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What I am about to share with you is some of the clearest evidence yet that the middle class in America is being systematically destroyed.  Young adults are forming middle class households at an extremely depressed rate, and that is because the American Dream is simply out of reach for most of them in this very harsh economic environment.  If you can’t get a good job that pays an adequate wage, you aren’t going to be able to live a middle class lifestyle.  Sadly, many older Americans simply do not understand how difficult things have become for our young adults in this day and age.

The Census Bureau has produced a paper entitled “Changes in Milestones of Adulthood” that absolutely blew me away.

According to the Census Bureau, the 5 major milestones of adulthood are living away from your parents, completing your education, getting a job, marrying, and living with a child.  Since 1975, the success that our young people have had in attaining these milestones has declined dramatically…

According to the working paper, “Changes in Milestones of Adulthood,” almost half of all young adults in 1975 had reached four milestones associated with adulthood: moving out of one’s parents’ home, getting a job, getting married and having a child.

Five decades on, that progression has changed dramatically. The share of young adults that have followed the traditional pathway to adulthood has dropped to less than a quarter, according to the paper.

After reading that CBS News article, I had to go find the original paper.

I found it on the official Census Bureau website, and it says that in 2023 only 17 percent of young adults had attained the 5 major milestones of adulthood…

In 2005, the most common combination was young adults who had all five milestones (about 26% experienced all five milestones). By 2023, however, the proportion of young adults who experienced all five markers of adulthood declined to about 17%, and young adults who reported only experiencing the three economic milestones of living away from parents, completing education, and participating in the labor force was the modal combination. Finally, the residual category in Figure 2 representing the proportion of young adults who experienced any other combination of milestones declined from 36% to 30%, suggesting that the experiences of young adults have become more homogeneous for contemporary cohorts.

17 percent!

Just think about that.

If our society was in good shape, most of our young adults would be in a position to achieve all 5 milestones by the age of 25.

But our society is not in good shape.  According to the Census Bureau paper, the primary reason why young adults are not achieving these milestones is because they are “facing economic barriers”…

The reason for this, according to the paper, is that more young adults between the ages of 25 and 34 are facing economic barriers compared with previous generations. Changing societal attitudes around family formation are also contributing to the sharp decline in the share of young people reaching what the U.S. Census Bureau considers to be “key milestones.”

If I keep hitting people with more evidence day after day, maybe the skeptics will finally start getting it.

Our young adults are not entering the middle class fast enough to replace the older middle class adults that are dying off.

As a result, the middle class is steadily shrinking.

To be a part of the middle class, you have to be able to get a middle class job.

And right now the competition for middle class jobs among our young people is extremely fierce.

If you doubt this, just consider what a 23-year-old college graduate recently admitted to NBC News…

“Every guy I know that is without a job right now wants to work, but they just can’t get it,” said Eli McCullick, who has been looking for a job for more than a year after he graduated with a degree in sociology from the University of Colorado Boulder. “It’s demoralizing for guys who really want to get ahead and it’s just not happening.”

McCullick, 23, said he hasn’t even been able to get an hourly job at a restaurant or doing cleaning work at a hotel in the Boulder area, where he’s living at a property his father owns. The only way he has been able to earn money to cover his food and daily expenses has been to do odd jobs for friends and relatives, like shoveling horse manure, mowing lawns and helping an older woman prepare for a yard sale.

There is no way that I would want to be a fresh college graduate looking for a job right now.

It is terrible out there.

Another recent college graduate told NBC News that nearly all of his friends are unemployed and living with their parents…

Sean Breen, who graduated this spring with a communications degree from California State University, Long Beach, said he and nearly all of his high school friends, both men and women, are back home living with their parents and unemployed. He said even those who went to top-ranked colleges and got seemingly in-demand degrees are unable to find work.

“It is like a high school reunion,” Breen said. “We’re all, we are back in Marin County this summer, all unemployed, all trying to find a barista job, a part-time something, because we haven’t found anything.”

After having applied to hundreds of jobs, he said, Breen now plans to go to graduate school in the fall at Trinity College in Ireland, where tuition is significantly lower and, he hopes, jobs will be more plentiful.

This is the reality of what is really going on out there.

Those that keep insisting that “everything is fine” just need to stop.

The job market is freezing up and layoffs have absolutely skyrocketed compared to last year…

Layoffs have risen 140 percent from a year ago, a new report reveals.

Companies have already announced more than 800,000 job cuts this year alone, the highest since the pandemic upended the economy in 2020.

US-based employers cut 62,075 jobs in July compared to 25,885 in the same month last year.

Those numbers are staggering.

Unfortunately, 62 percent of U.S. consumers believe that unemployment will continue to get even worse during the months ahead…

• About 62% of consumers believe unemployment will worsen in the year ahead, according to the University of Michigan’s latest monthly survey.
• That’s bounced around a little in the last few months, but consistently hung around levels not seen since the Great Recession.

Do you remember how difficult it was to get a good job during the Great Recession?

Well, now we are entering a similar time.

That may help to explain why “job hugging” has become a thing in 2025…

Job hugging is the act of holding onto a job “for dear life,” consultants at Korn Ferry, an organizational consulting firm, wrote last week.

The rate at which workers are voluntarily leaving their jobs — known as the quits rate — has hovered around 2% since the start of the year, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Outside of the initial days of the Covid-19 pandemic, levels haven’t been that consistently low since early 2016.

