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The Big List Of 18 Things That Are Going To Happen Within The Next 40 Days

September 1, 2025September 1, 2025 by Michael

During the month of September and the early portion of October, we will witness a remarkable convergence of events. Of course this convergence of events just happens to be occurring at a time when it feels like this period of history is building up to some sort of a crescendo. 2025 has been a year of war, it has been “the year of the fire”, it has been “the year of the flood”, it has been a year when we have witnessed a highly unusual number of earthquakes, and it has been a year when horrifying pestilences have been erupting all over the globe. So it has already been a really crazy year. But could it be possible that it is about to get even crazier?

I think that there are good reasons to be on high alert during the weeks ahead. The following is the big list of 18 things that are going to happen within the next 40 days…

September 1 – This marks the beginning of FEMA’s annual “National Preparedness Month”

September 1 – Labor Day

September 2 – According to the Times of Israel, approximately 60,000 reservists are being called up to participate in military operations inside Gaza, and most of those reservists will be reporting for duty on September 2nd…

Some 60,000 Israeli reservists were set to receive call-up orders that the military will issue starting Wednesday for an offensive against Hamas in Gaza City, after Defense Minister Israel Katz approved the army’s plans, according to the Israel Defense Forces and security officials.

The orders were not immediate, but rather were slated to take place in several waves. The majority — around 40,000-50,000 — would be ordered to show up for duty on September 2.

September 3 – An annual Islamic festival commemorating the birthday of Muhammad

September 7 – There will be a “spectacular ‘blood moon’ total lunar eclipse” on this date…

Get ready stargazers!

In just one week, Earth’s shadow will roll across the lunar surface, giving rise to a spectacular ‘blood moon’ total lunar eclipse on Sept. 7-8.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when Earth passes between the moon and sun, casting its shadow over our natural satellite. The tilted orbit of Earth’s moon prevents us from experiencing a total lunar eclipse every month during the new moon phase. However, about three times every year, orbital mechanics conspire to bring the Earth, moon and sun into perfect alignment, setting the stage for a breathtaking lunar spectacle.

September 7 to September 12 – NATO will be conducting a major “emergency management exercise”…

NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) and the Directorate General Fire Safety and Civil Protection (DG FSCP) of Bulgaria’s Ministry of Interior are organizing NATO’s 20th Emergency Management exercise, “BULGARIA 2025”. The conduct of BULGARIA 2025 will be from 7 September 2025 to 12 September 2025.

September 11 – The 24th anniversary (12 + 12) of 9/11

September 17 – Constitution Day – most Americans do not even know that this holiday exists

September 17 to September 19 – President Trump will be making a state visit to the United Kingdom

September 21 – A partial solar eclipse will be visible in the Southern Hemisphere…

On Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, a deep partial solar eclipse will be visible from some remote areas of the Southern Hemisphere.

Despite being a partial solar eclipse, it will be relatively major. It will also occur a day before the equinox.

The Sept. 21 event will be the second and final solar eclipse of 2025. The maximum 80% partial eclipse will be visible from the Southern Ocean midway between New Zealand and a largely remote part of Antarctica, with the more frequently visited Antarctica Peninsula experiencing only a 12% partial eclipse, shortly before sunset.

September 21 – The UN International Day Of Peace

September 22 – The Autumnal Equinox (the start of Fall) occurs on this day…

At 2:20 p.m. EDT today, it’s the fall/autumnal equinox. It marks the point when the midday sun is directly above the equator, with everywhere on the planet getting (roughly) 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. Today, the sun will rise due east and set due west. From this point on, nights will get longer.

September 22 – Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown

September 23 – High-Level General Debate for the 80th session of the UN General Assembly begins on this date. It has been widely reported that France, the United Kingdom, Canada and many other western nations are expected to officially recognize a Palestinian state somewhere around this time.

October 1 – Yom Kippur

October 3 – This is the date when a gigantic space rock that originated outside of our solar system known as 3I/ATLAS will pass alarmingly close to the planet Mars…

October 5 – The Feast of Tabernacles begins

October 7 – This will be the second anniversary of the October 7th terror attacks on Israel

There has been so much chatter about the month of September on social media.

Some of the theories that are being floated are interesting, and some of the theories that are being floated are simply absurd.

Let me share with you some of the trends that I will be watching in the months ahead.

First of all, I am convinced that we are moving into a season of more war. I expect the conflict in Ukraine to escalate as long-range missiles are fired into Russia, tensions with Venezuela are rapidly rising, and other hotspots around the world could erupt at any moment. But at the moment I am watching the Middle East more closely than anywhere else. Turkey just cut off all relations with Israel, and the unfolding drama that is playing out in Gaza is going to be a huge story.

And it certainly won’t take much for missiles to start flying back and forth between Israel and Iran again.

In addition, I expect that famine and pestilence will be major themes during the months ahead. So I will be monitoring developments regarding those two topics very carefully. For much more on where I believe global events are heading, please see my new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next”.

As events accelerate, a lot of people out there are going to be absolutely shocked to find themselves right in the middle of the chaos that is enveloping the globe.

We tend to think of war, famine, pestilence and great seismic catastrophes as things that happen on the other side of the world.

For now, that is true to a certain degree.

But it is just a matter of time before there won’t be anywhere to run from the apocalyptic events that are beginning to rock our planet.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Large Companies In The U.S. Are Going Bankrupt At The Fastest Pace That We Have Seen Since The Global Financial Crisis

August 28, 2025August 28, 2025 by Michael

Is the fact that large companies are filing for bankruptcy at the fastest pace in 15 years a good sign for the economy or a bad sign for the economy? I don’t even have to answer that question because all of you already know the answer. And as you will see below, other types of bankruptcies are soaring as well. We are a nation that is absolutely drowning in debt, and now bubbles are bursting all around us. I hope that you have positioned yourself for what is about to happen, because the months ahead are going to be rough.

According to Newsweek, 446 large companies filed for bankruptcy during the first seven months of this year. That is the highest total that we have seen since 2010…

The U.S. saw a sharp increase in corporate bankruptcy filings in July, according to a recent report, reaching a post-COVID peak and placing 2025 on track to surpass last year’s total.

