Money

To Many Americans, It Already Feels Like We Are In A Deep Recession

June 18, 2023 by Michael

Are you deeply struggling right now? If so, I want you to know that you are not alone. The things that I am about to share with you are not meant to be depressing. Rather, I hope that you will be encouraged to see that there are countless others in the exact same boat. Over the past few years, the cost of living has been rising much faster than paychecks have, and this has put enormous financial pressure on millions of American families. In some cases, families are dealing with extreme financial stress even though both parents are working good jobs. Virtually everything has become substantially more expensive, and so our money is not going nearly as far as it once did.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media keeps telling us that everything is just fine.

They keep telling us that we should stop our whining because we haven’t “officially” entered a recession yet.

But Deutsche Bank says that one is coming. In fact, analysts at the bank are now warning that there is a 100% chance that the U.S. is heading into one…

Odds of a U.S. recession have been hotly debated with the labor market and consumer spending showing resiliency even after some of the most aggressive interest rate hikes in history. But Deutsche Bank sees a 100% probability the U.S. will have one.

If you want someone to blame, Deutsche Bank says that we should blame our policy makers, because they created the “boom-bust cycle” that we are currently experiencing…

“The U.S. is heading for its first genuine policy-led boom-bust cycle in at least four decades,” he writes. “The inflation we see was induced largely by expansive fiscal and monetary policy, and the aggressive rate hikes needed to tame that have now materialized. Avoiding a hard landing would be historically unprecedented.”

Sadly, many families don’t even want to imagine what harder times might look like, because they are already deeply, deeply suffering right now.

Recently, a very touching Facebook discussion was brought to my attention. In this discussion, people were sharing their financial struggles. I think that giving people an opportunity to vent and read the struggles of others helped them to realize that they are not alone.

So if you are also struggling, I hope that the examples that I pulled out of that discussion will encourage you.

You are not alone, because there are millions of others out there that are just like you…

-“We’re feeling it. It’s embarrassing to admit we’re struggling so much with what we make combined…. but we aren’t spenders, I broke down everything our money is going to & they’re genuinely all necessity things. Maybe I can penny pinch more with groceries and stuff but I’m just completely overwhelmed with the fact that we’re struggling so much for what our incomes are. Definitely feels like another Depression!”

-“We make about 60k a year and with inflation we are falling behind on our bills. We can’t afford mortgage, utilities and car payment AND food. We don’t qualify for any kind of assistance whatsoever. I just got a second job so hopefully that helps but it’s so hard right now”

-“Yes. 5 years ago we could put money aside every month. Now we are pulling from savings every month and we make 20k more now than we did then. We do have a slightly higher mortgage now though and 2 more kids than we did then. It’s rough”

-“I lost my job last year and I had to budget sooo much. I switched to cricket so the phone bill for two phones is $60 compared to like $220-$300 for Verizon. For food, I cook all the time. But I freeze our meat and I try to make multiple meals from that, frozen veggies, freeze the bread so it doesn’t go bad. I buy the Michaelina tv dinners that are like $1.30 for Mac n cheese and fettuccine Alfredo for my two boys(6 and 1). I buy 6 and those last for most of the week.”

-“So happy for summer to not have our school payment. And less laundry. It’s like idk how we are going to survive every month. And then I needed to go to the dentist. And now it’s like I wanna cry”

-“Yes when my husband first got his new job at what the pay he deserved finally for all the experience he has had nearly 15 years in the same field of work and we were like finally we will be able to save money and we were then this insane inflation hit and it’s like we are right back to where we were especially this month because we had to switch insurance plans and that took money out of his pay check and at the same time I was making some money to help out before but I had a surgery and was down for a few weeks and just now able to get back to fully helpful again. Budgeting is keeping us getting by but we also have used the credit cards this past month to get by so now it’s a catch up game and I will be looking to work in some way again.”

-“It’s not just you. Sometimes I have to choose what bill takes priority over another. I live paycheck to paycheck and every penny is for a bill. There’s never anything leftover. I am a single mom BUT I’ve been a single mom on my own for years! I used to have money leftover for my hair and fun things like jump time with the kiddos. But now all our “fun” activities fare free activities. Like nature walks, swimming in ponds, hikes, etc. Cause this momma is broke 😂 Waiting patiently for inflation to go down…”

-“More just to vent…. but is anyone else struggling financially hard right now?! Between my husband & I, we make $100k after taxes… so not bad, not amazing either. We both have pretty good jobs though… and we’re struggling. Hard. We own a house & outside of paying for mortgage, bills, food, the necessities etc, it’s like we have nothing left at the end of our paycheck. 😩 is anyone else in a similar boat?”

I could have included countless more examples, but I will stop right there.

As you can see, even those that are making 100k a year are really struggling.

When I was growing up, I considered anyone that was making 100k a year to be extremely wealthy.

Times sure have changed since then.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

All of the major economic trends are pointing in the wrong direction, and even the normally optimistic World Bank is warning that much rougher times are ahead…

“Nearly all the economic forces that powered progress and prosperity over the last three decades are fading,” the World Bank warned in a recent analysis. “The result could be a lost decade in the making — not just for some countries or regions as has occurred in the past — but for the whole world.”

