Money

If you are having a really difficult time keeping up with the rapidly rising cost of living, you are certainly not alone.  This year, “affordability” was a buzzword that was constantly on the lips of politicians, economists and talking heads on television.  As you will see below, Americans are being slammed by rising prices from a multitude of directions.  Meanwhile, “layoffs” has been another buzzword that has been widely used in 2025.  Thanks to the rise of AI and our steadily deteriorating economy, we have seen far more mass layoffs this year than we did last year.  Unfortunately, one survey has found that executives are gearing up for an even larger round in 2026.

This is what happens when you flood the system with money and you go into unprecedented amounts of debt.

Eventually a day of reckoning arrives.

Ever since the Great Recession, our leaders have been pursuing highly inflationary policies, and now the American people “are yelling about affordability”…

Affordability has been a source of household frustration and a key focus of political discourse in recent months, as prices for everyday goods and services continue to rise.

“People are yelling about affordability,” said Martha Gimbel, executive director and co-founder of the Budget Lab at Yale University. “I think it’s very obviously become a political flash point,” she said.

It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that things would turn out this way.

If we had made different choices, we would have gotten different results.

But we can’t go back and change the past now.  At this point, things are so bad that “affordability” has become the number one concern for U.S. voters…

A University of Michigan poll published in December shows that high prices remain a pain point for consumers. About 46% blame high prices for poor personal finances — among the highest shares since the series started in the late 1970s.

Consumers’ views of their current financial situation in December “collapsed” into negative territory for the first time since July 2022, the month after pandemic-era inflation had peaked, according to a poll published Tuesday by the Conference Board.

Overall, 65% of U.S. households say the cost of living has gotten worse or much worse in the past year, according to a recent Politico poll.

Healthcare costs have risen particularly rapidly.

One 62-year-old man that was recently interviewed by Business Insider openly admitted that he cannot afford to get sick, but he can’t afford to be healthy either…

David Deal’s 2026 outlook is what he describes as a “whack-a-mole of worry.” While he’s 62 and presumably approaching retirement, 65 is “just a number” for him, not a milestone marker for throwing in the towel on his career like his parents’ generation. The thing that really has him wound up, though, is healthcare, which he calls a “DEFCON 1” situation. Deal, a marketing consultant who lives in the Chicago suburbs, and his wife pay for their own insurance, and their premiums are going up by 25% next year. He’s worried one slip on the ice this winter could mean financial disaster. A family member’s recent two-hour trip to the ER cost them thousands of dollars, even with insurance, and the episode has him spooked.

“For me, it’s the double-whammy of skyrocketing premiums and also the skyrocketing costs of actually getting care,” he says. “We are literally at a point where we can’t afford to be sick, and we can’t afford to be healthy.”

He emphasizes that he means a collective “we” — he knows he’s far from alone in his predicament.

Health insurance premiums are set to rise even higher in 2026, and many Americans are cancelling their policies as a result.

When you don’t have health insurance, you just pray that you don’t get sick.

If you do get sick, it can be a financial disaster.

Meanwhile, one recent survey discovered that 75 percent of Americans have “reduced spending in other areas” just so that they can afford to pay for their groceries…

But whatever their preferences, many shoppers still fretted about how to pay for their groceries. More than 2 in 3 respondents (67.6%) said that they’re struggling to pay grocery bills because of inflation and rising food prices, according to a survey by Swiftly, which provides digital and media solutions for brick-and-mortar supermarkets.

More than 3 out of 4 (75.2%) responded that they’ve reduced spending in other areas to afford groceries, and in a follow-up question selected what areas they’ve cut spending in the most to pay grocery bills, with entertainment spending the most likely to be cut, followed by spending on travel, clothing, and going out to eat or drink.

Government bureaucrats keep telling us that food prices are not going up very quickly.

But everyone can see that they are wrong.

And going out to eat has become a luxury that most of the population simply cannot afford on a regular basis.  As a result, restaurants are closing down at a staggering pace…

New data shows that 2025 was a record year for restaurant closures in the District.

The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) reports 92 restaurants closed their doors this year, compared to 73 closures in 2024 and 48 in 2022.

Purchasing a new vehicle has also become a luxury that most of the population simply cannot afford any longer.

Since the early days of the pandemic, the average price of a new vehicle has gone from less than $38,000 to more than $50,000…

Americans are shelling out record car payments — and now some are signing up for loans stretching nearly a decade to get a new set of wheels.

The average monthly payment for a new car hit about $760 in November, according to industry-research firm J.D. Power, after the typical new-vehicle price surged past the $50,000 mark this fall — up from less than $38,000 in early 2020.

With sticker shock everywhere, buyers are leaning hard on longer financing to keep payments from exploding — even if that means paying far more interest over time.

Some dealers are now stretching out vehicle payments for 100 months so that people can actually afford them.

To me, that is absolutely insane.

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

It is designed to get us into as much debt as possible, and at this stage U.S. households are a whopping 18.6 trillion dollars in debt…

The Federal Reserve signaled a higher bar for 2026 interest rate cuts at its December meeting, potentially snatching away a much-needed reprieve for millions of Americans saddled with debt.

Household debt ballooned to a record $18.6 trillion during the third quarter of 2025, and the central bank is expected to lower its benchmark rate just once or twice next year to soften borrowing costs.

Americans have never been more overextended than they are right now.

It was another record year for credit card debt during the holiday season, but vast numbers of our fellow citizens are still paying off credit card debt from Christmas 2024.

Getting deep into debt in this very challenging economic environment is very foolish, because most people do not have jobs that are secure.

In fact, job security is now the number two concern for U.S. voters…

Job security rose to workers’ second-most pressing concern this year, after covering their monthly expenses, according to a new survey by Mercer.

While “covering monthly expenses” had been the leading concern for the past three annual surveys, fears around job loss jumped from seventh place in 2023 to second place in 2025, where it was tied with being able to retire and work-life balance. Mercer did not conduct this survey in 2024.

Throughout this year, I have documented so many of the mass layoffs that have been occurring all over the nation.

For example, Tyson Foods has announced that a beef processing facility in Lexington, Nebraska will be shut down permanently next month, and that means that approximately 3,200 workers will be losing their jobs.

A reporter that visited Lexington discovered that fear of what those layoffs would mean had gripped the entire area…

On a frigid day after Mass at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in rural Nebraska, worshipers shuffled into the basement and sat on folding chairs, their faces barely masking the fear gripping their town.

There are only about 11,000 people living in Lexington, and so these layoffs have the potential to turn it into a ghost town…

“Suddenly they tell us that there’s no more work. Your world closes in on you,” Alejandra Gutierrez said

She and the others work at Tyson Foods’ beef plant and are among the 3,200 people who will lose their jobs when Lexington’s biggest employer closes the plant next month after more than two decades of operation.

