Money

The Mainstream Media Is Not Telling You The Truth About Inflation

July 12, 2023 by Michael

Inflation is going down! Isn’t that wonderful? When many less educated Americans hear this news, they will think that prices are going down. But that is not true at all. In fact, prices are still going up. They are just going up at a slower rate than they were before. According to the federal government, the Consumer Price Index was only 3 percent higher in June 2023 than it was in June 2022. That sounds like pretty good news, but it is imperative to realize that the formula used for the Consumer Price Index has literally been changed dozens of times over the decades. If the rate of inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, it would still be well into the double digits.

So we should be thankful that prices have moderated a bit (for now), but anyone that believes that inflation is “under control” is just being delusional.

Month after month, the cost of living just keeps becoming more oppressive for average Americans. At this point, U.S. families are under so much financial stress that they are even “skimping on everyday items such as toothpaste and toilet paper”…

Americans are skimping on everyday items such as toothpaste and toilet paper in a troubling sign for the US economy and major manufactures, financial experts have warned.

Personal hygiene products have taken a hit – with units of toothpaste, laundry detergent and toilet paper sold down three to four percent in the year through June 24, according to data from NIQ, Bloomberg reported.

Americans are also opting for cheaper brands and budget stores to combat inflation, in a blow to manufacturing giants such as Procter & Gamble and a boost to the likes of Dollar General.

Surveys have shown that more than 60 percent of the population is living paycheck to paycheck, and the reality of the matter is that a lot of us are looking to cut back anywhere that we possibly can.

Sadly, that even includes school supplies. According to Zero Hedge, it is being projected that back-to-school spending will decline “for the first time in nine years”…

According to a Deloitte survey released on Wednesday, back-to-school (BTS) spending, the second-largest spending event for families after the holiday season, is anticipated to decline for the first time in nine years. The survey’s findings indicate that consumers are struggling amid the two-year inflation storm, raising concerns about the success of “Bidenomics.”

Inflation has been eroding our standard of living for decades, and now we are at a point where tens of millions of Americans are just barely scraping by from month to month.

Once upon a time, anyone with a middle class income could afford to buy or rent a decent home or apartment.

But now it takes more than a middle class income to even rent a “glorified dungeon” in New York City…

A tiny disused space which has been turned into a $2,300-a-month apartment has been dubbed as nothing more than a ‘glorified dungeon.’

Popular TikTok account NYC Sales & Rentals took to the video sharing platform to showcase the bizarre set-up.

It revealed how the unusual apartment in central Harlem could be found at the back of the lobby, hidden behind the laundry room.

When I see stuff like that, it makes me very angry.

I simply cannot understand how anyone can possibly believe that the cost of living is under control.

It isn’t.

And more inflation is coming. Now that the “debt ceiling crisis” is over, our politicians in Washington have added a trillion dollars to the national debt in just five weeks…

It looks like the Biden-McCarthy “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” will rival the Inflation Reduction Act (Green New Deal) in its Orwellian meaning and outcome. Just five weeks after the deal was hatched, the Treasury has issued over $1 trillion in new debt!

This is simply astounding. It took from our founding until 1980 to accrue the amount of debt that we have now added in just over five weeks. It is truly hard to overstate the magnitude and impact of this spending.

Pumping so much money into the economy in such a short period of time is highly inflationary.

If our “leaders” in Washington were serious about getting inflation under control, they would stop borrowing and spending so much money.

But they will never do that.

So it is up to the Federal Reserve to try to do something about inflation, and it appears that they are gearing up for yet another interest rate hike…

Despite the slowdown in inflation, policymakers are widely expected to approve another quarter-percentage point hike at the conclusion of their two-day meeting. An overwhelming percentage of traders – more than 92% – anticipate the Fed will lift interest rates again at the end of the month.

Reading that makes me want to tear my hair out.

U.S. home values have already fallen by more than 100 billion dollars as the housing bubble bursts, and the commercial real estate market is coming apart like a 20 dollar suit.

As a result, small and mid-size banks all over the country are experiencing great pain, and loan losses are rising at a very frightening pace…

The major U.S. banks are set to report the biggest jump in loan losses since the COVID-19 pandemic, as rising interest rates put mounting pressure on borrowers across the country.

There is no way in the world that the Federal Reserve should be thinking about raising interest rates even higher.

But they are going to do it anyway.

Sometimes I feel like I am banging my head into a brick wall.

No matter how much we may object, our “leaders” just keep making incredibly foolish decision after incredibly foolish decision.

And it isn’t just the economy. Decades of incredibly foolish decisions in all areas have literally brought us to the brink of national suicide.

So please don’t be fooled when the mainstream media tells you that inflation is “under control” and that the outlook for the economy is improving.

The truth is that our long-term problems continue to escalate, and everything that those in power do to “fix things” just makes matters even worse.

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.

Lonely America: More Americans Are Living Alone Than Ever Before

July 11, 2023 by Michael

Once upon a time, it was fairly rare to find someone that was living by themselves in America. But now that has completely changed. Americans are getting married later in life, couples are having fewer children, divorce is rampant, and millions of broken families litter our national landscape. As a result, the traditional family unit in the United States is weaker than it has ever been before. And that is extremely unfortunate, because the family is a fundamental support system in any society. Without strong families, no society is going to thrive for long.