A lot has happened between then and now: A global pandemic hit; war erupted in Europe; tensions between the United States and China boiled. And inflation, thought to be safely stored away with disco album collections, returned with a vengeance.

But as the dust has settled, it has suddenly seemed as if almost everything we thought we knew about the world economy was wrong.

Ultimately, we are all in the same boat.

We are all going to have to endure the exceedingly harsh economic environment that is in front of us.

But hopefully you are encouraged by the fact that you are not alone.

Millions of other families are also deeply struggling, and at times like these we are going to need one another more than ever before.

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.

10 Very Important Questions That We Should All Be Asking Right Now

June 15, 2023 by Michael

We live in a society where we have been trained not to ask the hard questions. Instead, we are just supposed to relax and let others do our thinking for us. If you do insist on asking pesky questions, you are likely to be labeled a “conspiracy theorist” or something even worse. And even those labels are a form of control. Very few of us are eager to be labeled “one of those people”, and so most of us just go along with the program. You see, the truth is that those in power do not want us to be independent thinkers. They want us to be sheep. But the good news is that more people than ever are waking up to the fact that the elitists that are running things are rotten to the core.

There is so much going on in our world right now, and the pace of change just keeps getting faster and faster.

I tend to write a lot about our ongoing economic problems, but I am going to take a break from that today and focus on some of the other things that are happening. The following are 10 very important questions that I believe we should all be asking right now…

#1 Why is the mainstream media so quiet about the fact that Joe Biden and his family received tens of millions of dollars from foreign nationals in an influence-peddling scheme that went on for many years while Biden was vice-president…

James Comer expects to uncover $20-30 million in illicit payments made to the Biden Crime Family:

“This is going to be hard to Biden to explain, this is not going to go away, and I think eventually the mainstream media is going to start asking the real questions.”

#2 Who was behind the absolutely massive cyberattack that just hit U.S. government agencies?…

Several US federal government agencies have been hit in a global cyberattack that exploits a vulnerability in widely used software, according to a top US cybersecurity agency.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency “is providing support to several federal agencies that have experienced intrusions affecting their MOVEit applications,” Eric Goldstein, the agency’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, said in a statement on Thursday to CNN, referring to the software impacted. “We are working urgently to understand impacts and ensure timely remediation.”

#3 Should we be concerned that hail “the size of baseballs” is hammering some areas in the middle of the country?…

Much of Oklahoma was under a “moderate” risk for severe storms Thursday. That’s level 4 out of 5 on the severe storm risk scale. The National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, warned of a “significant severe weather” outbreak.

People “should be prepared for hail up to the size of baseballs and winds up to 80 mph with the stronger storms,” the weather service said.

#4 Why is New York City introducing vending machines where addicts can get crack pipes for free?…

First, we had Joe Biden sending out free “safe smoking kits” AKA crack pipes and accessories, and now New York is placing these same types of “safe” smoking kits in their “public health” vending machines.

The machine also has Narcan, an overdose rescue drug, condoms, nicotine gum, and other “health” related items.

#5 One recent survey found that 42 percent of U.S. CEOs believe that AI “has the potential to destroy humanity five to ten years from now”. Why aren’t more people sounding the alarm about the danger that AI poses to our society?…

Many top business leaders are seriously worried that artificial intelligence could pose an existential threat to humanity in the not-too-distant future.

Forty-two percent of CEOs surveyed at the Yale CEO Summit this week say AI has the potential to destroy humanity five to ten years from now, according to survey results shared exclusively with CNN.

“It’s pretty dark and alarming,” Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld said in a phone interview, referring to the findings.

#6 Why has the U.S. government been “secretly stockpiling dirt” on American citizens by purchasing it from data brokers? Isn’t that sort of thing supposed to be illegal?…

The United States government has been secretly amassing a “large amount” of “sensitive and intimate information” on its own citizens, a group of senior advisers informed Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, more than a year ago.

The size and scope of the government effort to accumulate data revealing the minute details of Americans’ lives are described soberly and at length by the director’s own panel of experts in a newly declassified report. Haines had first tasked her advisers in late 2021 with untangling a web of secretive business arrangements between commercial data brokers and US intelligence community members.

#7 Scientists are creating “synthetic human embryos” without using human eggs or human sperm. Why is this being allowed, and what are the dangers if this sort of “research” is not stopped?…

Scientists have created synthetic human embryos using stem cells, in a groundbreaking advance that sidesteps the need for eggs or sperm.

Scientists say these model embryos, which resemble those in the earliest stages of human development, could provide a crucial window on the impact of genetic disorders and the biological causes of recurrent miscarriage.

However, the work also raises serious ethical and legal issues as the lab-grown entities fall outside current legislation in the UK and most other countries.

#8 Why is a Republican member of the California legislature named Scott Wilk telling parents to flee the state if they love their children?…

“In the past when we’ve had these discussions and I’ve seen parental rights atrophied—I’ve encouraged people to keep fighting,” the senator added. “I’ve changed my mind on that.”

“If you love your children, you need to flee California. You need to flee,” he said.

#9 Why are Americans so depressed? According to a brand new report from the CDC, nearly 20 percent of all Americans have been formally diagnosed with depression during their lifetimes…

The proportion of US adults who have ever been diagnosed with depression ranges greatly depending on where they live.