Hundreds of families may be forced to pack up and leave the town of 11,000, heading east to Omaha or Iowa, or south to the meatpacking towns of Kansas or beyond, causing spinoff layoffs in Lexington’s restaurants, barbershops, grocers, convenience stores and taco trucks.

There are so many other examples that I could share with you.

In Michigan, the closure of a facility in Detroit will mean that more than a thousand General Motors employees will be out of work starting on January 5th…

According to WARN Act notices filed in November, 1,140 General Motors employees will be let go from the company’s Factory Zero site in Detroit, Michigan on January 5.

In a filing with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, General Motors said the cuts would be permanent, affect several roles, and stemmed from adjustments related to the slower-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

According to one recent survey, over one-third of all large companies intend to slash their payrolls during the months ahead…

In November, executive search firm Spencer Stuart asked 90 chief marketing officers how aggressively they plan to use AI to shrink payrolls, the Wall Street Journal reported.

More than one in three executives said that they expect to hand out pink slips in the next 12 to 24 months as they deploy more computer agents.

The trend is even worse among bigger companies.

Nearly half the executives at firms worth more than $20 billion said they’re planning significant job cuts.

If this survey is accurate, we could see millions of layoffs over the next couple of years.

Just think about that.

We were warned that this was going to happen.

Now it is playing out right in front of our eyes.

And survey after survey is indicating that the American people are quite gloomy about where economic conditions are heading next…

Americans are ending 2025 significantly more pessimistic about the direction of their financial situations than they were at the start of the year, according to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment gauge from early December. Its reading on personal finance expectations is 12% below where it was at the beginning of the year. A November consumer survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York similarly found that people are increasingly gloomy about their current and future finances, and their expectations for increased medical care costs are at their highest levels since January 2014.

If you understand what is happening, that will help you to make better decisions.

When conditions get tough, those that are wise tighten things up.

Sadly, most of the population continues to party as if tomorrow will never come, but no matter how hard one may try it is impossible to stop the inexorable march of time.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

This year silver has been on the greatest bull run that we have ever seen.  It is up an astounding 166 percent since January 1st, and so those that purchased it long ago and stuck with it are really loving life right now.  When the price of silver reached the 50 dollar mark earlier this year, I thought that it would be some time before it hit the 60 dollar mark.  But of course the truth is that it didn’t take long at all.  Once the price of silver reached 60 dollars, I thought that it might hit 70 dollars some time in early 2026.  If you check the latest numbers, you will see that we have easily blown past that threshold, and the price of silver has already surpassed 80 dollars in Shanghai.  I know that I have been using the word “crazy” a lot lately, but without a doubt what we are witnessing at this moment is truly “crazy”.

So why is this happening?

In a previous article, I discussed factors such as the AI boom, strong industrial demand, new technologies and a spike in demand for physical silver in Asia.

But let’s step back for a moment and take a look at the bigger picture.

To me, it is not a coincidence that the price of silver is exploding at the exact same time that we are reaching the terminal phase of the largest global debt super cycle in history…

Global debt has climbed to an all-time high of $337.7 trillion by the end of the second quarter of 2025, according to the latest Global Debt Monitor from the Institute of International Finance (IIF). The first half of 2025 alone saw an increase of over $21 trillion, largely driven by accommodative financial conditions, a softer US dollar, and continued government borrowing.

This jump is comparable to the COVID-era debt explosion in 2020, when governments and corporations worldwide dramatically ramped up spending to tackle the pandemic.

This is the first time in world history that all of the major powers are facing a nightmarish debt crisis simultaneously.

As this 337.7 trillion dollar debt bubble bursts, it is going to be so important to have your money somewhere safe.

So it makes all the sense in the world that there is so much demand for silver right now.

Long-term bond yields have been surging all over the globe, and this is even happening in nations that were once considered to be “safe havens” such as Japan and Germany…

Long-term yields are rising sharply across many countries, including in Germany and Japan, which in the past used to be safe havens. That puts huge pressure on fiscally distressed countries like Italy and France and incentivizes short-termism. If the EU wants to become a geopolitical player, it can’t allow high-debt countries to dictate foreign policy. This has to stop.

Meanwhile, fiat currencies are rapidly losing value, and that has particularly been true for the U.S. dollar…

The U.S. dollar was on the back foot on Wednesday and set for its biggest yearly fall since 2017, possibly with more to come, as investors wagered the Federal Reserve would have room to cut rates further next year even as most of its peers look finished with easing.

Tuesday’s solid U.S. GDP reading failed to move the dial on the rate outlook, leaving investors pricing in roughly two more Fed cuts in 2026.

This has been a horrible year for the U.S. dollar.

That is one of the reasons why the purchasing power of your money doesn’t stretch as far as it once did.

For the year, the U.S. dollar index is down about 10 percent…

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar index fell to a 2-1/2-month low of 97.767. It was on track to lose 9.8% for the year, which would mark its steepest annual drop since 2017. Any further weakness in the last week of the year would take its fall to its greatest since 2003.

Please keep in mind that the other currencies that the U.S. dollar is being measured against are rapidly losing value as well.

It is just that the U.S. dollar is losing value even faster.

One of the reasons why the U.S. dollar is losing value so rapidly is because global central banks are becoming less dependent on it…

The share of USD-denominated assets held by other central banks dropped to 56.9% of total foreign exchange reserves in Q3, the lowest since 1994, from 57.1% in Q2 and 58.5% in Q1, according to the IMF’s new data on Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves.

USD-denominated foreign exchange reserves include US Treasury securities, US mortgage-backed securities (MBS), US agency securities, US corporate bonds, and other USD-denominated assets held by central banks other than the Fed.

This is not good news at all.

Because as Wolf Richter has aptly pointed out, having the reserve currency of the world has been a massive advantage for us…

Foreign central banks buying USD-denominated assets, such as Treasury securities, helps push up prices and push down yields of those assets. Being the dominant reserve currency had the effect of helping the US borrow more cheaply to fund its huge twin deficits – the trade deficit and the budget deficit – and thereby has enabled the US to run those huge twin deficits for decades. At some point, this continued decline as a reserve currency, as it reduces demand for USD debt, would make the trade deficit and the budget deficit more difficult to sustain.

People have been talking about the death of the U.S. dollar for a long time.

The U.S. dollar is certainly not dead yet, but the fact that it is in the process of dying should deeply alarm us.

The entire global financial system is shifting, and right now there is a global race to accumulate precious metals.  This is particularly true for silver…

Silver has been designated critical by the United States. Russia has increased accumulation. India has discouraged selling while encouraging the use of silver as collateral. The Middle East is preparing silver-linked tokenized instruments. Demand is rising across jurisdictions.