The quits rate is a barometer of workers’ perceptions of the broader labor market, said Laura Ullrich, director of economic research in North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab. In this case, they may be nervous about getting another job or aren’t enthusiastic about their ability to find one, she said.

If you have a job that you highly value, don’t let go.

Hold on to it as tightly as you can, because if you lose it you may not find work again for a long time.

A lot of people are shocked by what is happening, but the truth is that nobody should be surprised.

There was no way that we were going to be able to defy the laws of economics forever.

The inexorable march of time cannot be stopped, and our future is going to look a whole lot different than most people anticipated.

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.

Do you feel knots in your stomach due to financial stress? If so, you certainly have lots of company. All of a sudden, everyone is talking about the cost of living and prices are rising by double-digit percentages all around us. There are so many people out there right now that feel like they are “drowning” because no matter how hard they try there simply isn’t enough money for everything. Unfortunately, we are being warned to brace ourselves for even more inflation in the months ahead.

When I heard that the cost of vegetables in the United States had gone up by 40 percent in one month, I thought that there was no way that it could be true.

So I looked it up, and I discovered that the cost of vegetables in the United States didn’t go up by 40 percent in one month.

The real figure was 38.9 percent…

A 38.9% increase in prices for fresh and dry vegetables from June to July was the major driver of a higher index for “final demand goods” (things that are done and ready to be sold to a consumer, as opposed to things that go into a later production process).

That is nuts!

How can the cost of vegetables go up by 38.9 percent in a single month?

Apparently this was the largest spike that we have ever witnessed in a summer month “in figures that go back to 1947”…

Per Bureau of Labor Statistics data, it’s also the largest monthly increase ever recorded in a summer month (June-August), in figures that go back to 1947.

The other day, I wrote about how beef has become so expensive that it is now considered to be a “luxury”.

Well, now vegetables are a “luxury” too.

And let’s not forget coffee.

The price of coffee went up by 25 percent in just three months, and that was before coffee exports from Brazil were hit with a 50 percent tariff…

Coffee prices were already up before a 50 percent tariff on Brazil, the top coffee importer to the U.S., went into effect last week.
Coffee prices sharply rose 25 percent over the past three months, according to inflation data released Tuesday. Reuters reported Tuesday that Brazilian coffee exports have started seeing postponements to their U.S. shipments.

About two-thirds of all U.S. adults drink coffee.

This is one of the most basic things that Americans buy.

But now a lot of people are either going to have to cut back or stop drinking it entirely because it has become so ridiculously expensive.

Air conditioning is rapidly becoming a “luxury” as well.

Electricity prices have been rising twice as fast as the overall rate of inflation, and some seniors must now choose between paying the electricity bill and paying for medication…

Across the country, electricity prices have jumped more than twice as fast as the overall cost of living in the last year. That’s especially painful during the dog days of summer, when air conditioners are working overtime.

In Pembroke Pines, Fla., Al Salvi’s power bill can reach $500 a month.

“There’s a lot of seniors down here that are living check to check. They can barely afford prescriptions such as myself,” says Salvi, who’s 63 and uses a wheelchair. “Now we got to decide whether we’re going to pay the electric bill or are we going to buy medication. And it’s not fair to us. You’re squeezing us between a rock and a hard place.”

As our leaders were borrowing trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have, I warned that this was going to cause rampant inflation, but a lot of people out there didn’t want to listen.

And as the Federal Reserve was pumping trillions upon trillions of dollars that they created out of thin air into the financial system, I warned that this was going to cause rampant inflation, but a lot of people out there didn’t want to listen.

At first it seemed like our leaders were totally getting away with it.

But now look at what has happened.

There are countless videos on TikTok right now of people breaking down emotionally over the rising cost of living.

In one video, a woman that feels like she is “drowning” explains that no matter how hard she works “she can’t afford to live anymore”…

The video made by “diannaallen5” for TikTok was shared on X by @WallStreetApes to their 1 million X followers, writing, “Americans are breaking down, a grown woman crying because she can’t afford to live anymore.”

The woman in the video, who said she is from Illinois, was distraught and in tears as she spoke, saying that “gas prices and the electric bills and the prices of food is just so overwhelming.”

“I’m wondering if anybody else is feeling like they’re drowning and they can’t get out,” she said. “I work overtime, and I cannot get above water. I mean, I literally have no gas for next week.”

“I’m just wondering if anybody else feels like they’re drowning,” she said is despair.

Can you identify with her?

I think that a lot of us can.

At this stage, 83 percent of all Americans are experiencing “stressflation”…

A LifeStance Health survey released today reveals “stressflation” is affecting most Americans, with 83% reporting financial stress driven by inflation, mass layoffs, the rising cost of living and recession fears. Millennials and Gen Z report the most significant mental health impacts.

The number of respondents who have been deterred from seeking mental health care due to financial constraints remains consistently high (60%), increasing two percentage points from 2024. Those experiencing high financial stress levels are more than twice as likely to forgo mental health treatment due to cost, highlighting a mental health gap where financial strain exacerbates mental health challenges while limiting access to care.

We should have seen this coming way in advance, because we were specifically warned that this was coming.

And if we stay on the same road that we have been traveling, conditions will get a whole lot worse.

A lot of people out there don’t seem to understand that consequences do not always show up immediately.

What we are experiencing now is the result of decades of bad decisions.

It took time for the consequences of those bad decisions to materialize, but now they have officially started to arrive.