A new report published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that in 2020, 18.4% of US adults reported having ever been diagnosed with depression in their lifetimes – but, state by state, that percentage of adults ranged from an estimated 12.7% in Hawaii to 27.5% in West Virginia.

#10 Why is there an “epidemic” of cancer among our young people…

This “early-onset cancer epidemic,” as one recent study published in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology dubbed it, comprises a surge in the incidence of over a dozen different cancers in younger people since the 1990s in countries around the world.

In the U.S., the rate of early-onset cases rose by almost 18 percent between 2000 and 2019, even as cancer declined slightly in older adults, according to data from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Among Americans between 15 and 39 years old, an age group cancer researchers refer to as adolescents and young adults (AYAs), the surge was more pronounced still, topping 20 percent.

If you want to be successful in life, you can’t be afraid to ask questions.

Because good questions often lead to good solutions.

Unfortunately, much of the population has been trained to no longer think for themselves, and so we all need to try to do what we can to wake them back up.

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.

Global Central Banks Are Badly Losing Their War Against Food Inflation

June 14, 2023 by Michael

Even though central banks all over the world have been raising interest rates in recent months, food prices just continue to go up. There are a couple of reasons why this is happening. First of all, demand for food is very inelastic. In other words, no matter how high or how low prices go, people are still going to need to eat. So even if the Federal Reserve sent interest rates into the stratosphere, people would still need to go the supermarket to get food for themselves and their families. Secondly, we are facing some severe long-term supply problems. As I have detailed in previous articles, food production is being significantly hindered in a number of different ways, and that isn’t going to change any time soon. There simply is not enough food to feed everyone on the planet, and supplies are only going to get tighter in the months and years ahead. No matter what central banks do, this is going to push food prices steadily higher.

But even though higher interest rates haven’t had much of an impact on food prices, we knew that they would dramatically affect western economies in many other ways. Economic activity is starting to dry up all over the western world, and as I discussed the other day, Europe has already plunged into a recession.

In addition, higher interest rates have burst the global housing bubble, and here in the United States we have entered what will ultimately become the greatest commercial real estate crisis in our entire history.

On top of everything else, hundreds of small and mid-size banks are now struggling to survive because higher rates have blown giant black holes in their balance sheets.

After seeing all the damage that they have caused, officials at the Federal Reserve finally decided to “pause” their interest rate hiking campaign on Wednesday…

Federal Reserve policymakers left the central bank’s benchmark interest rate unchanged despite inflation that has run above its target for over two years, saying the pause would allow it to gauge the effects of earlier hikes on the economy.

The Fed said on Wednesday that it would hold its benchmark rate at a range of five percent to 5.25 percent, the range it set at its May meeting and the highest since the Fed cut rates at the summer of 2007. At the same time, the Fed signaled that it expects to hike at least two more times this year.

If they had any sense, they would start cutting rates.

But that probably won’t happen for a while.

The good news is that higher rates have crushed economic activity enough that the overall rate of inflation has started to come down…

Overall, consumer prices increased 4% from a year earlier, down from 4.9% in April and a 40-year high of 9.1% last June, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index.

Of course you have to take those numbers with a grain of salt.

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

And when you look at core CPI, it has “barely budged” over the past year…

And when you dig into core CPI, the news isn’t nearly so good. In fact, it’s downright bad.

Core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, rose 0.4% month-on-month. On an annual basis, core CPI rose by 5.3%.

To put that number into perspective, the core CPI increase in May 2022 was 6%. That means the increase in core CPI has barely budged.

That is very troubling.

And what is even more troubling is the fact that food prices in the U.S. just continue to go up…

But what the data also revealed is that food prices continue to increase. According to the new government data, food at home prices went up 5.8% for the year ending in May. For food away from home, prices have jumped 8.3%.

Once again, it is important to remember that the way inflation is calculated has changed dramatically over the decades.

If food inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, those numbers would be way into the double digits.

And even with all of the massaging that they do to the numbers these days, there are certain categories of food where the official numbers that we have been given actually show double digit inflation on a yearly basis…

Frozen vegetables (18.7%)

Frozen drinks (15.8%)

Bread (12.5%)

Fats and oils (11.8%)

Candy (11.6%)

Cakes, cookies and cupcakes (11%)

Baby food and formula (10.1)

The cost of living has been escalating much faster than our paychecks have, and this is putting enormous financial stress on American families.

Thanks to the rapidly rising cost of living, more U.S. adults than ever are being forced to find a “side hustle”…

As many as two in five adults in the U.S. have a side hustle, according to a recent Bankrate survey of 2,500-plus adults, backing up LendingTree data from earlier this year that found side gigs are up by 13% over the past two years and recent Deloitte data that found more millennials and Gen Zers are adding on part-time jobs. Younger workers are more likely to need an extra job: 53% of Gen Zers and half of millennials have one, Bankrate finds, compared to only 40% of Gen Xers and 24% of baby boomers.

It’s a reflection of the state of the economy, which has left many Americans—even those earning six figures—feeling like they’re living paycheck to paycheck. At the end of the day, side hustles have become a necessity for many who are struggling to compete with the pace of inflation and trying to save amid recession fears.