At the same time, there have been some things going on behind the scenes that have caused the price of silver to go parabolic over the last couple of months…

Here’s the next dot: over the last two months, there has been a massive inflow of silver from Latin America into the United States. Not into China. Into the U.S.

Who is one clearinghouse? JPMorgan.

On Black Friday, JPMorgan effectively pulled silver off the market. That removal of available supply triggered a forced response elsewhere. Someone in China who was structurally short silver had to cover, and cover aggressively. That wasn’t a trade. That was a scramble.

I don’t see how the price of silver can keep going up at this rate.

At some point it will stabilize.

But of course silver is not the only precious metal that is in great demand right now.

On Friday, the price of platinum and the price of palladium both went absolutely haywire…

Elsewhere, spot platinum rose 8.7% to $2,411.46 per ounce, having earlier hit a record high of $2,448.25, ⁠while palladium climbed nearly 10% to $1,850.76.

For those that have invested in precious metals, what we are witnessing at this moment is such good news.

Conversely, unprecedented volatility in the prices of precious metals is a major red flag for the global financial system.

Bond yields are going nuts, cryptocurrencies have already crashed, and global stock markets are flashing huge warning signs.

Many are anticipating a great deal of financial chaos in 2026, and at this stage it is hard to argue that they are wrong.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

So many seniors that were once so full of life are now just shadows of their former selves.  It can be really easy to assume that they are “just getting old” and that nothing unusual is happening to them.  But the truth is that in so many cases the reason why America’s seniors are shutting down is because they are simply being overmedicated.  Our entire medical system has been designed to push pills, and so when our seniors seek medical help that is usually the solution that they are offered.  As you will see below, the proportion of our seniors that are on at least 8 pharmaceutical drugs is truly alarming.  Of course those that consume pharmaceutical drug cocktails on a daily basis for an extended period of time are quite likely to experience very serious consequences.

Most people don’t realize that modern terms such as “pharmacy” and “pharmaceutical” originally come from the Greek word “pharmakeia”…

The word “pharmacy” has a fascinating origin story that’s as complex as the practice itself.

It comes from the Greek word “pharmakeia”, which referred to “the practice of the druggist”. But here is the twist: “phármakon”, the root of the term, was a double-edged sword – it meant a plant or herb that could be used for either healing or harmful purposes, blurring the line between medicine and poison.

No society in the entire history of the planet has taken “pharmakeia” to the extremes that we have.

We are the most drugged nation that the world has ever seen, and this is particularly true for our seniors.

The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed an 83-year-old woman named Barbara Schmidt that has “filled prescriptions for more than a dozen different drugs in the past year”…

For years, Barbara Schmidt’s family feared an illness was behind a pattern of terrifying falls that repeatedly landed the 83-year-old great-grandmother in surgery with broken bones. Instead, Schmidt’s frequent tumbles might have been tied to something else: medications intended to make her better.

Schmidt, who lives with her husband of 65 years in Lewes, Del., filled prescriptions for more than a dozen different drugs in the past year, according to pharmacy and medical records.

After taking so many medications in such a short period of time, it really is a miracle that she is still alive today.

But she is far from alone.

The Wall Street Journal discovered that one out of every six seniors that is enrolled in Medicare’s drug benefit has been prescribed at least 8 different pharmaceutical drugs…

That isn’t unusual for America’s seniors, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Medicare data. One in six of the 46 million seniors enrolled in Medicare’s drug benefit, which pays for most drugs taken by older Americans, were prescribed eight or more medications.

Millions upon millions of our seniors are literally being drugged into oblivion.

One of the problems is that seniors often visit multiple physicians, and that can result in a lot of confusion…

Pharmacists who work with seniors say doctors might not be aware of their patients’ full medication list. Patients don’t always mention what their other doctors have prescribed when a history is taken, and specialists might not have access to a shared medical record.

The Journal analysis found that, among seniors taking eight or more drugs, it was common for the prescriptions to come from a large number of doctors.

Of course it isn’t just seniors that are being overmedicated.

One recent survey found that 70 percent of U.S. adults are currently taking at least one pharmaceutical drug, and nearly a quarter of U.S. adults are currently taking at least four pharmaceutical drugs…

Recent CivicScience poll results reveal the picture of maintenance prescription drug use in the U.S. has shifted dramatically. The number of U.S. adults who report taking at least one prescription medication per day is now 70%, a 14 percentage-point increase from 2019 data.

Additionally, the percentage of people taking four or more prescription medications daily in the US has increased by six percentage points, from 18% to 24%. An increasing number of prescriptions equals less and less wiggle room in budgets already tightened due to inflationary prices.

It is an insanely profitable industry, and that is why we constantly see ads for pharmaceutical drugs on television.

They desperately want more “customers”, and seniors are the easiest target.

According to the official CDC website, 89 percent of Americans that are 65 years or older are currently taking at least one pharmaceutical drug…

Among adults aged ≥65 years, men (89.0%) and women (89.3%) were equally likely to take prescription medication. Prescription medication use increased with age, from 48.4% for those aged 18–44 years to 89.2% for those aged ≥65 years, and this pattern of increasing use with age was observed for both men and women.

We take more pharmaceutical drugs than anyone else in the world.

So why is our life expectancy below average compared to other industrialized nations?

I think that is a really important question.

When our seniors go to see their doctors, they are often not properly informed about the potential side effects of the drugs that they are being prescribed.

Let me give you an example.

Zoloft is the number one antidepressant in the United States, but most of those that are taking it do not realize that it has an extremely long list of side effects.

But don’t just take my word for it.  The following comes from the official Zoloft website…

ZOLOFT may cause serious side effects. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms, or call 911 if there is an emergency.

1. Suicidal thoughts or actions:

ZOLOFT and other antidepressant medicines may increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some people 24 years of age and younger, especially within the first few months of treatment or when the dose is changed.

Depression or other serious mental illnesses are the most important causes of suicidal thoughts or actions.

Watch for these changes and call your healthcare provider right away if you notice new or sudden changes in mood, behavior, actions, thoughts, or feelings, especially if severe.

Pay particular attention to such changes when ZOLOFT is started or when the dose is changed.

Keep all follow-up visits with your healthcare provider and call between visits if you are worried about symptoms.

2. Call a doctor right away if you or a person you know who is taking ZOLOFT has any of the following symptoms, especially if they are new, worse, or worry you:

-thoughts about suicide or dying
-attempts to commit suicide
-new or worse depression
-new or worse anxiety
-feeling very agitated or restless
-panic attacks
-trouble sleeping (insomnia)
-new or worse irritability
-acting aggressive, being angry, or violent
-acting on dangerous impulses
-an extreme increase in activity and talking (mania)
-other unusual changes in behavior or mood

3. Serotonin Syndrome. This condition can be life-threatening and symptoms may include:

-agitation, hallucinations, coma, or other changes in mental status
-racing heartbeat, high or low blood pressure
-coordination problems or muscle twitching (overactive reflexes)
-nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
-sweating or fever
-muscle rigidity

4. Increased chance of bleeding: ZOLOFT and other antidepressant medicines may increase your risk of bleeding or bruising, especially if you take the blood thinner warfarin (COUMADIN®, JANTOVEN®), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs, like ibuprofen or naproxen), or aspirin.

