who has worked at food banks in Boston, San Francisco and Anchorage, Alaska. “It’s so large, it’s hard to wrap your head around.”

#3 Wells Fargo just shut down 13 bank branches in a single week…

Six banks filed to close almost 40 branches last week leaving millions of Americans without access to vital financial services, with Wells Fargo alone axing 13 locations.

Wells Fargo has been a leader in the closure of branches around the country, having closed 160 in the first half of the year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

#4 Average hourly earnings for all employees have fallen by 3.32 percent since Joe Biden entered the White House…

Millions of Americans have received a pay cut over the past two years thanks to high inflation, a blow to President Biden as he attempts to center his re-election campaign around “Bidenomics.”

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that average hourly earnings for all employees was $11.05 in October — a 3.32% decline from the $11.43 figure in January 2021, when Biden took office.

#5 Due to a lack of consumer demand, three different major Burger King franchisees have recently declared bankruptcy…

Premier Kings, a 172-unit Burger King franchisee whose owner died in 2022, declared bankruptcy protection, saying that operating losses even after the company closed restaurants forced the issue.

It’s the third time this year that a major Burger King operator has taken such a step, while several others closed restaurants around the country in the aftermath of the chain’s sales and profit challenges.

#6 Vice Media has announced that it will be laying off dozens of staffers…

Vice Media, the one-time digital media darling that has seen its value and influence greatly diminish in recent years, moved on Thursday to further hollow out its once prestigious news division, shutting down several shows and laying off dozens of staffers.

#7 According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, almost 20,000 media jobs have already been eliminated this year…

Nearly 20,000 jobs have been eliminated across the media industry this year as of October, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

#8 Amazon is laying off hundreds of workers in its Alexa division…

Amazon on Friday said that it is cutting “several hundred” jobs within its Alexa division.

The layoffs come as the e-commerce giant is “shifting some of our efforts to better align with our business priorities, and what we know matters most to customers —which includes maximizing our resources and efforts focused on generative AI,” an Amazon spokesperson confirmed to FOX Business.

#9 Just in time for the holidays, Citigroup has decided to conduct large scale layoffs…

Citigroup will soon begin layoffs in CEO Jane Fraser’s corporate overhaul, CNBC has learned.

Employees affected by the cuts will be informed starting Wednesday, with new dismissals announced daily through early next week, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Those impacted will include chiefs of staff, managing directors and some lower-level employees, said the people. The cuts will spread to more rank-and-file staff by February, they added.

#10 As consumer wealth has dried up, federal tax receipts have been falling on a quarterly basis since the third quarter of 2022…

Rather, federal spending is rising even as federal revenues have fallen, year over year, for ten of the last twelve months. Moreover, on a quarterly basis, federal receipts have been falling—quarter-to-quarter—since the third quarter of 2022.

#11 80 percent of U.S. households are actually poorer than they were when the COVID pandemic originally hit this country…

As of June, the bottom 80% of households by income, when adjusted for inflation, had lower bank deposits and other liquid assets compared to their status in March 2020. The decline marks a significant shift from the initial phases of the pandemic, where various factors, including government financial support and restricted spending opportunities during lockdowns, led to an accumulation of excess savings.

Most Americans have been getting poorer, but the cost of living just keeps getting even more oppressive.

As a result, the middle class is literally being hollowed out.

The absolutely massive gap between the ultra-wealthy and everyone else has become an extremely pressing issue in this country, and it is going to lead to enormous civil unrest during the chaotic years that are ahead of us.

Our leaders were able to keep the economy propped up for a long time by injecting trillions of fresh dollars into the system.

But now the “endgame” has arrived, and it is going to be incredibly painful.

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

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