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.

Well, that was quite a shock.  We just got confirmation that inflation is starting to accelerate once again.  That is really bad news, because the cost of living has already been stressing people out all over the country.  In fact, one recent survey found that 86 percent of Americans are stressed out about grocery prices.  But it isn’t just the cost of food that has been going up.  We have been getting slammed by double-digit price increases in every direction, and that is having enormous consequences.  Our standard of living is eroding with each passing month, and as a result the middle class is steadily shrinking.

On Thursday, we learned that the producer price index increased by 0.9 percent last month.

That was the largest increase that we have seen since June 2022…

The producer price index, which measures final demand goods and services prices, jumped 0.9% on the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.2% gain. It was the biggest monthly increase since June 2022.

Excluding food and energy prices, core PPI rose 0.9% against the forecast for 0.3%. Excluding food, energy and trade services, the index was up 0.6%, the biggest gain since March 2022.

Such a large change in one month was very unexpected.

When Rick Santelli of CNBC heard the news, he totally flipped out…

Headline number is– WHOPPINGLY big! Oh my goodness!

Up 9 tenths of a percent. Up 9 tenths. And if you strip out food and energy, guess what? It’s still up 9/10ths. Boy, that equals June of 22!

You’re at the March of 22 on the headline to find a bigger number. On the core number, that would come to March of 22 since we’ve had a number of that magnitude when it was 1.2%. These are kind of COVID distorted numbers.

So what would happen if the producer price index rises by 0.9 percent every month for the next 12 months?

That would put us at a 10.8 percent annual rate, and we would officially be in Jimmy Carter territory.

Another point that I would like to make is that the government numbers always understate the true rate of inflation by a significant margin.

And we can clearly see evidence of this all around us.

Right now, electricity prices are spiking from coast to coast.  For example, New Jersey residents were just pummeled by price hikes of between 17 and 20 percent…

New Jersey residents are up in arms over huge spikes in their energy costs, leading to speculation it could prove fatal for Democrats.

The New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU) approved a 17-20 percent hike in June for the majority of households in The Garden State.

One local woman says that her electricity bill is now $200 more than it used to be…

“$200 more, I know my electrical bill,” one woman told Cotton in Rutherford, N.J., on Tuesday. “I was shocked. So to say the least, I’m very disappointed. This is killing us, and every time you turn around it’s something more. You only get little pleasures in life that you enjoy, and my air conditioner is one of them.”

New Jersey’s electric bills currently rank 12th highest in the nation, according to the Wall Street Journal, with prices sitting roughly 15 percent higher than the national average.

Air conditioning is rapidly becoming a luxury.

Not everyone will be able to afford it anymore.

Beef has also become a luxury item, and it is being reported that last month the price of beef soared to yet another new all-time high…

Beef prices surged to an all-time high in July as the market grappled with consistently strong demand and long-term issues in domestic production.

According to the latest consumer price index, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics published on Tuesday, the beef and veal index rose by 2.5 percent in July, compared to 0.2 percent for the broader food category. This capped an 11.3 percent increase over the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, the price of ground beef and uncooked beef steaks has risen by 11.5 and 12.4 percent, respectively, both now at record levels.

I am a meat and potatoes kind of guy, and so this really upsets me.

When I see the prices that supermarkets are trying to charge us now, it makes me feel sick.

The other day, a Twitter user known as “Molly Ploofkins” posted a truly alarming photo that she took at her local Publix…

45 dollars?

Seriously?

It is hard for me to believe the prices that we are seeing now.

But they are only going to go higher.

Speaking of going higher, millions of Americans are about to get slammed with much higher health insurance premiums…

A perfect storm of rising health care costs, expensive new drugs, and the scheduled end of enhanced federal subsidies could drive Obamacare’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace premiums to their steepest levels in years—and hit more than 24 million Americans in their wallets.

According to a new analysis of insurers’ 2026 filings by Peterson-KFF’s Health System Tracker, the median proposed premium hike across 312 marketplace insurers is 18%. Most increases range from 12% to 27%, with more than 125 insurers seeking hikes of 20% or more—the sharpest climb since 2018. Final rates will be locked in by late summer 2025.

Health insurance premiums are already wildly out of control.

And now they want to hit us with double-digit increases again?

This is the reality of the economy that we live in now.

In this environment, even sending your kids to summer camp can put you deep into debt…

Two-thirds of parents who need summer child care say they struggle to afford it, and 62% of parents go into debt to cover summer child care, camps and activities, according to a recent survey of more than 600 parents conducted by LendingTree, an online lending marketplace. Parents in the survey said they spend almost $900 per child on summer care, and nearly half said they cut back on other expenses like dining out and entertainment to offset the cost.

Today, most of the country is living on the edge financially.

And now that economic conditions are slowing down, we are seeing foreclosures start to spike just like we did in 2008 and 2009.

For example, in Clark County, Nevada there was a 32 percent increase in foreclosure notices in just 12 months…

Growing numbers of Las Vegas homeowners are falling into foreclosure as soaring prices and Trump boycotts decimate the city, a new report found.

In Clark County, 200 default notices were filed in June, an increase of 32 percent from the same month last year, a research report from the University of Nevada’s Lied Center for Real Estate found.

Default notices are filed after a property owner falls behind on their mortgage payments and indicates the start of the foreclosure process.

This is why it is so important to have an emergency fund.

