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U.S. Troops Are One Mile From The Chinese Border

March 21, 2024March 21, 2024 by Michael

The U.S. cannot afford a war with China. The size of our military has been shrinking, and our resources are stretched way too thin. Today, the U.S. has military bases in 80 different countries, and we have troops stationed in 178 different countries. That is insane. No empire in the entire history of humanity has had forces spread all over the planet like this. Our ammunition levels are extremely low due to major conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, and every war game that our leaders have conducted has shown us losing a war to protect Taiwan. So we should be trying to avoid sparking a war with China, because we are holding a losing hand.

But our politicians seem determined to provoke one anyway. It is being reported that officials in Taiwan have confirmed that U.S. forces are now permanently stationed “on its islands in the Taiwan Strait”…

Taiwan has officially confirmed the presence of US troops stationed on its islands in the Taiwan Strait permanently, a development that could further escalate mounting tensions with China.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed in 2023 facilitated the deployment of these troops to conduct training programs for Taiwanese frontline forces.

This is going to make Chinese authorities extremely mad.

It would have been bad enough if we had just put troops on Taiwan’s main island.

But we didn’t stop there.

We are being told that U.S. troops have also been stationed on the Penghu islands and the Kinmen islands…

According to reports from Taiwan’s United Daily News (UDN), US Army Green Berets from the 1st Special Forces Group are now permanently stationed at bases of the 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion, a Taiwanese army special operations force, located in outlying island counties of Penghu and Kinmen. Notably, Kinmen lies just over a mile from Chinese shores.

Additionally, reports suggest an American military presence in the northeast city of Taoyuan on Taiwan’s main island, with service members providing specialized training on drone equipment for Taiwan’s elite Airborne Special Service Company.

How would we feel if Chinese troops were one mile from the U.S. border?

Taiwan’s main island is approximately 100 miles from China, but in some places the Kinmen islands and China are “barely more than a mile apart”…

The island of Taiwan, governed by the Republic of China (ROC), lies about 100 miles (161 kilometers) east of mainland China, across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan also administers a number of smaller islands known as the Kinmen archipelago, or Kinmen County. Great Kinmen Island and its neighbor islets are on the other side of the strait, in a harbor just east of the port city of Xiamen, practically surrounded by the People’s Republic of China (PRC)—in some places barely more than a mile apart.

What are our leaders thinking?

This doesn’t make war less likely.

It makes war more likely.

On Wednesday, China sent 32 warplanes toward Taiwan in a 24 hour period…

Thirty-two Chinese warplanes were detected over Taiwan in just 24 hours, the country’s defense ministry said.

In the 24 hours between Wednesday 6am and Thursday 6am local time, the second highest number of Chinese planes this year buzzed over the island nation accompanied by five naval vessels around Taiwan.

Twenty of the aircraft ‘crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait’, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement on Thursday. The aircraft were detected after nightfall and included fighter jets, unmanned drones and medium-range transport aircraft, according to the ministry.

The Chinese do this sort of thing when they are upset.

And right now they are very, very upset.

And China has been feverishly preparing for the coming war…

China is building its military and nuclear arsenal on a scale not seen since World War II and all signs suggest it’s sticking to ambitions to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, a top US admiral testified.

Despite Beijing’s economic challenges, its official defense budget has increased by 16% over recent years to more than $223 billion, Admiral John Aquilino, the leader of the Indo-Pacific Command, told the US House Armed Services Committee in prepared testimony on Wednesday.

In the three years since he took command, he said the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, has added more than 400 fighter aircraft, along with more than 20 major warships. It’s also doubled its inventory of ballistic and cruise missiles since 2020, he said.

When war with China finally erupts, will we be able to handle it?

Of course not.

Our forces are scattered all over the planet, and so many of our resources have already been poured into the war in Ukraine.

Even though there have been efforts to ramp up ammunition production in the U.S., it is being reported that “Russia is producing nearly three times as many artillery munitions as the United States and Europe combined”…

Russia’s defence minister said on Thursday that artillery shell production had risen by nearly 2.5 times in the past year, while artillery component production had soared by a factor of 22 as Moscow races to rearm faster than the West can supply Ukraine.

Russia’s current dominance in artillery production is a factor that could help decide the course of the Ukraine war – which is largely fought with artillery and drones – at a time when the West fears Russia is set for more battlefield wins.