S&P Global Market Intelligence, the research and data arm of the credit-rating agency, found that filings by large public and private companies rose to 71 last month from 66 in June, marking the highest monthly tally since July 2020. So far in 2025, meanwhile, the total of 446 bankruptcy filings is the highest for this seven-month stretch since 2010.

In 2010, we were experiencing the tail end of the global financial crisis.

So there was a very good reason for why so many large companies were going bankrupt at that time.

What reason do we have for what we are witnessing right now?

Of course it isn’t just large companies that are going bankrupt in staggering numbers…

Personal and business bankruptcy filings rose 11.5 percent in the twelve-month period ending June 30, 2025, compared with the previous year.

According to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, annual bankruptcy filings totaled 542,529 in the year ending June 2025, compared with 486,613 cases in the previous year.

Business filings rose 4.5 percent, from 22,060 to 23,043 in the year ending June 30, 2025. Non-business bankruptcy filings rose 11.8 percent to 519,486, compared with 464,553 in the previous year.

Wow.

I had no idea that the bankruptcy numbers were that bad.

An 11.5 percent increase in bankruptcy filings in just one year is a really troubling sign.

And it turns out that the number of farm bankruptcies in the United States has been spiking as well…

Hit with high interest rates and labor shortages, more American farmers are filing for bankruptcy, according to new data from the University of Arkansas.

Researchers found that more than 250 farms filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy between April 2024 and March of this year, marking a sharp increase in financial distress across the agricultural sector.

“We’ve already beat last year in terms of Q1 national filings,” said Ryan Loy, an economist at the university. “Once you see this on a national level, it’s a clear sign that financial pressures that we saw before in the 2018 and ‘19 are kind of reemerging.”

A lot of people out there are in denial about what is really happening to the economy.

We have been on an unprecedented debt binge for many years, and now we are beginning to experience the consequences.

Millions upon millions of Americans are in way over their heads, and there is no easy way out.

At this point, approximately two-thirds of Americans that are carrying debt admit “to minimizing or hiding it from others”…

The study of 1,078 adults by Self Financial exposes a nation drowning not just in debt, but in the shame that comes with it. Of those carrying debt, 66.3% admitted to minimizing or hiding it from others. This breaks down to 28.1% outright lying about their situation, 20.8% downplaying how bad things really are, and 17.4% avoiding the topic entirely.

We may want to hide our financial distress from others, but there is no way to hide it from ourselves.

Americans have become so obsessed with financial troubles that they are thinking about it constantly…

Between bills to pay, tariff news and inflation worries, money is living rent-free in Americans’ minds.

They’re spending nearly four hours a day on average thinking about it, according to new research from Empower, a financial services company.

Needless to say, that isn’t healthy.

Continually worrying about your finances can eat you alive.

But this is what daily life is like for so many people these days. One recent survey discovered that 53 percent of Americans are feeling financial stress “more acutely than ever”…

At 54%, a little more than half of the 2,206 adults surveyed said they’re thinking about it more than they did last year. In fact, the June survey found 53% of Americans said they’re feeling financial stress “more acutely than ever,” including 62% of Gen Xers and 41% of baby boomers.

One of the biggest reasons why Americans are feeling so much financial stress is because we are spending an average of 42 percent of our incomes on housing costs…

More than half of Americans say they’re paying too much for housing, with the average person spending 42% of their income on housing costs.

Meanwhile, just about everything else that we regularly spend money on has been getting increasingly more expensive.

For example, beef prices just keep hitting brand new record high after brand new record high…

Grocery prices have been climbing and one area where prices have hit a record high is beef, a staple for many households.

Ground beef, usually the inexpensive choice for shoppers, has hit a record high. Shoppers can expect to pay $6.25 per pound, up from $5.49 a year ago and $4.26 five years ago, in July of 2020.

The average price for beef steaks has hit $11.87 a pound as of July. That’s up from $10.85 in July of 2024 and $8.69 in July of 2020.

And coffee prices have jumped more than 30 percent over the past year…

A more than 30% year-over-year rise in retail prices for coffee is staggering — and consumers are not likely to see relief anytime soon, even as a merger between two beverage giants looks to create an entity that can better manage rising costs.

If we stick our heads in the sand and keep repeating “everything is going to be okay”, will that make things better?

Of course not.

We need to realize what is happening and adjust our plans accordingly if we are going to navigate through this very harsh economic environment.

For one thing, if you have a good job right now please do not give it up unless you absolutely must do so.

Mass layoffs are being conducted all over the nation, and yet another example of this was just in the news…

Nearly 1,000 corporate Kroger employees are losing their jobs after the company previously announced its intentions not to lay off employees.

The layoffs come after the grocer decided to shutter more than 60 underperforming stores by the end of 2026.

Kroger initiated the closures as a way to cut costs following its failed $25 billion merger with Albertsons.

Sadly, I think that a lot more Americans will lose their jobs in the months ahead.

And since most of the population is living paycheck to paycheck these days, those that lose their jobs are at risk of losing everything.

There was no way that we were going to be able to pile up debt indefinitely.

We have now reached the “bubbles are bursting” chapter of our story, and it certainly isn’t going to be pleasant.

The Mass Shooting In Minneapolis Followed A Pattern That Is Becoming Very Familiar

August 27, 2025August 27, 2025 by Michael

We have seen this happen way too many times before. Over and over again, mass shootings are being committed by deranged individuals that hate conservatives and hate Christians. More often than not, the shooters are deeply involved in an alternative sexual lifestyle, and so they view conservatives and Christians as their “oppressors”. Frequently, the shooters have some sort of a personal connection to the particular target that has been chosen. Of course in so many of these cases the mainstream media will completely ignore the real reason why a mass shooting has taken place. But the American people are not stupid. We can all see what is happening, and it is time for the mainstream media to start admitting the truth.

The mass shooting that just occurred in Minneapolis should be a major wake up call for all of us.

