Money

How Would You Fix This Colossal Multi-Trillion Dollar Mess?

April 10, 2023April 10, 2023 by Michael

Everyone can see the slow-motion train wreck that is unfolding right in front of our eyes, but nobody has a plan to stop it. Unfortunately, from a short-term perspective I don’t know if there is anything that can be done to prevent the commercial real estate bubble from imploding. Vacancy rates are surging to historic highs all over the nation, and without sufficient rental income many property owners will be forced to default. In addition, a giant mountain of commercial real estate mortgages will be up for refinancing over the next few years, and substantially higher interest rates will make refinancing those mortgages exceedingly difficult. We really are facing a “perfect storm” for the commercial real estate industry, and the fallout is going to be absolutely devastating for U.S. banks.

This is not a small problem. Offices are sitting empty from coast to coast, and the total commercial real estate market in this country is currently valued at somewhere around 20 trillion dollars…

From Dallas and Minneapolis to New York and Los Angeles, offices sit vacant or underused, showing the staying power of the work-from-home era. But clear desks and quiet break rooms aren’t just a headache for bosses eager to gather teams in person.

Investors and regulators, on high alert for signs of trouble in the financial system following recent bank failures, are now homing in on the downturn in the $20 trillion US commercial real estate market.

The pandemic sparked a “remote work” revolution, and now we have a lot of office space that is simply not needed any longer.

In fact, office vacancies in Manhattan are now at the highest level ever recorded…

In New York’s Manhattan, office vacancies are at a record high, Bloomberg reported last week, even as new properties come online, adding even more space to the struggling market. And in Los Angeles and Chicago, office vacancies sat at 22.5% as of the fourth quarter of 2022.

This is a huge problem for property owners, because many of them don’t have enough tenants paying rent.

And as I mentioned earlier, an enormous pile of commercial mortgages “will be up for refinancing in the next couple of years”…

They are a bellwether for what is likely to come, as more than half of the $2.9 trillion in commercial mortgages will be up for refinancing in the next couple of years, according to Morgan Stanley.

“Even if current rates stay where they are, new lending rates are likely to be 3.5 to 4.5 percentage points higher than they are for many of CRE’s existing mortgages,” wrote Morgan Stanley Chief Investment Officer Lisa Shalett, in a recent report.

In the end, we are going to see an unprecedented wave of defaults and commercial property prices are going to crash really hard.

As I noted yesterday, Morgan Stanley is actually warning that commercial property prices “could fall as much as 40%”…

With small- and medium-size banks accounting for 80% of commercial real estate lending, the situation might soon get worse, says experts.

Commercial property prices could fall as much as 40% “rivaling the decline during the 2008 financial crisis,” forecast Morgan Stanley analysts.

Actually, I believe that projection is probably too optimistic.

At this point, commercial property prices are already down 15 percent from the peak of the market…

Prices in the United States were down 15% in March from their recent peak, according to data provider Green Street. The rapid increase in interest rates over the past year has been painful, since purchases of commercial buildings are typically financed with large loans.

In some markets, the carnage that we have already seen is quite breathtaking.

For example, Blackstone recently sold two office towers in southern California at a 36 percent loss…

Private equity firm Blackstone sold two 13-story Class A office towers, the Griffin Towers, in Santa Ana, Orange County, California, for $82 million to a joint venture between Barker Pacific Group and Kingsbarn Realty Capital. The towers, built in 1987, have a vacancy rate of 24%.

Blackstone had bought the towers in 2014 for $129 million, according to the Commercial Observer yesterday. The selling price makes for a loss of 36%. And Blackstone was lucky on this deal.

And an office tower in Houston just sold at a loss of 47 percent…

In Houston, Parkway Property sold the 960,000-sf San Felipe Plaza in Uptown, to Sovereign Partners for $82.8 million in late March. The tower was built in 1984. Parkway Property ended up with the tower when it acquired Thomas Properties, which had bought the property in 2005 for $156.5 million. So this was a loss of 47%.

I don’t know why anyone would be willing to purchase commercial real estate at this stage.

Trying to catch a falling knife is a very dangerous thing.

Of course commercial real estate is not the only bubble that is bursting.

We have already seen the crypto bubble burst, we have seen the bond bubble burst, and residential real estate prices are starting to fall all over the nation.

So far, stock prices are hanging in there, but a number of experts are warning that a big crash is just around the corner…

Legendary investor Jeremy Grantham has topped the board for an extreme prediction about US stocks. The market historian has forecasted the S&P 500 could tank as much as 50% this year to about 2,000, as an “everything bubble” bursts.

Grantham said the prices of stocks, bonds, real estate, fine art, and other investments surged to unsustainable highs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Market experts Stephanie Pomboy and Larry McDonald echoed Grantham’s view – but with a less bearish prediction. While the pair expect stocks to crash as much as 30%, McDonald said the plunge could happen over the next two months as higher interest rates choke demand.

Our leaders were able to artificially prop up the system for a number of years, but now they have lost control.

A great financial earthquake has begun, and things are going to get really bad during the years that are in front of us.

But many people out there truly believed that the party would last forever, and so now they are in a position to get very badly burned as the system melts down all around them.