CNN reported earlier this month that Russia is producing nearly three times as many artillery munitions as the United States and Europe combined, citing unidentified Western intelligence sources.

No matter how you feel about the war, that is just embarrassing.

One of the reasons why we won World War II was because the U.S. could simply outproduce everyone else by a wide margin.

But now we just look pathetic.

French President Emmanuel Macron and other western leaders have suggested that NATO troops should be sent into Ukraine if that is what is necessary to keep the Russians from winning.

If that actually happens, U.S. boys and girls will inevitably be sent to die in the trenches of eastern Ukraine too.

In anticipation of a wider war, the Russians are conducting another round of mobilization.

In fact, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has just announced “the creation of 2 new ground armies, with 16 new brigades & 14 new divisions”.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials continue to insist that a major ground operation will happen in Rafah no matter what the Biden administration thinks about such a move…

On Thursday Israel issued its most defiant response yet to Washington pressre that it abandon its plans for a ground invasion of Rafah, over fears of another mass civilian casualty humanitarian disaster, given the high number of refugees packed into the southern Gaza city.

A top Israeli official was quoted in Bloomberg as saying the military is going to invade Rafah and defeat Hamas “even if the entire world turns on Israel, including the United States.” Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, issued the words in a podcast interview.

“We are going to go in and finish this job, and anybody who doesn’t understand that doesn’t understand that the existential nerve of the Jews was touched” by the Oct. 7 terror attack, he said.

When the IDF goes into Rafah, that could cause the entire region to erupt.

And so U.S. forces may be called on to intervene in the Middle East as well.

Spreading your resources way too thin is a sure way to lose.

Unfortunately, our politicians don’t seem to understand this, and their very foolish decisions will soon lead to absolutely disastrous consequences.

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

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “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 Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts 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, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Why Is The National Guard Being Deployed During The Great American Eclipse On April 8th?

March 20, 2024 by Michael

The National Guard is only supposed to be deployed in emergency situations. But these days the National Guard is being used for all sorts of things. For example, hundreds of National Guard soldiers are being used to check the bags of those riding the subway system in New York City. That sets a very alarming precedent, and I don’t understand why more people aren’t upset about this. And now we have learned that National Guard troops will be deployed during the Great American Eclipse on April 8th. What in the world do they expect to happen during this eclipse?

Without a doubt, it will certainly be a historic event.

As I have discussed previously, it is being projected that it will be the most viewed astronomical event in the entire history of our country.

And virtually everyone in North America will be able to view at least a partial eclipse…

Almost everyone on the continent will see at least a bit of the eclipse. The further away you are from the path, the less of the eclipse you’ll see.

Even in places like Seattle and Portland, Oregon, which are far from the path, about one-third of the sun will be hidden.

On April 8th, millions of Americans will be traveling to locations where they will be in the path of the total solar eclipse. Oklahoma is being touted as one of the best states for that, and it is being reported that the Oklahoma National Guard “will provide first responders as well as units with hazmat response capabilities”…

Oklahoma’s National Guard is set to be deployed for the upcoming total solar eclipse, when as many as 100,000 people are expected to visit one county.

In a statement on Tuesday, the guard said it would assist emergency management to cope with “an unprecedented number of tourists” on April 8 in McCurtain County, in the southeast of the state.

The guard will provide first responders as well as units with hazmat response capabilities in case of an incident like an industrial fire.

I can understand that they feel the need to be prepared.

But bringing in the National Guard is overkill, don’t you think?

Residents of Oklahoma are being urged to “stock up on gas and groceries” prior to the eclipse, and they are also being instructed to have “multiple forms of communication besides cellular”…

To prepare for the eclipse, the state laid out some tips to plan ahead.

Oklahomans should schedule errands and appointments a few days in advance before the eclipse as well as stock up on gas and groceries. The state also recommends having multiple forms of communication besides cellular, being careful on the road and staying updated on weather conditions.

Seriously?

They want people to do all this for an eclipse that is only going to last for a few minutes?

Actually, Oklahoma is not the only state that is issuing such warnings. According to a Newsweek article entitled “Map Shows Warnings for People to Stock Up on Food Ahead of Solar Eclipse”, at least four states have now warned their citizens to stock up on food…

At least four states within the path of totality have urged residents to stock up on groceries before the eclipse. Some officials have already issued disaster declarations ahead of the event, and some schools have decided to close, citing student safety.