At 8:30 in the morning, the shooter showed up at the Annunciation Catholic Church dressed in all black and opened fire on children as they sat in the pews…

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said law enforcement responded to the shooting around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. O’Hara said the shooter fired a rifle through church windows and was also armed with a shotgun and a pistol.

A government official briefed on the investigation and a law enforcement source told CBS News that the shooter was wearing all black clothing.

An 8-year-old and a 10-year-old were killed while they sat in the pews. The parents of the children have been notified, O’Hara said.

Seventeen others, including 14 children, were injured.

Any church or school that does not have armed security in this environment is not being wise.

The world that we live in is completely different than it was 40 or 50 years ago.

When I was growing up, I never imagined for one second that some nut with a gun would come in to my school and start shooting.

But now our society is literally teeming with dangerous lunatics.

In this instance, the shooter blocked the church doors so that the children could not escape before he began shooting through the church windows…

Police said at least two of the church doors appeared to have been blocked by two by fours before the shooting, suggesting Westman wanted to trap the people inside.

‘During the mass, the gunman approached on the outside, on the side of the building, and began firing a rifle through the church windows towards the children sitting in the pews at the mass,’ O’Hara said.

‘Shooting through the windows, he struck children and worshipers that were inside the building.’

I don’t like to write about things like this, and I am sure that many of you don’t like to read about things like this.

But this is our world now, and sticking our heads in the sand isn’t going to do anyone any good.

FBI Director Kash Patel has announced that this mass shooting will be investigated as a hate crime…

FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI is investigating the shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school mass as an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime in a post on X.

“The FBI is investigating this shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics,” Patel wrote.

Of course it was a hate crime.

Christians were specifically targeted for what they believe.

The shooter has been identified as Robin Westman. It has been confirmed that Westman’s name was officially changed in 2020…

Three law enforcement sources told CBS News the shooter was Robin Westman, 23, from suburban Minneapolis. Westman’s name was officially changed from Robert Westman to Robin Westman in 2020, documents show.

We have also learned that Westman was a former student of the school, and Westman’s mother previously worked there…

A law enforcement official told the New York Times that Westman is believed to have been a former student at the school. They also told the outlet the suspect’s mother previously worked at the campus.

There is the personal connection.

We see it in so many of these cases.

After adopting a new lifestyle, Westman apparently developed an intense hatred for Christians.

But instead of shooting adults, Westman came up with a plan to slaughter children.

I think that the term “demonic” accurately describes what Westman had become.

The first page of his very sick manifesto is currently circulating on social media. It clearly shows that he planned all of this well in advance.

Westman also posted a video on YouTube shortly before the mass shooting.

The video has been taken down, but it is being reported that the video revealed Westman’s “twisted obsession with other school shooters, dislike of Trump and mockery of the church”…

However, a chilling video shared on a now-deleted YouTube account appears to reveal the killer’s sick manifesto.

In the 20-minute-long video, the 23-year-old showed off her kill kit of ammunition, magazines and firearms and revealed her twisted obsession with other school shooters, dislike of Trump and mockery of the church.

I want to stress that this was not an isolated incident.

We have seen so many other similar mass shootings, and there are countless others out there that could strike at any time.

In our society today, we have such a problem with mental illness. Others would call it something else. But whatever you want to call it, there is no denying that something was very, very wrong with Robin Westman…

In the video, titled “So long and thanks for all the fish,” Westman slowly turns the pages of the red notebook, which is laid out on top of what appears to be schematic gun diagrams, one of them reading “Ruger Mark IV.”

As she flips the pages, an occasional plume of smoke is seen from the bottom of the screen, punctuated by coughs, disjointed cursing and maniacal giggles.

Each page is filled with inscrutable handwritten doggerel, much of it in Cyrillic, which includes violent ramblings such as “I have had thoughts about mass murder for a long time. I am very conflicted with writing this journal,” the text, translated by The Post, reads in part.

We are also being told that in the video Westman expressed admiration for other prominent mass shooters…

The unhinged shooter also expressed deep admiration for mass shooters — including Sandy Hook killer Adam Lanza.

“I have a deep fascination with one man in particular: Adam Lanza,” she wrote in the journal on May 23 in reference to the 20-year-old perpetrator of the worst elementary school shooting in US history, which left 20 first-grade students and six adults dead.

“Sandy Hook was my favorite, I think, exposure of school shootings.”

When one incident like this happens, it inspires others to do the same thing.

So please watch over those you love very carefully in the days ahead.

Because lunatics like Westman are literally everywhere.

And they are increasingly beginning to network with one another using the Internet. The New York Post just published an article about the rise of ultra-violent leftist groups, and I believe that what we have witnessed so far is just the beginning.

I have never seen more hatred in our society than I am seeing right now.

It is just a matter of time before all of this hatred explodes in wild and unpredictable ways, and that is why all of us need to start taking security more seriously than ever before.

Home Prices Are Starting To Crash – Is That Really Good News Or Really Bad News?

August 26, 2025August 26, 2025 by Michael

Home prices are falling all over the nation. Should we be cheering or should we be concerned? In this article, I am going to discuss two distinct scenarios. In one scenario, lower housing prices could be a really good thing for our economy. But if another scenario plays out, we could potentially be looking at a repeat of the chaotic days of 2008 and 2009.

Zero Hedge is reporting that home prices in the 20 biggest cities in the United States declined for a 4th consecutive month in June…

Home prices in America’s 20 largest cities fell for the 4th straight month in June (the latest data available from S&P CoreLogic’s Case-Shiller data released this morning).

The 0.25% MoM drop was larger than expected and dragged the YoY price growth down to +2.15% – the weakest since July 2023…

Four months in a row is definitely a trend.

And other data points are confirming that a significant turning point has arrived.

According to Zillow, 27.4 percent of all home listings had their prices slashed during the month of July…

Home prices are falling in half of the nation’s largest markets, a new report reveals —sparking fears that a housing crash is looming.

Sellers are slashing prices at record rates to to lure hesitant buyers put off by soaring mortgage rates and economic uncertainty.

