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We have never seen a year quite like this.  I wrote about “the year of the flood” on July 15th and July 27th, and now I am writing about it again.  If I haven’t convinced you by now that something really weird is going on, I don’t know what to tell you.  Record-breaking storms and record-breaking floods just keep hitting us again and again all over the world.  During this past week, it is Asia that has been really taking a beating.  Sometimes when I write articles about what is taking place on the other side of the world, a certain percentage of my readers tune out, but please don’t do that because what I have to share today is very important.

Let me begin with what is happening in Hong Kong.

According to the New York Times, torrential rain that has been going on for days is turning roads into rivers and is picking up cars and sweeping them away…

Days of relentless rain in Hong Kong set off major floods on Tuesday that swept cars away, inundated a hospital emergency ward and left buses stranded. Roads winding down the city’s steep hills turned into rivers.

Even for Hong Kong, a city accustomed to seasonal typhoons, the record-breaking deluge has pushed it to its limits, straining city services and testing the patience and wits of its residents.

Hong Kong has never experienced anything like this before.

In fact, Hong Kong just had “its highest daily rainfall in August since records began in 1884”…

Parts of Hong Kong were brought to a standstill by flooding caused by heavy rains on Tuesday, after the highest-tier rainstorm warning was issued for the fourth time in eight days.

The city logged its highest daily rainfall in August since records began in 1884, at just over 355 millimetres recorded at the Hong Kong weather observatory’s headquarters at 2:00 pm (0600 GMT).

In India, flash flooding just sent a “wall of water, mud and debris” slamming into the Himalayan village of Dharali…

A surge of flood water tore through a mountainous village in northern India Tuesday, leaving at least four people dead and dozens missing, officials said.

Dramatic video from the Himalayan village of Dharali, Uttarakhand state, shows the wall of water, mud and debris tearing down the mountainside and through the village, destroying the homes and businesses in its path. The flooding occurred around 1:45 p.m. local time, according to District Magistrate Prashant Arya in the city of Uttarkashi.

At least four people were confirmed killed, Arya said. “There are a lot of guest houses, restaurants and hotels there, because of which we immediately requested the army to aid rescue operations,” he said.

Apparently dozens of local residents had just gathered at a temple for some sort of a religious festival when the wall of water struck.

It is being reported that about 100 people have been reported missing and “scores remained unaccounted for”…

Dozens in the village had been gathered in a temple for a festival as the wave of dark water and debris struck at high velocity.

The Indian defence minister, Sanjay Seth, confirmed that four people had been killed in the disaster but officials feared the number could rise. Approximately 100 people were reported missing on Tuesday and scores remained unaccounted for and feared trapped in the mud, including about eight soldiers who were reported missing from a camp in the area.

In South Korea, 11 inches of rain in a 24 hour period caused “severe flooding across the southern regions of the country”…

An extreme rainfall event struck South Korea between August 3 and 4, 2025, triggering severe flooding across the southern regions of the country. Over 280 mm (11 inches) of rainfall was recorded in Muan in just 24 hours, with the hourly rainfall rates reaching over extreme 140 mm (6 inches) on August 4.

But that is nothing compared to what just happened in Taiwan.

In one district in southern Taiwan, more than nine feet of rain has fallen since July 28th…

Storms dumped more than two metres of rain in parts of Taiwan over the past week, killing five people and triggering floods and landslides in central and southern areas, authorities said Monday.

Torrential rain has lashed swathes of the island since July 28, forcing several thousand people to seek shelter, damaging roads, and shuttering offices.

Maolin, a mountainous district in southern Taiwan, recorded more than 2.8 metres (nine feet) of rain since July 28, the Central Weather Administration (CWA).

That’s more than Taiwan’s annual rainfall of 2.1 metres last year, according to the agency’s data.

I can’t even imagine that much rain.

Needless to say, all of that water caused horrific flooding and severe landslides over a very wide area.

Of course I don’t want to leave the recent flooding in China out of this article.

Last week, Beijing was getting absolutely pummeled by torrential rain, and at least 30 people died as a result…

Days of torrential rain have killed at least 30 people in the northern outskirts of Beijing, state media reported Tuesday, as China grapples with yet another deadly rainy season marked by extreme downpours, devastating floods and landslides.

In recent days, intense rainstorms have battered much of northern China – a densely populated part of the country home to massive metropolises as well as agricultural heartlands.

As vast quantities of water rapidly rushed through the Miyun District in northern Beijing, it took vehicles and electricity poles with it…

Footage circulating on social media shows brown floodwater sweeping through residential communities, washing away cars, knocking down electricity poles and turning streets into rivers in Miyun.

Dozens of roads have been damaged, potentially complicating rescue efforts, and in more than 100 smaller, more rural villages, the downpours have also cut off electricity.

Can anyone point to a time when we have seen so much catastrophic flooding all over the world in a single year?

As I keep reminding my readers, we really are living in apocalyptic times.

I wish that I could tell you that all of this is temporary and that conditions will soon return to normal.

But I can’t.

I fully expect “the year of the flood” to continue, and I also expect quite a few other “surprises” in the months ahead as well.

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 have there been so many large earthquakes in recent weeks?  This is something that people on social media are really buzzing about right now.  And I am certainly glad that they are buzzing about it, because what we have been witnessing is not even close to normal.  We really are in the early chapters of an extremely apocalyptic chapter in human history, and people need to hear the truth.