Texas officials have issued a slew of warnings, including that people living within the path of totality should stock up on groceries and gas and run any errands—such as filling prescriptions—in the days before the eclipse. One official also urged pet owners to stock up on supplies for their animals.

I realize that the areas that are in the direct path of the total eclipse are anticipating large numbers of visitors, but it feels like authorities are really going overboard.

Just look at what officials in Hays County, Texas are telling their residents to do…

Parking issues – lack of parking, fees for parking, having to park and walk to your destination (Please park only in designated areas and not on private property or in areas that cause safety issues)
Traffic delays and road closures
Longer wait times for restaurants (consider cooking at “home” instead or bring a small cooler with ready-to-eat food)
More congestion (pedestrian and vehicles)
Delayed emergency/911 response
Cell service interruptions/lack of service
Higher than normal stress levels and/or heated tempers
Credit card machines not working (bring cash)

Why would credit card machines not work?

And why would phone service be interrupted?

I don’t understand.

In Arkansas, they actually held a “live training exercise” that simulated emergencies that might happen during the eclipse…

With less than a month remaining before the Great American Solar Eclipse, the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management (ADEM) took a significant step by conducting a live training exercise. This exercise was designed to test ADEM’s response to issues that may arise as visitors flock to Arkansas to witness the event. ADEM responders and other state agencies looked at possible scenarios, such as severe weather, traffic, medical emergencies, and communication challenges.

Taking part in the exercise were county emergency managers and representatives of the National Weather Service, Arkansas National Guard, Corps of Engineers, Arkansas Hospital Association, Arkansas Wireless Information Network, and Arkansas Departments of Health, Transportation, Energy and Environment and Human Services.

Personally, I am not expecting a major disaster or emergency on the day of the eclipse.

But you never know, I could be wrong.

And it is certainly inevitable that there will be a lot more “surprises” as this year rolls along.

In fact, during his recent interview with Tucker Carlson, former U.S. Representative Ron Paul specifically warned about the potential for a black swan event…

Ron Paul, recognized for his consistent principles and foresight into economic and foreign policy, used the platform to express his concerns about unexpected, significant events that could catch the world by surprise.

“I think we’re reaching this point where some sudden thing is going to happen. I believe in that theory of the black swan. Yes, it’s going to pop up, and it’s not going to be controllable,” Paul said.

I don’t think that there will be a black swan event on April 8th.

But this eclipse will be a very big deal.

The giant “X” over America that the Great American Eclipse of 2017 started will be completed by the Great American Eclipse of 2024.

And as the Great American Eclipse of 2024 moves across our nation, the sun, the moon and the other seven planets in our solar system will all be lined up in the sky.

Our entire solar system is literally screaming that this day is important, and you would think that more people would be talking about the giant “X” that is about to be completed directly over the New Madrid fault zone.

Sadly, most of the population will quickly forget about this eclipse once it has passed, and that is extremely unfortunate.

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

3 Things That Troubled U.S. Banks Are Doing As They Scramble To Survive

March 5, 2024March 5, 2024 by Michael

The balance sheets of America’s banks are packed with bad loans and bad investments, and that is really bad news for all of us because the banks are the beating heart of our economic system. Without the loans that they provide, we would not even have a functioning economy. So the health of our banks is of paramount importance. Today, there are more than 4,000 banks in the United States, and maybe a few hundred of them could be considered healthy. Most of our banks fully understand that they are in really deep trouble, and they are feverishly trying to avoid the same fate as Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank. The following are 3 things that troubled U.S. banks are doing as they scramble to survive…

#1 Troubled U.S. Banks Are Dramatically Tightening Lending Standards

I warned my readers that a credit crunch would be coming, and that is precisely what we are witnessing.

According to one recent survey, Americans are being turned down for loans at staggering rates…

A new survey published by Bankrate found that 50% of loans or financial product applicants have been denied since the Fed started raising rates in March 2022.

Credit card applications have been rejected the most frequently, with 14% of Americans reporting that banks denied them a new credit card while another 6% were refused a balance transfer card. Others were denied a credit limit increase on their existing credit card (11%), a personal loan (10%), car loan or car lease (9%), insurance (8%) and a mortgage loan (5%).

Banks are tightening their lending standards in response to higher interest rates.

We haven’t seen anything like this since the Great Recession.