In July alone, 27.4 percent of listings had a price cut — the highest rate ever recorded in Zillow’s monthly data going back to 2018.

When more than a quarter of all listings have their prices cut in just one month, that is a tsunami.

If this continues, things are going to get pretty crazy.

Personally, I think that it is quite noteworthy that prices are being cut the fastest in areas that were “booming” not too long ago…

Florida and Texas, in particular, are home to former boomtowns where prices have fallen at the quickest rate over the past year.

Tampa prices are down 6.2 percent, Austin 6 percent, Miami 4.6 percent, Orlando 4.3 percent and Dallas 3.9 percent, according to Zillow.

‘Metros where price corrections are steepest are among those with the largest increase in inventory compared to before the pandemic,’ said Kara Ng, senior economist at Zillow.

Needless to say, we have seen this happen before.

And it didn’t end well.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, prices on new homes are being cut as well…

A closely watched gauge of builder sentiment tracked by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) fell in August to its lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years. More than a third of builders reported cutting prices by an average of 5 percent, while two-thirds offered incentives such as help with closing costs to attract wary buyers.

Many Americans that have been frozen out of the market are very excited that prices are starting to come down.

Homes have become so unaffordable in recent years, and one recent survey discovered that the average American is spending 42 percent of his or her annual income on housing costs…

Four in ten American parents say they don’t believe, or aren’t sure, their children will be able to afford to live in the same neighborhood where they grew up, according to a sobering new poll. In fact, the survey suggests that more than half of all Americans think they’re already paying too much for housing, with the average person reporting that 42% of their annual income goes toward housing costs.

The study of 1,000 Americans, conducted by Talker Research and commissioned by construction finance platform Built, highlights how concerns about housing affordability have become widespread. What was once viewed as a problem mainly affecting the poorest households is now seen as an issue facing a much broader slice of the population.

42 percent is a level that was never going to be sustainable.

It was inevitable that home prices would start to come down, and now it is happening.

If home prices decline in an orderly fashion, eventually more Americans will be able to purchase homes and that will be a great thing for the entire industry.

Let us hope that is how things play out.

But there is also another possible scenario.

If home prices in the United States crash hard, all of a sudden millions of Americans could find themselves underwater on their mortgages.

In such a scenario, large numbers of those homeowners could simply choose to walk away from their mortgages just like we witnessed in 2008 and 2009, and that would cause chaos for financial institutions all over the nation.

In addition, when prices are falling very rapidly it can cause hesitancy among potential buyers.

After all, who wants to buy a home when it might be worth $20,000 less next month?

And it appears that we are already starting to see some early warning signs. Home purchases in the U.S. fell through at “the highest July rate on record”, and I think that the perception that home prices are starting to crash is contributing to this…

15% of home purchases fell through last month—the highest July rate on record—as high homebuying costs made buyers skittish. Cancellations were most common in Texas and Florida.

Roughly 58,000 U.S. home-purchase agreements were canceled in July, equal to 15.3% of homes that went under contract last month. That’s up from 14.5% a year earlier and marks the highest July rate in records dating back to 2017.

This is beginning to feel so much like 2008 and 2009.

And just like in 2008 and 2009, employers are conducting large scale layoffs all over the nation.

For example, employees at Paramount are bracing for “a massive round of layoffs”…

It will be a turkey of a Thanksgiving for thousands of Paramount employees.

The media giant is targeting early November for what one insider called an epic “bloodbath” — a massive round of layoffs following its merger with Hollywood studio Skydance Media, The Post has learned.

Jeff Shell — the former NBCUniversal boss tapped by Skydance as Paramount’s new president — has told managers at the home to Paramount Pictures, CBS, MTV and Showtime to start compiling “kill lists,” a source with knowledge said.

So many people are losing good jobs right now.

If you still have your job, you should consider yourself to be blessed.

I also wanted to mention that another large restaurant chain just declared bankruptcy…

Bravo Brio Restaurants LLC, the parent of Bravo! Italian Kitchen and Brio Italian Grille, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in five years, citing the “acute financial distress” facing the industry.

The company filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida on Aug. 18, aiming to restructure its debt, streamline and reduce operational expenses, shed underperforming leases, close underperforming locations and attract a new investor.

The worse that economic conditions get, the faster home prices are likely to fall.

And the faster that home prices fall, the more likely it is that we will see a financial panic.

The housing bubble that we are facing today is far, far larger than the housing bubble that burst in 2008 and 2009.

If you can’t see the storm clouds looming on the horizon at this stage, I don’t know what to say.

Has He Gone Completely Insane? Zelensky Announces That There Is Not Going To Be Peace

August 24, 2025August 24, 2025 by Michael

If you listen long enough, people will eventually tell you exactly what they truly believe. Unfortunately, we have just learned what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky truly believes about the war with Russia, and it is not good news at all. Apparently Zelensky is convinced that there will not be a permanent state of peace until all of Donetsk, all of Luhansk and all of Crimea belong to his government. Needless to say, the Russians will never hand all of Donetsk, all of Luhansk and all of Crimea over to Ukraine willingly, and so they will need to be taken by force. Since the Ukrainians cannot do this alone, they will be seeking to enlist the help of others, and that is what should deeply alarm all of us.

The mainstream media’s fawning coverage of Zelensky’s Independence Day speech makes him sounds like some sort of a great peacemaker. Here is just one example…

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would continue to fight for its freedom “while its calls for peace are not heard,” in a defiant address to the nation on its independence day.

“We need a just peace, a peace where our future will be decided only by us,” he said, adding that Ukraine was “not a victim, it is a fighter”.

He continued: “Ukraine has not yet won, but it has certainly not lost.”

That makes him sound so incredibly reasonable.

But the mainstream media did not report on any of the troubling parts of Zelensky’s speech.

I went and found a transcript of the speech, and it reveals Zelensky’s real goals…

And now, in a full-scale war for independence, it is here, on Maidan, that one can find such important symbols. Symbols of how we fight, what we fight for, and how we are overcoming this war.

