Money

Direct Government Censorship Of The Internet Is Here

August 31, 2023August 31, 2023 by Michael

Censorship of the Internet has been getting worse for years, but we just crossed a threshold which is going to take things to a whole new level. On August 25th, a new law known as the “Digital Services Act” went into effect in the European Union. Under this new law, European bureaucrats will be able to order big tech companies to censor any content that is considered to be “illegal”, “disinformation” or “hate speech”. That includes content that is posted by users outside of the European Union, because someone that lives in the European Union might see it. I wrote about this a few days ago, but I don’t think that people are really understanding the implications of this new law. In the past, there have been times when governments have requested that big tech companies take down certain material, but now this new law will give government officials the power to force big tech companies to take down any content that they do not like. Any big tech companies that choose not to comply will be hit with extremely harsh penalties.

Of course mainstream news outlets such as the Washington Post are attempting to put a positive spin on this new law. We are being told that it will “safeguard” us from “illegal content” and “disinformation”…

New rules meant to safeguard people from illegal content, targeted ads, unwanted algorithmic feeds and disinformation online are finally in force, thanks to new regulation in the European Union that took effect this month.

Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

When this new law was first approved, NPR admitted that it will enable European governments to “take down a wide range of content”…

Under the EU law, governments would be able to ask companies take down a wide range of content that would be deemed illegal, including material that promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, hate speech and commercial scams.

In addition to “illegal content” and “hate speech”, the Digital Services Act also applies to “hoaxes” and any material that is considered to be “disinformation”. The following comes from the official website of the European Commission…

At the same time, the DSA regulates very large online platforms’ and very large online search engines responsibilities when it comes to systemic issues such as disinformation, hoaxes and manipulation during pandemics, harms to vulnerable groups and other emerging societal harms.

These new content rules are so vague that they could apply to just about anything.

And that is precisely what they want.

From this point forward, if you post something that they do not like, they will have the power to have it taken down.

Even if you don’t live in the European Union, they can have your content taken down, because someone in the European Union might see it.

So who will be doing the censoring?

Well, it is being reported that “hundreds of unelected EU bureaucrats will decide what constitutes disinformation and instruct Big Tech firms to censor it”…

Under this Orwellian regime, a team of hundreds of unelected EU bureaucrats will decide what constitutes disinformation and instruct Big Tech firms to censor it. The firms themselves, faced with reputational risk and financial penalties, will have little choice other than to comply. This can be done in all manner of ways: simply by human moderators removing content, by shadow-banning problematic creators to reduce their reach, by demonetising certain content, and by tweaking algorithms to favour or disfavour certain topics. And though, legally speaking, the DSA only applies in the EU, once installed inside Big Tech firms, this vast content-regulation apparatus will surely affect users in the rest of the world, too.

In addition, the official website of the European Commission is telling us that big tech companies must “react with priority” to any content that has been reported by “trusted flaggers”…

A priority channel will be created for trusted flaggers – entities which have demonstrated particular expertise and competence – to report illegal content to which platforms will have to react with priority.

This means that far left organizations that have been set up to police content online will now be given extraordinary power to restrict speech on the Internet.

Needless to say, the Internet is never going to be the same after this.

Initially, this new law will apply to 19 very large online platforms…

The online platforms affected are Alibaba AliExpress, Amazon Store, Apple AppStore, Booking.com, Facebook, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Shopping, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, X (listed as Twitter), Wikipedia, YouTube, the European clothing retailer Zalando, Bing and Google Search.

If any of those large online platforms choose not to comply with the new law, the penalties could be extremely severe…

A firm that does not comply with the law could face a complete ban in Europe or fines running up to 6% of its global revenue.

Last month, X/Twitter said it was on track to generate $3bn (£2.4bn) in revenue. A fine of 6% would be the equivalent of £144m.

Once we get to February 24th, 2024, the Digital Services Act will also apply to a vast multitude of smaller platforms.

At that point, it will be very difficult to escape the reach of this new law.

And just to make sure that they can keep a very close eye on things, the EU just established a brand new office in San Francisco on June 22nd…

European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton cut the ribbon to commemorate the official launch of the European Union’s San Francisco office on Thursday, June 22, alongside Lieutenant Governor of California Eleni Kounalakis, California State Senator Scott Wiener, and Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs Adrian Vazquez.

“I am very glad to be here today in Silicon Valley, a global centre for digital technology and innovation, to officially inaugurate the new European Union office in San Francisco,” Commissioner Breton said in his keynote address to an audience of business and technology sector leaders. “As like-minded partners who strive for reciprocity and common principles, all while respecting our respective democratic processes, our transatlantic ties are more relevant than ever in the area of technology.”

For many years, the Internet was one of the last bastions for free speech.

But now everything has changed.

From this point forward, far left European bureaucrats will get to determine what is acceptable and what is not acceptable on our large online platforms.

Direct government censorship of the Internet is here, and that is going to make it much more difficult to share the truth with a world that desperately needs it.

These are such dark times, and they are getting darker with each passing day.