5. Manic episodes. Symptoms may include:

-greatly increased energy
-racing thoughts
-unusually grand ideas
-severe trouble sleeping
-reckless behavior
-excessive happiness or irritability
-talking more or faster than usual

6. Seizures or convulsions.

7. Glaucoma (angle-closure glaucoma). ZOLOFT may cause a certain type of eye problem called angle-closure glaucoma. Call your healthcare provider if you have eye pain, changes in your vision, or swelling or redness in or around the eye. Only some people are at risk for these problems. You may want to undergo an eye examination to see if you are at risk and receive preventative treatment if you are.

8. Changes in appetite or weight.

9. Low salt (sodium) levels in the blood. Elderly people may be at greater risk for this. Symptoms may include headache, weakness or feeling unsteady, confusion, problems concentrating or thinking, or memory problems.

10. Sexual problems (dysfunction). Taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), including ZOLOFT, may cause sexual problems.

There are many other drugs that literally list “death” as one of the potential side effects.

And earlier this year it was being reported that adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs have now become the third leading cause of death in the United States…

In 2021, the American Society of Pharmacovigilance (ASP) launched the Fourth Cause Campaign to raise awareness that adverse drug events (ADEs) were the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Today, new data confirm a troubling and unacceptable reality—ADEs have now surged to become the third leading cause of death. An internal analysis conducted by ASP projects that adverse drug events now account for over 250,000 deaths annually, surpassing stroke and respiratory disease, making it the third leading cause of death in the United States.

What we are witnessing is truly a national tragedy.

But the big news networks aren’t going to talk much about it, because the pharmaceutical companies are their biggest advertisers.

And our politicians are unlikely to push for major reform, because the pharmaceutical companies pour vast amounts of money into their campaigns.

Money is power, and the pharmaceutical industry is absolutely swimming in cash.

If you are waiting for major change to happen, you may find yourself waiting for quite a while.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

2025 has been a smashing year for those that invested in precious metals.  The price of copper is up about 30 percent since the start of the year, and the price of silver has risen 128 percent during that same time period.  I have been saying “we have never seen anything like this before” a lot lately, but this is yet another case where that is entirely true.  Needless to say, what we have been witnessing is not welcome news for those that have been trying to keep silver prices and copper prices suppressed.  In recent weeks, big losses have turned into even bigger losses as things haven’t gone their way.  The big financial institutions in the western world that have been attempting to suppress prices are fighting a losing battle, because the “AI revolution” is going to require vast amounts of physical silver and physical copper.  At this stage, it would take a truly apocalyptic event to stop the construction of the thousands of colossal data centers that are currently going up all over the globe.

At the same time, there has been a worldwide explosion in demand for physical silver from individual investors as paper currencies rapidly lose their purchasing power.

This has particularly been true in Asia.

In fact, there was so much demand for physical silver in India a couple of months ago that it actually caused “severe physical shortages”…

The Indian silver market has been gripped by an unprecedented “silver squeeze” in October 2025, sending prices to historic highs and creating severe physical shortages. This crisis, fueled by a unique blend of festive demand, speculative buying, and a constrained global supply, has had immediate and significant implications, not only within India but also across international bullion markets. The traditional festive season of Dhanteras and Diwali has ignited a buying frenzy, pushing domestic silver prices to record levels, with physical market premiums skyrocketing and global ripple effects causing scarcity even in major bullion hubs.

You could argue that what has been going on in India lately is just temporary hysteria.

But what isn’t temporary is the steadily increasing industrial demand for physical silver…

High industrial demand for silver, too, has been driving up prices for months, the Silver Institute, an international nonprofit industry group, has observed. A December report from the institute further declared silver the “next generation metal,” calling it “an essential component across multiple high-growth sectors as industries race to embrace digital innovation and meet clean energy mandates.”

Physical silver is literally used in thousands upon thousands of high tech products, and many are convinced that what we are witnessing today is just the beginning.

For example, Samsung has been working on a new generation of solid-state batteries that threatens to revolutionize the marketplace…

Solid-state batteries have long been viewed as the next major evolution beyond conventional lithium-ion systems. Their promise—higher energy density, faster charging, and improved safety—has attracted sustained research investment from major automotive and electronics manufacturers.

Recent disclosures from Samsung SDI suggest that progress in this field has accelerated, particularly through the use of a silver–carbon (Ag–C) composite anode layer. While media coverage has focused on headline performance metrics such as extended driving range and reduced charging times, the material implications of this design choice have received comparatively limited attention.

Specifically, Samsung’s approach positions silver as an active electrochemical material, rather than a marginal conductive input. This distinction has meaningful consequences for long-term silver demand and supply dynamics.

If the adoption of solid-state batteries becomes widespread, the demand for physical silver in many industries could go through the roof…

Historically, silver usage in vehicles has been relatively modest. Internal combustion vehicles typically contain 15–20 grams, while electric vehicles use 30–50 grams, primarily in electronics, power management systems, and connectors.

Solid-state battery designs incorporating Ag–C anodes change this profile. Instead of milligram-scale dispersion, silver is deployed in gram-scale quantities per cell, making it a structural component of the battery system.

Even under conservative assumptions, partial adoption of solid-state batteries could introduce tens of millions of ounces of incremental annual silver demand by the late 2020s. Under more aggressive adoption scenarios, the impact would be materially larger.

I was quite stunned when I read that.

Our society is being transformed at a pace that is difficult to comprehend.

Just look at how many data centers are going up all around us.

Needless to say, every single one of those data centers requires large amounts of physical silver…

Industry association The Silver Institute and Oxford Economics reinforced that view in a report released on Tuesday, saying AI’s rapid expansion is helping drive growing demand for silver across digital economy applications.

“As digitalisation and AI adoption accelerate, so too does the demand for critical materials involved in their applications — silver a critical one among them,” they wrote.

Data centers increasingly rely on next-generation chips such as GPUs and TPUs equipped with high-performance semiconductors that use silver in their internal connections and packaging, the association wrote.

There is no telling how high the price of silver could eventually go during the AI boom.

The same thing is true for the price of copper.

This may be difficult for many of you to believe, but a single AI data center “can require up to 50,000 tons of copper”…

A conventional data center uses between 5,000 and 15,000 tons of copper. A hyperscale data center, on the other hand—the kind being built to run artificial intelligence (AI)—can require up to 50,000 tons of copper per facility, according to the Copper Development Association.