These symbols are all around us. In this Independence Monument. Inside, it has a reinforced concrete frame and can literally withstand a hurricane. In the same way, our Ukraine has withstood the great calamity that Russia brought to our land. In this “Zero Kilometer” point. It is the starting point where distances to Ukrainian cities are written: to our Donetsk, our Luhansk, our Crimea. Today, these markers have a completely different meaning. They are no longer just about kilometers. They remind us that all of this is Ukraine. And there are our people, and no distance between us can change that, and no temporary occupation can change that. One day, the distance between Ukrainians will disappear, and we will be together again as one family, as one country. It is only a matter of time. And Ukraine believes it can achieve this — achieve peace, peace across all its land. Ukraine is capable of it.

This is what started the war in the first place.

Western leaders gave Zelensky a green light to break the Minsk agreements, and so he gathered a 70,000 soldier invasion force along the borders of the DPR and the LPR. The Ukrainians were shelling the living daylights out of the most heavily populated cities in the DPR and the LPR and were preparing to move in when the Russians intervened.

Zelensky’s obsession with conquering Donetsk and Luhansk precipitated this entire crisis, and now 1.7 million Ukrainians are dead.

But instead of being willing to accept the compromise deal that the Russians are now offering, in his speech Zelensky defiantly proclaimed that Ukraine will never accept any “compromise” that comes from the Russians…

This is Ukraine now. And this Ukraine will never again in history be forced into the shame that the “Russians” call a “compromise.”

Yes, Zelensky is calling for a temporary ceasefire along the current line of contact, because Ukraine has been steadily losing more territory.

But in Zelensky’s mind the purpose of such a ceasefire would be to regroup and rearm in preparation for taking all of Donetsk, all of Luhansk and all of Crimea.

That is why Ukraine’s plan is to bring as many western troops into Ukraine once a temporary ceasefire has been established.

Once they are there, it will be far easier to drag western nations into the war.

The Ukrainians aren’t stupid. They have already lost 1.7 million soldiers and they know that the only way that they can militarily defeat Russia is with NATO’s help.

And so that is why Ukraine has been attempting to provoke Russia into doing something really dramatic over and over again. The goal is to get the Russians to escalate matters so much that NATO will feel forced to come riding to Ukraine’s aid.

For instance, the Ukrainians just attacked a nuclear power plant deep inside Russian territory…

A fire has been put out at a nuclear power plant in Russia’s western Kursk region and air defences have shot down a Ukrainian drone, Russian officials have said.

The drone detonated when it fell and damaged a transformer, but radiation levels were normal and there were no casualties, a post from the plant’s account on messaging app Telegram said.

The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly called on both Russia and Ukraine to show maximum restraint around nuclear facilities in the war.

Why would the Ukrainians do such a thing?

The answer is obvious.

They want the Russians to strike back so hard that western leaders will finally feel compelled to join the conflict.

At one point the stunts that the Ukrainians have been pulling almost worked. There were plans to strike decision making centers in Kyiv with Oreshnik missiles, but Russian President Vladimir Putin wisely vetoed those plans…

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday told reporters in an anecdote given to a press conference that Russian authorities had plans to directly attack Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office in Kiev, but that President Putin rejected the proposed action.

What’s more, Lukashenko said, is that it would have happened with the new Oreshnik missiles, which are medium-range hypersonics that Russian officials have touted as having the same destructive power as a low-yield nuclear strike.

But it is just a matter of time before the Ukrainians successfully push the Russians too far.

When that time arrives, we could find ourselves directly fighting a nation that has more nukes than we do…

Moscow continues to hold nearly 4,400 nuclear warheads, over 1,500 of which are “strategically deployed” while the U.S. possesses more than 3,700 warheads in its stockpiles with 1,400 deployed, according to the Arms Control Association.

And as I have extensively documented, Russian missiles are far superior to what we possess, and Russian anti-missile systems are far superior to what we possess as well.

We must not get into an apocalyptic conflict with the Russians.

But if the Ukrainians get their way, that is precisely what is going to happen.

Meanwhile, it appears that there will be no peace in the Middle East either.

On Sunday, the IDF conducted an enormous bombing campaign in the capital of Yemen…

Israel bombed Houthi rebel targets in Yemen’s capital on Sunday, including a military site near the presidential palace.

The attacks by the IDF, which also included strikes on the Asar and Hizaz power plants, came after the Houthis fired a “multi-headed” warhead at Israel for the first time on Friday.

The use of the munition presents a new challenge for the Israeli defence system, which up until now has successfully repelled most of the Houthis’ attacks.

Sunday’s attacks sent huge fireballs into the sky over Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, as the IDF said it had struck a “significant electricity supply facility for military activities” for the Houthis.

And it is being reported that a “defining battle” between Israeli troops and Hamas is imminent…

On Saturday, Israeli tanks and troops began maneuvering ever closer to Gaza City’s outskirts in preparation for a full-scale offensive. Eyewitness accounts reported intensified shelling as Israel is moving toward what could be the defining battle of its war against Hamas terrorists: the capture of Gaza City.

Israel’s security cabinet approved the operation, known as Gideon’s Chariots B, and has deployed up to five IDF divisions toward the city’s outskirts—a highly significant mobilization. Thousands of reservists—some 60,000—have been called up.

John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Madison Policy Forum and executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute, told Fox News Digital the scale of this operation is unprecedented. “This will be a bigger challenge than anything the IDF has faced, arguably ever. It is the densest location in Gaza, the heart of Hamas’s stronghold. And you don’t really know what the tunnels are until you get into them.”

If Hamas would have just released all of the hostages, so much bloodshed could have been avoided.

But that never was going to happen, was it?

Unfortunately, just about everyone seems to have come down with a really bad case of “war fever”.

Leaders all over the planet want to fight, and so that is what they will get.

