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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Would you be willing to bet a billion dollars that stock prices are going to collapse?  Needless to say, only an extremely small fraction of the population has that much money.  And once you have accumulated a billion dollars, one would think that you would be extremely determined to protect it.  But that is not what Michael Burry is doing.  During the financial crisis of 2008, his massive bets against the housing market made him incredibly rich, and now he is making another “big short”.  According to CNN, Burry has bet over 1.6 billion dollars that the stock market is going to crash…

Michael Burry, the “Big Short” investor who became famous for correctly predicting the epic collapse of the housing market in 2008, has bet more than $1.6 billion on a Wall Street crash.

Burry is making his bearish bets against the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, according to Security Exchange Commission filings released Monday. Burry’s fund, Scion Asset Management, bought $866 million in put options (that’s the right to sell an asset at a particular price) against a fund that tracks the S&P 500 and $739 million in put options against a fund that tracks the Nasdaq 100.

Burry is using more than 90% of his portfolio to bet on a market downturn, according to the filings.

Does he know something that the rest of us don’t?

If he is wrong, he will look like a fool.

But if he is right, he will be a legend.

Michael Burry places a huge leveraged short position on the stock market with put options.

The Big Short Version 2.0 pic.twitter.com/8SHtZ0r4V9

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) August 14, 2023

Without a doubt, the stock market is ripe for a crash.

So far in 2023, the S&P is up about 16 percent and the Nasdaq is up about 38 percent…

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 have both notched big gains so far this year. They’re up nearly 16% and 38%, respectively.

In the mid-2000s, Burry was famous for placing a wager against the housing market and profited handsomely from the subprime lending crisis and the collapse of numerous major financial entities in 2008. The event was chronicled by Michael Lewis in his bestseller “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine” and later adapted into a film where Burry was played by Christian Bale.

This stock market rally has been happening even though the overall economy has been really struggling.

As economic activity has slowed down, demand for trucking services has slumped, and at this point the Cass Freight Index is down 8.9 percent on a year-over-year basis…

In terms of shipment volume in the for-hire market, the Cass Freight Index – which is concentrated on trucking but includes rail and other modes of transportation – fell again in July, to the worst July since July 2020, and July 2016, which had been in the middle of another freight recession (fat red line in the chart below).

Year-over-year, the index was down 8.9%, and compared to the peak in this cycle, in May 2021, it was down 12%.

And UPS and FedEx are both reporting that demand for package delivery is way down as well…

We’ve heard similar messages from UPS and FedEx. UPS reported a 9.9% drop in daily package volume for Q2, with June volume down 12.2%. FedEx reported an 18% drop in average daily shipments in its quarter ended May 31.

The economy is really struggling right now, and so the stock market should not be booming.

But for the moment, the rich are getting richer while homelessness absolutely explodes all over the nation.  The following comes from Zero Hedge…

The Biden administration’s fight against homelessness is faltering ahead of the 2024 presidential election cycle.

A new Wall Street Journal report reveals the number of Americans ending up on the streets is happening at a “record rate” despite ‘Bidenomics‘ being touted as an economic savior for the middle class. Every working-class folk understands Biden’s policies have been absolutely horrendous — two years of negative real wages forced many to rack up insurmountable credit card debt during the highest interest rate environment in a generation while draining personal savings — all to make ends meet, like putting food on the table and paying rent. Compound this with the worst housing affordability period in decades (maybe relief in 2H24 or ’25), and it’s not hard to understand why the homelessness crisis is beginning to spiral out of control for Democrats.

I could go on and on about the dire state of the U.S. economy, but I am not going to repeat all of the statistics that I have shared in other articles over the past few weeks.  if you are interested in seeing those numbers, this is where you can find them…

–“9 Signs That The U.S. Consumer Is About To Break”

–“7 Trends Which Indicate That Economic Disaster Is Approaching Very Rapidly”

–“10 Signs That The Mainstream Media Is Not Telling You The Truth About The Economy”

Of course it isn’t just the United States that is experiencing an economic slowdown.

As Jim Rickards has aptly noted, “major economies are falling into the ditch” all over the globe right now…

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that we’re looking at a global recession, if not a global financial crisis. These are highly unusual. It’s often the case that one or more major economies are in recession while others display growth and help pull the weak performers out of the ditch.

But today, we’re facing a case where, one after the other, all of the major economies are falling into the ditch.

So many of the things that we have been warned about for a very long time are starting to happen right in front of our eyes.

We are clearly headed for very big economic trouble, and that should be apparent to everyone at this point.

Michael Burry is planning to make a giant pile of money when the stock market finally crashes just like he did in 2008.

Will he be correct?

I don’t know, but you certainly cannot accuse him of not putting his money where his mouth is.

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.