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

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible. I have also started a brand new Substack newsletter, and I encourage you to subscribe so that you won’t miss any of my articles. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Speculation Grows That Warren Buffett Is “Bracing For A Recession” As Consumer Confidence Plummets And Retailers Fall On Hard Times

August 30, 2023August 30, 2023 by Michael

The Biden administration is trying really hard to convince us that the U.S. economy is doing just fine, but the numbers just keep getting worse and worse. Consumer confidence is plummeting, large corporations are conducting mass layoffs all over the country, and major retailers are really struggling right now. Meanwhile, some of the smartest guys in the financial world are making moves that would only make sense if the economy was headed for big trouble. Earlier this month, I wrote about how Michael Burry has bet 1.6 billion dollars that the stock market is going to crash. He made a ton of money in 2008 by being on the correct side of the financial crisis, and he plans to make even more money this time around. This week, speculation has been growing that Warren Buffett also believes that a major downturn is coming. In fact, Business Insider is warning that Warren Buffett “may be bracing for a recession” because he has been selling off stocks at a staggering pace…

Berkshire sold a net $8 billion of stocks and slowed its pace of buybacks last quarter, sparking a 13% rise in its money pile to a near-record $147 billion.

The sprawling conglomerate has now disposed of a net $33 billion of stocks over the past three quarters, fueling a $38 billion increase in its stash of cash, cash equivalents, and Treasury bills during that time.

Buffett’s second-quarter moves “are consistent with the anticipation of a recession and the fact that stocks are currently pricey,” Hanke told Insider.

Burry and Buffett are both extremely sharp, and they clearly understand what the economic numbers are telling them.

At this moment, most U.S. consumers are struggling to make ends meet from month to month and millions of them are absolutely drowning in debt.

And the latest consumer confidence figures are downright dismal…

Consumer confidence cratered in August, falling from a downwardly revised 114.0 last month to 106.1. The projection was for a slight increase to 116.

Americans don’t think the economy is doing well currently. The Present Situation Index—based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions—fell to 144.8 from 153.0.

And they don’t think the economy is going to do well in the near future. The Expectations Index— based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions—declined to 80.2 in August. That reversed July’s sharp uptick to 88.0.

An Expectations Index below 80 generally signals an impending recession.

So that means that we are almost to the level that “signals an impending recession”.

Of course other numbers suggest that a major downturn has already arrived. When the economy is booming, FedEx and UPS have to schedule more flights because they have so many packages to handle. But at this point the number of package flights is falling precipitously…

The number of package flights operated by FedEx Express and UPS significantly declined month over month in July, underscoring how far the overall air cargo market has sunk since the spring of 2022 and the effect of efficiency initiatives the companies have undertaken in response to lower express volumes.

FedEx (NYSE: FDX) flew 9% fewer domestic flights last month than in June following small sequential gains the prior two months, with year-over-year flight activity down 14%, according to an analysis by investment bank Morgan Stanley. The year-over-year decline in UPS’ flight activity accelerated to 13% from 10% in June. UPS (NYSE: UPS) reduced July flights by 14% from June. Flight activity in May and June, by comparison, was relatively stable.

At the same time, big companies all over America continue to lay off more workers.

Right now, we are seeing a lot of large financial institutions let people go as turmoil in the banking industry continues to spread…

BMO Financial Group, Wells Fargo, and USAA have reported hundreds of layoffs to state officials in recent weeks as the U.S. banking industry continues to downsize.

The job cuts come as banking executives express caution about the industry’s growth prospects in the second half of the year, and as some banks divest certain parts of their businesses.

Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

There will be many more layoffs in the months ahead.

Needless to say, the second half of 2023 will not be a particularly good time for retailers.

In fact, Best Buy is already projecting that sales will fall this year more than originally anticipated…

U.S. shoppers have continued to pull back on tech spending, according to the latest earnings report from Best Buy.

The retailer on Tuesday lowered the high end of its full-year revenue outlook amid declining sales, and now expects to make between $43.8 billion and $44.5 billion in revenue during fiscal year 2024, down from its prior guidance of up to $45.2 billion. Comparable sales from stores, websites and call centers open at least 14 months are expected to dip 4.5% to 6% this year, compared to the previous estimate of 3% to 6%.

And we have just learned that Rite Aid is suddenly on the verge of filing for bankruptcy…

Philadelphia-based Rite Aid’s stock price dipped more than 50% Friday after the reports on the pending bankruptcy filing were published by The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.The Chapter 11 filing would allow the company to restructure its more than $3 billion debt load and help it address lawsuits alleging the company filled hundreds of thousands of opioid prescriptions unlawfully.

Every day, we hear of even more retailers that have gotten into trouble.

Stores are being shut down all over the nation at a frightening rate, and this is particularly true in many of our core urban areas.

For example, the following is from an article about downtown San Francisco that CNN just posted…

In many ways, San Francisco’s downtown is in dire straits. The city’s Union Square neighborhood — once bustling with shoppers, diners, and tourists — has suffered from declining foot traffic and shuttered storefronts.

Stores in the area now have papered-over windows and “Retail for Lease” signs, according to Google Street View, which was last updated in June.

But downtown San Francisco still seems relatively prosperous compared to downtown Oakland.

One man recently took a camera down there, and he discovered that so many stores have closed that it literally looks like a ghost town right now…

This is what communities all over America are going to look like during the very harsh economic environment that is ahead of us.

We have been warned for a long time that this crisis was coming, and now it is here.

Our leaders just kept making one self-destructive decision after another, and now we are in the early chapters of an economic nightmare.

Michael Burry and Warren Buffett are positioning themselves for what is coming.