If you lose your job, you have got to have something to fall back on.

Sadly, mass layoffs are now happening all over the nation and the competition for any good jobs that are available has become fierce.

Some people that are unemployed have been applying for hundreds and hundreds of jobs without any success.  I shared an example of this the other day, and here is another example…

Emanuel Barcenas feels like he’s falling behind. At 25, he’d like to be living in his own place, saving money for the future and making enough money to take a date out to dinner.

Instead, two years after he graduated with a computer science bachelor’s degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology, he’s unemployed and living with his parents in the suburbs of Chicago. Despite having applied to more than 900 jobs — from secretary positions to a role at a prison — he has gotten only a handful of interviews.

“I want to be an adult,” he said. “I need to lock in, I need to move forward, but right now, I’m just stunted. I’m trying my best, but I guess my best isn’t good enough.”

Sometimes I feel like we are all playing a very twisted game of musical chairs.

Every time the music stops, more seats are being removed and more people fall out of the middle class.

If you still have your seat in the middle class, hold on to it tightly, because even rougher times are ahead.

I warned for years and years about the damage that was being done to the middle class.

But we just kept going down the same path, and now look at what has happened.

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.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are about to make decisions that could radically alter the trajectory of human history.  When they meet in Alaska on Friday, the stakes will be incredibly high.  If they are able to agree to some sort of a deal, the world will rejoice.  But if the meeting goes badly, there will be immense pressure on western leaders to militarily intervene in Ukraine in order to prevent Russia from taking as much territory as it wants.  At the moment, Russian forces are moving forward quite rapidly.  If negotiations can stop them, western leaders will be thrilled.  But if talks fail, the conflict in Ukraine will dramatically escalate, and that will put us dangerously close to nuclear war.

On Wednesday, President Trump was asked about what will happen if the Russians do not agree to end the war.

President Trump responded by warning that there will be “very severe consequences”…

US President Donald Trump promised “very severe consequences” on Russia if its President Vladimir Putin doesn’t agree to end his war in Ukraine during the two leaders’ meeting on Friday.

“There will be consequences,” Trump just said during an event at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Asked if that meant new sanctions or tariffs, Trump demurred.

“I don’t have to say,” he said, adding only: “There will be very severe consequences.”

This was not a wise thing to say just before such an important meeting.

As I have stated over and over again, threatening the Russians will not work.

If Trump insists on making threats, it will backfire severely.

The Russians have already said that they are willing to end the war, but they want certain things in return.

Of course what the Russians have proposed is not acceptable to the Ukrainians or to our European allies at all, and that is not likely to change any time soon.

A virtual conference that included Trump and leaders from all over Europe was held on Wednesday, and President Trump felt that it went very well…

The president joined a call earlier on Aug. 13 with Zelenskyy and European leaders, two days before Trump’s one-on-one summit with Putin in Alaska. Trump is trying to push Moscow into a peace deal that Kyiv and its allies fear will include the loss of significant territory seized by Russia in its three-year war on Ukraine.

“I would rate it a 10,” Trump told reporters on August 13 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. “Very friendly.”

Zelenskyy was in Berlin for the virtual conference hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that included the leaders of Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, the European Union and NATO. Vice President JD Vance was also expected to join the portion that included Trump.

Following the virtual conference, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made it exceedingly clear where our European allies stand…

The German leader said Ukraine would need a seat at the table if peace was to be reached in Ukraine, and that he told Mr. Trump he would speak to him after his Alaska meeting with Putin.

“We want to make sure that the right chronology happens: that there is a ceasefire and that there is an agreement that is discussed after that,” he said. “A legal recognition of Russian ownership of this territory cannot happen. There have to be robust security guarantees. The sovereignty of Ukraine has to be respected. Negotiations have to be part of a larger transatlantic strategy, and has to be part of necessary pressure on Russia.”

Merz added, “If there is no movement on the Russian side, we and the U.S. have to put more pressure on Russia. President Trump knows this position and largely agrees with it, and we had a good conversation with each other.”

Merz obviously does not want a peace agreement to happen, because there is no way that the Russians are going to agree to any of that.

The Russians are not going to give one inch of the territory that they have taken in the five provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea back to Ukraine.

In fact, the Russians want Ukraine to hand over all of the territory that the Ukrainians are still holding in those five provinces.

If Ukraine is not willing to hand over all of that territory, Russia will simply take it.

That is the Russian position, and they see no reason to compromise because they are clearly winning the war.

When asked about Trump’s suggestion that there could be some “swapping of territories”, the Russians made it very clear that this is a non-starter…

Russia pointed to its constitution in response to a remark by U.S. President Donald Trump that there would likely be a “swapping of territories” in a deal to end Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Trump is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to discuss a peace deal. Territorial control is a key issue. Russia has seized about a fifth of Ukrainian land in the east. Ukraine controls no Russian territory.

Asked about Trump’s suggestion that Russia and Ukraine could swap land, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexei Fadeev said at a news briefing on Wednesday that there was “no need to even invent anything territorial.”

“The structure of the Russian Federation is enshrined in the Constitution of our country,” Fadeev said, originally in Russian. “That says it all.”

The Russians also want Ukraine to be permanently banned from joining NATO.

This is something that the Ukrainians and our European allies are adamantly against.

So I have no idea why so many pundits think that a deal is possible, because the two sides are not even in the same universe when it comes to what an acceptable deal would look like.