The middle class in the U.S. has been steadily shrinking for decades, but in recent years our leaders have greatly accelerated that process.  In 2020, 2021 and 2022 they absolutely flooded the system with new money, and almost all of that new money went into the pockets of the wealthy.  The gap between the wealthy and the rest of us is now larger than ever, and that isn’t a good thing for our society.  Even if you are still making as much money as you did a few years ago, you have lost a lot of ground financially, because the cost of living has been rapidly eating away at our standard of living.  As I covered the other day, household income in the United States has declined by 9.1 percent since April 2020 after adjusting for inflation and taxes.  In other words, the middle class is a whole lot smaller than it was in April 2020, and it continues to get smaller with each passing day.

According to Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi, on average Americans are now spending “$709 more per month on everyday goods and services than they did two years ago”…

Americans are spending $709 more per month on everyday goods and services than they did two years ago, according to Moody’s Analytics.

Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi made the statement Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter, as part of his analysis of July’s consumer price index report.

Is the rising cost of living causing financial stress for you?

If it is, you are definitely not alone.

The wealthy are doing just fine for the moment, but inflation has caused a lot of pain for the vast majority of the rest of us.

Just paying for a place to live has become incredibly oppressive.  Personally, I was astounded to learn that the average rent in Manhattan has now reached $5,588 per month…

New Yorkers are feeling the squeeze as rents hit a new high.

Rent in Manhattan soared to a record-high average of $5,588 in July, up 9% from 2022.

It’s hurting tenants struggling to find apartments they can afford. One apartment hunter said she can’t find a studio to suit her work-from-home needs for less than $5,000.

Who can afford that?

Only the wealthy.

Of course the truth is that rents have been soaring all over the country.

It is being reported that the nationwide average rent-to-income ratio has exceeded 30 percent for the past two years.

This is the very first time in the entire history of our country that this has ever happened.

With rents being so high, a lot of Americans are being forced out into the streets.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the United States “has seen a record increase in homeless people this year”.

Please let that statement sink in for a moment.

So far in 2023, the number of homeless people in the U.S. is up 11 percent from last year.

That is the biggest jump that the government has ever recorded.

Not even during the recession of 2008 and 2009 did we see anything like this.

Unfortunately, the outlook for the months ahead is not promising, because it looks like the cost of living is going to continue to rise at a brisk pace.

According to CNN, the average price of a gallon of gasoline has nearly reached 4 dollars a gallon…

Pump prices are creeping towards $4 a gallon nationally.

The national average for regular gasoline hit $3.85 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA. That’s the highest level since October 19 and comes just weeks ahead of Labor Day weekend when millions of Americans will hit the roads.

I remember the days when I could fill up my vehicle for less than 20 dollars.

But the other day I spent 70 dollars at the gas station and that didn’t even fill the tank.

And we are being warned that U.S. consumers are going to have a lot less discretionary income in the months ahead as tens of millions are forced to start making payments on student loans again…

For more than three years, federal student loan borrowers have not had to make monthly payments. But that pandemic-era pause is coming to an end this fall, setting up a financial shock for millions of Americans and the big-name stores, such as Target, Nike, Under Armour and Gap, where they shop.

About 44 million borrowers in the U.S. were affected by the payment pause, which initially began in March 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden administration extended the pause for the eighth time in November but will not do so again as part of the bipartisan debt ceiling deal approved by Congress.

More than 60 percent of all Americans are already living paycheck to paycheck, and many are increasingly turning to debt in order to make ends meet.

In fact, total credit card debt now exceeds the one trillion dollar mark for the first time ever, and that is not a good sign at all.

Also, an increasing number of Americans are now dipping into their 401(K) plans…

When father-of-two Ivan Marusic lost his job overnight in 2020, he was left panicking about how he would cover his mortgage.

It prompted the 35-year-old, from Texas, to do something he never thought he would: withdraw $20,000 from his 401(K). It is a decision he is still paying for now.

‘I was really hesitant to do it because I knew it would set me back financially in the long run. But I didn’t have any other options. I had already maxed out my credit card and I was running out of money,’ Marusic, a tech worker who has since founded the website Game Taco, told Dailymail.com

We really are witnessing a middle class meltdown.

I have been warning about this trend in my books for years, and now the evisceration of the middle class has greatly accelerated.

I wish that I could tell you that there is economic hope on the horizon.

But I can’t do that, because our leaders continue to make incredibly self-destructive decisions which are going to cause immense economic pain for the entire country.

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.

In order for a civilized society to function, most people have to willingly follow the rules of that society.  If that happens, law enforcement authorities can deal with the few that choose to be lawless.  For generations, that is how things worked in America.  There was a high standard of morality among the general population, and so the police were able to successfully handle the few bad apples that insisted on breaking the law.  But now everything has changed.  As a result of decades of extreme moral decay, lawlessness is rampant and there are vast multitudes of young people that openly flaunt the rules of our society.  In fact, there are already some areas of the country that are literally on the verge of being ungovernable.

