Money

On The Verge Of A Banking Industry Apocalypse?

May 4, 2023May 4, 2023 by Michael

Every time that they tell us that everything is fine, things just seem to get even worse. This banking crisis was supposed to be “over” after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed. It wasn’t. Then it was supposed to be “over” after First Republic collapsed. It wasn’t. By now, most of you already know about what has been happening to PacWest, Western Alliance, First Horizon and countless other regional bank stocks. In all my years, I have never seen banking stocks fall so quickly. If this avalanche continues to pick up momentum, pretty soon we will have to stop talking about a “banking industry crisis” and start talking about a “banking industry apocalypse”.

Ironically, I think that CNN has actually summarized the current state of affairs better than anyone else…

A summary of where things stand in the banking crisis:

The Fed: “Banks are fine.”

The Treasury: “Banks are fine.”

The banks: “We’re fine.”

Wall Street: “Everybody sell, the banks are on fire!”

On Thursday, PacWest released a carefully worded statement that was supposed to calm investors down…

Our message remains consistent with what was conveyed last week with earnings. As previously announced, the Company has explored strategic asset sales, including moving the $2.7 billion Lender Finance loan portfolio to held for sale in 1Q23. This planned sale remains on track and upon completion will accelerate our CET1 capital ratio to 10%+ (from 9.21% at 1Q23). Additionally, in accordance with normal practices the Company and its Board of Directors continuously review strategic options. Recently, the Company has been approached by several potential partners and investors – discussions are ongoing. The company will continue to evaluate all options to maximize shareholder value.

But instead this statement sparked a massive wave of panic and the stock dropped more than 50 percent…

The rout in regional banks picked up steam again on Thursday morning, with several stocks suffering sizeable losses.

PacWest sank 50.6% was halted for volatility multiple times. The slide began on Wednesday evening following news that the Los Angeles-based bank was exploring strategic options, including a potential sale.

Western Alliance was down 38 percent even though it pushed back very hard against a report by the Financial Times that indicated that a sale of the bank was being explored…

Western Alliance is exploring strategic options including a potential sale of all or part of its business, the Financial Times reported on Thursday citing two people briefed on the matter.

The Arizona-based bank has hired advisers to explore its options, the report added, saying the bank’s deliberations were at an early stage and might not come to anything.

And shares of First Horizon fell 37 percent when the market opened after their merger with Toronto-Dominion Bank fell through…

First Horizon Corp. shares plunged 37% at the cash open in New York, the most significant decline since September 2008.

Bloomberg reported First Horizon held a conference call earlier today, seeking to calm investors after the merger agreement with Toronto-Dominion Bank was “terminated.” The regional bank said it has ‘stable funding’ and adequate capital.

Those are the three big names that are dominating the headlines right now, but there are many more institutions that are teetering on the brink of insolvency.

In fact, one recent study determined that “186 more banks are at risk of failure”…

After the demise of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March, a study on the fragility of the U.S. banking system found that 186 more banks are at risk of failure even if only half of their uninsured depositors (uninsured depositors stand to lose a part of their deposits if the bank fails, potentially giving them incentives to run) decide to withdraw their funds.

So what is the bottom line?

The bottom line is that things are bad, and now that the Fed has decided to raise interest rates again they will soon get even worse.

At this stage, very few banks are truly safe. Depositors continue to pull money out of the system, bonds that are held by these banks continue to lose value, and more loans are going bad with each passing day.

This banking crisis is far from over.

In fact, it is just beginning.

Yesterday, Bill Ackman warned that our entire regional banking system “is at risk”…

The regional banking system is at risk. SVB’s depositors’ bad weekend woke up uninsured depositors everywhere. The rapid rise in rates impaired assets and drained deposits. Zeroing out shareholders and bondholders massively increased the banks’ cost of capital. CRE losses loom. Meanwhile, higher-yield, more user- friendly alternatives beckon @Apple.

The @FDICgov failure to update and expand its insurance regime has hammered more nails in the coffin. FRB would not have failed if the FDIC temporarily guaranteed deposits while a new guarantee regime were created. Instead, we watch the dominoes fall at great systemic and economic cost.

Banking is a confidence game. At this rate, no regional bank can survive bad news or bad data as a stock price plunge inevitably follows, insured and uninsured deposits are withdrawn and ‘pursuing strategic alternatives’ means an FDIC shutdown over the coming weekend.

He is mostly correct.

But I will quibble with him on one point.

Even if all deposits in the system are fully guaranteed, a lot of people will still be pulling their money out.

As Zero Hedge has aptly noted, many wealthy individuals are transferring funds from checking accounts that yield next to nothing to money market funds that pay around five percent…

People are not moving their money because of deposit loss fears: everyone already knows unlimited insurance is guaranteed, especially in blue states; they are moving because it takes 30 seconds to transfer from a 0.01% yielding checking account to a 5.1% money market.

The Federal Reserve could help the banks by cutting interest rates.

But that isn’t going to happen any time soon.

So brace yourselves for more bank failures.