Ahead of the meeting on Friday, the White House has been trying to play down expectations…

“This is a listening exercise for the president,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Aug. 12. “This is for the president to go and to get a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end.”

I give Trump credit for being willing to sit down with Putin.

The window of opportunity for a peaceful solution is almost closed, and so let’s hope that this last-ditch effort is successful.

Because if it isn’t successful and we get to the “very severe consequences” phase, that will have massive implications for all of humanity.

20 years ago, if someone told you that a day would come when the only thing standing between us and nuclear war would be Donald Trump, would you have believed it?

But here we are.

The meeting in Alaska on Friday really will be one of the most important events in modern history, and the fate of our society is hanging in the balance.

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.

If you recently graduated from college, good luck trying to find a decent job. What we are experiencing right now reminds me so much of the early 1990s. If you were a new college graduate in those days, it was extremely difficult to even get an interview for a good job. Sadly, we are now entering a very similar environment. There is enormous competition for any good job that is available, and mass layoffs are occurring all over the nation. In fact, through the first 7 months of this year the number of job cut announcements in the U.S. was 75 percent higher than it was during the first 7 months of 2024. I am not here to give people the Pollyanna version of what is going on. I am here to give people the truth.

21-year-old Manasi Mishra believed that if she worked really hard and got a computer science degree she would be able to get a six figure job at a big tech company.

Instead, the only thing her computer science degree has gotten her is an interview with Chipotle…

Aspiring computer scientists are sinking in a job market overtaken by AI, as a recent graduate who expected to make six figures could only land an interview at Chipotle.

Manasi Mishra, 21, was under the impression that if she worked hard in school and mastered coding, she’d have a prestigious tech job with a cushy salary lined up straight from college.

‘The rhetoric was, if you just learned to code, work hard and get a computer science degree, you can get six figures for your starting salary,’ the San Roman, California native told The New York Times.

In case you are wondering, she did not actually get the job with Chipotle…

To her dismay, she did not secure the job.

‘Of course, the year I graduate is the year the tech industry goes downhill,’ she elaborated in the ‘get ready with me’ video.

If even the tech industry is going “downhill”, what does that say about the state of the overall economy?

At one time, it was fairly easy to get hired by Microsoft if you had certain skills.

But this year Microsoft has conducted multiple rounds of layoffs.  At this stage, the total number of workers that have been laid off has surpassed the 15,000 mark…

Microsoft has laid off over 15,000 people so far in 2025. The stress of the belt-tightening has gotten to CEO Satya Nadella.

“Before anything else, I want to speak to what’s been weighing heavily on me, and what I know many of you are thinking about: the recent job eliminations,” Nadella wrote in a memo to employees Thursday.

It would be difficult to overstate just how dramatically the environment has shifted.

Young people that are searching for jobs are running into closed door after closed door, and as a result many of them are experiencing financial difficulties.

According to Fox Business, “nearly 10% of credit card balances held by Americans aged 18-29 became 90 or more days overdue in the second quarter”…

Young Americans continued to make up the largest share of those transitioning into credit card delinquency in the second quarter, according to a report released by the New York Federal Reserve.

Despite ticking down slightly from the previous quarter, the report showed that nearly 10% of credit card balances held by Americans aged 18-29 became 90 or more days overdue in the second quarter.

New York Fed researchers said credit card delinquency rates for Americans under 40 have been “unusually elevated,” adding they are keeping a “close eye” on the trend.

Credit card companies are going to become much more stingy in extending credit to young adults.

As you can imagine, that will not be good for our economy at all.

But this is the environment that we live in now.

One recent survey discovered that 62 percent of Gen Z adults “have no emergency savings at all”…

Your car breaks down on a Tuesday morning, and the repair bill comes to $500. If you’re part of Generation Z, there’s a good chance you have nothing set aside to cover it. A new survey from Credit One Bank reveals that 62% of Gen Z have no emergency savings at all, nearly double the rate of baby boomers. There’s a very clear widening gap in financial preparedness happening between generations.

Let that sink in.

Nearly two-thirds of an entire generation of Americans is living on the edge.

There will be some that will argue that they should just toughen up and take whatever they can get.

In the old days, if times were tough you could at least get a job as a delivery driver.

But now UPS is trying to rapidly shed existing workers by offering them buyouts…

The undertaking, called the Driver Voluntary Separation Program, is the first in UPS’ history for delivery drivers. The financial incentive available through the program is in addition to earned retirement benefits like pension and healthcare, per UPS.

Word of the program spread on July 3, when the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union said UPS’ buyout plan was in motion. The Teamsters represent more than 300,000 UPS employees under a five-year contract reached in 2023.

Drivers that have literally been with UPS for decades are being encouraged to leave so that the company can cut labor costs…

About 85% of UPS drivers are at the top end of the pay scale. Those who have 25 to 40 years of service would be the most likely candidates to accept the buyout package, Nando Cesarone, president of the U.S. region and UPS Airlines, told analysts on the call.

UPS is offering $1,800 per year of service, with a minimum payout of $10,000. A driver with 27 years of experience would receive a $48,600 buyout, according to the offer sheet.

I wouldn’t want to be a new college graduate today.

If you get stuck in a bad job that is not in your field, it can permanently wreck your career.

I have seen it happen way too many times.

But getting hired for a good job has become an extremely challenging task.