What about you?

I hope that you are ready for the approaching storm, because it is really going to pack quite a punch.

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

8 Signs That We Are Right On The Verge Of A Major Credit Card Debt Crisis

August 29, 2023August 29, 2023 by Michael

We aren’t quite there yet, but an enormous credit card debt crisis is definitely brewing. Americans are becoming increasingly dependent on their credit cards to make ends meet from month to month, the percentage of us that are carrying balances from month to month is growing, and the average rate of interest on such balances has risen above 20 percent. If you can possibly avoid it, do not carry credit card balances from month to month, because that will strangle you financially. Unfortunately, our young people are never taught this in school, and so many of them get into deep financial trouble when they become adults. And once you get into deep financial trouble, it can take many years to get out of it.

In all my years, I have never seen numbers like we are witnessing right now. The following are 8 signs that we are right on the verge of a major credit card debt crisis…

#1 The total amount of credit card debt in the United States has surpassed the one trillion dollar mark and is now at the highest level ever recorded…

The New York Federal Reserve reported earlier in August that total credit card debt surged to $1.03 trillion during the three-month period from April to June, an increase of $45 billion – or 4.6% – from the previous quarter. It marks the highest level on record in Fed data dating back to 2003.

#2 The average rate of interest on credit card balances has now risen to a new all-time record high of 20.63 percent…

The dual increase in credit card usage and delinquency rates is particularly concerning because interest rates are astronomically high right now. The average credit card annual percentage rate, or APR, hit a new record of 20.63% last week, according to a Bankrate database that goes back to 1985.

#3 A whopping 47 percent of all U.S. cardholders are now carrying balances from month to month…

Many cardholders from all age and income groups are carrying over credit card balances, with 47 percent saying they do so — up from 39 percent in December 2021 — the survey (carried out in July) finds. Agewise, 53 percent of Gen Xers carryover card balances from month to month. Next were Gen Z consumers (52 percent) followed by millennials, (49 percent) and baby boomers (41 percent).

#4 The average credit card debt level in the United States just continues to grow…

The national average credit card debt grew to $7,227, according to the survey.

However, U.S. consumers in some states held more debt than others. Connecticut’s residents had the highest average debt level of $9,408, surpassing the national average by 30%, according to the survey. Right behind it were credit card holders in New York, registering the second-highest average debt of $9,165.

#5 Most Americans are not running up credit card debt because they are making frivolous purchases. According to one industry insider, most Americans are doing it “because they are under financial strain”…

Bankrate.com analyst Greg McBride said that “people aren’t financing purchases at 20% because everything is going swimmingly. They’re doing so because they are under financial strain.

#6 The number of credit card delinquencies in the U.S. has surged dramatically over the past two years…

The rising number of delinquent accounts also indicates people are having a hard time keeping up with credit card payments. The number of accounts past due by one cycle has increased 42.6% over the last two years. Delinquencies have crept up to the highest level since 2017.

#7 One recent survey discovered that many Americans that actually use personal loans to consolidate credit card debt end up quickly running up new credit card balances close to their previous levels…

A survey conducted by TransUnion between April 2021 and September 2022 found that borrowers who used a personal loan to consolidate their credit card debt saw their balances decrease by 57% on average, but for many, those balances returned close to their previous levels 18 months later.

#8 At a time when economic conditions are slowing down all over the nation, Americans are becoming increasingly dependent on their credit cards…

In fact, two in five Americans with credit cards said they were more dependent on their credit cards than ever before, the survey found. And 35% said they won’t be able to pay off their credit card debt before the end of the year. In addition, another 35% of respondents said they’d likely max out at least one credit card by the end of 2023.

“This increased reliance on credit cards is likely to lead many even deeper into debt – which is especially troublesome with interest rates well into the double digits,” Quicken said in its report.

Unfortunately, a lot more Americans are likely to get into credit card trouble in the months ahead, because the labor market is getting significantly tighter.

In fact, we just got some new numbers that have created quite a bit of alarm…

With consensus expecting only a modest drop in the July job openings from 9.582 million to 9.5 million, what the BLS reported instead was a doozy: in July there were just 8.827 million job openings, the first sub-9 million print since March 2021. It was also the 3rd biggest miss on record!

Worse, had the BLS not drastically slashed the May number from 9.582MM to a laughable 9.165MM, the drop would have been almost 800K job openings. And yes, today’s downward revision…

… continues the recent trend of every single data point in the Biden administration being revised sharply lower in subsequent month(s), in a coordinated propaganda attempt to make the economy look stronger, then quietly revise it away when everyone forgets.

The economy is clearly headed for a very rough period, and the long-term outlook is even worse.

So now is not the time to pile on more debt.

Instead, now is a time to batten down the hatches.

I would very much encourage you to get “lean and mean” financially, because those that are carrying high levels of debt are likely to experience a lot of pain during the stressful years ahead.

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

A “Prolonged Freeze” Has Descended Upon The U.S. Economy

August 27, 2023August 27, 2023 by Michael

The latest numbers are horrible, and they are going to get even worse if the Federal Reserve pushes interest rates even higher. We were warned that high rates would have an enormous negative impact on the economy, and that is precisely what has happened. Layoffs are way up so far this year, the commercial real estate market is absolutely imploding, and we are witnessing things happen in the housing market that haven’t happened in more than a decade. For example, last week it was revealed that sales of existing homes have fallen to a level that we have not seen since 2010…

Sales of previously owned homes dropped 2.2% in July from June to a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 4.07 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Sales were 16.6% lower compared with July of last year. Homes sold at the slowest July pace since 2010.