Come On Man! It Seemed Like Peace Was So Close, But Now “War Fever” Has Returned With A Vengeance

August 21, 2025August 21, 2025 by Michael

I have to admit that I am feeling pretty frustrated today. Last week, there was so much optimism that we could finally see peace, but now “war fever” has returned with a vengeance. The situation in the Middle East threatens to spiral out of control, there is a very real possibility that the U.S. military could soon be conducting operations in Mexico and Venezuela, and it appears that our last chance for peace with Russia could be going up in smoke. I was writing about a coming war with Russia many years before it became fashionable, and I continue to warn in the strongest terms possible about what will happen if we do not reverse course. But of course world leaders do not listen to people like us, and they continue to make decisions that could drag us into the unthinkable.

Last night, the Russians absolutely pummeled Ukraine with drone and missile strikes. One of the targets that was hit was an American-owned manufacturing facility…

In its overnight attacks, Russia launched a total of 574 strike drones and 40 missiles on Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, hitting as far west as the city of Lviv.

Missiles also struck an American-owned manufacturing company, Flex Ltd., in the western region of Zakarpattia, in an attack that injured at least 19 people, Ukrainian officials said. Flex is a American-Singaporean company that provides electronics manufacturing services and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

“Overnight, Russian missiles attacked one of the largest American investments in Ukraine – Flex – an active member of the American Chamber of Commerce,” said Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine. “Russia continues to destroy and humiliate US businesses in Ukraine, targeting companies that invest and trade on the US stock markets.”

I am very displeased that the Russians chose to target a U.S.-owned business, because they should have known that this would really upset the Trump administration.

Whoever authorized this attack is not thinking rationally, because it threatens to further derail the peace process.

Of course the Ukrainians are going to try to squeeze as much out of this incident as they possibly can…

“It was an ordinary civilian enterprise, an American investment,” Zelensky wrote. “They produced such familiar household items as coffee machines. And this is also a target for the Russians. Very telling.”

Russian forces “delivered this strike as if nothing had changed at all,” he said. “There is still no signal from Moscow that they are really going to go into meaningful negotiations to end this war.”

I think that it is a valid point that if the Russians were truly serious about peace they would not have done this.

Now President Trump is steaming mad, and he just posted an extremely ominous warning on his Truth Social account…

It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invaders country. It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offense. There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia. Crooked and grossly incompetent Joe Biden would not let Ukraine FIGHT BACK, only DEFEND. How did that work out? Regardless, this is a war that would have NEVER happened if I were President – ZERO CHANCE. Interesting times ahead!!!

What in the world does that mean?

Is Trump going to allow the Ukrainians to use long-range missiles provided by the U.S. to hit targets deep inside Russian territory?

If so, how will the Russians respond when long-range missiles provided by the U.S. start hitting Moscow?

Everyone needs to calm down and think very carefully about their next moves.

At the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, it really did seem like talks were moving in the right direction.

But since that time, both sides have hardened their positions.

Ukraine is demanding that any peace agreement must allow large numbers of European troops on Ukrainian soil in order to prevent the Russians from attacking again. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov just warned that European troops on Ukrainian soil would be “absolutely unacceptable for Russia” and that trying to arrange security guarantees without Russia’s approval is a “road to nowhere”…

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov followed up comments dismissing Europe’s bid to arrange security guarantees for Ukraine as utopian and a “road to nowhere” with fresh remarks on Thursday that may amount to a fresh bid to slow or derail peace talks by introducing new demands.

While President Trump had revealed on Monday that “President Putin agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine”, it was never made clear what it was Putin had signalled his consent to and now Russia is finessing its conditions in public. Lavrov said today that any foreign military deployment to Ukraine — the very core of what European nations have in mind for Ukrainian security guarantees — would be “absolutely unacceptable for Russia”.

The Russians are determined to keep NATO completely out of Ukraine.

That has never changed.

So why do western leaders keep talking about sending troops to Ukraine as part of any peace agreement?

And the Russians are also demanding that Ukraine must hand over the remaining portions of the Donbas that Russia has not conquered yet…

Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters.

For the Ukrainians, handing over the rest of the Donbas is a non-starter…

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognised Ukrainian land as part of a deal, and has said the industrial Donbas region serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine.

“If we’re talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that,” he told reporters in comments released by Kyiv on Thursday. “It is a matter of our country’s survival, involving the strongest defensive lines.”

So the fighting will continue.

And if long-range missiles start hitting Moscow and other Russian cities, the war will greatly escalate.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military is preparing to conduct military operations against Mexican drug cartels inside Mexican territory…

Now, NORTHCOM has tasked its subordinate Special Operations Command (called SOCNORTH) to undertake “operational preparation of the battlespace” inside Mexico to set the stage for future military operations, and to prepare cartel-related “target packages” for potential strikes and “direct action” attacks on the ground against high-value individuals, compounds, and supply chain targets associated in particular with the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Direct attacks could also involve air and drone strikes.

“Direct action” is a term special operations forces use to describe small-scale offensive operations carried out by Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs, or Marine Corps raiders. Think of the airstrikes on Iran this summer as a kind of direct action, against a discrete target with a “strategic” or national purpose.

The Mexican government has already told us that it will not give us permission to do this.

But preparations are going ahead anyway.

And it also appears that we are getting dangerously close to war with Venezuela…

The White House confirmed 3 warships and 4,000 marines are being deployed toward Venezuela. When asked about the possibility of boots on the ground, officials said the President is ready to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into the US and hold those responsible accountable.

“The Maduro regime is not a legitimate government—it is a narco-terror cartel,” the statement added.

On top of everything else, Israel’s new offensive in Gaza has now begun…

Israel launched strikes on Gaza City overnight as it moved forward with a new offensive in the Palestinian enclave despite international condemnation and mounting domestic protests.

Explosions rocked neighborhoods in the city on Thursday, after Israel said its military had entered the first stages of a planned assault that includes calling up 60,000 reservists. The operation has sent civilians fleeing once again, intensifying fears about the starvation crisis unfolding in the territory.

Israel also carried out strikes on Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and Deir al-Balah in the center of the territory on Thursday. Video from Deir al-Balah showed people running away from a large plume of smoke.

As I discussed yesterday, nobody can deny that we are in a time of “wars and rumors of wars”.

In a world that is absolutely teeming with weapons of mass destruction, flirting with an apocalypse is not wise.

