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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.

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.

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.

The Way That The Radical Left Is Reacting To The Nashville Shooting Shows The True State Of Our Country

March 28, 2023March 28, 2023 by Michael

When a great tragedy happens, it should bring us together. But instead, each new tragedy seems to tear us apart even more. The Nashville shooting is a perfect example of this. Instead of focusing on the victims and grieving for the lives that have been lost, many are using this tragedy as an opportunity to make extremely inflammatory statements. If you want to see how divided we have become as a nation, just look at how those on the left are responding to this story and compare it to how those on the right are responding to this story. It is almost as if the two sides are living in completely different universes.

Right now, all Americans should be mourning the precious lives that were lost. One of the victims was a little 9-year-old girl named Hallie Scruggs…

Among the six victims shot and killed inside a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday was the young daughter of a local pastor, according to reports.

Hallie Scruggs, one of three children slain in the sickening school shooting, was the 9-year-old daughter of Chad Scruggs, the senior pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, the church confirmed to CBS News.

It is truly evil to ruthlessly gun down a 9-year-old girl.

But according to Fox News, the “Trans Resistance Network” has actually released a statement that makes excuses for the shooter…

A radical transgender group said the transgender Nashville shooter felt “no other effective way to be seen” than killing six people at a private Presbyterian school.

The Trans Resistance Network (TRN), a far-left transgender “collective,” released an inflammatory statement on Monday in the wake of the Covenant School shooting by transgender woman Aubrey Hale in Nashville that killed three nine-year-olds and three adults.

I am sorry, but no matter what you have been through in life there is no excuse for murdering a 9-year-old girl.

But the “Trans Resistance Network” seems to think that they are the real victims in all of this…

TRN wrote they “do not claim to know the individual or have access to their inner thoughts and feelings” but they “do know that life for transgender people is very difficult, and made more difficult in the preceding months by a virtual avalanche of anti-trans legislation, and public callouts by Right Wing personalities and political figures for nothing less than the genocidal eradication of trans people from society.”

“Many transgender people deal with anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide, and PTSD from the near-constant drum beat of anti-trans hate, lack of acceptance from family members and certain religious institutions, denial of our existence, and calls for de-transition and forced conversion,” TRN claimed.

Another radical leftist, YouTuber David Pakman, is mocking the victims by suggesting that “they weren’t praying enough”…

YouTuber David Pakman responded to the mass shooting of Christians by a transgender nutjob in Nashville on Monday by mocking the victims and asking if it’s “possible” that “they weren’t praying enough” despite being a Christian school.

“Very surprising that there would be a mass shooting at a Christian school, given that lack of prayer is often blamed for these horrible events,” Pakman said on Twitter. “Is it possible they weren’t praying enough, or correctly, despite being a Christian school?”

That is just sick.

But this is the mindset of these people.

They really do hate Christians.

Other radical leftists decided that this tragedy was a great opportunity to call for the end of private Christian schools…

Two trans activists are demanding the end of the conservative ‘love affair’ with ‘radical religious schools’ in a response to the Nashville mass shooting, in which they appear to shift the blame away from twisted killer, Audrey Hale, 28.

And of course the anti-gun nuts are out in full force.

For example, Alyssa Milano is claiming that guns are “the leading cause of death for American children”…

FIREARMS ARE THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH FOR AMERICAN CHILDREN.

Just waking up in this country puts our children at risk of a violent death.

Our one job as parents is to protect them. We are failing at our one job.

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) March 28, 2023

No, actually that is not true.

The leading cause of death for children in the United States is abortion, and nothing else is even close.

The second leading cause of death for children in the United States is auto accidents.

But if liberals lump in those that are 18 and 19 years old, they can get gun deaths to jump above auto accidents.

Needless to say, those that are 18 and 19 years old are legally considered to be adults.

Many on the left are also extremely upset that quite a few corporate media outlets originally “misgendered” the shooter.

In response to that criticism, corrections were hastily issued by many news organizations, and that even includes the New York Times…

There was confusion later on Monday about the gender identity of the assailant in the Nashville shooting. Officials had used “she” and “her” to refer to the suspect, who, according to a social media post and a LinkedIn profile, appeared to identify as a man in recent months.

— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 28, 2023

We live in such an upside down world.

A radical trans activist just gunned down six people, including the 9-year-old daughter of a pastor, but this story is rapidly being twisted into a vehicle for advancing the trans agenda.

But it was Christians at a Christian school that were specifically targeted.

Why won’t the mainstream media ever talk about all of the anti-Christian hate that is fueling so much anti-Christian violence all over America?

Of course we all know the answer to that question.

The divisions in this country are getting deeper with each passing day, and that should greatly sadden all 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.