Of course in 2010 we were still dealing with the aftermath of the housing crisis of 2008 and 2009.

Needless to say, returning to such a depressed level is not a good thing at all.

Compared to July 2021, sales of previously-owned homes were down 32.5 percent in July 2023.

So just about a third of the entire market has been wiped out by higher rates.

And economists at Fannie Mae are warning that this may be the beginning of a “prolonged freeze”…

The U.S. housing market may be stuck in a prolonged freeze.

Fannie Mae economists projected in a revised forecast that stagnation in the housing market could last into 2024, whether the economy avoids a recession or not.

“Regardless of whether a soft landing is achieved over the coming year, we expect existing home sales to stay subdued and within a tight range,” they wrote.

The primary reason for this “prolonged freeze” is higher interest rates.

Last week, the average rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage shot up to the highest level that we have seen since 2001…

The average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rose again this week to the highest level since 2001, spelling even more pain for buyers in a market where housing affordability is already at an all-time low.

Freddie Mac’s latest data released Thursday shows the average rate for a 30-year fixed note has climbed to 7.23%, marking a second consecutive multi-decade record after last week’s average reached 7.09% for the first time since 2002.

Mortgage rates have shifted so dramatically over the past couple of years, and they are now far higher than they were prior to the pandemic…

Freddie Mac reported that rates on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage surged to 7.23% this week, well above the 5.55% rate recorded one year ago and the pre-pandemic average of 3.9%.

It marks the highest level for rates since 2001.

As a result, millions of potential home buyers are being forced to stay on the sidelines because they simply cannot afford the payments that they would be facing if they purchased a home right now.

And millions of potential home sellers are also being forced to stay on the sidelines.

Why?

Well, millions upon millions of Americans are currently locked into mortgages at very low rates.

Selling a home that has a mortgage at a very low rate and buying another home that comes with a mortgage at a much higher rate is not an attractive proposition for most of them.

So current owners are staying put in unprecedented numbers, and as a result the number of homes on the market is “down 46% from the typical amount before the COVID-19 pandemic began”…

The number of available homes on the market at the end of July was down by more than 9% from the same time last year and down 46% from the typical amount before the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, according to a recent report from Realtor.com.

If homes are not selling, the rest of the economy feels the pain as well.

This is a point that Mish Shedlock made extremely well in an article that he recently authored…

If people are not buying houses, they are not buying as much furniture, landscaping, paint, appliances, cabinets, and lawn mowers, etc., to the same extent if housing was strong.

This means truckers are not shipping as much goods as they would be otherwise.

As long as housing is in the gutter, demand for goods and services related to housing will remain in the gutter and so will demand for shipping those items.

He is right on target.

All over the nation, economic activity is slowing down.

And that means that there will be more layoffs. For example, on Thursday T-Mobile announced that it will be giving the axe to thousands of highly paid employees…

T-Mobile on Thursday announced it plans to lay off 5,000 employees, or around 7% of its total staff, over the next five weeks.

The reductions will largely affect corporate and back-office jobs that are “primarily duplicative” to other roles and will reduce the company’s middle management layers, CEO Mike Sievert said in a letter to employees Thursday. The company also plans to reduce its spending on “external workers and resources,” but its retail and “consumer care” staff who work directly with customers will not be affected, he said.

Sadly, if interest rates stay high this will be just the tip of the iceberg.

But instead of realizing the damage that has been done and cutting rates, Fed officials are telling us that rates could go even higher…

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned on Friday that additional rate increases might be required to put inflation on a convincing path to the central bank’s two percent target.

“Although inflation has moved down from its peak — a welcome development — it remains too high,” Powell said in his keynote address at the Kansas City Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “We are prepared to raise rates further if appropriate, and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective.”

This is suicidal.

They are supposed to be the “experts”, and so they must understand what higher rates would mean for the economy.

But it looks like they are going to raise rates anyway.

So I would encourage all of you to brace yourselves for a period of severe economic pain, because it appears that is what is in store for us.

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

Americans No Longer Have Faith In Our Major Institutions, And So Is The Collapse Of Our Civilization Inevitable?

August 23, 2023 by Michael

If the American people have lost faith in almost all of our major institutions, how is our civilization going to survive? If any collective effort is going to work, people have to believe in that effort. That is true whether we are talking about a sports team, a business partnership, a romantic relationship or a nation as a whole. When people stop believing, it is just a matter of time before failure arrives, and at this point the American people simply do not believe in those that are currently running our society. In fact, a recent Gallup survey discovered that faith in our major institutions has dropped to depressingly low levels. The survey asked people if they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in a long list of prominent institutions, and these were the results…

Small business: 65 percent
The military: 60 percent
The police: 43 percent
The medical system: 34 percent
The church or organized religion: 32 percent
The U.S. Supreme Court: 27 percent
Banks: 26 percent
The public schools: 26 percent
The presidency: 26 percent
Large technology companies: 26 percent
Organized labor: 25 percent
Newspapers: 18 percent
The criminal justice system: 17 percent
Television news: 14 percent
Big business: 14 percent
Congress: 8 percent

For nine of those major institutions that Gallup has been tracking since 1979, the average score has dropped from 48 percent to 26 percent over that time.