We are literally dancing on the brink of disaster, and it won’t take much to push us over the edge.

78 Percent Of HR Leaders In The U.S. Say That Their Companies Are Conducting “Serial Layoffs”, And We Are Being Warned That A Major Cost Of Living Shock Is Coming

August 20, 2025 by Michael

Other than the early months of the pandemic, we haven’t seen anything like this for a long time. Mass layoffs are happening all over the nation, major retailers and large restaurant chains are deeply struggling, and the cost of living is out of control. I am going to share more numbers with you today that confirm that a very painful economic downturn is now upon us. For example, a survey that was recently conducted by outplacement firm Careerminds discovered that 78 percent of HR leaders in the U.S. admit that their companies have been through multiple rounds of layoffs. In fact, 40 percent of HR leaders in the U.S. say that layoffs are now occurring quarterly at their companies…

Financial difficulties pushed 78% of U.S.-based HR leaders to conduct multiple rounds of layoffs within the past year, according to the results of a July survey by outplacement firm Careerminds, with many stating they oversaw “serial layoffs” that occurred in rapid succession.
The survey of 600 respondents found that 75% of reported layoffs occurred within less than six months of one another, and 40% of HR leaders said layoffs happened quarterly at their organizations. Financial instability constituted the biggest driver of job cuts, followed by changing business priorities, market disruption and post-pandemic overstaffing.

If 40 percent of your large employers are conducting layoffs every quarter, you have a major economic crisis in your county.

There is no possible way to spin that number to make it look good.

We have been witnessing such a dramatic economic shift in recent months.

According to the latest numbers that were released by Target, store traffic has been declining nearly every single week since late January…

Target’s annual sales have been roughly stagnant for the past four years, and its inconsistent performance has tested the loyalty of shoppers and shaken the confidence of Wall Street. Store traffic at the big-box retailer has fallen almost every week since late January, according to Placer.ai, an analytics firm that uses anonymized data from mobile devices to estimate overall visits to locations. And shares of the company have tumbled about 60% from their all-time high in late 2021.

The reason why Americans are doing less shopping is because they have less discretionary income to spend.

And prices just keep going up and up.

At Walmart, many products have had their prices hiked by more than 20 percent this year…

At Walmart, a “Jurassic World” T. Rex figure had spiked by nearly 38% to $55 on May 21 from just a month ago. A heating pad costs 25% more to $24.96 this year, according to employees who posted photos of the price hikes on social media. A fishing reel at Walmart jumped to $83.26 from $57.37.

Joe — a regular Walmart shopper who also asked that his last name not be used — told The Post last week he was eyeing new air conditioners at the store in Cortlandt Manor, NY. Last year, he said, a small unit that cools off a 300-square-foot room cost $115 — up from $100 a year earlier.

Most U.S. consumers cannot afford these prices.

Unfortunately, now we are being warned that prices on many things will soon go quite a bit higher.

On Monday, a 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminum will start being applied to 407 categories of goods…

Butter knives, baby strollers, spray deodorants and fire extinguishers, considered “derivative” steel and aluminum products, were previously excluded from the 50% tariff, though they were still subject to the higher country-specific tariffs Trump enacted over the last several months.

However, on Friday, US Customs and Border Protection and a division of the US Commerce Department published notices informing US importers that 407 categories of goods containing steel and aluminum would immediately be subject to the 50% tariffs at 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday. The non-steel and non-aluminum components of the products face other applicable levies.

Thousands upon thousands of products that contain steel and aluminum that Americans purchase on a regular basis are about to get a lot more expensive.

Are you ready for that?

Meanwhile, beef prices continue to soar into uncharted territory…

Walter Avalos, a D.C.-based seller for a large U.S. deli producer, typically got instructions once a year to hike red meat prices. Now, it’s every week.

“We had to put at the bottom of our inventories that prices can change at any moment,” said Avalos, 34. “It never used to be like that.”

Red meat prices are skyrocketing in the United States, the world’s largest consumer and producer of beef. Beef and veal prices surged 11.3 percent in July over the year, according to the most recent consumer price index report.

When I read that line about prices rising “every week”, that reminded me of what the history books say about the Weimar Republic.

Sadly, there will continue to be pressure on beef prices for the foreseeable future because the size of the U.S. cattle herd has fallen to the lowest level since 1951…

One of the drivers of spiking beef costs is a drought that has ravaged U.S. cattle in key meat-producing states since 2022, causing cattle volumes to collapse this year to their lowest recorded levels since 1951.

In 1951, 154.8 million people lived in the United States.

Today, 340 million people live in the United States.

So we have the same amount of cattle that we did in 1951, but we are trying to feed more than twice as many people.

Just think about that for a while.

Switching to vegetables won’t bring relief either, because the price of vegetables in the U.S. went up by 38 percent from June to July…

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 38% surge in the wholesale price of vegetables in July.

This is the biggest price spike for any product category month-to-month.

“It’s insane. That’s why I’m growing a lot more myself this year,” said Dana Roads, who is visiting from Utah.

If you haven’t seen this figure before, I know that it may be difficult to believe that vegetable prices went up by 38 percent in one month.

But it is true. This figure comes directly from the government, and if you want to learn more please see my previous article entitled “Are You Drowning Too?: Vegetables Are Up 38.9%, Coffee is Up 25%, And Electricity Prices Are Rising Twice As Fast As Inflation”.

And the really bad news is that vegetable prices are expected to continue to go up because there aren’t enough agricultural workers in the fields…

A shortage of workers could lead to lost crops down the line.

“A lot of the product is being lost because there’s nobody to work. So it’s the product that has been picked has been raised maybe 35 to 40%,” said Jaime Desales.

Unless you are independently wealthy, you are feeling the pain of higher prices.

When I was younger, I thought that anyone making $100,000 a year had it made.

But today a $100,000 income won’t even cover the average cost of living in 13 U.S. states…

In 13 states, a $100,000 salary isn’t even enough to cover average annual cost of living. On the other end of the spectrum, there are 15 states where making that amount would cover 120% or more of those expenditures.