Prior to the collapse of First Republic, Gallup conducted a survey that asked Americans if they are concerned about the money that they have in the banking system.

These are the results…

Amid turbulence in the U.S. banking system, nearly half of Americans are anxious about the safety of the money they have in accounts at banks or other financial institutions. A total of 48% of U.S. adults say they are concerned about their money, including 19% who are “very” and 29% who are “moderately” worried. At the same time, 30% are “not too worried” and 20% are “not worried at all.”

These findings are from a Gallup poll conducted April 3-25, the month after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed. News about the failure of a third bank — First Republic — came after the poll was completed.

Needless to say, the events of the past couple of weeks are not going to help people feel any better.

Our banking system is in a tremendous amount of trouble, and this is just one element of the broader societal meltdown that we are currently witnessing.

I am extremely concerned about the rest of 2023.

And I am even more concerned about what 2024 will bring.

Events are starting to move very rapidly now, and very dark days are 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.

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 the latest updates. 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.

Is The Federal Reserve Trying To Cause An Economic Depression?

May 3, 2023May 3, 2023 by Michael

They actually did it. Even though banks are collapsing, the commercial real estate market is imploding, home sales are plunging, and large companies are laying off workers all over America, the Federal Reserve just decided to raise interest rates even higher. This is nothing less than economic malpractice. They know that higher rates are crushing the economy, but they apparently believe that more pain is needed. Officials at the Fed just hiked rates another 25 basis points, and they are now the highest that they have been since August 2007…

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a point, but opened the door to a long-awaited pause in the most aggressive tightening campaign since the 1980s.

The unanimous decision puts the key benchmark federal funds rate at a range of 5% to 5.25%, the highest since August 2007, from near zero a little more than one year ago. It marks the 10th consecutive rate increase aimed at combating high inflation.

When the Fed raised rates that high in 2007, it didn’t exactly work out so well, did it?

The next year we plunged into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Now a new economic crisis has begun, and even CNN is admitting that higher rates will make things even worse…

Meanwhile, investors are still coming to terms with the rapid run-up in rates, which sparked a huge sell-off in US government bonds and stocks last year.

Banks that failed to adequately prepare have been hammered. The shifting landscape paved the way for the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March and First Republic Bank this week.

More pain could be on the way. The commercial real estate sector, which is very sensitive to high interest rates, looks particularly vulnerable — its problems made worse by a glut of empty office buildings in the wake of the pandemic.

In particular, higher rates will put even more pressure on hundreds of banks that are already teetering on the brink of insolvency.

And when banks are struggling to survive, they get really tight with their money, and that is why we are now facing a big time credit crunch…

“The data suggest a credit crunch has started,” Morgan Stanley analyst Mike Wilson said during a recent episode of the firm’s “Thoughts on the Market” podcast.

During a credit crunch, banks significantly raise their lending standards, making it difficult to acquire a loan. Borrowers may have to agree to more stringent terms like high interest rates as banks try to reduce the financial risk on their end. Fewer loans, in turn, would lead to less big-ticket spending by consumers and businesses.

If the goal of the Federal Reserve was to curtail economic activity, what they had already done is already working.

So there was no need to hike rates even more.

Just look at some of the things that have happened over the past few days. For example, FedEx Freight has announced that they will be permanently closing 29 locations…

FedEx Freight is closing 29 locations later this year and will begin another round of furloughs for some employees at the end of May, the company announced Monday.

FedEx Freight plans to close the locations and consolidate its operations into other locations effective Aug. 13. When asked about where the locations set for closure are, a FedEx spokesperson said the company did not have “that information to share at this time.”

And Vice Media has announced that it is “preparing to file for bankruptcy”…

Vice Media is preparing to file for bankruptcy – after attempts to find a buyer for a company once valued at $5.7 billion appeared to be going nowhere.

More than five companies have expressed interest in acquiring Vice, The New York Times reported on Monday, but the chances of a sale are seen as increasingly remote.

The decline of Vice comes a little over a week after BuzzFeed News announced its closure, and three months after Vox laid off 130 people, representing 7 percent of staff.

Even GM is feeling the stress of this economic environment. According to USA Today, earlier efforts to reduce their workforce were not sufficient, and so they will be giving the axe to hundreds of contract employees…

General Motors terminated “several hundred” contract employees who worked at its Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, and other locations this weekend in its bid to shave $2 billion from its budget by the end of next year.

The cuts come nearly a month after 5,000 salaried employees agreed to a voluntary separation package that GM said would help it achieve close to 50% of its cost-cutting target this year alone and prevent further involuntary cuts.

Meanwhile, more retailers continue to go belly up.

In particular, I was greatly saddened to hear that Tuesday Morning “is going out of business and closing all of its stores”…

Tuesday Morning is going out of business and closing all of its stores. It is the second major US home goods retailer to go bust in recent days.

The retailer announced on Facebook and its website that it has started a going-out-of-business sale with 30% off discounts on its products sold at its roughly 200 remaining stores. Customers have until May 13 to use their gift cards, and locations will start closing in the coming weeks.