In fact, one recent survey found that more than 60 percent of all Americans believe that it has “become more difficult to find a good paying job”…

According to the poll, more than six out of 10 Americans said it had become more difficult to find a good paying job, buy a home and afford childcare.

More than four out of five Americans, 83%, said they were concerned about the cost of groceries, with 46% saying they were very concerned. Some 47% said they were worried about being able to pay their rent or mortgage, 64% said they were worried about affording an unexpected medical expense.

It is time to face the truth.

We really are in the midst of a substantial economic downturn that has been going on for quite some time.

Needless to say, I believe that the difficult times that we are experiencing now are not even worth comparing to what is eventually coming.

So we are all going to have to adjust our plans and our expectations.

The system that we have all depended upon for so long is failing, and we all need to start becoming a lot more self-sufficient.

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.

The stage is being set for a dramatic showdown on the streets of the largest cities in the United States.  The mainstream media is freaking out about President Trump’s takeover of Washington D.C, and protests have already begun.  Needless to say, Washington D.C. is not friendly territory for Trump.  It has one of the highest concentrations of Democrats of any major city in the nation, and Kamala Harris won 90 percent of the vote in D.C. last November.  So this situation has the potential to get out of control very rapidly.

Let us hope that cooler heads prevail, but some in the mainstream media are already trying to draw parallels between the current crisis and the George Floyd protests of 2020.  For example, the following comes from a Time Magazine article entitled “Trump’s Hostile Takeover of D.C. Is Straight Out of the Summer 2020 Playbook”…

As he announced he was taking over Washington’s police department and deploying FBI agents and 800 National Guardsmen to patrol the streets of the nation’s capital, President Donald Trump on Monday seemed to gunning for a trip back to the unsettled summer of 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic and racial justice protests set America on edge. It was an aspirational time jump for Trump, who is in search of a way out of political troubles of his own making.

Wow.

You can certainly feel the anti-Trump sentiment in that article.

And even though Trump just announced his takeover of D.C., the protests have already started…

As President Donald Trump announced Monday plans to place the Metropolitan Police Department under federal control, the group Free DC and its partners held a rally in northwest D.C.

“DC belongs to DC residents,” said a Free DC representative. “DC is our home and Trump can’t have it.”

We will keep a very close eye on these protests to see if they grow.

To me, the footage that we have gotten so far indicates that the protesters are very well organized.

I was curious about “Free DC”, and so I decided to learn more.

This is what they say about themselves on their official website…

The 700,000 people of the District of Columbia deserve to have the power over our local government. However, for far too long, Congress and federal administrations have interfered in DC communities by overturning our local laws, restricting our local budgets, and imposing their will on the people who live in DC for years and generations.

Free DC is a renewed campaign to protect Home Rule and win lasting dignity for our communities. We are no longer willing to accept anything less for our communities, and we are setting out to build the cultural and political movement it will take to win. We want you to be part of it.

To these people, President Trump is enemy number one.

And they were definitely not thrilled when Trump boldly declared that D.C. was just “LIBERATED”…

Washington, D.C. will be LIBERATED today! Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR. I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN! The days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people, are OVER! I quickly fixed the Border (ZERO ILLEGALS in last 3 months!), D.C. is next!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT

We have never seen a president do this before.

During a press conference on Monday, Trump explained that the D.C. police are now under the control of the federal government, and he also announced that the National Guard is going to be brought in…

President Trump said Monday that he is deploying members of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and that the federal government has taken control of the D.C. police as part of a push to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital, despite data showing crime has declined in the city in recent years.

“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference at the White House. “This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”

It turns out that Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act does give President Trump the authority to do what he is doing…

Section 740 of the DC Home Rule Act allows the President to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department under “special conditions of an emergency nature.”

The President signed two executive actions on Monday, including invoking powers under section 740 and sending statutorily required letters to the DC Mayor and the necessary congressional committees. Section 740 requires the President to notify committee chairmen and the mayor in order to federalize the Metropolitan police for more than forty-eight hours.

But is it a good idea?

Only time will tell.

The capital city of our nation should be a place where people feel safe, and President Trump wants to make that a reality.

But the mainstream media is going to try to use this to stir up people’s emotions.  Here is more from Time Magazine…

As he appeared in a standing-room-only White House briefing room Monday morning flanked by his national security Cabinet, Trump looked to bait his critics into an uproar, hinting he would escalate to active duty military members if needed. The tableau was one designed to send the national conversation spiraling, a maximalist favorite tactic for Trump to move off a difficult moment.

“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people,” the President said. The District’s revamped police force, he said, would be empowered to do “whatever the hell they want.”

If Trump’s effort to transform D.C. is successful, we could see similar efforts in other large cities.

During his press conference, Trump specifically mentioned New York City, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland as urban areas that could be targeted next…

President Donald Trump said he might expand his crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital to other major U.S. cities as he announced plans to send 800 National Guard troops into Washington, D.C.

Trump singled out New York City, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland, California during a Monday, Aug. 11, news conference as potential future targets in what would be a drastic escalation of federal presence on the streets of American cities.

“We’re not going to lose our cities over this. This will go further. We’re starting very strongly with D.C., and we’re going to clean it up real quick,” Trump said.

Does anyone out there think that the Democrats are just going to sit back and allow Trump to conduct crackdowns in all these cities?

To me, this could be the beginning of a scenario that leads to the sort of widespread civil unrest that I have been warning about.

In the days ahead, mainstream news sources will inevitably be filled with images of people being rounded up or dragged away.