Guess Who Is Now Warning That “Commercial Real Estate Is In Trouble”?

March 27, 2023March 27, 2023 by Michael

What will our financial system look like once the 20 trillion dollar commercial real estate industry implodes? You might want to start thinking about that, because the truth is that the industry is in a tremendous amount of trouble. Occupancy rates are extremely low and getting lower, rising interest rates have created all sorts of havoc, and now many of the small and mid-size banks that the industry depends upon for financing are in serious jeopardy. In essence, the commercial real estate industry is facing a “perfect storm” of nightmares, and this crisis is only going to escalate in the months ahead.

I may sound like a broken record to some of my readers, because I have been warning about a commercial real estate crash for some time.

But now what is happening is so obvious that even CNN is sounding the alarm…

After decades of thriving growth bolstered by low interest rates and easy credit, commercial real estate has hit a wall.

Office and retail property valuations have been falling since the pandemic brought about lower occupancy rates and changes in where people work and how they shop. The Fed’s efforts to fight inflation by raising interest rates have also hurt the credit-dependent industry.

Recent banking stress will likely add to those woes. Lending to commercial real estate developers and managers largely comes from small and mid-sized banks, where the pressure on liquidity has been most severe. About 80% of all bank loans for commercial properties come from regional banks, according to Goldman Sachs economists.

Amazingly, what you just read are three paragraphs from CNN that are completely factually accurate.

Needless to say, that doesn’t happen too often these days.

But at this point there is no debate about what is happening to commercial real estate. In fact, short sellers are aggressively shorting the industry right now because they all want a piece of the carcass…

Recently, short-sellers have stepped up their bets against commercial landlords, indicating that they think the market will continue to fall as regional banks limit access to credit. Real estate is the most shorted industry globally and the third most in the United States, according to S&P Global.

This is going to be such a disaster.

But don’t just take my word for it.

According to Elon Musk, the commercial real estate crisis is “by far the most serious looming issue” facing our economy…

This is by far the most serious looming issue. Mortgages too.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2023

I don’t know if I would go quite that far, but I totally agree that we are headed for a commercial real estate implosion that is absolutely unprecedented in U.S. history.

Of course many would argue that it has already begun.

In recent weeks, we have witnessed a long list of high profile failures…

The examples of large owners and prominent addresses in major markets abound.

Aside from Brookfield’s default in Downtown Los Angeles the other dominos include RXR, which is negotiating with lenders to convert two New York City office buildings to residential. In Washington, D.C., a $38.1 million commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loan on an office building that houses the U.S. Department of Treasury is headed to special servicing. And, in perhaps the most substantial sign of distress, Columbia Property Trust, which owns in San Francisco, New York and Washington, defaulted in February on $1.7 billion in debt backed by seven of its office buildings.

And this comes at a time when the entire economy is starting to tremble.

The St. Louis Fed Financial Stress Index just hit its highest level since the early days of the COVID pandemic, and the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook Survey has now been in negative territory for 11 months in a row…

For the 11th month in a row, The Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook survey printed negative (signaling contraction) in March, dropping to -15.7 (from -13.5), significantly below the -10.0 expected bounce.

The new orders index was negative for a 10th month in a row and came in at -14.3, little changed from February. The growth rate of orders index was also negative and largely unchanged, at -15.2.

As economic conditions continue to deteriorate, a lot more Americans are going to be losing their jobs.

And that even includes people working at some of the largest and most successful companies in the entire country.

For example, Disney has announced that it will actually be conducting three rounds of mass layoffs…

In a company-wide message obtained by FOX Business on Monday, Disney CEO Bob Iger updated employees on the cuts expected to take place at the entertainment giant, saying the “first group of impacted employees” would receive notification they were being laid off “over the next four days.” Senior leaders at the company had been “working closely with HR to assess their operational needs” over the past handful of months, he said.

Two other rounds of layoffs will follow the one starting this week, with Iger telling Disney employees the “second, larger round” will take place in April and the third slated for “before the beginning of the summer,” according to the memo. The layoffs will ultimately trim Disney’s headcount by about 7,000 workers.

I am sure that many of you are asking the same question that I am asking.

Why don’t they just fire all 7,000 workers at once?

Laying off workers in waves is just going to create a lot of anxiety.

Maybe that is what they want. After all, Disney has gotten really “weird” in recent years.

If it was me, I wouldn’t want workers stressed out for the next few months as they wonder whether they will survive the cuts or not.

But as our banking crisis rolls on, there is going to be so much stress all over America throughout the rest of 2023.

Just like in 2008, vast numbers of hard working Americans will be losing their jobs, and there will be so much emotional pain.

If you have a job that you cherish, try to hold on to it as tightly as you can, because good jobs will soon become a very precious commodity in this nation.

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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