Do officials at the Federal Reserve not understand what is going on out there?

It is a bloodbath, and they just made things even worse.

And it isn’t just us. Economic activity is rapidly slowing down all over the world, and officials at the Fed have chosen this moment to sabotage the central hub of the entire global economy.

If we plunge into an economic depression, the entire planet will feel the pain.

We better hope for a miracle from somewhere else, because economic conditions are deteriorating a little bit more with each passing day, and officials at the Fed have made it abundantly clear that they do not plan to help 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.

Are PacWest And Western Alliance The Next 2 Dominoes To Fall?

May 2, 2023May 2, 2023 by Michael

Things weren’t supposed to move this quickly. Just hours after First Republic was dissected, two more major banks are in very serious trouble. Are the dominoes going to start to fall more quickly than we were anticipating? After his bank gobbled up First Republic, Jamie Dimon told the world that “this part of the crisis is over”, and many in the corporate media believed him. Unfortunately, Wall Street is not buying it. On Tuesday, “fears around contagion in the regional banking sector” pushed stock prices significantly lower…

Stocks tumbled on Tuesday as traders’ fears around contagion in the regional banking sector returned ahead of the Federal Reserve’s rate decision.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 367.17 points, or 1.08%, to end at 33,684.53. The S&P 500 slid 1.16% and closed at 4,119.58. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.08%, ending the session at 12,080.51. The three major averages fell for a second consecutive session.

Many regional banks got hit really hard, and that includes two institutions that analysts have already been watching very closely…

Regional bank stocks fell sharply Tuesday as the fallout from the third major bank failure this year continued to put pressure on the sector.

Shares of PacWest fell nearly 28% on Tuesday and was on track for its fourth-straight negative session. The stock was halted for volatility multiple times.

The California-based bank was not the only regional lender under pressure. Shares of Western Alliance dropped 15%.

If they have to halt trading for a particular stock several times in a single day, that is a really bad sign.

Like First Republic, PacWest and Western Alliance both experienced tremendous deposit outflows as a result of the bank runs that happened during the first quarter…

PacWest and Western Alliance were also among the financial institutions, along with First Republic, that came under intense scrutiny following the March 10 and March 12 failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Both lenders, like First Republic, lost a sizable amount of deposits during the first quarter as customers sought the perceived safety of larger banks or higher yields being offered by money market funds. PacWest, a lender based in Beverly Hills, Calif., lost 17% of its deposits and Phoenix-based Western Alliance lost 11%, while First Republic lost 41%.

Both institutions are now highly vulnerable, and as Dick Bove has aptly noted, those that have made massive amounts of money from recent bank failures are searching for their next victim…

“People made a huge amount of money,” he said. “Those people who have driven SVB out of business, who benefitted from the Signature failure, who benefitted from the First Republic slow die, they made a lot of money.

“They are looking around to find another target.”

Of course PacWest and Western Alliance are not the only potential targets.

In fact, one news source is claiming that “half of America’s bank are potentially insolvent” at this point.

We really are in the early stages of the next major financial crisis.

And could it be possible that even some of our largest financial institutions are starting to show signs of trouble?

Earlier today, I was quite alarmed to learn that Morgan Stanley is planning to eliminate approximately 3,000 jobs…

Morgan Stanley is preparing a fresh round of job cuts amid a renewed focus on expenses as recession fears delay a rebound in dealmaking.

Senior managers are discussing plans to eliminate about 3,000 jobs from the global workforce by the end of this quarter, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That would amount to roughly 5% of staff excluding financial advisers and personnel supporting them within the wealth management division.

The health of the banking industry is of great concern for all of us, because the banks are the core of our economic system.

Right now, banks are starting to get really tight with their lending, and so that is going to mean less money is available for consumers and businesses. At this stage, even the Washington Post is talking about how tight lending standards have become…

Janna Rodriguez has big goals for her home-based child-care center. She wants to grow Innovative Daycare to serve more low-income families in Freeport, N.Y., but first, she needs a bank to loan her between $2 million and $4 million to help her move into a larger space and expand her hours.

So far, she keeps hearing “no.” Midsize banks near her in Long Island don’t want to take bets on the child-care industry, which has been hit hard by the pandemic, Rodriguez said. She’s felt lenders pull back even more since the March shock to the banking system. If she can’t expand, she’ll have to consider shutting the business down because otherwise, she just can’t see getting by.

And this isn’t just happening in the United States.

According to Zero Hedge, global lending standards haven’t been this tight since the collapse of Lehman Brothers…

A composite measure of DM banks’ lending standards shows they are the tightest since 2009. Tighter credit conditions will be an impediment to central banks’ preference to keep rates “higher for longer.”

The ECB’s bank lending survey was released this morning, with banks further tightening their credit standards.

This has pushed an aggregate measure of bank-loan credit standards to levels not seen since the Lehman crisis.

When banks get into trouble, they don’t have an appetite for taking risks.

Sadly, it is likely that banks will be very hesitant to make loans for the foreseeable future.

So this will greatly depress economic activity.