Think about that for a second. A single AI data center that uses more copper than three conventional facilities combined.

That’s why I think the AI story is about much more than just raw compute power. It also involves electrical infrastructure at a scale we’ve never seen before. And these massive facilities have an insatiable appetite for copper.

That is a lot of copper!

As the price of copper has soared, it has become an increasingly appealing target for thieves…

Often strung from utility poles or buried beneath our feet, copper wire has played a critical role in powering America’s electrical grid for more than a century.

But brazen thefts are threatening the grid, with thieves climbing onto car roofs to cut down telephone lines or prying open manholes in broad daylight to strip copper wiring.

The effects have been felt nationwide: roads and bridges going dark, 911 calls that fail to connect and higher utility bills as replacement costs get passed on to consumers.

If you live in an urban area and your power suddenly goes out for seemingly no reason, this might be the cause.

In a recent 12 month period, there were 15,000 attacks on domestic communication networks, and copper theft was one of the biggest factors…

There were more than 15,000 destructive attacks nationwide on domestic communication networks between June 2024 and June 2025, with copper theft a major driver, according to the TV and internet industry trade group, NCTA. More than 9.5 million customers were affected, with California and Texas alone accounting for over half of the incidents.

Copper theft is particularly bad in Los Angeles.

Law enforcement officials in L.A. openly admit that this is something that they are forced to deal with on a daily basis.

No matter how hard they try, they can’t seem to stop it from happening.

Just look at what has happened to the Sixth Street Bridge.  It opened in 2022, and since then thieves have ripped seven miles of copper wire out of it…

When Los Angeles unveiled its newly built Sixth Street Bridge in 2022, it was hailed as a new city landmark. At night, the 3,500-foot bridge, with wide pedestrian walkways, would light up in shifting LED colors.

Three years later, the bridge sits dark.

Thieves have stolen more than 38,000 feet, or seven miles, of copper wire from the bridge, causing $2.5 million in damage, according to Mark González, the local assemblymember who represents the area.

It is very hard to deny that we are rapidly becoming a third world country.

There is so much crime all around us, and I am entirely convinced that the worst is yet to come.

This is one of the reasons why so many data centers are being put up in very remote areas.

If a data center is located in the middle of nowhere, it is much less likely that criminals will mess with it.

And as long as the data center construction boom continues, the price of silver and the price of copper will both continue to rise.

For those that have positioned themselves wisely, that is very good news.

But for those on Wall Street that desperately need the price of silver and the price of copper to stop soaring, that is very bad news indeed.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Hundreds of millions of people all over the western world are enjoying the holiday season as if nothing has changed.  But meanwhile the pounding of the war drums just continues to intensify.  If the world keeps going down this path, next year’s holiday season could look completely different.  Unfortunately, most people seem to assume that everything will magically work out just fine somehow.  That greatly frustrates me, because ignoring the reality of the crisis that we are facing is not going to fix anything.  If ordinary citizens in the western world truly understood what was at stake, they would be going completely ballistic right now.  Global war is rapidly approaching, but the vast majority of our entertainment-addicted population doesn’t seem to get this.

Over the weekend, there were some very alarming new developments.

On Saturday, U.S. forces seized another Venezuelan oil tanker…

In a pre-dawn operation on Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard seized a Panama-flagged vessel called Centuries. A U.S. official told CBS News that the interdiction of the vessel followed a similar playbook to an earlier U.S. seizure of an oil tanker near Venezuela.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said on social media that the vessel on Saturday was “a falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to traffic stolen oil and fund the narcoterrorist Maduro regime.”

Needless to say, the Venezuelans were furious.

They accused the U.S. of committing a “serious act of piracy”…

In a statement on Saturday, the Venezuelan government condemned the vessel’s seizure, saying it was a “serious act of piracy.”

“The colonialist model that the U.S. government seeks to impose through such practices will fail and be defeated by the Venezuelan people,” the statement said.

Of course now that the ball is rolling, the U.S. does not intend to stop.

On Sunday, it was being reported that U.S. forces were pursuing yet another oil tanker…

The United States is pursuing an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, according to multiple reports, just a day after the Coast Guard seized a different tanker in the same waters amid a rapid U.S. military buildup in the region.

If seized, it would mark the third U.S. interception of an oil tanker in less than two weeks. An official told Reuters on Dec. 21 the tanker was under sanctions, and it had not been boarded so far. Officials did not give a specific location for the operation or name the vessel being pursued, according to Reuters. Bloomberg was among the first to report on the operation.

The pursuit of the tanker comes less than a week after President Donald Trump ordered a “blockade” of all sanctioned ships from entering and leaving Venezuela, further pressuring the oil-rich nation’s economy.

U.S. Senator Rand Paul is calling the seizure of these tankers a “prelude to war”.

He is quite right about that.

And now that the Venezuelan Navy will be escorting at least some of these tankers, the shooting could begin at any time…

Venezuela has ordered its navy to escort its tankers carrying petroleum products from its ports after President Trump declared a “complete and total blockade” on “sanctioned” tankers going into and out of Venezuela, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The report said that several ships sailed from Venezuela’s east coast with a naval escort on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. US forces already boarded and seized one tanker last week and intend to steal the cargo. If the US attempts to seize another tanker, it could now lead to a direct clash with the Venezuelan Navy.

People need to understand that it isn’t just Venezuela that we are making angry.

Approximately 40 percent of the oil that Cuba imports comes from Venezuela, and we are being told that if that oil is cut off the Cuban economy could collapse…

Venezuela remains Cuba’s most important energy supplier, covering roughly 40% of the oil Havana needs to import. While shipments have already fallen sharply from their peak years ago, analysts warn that any further disruption could have catastrophic consequences. Energy experts say a sharp drop in Venezuelan crude would likely trigger a full-scale economic collapse on the island, the Journal reported.

And as I discussed last week, China imports more oil from Venezuela than the rest of the world combined.

This blockade is going to be really bad for our relationship with China, and that could end up having enormous implications for all of us.

Meanwhile, the Russians continue to take control of more territory in Ukraine…

Russian forces have taken control of the settlements of Vysoke in the Sumy region and Svitloe in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported in its daily briefing.

Svitloe is located between Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, while Vysoke lies close to the border with Russia’s Belgorod region. The Defense Ministry regularly reports on settlements coming under Russian control in the zone of the military operation. According to the ministry, eight settlements came under Russian control in the week leading up to December 12, including Seversk in the DPR. On December 17, the ministry also reported the capture of the village of Herasymivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Every time the Russians move forward, our European allies will become more desperate to stop them.

But the only way that Ukraine can win the war is if we get directly involved in the conflict.

According to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, that is “ultimately what the EU and NATO want”…

She went on to accuse the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of wanting to pull the U.S. into direct battle with Russia.