It is being claimed that there were 396 earthquakes of at least magnitude 5.0 during a recent 30 day period, and this claim is being heavily circulated on multiple social media platforms…

Twitter is buzzing, Reddit’s rumbling, and TikTok’s tilting — people are freaking out over the reported 396 earthquakes of Magnitude 5.0 or greater (M5+) recorded worldwide in the past 30 days.

The following is an example of the sort of graphic that is getting a ton of attention right now…

I wanted to independently verify that this figure was accurate.

What I discovered was extremely alarming.

• 1 quake above magnitude 8
• 4 quakes between magnitude 7 and 8
• 33 quakes between magnitude 6 and 7
• 456 quakes between magnitude 5 and 6
• 1,809 quakes between magnitude 4 and 5
• 5,617 quakes between magnitude 3 and 4
• 10,512 quakes between magnitude 2 and 3
• 33,959 quakes below magnitude 2 that people normally don’t feel.

If these numbers are accurate, things are even worse than the claims that are being made on social media.

If you add together the top 4 lines, it gives you a grand total of 494 earthquakes of at least magnitude 5.0 within the past 30 days.

Nearly 500 earthquakes of at least magnitude 5.0 in a 30 day period is extremely unusual.

I asked Google AI about what is going on, and this is what I was told…

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Earth experiences an average of 1,300 to 1,500 magnitude 5+ earthquakes annually. This translates to approximately 110-125 earthquakes of that magnitude per month.

Therefore, while the reported 396 magnitude 5+ earthquakes in the last 30 days is significantly higher than the average, it is important to note that global earthquake activity tends to cluster, meaning there can be periods of higher activity followed by calmer periods, still within the realm of normal geophysical variation.

Hopefully things will start to calm down in the days ahead.

But for now, large earthquakes continue to hit diverse locations all over the globe.

For example, the Dominican Republic was just hammered by a magnitude 5.7 earthquake…

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the southeast coast of the Dominican Republic early Tuesday, jolting residents awake in the Caribbean country and in neighboring Puerto Rico.

The quake occurred 24 miles (38 kilometers) southeast of Boca de Yuma at a depth of 104 miles (168 kilometers), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. No damage was reported.

Here in the United States, New York and New Jersey just got hit by an unusual earthquake for a second consecutive day…

A 2.7-magnitude quake rattled the Tri-State area around midday Tuesday. The epicenter was located in Hillsdale, New Jersey, about 20 miles north of Manhattan, according to the United States Geological Survey. This is roughly the same area a 3.0-magnitude struck the New Jersey town of Hasbrouck Heights over the past weekend. On July 22, a 2.0 earthquake was measured near Randolph, New Jersey.

People in the city of Rye, New York, about 30 miles northeast of Manhattan, immediately reported feeling the earthquake on X. People from Rockland and Irvington, both cities along the Hudson River in New York, reported feeling the temblor.

Meanwhile, the “Year of the Fire” just continues to intensify.

“The Year of the Fire” began in southern California in January, and now another giant fire in the region is “out of control”…

BREAKING: SANTA BARBARA IS BURNING TO THE GROUND – AND IT STARTED ON FEDERAL LAND

The Gifford Fire has already exploded to 50,000+ acres, forcing mass evacuations in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.

Flames are out of control. Smoke is choking the sky from California all the way to Las Vegas.

Over 1,000 boots on the ground and barely any containment.

According to an update that was just published by ABC News, the Gifford Fire has now grown to over 72,000 acres, and it is just 3 percent contained…

Over 1,000 firefighters continue to battle a wildfire in California that has burned over 72,000 acres, prompted evacuation orders and caused three injuries, according to officials.

The Gifford Fire, which began on Friday afternoon, is situated within the Los Padres National Forest in Solvang, California, impacting those within Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, officials said. As of Monday, the fire has engulfed 72,460 acres and is only 3% contained, according to Cal Fire.

If the Gifford Fire reaches 100,000 acres, it will be considered to be a “megafire”.

Of course the fire that has been raging in Grand Canyon National Park for a month is already considered to be a “megafire”, and it just keeps getting even larger…

A New Jersey hiker has been missing for more than a week in Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park where a raging “mega-fire” has exploded to more than 123,000 acres.

Thomas Daniel Gibbs, 35, last spoke with friends and family around noon on July 22 and was officially reported missing six days later — the same day his Tesla Cybertruck was discovered abandoned at a parking lot at popular vista Grandview Point, according to the National Park Service.

The Freehold native was believed to have embarked on a hike on the arduous Grandview Trail and Horseshore Mesa the day he was last heard from.

Up in Canada, hundreds of wildfires are prompting air quality alerts in quite a few northern U.S. states…

Air quality alerts were issued across the U.S. Midwest and Northeast on Monday, August 4, 2025, and remain in effect on August 5, as over 740 wildfires burning across Canada send smoke to the U.S. Currently, 2025 is the third most destructive year for wildfires in Canada and is likely to become the second most destructive year surpassing 1989 when wildfires burned over 17 million acres of land across the country.

Despite all of our advanced technology, wildfires are raging out of control all over North America.

And the month of August is just beginning.

There is one last thing that I wanted to mention today.

Weather patterns in much of Europe have also gone nuts, and it is being projected that we could see crop losses of up to 85 percent in some parts of Turkey this year…

Prolonged drought and extreme weather events during the 2024/25 agricultural year have caused crop losses of up to 85% in parts of Türkiye, according to the Türkiye Agricultural Chambers Union (TZOB). The impacts are most severe in Central and Southeastern Anatolia, while national output of key cereals, pulses, and vegetables is expected to decline significantly.