In such an environment, it would be absolutely insane to raise interest rates, but that is what officials at the Fed have decided to do anyway.

What this means is that more dominoes will fall, and the crisis that we have entered will get a whole lot worse.

Let’s keep a close eye on PacWest and Western Alliance.

But they won’t be the only institutions that struggle for survival in the days ahead.

There is blood in the water, and the sharks are circling.

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 Banking Collapse Of 2023 Is Now Officially Bigger Than The Banking Collapse Of 2008 Was

May 1, 2023 by Michael

Yes, you read the headline correctly. Collectively, the three big banks that have collapsed in 2023 had more assets than all 25 banks that collapsed in 2008 did. Unfortunately, the banking collapse of 2023 is far from over. We still have eight more months to go before this year is done, and many more banks are currently teetering on the brink of disaster. Executives at those banks are telling us not to worry, but of course executives at First Republic were issuing similar assurances just last week. Personally, I had heard that First Republic supposedly had enough reserves to keep going for months. But that was a lie, and now First Republic is toast. The following comes from the official statement that the FDIC issued when it took over the bank…

First Republic Bank, San Francisco, California, was closed today by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect depositors, the FDIC is entering into a purchase and assumption agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, Columbus, Ohio, to assume all of the deposits and substantially all of the assets of First Republic Bank.

JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association submitted a bid for all of First Republic Bank’s deposits. As part of the transaction, First Republic Bank’s 84 offices in eight states will reopen as branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, today during normal business hours. All depositors of First Republic Bank will become depositors of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, and will have full access to all of their deposits.

The government was not going to allow just anyone to snap up the assets of First Republic.

JPMorgan Chase was one of the institutions that was invited to make a bid, and they came out of this process as the big winners…

JPMorgan is getting about $92 billion in deposits in the deal, which includes the $30 billion that it and other large banks put into First Republic last month. The bank is taking on $173 billion in loans and $30 billion in securities as well.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation agreed to absorb most of the losses on mortgages and commercial loans that JPMorgan is getting, and also provided it with a $50 billion credit line.

In addition to providing JPMorgan Chase with a 50 billion dollar credit line, the FDIC will also take a loss on this deal of approximately 13 billion dollars. So they are definitely one of the big losers in this deal…

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be about $13 billion. This is an estimate and the final cost will be determined when the FDIC terminates the receivership.

Needless to say, the biggest losers of all are the shareholders of First Republic.

They got completely wiped out…

Stockholders got bailed in and wiped out. They’d already been mostly wiped out by Friday evening in one of the most spectacular stock plunges ever.

Holders of the unsecured subordinated bank notes got bailed in and wiped out just about entirely. This is a form of preferred stock. For example, the 4.625% bank notes, issued in 2017, traded at less than 2 cents on the dollar this morning, another spectacular plunge.

As I have always warned, you only make money in the stock market if you get out in time.

Shareholders of First Republic found that out the hard way.

In comments that he made after the deal was consummated, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon boldly declared that “this part of the crisis is over”…

“There are only so many banks that were offsides this way,” Dimon told analysts in a call shortly after the deal was announced.

“There may be another smaller one, but this pretty much resolves them all,” Dimon said. “This part of the crisis is over.”

And the U.S. Treasury is telling us that the U.S. banking system “remains sound and resilient”…

‘The banking system remains sound and resilient, and Americans should feel confident in the safety of their deposits and the ability of the banking system to fulfil its essential function of providing credit to businesses and families,’ a Treasury spokesperson said.

Does reading that make you feel better?

It shouldn’t.

They always offer such platitudes before things start getting really bad.

As I noted at the beginning of this article, the three banks that have collapsed so far this year were collectively bigger than all of the banks that collapsed in 2008 combined…

The three banks held a combined total of $532 billion in assets, which – according to the New York Times and when adjusted for inflation – is more than the $526 billion held by all the US banks that collapsed in 2008 at the peak of the financial crisis.

We are only one-third of the way through 2023.

And as Charlie Munger recently observed, many of our banks are absolutely packed with “bad loans” right now…

Charlie Munger believes there is trouble ahead for the U.S. commercial property market.

The 99-year-old investor told the Financial Times that U.S. banks are packed with “bad loans” that will be vulnerable as “bad times come” and property prices fall.

He is quite correct.

In particular, the collapse of commercial real estate prices threatens to create a massive tsunami of defaults…

Berkshire Hathaway, where Munger serves as vice chairman, has largely stayed on the fringe of the crisis despite its history of supporting American banks through times of turmoil. Munger, who is also Warren Buffett’s longtime investment partner, suggested that Berkshire’s restraint is partially due to risks that could emerge from banks’ numerous commercial property loans.

“A lot of real estate isn’t so good anymore,” Munger said. “We have a lot of troubled office buildings, a lot of troubled shopping centers, a lot of troubled other properties. There’s a lot of agony out there.”

As I keep telling my readers, we really are on the verge of the largest commercial real estate crash in all of U.S. history.