“[Deep-staters] foment fear and hysteria as a way to justify the continuing of the war and their efforts to undermine President Trump’s efforts towards peace,” Gabbard said. “And do so in this case in order to try to pull the U.S. military into a direct conflict with Russia, which is ultimately what the EU and NATO want.”

“We cannot allow this to happen,” she declared.

Right now, the Ukrainians and the Europeans are working on a “deal” that they know with 100 percent certainty that the Russians will reject.

When the Russians inevitably reject that “deal”, that will be used as justification for what they want to do next.

And what they want to do next is certainly not a mystery, because they have been feverishly preparing for it.

Unfortunately, events in the Middle East are heading in a very alarming direction as well.

On Sunday, the IDF conducted more strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon…

The Israeli military said Sunday that it targeted Hezbollah operatives in strikes in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese health ministry reported one person was killed and another wounded.

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure or operatives violating the November 2024 ceasefire.

Hezbollah is supposed to disarm, but that never was going to happen.

So the IDF is just going to keep hitting them.

And according to NBC News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon be presenting options for attacking Iran again to President Trump…

Israeli officials have grown increasingly concerned that Iran is expanding production of its ballistic missile program, which was damaged by Israeli military strikes earlier this year, and are preparing to brief President Donald Trump about options for attacking it again, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans and four former U.S. officials briefed on the plans.

Israeli officials also are concerned that Iran is reconstituting nuclear enrichment sites the U.S. bombed in June, the sources said. But, they added, the officials view Iran’s efforts to rebuild facilities where they produce the ballistic missiles and to repair its crippled air defense systems as more immediate concerns.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to meet later this month in Florida at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. At that meeting, the sources said, Netanyahu is expected to make the case to Trump that Iran’s expansion of its ballistic missile program poses a threat that could necessitate swift action.

The Israelis and the Iranians both clearly understand that their fight is not over.

So both sides are getting ready for the next round.

2025 has certainly been a chaotic year.

But I expect 2026 to be even crazier.

The drumbeats of war are steadily getting louder, and if we don’t turn back now the death and destruction that we will witness will be off the charts.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Will 2026 be a year of great shaking for the United States?  Coming into 2025, I thought that seismic activity would be a major global theme, and that has certainly turned out to be the case.  This has been an extremely unusual year for earthquakes along the Pacific Ring of Fire, and volcanoes that have been dormant for ages are suddenly roaring to life all over the world.  Here in the United States, we have been experiencing lots and lots of little earthquakes, but thankfully we have not been hit by a really bad one yet.  Will our luck run out in 2026?

According to the Daily Mail, the dozens of earthquakes that have been rattling the New Madrid fault zone since the middle of November are “renewing fears of a catastrophic natural disaster soon”…

A giant seismic zone in the heart of the US has seen dozens of tiny earthquakes break out in the last month, renewing fears of a catastrophic natural disaster soon.

Since mid-November, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has detected at least 38 low-level seismic events along the boundaries of the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) in Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee.

The threat that the New Madrid fault zone poses should not be underestimated.

In a previous article, I discussed the series of catastrophic earthquakes that occurred along that fault zone in 1811 and 1812.  Everyone agrees that they were the most powerful earthquakes in the entire history of the continental United States…

The New Madrid earthquakes were the biggest earthquakes in American history. They occurred in the central Mississippi Valley, but were felt as far away as New York City, Boston, Montreal, and Washington D.C. President James Madison and his wife Dolly felt them in the White House. Church bells rang in Boston. From December 16, 1811 through March of 1812 there were over 2,000 earthquakes in the central Midwest, and between 6,000-10,000 earthquakes in the Bootheel of Missouri where New Madrid is located near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

In the known history of the world, no other earthquakes have lasted so long or produced so much evidence of damage as the New Madrid earthquakes. Three of the earthquakes are on the list of America’s top earthquakes: the first one on December 16, 1811, a magnitude of 8.1 on the Richter scale; the second on January 23, 1812, at 7.8; and the third on February 7, 1812, at as much as 8.8 magnitude.

Scientists tell us that it is just a matter of time before another great earthquake strikes this region.

Six years ago, the USGS determined that a magnitude 7.7 quake would shake major cities all over the Midwest…

In 2019, USGS scientists modeled what a 7.7 magnitude earthquake would look like if it erupted along the Arkansas-Tennessee border, in an area near Memphis.

The shockwaves of this hypothetical mega quake spread for hundreds of miles, reaching cities including Kansas City, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Birmingham.

Buildings in that area of the country are typically not constructed to withstand an event of that size, and so the USGS is projecting that hundreds of thousands of buildings would be damaged and the economic damage would run into the hundreds of billions of dollars…

Since this region is not well equipped to deal with a massive seismic event, studies of such an earthquake projected that a magnitude 7.7 earthquake would cause over 86,000 injuries or deaths, damage 715,000 buildings, and knock out power to 2.6 million homes.

That report, by the University of Illinois, Virginia Tech, and George Washington University, also estimated that the cost could hit $300 billion directly, with indirect costs due to lost jobs possibly taking the damage to $600 billion.

An earthquake like that could hit us at any time.

But when the “really Big One” finally arrives, it will be much, much worse than the USGS is anticipating.

Experts are also urging us to keep an eye on the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

We are being told that when it finally goes, “the Pacific Northwest could change in a matter of minutes”…

Beneath Cascadia’s forests and coastlines lies a 600-mile fault capable of producing a magnitude-9 earthquake. The last one struck in 1700, shaking the region for minutes and sending a massive tsunami all the way to Japan. Today, nearly 17 million people live on top of the same silent threat. Scientists warn that when it breaks again, the Pacific Northwest could change in a matter of minutes.

The reason why the Cascadia Subduction Zone is so dangerous is because it has the potential to produce “megathrust” earthquakes…

At depths shallower than around 30 km, the two plates of the CSZ are locked together by friction. Strain (deformation) slowly builds as the subduction forces continue to act upon the locked plates. Once the fault’s frictional strength is exceeded, the rocks slip past each other along the fault in a “megathrust” earthquake.

A large enough “megathrust” earthquake could cause a tsunami that is hundreds of feet high to violently slam into the west coast.

In such a scenario, the death toll would likely be cataclysmic.

So that is why any seismic activity in the region gets so much attention.

On Monday, a magnitude 2.9 earthquake not too far away from Seattle caused quite a stir…

Reports of a massive explosion in Washington state sent residents in the Pacific Northwest into a state of confusion Monday morning.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) sent out an alert just before 11.30am ET, warning that an explosion with the force of a magnitude 3.0 earthquake has just taken place near the town of Concrete.

USGS quickly retracted the false explosion warning and reclassified the seismic event as a magnitude 2.9 earthquake, less than 70 miles north of Seattle.

Scientists assure us that a “megathrust” earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone is in our future.