In life, consequences are not always immediate.

When our leaders started borrowing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have during the pandemic, a lot of people were convinced that it must be okay because we did not immediately experience severe consequences.

But now we are starting to experience severe consequences, and things will get a whole lot more painful if we stay on the path that we are currently on.

I am definitely one that likes to hope for the best, but I would strongly urge you to prepare for the worst because it appears that is exactly where things are heading in the months ahead.

What It Costs A Family Of 4 To Live 1 Month In America: $996 For Groceries, $1,437 For Health Insurance, A $745 Car Payment And A $2,259 Mortgage Payment

August 19, 2025August 19, 2025 by Michael

You may be quite shocked by the numbers that I am going to reveal in this article. So many people are bitterly complaining about the rising cost of living, and so I decided to do some investigating. What does it really cost for a family of four to live the “American Dream” today? As I was doing my research, what I discovered deeply alarmed me.

Obviously a family of four is going to need to eat, and grocery prices have been going through the roof.

According to the USDA, a realistic food budget for a family of four for one month ranges between $996 and $1,603…

The USDA estimates $297–558 for a monthly food budget for one person, $614–963 for a couple, and $996–1,603 for a family of four.

For the purposes of this article, let’s assume that we are being frugal and so we will go with the lowest number in that spectrum.

Health insurance is another major expense that U.S. households face on a monthly basis.

In 2023, an unsubsidized plan for a family of four through the ACA marketplace averaged $1,437 a month…

Family plan premium rates will vary based on family size. But, a family of four paid an average of $1,437 a month for an unsubsidized plan.

That figure is two years old, and premiums have continued to rise since that time, but for the purposes of this article we will go with it.

In order to pay the monthly bills, parents must go to work, and in order to go to work they will need at least one vehicle.

According to Experian, the average monthly payment for a new vehicle during the first quarter of 2025 was $745…

In Q1 2025, the average car payment for a new car was $745, and the average payment for a used car was $521. However, monthly payments can vary significantly based on many factors, including the loan amount, loan term, borrower credit history and more.

Most households have more than one vehicle, but for the purposes of this article we will include just one vehicle payment in the monthly budget.

Needless to say, a family of four also needs a place to live, and the median monthly mortgage payment in the United States has now risen to $2,259…

The median monthly mortgage payment for U.S. homebuyers is currently $2,259. This assumes a buyer making a 20 percent down payment on a $435,300 home — the median sale price for an existing home in June, according to the National Association of Realtors — at 6.75 percent interest, the current average for a 30-year loan based on Bankrate data.

Okay, now that we have our raw data let’s do some math.

If you add all four of our monthly expenses together, you get a grand total of $5,437 a month.

That is only for food, health insurance, one vehicle payment and a mortgage payment.

Of course there are many other things that a family of four must pay for as well.

Are you starting to understand why it seems like most people are just barely scraping by these days?

Most of us are stressed out about our bills, and the cost of living just keeps going up and up.

Many Americans are trying to cut corners any way that they can.

For example, it is being reported that 44 percent of U.S. adults admit that they have ordered a kiddie meal…

Apparently, grown-ups love a good kiddie meal, too.

That’s one of the takeaways from a new survey conducted by Lightspeed Commerce, a company that provides payment systems to the hospitality industry. The survey found that 44% of U.S. diners say they’ve ordered children’s meals for themselves at restaurants.

I suppose that is one way to save a little bit of money.

We are being told that the number of kiddie meals being ordered by adults is up 28 percent compared to 2019…

According to industry research firm Circana, the number of children’s meals placed by adults was up 28% in 2024 compared with 2019. Another data point, as the Wall Street Journal reports, is that Yelp reviews for kids’ meals were higher in December 2024 than any month since 2019.

“It’s satisfying, cheaper, less calories, and sometimes there’s a little prize or treat,” C.J. Person, a retired teacher in North Carolina, told the Journal.

Are adults technically allowed to order kids’ meals? Probably not. Most restaurants have an age limit policy, but they are rarely enforced.

This isn’t what “prosperity” looks like.

In fact, this is the opposite of “prosperity”.

And now mass layoffs are happening day after day.

Earlier today, I was saddened to learn that John Deere has decided to conduct mass layoffs at three facilities in the Midwest…

Legacy tractor maker John Deere has announced layoffs at three Midwestern facilities as the company grapples with declining sales and the effects of tariffs on its bottom line.

“The struggling ag economy continues to impact orders for John Deere equipment,” the company said in a media statement regarding the layoffs. “This is a challenging time for many farmers, growers and producers, and directly impacts our business in the near term.”

Farming is normally fairly recession-proof, and so the fact that demand for John Deere equipment is faltering is not a good sign at all.

The housing market is really struggling right now too.

According to Redfin, the average time that a house is spending on the market has now reached the highest level in 10 years…

The typical home that went under contract in July spent 43 days on the market — up from 35 days a year earlier and the longest span for any July since 2015, according to new Redfin data.

It’s another sign that buyers are gaining leverage after years of tight inventory, though the extent of that advantage varies by region.

In Florida, homes are taking much longer to sell, over 90 days in some cities. West Palm Beach (95 days), Fort Lauderdale (92 days) and Miami (86 days) were the slowest major markets in the country last month.

This feels so much like 2008 all over again.

And just like in 2008, the economy of Las Vegas is an early indicator of what is coming for the economy as a whole…

A retail expert has warned Las Vegas is in freefall with consumer spending slumping, with one recent visitor raising concerns over an outrageous tip demand.

The Nevada city, known for its lavish shows and around-the-clock gambling, has recorded a large drop in tourism and spending in recent months.

According to the Nevada Department of Taxation, sales at food and beverage outlets, clothing, shoes and jewelry retailers have all fallen in the last 11 months.

A lot of people out there still don’t seem to get it.

We really are moving into extremely difficult times.

The vast majority of the population is living paycheck to paycheck right now.

And so when a sudden job loss or some sort of an emergency happens, they have nothing to fall back on.

We are far more vulnerable than most people realize, and the months ahead will demonstrate that fact very clearly.

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