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.

Brace Yourselves For An Economic Avalanche, Because A Major Credit Crunch Has Already Begun

April 9, 2023 by Michael

This is moving even faster than a lot of us thought that it would. For weeks, I have been warning my readers about the coming credit crunch. When banks get into trouble, they start getting really tight with their money. That means fewer mortgages, fewer commercial real estate loans, fewer auto loans and fewer credit cards being issued. But I thought that it would take some time for the credit crunch to fully kick into high gear. Unfortunately, I was wrong about that. In fact, it is being reported that during the last two weeks of March bank lending in the United States “contracted by the most on record”…

US bank lending contracted by the most on record in the last two weeks of March, indicating a tightening of credit conditions in the wake of several high-profile bank collapses that risks damaging the economy.

In other words, we have never seen bank lending shrink faster than it did during the second half of March.

Wow.

And it turns out that small banks are getting particularly tight with their money…

Commercial bank lending dropped nearly $105 billion in the two weeks ended March 29, the most in Federal Reserve data back to 1973. The more than $45 billion decrease in the latest week was primarily due to a a drop in loans by small banks.

The pullback in total lending in the last half of March was broad and included fewer real estate loans, as well as commercial and industrial loans.

As I have noted previously, small and mid-size banks provide the bulk of the commercial real estate loans in this country.

We are already starting to see prices for commercial real estate plunge, and now Morgan Stanley is warning that the drop that we will ultimately see could rival “the decline during the 2008 financial crisis”…

Investors have sharpened their focus on this sector, given regional banks’ significant share in CRE lending. Even before the banking-industry turmoil, however, CRE was facing risks from long-term trends, with remote work threatening the office sub-sector.

What’s more, the sector is now facing a huge “refinancing wall”: More than half of the $2.9 trillion in commercial mortgages will be up for refinancing in the next couple of years. Even if current rates stay where they are, new lending rates are likely to be 3.5 to 4.5 percentage points higher than they are for many of CRE’s existing mortgages.

Commercial property prices have already turned down, and Morgan Stanley analysts forecast prices could fall as much as 40%, rivaling the decline during the 2008 financial crisis. These kinds of challenges can hurt not only the real estate industry, but also entire business communities related to it.

A lot of people thought that I was exaggerating when I stated that we are heading into the worst commercial real estate crisis in our history.

But I was not exaggerating one bit.

Of course the credit crunch that we are now experiencing will have enormous ramifications for the entire economy.

When consumers have access to less credit, they spend less money.

And when consumers spend less money, businesses bring in less revenue and they start laying off workers.

And when workers get laid off, they get behind on their debts.

And that creates even more stress on the banks.

This new credit crisis threatens to spiral out of control, but Fed officials insist that everything is just fine.

In fact, James Bullard seems convinced that interest rates should go even higher…

“Financial stress seems to be abated, at least for now,” Bullard told reporters Thursday after speaking at an event in Little Rock, Arkansas. “And so it’s a good moment to continue to fight inflation and try to get on that disinflationary path.”

The St. Louis Fed chief said he doesn’t think tighter credit conditions stemming from the recent banking turmoil will be substantial enough to tip the US economy into recession, noting that demand for loans is still strong.

Demand for loans may be strong, but the supply of credit is starting to dry up really quick.

Meanwhile, Americans continue to pull money out of the banks at a staggering rate…

Friday’s report also showed commercial bank deposits dropped $64.7 billion in the latest week, marking the 10th-straight decrease that mainly reflected a decline at large firms.

Every week that this happens, it is just going to cause banks to get even tighter with their money.

And bank economists surveyed by the American Bankers Association expect credit conditions to continue to tighten during the months ahead…

The Headline Credit Index fell in Q2 to 5.8, decreasing 6.7 points to its lowest point since the onset of the pandemic. The reading indicates broad-based expectations for weaker credit market conditions over the next six months among bank economists, and banks are likely to grow more cautious about extending credit.
The Consumer Credit Index fell 7.9 points to 5.8 in Q2. EAC members expect credit availability to deteriorate more than credit quality, though almost all expect both to decline. The sub-50 reading indicates that consumer credit conditions are likely to weaken over the next six months.
The Business Credit Index fell 5.6 points to 5.8 in Q2. All EAC members expect business credit availability will deteriorate in the next six months, and most expect business credit quality to deteriorate. The sub-50 reading indicates that EAC members expect that overall credit conditions for businesses will continue to weaken over the next two quarters.

Just look at those numbers.

Any figure under 50 is bad, and those numbers are in the single digits.

In all the years that I have been writing, I have never seen anything like this.

So I am encouraging all of my readers to brace themselves for a massive economic avalanche.

A major credit crunch is already here, but most Americans still don’t understand that severe economic pain is dead 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.

The Condition Of Our Society Has Never Been This Bad, And It Is Only Going To Get Worse…

April 7, 2023April 7, 2023 by Michael

A lot of people seem shocked that the fabric of our society is steadily unraveling all around us, but the truth is that this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. What we are witnessing is simply the law of cause and effect in action. We have discarded the values that this nation was founded upon, and we have replaced them with new “values” that are diametrically opposed to the old values. So now we live in a hellhole of our own making. Just about every form of evil that you can possibly imagine is exploding in our society, and crime rates have been rapidly rising all over the nation.