And Gallup says that confidence in almost every institution is currently at or near all-time lows…

Most of the institutions rated this year are within three points of their all-time-low confidence score, including four that are at or tied with their record low. These are the police, public schools, large technology companies and big business.

Only four institutions have a confidence score significantly above their historical low: the military, small business, organized labor and banks. However, the lows for these institutions were recorded more than a decade ago, while the recent trend for each has been downward.

Of course the truth is that most of our major institutions fully deserve these low scores.

Our federal government, our schools, our medical system, our major corporations and the mainstream media have all become beacons of corruption and incompetence in recent years.

Everywhere you look, society is breaking down and things are getting worse.

Let me give you one small example. In New York City, the rat problem has become so severe that they have just held their very first “Anti-Rat Day of Action”…

As New York City gets tough on its rodent problem, the first Anti-Rat Day of Action was held Saturday in Harlem.

City agencies, including the sanitation department, teamed up to show and tell people how to keep rats out of the community.

The city’s first rat czar was also on hand to provide times.

If you live in a city that needs to appoint a “rat czar”, you should probably consider moving.

According to one resident, there are “rats the size of Crocs” running around all over the place…

“We’ve had rats the size of Crocs just running up and down the street. Like a Croc shoe? A average size eight, running up and down the street,” Harlem resident Ruth McDaniels said.

Harlem is part of one of four mitigation zones in the city that will get additional funding to help combat rats.

Yuck!

Once upon a time, America’s shiny new cities were the envy of the entire world.

But now our major cities have degenerated into rotting, decaying hellholes. For instance, just consider what has happened to St. Louis…

In 1950, St. Louis was the eighth-largest city in the United States, with a population of 856,796. Today, that number has fallen to less than 300,000, a drop of some 65 percent. Major employers — Anheuser-Busch, McDonnell-Douglas, TWA, Southwestern Bell and Ralston Purina —have dramatically reduced their presence or left altogether. St. Louis is consistently ranked one of the most dangerous cities in the country. One in five people live in poverty. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has the highest rate of police killings per capita of the 100 largest police departments in the nation according to a 2021 report. Prisoners in the city’s squalid jails, where 47 people died in custody between 2009 and 2019, complain of water being shut off from their cells for hours and guards routinely pepper-spraying inmates, including those on suicide watch. The city’s crumbling infrastructure, hundreds of gutted and abandoned buildings, empty factories, vacant warehouses and impoverished neighborhoods replicate the ruins of other post-industrial American cities, the classic signposts of a civilization in terminal decline.

I wish that I could tell you that St. Louis was an exception.

But it isn’t.

All over America, cities are descending into chaos, and violence is out of control. One particularly disturbing incident in Oakland has made a lot of headlines in recent days…

Shocking video has emerged of a woman being pistol-whipped and dragged across gravel by two thugs in Democrat-led Oakland as the city grapples with a surging crime wave.

The attack happened on Wednesday August 16, 6.15pm on International Boulevard, and left the unidentified woman with severe injuries, police investigating in the East Bay city said.

Conditions in Oakland just continue to get worse and worse, and at this point things are so bad that some local business owners are comparing conditions in the city to the Vietnam War…

This latest incident is an example of violent crime running rampant across the Dem-led city, with business owners now comparing the area to a ‘battleground’ akin to wartime Vietnam. It’s become so severe that the city’s police force are also warning residents to secure their homes while they’re inside.

This is our country now.

You might want to get used to it, because things aren’t going to turn around any time soon.

In the early days of our country, Americans made “the Protestant work ethic” famous all over the world.

Our forefathers worked insanely hard, and they passed down a truly great society to us.

But now we don’t want to put in that same level of work.

Instead, we just keep getting lazier and lazier.

If a new bill that was just introduced in Pennsylvania becomes law, any business that has at least 500 workers will be forced “to reduce their work week from 40 to 32 hours a week”…

When those rare 3-day weekends pop up on the work schedule, it’s an office-wide celebration! Well, what if that was every week?

A new bill to create a four-day work week is about to be introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature.

It would require businesses with more than 500 employees to reduce their work week from 40 to 32 hours a week.

However, less work hours will not mean less pay!

Doesn’t that sound great?

Hey, I have an idea.

Let’s just not work at all and see how that turns out.

Sadly, we are even passing on our laziness to our kids.

In Portland, teachers will soon be banned from giving “zeroes” to kids that cheat or fail to do their assignments…

Portland Public Schools is workshopping new “equitable grading practices” that bar teachers from assigning “zeros” to students who cheat or fail to turn in assignments.

The district’s initiative aims to address “racial disparities” and “inequities” in grading and instruction, a “journey” that the district began “during the pandemic,” a handout reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon says. “Grading for equity,” the handout states, includes eliminating “zeros” as a grade—even when a student cheats or fails to turn in a test or assignment. It also calls for no penalties for late work and no grades for both homework and “non-academic factors,” such as “participation, attendance, effort, attitude, [and] behavior.”

Are you kidding me?

If this keeps up, how will we compete with the rest of the world?

The truth is that we won’t.

Our society is crumbling right in front of our eyes, and unless we find a way to turn things around we won’t last much longer.