And food inflation is also one of the reasons why demand at food banks around the nation has been absolutely exploding in recent months.

For example, just check out what is happening in one area of Oklahoma…

Food banks across Green Country are seeing a spike in the number of people using their services.

Two issues are at play: it’s more expensive to make ends meet because of inflation and emergency SNAP benefits are ending.

Just since March, the food bank said there’s been a 50-percent increase in people who need help.

Unfortunately, this isn’t just happening in the United States.

In fact, food inflation is a much bigger problem over in Europe right now…

Whether in Spain, Hungary, or Italy, food prices keep rising in Europe even as inflation relents. Food inflation reached a historic peak in March, up 19.2% over the previous year, and fell to 12.5% in May. Governments across the continent are trying to come up with solutions: Spain waived its 5% tax on food products, France reached a three-month pricing agreement with supermarkets, and Croatia mandated price controls.

But the interventions don’t seem to be sufficient, and even staples or typical products are affected. In Italy, the price of pasta has surged by 14% in the past year, twice as much as overall inflation, and the nation’s tables are paying a steep price for higher energy costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with the resulting wheat shortages.

All over the world, food prices are moving up faster than wages are.

And the outlook for global food production in 2023 is not promising.

Sadly, this is just the very beginning of this crisis. In my latest book I spend several chapters detailing a number of nightmarish long-term trends that are going to absolutely crush global food production during the years to come.

No matter what our leaders do now, global famine is inevitable.

We aren’t able to feed everyone in the world right now, and global food supplies are only going to get tighter.

But most people don’t understand the long-term trends that we are facing.

Most people just assume that the “bumps in the road” that we are currently facing are just temporary and that everything will be “just fine” in the long run.

Don’t be one of those people.

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 Commercial Real Estate Tsunami Just Shifted Into Another Gear

June 13, 2023June 13, 2023 by Michael

What is going to happen to our banking system as trillions of dollars worth of commercial real estate loans go bad? Many months ago, I warned that the greatest commercial real estate crisis in U.S. history was coming. At the time, a lot of people didn’t believe me and that was fine. As with so many other things, all I needed to do to be proven right was to wait. Sadly, a commercial real estate tsunami is now here, and it appears to be accelerating even faster than many of the experts had been anticipating. Just within the past few weeks, there have been several more high profile defaults, and San Francisco has become the epicenter of this crisis.

On Monday, we learned that Westfield has decided to purposely default on a 558 million dollar loan on the San Francisco Centre mall…

Shopping center giant Westfield is walking away from its San Francisco Centre mall, becoming the latest major company to leave the California city amid rampant crime problems.

Westfield confirmed to FOX Business Monday that the company and partner Brookfield Properties earlier this month stopped making payments on a $558 million loan securing the San Francisco Centre property.

Do you remember in 2008 when millions of Americans that were underwater on their mortgages simply walked away from them?

Well, now the same thing is happening, except that instead of homes we are talking about shopping malls and office buildings.

The San Francisco Centre mall was the most important retail destination in downtown San Francisco.

But sales have been declining for some time, and just like Park Hotels & Resorts, Westfield is identifying rapidly deteriorating conditions in the downtown area as one of the primary reasons for leaving the city…

“Given the challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco, which have led to declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic, we have made the difficult decision to begin the process to transfer management of the shopping center to our lender to allow them to appoint a receiver to operate the property going forward.”

Westfield’s move comes less than a week after Park Hotels & Resorts announced it had handed two prominent hotels back to the bank. The real estate investment trust said it was abandoning the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55, saying the city’s streets are unsafe and expressing doubts about the area’s ability to recover.

San Francisco was once such a beautiful city.

But now one of the wealthiest cities in the entire world is being systematically transformed into a hellhole, and it is all thanks to the “progressive” policies of the city’s leaders…

Westfield’s struggles will pile fresh pressure on city leaders, after multiple retailers and hotels shuttered in downtown San Francisco as it continues to battle soaring crime, open drug use and homelessness.

The famously progressive city has been condemned for its ‘harm reduction’ policies, which critics say have effectively legalized drug taking. Meanwhile, its police department remains short-staffed after woke lawmakers called for defunding in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

Even Twitter has decided to walk away.

The company has not been paying rent on “Twitter headquarters” for months, and Elon Musk has confirmed that there is no plan to ever restart payments…

Twitter ceased paying its rent in November, the report says, and CEO Elon Musk has said he doesn’t intend on restarting payments. Those payments would go to Columbia Property, a REIT that Goldman has lent $1.7 billion to, in a consortium with (of course) Deutsche Bank.

Sadly, this is only just the beginning.

As retailers and businesses leave the downtown areas of our major cities, a lot more defaults will inevitably happen.

In New York City, the office occupancy rate was close to 100 percent before the pandemic.

Now it is hovering around 50 percent.

Of course this commercial real estate tsunami is not the only crisis that we are facing.

The residential real estate bubble has also started to burst, and sales have been falling all over the nation for months.

Higher interest rates will continue to put downward pressure on home prices, and many analysts are extremely concerned that foreclosure filings have begun to surge…

May foreclosure-related filings, which include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, were up 7% from April and up 14% from a year ago, to 35,196 properties, according to the real estate data group ATTOM.