In 2025, we have been hit by one major disaster after another.

It is almost as if we are living in a disaster movie that never ends.

And the truth is that what is ahead of us will make what we have gone through already look like a Sunday picnic.

The giant space rock that we all live on is being shaken in so many different ways.

Most of the population is not alarmed by what we are witnessing yet, but they should be.

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.

Are you old enough to remember when you could buy a really nice house for less than $50,000? Today, the average price of a home in the United States is more than half a million dollars. Of course everything else has become dramatically more expensive as well. I just asked Google, and I was told that the average cost of health insurance for a single person in the United States was just $2,655 in the year 2000. That was for an entire year!  Our standard of living has been collapsing for a long time, but at first most people didn’t realize what was happening. But now things are so bad that YouTube and TikTok are filled with thousands of videos of normal people complaining about the cost of living. Unfortunately, I am entirely convinced that things are only going to get tougher as economic conditions continue to deteriorate all around us.

Earlier today, I came across a shocking new survey which discovered that 25 percent of U.S. households are skipping meals so that they will have enough money to pay their bills…

Twenty-five percent of respondents say they or someone in their household has skipped meals to save money in the past year—numbers that rose to nearly 4 in 10 for Hispanics (41 percent) and nearly 3 in 10 for Blacks (29 percent). The youngest Americans surveyed, ages 18–34, are by far the most likely to have skipped meals to pay bills (38 percent), and rates were similarly high for those in households with income below $50,000 per year (39 percent).

25 percent of the country doesn’t have enough food to eat!

How can you possibly spin that number to make it look good?

Let’s get real.

In June, the average price of a pound of ground beef actually surpassed the six dollar mark…

The average price for a pound of ground beef in the Northeast rose to more than $6.05 in June, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a high point in records dating back to 2015.

The price was up more than 10% from June 2024 and more than 3.4% from May. The price jump for beef from May was the biggest among a group of common grocery items that also included eggs, chicken, milk, bread and butter.

When I was growing up, my mother was constantly feeding us ground beef.

Now it has become a “luxury meat” that most Americans cannot afford on a regular basis.

If you can’t see that our standard of living is declining, I don’t know what to tell you.

The same survey that I quoted earlier also found that millions upon millions of Americans are spending a great deal of time worrying about their finances…

A shocking 1 in 4 Americans (24 percent) say they spend at least three hours on a typical day worrying about their finances and ability to afford basic necessities. More than 4 in 10 spend at least one hour per day. Millennials and GenZers are experiencing the greatest anxiety, with 56 percent and 50 percent, respectively spending one hour or more per day focused on financial concerns. While low- and middle-income Americans express the strongest financial concerns, one-third of those with incomes above $100,000 also spend at least an hour concerned about their finances on a typical day.

Most of us want to live the American Dream.

But the American Dream is out of reach for most of the population at this stage.

Back in 1975, the average price of a home in Spokane, Washington was just $22,450…

A Spokane cost of living survey showed that the average rental price of two-bedroom apartment was $135 per month, and the average purchase price for a house was $22,450, The Spokesman-Review reported on July 20, 1975.

Today, $22,450 won’t even cover the average monthly mortgage payment for one year…

Since 2017, the salary needed to buy a home in America has more than doubled.

Fueled by rising unaffordability and high mortgage rates, home buyers need to shell out $2,500 on average for monthly payments. Meanwhile, this soars past $5,000 in coastal cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

Housing has become more unaffordable than it has ever been in our entire history, and that is the number one reason why Americans are so financially stressed right now.

In the old days, we were told to always follow “the 30 percent rule”, but now that is realistic in only a handful of the top metropolitan areas in the United States…

The 30% rule — one in which potential homebuyers limit their mortgage payment to 30% of their monthly income — is a common standard that homebuyers typically follow so that the yearly cost of a home doesn’t put too much of a strain on their finances.

However, according to a new report from Realtor.com, places where homebuyers can follow that recommendation when buying a home are becoming fewer and farther between in the country’s major metropolitan areas.

Affordability in just three of America’s 50 top metro areas is such that households that make the median income can scoop up a home that won’t go above 30% of their yearly earnings, the report found.

Utility bills are rapidly rising as well.

In fact, it is being reported that electricity prices spiked by an average of 6 percent during the first half of this year…

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, the average price of electricity per kilowatt-hour has risen from $0.179 in January to $0.190 as of June—an increase of around 6 percent.

Between January and February, prices remained steady, according to BLS data. But between February and April, prices rose slightly to $0.181, and then marginally again in May to $0.182.

According to the BLS’s data, prices then jumped noticeably in June to $0.190.

Just about everything has been getting more expensive, and that explains why 83 percent of 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.

And a different survey discovered that more than 80 percent of middle income Americans expect prices to continue to rise…

But two-thirds of middle-income Americans are bracing for a recession within a year.

More than eight in 10 expect prices to keep rising.

And nearly two-thirds of middle-income Americans who recently bought a home said they are living paycheck to paycheck.

Sadly, I am convinced that things are going to get even tougher because economic activity is slowing down and employers are conducting mass layoffs all over the nation.

In some cases, large employers have actually been conducting multiple rounds of mass layoffs.

For example, Intel has already been through a couple of mass cullings…

Intel this month officially began to cut down its workforce in the U.S. and other countries, thus revealing actual numbers of positions to be cut. The Oregonian reports that the company will cut as many as 2,392 positions in Oregon and around 4,000 positions across its American operations, including Arizona, California, and Texas.