I knew that the percentage of single person households was rising, but this week I was stunned to learn that it has now reached almost 30 percent in the United States…

Nearly 30 percent of American households comprise a single person, a record high.

Scholars say living alone is not a trend so much as a transformation: Across much of the world, large numbers of people are living alone for the first time in recorded history.

This greatly contributes to the epidemics of loneliness and depression that we are witnessing.

Humans were designed to love and be loved, but today so many of us feel so isolated.

But it wasn’t always this way. In fact, only 8 percent of all households in the U.S. were made up of a single person in 1940…

The U.S. Census shows that “solitaries” made up 8 percent of all households in 1940. The share of solo households doubled to 18 percent in 1970 and more than tripled, to an estimated 29 percent, by 2022.

This is another instance where the trend is not our friend, and we are being told that there are a lot of reasons why we have seen such a dramatic shift…

The solo-living movement intersects with several other societal trends. Americans are marrying later, if at all. The nation is aging. The national birthrate is falling. People are living longer — or they were, until the pandemic arrived.

More than anything, perhaps, the rise of single-person households is about women entering the workforce and achieving economic self-sufficiency.

In previous generations, multi-person households were often an economic necessity.

But thanks to the affluence that we have enjoyed in recent decades, more Americans now have the option of living alone.

And it shouldn’t surprise any of us that single person households are particularly common in some of our largest cities…

Living alone is much more common in large cities. Singles now make up more than 40% of households in Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Denver, according to a paper by the British historian Keith Snell. Half of Manhattan apartments are one-person residences.

Ultimately, what we are witnessing comes down to a fundamental shift in our culture more than anything else.

Previous generations of Americans valued family much more highly than we do, and we value ourselves much more highly than they did.

In other words, we have become exceedingly selfish.

For example, just consider the reasons why one female author says that living alone can be “a dream come true”…

According to Bella DePaulo, author of the upcoming book “Single at Heart”: “Living alone can be a dream come true. You get to curate your own life. You decide when to go to sleep and when to get up, what and when to eat, what to watch or to listen to for entertainment, and how warm or cool your place will be.”

Having some time to yourself can be nice for a few hours.

But how empty are you going to feel after you have nobody to share your life with year after year?

In addition to training our young people to be selfish, we have also trained them to think of children as “burdens” that should be avoided if you want to enjoy life.

Earlier today, I came across an article about a man that had a vasectomy at 34 years of age just so that he and his wife can be free to do whatever they want…

A young couple are child-free so they can be ‘selfish’, take naps and go on holiday whenever they want – and are so sure they don’t want kids they use extreme birth control.

Indi, 25, and her husband Heraldo Uribe, 34, are intentionally child-free and consider themselves as DINKS – which stands for ‘dual income no kids’.

I am sure that might be fun for a while.

But they will never get to see their kids grow up.

And they will never have grandchildren.

And there will never be any family reunions when they get older.

And there won’t be anyone to take care of them when they are near the end of their lives.

On a broader level, how are we going to maintain our Social Security system now that our birth rate has been way below replacement level for many years?

We aren’t even producing enough babies to replace ourselves, and so there simply is not going to be enough people paying into the system to support our rapidly aging population.

Thankfully, some young people are waking up and realizing that marriage and family should be a priority.

In fact, one woman is actually offering $5,000 if you can find the right man for her to marry…

In a viral video, which has so far amassed over 556,000 views, she revealed that she had previously made this deal with her friends, and her boss, but was now ready to open it up to the ‘general public.’

She said: ‘So the offer is if you introduce me to my husband and I marry him, I will give you $5,000 dollars.

‘I don’t have to stay married to him for long, I can get divorced from him in 20 years, it doesn’t matter, but if you introduce to me a man that I walk down the aisle and get married to, I will give you $5,000.’

Of course she isn’t going to marry just anyone.

She has some pretty stringent requirements for her future spouse, and that includes being at least six feet tall…

She noted that she wanted her future husband to be between the ages of 27 and 40, like sports, be a good communicator, be at least six-foot, and have good wit, banter, and the ability to poke fun at her.

The 34-year-old also noted that she doesn’t want the man she marries to do any drugs, adding that she has no preference on where they live or what their political or religious stances are.

I will never understand why so many women have a height requirement.

Love can often arrive in an unexpected package.

And we all need to remember that marriage and family are absolutely critical to the overall success of our society.

Unfortunately, more Americans than ever are rejecting traditional values, and so we are steamrolling down a road that doesn’t lead anywhere good.

Living to please ourselves may seem gratifying for a while, but in the end it leads to great emptiness.

On the other hand, loving others often involves great sacrifice, but in the end it can lead to great fulfillment.

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 Globalists Are Making Really Big Moves Which Would Fundamentally Change How Our Society Operates

July 10, 2023July 10, 2023 by Michael

While everybody else is distracted, the globalists are making absolutely enormous moves. Previously, I have written about the UN’s new worldwide system for cracking down on “misinformation” and about their desire to implement a global system of digital identification that is tied to our bank accounts. I realize that these things sound really wild, but they aren’t being done in secret. In fact, the globalists are very proud of what they are doing. But only a small percentage of the population is even aware of this insidious agenda that they are pushing through, and so there is very little debate about it.