But at this point most Americans simply do not have any motivation to make this country a better place.

Most of them would rather sit on their sofas stuffing Cheetos into their faces as they watch Netflix.

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

Major Supply Chain Issues Are Starting To Develop All Over The Country

August 21, 2023August 21, 2023 by Michael

Supply chain problems were supposed to be a thing of the past, but instead our supply chains just keep getting hit by issue after issue. Have you noticed that it has become really difficult to acquire parts and get things repaired? It isn’t just your imagination. And have you noticed that store shelves seem rather sparse just about wherever you go shopping? During my latest visit to the local grocery store, I was stunned to see how thin stock levels had become. I assumed that it was because I had arrived at a bad time and that they were about to be restocked. But then I started looking into this, and I discovered that major supply chain issues are starting to develop all over the country.

According to a survey that was recently conducted, a whopping 82 percent of those that visit brick and mortar stores have had problems with things being out of stock this year. That figure is up 11 percent from the same time last year…

More than four-fifths (82%) of bricks and mortar shoppers say they’ve experienced items being ‘out of stock’ this year, according to new research.

The data – from software provider Retail Insight – finds this headline figure is up 11 percentage points year-on-year, and says supply chain disruptions causing it are now seriously threatening customer loyalty.

The findings are based on a survey of 1,000 people, and found shoppers believe product availability has become increasingly a problem since the onset of the pandemic – as reported by 71% of respondents. An additional three-quarters (75%) said product availability has worsened since the start of the cost of living crisis.

Of course it isn’t just brick and mortar stores that are having trouble keeping things in stock.

Here is more from that same survey…

This was also a story amongst online shoppers, where incidents of ‘out of stock’ items have increased by six percentage points year-on-year, with 60% of customers now seeing out of stock items online.

At a time when things are supposed to be getting back to “normal”, these numbers are going up.

That isn’t good.

So what in the world is going on?

Well, the truth is that it isn’t just one thing.

In a video that he just posted, Steve Poplar explains that our supply chains are literally being hit from countless different directions right now…

Sadly, some of the wounds to our supply chains are self-inflicted.

For example, the Biden administration has decided to impose new tariffs that “could raise the prices of canned food by up to 30%”…

The Biden administration on Thursday announced new tariffs on can-making metal imported from China, Germany and Canada, a move that food companies say could lead to higher prices for some canned foods.

Chinese products would be subject to the highest tariffs of the three countries—a levy of 122.52% of their import value. That rate partly reflects Chinese companies’ refusal to cooperate with the investigation to prove their independence from the Chinese Communist Party, an administration official said.

The Consumer Brands Association, a trade group representing companies such as Campbell Soup and Fresh Del Monte Produce, estimated new tariffs, if applied aggressively, could raise the prices of canned food by up to 30%.

Thanks Joe.

Now a can of soup that currently costs us about two dollars will soon be close to three dollars when you add on sales tax.

On top of everything else, the seemingly endless drought in the middle of the country is likely to mean that corn production and soy production will both be well below expectations this year.

This week, a massive heat dome will drive the heat index above 110 degrees in our agricultural heartland, and that is not good news at all…

A heat dome will consume the Plains and Mississippi Valley into the South this week with oppressive and dangerous conditions, the National Weather Service reported early Monday.

“…The more widespread weather hazard extending through midweek involves searing temperatures impacting a majority of the central U.S. and Gulf Coast,” the NWS said. “Dangerous heat underneath an extremely potent upper-level ridge centered over the Middle Mississippi Valley is forecast to stretch from parts of the Upper Midwest to the Gulf Coast. Highs into the upper-90s and triple digits will be easy to come by over the next several days, with heat indices into the 110s when taking into account the humidity.”

Unfortunately, the entire globe has been dealing with very unusual weather patterns this summer, and global food prices are beginning to surge.

Needless to say, this is hitting those living in extreme poverty the hardest…

Prices for rice grown in Kenya soared a while ago because of higher fertilizer prices and a yearslong drought in the Horn of Africa that has reduced production. Cheap rice imported from India had filled the gap, feeding many of the hundreds of thousands of residents in Nairobi’s Kibera slum who survive on less than $2 a day.

But that is changing. The price of a 25-kilogram (55-pound) bag of rice has risen by a fifth since June. Wholesalers are yet to receive new stocks since India, the world’s largest exporter of rice by far, said last month that it would ban some rice shipments.

But even though we are in the early chapters of the worst global food crisis in modern history, leaders in the western world continue to do absolutely insane things in the name of fighting climate change.

Things are particularly crazy over in Europe…

Look to the Netherlands for further evidence. Dutch farmers, the backbone of a nation that is a leading exporter of meat and agricultural products, are being chased off their lands. A staggering number, 3,000 farms, are forecasted to be confiscated in the coming years. The tragic fallout is evident, with a reported 20 to 30 farmers tragically ending their lives annually.

Our friends in Europe are no strangers to these baffling decisions either. The European Commission greenlit a strategy to compensate livestock farmers for halting their operations in certain areas – with a stipulation that they never resume their animal breeding activities. The implications are clear: a drop in global food availability and an inevitable spike in prices.

Have they gone completely nuts?

Maybe.

Here in the United States, “suspicious fires” continue to erupt at key facilities over and over again.