To put the 2,392 number into context, Intel is the largest employer in Oregon with around 20,000 of workers there. 2,392 is around 12% of the workforce, which is a lower end of layoff expectations, yet 2,400 is still a lot of people. The Oregon reduction rose sharply from an initial count of around 500 to a revised figure of 2,392, making it one of the largest layoffs in the state’s history. Intel began reducing staff earlier in the week but confirmed the larger number by Friday evening through a filing with Oregon state authorities.

Intel’s Oregon operations have already seen 3,000 jobs lost over the past year through earlier buyouts and dismissals.

Not to be outdone, there have been three waves of mass layoffs at Microsoft…

In an ongoing effort to trim its workforce, Microsoft said as much as 4%, or roughly 9,000, of the company’s employees could be affected by Wednesday’s layoffs. In Washington, 830 employees were let go, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday.

The move follows two waves of layoffs in May and June, which saw Microsoft let go of more than 6,000 employees, almost 2,300 of whom were based in Washington.

Since May, the company has laid off over 15,000 employees companywide and more than 3,100 in Washington.

But Disney takes the cake.

Within the past ten months, they have conducted four rounds of mass layoffs…

Early this month the company pushed out several hundred workers from its marketing for both film and television, television publicity, and its casting and development departments.

It was the fourth round of layoffs in the last ten months and came about a month after 200 employees were eliminated in March.

The layoffs in March hit Disney’s ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks unit. That round of layoffs even included the elimination of its once popular “538” website.

A lot of people out there like to criticize me, but they can’t deny the facts that I present because I carefully document them in all of my articles.

After reading all of the facts that I have documented in this article, it should be clear to everyone that our standard of living has been collapsing.

And if we stay on the road that we are currently on, that collapse will accelerate significantly.

No matter how hard we may try, we cannot escape the law of cause and effect.

For every action that we take, there is a consequence.

Unfortunately for us, the consequences for our very foolish actions are starting to catch up with us in a major way.

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 have applied for hundreds of jobs and still find yourself out of work, you are certainly not alone. In many industries, it is absolutely brutal out there right now. U.S. employers have been laying off hundreds of thousands of workers in 2025, and there is immense competition for any good jobs that do happen to be available. So if you have a good job that you highly value, I would hold on to it as tightly as you can, because you don’t want to end up among the desperate hordes that are scrambling for work in this very harsh economic environment. For example, a 46-year-old woman in Florida that was laid off last September has applied for 900 jobs without any success at all…

Jennifer Smith, 46 years old, says she has applied for 900 jobs since being laid off last September from a financial-services provider in the Tampa, Fla., area, where she led the user-experience department. She has landed just one interview and no offers. This has left Smith, who has three children, increasingly anxious about her finances.

Smith decided this past week to sell her five-bedroom home and trade down to a smaller house. While severance pay has helped, it is about to run out, and Smith has been paying soaring premiums to keep her health insurance.

I feel so badly for her.

Searching for work in this environment can be just as exhausting as a full-time job, but you don’t get paid for it.

If she doesn’t find a job soon, she could potentially lose everything.

Of course there are countless others that are in the exact same boat.

On the other side of the country, 61-year-old John Comber says that he has applied for about 500 jobs since late 2023 with no success…

Some older, out-of-work Americans are wondering if they will find jobs again.

“I’m considering myself semiretired at this point,” says John Comber, 61, a software quality engineer in Sandpoint, Idaho. He hoped to work another decade and thought he would easily pick up more work when his last contract work wrapped up in late 2023. Instead, he estimates he has applied for 500 jobs with no hits.

This isn’t a bum with no skills that we are talking about.

Comber is a highly skilled software engineer.

But this is the economic environment that we live in now.

It is being reported that the number of Americans that have been unemployed for at least 27 weeks is now at “the highest level since 2017, not counting the pandemic’s unemployment surge”…

Job seekers are out in the cold this summer. Especially the ones who have been hunting for a while.

Beyond the headline-grabbing top-line numbers in the jobs report for July was another striking piece of data: The number of people unemployed for at least 27 weeks topped 1.8 million, the highest level since 2017, not counting the pandemic’s unemployment surge. The median length of unemployment in the U.S. has also ticked up, from a seasonally adjusted 9.5 weeks in July 2024 to 10.2 weeks last month.

Wow.

And that figure is only going to go higher, because employers all over the nation are feverishly laying off workers right now.

I shared this on Friday, but I feel like I should share it again in this article.  According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S. employers have announced 806,383 job cuts so far in 2025.  Compared to the same time period in 2024, that is a 75 percent increase…

So far this year, companies have announced 806,383 job cuts, the highest YTD since 2020 when 1,847,696 were announced. It is up 75% from the 460,530 job cuts announced through the first seven months of last year and is up 6% from the 2024 full year total of 761,358.

How are you going to spin those numbers to make them look good?

You can’t.

This reminds me so much of what we witnessed in 2008 and 2009.

Most of the country is living on the edge financially, and so a job loss can be absolutely catastrophic.

Once you are out of work, it can be so tempting to turn to debt to bridge the gap.

Of course these days many Americans are piling on tremendous amounts of debt without even being out of work.

As a result, U.S. households are now more than 18 trillion dollars in debt.

Take a moment and think about how crazy that is.