A perfect example of what I am talking about happened in southern California on Saturday.

Dozens of lawless young thieves systematically looted the Nordstrom store at the Westfield Topanga mall, and they were able to get away with tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise…

Shoppers at the Westfield Topanga mall in Canoga Park were in for quite a shock when dozens of thieves ransacked the Nordstrom inside the mall on Saturday, Aug. 12, smashing displays and stealing an estimated $60,000- $100,000 worth of merchandise, authorities said.

The Los Angeles Police Department responded to the mall at around 4 p.m. after hearing reports that between 20 and 50 people ran through the Nordstrom grabbing merchandise, leaving some on the ground and taking armfuls with them.

When I was growing up, this sort of thing simply did not happen.

But now we are seeing mobs of looters go haywire all over the nation on a regular basis.

This heist was obviously well coordinated, and not one of the thieves even showed a shred of remorse.

Apparently these young people are not exactly languishing in poverty, because a BMW and a Lexus were among the getaway vehicles that they used…

After grabbing between $60,000 and $100,000 worth of goods, the crew fled in several cars including a BMW and a Lexus, cops said.

At least one guard was doused with bear spray — which causes violent eye and respiratory irritation in humans. The guard was treated by paramedics.

How are we supposed to respond to this?

As I stated earlier, we are seeing robberies of this nature so often now.

Several days earlier, dozens of  young people looted the Yves Saint Laurent store in Glendale…

Earlier this week a high-end designer store in Glendale, California was looted by dozens of people in another flash mob burglary on Tuesday.

At least 30 suspects “flooded” the Yves Saint Laurent store in The Americana at Brand Tuesday afternoon and stole clothing and other merchandise before fleeing on foot and leaving the location in numerous vehicles, said police in a statement.

The total loss is estimated to be approximately $300,000.

Some people attempt to downplay the severity of these crimes by saying that these big corporate retailers can afford the losses they are experiencing.

No, they can’t.

Overall, U.S. retailers will lose more than 100 billion dollars due to theft this year alone.

This has become a major national crisis, and as J. Lee Grady has aptly pointed out, we truly have become “the land of the free-for-all”…

You’ve probably seen the videos of thieves filling trash bags with stolen merchandise from CVS or walking out of Home Depot or Wal-Mart with armloads of tools, laptops, detergent and athletic shoes they didn’t pay for. We used to call this shoplifting, and it was a crime. Today, it’s known as “inventory shrinkage”—and it costs retailers billions of dollars in losses. But many soft-on-crime politicians are treating criminals like victims and allowing the crime wave to grow.

Some retailers are locking items behind glass cases, but that hasn’t stopped brazen criminals who just smash and grab. Other retailers actually warn employees not to try to stop thieves—and they will even fire an employee for confronting a shoplifter. Welcome to the USA in 2023: We were once known as the land of the free; now we are the land of the free-for-all, where criminals can take whatever they want from store shelves knowing that no one will stop them.

A lot of of this theft is being fueled by the worst drug crisis in the entire history of our nation.

Today, vast stretches of the city of Los Angeles have been transformed into giant homeless encampments that are filled with “zombie-like residents smoking drugs”…

Shocking new photos lay bear the devastating homeless crisis tormenting downtown LA – where filthy ramshackle tent cities are plagued by zombie-like residents smoking drugs, while others hawk stolen goods on street corners.

There are currently an estimated 42,260 people sleeping rough in the City of Angels – a startling 10 percent rise compared to just last year, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported.

Just this week, it emerged that the city had resorted to sending mobile teams with oxygen cylinders to Skid Row in a desperate bid to prevent overdoses amid its crippling opioid crisis.

The same thing is happening in San Francisco.

In fact, conditions have become so dangerous in downtown San Francisco that federal employees that work at “the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building” are being told to work from home for the foreseeable future…

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advised hundreds of employees in San Francisco to work remotely for the foreseeable future due to public safety concerns outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on Seventh Street.

The imposing, 18-story tower on the corner of Seventh and Mission streets houses various federal agencies, including HHS, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the office of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. The area is also home to one of the city’s most brazen open-air drug markets, where dozens of dealers and users congregate on a daily basis.

I find it perfectly fitting that “one of the city’s most brazen open-air drug markets” is operating right outside of a giant office tower named for Nancy Pelosi.

Politicians such as Pelosi have been making horrendously bad decisions for decades, and that has been a major factor in getting us to this point.

We are truly reaping what we have sown, and what we are currently experiencing is just the beginning.