Ultimately, the globalists want to create a system that would literally give them total control of everything.

Sadly, I am not exaggerating one bit.

For example, the Bank for International Settlements has released a “blueprint” that calls for the creation of a “unified ledger” that would eventually record ownership of all assets on the entire planet. The following is an extended excerpt from that “blueprint” which comes directly from the official website of the BIS…

This chapter presents a blueprint for a future monetary system that harnesses the potential of tokenisation to improve the old and enable the new. The key elements of the blueprint are CBDCs, tokenised deposits and other tokenised claims on financial and real assets. The blueprint envisages these elements being brought together in a new type of financial market infrastructure (FMI) – a “unified ledger“.⁴ The full benefits of tokenisation could be harnessed in a unified ledger due to the settlement finality that comes from central bank money residing in the same venue as other claims. Leveraging trust in the central bank, a shared venue of this kind has great potential to enhance the monetary and financial system.

A unified ledger transforms the way that intermediaries interact to serve end users. Through programmability and the platform’s ability to bundle transactions (“composability”), a unified ledger allows sequences of financial transactions to be automated and seamlessly integrated. This reduces the need for manual interventions and reconciliations that arise from the traditional separation of messaging, clearing and settlement, thereby eliminating delays and uncertainty. The ledger also supports simultaneous and instantaneous settlement, reducing settlement times and credit risks. Settlement in central bank money ensures the singleness of money and payment finality.

Moreover, by having “everything in one place”, a unified ledger provides a setting in which a broader array of contingent actions can be automatically executed to overcome information and incentive problems. In this way, tokenisation could expand the universe of possible contracting outcomes. The unified ledger thus opens the way for entirely new types of economic arrangement that are impossible today due to incentive and informational frictions. The eventual transformation of the financial system will be limited only by the imagination and ingenuity of developers that build on the system, much as the ecosystem of smartphone apps has far exceeded the expectations of the platform builders themselves.

So who would be in control of this “unified ledger”?

Needless to say, it would be the globalists.

And as Mike Adams has pointed out, this would mean that “your ownership of assets can be revoked or altered at any time”…

This new plan describes an orwellian, globalist-run “unified ledger” that records the ownership of all assets (checking accounts, real estate, bonds, stocks, etc.) on a centralized exchange run by globalists. All assets will be “tokenized,” a process that the BIS describes as, “recording claims on financial or real assets that exist on a traditional ledger on a programmable platform.”

This unified ledger will feature “programmable” entries, meaning that your ownership of assets can be revoked or altered at any time, according to the social engineering desires of the globalists.

Ownership of all assets on the entire planet would be determined by their “unified ledger”, and so if you are a really bad boy or girl they could go in and simply transfer ownership of everything that is yours to someone else.

With just a few clicks, you would “own nothing” and would become a total outcast.

Of course this is just one element of the globalist agenda.

They also want to give the UN unprecedented emergency powers at the “Summit of the Future” in September 2024…

The powerful United Nations is now seeking to increase its influence worldwide by seizing global “emergency” powers, and President Joe Biden supports their proposal.

Interestingly, the U.N. proposal would begin September 2024, a mere two months before a highly anticipated general election in the U.S.

The global organization will host a “Summit of the Future” where associated nations will adopt a so-called “Pact for the Future.”

The Pact for the Future includes a provision which will create an “emergency platform” for the United Nations whenever a major “global shock” is deemed to have occurred.

So if there is another global pandemic, a world war, an economic collapse or some other sort of worldwide emergency, the United Nations would suddenly be telling everyone what to do…

The emergency platform would provide the international body with power over all nations in times of distress.

Such power, according to the U.N., is needed to “[e]nsure that all participating actors make commitments that can contribute meaningfully to the response and that they are held to account for delivery on those commitments.”

According to the U.N.’s policy proposal, the secretary-general could extend the emergency platform, if need be, despite its duration being set for a “finite period.” Such a decision would be made without the consent of any member nations.

Do you really want the UN to have that sort of power?

Unfortunately, Joe Biden and his minions fully support this proposal.

Biden has a long history of doing whatever the globalists want, and so this is probably why they are trying to rush this through before the next U.S. presidential election.

At this point, Biden is a shell of his former self. He has degenerated into a crazy old man that regularly shouts obscenities at random staff members…

President Joe Biden, behind closed doors, has a temper that sees him yelling at staff and shouting obscenities, a new report on Monday revealed.

In fact, his temper is so bad that some staff try to avoid meting alone with him or bring along a colleague to help defuse the situation, Axios reported.

With such a weak leader in the White House, the globalists see an opportunity to advance their agenda like never before.

And if they get their way, our entire society will be completely turned upside down.

Let me leave you with one more example. A globalist organization called the Arup Group that has close ties to the World Economic Forum is actually proposing a complete and total end to private car ownership…

On construction, cities need to change what types of buildings and infrastructure are built as well as what materials are used. On transport, private car ownership needs to end and the shared vehicles that replace it have to use less materials and be longer lasting. Urban residents will also need to adopt a largely plant-based diet, mostly replace flying with less energy-intensive forms of long-distance transport, change how clothes and textiles are consumed and keep electronics and household appliances for longer.

These people are insane, but they are going to keep pushing the envelope until someone stops them.