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. Earlier this week, CashApp founder Bob Lee was brutally stabbed to death as he walked through one of San Francisco’s wealthiest neighborhoods…

Father-of-two Lee, 43, was knifed multiple times in the chest early Tuesday as he strolled through the progressive city’s well-heeled Rincon Hill neighborhood while on a business trip.

He probably assumed that it was still okay to walk through the “safe” parts of San Francisco late at night.

Unfortunately, the entire city is now teeming with predators, and so far in 2023 violent crime is even more of a problem than it was last year…

Since the pandemic, crime has spiraled in the Golden City. Homicides are up 20 percent in the last year, robbery has climbed 14 percent, arson is up 6 percent and assault ticked up by 2 percent.

At this point, nobody can deny the truth.

San Francisco is one of the most prosperous cities in the entire country, but even though the city is swimming in mountains of cash violent crime is completely out of control.

In fact, Twitter CEO Elon Musk says that he personally knows “many people” that have “been severely assaulted”…

Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk was among a host of tech leaders hitting out at the lawlessness in the wake of Lee’s slaying, writing on Twitter: ‘Many people I know have been severely assaulted.

‘Violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately.’

I have no idea why so many politicians believe that putting violent criminals back into the streets is a good idea.

In Los Angeles, an incredibly foolish plan to “decarcerate” L.A. jails is currently being considered…

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is considering a plan to “decarcerate” jails by citing and releasing anyone with bail at $50,000 or less, city documents show.

An agenda item has been added to the board’s Tuesday meeting titled “Los Angeles County to Take Actionable Next Steps to Depopulate and Decarcerate the Los Angeles County Jails,” Fox News has learned

The measure was introduced by Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis, both Democrats, and only has one public comment attached to it.

What do you think this plan would do to violent crime rates in Los Angeles?

The answer is obvious.

Every decision has consequences, and our society has become a nightmare because of countless decisions that we have collectively made over the decades.

Right now, law and order is breaking down all over the country, and criminals are becoming more brazen than they have ever been before. For instance, just check out what a team of burglars just pulled off in the Seattle area…

Burglars who got away with more than 400 electronics from the Apple retailer at Alderwood Mall made their entry point by cutting through the bathroom wall of the neighboring espresso machine store, the Lynnwood Police Department (LPD) confirmed.

The owner of the neighboring business says he’s grateful no one was hurt because the $500,000 theft happened while the store was closed.

Needless to say, crime has become a massive problem on the east coast as well.

In the Big Apple, auto theft was “up a stunning 32% last year”…

Car theft spiked during the pandemic and hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, the report says. Grand larceny of vehicles in New York was up a stunning 32% last year, more than any other felony. According to Sewell, most thefts are taking place in the Bronx and northern Manhattan.

Wasn’t Eric Adams elected to get crime under control?

Obviously it isn’t working so far.

But of course this crisis is not going to be solved by kicking out one group of corrupt politicians and bringing in another group of corrupt politicians to replace them.

Sadly, our problems go much deeper than that.

The truth is that millions upon millions of young Americans have a completely twisted view of reality at this point. Most of them spend multiple hours every single day on their phones, on their computers or watching television. Virtually all of the “programming” that they are consuming has been training them to view the world a certain way, and often that has extremely tragic results.

Just days after the horrific mass shooting that we witnessed in Nashville, another young person was planning “to attack three schools and churches in Colorado”…

A transgender teen is in custody after authorities say they recovered a manifesto detailing her plan to attack three schools and churches in Colorado just four days after Audrey Hale murdered six people at the Covenant School in Nashville.

William Whitworth, 19, who goes by the name Lilly and is referred to with female pronouns in arrest documents, was arrested on March 31.

We should be thankful that the police were able to intervene in time.

But overall, during the first three months of this year violent attacks on churches in the United States were up 288 percent compared to the same three months in 2022…

In all, assailants attacked churches 69 times in the first three months of 2023, compared with 24 such acts during the same period last year, a 288% increase. The rising tempo of anti-Christian assaults—which includes arsons, bomb threats, vandalism, and sacrilege—has affected places of worship in 29 states.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

As the “values” of our society continue to be transformed, more chaos is inevitable.

And the biggest killers are not the violent predators that are roaming our streets.

As I will detail in a bombshell article that I will post later today for my paid subscribers on Substack, the biggest killers of all are those that roam the halls of power all over this nation.

From the very top to the very bottom, our entire society has become infused with great evil.

Let us hope that America chooses to reverse course soon, because if we stay on the path that we are currently on things will not end well for 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.

Did You Know That U.S. Crops Are Being Absolutely Devastated By Nightmarish Disasters From Coast To Coast?

April 4, 2023 by Michael

I honestly did not know that things were this bad. Severe drought is crippling winter wheat production in the middle of the country, agricultural production in many areas of California is being hit extremely hard by unprecedented flooding, and orange production in Florida is down more than 60 percent from last season due to a combination of factors. Of course this comes at a time when the entire world is dealing with a major food crisis. As I discussed in a previous article, even CNN is admitting that we are currently in the midst of “the worst food crisis in modern history”. So this is a year when we need U.S. food production to be very strong, and that simply is not happening.