The latest example happened at a large fertilizer plant in Bartlett, Texas…

The American Plant Food Corporation fertilizer plant fire has been contained, and the air quality is deemed good as Hazmat crews continue work to clean up the site of the fire, and firefighters work to clear the smolder, authorities said.

Barlett Mayor Chad Mees and Barlett Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief Steven Wentrcek on Monday said the fire department received the call about the fire at 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 20 at the plant located at 9901 North Highway 95 Bartlett.

Fire Chief Steven Wentrcek said that when crews arrived at the scene, the building was fully engulfed and help was sought from departments in surrounding areas.

We keep being told that it is just a “coincidence” that there have been dozens of such fires all over the nation.

But they just keep happening.

And we keep being told that our supply chain problems are being fixed.

But they just keep getting worse.

So what is going to happen when global events become a lot more chaotic in 2024 and beyond?

It is going to become increasingly difficult to stock up on things, and so I would plan accordingly.

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

The Next Major War Is Reportedly About To Begin, And “D-Day” Has Already Been Chosen

August 20, 2023August 20, 2023 by Michael

Not another one. As I have repeatedly warned my readers, leaders all over the globe seem to have come down with a really bad case of war fever. Instead of sitting down and attempting to find solutions through diplomacy, many of our leaders seem quite eager to use military force to settle matters these days. There is no peaceful end to the war in Ukraine on the horizon, China is making preparations to invade Taiwan, and the “shadow war” in the Middle East could easily erupt into a full-blown regional conflict. But in this article I am going to focus on the next war that is reportedly about to begin. A group of nations in western Africa known as ECOWAS is preparing to invade Niger with the approval of the EU and the Biden administration, and CNN is reporting that “D-Day” has already been chosen…

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS says it has chosen an undisclosed “D-Day” for a possible military intervention to restore Niger’s democratically elected president following last month’s coup.

Abdel-Fatau Musah, the Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace & Security of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc, said that military forces are “ready to go anytime the order is given” for military intervention in Niger.

“The D-day is also decided, which we are not going to disclose,” Musah told journalists after the two-day meeting of West African defense chiefs in the Ghanaian capital of Accra.

Musah went on to ominously declare that his alliance will not put up with any more coups in Niger and that they are “putting a stop to it at this time”…

The commissioner said the bloc had decided that the “coup in Niger is one coup too many,” for the region, adding that there will be no further meetings of ECOWAS defense chiefs on the issue.

“We are putting a stop to it at this time,” Musah said in his concluding remarks.

But what most people in the western world don’t realize is that there is a lot more to this story than we are being told.

For decades, puppet politicians have allowed wealthy western nations to greatly exploit Niger. It has vast quantities of gold and uranium, but the vast majority of the population of Niger continues to live in complete and utter poverty.

This is why the coup is so popular in Niger. The population is sick and tired of being raped by France, and now the French are deeply concerned that they may no longer be able to exploit their former colony…

A powerful undercurrent of the military coup in Niger is anti-French sentiment emerging from a sense that Niger has been exploited by its former colonial master France. Supporters of the coup have protested at the French embassy and otherwise attacked French interests in Niger.

One particularly prominent complaint has to do with French use of Niger’s rich resources, especially gold and uranium, while Niger remains one of the poorest nations in the world. France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who is fresh off the heels of riots and an uprising in Paris largely perpetrated by immigrants from France’s former colonies, has warned Niger against any attack on France’s interests.

Of course you won’t hear any of this on the corporate news networks.

They will just tell you that the coup leaders are bad and the upcoming invasion is good.

And so that is what most people will believe.

By the way, did you know that the U.S. currently has more than 1,000 troops in Niger?…

The United States has 1,100 troops in Niger, where it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars training security forces to battle terrorist organizations. Niger is a critical part of America’s overall counter-terrorism strategy, especially given the rise of Islamist extremist groups in Africa.

Why did we need to have so many troops there?

Sadly, it seems like we have troops almost everywhere.

Ultimately, the U.S. military is used to keep “order” all over the world, and that often means protecting western economic interests.

Meanwhile, we have just learned that the Netherlands and Denmark have agreed to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets…

The Netherlands and Denmark will provide Ukraine with much sought-after F-16 aircraft in an agreement hailed by President Volodymyr Zelensky as “historic.”

Kyiv has urgently been calling on its Western allies to provide F-16 jets, as its slow-moving counteroffensive is hampered by Russian air superiority.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Zelensky at Eindhoven airport, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his country would “commit to delivering F-16 aircraft to Ukraine” once “the conditions for such a transfer have been met.”

Zelensky has wanted F-16s for a long time.

Now he is going to get them.

Both sides just continue to escalate the conflict in Ukraine, and this is going to be such a huge story in the months ahead.

On the other side of the world, it appears that the Chinese military has been systematically practicing for an invasion of Taiwan…

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command has released a provocative video showing troops practicing a coastal invasion of Taiwan. The video first appeared on the social media site WeChat Thursday, and features waves of PLA soldiers storming beaches, including armored vehicles and tanks driving into attack positions.

The clip didn’t specifically name Taiwan, but given the Eastern Theatre Command oversees the Taiwan Strait area, it’s being widely interpreted as a warning and threat aimed at the self-ruled island which is backed by the West.

The moment that China launches such an invasion, the U.S. and China will be at war.