Meanwhile, large companies all over America continue to conduct mass layoffs.

As I discussed in a previous article, the number of announced job cuts in the United States during the first five months of this year was 315 percent higher than the number of announced job cuts during the same period last year.

And we are being told that the number of media industry layoffs so far this year is the largest figure ever recorded…

The media industry has announced at least 17,436 job cuts so far this year, marking the highest year-to-date level of cuts on record, according to a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Despite everything that I just shared with you, many of the “experts” in the mainstream media continue to insist that the economy is in fine shape.

I honestly do not know how they can say that with a straight face.

But they are saying it.

Just like in 2008, they simply do not want to believe what is happening right in front of their eyes, and they aren’t interested in ominous warnings about our long-term future either.

In the short-term, our economic problems are going to continue to intensify in the months ahead.

In the long-term, we are going to have a real nightmare on our hands.

But for now, millions upon millions of Americans continue to trust those that are telling them that brighter days are ahead, and so they are doing nothing to prepare for the great storm that is rapidly approaching.

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.

America’s Infrastructure Is Collapsing Right In Front Of Our Eyes

June 12, 2023 by Michael

America was once a country that built stuff. Previous generations of Americans constructed the greatest highways, bridges, railroads, ports, dams and water systems that anyone had ever seen. Magnificent new mega-cities were erected from coast to coast, and the rest of the world looked at us with envy. Ultimately, the keys to all of this infrastructure were handed down to us, and we have really messed things up. We don’t actually build much of anything these days. In fact, we can’t even maintain the infrastructure that we have been given. As a society we have become extremely lazy and extremely incompetent, and so the great civilization that our forefathers built for us is now crumbling right in front of our eyes.

The American Society of Civil Engineers gives America’s infrastructure a grade every few years, and the last time they issued a report we were given a C-…

In its latest Infrastructure Report Card, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the United States a C- , citing its crumbling public roads, ageing bridges, and deteriorating water mains.

Personally, I believe that a C- grade is extremely generous.

After what we have witnessed in recent months, I am entirely convinced that we deserve an F grade when the next report is released in 2025.

America is literally falling apart all around us, and a few years ago the Volcker Alliance estimated that there is a one trillion dollar backlog of repairs that desperately need to be done…

The United States is consistently falling short on funding infrastructure maintenance. A report by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker’s Volcker Alliance in 2019 estimated the U.S. has a US$1 trillion backlog of needed repairs.

Over 220,000 bridges across the country—about 33% of the total—require rehabilitation or replacement.

A water main break now occurs somewhere in the U.S. every two minutes, and an estimated 6 million gallons of treated water are lost each day. This is happening at the same time the western United States is implementing water restrictions amid the driest 20-year span in 1,200 years. Similarly, drinking water distribution in the United States relies on over 2 million miles of pipes that have limited life spans.

In 2022, 60 Minutes did a major report about our crumbling infrastructure, and a dilapidated section of I-95 that runs right through Philadelphia was specifically featured during that show…

In Philadelphia, Kroft reported on a highly trafficked section of I-95 in need of repair. Those improvements are now underway and scheduled to continue until at least 2028.

The unmistakable orange construction signs along I-95 will soon appear on roads around the U.S. Philadelphia’s I-95 corridor is only a small portion of the 43% of U.S. roads that the 2021 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers said needs to be fixed.

Sure enough, the repairs never got done, and a portion of the highway completely collapsed on Sunday…

Human remains have been found in the wreckage of the Interstate 95 collapse in Philadelphia.

Part of the major US highway, which extends from the Maine-Canada border south to Miami, Florida, collapsed on Sunday after a tanker truck carrying an estimated 8,500 gallons of fuel caught fire.

Approximately 150,000 vehicles would normally travel through there every day, but now traffic patterns have been thrown into a state of chaos and we are being told that it is going to take months to make the highway operational again…

I-95 is going to take months to repair, sparking chaos on the major interstate that funnels 150,000 vehicles across the East Coast every day, officials have warned.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro last night said the highway was going to take ‘some months’ before it is running smoothly again following the overpass collapse.

Of course if this happened in China, the Chinese would probably have the road opened up again in a matter of days.

They know how to do infrastructure.

We don’t.

So now thousands upon thousands of trucks will have to find new routes, and this will cause significant supply chain headaches for the foreseeable future.

Our railroads are falling apart as well, and this has had disastrous consequences.

We all saw what happened in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this year, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Last year, there were more than 1,000 train derailments in the United States. When you break that down, it comes out to an average of about three a day…

There were at least 1,164 train derailments across the country last year, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration. That means the country is averaging roughly three derailments per day.

I am certainly not eager to hop on a train any time soon.

Are you?

Of course I am not particularly eager to jump on a plane either.

At this point, our airports are about 40 years old on average, and they desperately need billions upon billions of dollars worth of repairs and improvements…

In the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, U.S airports earned a D+ for both condition and needs. It’s estimated that they will need $115.4 billion over the next five years to address these infrastructure challenges.

Roughly half of all planned airport projects between 2021 and 2025 are terminal-related. At many airports, building upgrades are needed to increase the number of gates and accommodate larger jet aircraft. Flexible and automated baggage handling systems, dynamic wayfinding, and queue management systems projects are needed to ease crowding and improve circulation.