And when it finally occurs, it could also trigger the San Andreas fault system…

Successfully predicting earthquakes sounds like a dark art.

However, new research hints it may be possible: Sediment cores extracted from the Pacific seafloor suggest that two major fault systems along the western coast of the United States and Canada might be partially synchronized. After an earthquake on the southern part of the Cascadia subduction zone, an earthquake soon after on the northern part of the San Andreas fault appears to occur roughly half of the time, the new findings reveal. These results, published in Geosphere, provide evidence of stress triggering, which has long been invoked to explain how activity on one fault might lead to activity on another nearby.

Fault zones persist across wide swaths of our planet, but the one that stretches onshore and offshore from California to British Columbia, Canada, is particularly complex. The vertical strike-slip San Andreas fault, in the south, intersects the Cascadia subduction zone off the coast of Northern California at a point known as the Mendocino Triple Junction.

When the San Andreas fault system finally rips wide open, the geography of the state of California will be permanently altered.

And it won’t just be Southern California that is affected.

Over the past couple of months, Northern California has been getting pummeled by literally hundreds of sizable quakes…

While California ranks second in the US in seismic activity, most quakes are small and go largely unnoticed. That has changed in recent weeks with two swarms impacting the Bay Area: one is east of San Francisco near San Ramon; the other is north of San Francisco near The Geysers.

Over the last 30 days, USGS has reported 1,470 earthquakes around The Geysers; in just the last 7 days, there have been 286. Most of these have been weak, with only 5 earthquakes rated a magnitude 2.0 or higher intensity over the last week. While the volume has been eyebrow raising, the intensity hasn’t.

The opposite has been the case near San Ramon. There, over the last 30 days, there have been 139 earthquakes reported by USGS; over the last 7 days, that number has been 25. But the intensity of these earthquakes have been greater, with 39 rated magnitude 2.0 or greater and 6 rated 3.0 or greater over the last 30 days.

This is definitely not normal.

San Ramon has been getting shaken so frequently that one social media user has compared it to “a massage chair”…

“Wee bit nervous,” one person wrote on Threads, adding that she planned to stock up on water and earthquake supplies.

“San Ramon is basically a massage chair today … but like, the stressful kind,” another person wrote on the social media site. “Dear Earth: we get it, you’re active. You can stop now.”

The Calaveras Fault is a major branch of the San Andreas fault system.

This is the fault that has been causing so much shaking in San Ramon lately, and it has the potential to produce very large earthquakes…

Historically, the southern half of the central segment of the Calaveras Fault has been the most seismically active segment of the fault.

It produced the 6.2 Morgan Hill earthquake in 1984. The 5.9 Coyote Lake earthquake in 1979 ruptured slightly to the south of these other earthquakes.

When you are driving your vehicle and one of those little warning signals on the dashboard lights up, what do you do?

Hopefully you take it to a mechanic or you fix it yourself.

Ignoring a warning signal like that is a really bad idea.

Similarly, the New Madrid fault zone, the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the San Andreas fault system have all been sending us lots of warning signals lately.

Sadly, it appears that most of the population will continue to ignore those warning signals until it is too late.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The slow-motion disaster that we are witnessing on the west coast is unlike anything we have ever seen before.  A series of atmospheric rivers has already dumped trillions of gallons of water on the region, and trillions of gallons of additional water will fall before the end of the year.  This has caused some rivers to rise to the highest levels that we have ever seen.  Meanwhile, some areas in the Northwest have been repeatedly pummeled by extremely high winds.  As you will see below, some of the wind speeds that have been recorded are difficult to believe.  For a long time I have been warning my readers that weather patterns have been going nuts all over the globe, but of course many people will never be convinced until it actually happens where they live.  For tens of millions of Americans that live along the west coast, a wake up call has finally arrived.

According to the Weather Channel, the parade of storms that we have been witnessing will continue to roll on into next week…

A parade of Pacific storms accompanied by atmospheric rivers will continue to march into the West Coast into Christmas week, spreading the threat of heavy rain from already flooded areas of western Washington to Oregon and California.

To say it’s been a terrible stretch of weather in parts of the West has been an understatement.

The last sentence in that quote made me smile.

Yes, “a terrible stretch of weather” would most certainly be an understatement…

First, record flooding hit parts of western Washington. Then, as flood-ravaged areas were recovering, a powerhouse windstorm blasted much of the Northwest and Rockies Wednesday, with winds clocked up to 144 mph and over 160 reports of wind damage in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

I can’t recall a windstorm of this magnitude ever hitting the Pacific Northwest in modern times.

It is being reported that at least nine different states experienced wind speeds of over 100 mph…

High winds slammed the Pacific Northwest and Rockies Wednesday and Wednesday night, cutting power to three-quarters of a million customers at peak, according to PowerOutage.US. That number was down to 325,000 as of Thursday morning.

The highest wind gusts in the region were on mountain tops — 144 mph at Mount Coffin, Wyoming, 142 mph at Coldwater Ridge, Washington, and 138 mph at Mount Hood, Oregon. Winds gusted over 100 mph on mountaintops in at least nine different states.

Now that storm has moved into the middle of the country, and blizzard conditions are expected in much of the Northern Plains…

“Wind gusts of 80+ mph, several feet of mountain snow, and blizzard conditions are in the forecast for the northern and western U.S. today and tomorrow,” the forecast said.

A map included with the post on X showed that while the entirety of the Northern Plains was expected to see some impacts from the storm, some states will likely be hit by widespread major impacts. These include Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Colorado and Idaho.

But it is the west coast that has been getting hit harder than anyone else.

Some areas of Washington state have already had about 2 feet of rain, and more rain is on the way.

Yes, Washington state always gets rain, but this is truly unusual.

If you can believe it, approximately 5 trillion gallons of water fell on the state in just a 7 day period…

Warm water and air and unusual weather conditions tracing back as far as tropical cyclone flooding in Indonesia helped supercharge stubborn atmospheric rivers that have drenched Washington state with almost 5 trillion gallons (19 trillion liters) of rain in the past seven days, threatening record flood levels, meteorologists said.

The Skagit River rose to the highest level ever recored.

So did the Snohomish River.

Needless to say, many other bodies of water flooded as well.

According to Governor Bob Ferguson, a 49 mile stretch of US Highway 2 will be closed for months as a result of the flooding…

Massive flooding conditions persist across western Washington as another round of heavy rain and wind targets the region, adding to the damage from last week’s historic flooding and raising renewed concerns about vulnerable levees, landslide risks, and long-term transportation disruptions.

On Tuesday, Gov. Bob Ferguson said a 49-mile stretch of US Highway 2 between Skykomish and Leavenworth will be closed for months after floodwaters and mudslides heavily damaged the roadway.

Unfortunately, more rain is in the forecast.