Unsurprisingly, those that have low credit scores are being denied loans most frequently…

The share of Americans who have been denied a loan or financial product is “substantially” higher for those with lower credit scores. For instance, about 73% of individuals with a “poor” credit score, ranging from 300 to 579, have been denied a loan or financial product, compared to 63% with “fair” credit, ranging from 580 to 669, and 55% with “good” credit, ranging from 670 to 739.

#2 Troubled U.S. Banks Are Closing Branches

This is a trend I have been tracking for a long time.

When banks get into trouble, they cut costs, and closing branches is one way to do that.

During the most recent week that we have data for, U.S. banks filed to close another 23 branches…

Banks filed to close 23 branches in a single week last month – with JPMorgan Chase alone announcing plans to shut 18 in California alone.

All but one of those branches were locations of First Republic Bank, the failed commercial bank and wealth manager it acquired last year.

#3 Troubled U.S. Banks Are Slashing Jobs

Conducting mass layoffs is another way that banks are cutting costs.

Last year, the biggest banks in the world collectively laid off more than 60,000 workers. That was the largest number that we have seen since the global financial crisis…

According to the FT’s calculations, 20 of the world’s largest lenders cut at least 61,905 jobs this year. It was one of the worst years for job cuts at banks since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, when banks eliminated 140,000 positions.

Aside from UBS, the second largest number of job cuts happened at Wells Fargo, which reduced its headcount by 12,000.

So far in 2024, the pace of banking layoffs far exceeds what we witnessed in 2023.

In fact, Citigroup alone has announced that it will be laying off 20,000 workers…

Citigroup will lay off 20,000 employees over the next two years, CFO Mark Mason said Friday. The reduction comes after the company reported a $1.8 billion net loss for the fourth quarter of 2023, its worst quarter in 15 years.

The bank expects the reduction in headcount to save $2.5 billion over the long-term.

A lot more banking layoffs are coming, and that is extremely unfortunate.

Shockingly, it is at this moment that the Federal Reserve has decided to terminate the program that has literally been keeping hundreds of U.S. banks from completely imploding…

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said a funding lifeline created for banks last year after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank threatened to spark a wider financial crisis would close as scheduled in March.

The Fed also raised the interest rate on new loans from the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) for the remainder of its life, effectively ending what had become a popular and profitable arbitrage opportunity for U.S. lenders, which analysts said should deter fresh borrowing.

The sun-setting of the program on March 11 had been signaled by Fed officials as fear in the banking system abated.

Circle March 11th on your calendar, because that is going to be a very important turning point.

I have no idea what the “experts” at the Fed are thinking.

Do they not understand what is going to happen?

Without artificial life support, a lot of these banks are going to go belly up.

In a recent opinion piece, Kevin O’Leary expressed his opinion that literally thousands of U.S. banks will fail during the next three to five years…

Regional banks are doomed.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing… if you’re prepared for it.

It’s been almost a year since Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed in March – the victim of idiotic management. But the sobering reality is the small banking crisis is far from over.

In the next three to five years, thousands more regional institutions will fail. That’s why I don’t have a dime saved or invested in a single one.

Will he be right?

I don’t know.

But what I do know is that lots of small and mid-size banks will fail unless the Federal Reserve props them up.

And once even a few banks start failing, that will cause a wave of panic to ripple throughout the entire system.

The people that are running things must surely understand this.

So what is their plan?

In recent years, whenever things have gotten bad they have always gotten out their firehoses and have started spraying money all over the place.

Will they do the same thing again once many small and mid-size banks begin to implode?

Interestingly, right now the price of gold is spiking dramatically.

Are some investors starting to hoard gold in anticipation of a new financial crisis?

I wish that I had all the answers.

But what seems clear is that big trouble is on the horizon, and those that are wise will position themselves accordingly.

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

Should Tennessee Be Ranked #1 For Survivability For Preppers That Want To Survive The Cataclysmic Times That Are Coming?

March 4, 2024March 4, 2024 by Michael

If you are planning to relocate in anticipation of the extremely chaotic times that are rapidly approaching, there are four primary factors that I think people should be focusing on. First of all, you will want to go some place where you will be surrounded by like-minded people. Secondly, you will want to avoid locations that have a high population density. Thirdly, you will want to avoid regions that are at high risk of experiencing natural disasters. Lastly, it is important to consider how the area you are considering will fare during a nuclear conflict. Of course these are not the only factors that need to be considered, because choosing to relocate to another part of the country is a complicated decision. Ultimately, you need to make whatever choice is right for you and your family at the time.