It is frankly embarrassing to compare our run down airports to the shiny new airports that are going up in Asia and in Europe.

But this is our country now. We are a run down people that live in a run down society that is literally crumbling all around us.

The truth is that the United States has been an empire in decline for decades, and the outlook for the future is extremely bleak if we stay on the road that we are currently on.

Sadly, many people don’t care for such warnings.

Most of them are just going to keep partying for as long as they can, and a lot of them will never realize what is happening until it is far too late to do anything about 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.

11 Signs That Our Economic Problems Are Accelerating A Lot Faster Than Most People Were Anticipating

June 11, 2023June 11, 2023 by Michael

A lot of the “experts” have been telling us that economic conditions are likely to really start deteriorating later in the year, but here we are in June and the economy is beginning to unravel a lot quicker than most of them had anticipated. The housing bubble is imploding, existing home sales are plunging all over the nation, foreclosures are surging, manufacturing numbers have fallen into contraction territory and jobless claims are rising. We are building up a tremendous amount of momentum in the wrong direction, and just about everyone agrees that the outlook for the remainder of 2023 is not promising. So if things are this bad now, what will they look like in six months?

For a long time, the U.S. economy was “remarkably resilient”, but now things have started to change in a major way.

The following are 11 signs that our economic problems are accelerating a lot faster than most people were anticipating…

#1 We just learned that foreclosure-related filings were up 14 percent last month compared to the same period a year ago…

As the cost of living in the U.S. continues to climb, foreclosures are also on the rise.

May foreclosure-related filings, which include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, were up 7% from April and up 14% from a year ago, to 35,196 properties, according to the real estate data group ATTOM.

#2 We are being warned that foreclosure filings are on an “upward trajectory” which suggests “heightened activity” in the months ahead…

“The recent increase in foreclosure filings nationwide indicates a trend that has been observed throughout the year, and what we have expected to occur,” Rob Barber, ATTOM’s CEO, said in a statement. “This upward trajectory suggests the possibility of continued heightened activity, and with foreclosure completions seeing the largest monthly increase this year, we will continue to monitor the potential impacts this may have on the housing market.”

#3 As the housing bubble bursts, sales of existing homes are falling all over the nation. For example, sales of existing homes in central Indiana have now declined for 16 months in a row…

Sales of existing homes in central Indiana dropped 14.8% in May—the 16th straight month that sales have decreased on a year-over-year basis.

Closed sales of existing homes in the 16-county area in May totaled 2,901, down from 3,406 in the same month of 2022, according to the latest monthly data from the MIBOR Realtor Association.

#4 One recent study found that a whopping 8 million Americans currently live in a household that is behind on paying rent. Many are just barely surviving from month to month like this single mother that was recently profiled in the Los Angeles Times…

Evelyn Arceo holds down a full-time job as a baker at Universal Studios Hollywood, earning $19 an hour. But even when she gets a few hours of overtime at the theme park, the single mother of four can barely afford the rent of her one-bedroom apartment in Panorama City.

On her salary, buying a home is out of the question.

Already, her monthly rent of $1,300 is “just too expensive at this point,” Arceo said, with late fees of $40 to $50 compounding her financial plight. “I don’t think I’ve ever been on time on my rent.”

#5 The most epic commercial real estate crisis in U.S. history has begun, and we are being warned that the two massive defaults in San Francisco that recently made headlines all over the world could just be the tip of the iceberg…

News of Park Hotels & Resorts’ plan to surrender ownership of two of San Francisco’s largest hotels is the beginning of what could potentially become a mass exodus of hotels from the city as 30 additional properties are facing massive loans due over the next two years.

The company behind the hotels announced Monday it had stopped making payments on its $725million loan that is due in November for the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels.

#6 Major corporate bankruptcies are happening at the fastest pace that we have seen since 2010…

US corporate bankruptcies crept higher in May over the prior month as higher interest rates and a slowing economy are pushing many companies over the edge.

S&P Global Market Intelligence recorded 54 corporate bankruptcy filings during May, a slight rise from 52 April. In the first five months of the year, 2023 has recorded more filings than any comparable period since 2010.

#7 Initial jobless claims just rose to their highest level in almost two years…

Initial jobless claims surged last week to 261k (up from 233k prior and well above the 235k exp) – its highest since Oct 2021.

#8 According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, during the first five months of this year the number of announced job cuts was up 315 percent compared to the same five months last year.

#9 U.S. manufacturing has now fallen into contraction territory…

S&P Global data showed that the US manufacturing sector fell into contraction territory in May. A similar survey released by the Institute for Supply Management showed the industry contracted for the seventh consecutive month in May, at a faster pace than in the prior month.

#10 European manufacturing has also dropped into contraction territory…

Among manufacturers in the eurozone, production, new orders and backlogs all fell in May as the sector contracted at a faster pace that month, according to S&P Global figures. The 20-nation currency area’s industrial production fell sharply in March, mostly due to a plunge in Ireland. The indicator measures the output of manufacturers, miners, and utility companies.

#11 It is being reported that new numbers show that the EU “entered a recession in the first quarter of this year”…

The euro zone entered a recession in the first quarter of this year, and economists are not optimistic for the coming months.