When you break that down, that is approximately $53,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

We are literally drowning in debt, and one recent study discovered that about two-thirds of all U.S. adults “lie about or hide their financial struggles from family and friends”…

• Two-thirds of Americans with debt lie about or hide their financial struggles from family and friends
• The average American carries $42,000 in debt but understates the amount by $6,565 when discussing it
• Shame drives the secrecy, with nearly 30% citing embarrassment as their main reason for hiding debt
• Financial deception damages relationships for 73% of people with debt, often causing arguments and isolation

Most of us try to hide our financial struggles because we are ashamed.

But it shouldn’t be that way.

If we could just be open and honest with one another about what is going on, we would find that there are countless others that are going through the same thing.

The entire economy is failing, and if we can get people to understand that they won’t be so quick to blame themselves for their troubles.

Unfortunately, right now conditions are moving in the wrong direction very rapidly.

Residential investment was down during the first quarter of 2025, and it was way down during the second quarter of 2025…

In May, Citi Research recalled that the late economist Ed Leamer famously published a paper in 2007 that said residential investment is the best leading indicator of an oncoming recession.

“We would be wise to heed his warning,” Citi said.

In fact, residential fixed investment shrank 4.6% in the second quarter, according to data released Wednesday, after contracting 1.3% in the first quarter.

One of the primary reasons why residential investment is way down is because home sales are way down.

In fact, during the second quarter home sales were the lowest that we have seen in 13 years…

America’s spring homebuying season just hit its weakest point in over a decade — marking the slowest market since 2012 and sparking fears that a full-blown price collapse could be next.

Spring is traditionally the hottest time for pending home sales but that’s no longer the case in the in the now struggling US housing market.

In 2025, April through June brought the lowest sales in 13 years, according to Redfin.

Let’s get real.

The housing market is in a depressed state.

And if we stay on the path that we are on, the rest of the economy will be in a depressed state soon too.

Decades of very foolish decisions have brought us to this point, and more Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing day.

If you still have your spot in the middle class, you should be very grateful.

Because soon even more Americans will be applying for hundreds of jobs without any success at all.

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.

Have the official employment numbers finally achieved peak fakeness?  We just got another perfect example of why so many of us have completely lost faith in the fake figures that government bureaucrats have been feeding us.  For months we were told that employment was booming, but now we are being told that just the opposite is happening.  So what is the truth?  If you want the truth, you need to look at the numbers coming in from private sources, because the government numbers are a load of bunk.

How in the world do 258,000 jobs suddenly disappear into thin air?

The BLS just revised the employment numbers for May and June by a combined total of 258,000 jobs, and this completely shocked a lot of the experts…

Nonfarm payrolls added 73,000 in July, far lower than the 100,000 expected by analysts. The unemployment rate also ticked up to 4.2 percent.

The report also sharply revised down the figures for May and June by a combined 258,000 jobs from the previously released figures.

Following the revision June’s total was left at just 14,000 and May’s at 19,000 — effectively flat. Analysts say July’s figure is also likely to be revised lower, possibly into negative territory.

The U.S. needs to add approximately 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth.

Even if these numbers were accurate, they would still be horrible.

But they aren’t accurate.

I have always felt that the Household survey is at least somewhat more accurate, and it showed a loss of 260,000 jobs last month…

The number was even uglier in the Household survey, which showed a drop of 260K workers in July, the 3rd biggest monthly drop of 2025.

So which is it?

Did the U.S. gain 73,000 jobs last month or did we lose 260,000 jobs?

I can understand why President Trump is so frustrated.

The numbers are all over the place.

Shortly after the employment report was released, Trump announced the firing of the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics…

Hours after disappointing jobs data reflected cracks in the U.S. economy, President Trump said Friday that he planned to fire the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, and implied on social media that she had manipulated the monthly data for political reasons.

Wow.

We have never seen a president do that before.

On Truth Social, Trump explained his reasoning for firing her…

I was just informed that our Country’s “Jobs Numbers” are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory. This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Growth in March 2024 by approximately 818,000 and, then again, right before the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000. These were Records — No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes. McEntarfer said there were only 73,000 Jobs added (a shock!) but, more importantly, that a major mistake was made by them, 258,000 Jobs downward, in the prior two months. Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative. The Economy is BOOMING under “TRUMP” despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with Interest Rates, where they lowered them twice, and substantially, just before the Presidential Election, I assume in the hopes of getting “Kamala” elected – How did that work out? Jerome “Too Late” Powell should also be put “out to pasture.” Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Personally, I believe that the numbers that we get from private sources give us a much truer picture of what is really going on in the economy.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S. employers announced 62,075 job cuts in July.  That figure is 140 percent higher than it was in July 2024…

U.S.-based employers announced 62,075 job cuts in July, up 29% from June’s 47,999. It is up 140% from 25,885 announced in the same month last year, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

July’s job cuts are well above average for this month since the pandemic. From 2021 to 2024, job cut announcements in July averaged 23,584. Considering the past decade (2015-2025), last month’s announced cuts are still above the average of 60,398.

As I have been warning for months, we really are seeing widespread layoffs all over the nation.

Overall, U.S. employers have announced 806,383 job cuts during the first seven months of 2025.  That is a 75 percent increase over the first seven months of last year…

So far this year, companies have announced 806,383 job cuts, the highest YTD since 2020 when 1,847,696 were announced. It is up 75% from the 460,530 job cuts announced through the first seven months of last year and is up 6% from the 2024 full year total of 761,358.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas doesn’t have a political agenda to push.

They are just reporting the facts.