If you plan to object to what they are doing, you should take a stand while you still have the freedom to do so.

We are living during one of the most critical times in all of human history, and we need men and women of courage that are willing to speak the truth.

Because lies and deception are seemingly everywhere these days, and darkness is growing all around us at a pace that is absolutely staggering.

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.

Do You Remember The Chaos That “Underwater” Properties Caused In 2008 And 2009? Well, It Is Starting To Happen Again…

July 9, 2023 by Michael

We never seem to learn. Over a decade ago, our leaders created the biggest housing bubble of all time, and when it finally burst the entire globe experienced great financial pain. So did they learn from their mistakes and fix the system? No, instead they just created an even bigger housing bubble. Now that housing bubble is beginning to burst, and that is going to have very serious implications for all of us.

One thing that we learned during the Great Recession is that home values really matter.

When home values get low enough, many borrowers simply decide to walk away from their mortgages, and so the fact that U.S. home values have plummeted by 108.4 billion dollars should deeply alarm all of us…

Homeowners are sitting on a negative equity timebomb after losing $108.4 billion on their property values this year, experts say.

The average borrower saw their home equity plummet by $5,400 in the first quarter of 2023 compared to last year – with households in Washington, California and Utah worst affected.

The west coast is being hit particularly hard. For example, home values in Washington state have dropped by an average of more than $74,000 over the past year…

The cooling housing market is stripping more equity from homeowners in Washington than in any other state in the country.

On average over the last year, Washington homeowners lost about $74,300 in equity, a measure of the difference between how much a home is worth and how much the owner owes on the mortgage, according to the real estate data company CoreLogic. That 18% decline marked the largest drop in the country from the first quarter of last year to the first quarter of 2023.

Some homeowners in Washington state that bought their homes at the peak of the market now have mortgages that are underwater.

And according to an expert that was interviewed by the Daily Mail, this is starting to happen in certain areas all over the nation…

Zackary Smigel, founder of Real Estate License Wizard, told DailyMail.com: ‘The decline in property values across the US is posing significant challenges to homeowners – and it’s becoming a bigger issue in the real estate sector.

‘We are indeed witnessing some worrying signs of negative equity, especially in certain regions.’

The good news is that this is not happening everywhere.

So many people have been relocating to Florida that home prices have actually gone up substantially in that state.

If you want to get an idea of what has been happening where you live, you can check out this map.

Moving forward, I think that home prices will not move uniformly.

In major cities and in blue states, I believe that home prices will tend to fall.

In rural areas and in red states, I believe that home prices will be more stable.

Meanwhile, many commercial real estate loans all over the U.S. are already deeply underwater, and we are starting to see delinquency rates rise at a startling pace.

If you doubt this, just check out these numbers which come from Wolf Richter…

After blowing through the pandemic with no more than a squiggle, the delinquency rate of Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) backed by office properties jumped to 4.5% by loan balance in June, up from 1.6% just six months ago in December 2022, according to Trepp, which tracks and analyses CMBS.

Office mortgages that had been packaged into CMBS went through a horrendous default cycle following the Financial Crisis, with the delinquency rate topping out at over 10% in 2012/2013.

But this current six-month 2.9-percentage-point spike from 1.6% to 4.5% is the fastest six-month spike in Trepp’s data going back to 2000.

We are still in the early chapters of this crisis, but it is definitely eerily similar to what we witnessed in 2008.

Corporate bankruptcies are also surging.

In fact, it is being reported that they were up 93 percent during the first six months of this year compared to the same time period of time in 2022…

In the first six months of 2023, there were 340 corporate bankruptcies, topping every other comparable span in 13 years, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. This is up 93 percent from the same time a year ago and higher than in 2020, when there was a spike during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

When we keep getting numbers like this, I honestly don’t know how anyone can claim that the U.S. economy is moving in the right direction.

There are so many signs of trouble all around us. For example, the number of searches for “pawn shop near me” just soared to an all-time record high…

Cash-strapped Americans are panic-searching “pawn shop near me.” The search trend spiked to a record high at the start of July and is an ominous sign the consumer might be pawning items or selling things that were possibly bought during the Covid boom to raise quick money amid the worst inflation storm in a generation.

Needless to say, people don’t pawn their possessions when they are doing well.

Searches for the phrase “is dumpster diving illegal” also just reached an all-time record high.

All over the nation, people are literally rummaging through dumpsters behind grocery stores because food has become so oppressively expensive.

But don’t worry.

Joe Biden says that everything is going to be okay.

If you have been following my articles on a regular basis, nothing that I have shared in this piece should come as a surprise to you.

It was clear way in advance that the economy was heading into enormous trouble, and the long-term outlook is exceedingly bleak.

But that doesn’t mean that you should crawl into a corner and cry like a baby because things are going to get so bad.

It is when times are the darkest that the greatest courage is needed.

You were born for such a time as this, and you can make a difference even in the midst of all the chaos that is starting to erupt all around 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.

Joe Biden And His Warmongering Minions Seem Absolutely Determined To Drag America Into World War III

July 7, 2023 by Michael

When the nukes start falling, nobody will be able to say that they weren’t warned. Thanks to Joe Biden and his warmongering minions, we are steamrolling toward World War III, but most Americans don’t seem to care. Most of us just continue to party our lives away, but meanwhile our leaders seem absolutely determined to drag us into an apocalyptic conflict. The Biden administration is constantly provoking China and constantly escalating the war in Ukraine, and one of these days they could cross a line that will never be able to be uncrossed. They are literally playing with fire, but they won’t be the only ones that get burned if they push things too far.