The 20-member bloc reported gross domestic product of -0.1% for the first quarter, according to revised estimates from the region’s statistics office, Eurostat, released Thursday.

What I have just shared with you is certainly quite a bit of bad news.

But if I am correct, conditions will continue to deteriorate throughout the rest of this year and into 2024.

We live at such a critical moment in human history, and those that have been waiting for life to “return to normal” can stop waiting.

The pace of change is picking up speed with each passing month, and most of us are simply not prepared for the craziness that is ahead.

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

Kansas Wheat Harvest Will Be The Smallest Since 1957 And U.S. Corn Is Being Absolutely Devastated By Drought

June 7, 2023June 7, 2023 by Michael

Significantly higher food prices are coming, because U.S. food production is going to be way below normal levels this year. That is really bad news, because food prices are already absurdly high. In some cases, people are paying as much for a full shopping cart full of food as they did for a used vehicle in the old days. I wish that I was exaggerating, but I am not. Unfortunately, food prices are only going to go higher because farmers and ranchers are being hit extremely hard from coast to coast. For example, it is being reported that wheat farmers in Kansas “will reap their smallest harvest in more than 60 years”…

Kansas has been called the country’s breadbasket. Now, wheat farmers in the state will reap their smallest harvest in more than 60 years.

This will go directly down the chain, from farmers to consumers at the grocery store.

Kansas normally produces more wheat than any other U.S. state by a wide margin.

But now the harvest in that state will be the smallest that we have seen since 1957…

For the last two years, a drought has withered a lot of the crop.

Now, this year’s wheat harvest in Kansas is shaping up to be the smallest since 1957. That year, the Eisenhower administration intentionally suppressed wheat production.

There were 166 million people living in the United States in 1957.

Today, there are 331 million people.

So who is going to volunteer to give up eating wheat this year so that others can consume what they normally do?

At this point, things are so bad that we are being told that flour mills in Kansas “will likely have to buy wheat grown in eastern Europe”…

Kansas flour mills will likely have to buy wheat grown in eastern Europe.

For decades, Kansas has led the nation in wheat production. The U.S. leads the world in in wheat exports, as well.

This is a major problem.

But can’t we all just eat more corn instead?

After all, corn is already in thousands upon thousands of different products that Americans consume on a regular basis.

Well, it turns out that corn production is being greatly affected by drought as well. The following comes from a Newsweek article entitled “Corn Prices Set to Soar After Midwest Hit by Worst Drought in 30 Years”…

An unusually dry May in the Midwest has raised concerns over this year’s corn crop in the Corn Belt, the region stretching from the panhandle of Texas up to North Dakota and east to Ohio which dominates the country’s corn production.

For a long time I have been warning that Dust Bowl conditions would return to the middle of the country, and now we are here.

Extremely dry conditions are being accompanied by unusually hot temperatures, and this combination is causing all sorts of havoc for corn farmers…

The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service recently reported increasingly dry topsoil, poor pasture conditions in Missouri, and limited moisture for newly planted crops.

“We have very high temperatures all the way up through the northern plains of the Midwest, which impacts more than just corn and soybeans—it’s impacting other crops as well,” Curt Covington, senior director of partner relations at AgAmerica, America’s largest nonbank agricultural lender, told Newsweek.

We desperately need rain, and lots of it.

More than a third of all U.S. corn production is in areas that are currently experiencing drought, and the situation is especially dire in the “Corn Belt” states…

According to the US Drought Monitor, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin, often called the “Corn Belt” states, are experiencing “exceptional drought” to “moderate drought.” The timing of the drought, this early in the season, could stress young plants.

Normally, if there is going to be serious drought in the middle of the country we see it later in the year.

So the fact that there is this much drought this early in 2023 is a really bad sign.

Of course it isn’t just wheat and corn farmers that are suffering…

-The size of the U.S. beef cow herd is “the smallest since 1962”.

-The orange harvest in Florida will be approximately 56 percent smaller than last year.

-Thanks to extremely bizarre weather, approximately 90 percent of Georgia’s peach crop for 2023 has been destroyed.

Most Americans don’t realize that things have gotten so bad.

If you do not know how to grow a garden, you might want to learn.

Food prices are already painfully high, and they are only going to go higher.

And this is all happening in the context of the worst global food crisis in modern history.

Hunger has been spreading around the world like wildfire, and Yahoo News is reporting that last year there was “a 33% spike in the number of people facing hunger globally”…

The 2023 Global Report on Food Crises, which published its findings last month, found that last year saw a 33% spike in the number of people facing hunger globally from the previous year, up from 193 million people in 53 countries and territories in 2021. It was also the fourth consecutive year that an increasing number of people experienced Phase 3, or above, food insecurity, which designates their situation as serious, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a tool for improving food security analysis and decision making.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

Due to multiple long-term trends which I discuss in my latest book, global famine has become inevitable.

No matter what decisions our leaders make now, they aren’t going to be able to keep global food production from collapsing in the years ahead.

They know this, but they don’t want everyone to freak out.

I would greatly encourage everyone to start becoming less dependent on the system and more self-sufficient.