The tech industry has been getting hit particularly hard by layoffs, and many of those layoffs are “directly tied to the advent of AI”…

Of those layoffs, the technology industry wielded the sharpest axe — private companies in the sector have announced more than 89,000 job cut, up 36% from a year ago. Since 2023, more than 27,000 job cuts have been directly tied to the advent of AI, according to the firm.

“The industry is being reshaped by the advancement of artificial intelligence and ongoing uncertainty surrounding work visas, which have contributed to workforce reductions,” Challenger, Gray & Christmas said.

Other numbers also confirm that the economy is rapidly moving in the wrong direction.

For example, factory activity in the United States just contracted “at the fastest pace in nine months”…

US factory activity contracted in July at the fastest pace in nine months, dragged down by a faster decline in employment as orders continued to shrink.

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index decreased 1 point last month to 48, according to data released Friday. The gauge has been below 50, which indicates contraction, for five straight months.

A measure of factory employment slid to the lowest level in more than five years, suggesting producers are stepping up efforts to control costs amid higher tariffs and softer demand. Government figures this week showed sluggish consumer spending and business investment in the first half of the year.

We really do have a growing crisis on our hands.

Unfortunately, what we have experienced so far is just the beginning.

I fully expect economic conditions to deteriorate significantly by the end of 2025.

So hold on tight and don’t let go, because things are about to get a lot crazier.

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.

It was nice while it lasted.  Nations all over the globe had until August 1st to agree to a trade deal with the Trump administration.  Some of them made deals, but most of them did not.  Those that did not will now be hit by a “wall of tariffs”, with individual rates being determined at the discretion of the White House.  So how will this “wall of tariffs” affect the U.S. economy?  Ultimately, it is going to take some time for this drama to fully play out.  The products that will be in our stores this month were brought into our country well before deadline day.  The products that will be brought into our country after deadline day will start showing up in our stores during the months ahead, and that is when we could start experiencing price hikes on certain things.

According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, nations that decided not to make a deal will be receiving letters from President Trump which will inform them of the consequences…

For countries that were not able to strike a deal, they should expect a letter from the Trump administration soon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing Thursday.

“The rest of those countries that either do not have a deal or have a letter, they will be hearing from this administration by the midnight deadline tonight,” Leavitt said.

It remains unclear what tariff will be placed on those countries’ imports to the United States, however. Those discussions are taking place today, Leavitt said, and Trump will sign executive orders this afternoon or this evening setting those new tariff rates.

Thankfully, deals with some of our most important trading partners have been reached.

For example, South Korea was able to make a deal with President Trump right at the deadline…

President Donald Trump announced a “full and complete trade deal” with South Korea on Thursday evening — an agreement committing $350 billion in investment into the United States and significantly eroding Korean automaker advantages in the U.S. market.

The Korean team did manage, however, to convince Washington to accept a deal that did not require South Korea to increase its imports of American beef or rice, a point of significant contention during prior negotiation sessions.

That is good news, because we do a tremendous amount of business with South Korea.

As for our closest neighbors, the news is mixed.

Mexico was given an extra 90 days to make a deal after a “very successful” call between President Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum…

President Trump on Thursday said he’s giving Mexico an additional 90 days to strike a trade deal, with the announcement coming a day before his administration’s Aug. 1 deadline to impose 30% tariffs on imports from the nation.

Mr. Trump had said earlier this month that the 30% import duties would begin on Friday for Mexican imports, saying at the time that the country had not done enough to stop North America from turning into a “Narco-Trafficking Playground.”

In his Thursday social media post, the president said he agreed to a 90-day extension during a phone conversation with Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum, which he described as “very successsful.”

Meanwhile, no deal has been made with Canada yet, and President Trump is warning that Canada’s support for a Palestinian state may make it “very hard” to do so…

While some Europeans are hailing Canada’s move, this has already provoked a swift and threatening reaction from President Trump.

“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!” he wrote on Truth Social.

The threat to blow up trade talks due to Palestinian recognition comes as the US is dangling a 35% tariff hike over Canada if a mutual agreement cannot be reached by August 1 – literally tomorrow.

I think that some sort of an agreement with Canada will eventually be reached, but I cannot say the same thing about the BRICS nations.

In fact, because Brazil has been so uncooperative they have just been hit with a 50 percent tariff rate…

Trump signed executive actions on Wednesday imposing a 50% tariff on Brazil, a 50% tariff on certain copper products and suspending a tax perk for all countries that allowed cheap packages to fly into the US duty-free.

Our relations with Brazil are going downhill really quickly, and that is not a good thing.

As for Russia and India, Trump just said that they “can take their dead economies down together, for all I care”…

In response, Trump lashed out on Truth Social media early Thursday morning, labeling India a “dead economy” and claiming the U.S. does “very little business” with the country.

“I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.

He continued, “We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World,” adding, “Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!”

Wow.

I am not sure what to say about that.

More than a billion people live in India, and so it is in our interest to have a positive relationship with them.

Of course more than a billion people live in China too, and a permanent deal with China has still not been reached.

Unlike the August 1st deadline for everyone else, the deadline for reaching a permanent deal with China is August 12th…

The Trump administration’s trade talks with China has taken a different tack than the rest of the world. The world’s second largest economy was firmly in Trump’s trade crosshairs from the moment he took office.

Rather than a deal, China has reached a series of suspensions over its “reciprocal” tariff rate. It was initially hit with a 34% tariff from “Liberation Day,” before a series of back-and-forth measures between the two sides saw the duties skyrocket to 145% duties for Chinese imports to the U.S. and 125% for U.S. imports to China.