This week, we learned that the Biden administration has decided to give cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of a new $800 million military assistance package.

If you don’t know what cluster munitions are, here is a pretty good explanation from NBC News…

The dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, or DPICMs, are surface-to-surface warheads that explode and disperse multiple small munitions or bombs over wide areas — bringing more widespread destruction than single rounds. The rounds can be charges that penetrate armored vehicles, or they can shatter or fragment to be more dangerous for people.

Some human rights groups oppose their use because of concerns that unexploded bomblets, or duds, could explode after battle, potentially injuring or killing innocent civilians.

These weapons are considered to be extremely dangerous to civilians, because many of them fail to go off initially and end up getting detonated by civilian activity much later…

As the bomblets fall over a wide area, they can endanger non-combatants.

In addition, somewhere between 10% to 40% of the munitions fail, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The unexploded munitions can then be detonated by civilian activity years or even decades later.

The Cluster Munition Coalition, an activist group trying to get the weapons banned everywhere, says potentially deadly cluster submunitions still lie dormant in Laos and Vietnam 50 years after their use.

As you can see, there is a reason why so many countries have banned the use of such weapons.

In fact, at this point more than 120 nations have agreed to ban them…

A convention banning the use of cluster bombs has been joined by more than 120 countries who agreed not to use, produce, transfer or stockpile the weapons and to clear them after they’ve been used.

The United States, Russia and Ukraine are among the countries that have not signed on.

But even though there is such an international consensus, the Biden administration is sending them to Ukraine anyway…

But White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the munitions were critical for Ukraine to sustain its military operations against the Russian invaders.

“We will not leave Ukraine defenseless at any point in this conflict, period,” he said.

Why aren’t more people talking about Jake Sullivan?

He is a warmongering nutjob, and Joe Biden does pretty much whatever Jake Sullivan tells him to do.

And so when Jake Sullivan suggests provoking China again, Joe Biden goes along with it.

Zero Hedge is reporting that the U.S. will now start providing Volcano Vehicle-Launched Scatterable Mine Systems to Taiwan…

Taiwan has finalized a new defense deal with the US worth $146 million to acquire Volcano Vehicle-Launched Scatterable Mine Systems, seen as crucial for defense of the self-ruled island in the event of a Chinese military invasion. This comes the same week the State Department announced approval for $440 million more in ammo and logistics deals for Taiwan.

The pending Volcano mine-laying systems deal had first been previewed by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in December 2022. It additionally included M977A4 trucks, M87A1 anti-tank mines, as well as M88 and M89 training munitions.

Needless to say, this is yet another move that has greatly angered the Chinese.

And our trade war with China just went to another level.

In response to new restrictions imposed by the U.S., China has just implemented export controls on two absolutely critical raw materials…

A trade war between China and the United States over the future of semiconductors is escalating.

Beijing hit back Monday by playing a trump card: It imposed export controls on two strategic raw materials, gallium and germanium, that are critical to the global chipmaking industry.

“We see this as China’s second, and much bigger, counter measure to the tech war, and likely a response to the potential US tightening of [its] AI chip ban,” said Jefferies analysts. Sanctioning one of America’s biggest memory chipmakers, Micron Technology (MU), in May was the first, they said.

Ever since Joe Biden entered the White House, our relations with China have gone into the dumpster.

And I think that there is a chance that the Chinese could actually choose to invade Taiwan before Joe Biden’s time in the White House is over.

If that happens, it would be a complete and utter catastrophe for the global economy…

A military conflict over Taiwan would set the global economy back decades because of the crippling disruption to the supply chain of crucial semiconductors, according to the head of one of the island’s leading makers of microchips.

Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy about 100 miles off China, makes the world’s most advanced microchips — the brains inside every piece of technology from smartphones and modern cars to artificial intelligence and fighter jets.

We simply cannot afford for such a war to happen, because we must have access to those chips.

Without the chips that Taiwan produces, we would be in a world of hurt…

The island is a microchip fabrication hotbed, producing 60% of the world’s semiconductors — and around 93% of the most advanced ones, according to a 2021 report from the Boston Consulting Group. The U.S., South Korea and China also produce semiconductors, but Taiwan dominates the market, which was worth almost $600 billion last year.

So why don’t we just start building more chips in the United States?

Well, a 40 billion dollar factory is going to be constructed in Arizona, but it is many years away from completion…

The U.S., which produces about 10% of the world’s semiconductor chips and none of the most advanced ones, is also trying to boost domestic manufacturing, offering tax incentives for projects like the $40 billion factory being built in Arizona by the Taiwanese chip giant TSMC.

But building such a complex industry will take time, Wu said. “I would say 10 years,” he added.

If our leaders were smart, they would be trying to find a way to maintain peace.

But instead they just keep antagonizing both Russia and China, and that is just pushing them closer to one another…

China said it wants closer ties with Russia’s military, a sign Moscow still has Beijing’s support after the aborted Wagner mutiny.

Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu said in a meeting Monday with Nikolai Yevmenov, commander-in-chief of Russia’s navy, that “with the joint efforts of both sides, the relations between the two militaries will continue to deepen and solidify, constantly make new progress and reach a new level.”

If we end up fighting Russia and China at the same time, it would be a nightmare.

And needless to say, such a conflict would inevitably go nuclear, and a full-blown nuclear war would have the potential to kill billions of people…

So let us pray for peace.

Unfortunately, our leaders don’t seem interested in peace at all.

Joe Biden and his warmongering minions are playing a very dangerous game, and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

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.

Millions Of Americans Are Relocating Just Prior To The Great Chaos That Is Coming

July 6, 2023July 6, 2023 by Michael

Summer is moving season for millions of Americans, and many will end up relocating to an entirely different state. In the old days, such long distance moves were often prompted by an employment change or by a desire to be closer to family. But now political and ideological considerations are motivating many Americans to search for greener pastures. Just about all of us can feel that something has gone horribly wrong in this country. All around us our society is literally coming apart at the seams, and it has become exceedingly clear that great chaos is coming. It has been said that birds of a feather tend to flock together, and that is especially true during challenging times. So now we are seeing an exodus of conservatives to red states and an exodus of liberals to blue states. The following comes from an article that was recently posted by PBS entitled “Conservatives move to red states and liberals move to blue as the country grows more polarized”…

Americans are segregating by their politics at a rapid clip, helping fuel the greatest divide between the states in modern history.

One party controls the entire legislature in all but two states. In 28 states, the party in control has a supermajority in at least one legislative chamber — which means the majority party has so many lawmakers that they can override a governor’s veto. Not that that would be necessary in most cases, as only 10 states have governors of different parties than the one that controls the legislature.

This is really happening.

But the article that I just quoted makes it sound like the migration to red and blue states that we are witnessing is roughly equal, and that is not true at all.

For example, hundreds of thousands of people have been leaving the state of California in recent years in search of a better life elsewhere…

More than 500,000 people left California altogether between April 2020 and July 2022.

Many of those ex-Californians have been relocating to Texas.

In fact, approximately 300 Californians moved to the state of Texas on a daily basis in 2021…

About 300 Californians moved to Texas each day in 2021 – a staggering 111,000 people, newly released data shows.

That is double the 63,000 that made the same move in 2012, according to a new report from Storage Café, which examined California-Texas migration patterns over nearly a decade.

And it turns out that lots of companies have been relocating from California to Texas too…

More than 100 companies have moved their headquarters to Texas since 2020, with 40 percent of them coming from California, the study found.

California should be one of the best places to live on the entire planet.

But just like so many other blue states, it has been transformed into a cesspool of crime, drugs, homelessness and violence.

Once upon a time, crime was primarily limited to the bad areas, but that is no longer true.

Let me give you an example. In one of the wealthiest areas of San Francisco, a gang of children “wielding baseball bats” has been ruthlessly assaulting nannies and young mothers in order to steal their phones…

Children wielding baseball bats are reportedly attacking and robbing helpless mothers and nannies in a wealthy San Francisco neighborhood known for its young families.

Noe Valley, which is also known locally as “stroller alley” because of the many families with young children who live there, experienced 11 phone robberies last week, which authorities believe are linked to a gang of youths who have also lately been assaulting women with bats while they pick up their kids from school, according to the Telegraph.

Two women were reportedly assaulted in the neighborhood last week by a youth who allegedly hit one of the women with a baseball bat and the other one in the face.

Of course San Francisco is definitely not alone.

At this point, we are seeing a rising tide of violence all over the nation. Over the Fourth of July weekend, at least 150 Americans were gunned down, and that made headline news all over the country…

A bloody Fourth of July weekend ended with at least 150 people killed in more than 400 shootings that occurred across the country, according to data compiled throughout the weekend.

Homelessness is also a problem that has started to spiral completely out of control in blue states.

Los Angeles has spent millions upon millions of dollars to try to solve their homelessness crisis, but it just keeps getting worse…

Homelessness in Los Angeles skyrocketed over the last year, increasing by 10% in L.A. County and 9% in the city, leaving more than 75,000 people living on the streets of the county in an epic setback for local leaders.

With each passing day, even more Americans end up in the streets of our major cities. For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled “The Number Of Americans Living On The Streets ‘Has Broadly Risen This Year'”.

Lastly, I wanted to briefly discuss our national drug crisis.

More Americans are addicted to legal and/or illegal drugs than ever before.

And overdose deaths just keep setting a new all-time high year after year.

In major cities from coast to coast, addicts stagger around like zombies in the middle of our streets as they enjoy getting high, even though they clearly understand that it may be the last high they ever experience.

Things have gotten so bad that cocaine has even been discovered inside the White House for the very first time. Authorities are telling us that it is a “mystery” how it got there, but others are pointing out that there is one very obvious suspect in this case…

Our country is disintegrating right in front of our eyes.

And as it falls to pieces, there will be great chaos, and this will especially be true in blue states and in major cities.

If you are going to relocate, I would advise you to do it now.

Things may seem unstable now, but the truth is that they are only going to get crazier 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.