Global food supplies are going to keep getting tighter and tighter, and once we get to a real crisis point you will want to be able to take care of yourself, your family and those that will be depending on you.

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.

This Is How Senator Kennedy Responded When Asked About The Coming Crash: “Am I Worried? The Short Answer Is Yes”

June 6, 2023 by Michael

A lot of people have been waiting for “the other shoe to drop”, and now that day has arrived. Thanks to rapidly rising interest rates and historically low occupancy rates, we are facing an unprecedented commercial real estate crisis. Borrowers are starting to walk away from commercial real estate properties all over the nation, and that is really bad news for small and mid-size banks because they are holding most of these loans. Needless to say, a lot of small and mid-size banks are simply not going to be able to survive a nationwide tsunami of commercial real estate defaults.

When U.S. Senator John Kennedy was asked about this growing crisis, he didn’t mince words…

“Am I worried? The short answer is yes,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, said in an interview. “The long answer is hell yes.”

“I hope the Federal Reserve and the banking regulators are worried as well, and I hope they won’t be caught flat-footed like they were with the bank failures that we’ve had so far,” Kennedy said.

In some cities, commercial real estate values have already declined by more than half.

As borrowers increasingly walk away from bloated mortgages, lenders are going to be facing a balance sheet shock of epic proportions…

As the federal government strives to contain financial market turmoil, the next risk looming over the nation’s banks is in plain sight: the $20 trillion commercial real estate market.

Some $1.5 trillion in mortgages will come due in the next two years, a potential time bomb as higher interest rates and spiraling office vacancies push down property values.

And because 70 percent of bank-held commercial mortgages sit on the balance sheets of regional and smaller lenders, a write-down in commercial loans could spell big trouble for the financial system and spill over into the larger economy just as the 2024 presidential campaign gets underway.

Of course we don’t have to wait for 2024, because many borrowers are already defaulting right now.

For example, Park Hotels and Resorts just announced that it will no longer make payments on “two of San Francisco’s largest hotels”…

The owner of two of San Francisco’s largest hotels has stopped making mortgage payments on the properties and will let them go into foreclosure as historic crime rates continue to deter tourists.

Park Hotels and Resorts announced on Monday that it stopped making payments on its $725 million loan due in November for the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 — the largest and fourth-largest hotels in the city, respectively.

Over the past few years the downtown area of San Francisco has rapidly degenerated, and Park Hotels and Resorts alluded to this in their announcement…

‘Now, more than ever we believe San Francisco’s path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges — both old and new’ as the city becomes a ghost town with empty storefronts.

‘Ultimately, the continued burden on our operating results and balance sheet is too significant to warrant continuing to subsidize and own these assets.’

Sadly, countless other businesses have also decided to leave downtown San Francisco on a permanent basis.

In fact, only about half of the retailers that were operating in the Union Square area in 2019 are still open today…

Out of 203 retailers open in 2019 in the city’s Union Square area, just 107 are still operating, a drop of 47 percent in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.

Among the heavy hitters, Brooks Brothers, Ray Ban, Christian Louboutin, Lululemon and Marmot have all packed it in.

In the end, lenders are going to be stuck with a lot of commercial real estate that is now worth far less than it once was.

Even if buyers can be found, the losses in many cases will be absolutely staggering. Recently, one very important office tower in San Francisco sold for “71% below the original asking price”…

Wells Fargo found a buyer for one of its office towers in San Francisco, the 13-story 355,000-square-foot 1960s-era tower at 550 California, across the street and around the corner from its headquarters tower on Montgomery.

Wells Fargo had purchased the tower in 2005 for $108 million. It is vacating the building. Last year, it listed it for $160 million, but then pulled the listing after receiving bids reportedly below $40 million. Earlier this year, it engaged real estate investment bank Eastdil Secured to relist the tower.

And it has now made a deal – the name of the buyer has not been disclosed – for about $42.6 million to $46 million ($120 to $130 per square foot), according to sources cited by the San Francisco Business Times. That would be 71% below the original asking price and nearly 60% below the purchase price in 2005.

As the U.S. economy slows down even more, this commercial real estate crisis will only intensify.

And of course this is all happening in the context of a global economic slowdown…

The World Bank said Tuesday that global economic growth has slowed sharply in the face of higher interest rates, chronic inflation and continued fallout from the banking crisis.

According to the World Bank, the outlook for the months ahead will be quite bleak as interest rates go even higher…

The threat of higher interest rates, and the possibility of more turmoil in the banking sector following a spate of bank collapses this spring, could slow economic growth even more this year.

“The world economy remains hobbled,” the World Bank said in the report. “Besieged by high inflation, tight global financial markets, and record debt levels, many countries are simply growing poorer.”

We really are in the very early stages of a global economic meltdown.

Inflation is out of control, interest rates are spiking, large companies are conducting mass layoffs, the global housing bubble is bursting, and we are facing a commercial real estate crisis that is unlike anything we have ever experienced before.

And the truth is that our economic problems are only just one element of the “perfect storm” that we are now experiencing.

I am very concerned about what the rest of 2023 will bring.

But I am even more concerned about 2024.

We are truly in unprecedented territory, and nobody is going to come riding to the rescue any time soon.

So buckle up and hold on tight, because we have got a very bumpy ride ahead of us.

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

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