Emotions will be running really high, and it won’t take much of a spark to set off a very large fire.

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.

Why are social media platforms filled with videos of Americans complaining about grocery prices right now? Needless to say, those videos must be striking a chord, because some of them are receiving millions of views. Government bureaucrats are telling us that the cost of food is only going up a few percentage points per year, but we can all see that is a load of nonsense. A trip to the grocery store has become an enormous expense, and this is especially true if you have kids to feed. As I wrote about earlier this month, one survey found that in 25 percent of U.S. households at least one person is skipping meals so that there will be enough money to pay the bills. Sadly, we are being warned that the cost of groceries will go even higher in the months ahead.

Several years ago, I kept warning my readers over and over again that soon the cost of groceries would become very painful.

Without a doubt, that time has arrived.

According to a recent AP poll, the cost of groceries is a “source of stress” for 86 percent of U.S. adults…

Does your run to the supermarket cause a spike in your blood pressure? You’re in good company.

The overwhelming majority of Americans – 86% – say the cost of groceries is at least a minor source of stress. The number includes 53% who say it’s a major source of anxiety in their lives right now. That’s according to a new Associated Press/NORC poll.

Those are very alarming numbers.

But this is the world that we live in now.

And this is why we are seeing so many videos on social media about grocery prices.

Someone put together a compilation of some of the best videos where people are really flipping out emotionally…

In my entire lifetime, I have never seen it so bad.

At one grocery store in Chicago, one woman admitted that it feels like “you’re spending your soul on groceries”…

At a South Loop grocery store, customers experience sticker shock and frustration.

“No matter if it’s organic or if it’s regular, it’s still going to be an arm and a leg for it. It’s like you’re spending your soul on groceries,” said shopper Tria Hutson.

This is one of the reasons why I get so frustrated with the talking heads on television that are telling us that everything is fine.

Just look around you.

People are hurting.

Some companies are trying to hide their price hikes by keeping the prices the same but putting less stuff in each package.

This is known as “shinkflation”, and Jim Quinn recently shared a personal anecdote from his own life…

I think a personal anecdote I’ve experienced will show you the devious methods corporations will use to pass these tariffs along. I have been buying a pack of coated paper plates at Wal-Mart for years. The pack contained 70 paper plates. Within the last four months, the pack was reduced to 50 plates, for the same price. They know the average dolt, after years of government schooling, is deficient in math skills, so they would not realize they just experienced a 40% increase in price per plate. This will show up nowhere in the fake BLS numbers. Shrinkflation is just as bad as inflation, but they can hide it and pretend all is well, while maintaining their profits.

I am sure that you are running into the same thing.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

How can I be so confident in saying that?

Let me give you just one example.

Approximately two-thirds of U.S. adults drink coffee, and approximately one-third of all the coffee we drink comes from Brazil.

Thanks to the 50 percent tariff that was just placed on imports from Brazil, coffee is about to become a lot more expensive…

The U.S. relies heavily on Brazil to import coffee for the 165 million people who need their daily caffeine fix, but Trump’s 50 percent tariff threatens the long-term availability and price of the drink.

“When people go to their local coffee shop, whether it’s Starbucks or something else, by and large they will likely be buying some form of Brazilian coffee,” Monica de Bolle, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told NPR.

“A 50 percent tariff will kill that market.”

I still remember the days when you could get a cup of coffee for 10 cents.

What did your latest cup of coffee cost you?

Of course everything else is becoming more expensive too, and our cost of living crisis never seems to end.

As a result, 62 percent of Gen Z Americans have no emergency savings at all…

• 62% of Gen Z have no emergency savings, nearly double the rate of baby boomers.
• 51% of Americans would use a credit card for a $500 emergency, with usage jumping to 70% among students.
• Two-thirds of consumers have six months or less in savings, with Gen X the least prepared.
• 76% lack a credit card set aside for emergencies, relying instead on everyday-use cards.

Most of the country is living on the edge financially.

The middle class is steadily shrinking, and those that remain in the middle class have much less discretionary income than they once did.

So restaurants all over the nation find themselves torn between rapidly rising costs and customers that now have a lot less money to spend…

Ike’s Chili in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been around for 117 years, surviving a myriad of challenges like the Great Depression, the Covid-19 pandemic and a once-in-a-generation burst of inflation. But 2025 already holds an even more complicated challenge.

“The cost of everything’s just going up, and we’ve got to figure out how to manage it right,” Len Wade, a managing partner at the restaurant, told CNN.

He pointed to surging beef prices as an example, specifically hamburger meat on the wholesale level. In July, those prices were up nearly 21% compared to the same month 10 years ago, federal data shows. And passing the buck to customers might not be the best solution, Wade said.

Tourist destinations from coast to coast are experiencing the same thing.

Las Vegas is getting far less tourist traffic than it once did, and those that do arrive are tipping a lot less…

Las Vegas servers say they’re feeling the heat as high prices and declining tourism hammer their tip earnings across the Strip.

Tipping in Sin City is reportedly down by as much as 50% among servers, as some of them blame the economy and policy while others point to high prices, a tipping backlash and poor service.

On Reddit’s r/VegasLocals forum, one cocktail waitress wrote, “I used to average about 80 cents a drink. Now I’m averaging about 10 cents.”

Nobody can deny what is happening.

We really are experiencing a very serious economic crisis.

Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that everything is okay is not going to fix anything.