Don’t Look Now, But Utter Chaos Is Being Unleashed All Over The World

July 5, 2023July 5, 2023 by Michael

The relative peace and tranquility that we had been enjoying for several months has been shattered. All of a sudden, chaos is erupting all over the globe. Rioters are setting fires in cities all over France, the IDF just conducted the largest military operation in the West Bank since 2002, and the Russians and the Ukrainians are both accusing one another of wanting to attack the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. If that facility is bombed, it could potentially cause a nuclear disaster far worse than the one that we witnessed at Chernobyl in 1986. Unfortunately, I believe that global instability will be the norm throughout the remainder of 2023 and beyond. Much more civil unrest and war are ahead, and that has very serious implications for every man, woman and child on the entire planet.

Personally, I have been absolutely stunned by the tremendous violence that has been taking place in France. It is being reported that 5,662 vehicles have been set on fire during the rioting so far…

Ministry of the Interior figures taking account of damage to people and property during the now six nights of riots triggered by the shooting death by a police officer of an Algerian heritage teenager in a Paris suburb at a traffic stop reveals there have been 5,662 vehicle fires so far, reports Le Parisien.

The widespread destruction of vehicles, which as images recorded in the areas of unrest in France attest, include not just private cars but also trucks and buses. Trams have also been targeted by vandals. In one widely-reported case, a large truck was stolen by looters to ram down the doors of a mall to gain access to the merchandise inside. There were 1,919 vehicle fires on Thursday night alone.

France has seen a lot of riots in recent years, but nothing quite like this.

At least 1,000 buildings have been torched during these riots, and that includes 254 police stations…

Damage has not by any means been limited to burnt-out cars and buses, however. As the government figures attest, at least 1,000 buildings have been damaged in the riots. This includes attacks on 254 police stations, as well as dozens of town halls, schools, post offices, and private commercial properties targeted for burning or looting.

The rioters have already caused a billion dollars in damage, and this crisis still isn’t over.

But this isn’t the biggest global story right now.

Over the past few days, the Israeli military has been conducting the most extensive military operation that we have witnessed in the West Bank since 2002…

Over 1,000 IDF troops were involved in the campaign, which appeared to be the largest in the West Bank in some 20 years.

Speaking alongside Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Jenin “in the past two years had become a factory for terror. In the past two days, this ended.”

“We cut off the weapons manufacturing process, captured thousands of bombs, destroyed dozens of production sites, workshops and explosives labs,” he said.

The IDF is beginning to wrap up this campaign, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning that this was “not a one-time thing”…

“At this moment we are completing the mission, and I can say our widescale action in Jenin is not a one-time thing,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the Salem checkpoint, some 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from Jenin.

“We will continue [to operate] as necessary to root out terrorism. We will not allow Jenin to go back to being a hotbed of terror,” he added.

Tensions in the region have reached a boiling point, and it is just a matter of time before a major war erupts in the Middle East.

But this conflict in the West Bank is not the biggest global story right now either.

To me, the most important global story at the moment is what is going on in Ukraine.

The Russians and the Ukrainians are both warning that an attack on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is imminent…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed that Russia is plotting a potentially dangerous attack on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which Russian forces have occupied for more than a year. Russia has accused Ukraine, meanwhile, of plotting to attack the same sprawling Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar, southern Ukraine, in the next two days.

It was a nerve-racking night for people across Ukraine amid the crossfire of accusations, but especially in the towns and cities near the Zaporizhzhia plant, including the city of Zaporizhzhia just a few miles away, which Russia never managed to capture.

I hope that there is no truth to any of this.

But where there is smoke, there is often fire.

I think that someone has been plotting something, and if an attack is carried out it could potentially create a disaster that is “not even comparable to Hiroshima or Nagasaki”…

An explosion at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant ‘is not even comparable to Hiroshima or Nagasaki’, a Ukrainian opposition leader has told MailOnline.

Such a blast would be ‘a much more terrifying and massive nuclear accident that, in the conditions of such a war, can lead to unpredictable consequences,’ he said.

The good news is that the entire world is now watching the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant very closely due to all of the accusations that are going back and forth.

So it will be much harder for either side to pull something off.

Let us hope that an attack does not happen, because that could set off a chain of events that nobody would be able to control.

For example, if the Russians believed that the Ukrainians attacked the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, they may respond by using tactical nuclear weapons against Ukrainian military targets.

If that happens, the U.S. would likely respond by using tactical nuclear weapons against Russians military targets.

And then it would be just a matter of time before we get to a full-blown nuclear war.

Already, one prominent Russian leader is warning that the U.S. and the EU “will be responsible for the consequences” if the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is destroyed…

“The goal is monstrous: to use a nuclear terrorist attack to accuse Russia and force the collective West to get directly involved in the Ukrainian conflict,” Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Russian State Duma’s International Affairs Committee, wrote on his Telegram channel.

Slutsky said tensions are growing around the Zaporizhzhia plant, as they are also “in European capitals.” And in a thinly veiled warning, added, “Brussels and Washington have every chance of being among the sponsors of nuclear terrorists and will be responsible for the consequences of blowing up” the plant.

This is incredibly serious.

But most Americans have absolutely no idea that any of this is going on.

Speaking of the United States, there have been 10 mass shootings in our nation over the past two days…

So far, there have been at least 10 mass shootings on July 4 and 5, according to GVA. Much of the information about each shooting is preliminary, and the details – about the number or nature of the injuries, for example – could change as police investigate.