No state produces more winter wheat than Kansas does, and right now less than 20 percent of the winter wheat in the state “is in good to excellent condition”…

Less than 20 percent of Kansas winter wheat is in good to excellent condition. The U.S. Drought Monitor says only 15 percent of Kansas’ acres are not experiencing any level of drought stress. More than 36 percent of the state reported D4 exceptional drought compared to just a little over one percent last year. D3 extreme drought conditions are hurting 16 percent of the state, with D2 severe drought hitting 13 percent of Kansas.

Unfortunately, the winter wheat in other crucial states is also greatly suffering due to seemingly endless drought conditions…

Colorado winter wheat was rated 27% good to excellent and 33% very poor to poor. Oklahoma’s and Texas’ crops were rated at 26% and 18% good to excellent, and 40% and 47% very poor to poor, respectively, he said.

This is really bad news.

Wheat prices just continue to escalate, and that is especially true for hard-red winter wheat…

The spread between hard-red winter wheat and soft-red winter wheat has blown out to a record high as drought threatens crop yields across the Midwest and other major farming regions.

Hard-red winter wheat’s premium over soft-red winter wheat is $1.72 a bushel in Chicago on Tuesday morning, surpassing the 2011 record.

Meanwhile, the outlook for spring wheat is not particularly promising, because U.S. farmers have planted the smallest amount of spring wheat since 1972.

Out on the west coast, too much water is the problem.

In fact, 78 trillion gallons of water has fallen on the state of California in recent months…

More than a dozen powerful storms later, 78 trillion gallons of water has been dumped on California, reversing a multi-year drought in a matter of months. Now the agricultural powerhouse state, producing about a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of its fruits and nuts, faces planting delays due to washed-out fields.

When it comes to fruit and vegetable production, no other state even comes close to California, and so we should be greatly alarmed that farms all over the state look like swamps at this moment.

This small farm area in #California just a bit flooded. #CaliforniaFlooding pic.twitter.com/l03kmasTuz

— Sports Plus (@PrepSportsPlus) March 21, 2023

And this is just the beginning.

The mountains in California are absolutely teeming with unprecedented amounts of snow right now, and when it all starts melting all of that water is going to have to go somewhere…

California’s snowpack levels varied by region, with the Southern Sierra snowpack reaching 300% of its April 1 average and the Central Sierra reaching 237% of its April 1 average, officials said. And the critical Northern Sierra, home to the state’s largest surface water reservoirs, is at 192% of its April 1 average.

On the east coast, the big news is what has happened to Florida orange production.

At this point, it is down a whopping 60.7 percent from last year…

Orange production in Florida is down 60.7 percent from last season, one of the lowest figures since the 1930s, according to US Department of Agriculture estimates.

This drop in production has been caused by citrus greening disease and a very tough hurricane season.

Sadly, there are some farmers that have lost almost all of their oranges…

Vernon Hollingsworth grew up in Florida among his family’s orange trees, recently ravaged by a double whammy of disease and a hurricane that have sent juice prices spiraling and left farmers blinking in disbelief.

On a recent March morning, the fifth-generation farmer drove a pickup truck through the rows in his grove, pointing out the damage from Hurricane Ian last fall such as uprooted trees.

“I lost 95 to 97 percent of my crop,” the 62-year-old told AFP, adding “we’re going to have to rebuild, and we need help to do that.”

On top of everything else, the number of beef cows in the United States has dropped to the lowest level since 1962 because ranchers in the middle of the nation have had to cull their herds due to the historic drought.

U.S. food production has been hit by disasters in the past, but we have never had so many strike in such a short period of time.

And the weather just keeps getting crazier and crazier. In fact, as I write this approximately 70 million Americans are being warned that yet another “multi-state tornado outbreak” is on the way…

Nearly 70 million Americans are bracing for yet another round of powerful storms as a severe system makes its way across the US Tuesday, threatening states from Texas to Michigan.

Set to strike this afternoon, the severe weather will bring damaging winds and potentially tornadoes to states in the already storm-stricken South and Midwest, days after a deadly multi-state tornado outbreak crippled the regions.

Of course all of this is happening in a broader context.

Global food supplies just keep getting tighter and tighter, and the head of the UN World Food Program is warning that “we literally could have hell on earth if we’re not very careful”…

Beasley said WFP was just forced to cut rations by 50% to 4 million people in Afghanistan, and “these are people who are knocking on famine’s door now.”

“We don’t have enough money just to reach the most vulnerable people now,” he said. “So we are in a crisis over the cliff stage right now, where we literally could have hell on earth if we’re not very careful.”

Hopefully food supplies will be funneled to those that desperately need it in the months ahead.

But global hunger has been rising at a very rapid rate in recent years, and it is going to continue to rise.

As I detail in several chapters in my latest book, worldwide famine is inevitable no matter what decisions global leaders make now.