And as mountains of commercial real estate loans go bad, a lot more banks will start to go under.

The “too big to fail” banks will scoop up those that they like, while others are simply liquidated and go out of existence.

Ultimately, I believe that we are going to see a wave of consolidation in the banking industry like we never have before.

We are still only in the very early chapters of this crisis. Much worse is yet to come.

It is going to take a while for all the dominoes to fall, but each time another one tumbles over it will be a sign that the clock is ticking and that time is running out for the U.S. financial system.

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 System Is Starting To Unravel At A Pace That Is Absolutely Breathtaking

April 30, 2023April 30, 2023 by Michael

It should have been apparent to everyone that the dark clouds on the horizon would bring a storm, and now rain is furiously falling all around us. Our entire system is being viciously shaken, and the dominoes are going to continue to fall in the months ahead. Once Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank went down, we all knew that it was just a matter of time before more large banks started to implode. Now First Republic has failed, and over the weekend U.S. regulators were working very hard to arrange a sale…

U.S. regulators have been trying to clinch a sale of First Republic over the weekend, with roughly half a dozen banks bidding, sources said on Saturday, in what is likely to be the third major U.S. bank to fail in two months. Guggenheim Securities is advising the FDIC, two sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

As a I write this article, that still hasn’t happened yet.

But it could happen at any moment.

When a sale is finally announced, the FDIC is also expected to tell us that it has seized First Republic…

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is expected to announce a deal on Sunday night before Asian markets open, with the regulator likely to say at the same time that it had seized the lender, three sources previously told Reuters.

They are trying to time everything so that as little panic as possible is created.

But I feel really badly for those that owned First Republic stock.

It was going for about 120 dollars a share at the beginning of March, and once the bank is seized by federal regulators it will almost certainly be worthless.

That is how fast these things can happen.

More dominoes will fall throughout the rest of 2023, and you don’t want to be caught holding the bag.

So do what you need to do while you still have time.

When the Federal Reserve decided to go nuts with their rate hikes, we all knew that this would put enormous pressure on the banks, and that is precisely what has happened.

We also knew that higher rates would crush the housing market, and last month pending home sales dropped much more than expected…

March is with both feet in the spring selling season, when home sales jump and when prices move higher, and where everything looks rosy for a few months, no matter what, after the dreariness of winter.

So, well then, here we go again. Pending home sales – which are “a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings” – fell by 5.2% in March from February, according to the National Association of Realtors today, thereby annihilating the little-bitty gain in February that had sent all the headlines abuzz with hype.

If you are looking to sell a home, I would recommend doing it quickly, because prices are likely to go quite a bit lower from here.

Meanwhile, big companies are laying off workers all over the country at a very frightening rate. In fact, we just learned that Jenny Craig is getting ready to conduct “mass layoffs” as it prepares to wind down operations…

Jenny Craig has alerted employees to potential mass layoffs as it begins “winding down physical operations” and hunts for a buyer, according to communications the weight-loss company sent some staffers this week.

The company said it “has been going through a sales process for the last couple of months,” according to a document titled “Jenny Craig Company Transition FAQs” that was dated Tuesday and provided to NBC News.

I don’t know why, but I am sad to see Jenny Craig go.

Perhaps it is because of all the Jenny Craig commercials that I watched when I was younger.

Joe Biden keeps telling us that the economy is doing great, but we just keep seeing one large company after another go belly up…

For 2009 there were 118 bankruptcies through April. In Covid-impacted 2020, there were 71 bankruptcies. In 2023 there have been 70.

This is the third worst start to the year since 2000.

This didn’t have to happen.

If our leaders had not flooded the system with money, inflation never would have gotten out of control.

And if inflation had never gotten out of control, officials at the Fed never would have had to recklessly hike interest rates.

Sadly, we have a real nightmare on our hands at this point, and there is no turning back now.

Not too long ago, a prankster that was impersonating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was able to completely fool Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell during a video chat.

During their discussion, Powell openly admitted that raising rates could push the U.S. economy into a recession…

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell earlier this year held a video chat about the global economy with someone he thought was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Except it wasn’t Zelensky. Powell appears to have been pranked.

In clips posted online of the January conversation, Powell discussed global politics and the economy. He said he supported the Ukrainian people but was limited in ways he could help. And Powell said a recession was likely coming in the not-too-distant future and divulged the Fed’s plans to raise rates in 2023.

Powell also admitted that more rate hikes are planned even though he knows that they will cause even more pain.

And actually the Federal Reserve is expected to raise rates another 25 basis points later this week.

It is absolutely suicidal to keep raising rates as the economy plunges into a major downturn, but they are doing it anyway.

Have they gone completely mad?

It is almost as if they are purposely trying to create the sort of economic horror show that I have been relentlessly warning about.

If officials at the Fed had any sense, they would be reducing rates as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, that is simply not going to happen, and so we will soon see many more dominoes start tumbling over.