Eventually, conditions will deteriorate so dramatically in our core urban areas that our leaders will be forced to implement extreme measures in a desperate attempt to restore order.

But ultimately you can’t govern vast numbers of people that have no intention of being governed.

The fabric of our society really is coming apart at the seams, and we are going to see things happen in the years ahead that will completely shock all of 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.

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.

Thanks Joe Biden!  Ever since you entered the White House, economic conditions have taken a major turn for the worse.  We have been experiencing the most painful inflation crisis since the Jimmy Carter era, more than 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, the U.S. actually lost 585,000 full-time jobs last month, consumers now owe more than a trillion dollars on their credit cards, the housing bubble has started to burst, and the most dramatic commercial real estate crisis in U.S. history has begun.  Needless to say, the American people are fed up.  According to a brand new Reuters/Ipsos survey that was just released, a whopping 73 percent of all Americans believe that the economy is in worse condition than it was five years ago…

Americans have soured on Bidenomics, concluding that the U.S. economy is worse now than it was five years ago under former President Donald Trump’s leadership, a recent Reuters/Ipsos survey found.

The overall survey found that Americans view economic issues as some of the most “pressing problems” of the day. Overall, nearly half, 49 percent, of Americans view inflation as the most important issue facing the country. Further, nearly three-quarters of Americans, 73 percent, say the economy is worse off now than it was five years ago, under Trump’s leadership. A majority, 64 percent, also believe the economy is worse off than it was in 2020, when the coronavirus took a grip, forcing businesses to close.

Those are horrible numbers Joe.

So do you actually have a plan to turn things around if you win a second term, or should we just expect more of the same?

You and your family are probably not feeling the pain of inflation because of the millions of dollars in bribes that you have received from foreign officials, but the truth is that “scorching-hot inflation” has been causing “severe financial pressures” for the rest of us…

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

The latest inflation numbers just came out, and we are being told that the annual rate of inflation has gone up to 3.2 percent.

But if the rate of inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, the annual rate of inflation would be well into double digits right now.

The cost of living is rising much faster than our paychecks are, and we want you to do something.

It is even becoming a lot more expensive to watch television.  In less than two years, the cost of a Disney+ subscription has gone up by 75 percent…

The Disney+ streaming service lost 300,000 subscribers in the United States and Canada in the most recent quarter — an ominous sign for the studio as it continues to pour billions of dollars into new streaming content that is flopping with viewers.

To make matters worse for its fans, the Walt Disney Company is hiking Disney+’s monthly subscription price to $13.99 from $10.99 — a 27 percent increase. Last year, the price rose to $10.99 from $7.99, which means Disney+ subscribers will see their monthly bill climb a total of 75 percent in less than two years.

U.S. households are being squeezed financially like never before, and most of them are just barely scraping by from month to month…

And right now, only 46 percent of Americans say they could cover an unexpected $400 bill without taking on debt.

That’s not to mention that a majority are living paycheck to paycheck.

Credit card debt tops $1 trillion for the first time in U.S. history.

And, in the second quarter of 2023, 36 percent more people drained their retirement accounts to make ends meets, compared to the same period last year, according to Bank of America’s analysis of its clients’ employee benefits programs.

And in recent months large companies all over America have started to conduct mass layoffs.

In fact, the number of job cuts in 2023 has already exceeded the total for all of last year.

Sadly, our problems appear to be accelerating.  Last week, the number of Americans filing initial claims for unemployment benefits shot up to 248,000.  That was an increase of 21,000 from the week before.

Meanwhile, the housing bubble is bursting thanks to the Federal Reserve’s relentless rate hikes.

The average rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage is now hovering around the 7 percent level, and this is keeping millions of potential buyers on the sidelines…

The 7%+ mortgages are doing their magic on the housing market as they keep buyers out of the market, and home sales sagged further in late July and August, from already dismal levels, as indicated by weekly applications for mortgages to purchase a home.

The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming balances jumped to 7.09%, from 6.93% in the prior reporting week, the third highest since January 2002, with only two weeks last November having been marginally higher than this reporting week, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association today.

So what are you going to do Joe?

Do you have a way to pull us out of this mess?

Of course if you actually had a plan to save the economy you would have implemented it already.

There is no hope for our short-term economic future.  Economic activity is steadily slowing down all over the nation, the U.S. consumer is reaching a breaking point, and it appears that a recession is rapidly approaching.

And if we stay on the path that we are currently on, the long-term outlook is far worse.

Bidenomics has been a complete and utter failure, and current economic conditions are starting to eerily resemble what we went through in 2008 and 2009.

It would be wonderful if you would take responsibility for your part in creating this giant mess, but I am sure that you will continue to insist that all of our problems are somebody else’s fault.

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.