I have written quite a bit about these things over the years, and so my attention was immediately grabbed when I came across an article on StudyFinds.com entitled “The List: Best Places to Live Off-Grid, According to Experts”. The state of Tennessee is ranked number one on their list, and I found that to be quite interesting. Below, I will share some of their reasons for ranking Tennessee first, and following each reason I will give some of my thoughts…

-“abundance of natural resources”

This is very true. Tennessee is tremendously blessed with natural resources, and that is a huge advantage for those that want to live off-grid.

-“with an average rainfall of over 50 inches, homesteaders living off-grid have ample access to legally harvest rainwater”

A lot of states, particularly in the western half of the country, have made it illegal to harvest rain falling from the sky. Thankfully, Tennessee doesn’t have such a law, and plenty of rain falls throughout the year.

-“individuals can apply to live and work on government-owned land for a low cost or even for free”

If you are strapped for cash, this is a great opportunity. Most other states do not have this option.

-“fertile land found in this state provides a growing season of over eight months per year”

This is a really great point. Even most preppers do not have years of food stored up for themselves and their families. During the very difficult times that are ahead, growing your own food will be important, and Tennessee is a great state for doing that.

-“Tennessee stands out as a budget-friendly haven for off-grid enthusiasts”

The coast of living in the state is definitely lower than elsewhere, and that is a huge plus.

Overall, there is so much to like about Tennessee. In my new book, I ranked it number four out of all fifty states.

But of course no location is perfect.

There are definitely some negatives to consider as well. For example, it is being reported that Tennessee is the most stressed state in the entire nation…

At No. 1 for the overall list of the most stressed states in the U.S. is Tennessee, according to Komowa.

The Volunteer State scored very high for the most health stress, coming in third place for the highest level of depression prevalence (24.4%).

15.5% of residents also said “their physical health isn’t good for more than 14 days a month.”

Residents of Tennessee also work more than the average American. The state came in at No. 3 for most hours worked with an average of 42.3 hours a week.

In addition, in my opinion you will want to avoid the western half of the state entirely. It is way too close to the New Madrid fault zone, and Memphis is one of the most dangerous cities in the country.

But I very much like the eastern portion of the state. In particular, virtually anywhere east of Knoxville would be a very nice choice.

Just don’t expect perfection.

You won’t find that anywhere.

Needless to say, you will need to be prepared to expect the unexpected wherever you live.

For example, those living in Utah and Nevada probably never imagined that tumbleweeds would become a significant issue in our day and age, but that is precisely what is happening…

Tumbleweed is sprawling across sidewalks. It is blowing across freeways. It is stacked up — feet high — against homes in Utah and Nevada.

The masses upon masses of prickly tumbleweed are more fallout from severe weather sweeping the Western United States, in which wind gusts over 60 mph destroyed infrastructure, downed trees and power lines, and caused widespread outages and road closures.

Some called it the tumbleweed takeover. Others referred to it as tumblemageddon.

Life is always full of surprises, and that will especially be true during the tumultuous years that are in front of us.

We will never be able to prepare for every possible scenario, but right now millions of Americans are making preparations for what is ahead because they understand that things are about to make a dramatic turn in the wrong direction.

A gold dealer in Beverly Hills says that even the ultra-wealthy are preparing for the worst…

MILLIONAIRES and elites are hoarding gold as part of their doomsday preparations as they look to barter with it, an expert has revealed.

Multiple factors, from cell service outages to the election, have caused an “absolute surge” in gold sales, Jonathan Rose told The U.S. Sun.

Rose, the CEO of Genesis Gold Group in Beverly Hills, California, said he deals with people buying the precious metal for doomsday-prepping purposes every day.

Rose highlighted how doomsday prepping has become popular among millionaires such as Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman, along with pro athletes and other elites.

Speaking of Zuckerberg, there has been a tremendous amount of speculation about the massive survivalist compound that he is building in Hawaii.

Those that have been involved in building it have been required to sign very strict nondisclosure agreements…

Everyone who enters the property must sign a strict nondisclosure agreement, according to reports, and workers are sworn to secrecy.

Various media reports make mention of labourers being sacked after sharing selfies from the property on social media – posts that were quickly detected by Zuckerberg’s representatives.