All over the world, topsoil is being depleted at a frightening rate, supplies of raw materials that we use for making fertilizer are becoming extremely tight, and farmland all over the planet is being systematically poisoned by microplastics.

The era of abundant food is ending, and our leaders know this.

But most people in the general population are totally clueless about all of this, and so they have no idea what is coming.

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 Crisis Gets Worse! $1.7 Trillion In Unrealized Losses Loom As U.S. Banks Rapidly Bleed Deposits

April 3, 2023 by Michael

If our banking system can’t find a way to turn things around, our entire economy will soon be in a world of hurt. When banks get into trouble, they start getting really tight with their money. That means fewer mortgages, fewer commercial real estate loans, fewer auto loans and fewer credit cards being issued. So it should greatly concern all of us that U.S. banks are bleeding deposits at an absolutely staggering pace right now. During the week ending March 15th, 98.4 billion dollars was pulled out of U.S. banks. That was really bad, but we just learned that things got even worse the next week. During the week ending March 22nd, 126 billion dollars was pulled out of U.S. banks…

Depositors drained another $126 billion from U.S. banks during the week ending March 22, according to new Federal Reserve data. This time the outflow came from the nation’s largest institutions.

But this banking crisis did not begin in March as many have been led to believe.

Over the past year, well over a trillion dollars has been pulled out of U.S. banks, and this has created a tremendous amount of financial stress…

The challenge the deposit outflows create for all banks is that if they raise rates on their deposits to keep customers, that could make them less profitable. But if they lose too many customers, as Silicon Valley Bank did, they give up critical funding and may have to sell assets at a loss to cover withdrawals.

Silicon Valley Bank customers withdrew $42 billion in one day, leaving the bank with a negative cash balance of $958 million.

When lots of depositors start pulling their money out, banks can be forced to sell assets in order to have enough cash.

Unfortunately, U.S. banks are sitting on a giant mountain of unrealized losses right now.

Previously, it was being reported that U.S. banks are facing unrealized losses of 620 billion dollars on the bonds that they are holding due to rapidly rising interest rates, but now we are being told that it is actually 780 billion dollars.

And when you throw in unrealized losses on their loan portfolios, the unrealized losses that our banks are facing come to a grand total of somewhere around 1.7 trillion dollars…

A study released on March 13th took a deeper look at the unrealized losses banks were likely holding. The study found that actual losses to banks’ security holdings were $780 billion, not $620 billion as estimated by the FDIC.

But the authors went deeper, rightly noting, “Loans, like securities, also lose value when interest rates go up.”

They found that total unrealized losses as of December 2022 were $1.7 trillion. In a chilling warning, the authors noted that “the losses from the interest rate increase are comparable to the total equity in the entire banking system.” We’re not out of this banking crisis. In fact, it may be just the beginning.

Ouch.

The Federal Reserve was warned not to raise interest rates so quickly.

But they did, and now they have broken our entire banking system.

In fact, Nouriel Roubini is warning that “most U.S. banks are technically near insolvency” at this stage…

Roubini also points out that the rise in interest rates has led to a decrease in the market value of banks’ other assets, and when accounting for these factors, U.S. banks’ unrealized losses actually amount to $1.75 trillion, or 80% of their capital.

According to Roubini, the “unrealized” nature of these losses stems from the current regulatory regime, which allows banks to value securities and loans at their face value rather than their true market value.

He asserts that most U.S. banks are technically near insolvency

We are in far more trouble than most people realize.

The truth is that we are not just heading into a “recession”.

What we are potentially facing is a meltdown of the entire system, and it is going to take quite a while for this crisis to fully play out.

But even now, symptoms are starting to erupt all around us.

For example, McDonald’s just decided to close all of their U.S. offices while they decide which of their employees still get to work for them…

McDonald’s is closing its U.S. offices for a few days this week as the company prepares to inform employees about layoffs as part of a broader restructuring, according to a report.

The Chicago-based burger chain said in an internal email that U.S. corporate employees and some staff abroad should work from home while the company notifies people of their job status virtually, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Like so many other big companies are doing these days, McDonald’s is going to be laying off people by email.

What a horrible thing to do.

Of course when people get laid off they can respond very emotionally, and confrontations between management and those that have been fired can get pretty intense.

So informing people that they are terminated when they are out of the office is a way to avoid messy situations. But I still think that it is a really heartless thing to do.

There is so little loyalty in the corporate world today. You can pour your heart and soul into a company for decades, and then one day some numbers cruncher comes along and suddenly decides that you have become expendable.

We have seen so many layoffs in recent months, and many more are on the way.

And at this point a whopping 72 percent of all Americans believe that the economy is getting worse…

A new survey shows that 83% of American adults view current economic conditions as “only fair” or “poor,” reported Gallup. In addition, 72% think economic conditions are getting “worse.”

Unfortunately, what most people don’t realize is that what we have been through so far is just the tip of the iceberg.

All of the bubbles have started to burst, and our entire system is beginning to tremble violently.

So I would encourage you to 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.