However, both sides agreed to reduced tariffs in May, after their first trade meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. The truce was agreed to last till Aug. 12.

If August 12th arrives and tariffs on Chinese goods go up to 145 percent, that would create quite a bit of chaos.

Hopefully that will not happen.

But without a doubt we have entered a period of tremendous worldwide turmoil, and trade wars are definitely going to be a contributing factor.

If there are foreign-made goods that you are going to need in the months ahead, hopefully you have already purchased them by now.

Let us hope that we will see permanent trade deals get made with China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico and Canada, but we also need to be prepared for what will transpire if that does not happen.

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.

Oops, they did it again.  Even though the housing market has been in a depressed state for an extended period of time and even though economic conditions are slowing down all over the country, the Federal Reserve has once again refused to lower interest rates.  What in the world are they thinking?  I certainly share President Trump’s frustration with the Fed.  Central banks all over the world have been cutting rates, but our central bank just won’t budge.  Have Fed officials gone completely insane, or are they purposely trying to destroy the U.S. economy?

Those that have been following my work for an extended period of time already know that I am not a fan of the Federal Reserve at all.  And now we have another very clear example of the Fed’s lack of competence…

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it’s keeping its benchmark interest rate unchanged, citing elevated uncertainty over the nation’s economic outlook.

The decision to hold rates steady marks a continuation of the Fed’s “wait-and-see” strategy this year, as it monitors the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs on consumer prices.

There were two Fed governors that did not agree with this decision.  This was the first time since 1993 that more than one Fed governor has dissented…

For the first time since 1993 more than one Fed governor voted against the Fed chair Jerome Powell and the committee’s majority decision.

The dissenters – governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman – were both appointed by Trump and like the President support cutting rates.

For months Trump has pressured Powell to cut rates – currently between 4.25 and 4.5 percent – threatened to fire him, appoint a shadow chair and even harangued him over the cost of improvements to the Fed’s offices.

There are some experts that argue that we need to continue to keep interest rates at elevated levels in order to get inflation under control.

I definitely acknowledge that our seemingly endless cost of living crisis is a major concern.

But what about the housing market?

It has been in a depressed state for a long time.

Last year, sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell to the lowest level that we have seen since 1995…

Sales of existing homes in the US fell last year to the lowest level in almost three decades, as sky-high home prices and elevated mortgage rates squeezed home buyers.

Sales of previously owned homes, which make up the vast majority of the market, totaled 4.06 million in 2024, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. That’s the lowest level since 1995 and slightly below 2023’s similarly anemic levels.

And this year, sales of existing homes are expected to be even lower than they were last year…

Sales volume for existing homes, previously projected to grow slightly this year compared with 2024, is now expected to fall 1.5% annually, to just 4 million transactions.

That would mark the slowest year for existing-home sales since 1995, when they registered 3.8 million. Home sales were also at their lowest since 1995 in both 2023 and 2024, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Things were not even this bad during the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009.

The primary reason why homes are not selling is because interest rates are way too high.

Is the Fed just going to sit there and watch the life get squeezed out of one of the most important pillars of our economy?

Of course there are many pundits that are pointing to today’s GDP number as evidence that the overall economy is doing well…

Gross domestic product, a sum of goods and services activity across the sprawling U.S. economy, jumped 3% for the April through June period, according to figures adjusted for seasonality and inflation.

That topped the Dow Jones estimate for 2.3% and helped reverse a decline of 0.5% for the first quarter that came largely due to a huge drop in imports, which subtract from the total, as well as weak consumer spending amid tariff concerns.

That number looks pretty good until you realize that it was artificially boosted by a massive decline in imports.

In fact, we are being told that a huge drop in imports somehow added 5.2 percentage points to our GDP during the second quarter…

With Trump’s double-digit tariffs looming, American retailers and manufacturers raced to order foreign goods early in the year before the levies took effect. That led to an unprecedented flood of imports, which must be subtracted from GDP – the goods that consumers, companies and the public sector bought – because they’re made overseas.

Since those purchases were pulled forward, companies didn’t need to order as many goods from other countries last quarter and imports plunged 30.3%, reversing the 37.9% rise that dampened output earlier and bolstering U.S. growth. As a result, those foreign shipments added 5.2 percentage points to growth after subtracting a whopping 4.7 points in the January-March period.

If you took away the 5.2 percentage points that were added to our GDP due to falling imports, economic growth would have been deeply negative last quarter.

And based on all of the other economic data that we have been getting, that would make all the sense in the world.

We see a similar thing going on with the official employment numbers that the government has been giving us.

Thanks to the “birth-death model”, the U.S. has supposedly added 614,000 jobs so far this year.

But if you take away the “birth-death model”, the U.S. has actually lost 62,000 jobs so far this year…

So far this year, the net birth-death model has converted what would have been a 62,000-job decline in not seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment into a 614,000-job gain. In the note cited above, Bloomberg Economics estimated that the model and other factors have been artificially boosting seasonally adjusted gains of 130,000 a month so far this year by about 80,000 a month. If even roughly correct (Bloomberg Economics’ payroll overcount estimates as of June 2024 were about twice as big as what the BLS eventually reported), this would mean another sharp downward revision next February, the fifth in the last seven years.

I don’t have any confidence in the numbers that the government gives us at this stage.

When President Trump called them “fake” prior to the election, he was right on target.