In fact, it is being projected that some areas of western Oregon could get more than 10 inches of rain from this next storm…

A general 4-8 inches of rain is forecast to fall on western Oregon, with slightly less in the Interstate 5 corridor near Portland. From 8-12 inches of rain with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 16 inches is projected for the western slopes of the Oregon Cascades.

This amount of rain will be enough to unleash moderate to major flooding along both small streams and rivers in western Oregon. A few locations may experience crests close to record levels, such as in the Portland area. Motorists should be prepared for areas of high water and road washouts. Mudslides are also a danger with the storm.

Meanwhile, meteorologist Ryan Maue is telling us that the Sierra Mountains in California could see up to 30 inches of precipitation from the “firehose of moisture” that is approaching…

California is looking at historic precipitation from onslaught of atmospheric rivers in next 10-days.

Could be 20″ or 30″ mostly rain in the Sierra from “firehose of moisture” directed right at coast with strong jet stream.

This going to be really bad.

He isn’t exaggerating.

It certainly looks like the next couple of weeks will be really bad.

If you live in an area along the west coast that is prone to flooding, you should be doing what you can to get prepared.

Of course this is just the beginning.

Global weather patterns have been getting increasingly unstable for quite a while, and I am entirely convinced that what is coming in the years ahead will be much worse than anything that we are experiencing now.

We really are living in extremely chaotic times, and the insane weather that we are currently witnessing is just one element of “the perfect storm” that is now upon us.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Guess which nation has the most proven oil reserves?  It isn’t Saudi Arabia, although the Saudis rank a close second.  It isn’t Iran or Iraq either.  In fact, the country with the largest proven oil reserves isn’t even in the Middle East.  Canada has a lot of oil, and so does Russia, but neither one of them tops the list.  At a whopping 303 billion barrels, the nation that currently possesses the most proven oil reserves is actually Venezuela…

Venezuela holds the largest proven crude oil reserves globally, estimated at approximately 303 billion barrels as of 2024. These reserves are predominantly located in the Orinoco Belt, containing extra-heavy crude oil that requires advanced extraction techniques.

Oil is what makes Venezuela important.

We are being told that we must go to war with Venezuela to stop the flow of illegal drugs, but the truth is that the amount of drugs coming into this country from Mexico absolutely dwarfs the amount of drugs coming into this country from Venezuela.

So if stopping the flow of drugs is the priority, why aren’t we going to war with Mexico?

We are also being told that Nicolas Maduro is a tyrant and that the elections in Venezuela are rigged.

Of course these days elections are rigged in lots of countries, and there are far worse tyrants than Maduro out there.

Kim Jong Un is one name that immediately comes to mind.

He is so tyrannical that he makes Nicolas Maduro look like Mother Theresa.

So why aren’t we going to war with North Korea?

If we are going to go to war, there needs to be a really good reason.

On Tuesday, President Trump told the world that the U.S. will be stopping all sanctioned oil tankers from traveling to or from Venezuela…

Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us. The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping. For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela. The Illegal Aliens and Criminals that the Maduro Regime has sent into the United States during the weak and inept Biden Administration, are being returned to Venezuela at a rapid pace. America will not allow Criminals, Terrorists, or other Countries, to rob, threaten, or harm our Nation and, likewise, will not allow a Hostile Regime to take our Oil, Land, or any other Assets, all of which must be returned to the United States, IMMEDIATELY. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Did you notice that President Trump repeatedly focused on the subject of oil throughout that Truth Social post?

Imposing a blockade is a very serious step, and a Justice Department memo from 1961 makes this very clear…

A Justice Department memo from 1961, when tensions were running high between the US and Cuba, said the president could institute a blockade of Cuba, but noted “a blockade is a belligerent act which, as a matter of international law, is ordinarily justified only if a state of war, legal or de facto, exists.”

Throughout human history, a naval blockade has always been considered to be an act of war.

Needless to say, the Venezuelans are absolutely furious…

The statement from Venezuela’s government decried the move, saying Trump “seeks to impose, in an absolutely irrational manner, a so-called naval military blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the riches that belong to our Homeland.”

The government reaffirmed Venezuela’s sovereignty and said its ambassador to the United Nations “will immediately proceed to denounce this grave violation of International Law.”

It is not going to be a small job to enforce this blockade.

According to CNBC, there are currently 34 sanctioned oil tankers in the Caribbean…

At least 34 U.S.-sanctioned oil tankers with a history of carrying Venezuelan oil are currently at sea in the Caribbean, according to a new analysis obtained by CNBC on Wednesday.

And at least 12 of those tankers appear to be filled with crude oil from Venezuela, according to vessel location data from Kpler, a global trade intelligence company.

Are we just going to start grabbing all of them?

The oil that the tanker that the U.S. seized last week was carrying was reportedly worth somewhere between 60 million and 100 million dollars…

The “Skipper” was loaded with an estimated 1.8 million barrels of oil earlier in December before transferring an estimated 200,000 barrels just before its seizure, Reuters reported.

The oil on the tanker is likely worth $60 million to more than $100 million, based on current average oil prices. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for any additional comment on the estimated price tag of the oil but did not immediately receive a reply.

When we seize oil that has been produced by Venezuela, we aren’t just hurting Venezuela.

This is such a critical point.

In 2025, China has been purchasing approximately 76 percent of all the oil that is being exported by the Venezuelans…

Venezuela has produced around 900,000 barrels of crude oil and condensate so far in 2025, accounting for roughly 1% of the total global supply.

Kpler data indicates China buys about 76% of Venezuela’s output.

The Chinese need this oil.

Do you think that they are just going to sit there and let us steal vast amounts of oil that the Chinese economy depends on?

Following the announcement of the blockade, the Chinese accused the U.S. of “bullying” Venezuela…

China has accused the US of “bullying” Venezuela, after Donald Trump ordered a “total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

In a phone call on Wednesday, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi told his Venezuelan counterpart, Yvan Gil, that Beijing supported Caracas in defending its sovereignty.

If we keep going down this road, we are going to destroy our relationship with China.

Just imagine how we would feel if some other country started grabbing oil tankers that were bringing desperately needed oil to the United States.

There is not a president in history that would have hesitated to order military action.

But we just expect China to sit there and take it.

If we push the Chinese too far, it could have very serious consequences.

It is easy to imagine a scenario in which the Chinese decide that it is an opportune moment to invade Taiwan while U.S. forces are tied up with a regime change war in Venezuela.

And why in the world would anyone think that another regime change war is in our national interest?

Didn’t we learn anything from our misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq?

2025 has certainly been a year of war, but a war in Venezuela would have the potential to take things to an entirely new level in 2026.

Let’s hope that cooler heads prevail.

Let’s hope that President Trump pulls us back from the brink before it is too late.

But from where I am sitting, it appears that the decisions have already been made.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.