“It’s fight club,” a former contractor told Wired. “We don’t talk about fight club.”

We have reached a stage where even people like Mark Zuckerberg realize that things are about to get really crazy.

The United States is in the process of committing financial suicide, but what we are facing goes far beyond economics.

We are literally facing a “perfect storm” that is being fueled by a whole host of different factors, and global events are on the verge of spiraling completely out of control.

So whether it is Tennessee or somewhere else, I would highly recommend figuring out where you want to be when everything finally hits the fan, because we are quickly running out of time.

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

Never Go Full Weimar: America’s Monetary Base Has Grown 6 Times Larger Since 2008

March 3, 2024March 3, 2024 by Michael

A lot of people have been waiting for a meltdown of America’s financial system, but the truth is that it is already in the process of melting down. As you will see below, the size of the monetary base in the United States has gotten more than six times larger since 2008. If we continue down this road, it won’t be too long before we start looking like Germany during the Weimar Republic. But if we stop creating money at a feverish rate, we won’t be able to service our debts and we will plunge into a very deep economic depression. Those that run things desperately want to avoid short-term economic pain, and so they just continue to take the easy way out. Unfortunately, taking the easy way out time after time will only lead to heartache.

Instead of examining M1 or M2 as many others tend to do, in this article I am going to look at our monetary base. If you are not familiar with that term, the following is how Investopedia defines it…

The monetary base is the total amount of a currency in circulation or held in reserves. Money in circulation is anything that is held and used by the general public while reserves refer to commercial bank deposits and any money held in reserves by these institutions at the central bank.

For most of our history, the growth of our monetary base was very stable.

But then the financial crisis of 2008 arrived, and it started growing at an exponential rate.

As you can see from the chart below, the size of the monetary base went from less than a trillion dollars in 2008 to nearly six trillion dollars today…

There tends to be a lag between when the monetary base rises and when we see prices increase throughout the economy.

For example, the dramatic spike in the monetary base that we witnessed in 2020 did not immediately cause prices to soar.

But in 2021 and 2022 we certainly felt the pain.

Throughout 2022, the size of the monetary base was actually falling as the Federal Reserve attempted to battle inflation, and that resulted in prices moderating to a certain extent in 2023.

Unfortunately, the size of the monetary base started to go back up in early 2023, and now it is rising very sharply once again.

That is definitely not good news for U.S. consumers in 2024 and beyond.

We certainly don’t need more inflation, because just about everything has become painfully expensive these days. The following comes from CNN…

From the historically unaffordable housing market and budget-breaking day care rates to high car prices, the United States has a cost of living problem many years in the making.

Parents of young children are making difficult choices to afford child care — or they’re opting to evade it by dropping out of the workforce altogether.

Parents are also struggling to buy bigger cars to haul around their growing families while simultaneously socking away some money in college savings plans.

For too many, the American Dream feels like an illusion.

So why don’t those in charge stop creating so much money?

Well, the truth is that if they stop we won’t be able to service our rapidly growing debts.

Today, U.S. consumers are 17 trillion dollars in debt, corporate debt is at the highest level ever, state and local governments are drowning in debt, and the federal government is 34 trillion dollars in debt.

At this point, many prominent voices are issuing ominous warnings about what will happen if we do not get our debt spiral under control…

Since the beginning of the year an increasing cacophony of alarm bells has been ringing out: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says there will be a market “rebellion” over the issue while Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan says it’s time to stop “admiring” the problem and instead do something about it.

This fear is echoing outside of Wall Street, too. The Black Swan author Nassim Taleb says the economy is in a “death spiral,” while Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says it’s past time to have an “adult conversation” about fiscal responsibility.

They are right.

We are in a vehicle that seemingly has no brakes, and we are headed for disaster.

Of course our politicians will never stop borrowing and spending. They are completely and utterly addicted to debt, and they realize that the economy will collapse if they stop propping it up with trillions of borrowed dollars.

As Jim Quinn has aptly observed, it now “requires $1 trillion of new debt every 100 days to achieve nothing but remaining static economically”…

Now it requires $1 trillion of new debt every 100 days to achieve nothing but remaining static economically. The regime media pundits and the cabal on Wall Street tell us the economy is doing great. No recession in sight. All is well. The dumbed down and distracted ignorant masses don’t realize all the reported “economic growth” is “created” by the government, enabled by The Fed, spending billions on their wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, funneling the money into the Military Industrial Complex corporations; paying for the transportation, feeding, and housing of the illegal invading hordes; hiring more government drones to harass the citizenry, and desperately trying to prop up a corrupt tottering empire in its final death throes.