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

A Torrent Of Layoffs! Here Are 16 Large Companies That Have Just Announced Mass Terminations

April 27, 2023April 27, 2023 by Michael

The biggest companies in the United States are giving the axe to hundreds of thousands of workers, but this should not come as a shock to any of us. Officials at the Federal Reserve were warned over and over again that they were going to create an extremely harsh economic environment if they aggressively raised interest rates, and that is exactly what has transpired. We haven’t seen a tsunami of layoffs like this since 2008 and 2009, and the outlook for the months ahead is extremely bleak.

Many of us warned the Fed that it would be mind-numbingly stupid to push interest rates much higher just as we were entering a major economic downturn, but of course the Fed didn’t want to listen.

We were told that they are the “experts” and that they knew precisely what they were doing.

And now a nightmare scenario is playing out right in front of our eyes.

The following are 16 large companies that have just announced mass terminations…

#1 Tyson: “Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N) will eliminate about 10% of corporate jobs and 15% of senior leadership roles, Chief Executive Donnie King told employees on Wednesday.”

#2 Lyft: “Ride-hailing app Lyft will lay off 1,072 employees, roughly 26% of its corporate workforce, and won’t hire for an additional 250 positions, the company said in an SEC filing Thursday.”

#3 Deloitte: “Deloitte will cut around 1,200 jobs or 1.5% of its U.S. workforce, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing internal employee communications.”

#4 Gap: “Gap will lay off about 1,800 employees, more than three times as many as the 500 layoffs it announced in September, as part of a broad effort to cut costs and streamline operations, the company said Thursday.”

#5 Ernst & Young: “Ernst & Young said Monday that it would eliminate roughly 3,000 jobs from its US workforce as it pivots to address shifts in demand and “overcapacity” in sections of its business.”

#6 3M: “The manufacturing behemoth behind some consumer brands, including Post-It Notes and Scotch Tape, said it would lay off 6,000 staff around the world. Those cuts are in addition to the 2,500 manufacturing roles 3M eliminated in January.”

#7 CDW: “CDW’s bombshell announcement this week that it expects first fiscal quarter results below expectations and the apparent layoff of hundreds of its employees is a sign that moderated technology demand since the height of the pandemic is more than just a one-quarter strain for hardware, software and services businesses.”

#8 David’s Bridal: “One of the largest sellers of wedding gowns in the United States, David’s Bridal is laying off thousands of workers nationwide, according to a notice filed to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor.”

#9 DropBox: “Shares of Dropbox are trading about 5% higher today after the company said it plans to slash its global workforce by approximately 16%.”

#10 Red Hat: “Following parent company IBM announcing thousands of layoffs in 2023, Red Hat CEO Matt Hicks told employees Monday that approximately 4 percent of its global workforce will be laid off.”

#11 Opendoor: “Opendoor Technologies on Tuesday said it was cutting roughly 560 jobs, or 22% of the workforce at the online U.S. real estate firm, citing a declining housing market.”

#12 First Republic: “First Republic plans to reduce its workforce between 20% and 25% this quarter following “unprecedented” deposit outflows in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse last month, the company said in a regulatory filing on Monday.”

#13 Walmart: “Walmart is laying off more than 2,000 workers at five US warehouses that fulfill website orders in a move that came weeks after America’s largest private employer warned it’s in for a tough year ahead.”

#14 Facebook: “A layoff notice filed with the state this week shows Facebook’s parent company Meta plans to let go 343 employees across three Manhattan offices.”

#15 Amazon: “Amazon has officially started up its most recent round of employee reductions. The company is kicking off its previously announced layoffs of ~9,000 staff by axing workers in its Amazon Web Services (AWS) and human resources sectors.”

#16 Disney: “Disney is laying off several thousand workers across the company this week in the second and largest wave of cuts as part of the media giant’s previously announced plan to slash its workforce by 7,000 employees.”

Sadly, these are not isolated examples.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, during the first three months of this year job cuts in the United States were 396 percent higher than they were during the same period a year ago…

Companies announced nearly 90,000 layoffs in March, a sharp step up from the previous month and a giant acceleration from a year ago, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Thursday.

Planned layoffs totaled 89,703 for the period, an increase of 15% from February. Year to date, job cuts have soared to 270,416, an increase of 396% from the same period a year ago.

The damage was especially bad in tech, which has announced 102,391 cuts so far in 2023. That’s a staggering increase of 38,487% from a year ago and good for 38% of all staff reductions. Tech already has cut 5% more than for all of 2022, according to the report, and is on pace to eclipse 2001, the worst year ever amid the dot-com bust.

Please take a moment to digest those numbers, because they are absolutely staggering.

This isn’t just some sort of a minor shift in the employment market.

This is a collapse.

But according to the “official numbers” that the Biden administration gives us, everything is still fine.

And they are going to keep telling you that everything is fine until it is too late.

For years, our leaders were able to temporarily prop up our failing system by flooding it with unprecedented amounts of fresh money.

But now a day of reckoning has arrived.

They can’t keep printing more money because they are terrified of more inflation, but our economy is going to crumble without artificial assistance.

Those that are running things have run out of good options, but most Americans still have faith that they will be able to find a way to pilot us out of this mess.