The Dollar Is In Trouble! Here Are 7 Signs That Global De-Dollarization Has Just Shifted Into Overdrive

April 2, 2023April 2, 2023 by Michael

For decades, the U.S. dollar was the undisputed king of global currencies, but now dramatic changes are happening. China, Russia, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and other nations are making really big moves which will enable them to become much less dependent on the U.S. dollar in the years ahead. This is really bad news for us, because having the primary reserve currency of the world has enabled us to enjoy a massively inflated standard of living. Once we lose that status, our lifestyles will be much different than they are today. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t understand any of this. Even though our leaders have treated the stability of our currency with utter contempt in recent years, most Americans just assume that the dollar will always reign supreme. Meanwhile, much of the planet is preparing for a future in which the U.S. dollar will be far less important than it is right now. The following are 7 signs that global de-dollarization has just shifted into overdrive…

#1 The BRICS nations account for over 40 percent of the total global population and close to one-fourth of global GDP. So the fact that they are working to develop a “new currency” should greatly concern all of us…

The Deputy Chairman of Russia’s State Duma, Alexander Babakov, said on 30 March that the BRICS bloc of emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – is working on developing a “new currency” that will be presented at the organization’s upcoming summit in Durban.

“The transition to settlements in national currencies is the first step. The next one is to provide the circulation of digital or any other form of a fundamentally new currency in the nearest future. I think that at the BRICS [leaders’ summit], the readiness to realize this project will be announced, such works are underway,” Babakov said on the sidelines of the Russian-Indian Strategic Partnership for Development and Growth Business Forum.

Babakov also stated that a single currency could likely emerge within BRICS, and this would be pegged not just to the value of gold but also to “other groups of products, rare-earth elements, or soil.”

#2 Two of the BRICS nations, China and Brazil, have just “reached a deal to trade in their own currencies”…

The Chinese renminbi is speeding up in expanding its global use, a trend that will help build a more resilient international monetary system, one that is less dependent on the US dollar and more conducive to trade growth, experts said on Thursday.

They commented after China and Brazil — two major emerging economies and BRICS members — reportedly reached a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary.

The deal will enable China and Brazil to conduct their massive trade and financial transactions directly, exchanging the RMB for reais and vice versa, instead of going through the dollar, Agence France-Presse reported on Wednesday, citing the Brazilian government.

#3 During a meeting last week in Indonesia, finance ministers from the ASEAN nations discussed ways “to reduce dependence on the US Dollar, Euro, Yen, and British Pound”…

An official meeting of all ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors kicked off on Tuesday (March 28) in Indonesia. Top of the agenda are discussions to reduce dependence on the US Dollar, Euro, Yen, and British Pound from financial transactions and move to settlements in local currencies.

The meeting discussed efforts to reduce dependence on major currencies through the Local Currency Transaction (LCT) scheme. This is an extension of the previous Local Currency Settlement (LCS) scheme that has already begun to be implemented between ASEAN members.

#4 In a move that has enormous implications for the “petrodollar”, Saudi Arabia just agreed to become a “dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization”…

The state-owned Saudi Press Agency said that, in a session presided by King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi cabinet on Tuesday approved a memorandum awarding Riyadh the status of dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization — a political, security and trade alliance that lists China, Russia, India, Pakistan and four other central Asian nations as full members.

The organization further tallies four observer states — including Iran — and nine dialogue partners, counting in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. It is headquartered in Beijing and served by China’s Zhang Ming as secretary-general.

#5 The Chinese just completed their very first trade of liquefied natural gas that was settled in Chinese currency instead of U.S. dollars…

China has just completed its first trade of liquefied natural gas (LNG) settled in yuan, the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange said on Tuesday.

Chinese state oil and gas giant CNOOC and TotalEnergies completed the first LNG trade on the exchange with settlement in the Chinese currency, the exchange said in a statement carried by Reuters.

The trade involved around 65,000 tons of LNG imported from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange added.

#6 The government of India is offering their currency as an “alternative” to the U.S. dollar in international trade…

India will offer its currency as an alternative for trade to countries that are facing a shortage of dollars in the wake of the sharpest tightening in monetary policy by the US Federal Reserve in decades.

Facilitating the rupee trade for countries facing currency risk will help “disaster proof” them, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said during an announcement on India’s foreign trade policy Friday in New Delhi.

#7 Saudi Arabia has actually agreed to accept Kenyan shillings as payment for oil shipments to Kenya instead of U.S. dollars…

Kenyan President William Ruto signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to buy oil for Kenyan shillings instead of US dollars.

As the US currency exchange rate hit 145.5 shillings due to increased demand by importers, President Ruto accused oil cartels of stockpiling American dollars in response to the crisis, sparking fuel shortages throughout Kenya.

10 years ago, none of these things would have happened.

But now change is happening at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking.

At this point, John Carney is warning that a fracturing of global currency reserves is “inevitable”…

“[It’s] not only a serious threat, I think it is inevitable. We went through three stages, as you said, after World War II. The U.S. was the biggest economy in the world. In the 1970s, global banking became basically dollar central. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the entire world, more or less, came under the domination of the U.S dollar…”

“That is now drifting away. China and Russia are starting to build an alternative block of currency,” John Carney explained Sunday.

Sadly, I agree with him.

As U.S. relations with both Russia and China continue to go downhill, both of those nations will have a very strong incentive to push de-dollarization even further.