One recent survey found that 70 percent of Americans are feeling “anxiety and depression” due to the finances.

That wouldn’t be happening if our economy really was in good shape.

Unfortunately, as long as the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates at elevated levels it is going to be a real struggle to turn things around.

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.

Did you know that U.S. households are carrying $1.18 trillion in credit card debt? Considering the fact that the average rate of interest on credit card balances is now over 20 percent, that is not good news at all. Sadly, most of the country is just barely scraping by from month to month in this very harsh economic environment, and turning to credit cards for some relief can be extremely tempting. A thousand dollar credit card balance can turn into four or five thousand dollars in the blink of an eye, and once you get that deep into the hole it can be very difficult to ever dig yourself out. Of course if you end up losing your job or having a major medical emergency, that can be enough to push you completely over the edge financially. Today, that is happening to an alarming number of Americans.

For some perspective, let’s go back to the end of 2024.  At that time, it was being reported that “credit card loan defaults soared this year”…

Experts are sounding the alarm over a new report indicating credit card loan defaults soared this year, warning the dam is about to break on Americans’ record-high consumer debt.

During the first nine months of 2024, lenders wrote off more than $46 billion in seriously delinquent credit card loans, according to a report from the Financial Times citing data analyzed by BankRegData. That’s an increase of 50% from the first three quarters of 2023, and the highest since 2010.

Unfortunately, this crisis has continued to intensify in recent months.

Delinquency rates have “hit the highest levels in more than a decade”, and this is especially true for younger borrowers…

Delinquency rates have doubled since the record lows of 2021. On one hand, this makes sense: Consumer credit has grown 20% since 2021. Stimulus-fueled excess savings drove down credit card balances during the pandemic, then, as the economy opened up, consumers depleted those savings. This has also reignited delinquencies.

But delinquency rates haven’t just rebounded — they’ve hit the highest levels in more than a decade. Even more concerning, the rate of credit card borrowers who transitioned to serious delinquency (90-plus days) is now at 2008 levels. Borrowers age 18-29 make up the biggest portion of this group.

This is starting to become a big problem for our banks.

In particular, small banks have been getting absolutely hammered by very high delinquency rates.

Let’s hope that we can get this turned around.

Our seemingly endless cost of living crisis is putting a tremendous amount of strain on our society, and even delinquency rates for high income households have been soaring…

Upper-income Americans are increasingly falling behind on credit card and auto loan payments, signaling an underlying vulnerability in the US economy as the labor market slows.

Delinquencies on such debts from those making at least $150,000 annually have jumped almost 20% over the last two years, faster than for middle- and lower-income borrowers, according to the credit-scoring firm VantageScore. A recent Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis study found the share of people making late card payments in the highest-income zip codes has risen twice as much over the last year as in the lowest-income ones.

Are the facts that I just shared with you a sign that the economy is healthy or that the economy is unhealthy?

Needless to say, the answer is self-evident.

Despite what the talking heads on CNBC are telling you, the truth is that most of the nation is really struggling right now.

But no matter how much you are struggling, you should avoid going into credit card debt, because credit card debt is financial poison.

Unfortunately, today the average U.S. household is carrying more than $6,000 in credit card debt…

• The average U.S. household has $6,120 in credit card debt.
• Total U.S. household credit card debt is currently at $1.18 trillion, making up 6% of all household debt.
• Washington, D.C., carries the highest level of credit card debt per capita at $5,360 on average, while Mississippi carries the lowest at $2,940 on average.
• Americans aged 65 to 74 have more credit card debt than any other age range, coming in at an average of $7,720 in debt.

Can you guess what the average rate of interest on all of that credit card debt is?

I just asked Google AI, and I was told that the “average APR for all credit card accounts in Q2 2025 was 21.16%”.

Wow.

If you are paying more than 20 percent interest on a credit card balance, you are getting absolutely killed financially.

And “buy now, pay later” plans can be even worse.

At this point, those plans have become so lucrative that even Costco is getting in on the game…

Costco is now offering a buy-now, pay-later option for online shoppers through a new multi-year partnership with Affirm.

The installment plans will allow customers to select the payment option at checkout for purchases ranging from $500 to $17,500.

Customers will be checked for eligibility in real time and can choose a monthly payment plan that fits their budget.

I know that it can be so tempting to reach for a short-term solution.

But don’t do it.

You will always regret it later.

But I certainly understand why so many Americans are looking for an easy way out.

I shared this yesterday, but I felt that I should share it again today.  A recent survey discovered that 83 percent of U.S. adults 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.

If you are stressed about your finances, you have lots of company.

Economic conditions are very painful, and more Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing day.

Unfortunately, even more trouble is potentially on the horizon.

The U.S. and China still have not been able to reach a permanent trade agreement, and if that does not happen by the deadline both nations “are set to once again place historic tariffs on each other’s imports starting August 12″…

Chinese and American trade negotiators concluded their two-day meeting in Stockholm without a resolution to avert tariffs from skyrocketing back to ultra-high levels that formed an effective blockade on trade between the world’s two largest economies. But President Donald Trump’s trade advisers and their Chinese counterparts sounded a hopeful note.

Without an agreement, the United States and China are set to once again place historic tariffs on each other’s imports starting August 12.

We have about two weeks.

Hopefully negotiators will be able to work something out.

But even if an agreement is reached, so many other long-term trends are taking us in the wrong direction very rapidly.

Now is a time to get “lean and mean” financially, because I have a feeling that the economic news is going to get very “interesting” during the second half of this 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.