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.

One Of The Largest Banks In The United States Is On The Verge Of Going Under

April 26, 2023 by Michael

Is another domino about to fall? Our system was greatly shaken when Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank suddenly collapsed, but we seem to have weathered that storm. But what will happen if an even larger bank goes under? As of March 31st, First Republic had approximately 290 billion dollars in assets, and that makes it much larger than Silicon Valley Bank was when it finally imploded. A 30 billion dollar rescue plan that was hastily put together last month was supposed to stabilize First Republic, but that hasn’t worked. On Tuesday, First Republic shares fell by about 50 percent after the public learned that “customers withdrew more than $100 billion during last month’s crisis”…

First Republic Bank’s shares plunged 50 percent after a ‘troubling’ earnings call where company executives refused to answer questions.

The stock dropped Tuesday after it emerged that customers withdrew more than $100 billion during last month’s crisis, with fears swirling that it could be the third bank to fail in quick succession after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Unfortunately for First Republic, the carnage continued on Wednesday.

Shares of First Republic were down another 29.75 percent, and so far this year the stock price has fallen by a total of more than 95 percent.

Let me try to put this into perspective.

On February 2nd, First Republic stock closed at $147.00.

Today, it closed at $5.69.

That is what a collapse looks like.

The reason why this is happening is because costumers have been pulling their money out of First Republic at a pace that is absolutely staggering. In fact, it is being reported that First Republic lost 40 percent of their total deposits in the first quarter alone…

This week’s drop for First Republic comes after the San Francisco-based lender late Monday said it lost roughly 40% of its deposits in the first quarter. First Republic was seen by customers and investors alike as a risky bank after the collapse last month of Silicon Valley Bank, which had a similar financial profile.

And if 11 of the largest banks in the country had not agreed to collectively deposit 30 billion dollars of their own money in First Republic last month, that figure would have been closer to 50 percent…

But those deposits include the $30 billion that 11 large banks deposited at the bank in March to prop it up and keep contagion from spreading.

Without this influx of $30 billion, deposits would have dropped by 50%. So this was really nip and tuck.

Unfortunately, that rescue plan was not nearly large enough, and so now First Republic plans to beg those banks for even more help…

The best hope for avoiding a collapse of ailing lender First Republic hinges on how persuasive one group of bankers can be with another group of bankers.

Advisors to First Republic will attempt to cajole the big U.S. banks who’ve already propped it up into doing one more favor, CNBC has learned.

The pitch will go something like this, according to bankers with knowledge of the situation: Purchase bonds from First Republic at above-market rates for a total loss of a few billion dollars – or face roughly $30 billion in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. fees when First Republic fails.

Ouch.

I think that those large banks would be quite foolish to throw more good money into the First Republic black hole, but we shall see what happens.

In addition to pleading for assistance, First Republic also plans to lay off thousands of employees…

The bank says it plans to sell off unprofitable assets, including the low-interest mortgages that it provided to wealthy clients. It also announced plans to lay off up to a quarter of its workforce, which totaled about 7,200 employees at the end of 2022.

Will all of this be enough to turn First Republic around?

Of course not.

As one expert explained, if First Republic still had any good options left “they would have pursued them already”…

Kathryn Judge, who works as an analyst at Columbia Law School, said that there is no easy solution for First Republic.

‘If there were attractive options, they would have pursued them already,’ she told the Times.

Meanwhile, the overall economy continues to deteriorate all around us.

On Wednesday, Amazon conducted layoffs in their cloud computing and human resources divisions. Sadly, these new job cuts are just the latest wave in “the largest layoffs in Amazon’s 29-year history”…

The layoffs are part of the previously announced job cuts that are expected to affect 9,000 employees. Last week, Amazon laid off some employees in its advertising unit, and it has let go of staffers in its video games and Twitch livestreaming units in recent weeks.

Amazon wrapped up a separate round of cuts earlier this year that affected approximately 18,000 employees. Combined with the cuts this month, it marks the largest layoffs in Amazon’s 29-year history.

Amazon is one of the wealthiest and most prosperous companies in the entire country.

If they have decided that it is necessary to conduct multiple mass layoffs because the economic outlook is so grim, what kind of signal does that send to everyone else?

In recent months, Google, Microsoft, Disney, Walmart and countless other large corporations have ruthlessly pruned their payrolls.

But don’t worry.

Joe Biden says that the economy is going to be just fine.

You believe him, don’t you?

Don’t let anyone fool you.

The economic meltdown that we have been waiting for is here, and it is going to be incredibly painful.

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.