And that is really bad news for the United States, because our currency is the source of our economic power and it is the most important thing that we export.

This is a story of monumental importance, but unfortunately most Americans still believe that our leaders know exactly what they are doing and that they have everything fully under control.

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.

These Economic Numbers Are Staggering

March 30, 2023March 30, 2023 by Michael

If you are struggling to make it in this economy, you are not alone, because there are millions of other Americans in the exact same boat. Needless to say, the cost of living has become extremely oppressive, and that has put a tremendous amount of financial stress on U.S. families. Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve has chosen to fight inflation by aggressively hiking interest rates, and that is starting to cause massive problems. The money supply is actually shrinking, the banking system has been thrown into a state of chaos, and we are witnessing a tsunami of layoffs that is unlike anything that we have seen since the Great Recession.

For most Americans, employment is the only thing standing between them and poverty. In fact, one recent survey discovered that 44 percent of Americans actually work more than one job…

Forty-four percent of Americans work a second job, a 13 percent increase relative to the Trump administration, a LendingClub report revealed Tuesday.

The recent increase under President Joe Biden is highlighted by a survey from FlexJobs, which found 69 percent of employed professionals either have a side job or want one.

This is our economy now.

Tens of millions of Americans have to work multiple jobs just to survive.

And at this point more than 60 percent of the population is living paycheck to paycheck…

The LendingClub report also revealed 62 percent of Americans, including 48 percent of high-income consumers, were living paycheck to paycheck in February, up two percentage points from the month prior.

But if you are able to find a way to scrape by from month to month, you should be quite happy, because according to author Matthew Desmond approximately 18 million Americans have been living in a state of “deep poverty”…

In his book, Desmond, analyzing data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources, reports that 1 in 18 people in the U.S. live in what’s considered “deep poverty,” or what he calls “a subterranean level of scarcity.”

In 2020, this category included people who make less than $6,380 a year, or families of four living on less than $13,100. In 2020, almost 18 million people in America lived in these conditions, including some 5 million children.

As I sit here, I am having a difficult time comprehending these numbers.

They are just so bad.

Unfortunately, economic conditions are rapidly getting worse. On Thursday, we learned that Roku will be conducting a second round of layoffs…

Streaming device company Roku is planning to lay off another 200 workers, just months after it cut the same number of positions in 2022.

In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week, Roku, Inc. wrote that it has “approved a restructuring plan to lower the Company’s year-over-year operating expense growth and prioritize projects that the Company believes will have a higher return on investment, which is expected to impact approximately 200 employees, approximately 6% of the Company’s workforce, and result in the exit and sublease, or cease use, of certain office facilities that the Company does not currently occupy.”

And EA has just announced that it will “lay off about 6% of its workforce”…

Videogame publisher Electronic Arts said on Wednesday it will lay off about 6% of its workforce and reduce office space in an attempt to cut costs.

EA had about 12,900 staff as of March-end last year.

The Madden NFL publisher also said it will move away from projects that do not contribute to its strategy.

I was quite alarmed when I heard that.

I thought EA was doing well.

Burger King will also be giving the axe to large numbers of workers as it closes 26 locations…

Burger King has announced it will lay off 424 members of staff as it gears up to close 26 restaurants through April.

Store closures began on 17 March and will continue through next month as the chain shuts doors due to ‘unforeseen business circumstance’.

And if Bed Bath & Beyond is unable to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, the entire company may soon go belly up…

Bed Bath & Beyond will sell up to $300 million of its stock to repay creditors and fund its business as it struggles to avoid bankruptcy.

If it’s not able to raise sufficient money from the offering, the home furnishings giant said Thursday it expects to “likely file for bankruptcy.”

There are going to be so many stories like this in the months ahead.

After years of super low interest rates and easy money, our leaders have thrown things into reverse.

At this point, our money supply is actually “falling at its fastest rate since the 1930s”…

U.S. money supply is falling at its fastest rate since the 1930s, a red flag for the economy and financial markets. Money supply has now been shrinking year-on-year since December, an unprecedented development in modern times that should make investors sit up and take notice – growth, asset prices and inflation could all weaken.

According to Reuters, It is largely a consequence of the reversal of the liquidity generated by massive post-pandemic fiscal and monetary stimulus, the Federal Reserve shrinking its balance sheet via quantitative tightening, falling bank deposits, and weak demand for and provision of credit.

Needless to say, the 1930s were not a good time for our economy.

And as our historic banking crisis rolls on, small and mid-size banks all over the nation are going to get really tight with their money.

That means that they will be issuing fewer mortgages, fewer commercial real estate loans, fewer auto loans and fewer credit cards.

In other words, economic activity is really going to slow down.

The good news is that we can see what is happening in advance, and so those that are wise will be able to make preparations to weather the coming storm.

Unfortunately, most of the population still trusts our leaders when they say that everything is going to work out just fine somehow.

So many people have blind faith in the system, even though the system is now starting to crumble all around us.