Our standard of living really is collapsing, and a lot more pain is ahead as our economic bubbles continue to burst.

We were warned that this storm was coming for a long time, and now it is here.

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.

If everything is going to be just fine, why are thousands of stores closing all over the country?  So far this year, the total amount of retail space that has been permanently closed has surpassed 120 million square feet.  We have never seen anything like this before.  Store closings spiked during the early days of the pandemic, but in 2025 stores are being permanently shuttered at an even faster pace.  In fact, during the first six months of this year 5,822 store closures were recorded…

Store closures across the U.S. continue to rise, and remain on track to far significantly surpass both new openings and the figures seen in 2024.

According to a new report from research and advisory firm Coresight Research, cited by CoStar News, 5,822 store closures were recorded as of June 27, compared to 3,496 closures announced during the same period of 2024.

If stores continue to close at this rate, we will break the old record that was established during the pandemic by a wide margin.

We are also being told that the total amount of retail space that has been permanently shuttered in 2025 has reached a staggering 120 million square feet…

In June, store closings by Plano, Texas-based home goods seller At Home and Philadelphia-based pharmacy chain Rite Aid, which have both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, “pushed the total amount of retail space to close in the U.S. this year to over 120 million square feet,” Coresight said. The real estate churn is happening “as cyclical impacts confront structural shifts,” according to one executive at the research firm.

Wow.

You may have noticed that there are an increasing number of abandoned buildings in your particular area.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

Consumers are under more financial stress than we have ever seen, and that has resulted in a substantial decline in store traffic…

Many of the retail store closures are a result of declining store traffic as more consumers respond to inflation by reducing spending. There also are more consumers turning to online shopping especially for apparel, accessories and household items. The winner is not merely Amazon but increased competition from Temu and Shein marketplaces and social commerce outlets like TikTok.

Needless to say, more stores are being closed down with each passing day.

After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Claire’s announced that it will be closing 18 more stores…

Claire’s, a mall-based teen accessories retailer, has identified several locations across the country it plans to close after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Claire’s U.S., which operates Claire’s and Icing stores, made the filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on Wednesday. It’s the second time since 2018 the company has filed for bankruptcy.

While the company says the majority of its retail stores will remain open while it “continues to explore all strategic alternatives,” Claire’s said it identified 18 stores ahead of the Aug. 6 bankruptcy filing it would close, filings show.

And home goods retailer At Home just announced that it will be closing 6 more stores…

The home goods retailer At Home is closing an additional six stores across the country, bringing its total closure tally to more than two dozen as it grapples with high debt and dwindling sales.

The furniture and home decor retailer based in Coppell, Texas, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 16, pointing to “broader economic and retail-specific market pressures,” in court documents. The bankruptcy filing and store closures follow several other “big box” retailers that have also significantly downsized their brick-and-mortar footprints this year, including Big Lots, Joann Fabrics, Kohl’s, JCPenney, Macy’s, and Party City.

The retailer intially announced 26 store closures in June, before paring that down to 24 when it decided to keep open two stores in New Jersey and Wisconsin. The company added another six stores to the list, according to a statement by retail firm Hilco Consumer-Retail on Aug. 1, bringing the current number of stores it will shutter in the coming months to 30.

We see more stories like this every single day.

So what is going to happen if our economic momentum continues to take us very rapidly in the wrong direction?

Earlier today, we learned that the percentage of student loans entering serious delinquency is absolutely exploding…

The total amount of outstanding student loan debt was $1.64 trillion in the second quarter of 2025 after rising by $7 billion in the quarter.

Additionally, the share of student loan debt entering serious delinquency, considered 90 days or more late, jumped to 12.9% at the end of June, up from 8% in March and above pre-pandemic trends that were around 9-10% from 2012 into early 2020, when the moratorium initially took effect.

The American people are drowning in debt, and I expect delinquency rates of all types to continue to rise in the months ahead.

We are going to see more layoffs too, and the fact that continuing claims for unemployment benefits just hit their highest level since 2021 is not a good sign at all…

Recurring applications for unemployment benefits surged to the highest since November 2021, adding to recent signs that the labor market is weakening.

Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, rose by 38,000 to 1.97 million in the week ended July 26, according to Labor Department data released Thursday.

On top of everything else, U.S. manufacturing activity is now in contraction territory…

From March to July, U.S. manufacturing activity contracted, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s monthly survey. The Manufacturing PMI last registered at 48, below the 50 score that differentiates growth and decline.

The effective average tariff rate on all imported goods now stands at around roughly 18% versus 2.3% last year, the highest levels since the 1930s.

We are in so much trouble.

After evaluating all of the latest economic numbers that have come in, Mark Zandi has come to the conclusion that the “economy is on the precipice of recession”…

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, on Monday wrote a post on X that the “economy is on the precipice of recession” – citing the weaker-than-expected jobs report released Friday and the inflation data from the previous day that showed consumer prices rose as indicating the economy’s precarious position.

“Consumer spending has flatlined, construction and manufacturing are contracting, and employment is set to fall. And with inflation on the rise, it is tough for the Fed to come to the rescue,” he wrote.

It is hard to argue with him.

Of course what is eventually coming is going to be so much worse than just a “recession”.

As conditions deteriorate, will store closings slow down or will they speed up?

The answer to that question is obvious.

If there are stores in your local area that you really enjoy, I would visit them now while you still can, because they might not be there next year.

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.