It Is Time For A National Boycott Of Fox News

April 25, 2023 by Michael

If we don’t get to have Tucker Carlson, they don’t get to have a network. That is the message that we need to send to Fox News. A few hours ago, I participated in the taping of a panel discussion about the firing of Tucker Carlson for a television show. Former Fox News contributor Brigitte Gabriel was also on the panel, and she boldly declared that it is time for a national boycott of Fox News. I couldn’t agree more. Tucker Carlson was the only reason why many of us ever watched Fox News. Like so many others, Tucker could have chosen to play it safe so that he could have continued to rake in millions of dollars, but instead he consciously made a decision to relentlessly tell the truth no matter the consequences. By unceremoniously dumping Tucker like a smelly bag of garbage, executives at Fox News have not only shown great contempt for a national hero, but they have also shown great contempt for all of us who watched him. Unless Fox News offers Tucker his job back and issues a truly groveling apology to the viewers, we should steadfastly refuse to ever watch the channel again.

Fox News put out a statement that said that the company and Tucker mutually agreed to part ways, but that was just a bunch of horse manure.

At this point, everyone knows that Tucker was ruthlessly fired…

Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News by Lachlan Murdoch after a furious reaction from executives of his scathing criticism of them following the 2020 election, it has been claimed. The decision to fire Carlson come straight from Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, with input from board members and other company executives, according to several other media outlets. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has alsoreported the experienced Carlson – who had been with the network for 13 years after stints at CNN, PBS and MSNBC – was called by CEO Suzanne Scott on Monday morning to say he was being dismissed.

He was told the decision was made “from above” and had been made on Friday night by executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corp. Lachlan Murdoch.

The US newspaper claimed executives were furious at the “disparaging and derogatory remarks” Carlson had made about his colleagues.

Sadly, Tucker had no idea that this was coming.

In fact, it is being reported that he was actually “in the midst of negotiating a new contract with Fox News”…

“Blindsided” Tucker Carlson was in the midst of negotiating a new contract with Fox News when he received a call from CEO Suzanne Scott on Monday morning telling him he had been fired from the right-wing network, according to a report.

We are also being told that Tucker’s staff was completely “blindsided” as well…

Even some of Carlson’s closest staff were unaware that his show had been axed, reading about it for the first time on Twitter.

‘No one I know was told about it beforehand. We were blindsided,’ one senior staffer who works closely with Tucker’s show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, told DailyMail.com.

Another insider revealed he still has no idea why he was let go so suddenly, and that many staffers are now questioning whether it’s part of a wider plan by the Murdoch family to sell the media behemoth.

When news first broke that he had been let go, many on the left greatly celebrated.

Meanwhile, prominent conservatives all over the country were absolutely horrified. Here are just a few examples…

–Judge Andrew Napolitano:“I mean, this is like the 1927 Yankees firing Babe Ruth because of his table matters. I don’t get it.”

–Glenn Beck: “You know, could be that he was fired because of, you know, they just paid out, you know, almost a billion dollars and they don’t want any chance of anything, but that’s suicidal.”

–Steve Bannon: “No one should watch Fox. Just take the clicker and cut it off. They hate you. They disrespect you.”

–WND Managing Editor David Kupelian: “A longtime Fox insider who spoke on condition of anonymity told me – and I can’t repeat his very colorful language – that this decision by Fox management was, let’s just say, staggeringly, mind-numbingly dumb.”

If executives at Fox News are absolutely determined to destroy the company, this is a great way to do it.

I honestly don’t see a path forward for them.

Right now, people are canceling their Fox Nation subscriptions at a staggering pace, and Fox Corporation stock lost nearly a billion dollars in market value on Monday…

Fox Corporation stock fell as much as 5% on Monday and erased $962 million in market value after it was announced that Fox News Media had parted ways with its host Tucker Carlson.

Class A shares of the media company recovered slightly and were trading at $32.65, down almost 3% at 1:32 p.m. ET.

Of course it is very doubtful that Fox News and Tucker Carlson would have been able to co-exist much longer anyway.

Over time, Tucker came to realize that the purpose of the big media companies is to control the general population, and that caused him to have great contempt for the industry that he was working in.

Powerful clip from Tucker’s recent spot on the Full Send podcast

He says media is controlled by powerful people who run the world, it shouldn’t be trusted, and he regrets being part of the propaganda machine for so many years

pic.twitter.com/KqxyoGiHnf

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) April 24, 2023

And in the last speech that he gave before he was fired, Tucker showed that he fully understands that what we are witnessing is far larger than a battle of Republicans vs. Democrats.

As Tucker clearly explained, what is taking place in the United States right now is literally a struggle between good and evil…

“Good is characterized by order, calmness, tranquility, peace, lack of conflict, and cleanliness,” said Carlson Saturday at the 50th anniversary of the Heritage Foundation. “Evil is characterized by the opposites: violence, hate, disorder, division, disorganization, and filth.”

“If you are all-in on the things that produce the latter basket of outcomes, what you’re really advocating for is evil.”

Tucker Carlson’s speech over the weekend was powerful. Too powerful apparently. pic.twitter.com/sxncP26Tda

— TexasLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) April 24, 2023

Sadly, he is quite right.

If we stay on the path that we are currently on, there is no future for America.

Unfortunately, getting fired was Tucker’s reward for relentlessly telling the truth.

Many are speculating about what he will do next, and I am sure that he will be successful at whatever that is.

As for Fox News, they have gone way too far this time, and millions of us will never watch them again.

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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