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

More Pestilences Erupt: Marburg, H3N8, H5N1, And A “Mystery Disease” In Burundi

March 29, 2023March 29, 2023 by Michael

Has the next major global pandemic already started? Right now, multiple outbreaks are alarming world health authorities. We all saw the fear that COVID caused, but the diseases that I am going to discuss in this article could potentially create far more panic if they were to start rapidly spreading among humans all over the planet. Sadly, the global population has been perfectly primed for future pandemics because hundreds of millions of people are now running around with highly compromised immune systems. As I discuss in my latest book, we have entered a new era of great pestilences, and life is not going to “return to normal” any time soon.

To me, one of the most frightening pestilences that has erupted is the Marburg virus. Seven confirmed cases in Equatorial Guinea are already dead, and twenty more people that had “links to the confirmed cases” have also dropped dead…

The Marburg outbreak in Equatorial Guinea continues to grow, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, as the global health agency stated that it knows of confirmed cases that the country has not yet reported.

To date Equatorial Guinea has acknowledged nine laboratory-confirmed cases, seven of whom have died. In addition, 20 other people with links to the confirmed cases died without being tested; they are considered probable cases. Throughout this outbreak, which is believed to have begun in early January, the government has been slow to release updates; last week the WHO expressed fears there may be undetected chains of transmission.

It sounds like this outbreak in Equatorial Guinea has escaped all efforts to contain it, and that is really bad news.

Meanwhile, people are also dying of the Marburg virus in Tanzania…

Five people have died and three others are infected with the Marburg virus – a highly infectious, Ebola-like disease – in Tanzania’s north-west Kagera region, authorities said earlier this week.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 161 people have been identified as at risk of infection through contact tracing and are currently being monitored.

If you look at a map of Africa, you will see that Equatorial Guinea is on the west coast and Tanzania is on the east coast.

So either these are two unrelated outbreaks going on at the same time, or Marburg is far more widespread in Africa than we are being told.

Will it soon make the jump and start spreading outside of the African continent?

Earlier today, I was stunned to learn that the government of Indonesia is now warning their citizens to “anticipate the Marburg virus”…

The Indonesian Government issued a circular on precautions for Marburg virus disease. Local governments, health service facilities, Port Health Office, health human resources, and related stakeholders are asked to be vigilant against the deadly virus.

A spokesperson for the Health Ministry Mohammad Syahril reminded the government and the public not to be headless about the virus. “We need to maintain early vigilance and anticipate the Marburg virus disease,” Syahril said in a statement, on Tuesday, March 28.

Indonesia is on the other side of the planet.

Do they know something that we do not?

We will want to keep a close eye on this story.

At the same time, concern about the bird flu continues to rise.

It has already killed well over 100 million chickens and turkeys globally, and officials are warning that if it starts spreading widely among humans the death toll could be catastrophic…

Under one scenario, officials have modelled that the virus could kill up to 5 per cent of people who get infected.

The scientists said this was in line with SARS outbreak in 2002.

This is, however, much lower than current estimates. Bird flu has an actual case-fatality rate of around 50 per cent in humans.

Hopefully the bird flu will not become a pandemic among humans, but this is another outbreak that we definitely need to watch.

Just this week, Chinese authorities reported a third human case of the H3N8 bird flu in China…

Chinese health authorities have reported a new human case of the H3N8 strain of bird flu – the third known infection since the virus was first detected in humans in China last year.

A 56-year-old woman in Zhongshan, a city in the south of the country, tested positive for the virus after she was exposed to live poultry, the Guangdong Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on Monday.

And last month some human cases of the H5N1 bird flu in Cambodia made headlines all over the world…

On 23 February 2023, the Cambodia International Health Regulations (IHR) National Focal Point (NFP) reported one confirmed case of human infection with avian influenza A (H5N1) virus to WHO. A second case, a family contact of the first case, was reported on 24 February 2023. An outbreak investigation is ongoing including determining the exposure of these two reported cases to the virus.

Maybe this will be nothing, but several big pharmaceutical companies have already been working on a vaccine “just in case”…

Executives at GSK Plc, Moderna Inc and CSL Seqirus disclosed to Reuters they are already developing or are on the cusp of testing human vaccines matching this current strain as a precautionary measure. Likewise, Sanofi stands “ready” to begin production if needed.

I know that I have laid a lot on you in this article.

But before I end this piece, there is one more outbreak that I wanted to mention…

A mystery disease which can cause nosebleeds has killed three people in Burundi.

All of the deaths have occurred in the north eastern part of the African country — close to the borders with Tanzania and Rwanda.

And they reportedly died within 24 hours of their symptoms emerging.

They are telling us that this “mystery disease” in Burundi acts a lot like Ebola or Marburg, but at this point authorities are ruling them both out as the cause.

But if it isn’t Ebola or Marburg, what is it?

Hopefully we will get some answers. I will be monitoring all of these outbreaks, and those that are subscribed to my Substack will receive any updates as soon as I publish them.

Our world is changing.

Once upon a time, major global pandemics were few and far between.

But now we have entered a completely different age, and mad scientists continue to perform very dangerous experiments on extremely deadly bugs in secret labs all over the planet.

As we have seen, it is way too easy for a bug to get loose.

And if the wrong bug gets loose, it could potentially result in hundreds of millions of deaths.

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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