Mass shootings have become so common that each one barely makes a blip in the news before the next one happens.

And it is just a matter of time before the rioting that we are witnessing in France erupts here too.

We are a nation that is in a very advanced state of decline, and most Americans are completely and utterly unprepared for what is coming.

The chaos that is currently being unleashed all over the world is just a small preview of the great storm that is ahead.

So I would encourage you to get things in order while you still can, because the pace of global change has accelerated to a speed that is absolutely breathtaking.

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.

More Than 105 Million Working Age Americans Do Not Have A Job Right Now

July 4, 2023July 4, 2023 by Michael

Our long slide toward economic oblivion continues, and survey after survey has shown that most Americans are deeply unsatisfied with the current state of the U.S. economy. Inflation is out of control, most Americans are getting poorer due to the rapidly rising cost of living, the housing bubble has started to burst, and the commercial real estate market is a giant mess. But employment is supposed to be our bright spot. The Biden administration continues to tell us that the unemployment rate is less than 4 percent and that there are lot of jobs available for those that want them. But is this really true?

To answer that question, it is imperative to understand that our government places unemployed persons into one of two categories…

Jobless people are classified into one of two categories by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)—either unemployed or not in the labor force. To be classified as unemployed in the month they are surveyed, people must be actively looking for work. If they are not actively looking, they are classified as not in the labor force.

Over time, the definition of “officially unemployed” has gotten more restrictive, and today only 6.097 million working age Americans are considered to be in that category.

Meanwhile, a staggering 99.800 million working age Americans are considered to be “not in the labor force”.

When you add both categories together, you get a total of 105.897 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.

Let me try to put that into perspective.

During the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009, that number never even got up to 90 million.

So that means that the number of working age Americans that are not employed at this moment far surpasses anything that we witnessed during the Great Recession.

Please do not believe the garbage that the federal government is trying to sell you.

Unemployment is not low. In fact, John Williams estimates that the real rate of unemployment in this country is somewhere around 25 percent.

If you are out of work at this moment, please realize that you are not alone.

In April, 37-year-old North Carolina resident Al Brown lost his job, and now his family is really struggling…

Al Brown and his fiancée faced a tough call in May when reviewing their weekly budget: What’s a higher priority, more food or dish soap?

Based in Concord, North Carolina, Brown was the main breadwinner for his fiancée and their two children. Then in April, he was let go from his job as a global director of business development at software company Cascade.

He’s since quit his gym membership and sold miscellaneous items around his home, including a computer and yard furniture, to make ends meet. His 13-year-old son quit the basketball team. While losing the family’s source of income has taken a financial toll, it’s also resulted in a mental one.

Since he was laid off, Brown has submitted more than 600 job applications, but that has produced only a few interviews and no job offers…

Brown, 37, now spends his days scouring the internet for jobs or reaching out to potential connections. After filing over 600 applications, only a handful have produced interviews, he says.

If jobs are easy to get, why hasn’t Al Brown been able to find one?

Can anyone out there explain that to me?

Perhaps I am just a little slow, because what the Biden administration is telling us about the economy does not seem to correspond with reality at all.

54-year-old Nina McCollum has applied for “hundreds of jobs” since losing her position in March, and she is still jobless as well…

Nina McCollum, 54, was laid off from her writing gig at jobs site Glassdoor back in March. She hasn’t found a new role since, despite applying to hundreds of jobs.

She’s been living off her savings, selling her blood plasma and frequenting food pantries just to get by — all while taking care of a teenage son. Her domestic partner helps out, but he can’t make up for her lost income.

Why can’t these people find work?

What is wrong with them?

Of course the truth is that there is nothing wrong with what they are doing. They are diligently searching for jobs, but the reality of the matter is that the employment market has gotten very tight.

Meanwhile, the cost of living just continues to rise, and that has resulted in a “collapse of household savings”…

In February, the U.S. personal savings rate was estimated to be around 4.6 percent—much below the decades-long average of about 8.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. But what does this mean?

Some economists think that the collapse of household savings could lead to a spending slowdown and trigger a recession.

The Biden administration may never admit that we have entered a major economic downturn, but that is precisely what we are witnessing.

In fact, the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing purchasing managers index has now been below 50 for eight months in a row…

The U.S. manufacturing sector fell deeper into recession territory in May, extending a multimonth slump as experts warn that the economy faces “clear challenges.”

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in a report Monday that its manufacturing purchasing managers index dropped to 46.0 last month, the lowest reading since May 2020 and the eighth consecutive sub-50 reading.

Any readings below 50 represent recession, with all key sub-components in contraction, including the employment index, suggesting layoff pressures are building.

It’s really happening.

Other than for a brief period during the pandemic, we have not seen economic turmoil of this magnitude since 2008 and 2009.

Unfortunately, we are still only in the very early chapters of this crisis.

The economic outlook for the remainder of 2023 is very bleak, the outlook for 2024 is even worse, and the long-term outlook is nightmarish.

But you have to give our leaders credit for propping things up for as long as they did. By flooding the system with money, they were able to delay our moment of reckoning for a long time.

Of course their gimmicks were also making our long-term problems even worse, and now our long-term problems have become our short-term problems.

There is so much pain ahead of us, and our country is not prepared to handle it.

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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