We are living at a time of wars and rumors of wars, but most people in the western world don’t understand any of the things that I just shared with you.

In fact, most of our young people would have a really difficult time even finding Niger, Ukraine or Taiwan on a blank map of the world.

But eventually conflict will arrive on our doorstep too, and then everyone will be paying attention…

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

Brace Yourselves, Because What They Have Planned Is Going To Absolutely Devastate The U.S. Economy

August 17, 2023 by Michael

Do you remember what happened in 2008? Many people believe that another historic financial disaster is coming and that it will absolutely devastate the U.S. economy. Earlier this week, I wrote about an investor named Michael Burry that has actually bet 1.6 billion dollars that the stock market is going to crash. He made all the right moves in 2008, and he fully intends to be proven right once again in 2023. Of course current conditions definitely resemble 2008 in so many ways. The residential housing market is so dead right now, and commercial real estate prices are plummeting at a very frightening pace. Unfortunately, officials at the Federal Reserve are making it quite clear that they are not done strangling the economy.

This week, mortgage rates jumped above the 7 percent mark to the highest level that we have seen in more than 20 years…

Mortgage rates surpassed 7% this week, hitting the highest level in more than two decades.

The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage increased to 7.09% this week, up from 6.96% the week prior, according to Freddie Mac’s release on Thursday. That’s the highest point since the first week of April 2002 and marks just the third time rates have exceeded 7% since then. The last times were in October and November of last year, when the rate reached 7.08%.

Needless to say, high mortgage rates have been crippling the housing market in recent months.

At the midpoint of this year, existing home sales were down a whopping 18.9 percent from the same time in 2022…

Total existing-home sales1 – completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – receded 3.3% from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.16 million in June. Year-over-year, sales fell 18.9% (down from 5.13 million in June 2022).

There are certainly lots of people out there that would like to buy homes, but thanks to how high mortgage rates have become they simply cannot afford to do so.

Housing has become extremely unaffordable in this country. According to Redfin, the percentage of teachers that can afford to buy a home close to the school where they work has fallen to just 12 percent…

The number of teachers who can afford a reasonably priced home in their school district nationwide has collapsed to just 12%, down from 17% last summer and 30% in 2019, amid the worst housing affordability crisis in a generation, according to data from Redfin.

Redfin’s analysis of median teacher salaries for 2022 across 50 major cities for over 70,000 PreK-12 public and private schools revealed no teacher in San Jose and San Diego could afford homes within “commuting distances” to their respective school, which means home and work are 20 minutes during typical rush hour conditions.

So much damage has already been done.

But apparently officials at the Federal Reserve believe that even more carnage is necessary, because they are indicating that more rate hikes are on the table…

Most Federal Reserve officials signaled during their July policy-setting meeting that high inflation still poses an ongoing threat that could necessitate additional interest rate hikes this year.

Minutes from the U.S. central bank’s July 25-26 meeting released Wednesday showed that central bank officials observed that inflation remains well above the Fed’s 2% target — and that policymakers need to see “further signs that aggregate demand and aggregate supply were moving into better balance to be confident that inflation pressures were abating.”

No.

Don’t do it.

Even if rates stay at current levels, we are headed for extreme pain.

Raising rates even higher would just be suicidal.

But it looks like they are going to do it anyway, and that could push mortgage rates up to the 8 percent level…

Economists have predicted mortgage rates could go above 8 percent if the economy continues to show signs of strength and the US Federal Reserve decides to raise interest rates again.

Mortgage Rates have not hit such levels since 2000, according to data compiled by Freddie Mac.

Do officials at the Fed actually believe that our system can handle such high rates?

Unless the Fed changes course, the housing market is going to absolutely implode.

And of course the commercial real estate market is already imploding.

The chaos that is already transpiring is putting an enormous amount of strain on our financial institutions, and Fitch is warning that we could soon see sweeping rating downgrades in the banking industry…

A Fitch Ratings analyst warned that the U.S. banking industry has inched closer to another source of turbulence — the risk of sweeping rating downgrades on dozens of U.S. banks that could even include the likes of JPMorgan Chase
.
The ratings agency cut its assessment of the industry’s health in June, a move that analyst Chris Wolfe said went largely unnoticed because it didn’t trigger downgrades on banks.

In many ways, I feel like I am watching a repeat of 2008.

Officials at the Fed can clearly see everything that is happening, but they just keep insisting on making things even worse.

So I hope that you have been preparing for turbulent times, because things are going to get crazy.

Sadly, the truth is that most Americans are not prepared for tougher times. In fact, one recent survey discovered that 72 percent of Americans are not financially secure…

For many Americans, payday can’t come soon enough. As of June, 61% of adults are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a LendingClub report. In other words, they rely on those regular paychecks to meet essential living expenses, with little to no money left over.

Almost three-quarters, 72%, of Americans say they aren’t financially secure given their current financial standing, and more than a quarter said they will likely never be financially secure, according to a survey by Bankrate.

Many of those people will lose their jobs during this new economic crisis, and because they don’t have any sort of a financial cushion to fall back on many of them will also end up losing their homes.

Delinquency rates are already starting to move higher, and that should deeply alarm all of us.

But what we have experienced so far is just the tip of the iceberg.

So brace yourselves for what is ahead, because this ride is only going to get bumpier from here.

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

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