Anyone with even the slightest mathematical acumen knows increasing the national debt at a rate of $1 trillion every 100 days is a death wish. Why would those pulling the strings behind the scenes of this acceleration towards the cliff of national suicide be doing so at this point in time?

From the founding of our nation, it took more than 200 years before the U.S. was a trillion dollars in debt.

Now we are adding a trillion dollars to the national debt approximately every 100 days.

What we are witnessing is nothing short of insanity, and what our leaders are doing to future generations of Americans is also extremely immoral. In early America, Thomas Jefferson warned that government debt was a way that one generation could steal money from future generations on a massive scale…

The system of banking we have both equally and ever reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens. Funding I consider as limited, rightfully, to a redemption of the debt within the lives of a majority of the generation contracting it; every generation coming equally, by the laws of the Creator of the world, to the free possession of the earth he made for their subsistence, unincumbered by their predecessors, who, like them, were but tenants for life… And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

Our politicians have stolen tens of trillions of dollars from our children and our grandchildren.

What they have done to future generations of Americans is beyond criminal.

And now they have brought us to the brink of national financial suicide.

So enjoy the brief period of relative stability that we still have left, because the endgame is now upon us.

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

“We Will Have A Hard Landing At Some Point. I Guarantee You That.”

February 29, 2024 by Michael

Can you guess who the quote in the article title is from? I will give you a hint. It wasn’t me. I know that it sounds like it could have come from me, but it actually comes from a very big name on Wall Street. Ellen Zentner is Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. economist, and she is the one that said it. During an interview with CNBC she warned that “the tightening impacts from monetary policy” will have enormous consequences for the U.S. economy in the months ahead…

“We will have a hard landing at some point. I guarantee you that. We’re all wondering: When does that come?” she said. “The point that Dimon makes is that there are these cumulative impacts that build over time, and we are in the camp that we haven’t yet seen all of the tightening impacts from monetary policy,” she added, referring to the impact of Fed rate hikes.

She makes a really great point.

The consequences of interest rate hikes are felt over time.

Higher interest rates have certainly started to cause a lot of problems, but if rates are not brought down soon the level of pain that we are experiencing will begin to go up dramatically.

Unfortunately, the Fed is not likely to reduce interest rates any time soon because inflation continues to run hotter than expected…

Inflation increased by the largest amount in almost a year, according to the Fed’s preferred measure – confirming expectations interest rates will not be cut until around June.

The so-called core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index – which excludes volatile food and energy prices – increased 0.4 percent between December and January.

Marko Kolanovic, the chief market strategist for JPMorgan Chase, believes that the U.S. economy could be headed into “something like 1970s stagflation”…

In an analyst note to clients, the bank’s chief market strategist Marko Kolanovic warned that the economy may turn away from a “Goldilocks” scenario – in which it is not expanding or contracting by too much – and enter a period of stagflation similar to that experienced in the 1970s.

“Going back to the question of market macro regime, we believe that there is a risk of the narrative turning back from Goldilocks towards something like 1970s stagflation, with significant implications for asset allocation,” Kolanovic wrote.

I would argue that we have already been in a period of stagflation.

The economy has certainly been stagnating, and inflation has been unacceptably high.

But now conditions have taken a dramatic turn for the worse in early 2024, and we are seeing some very troubling signs.

For example, I was stunned to learn that a Canadian pension fund has just sold a stake in a Manhattan office tower for just one dollar…

Canadian pension funds have been among the world’s most prolific buyers of real estate, starting a revolution that inspired retirement plans around the globe to emulate them. Now the largest of them is taking steps to limit its exposure to the most-beleaguered property type — office buildings.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has done three deals at discounted prices, selling its interests in a pair of Vancouver towers, a business park in Southern California and a redevelopment project in Manhattan, with the New York stake offloaded for the eyebrow-raising price of just $1. The worry is those deals may set an example for other major investors seeking a way out of the turmoil too.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board had a 29 percent stake in Manhattan’s 360 Park Avenue South.

The plan was to redevelop that property, but at this point the outlook for office buildings is so bad that the pension fund just wanted out.

And so the entire 29 percent stake was sold off for just one dollar.

Do you remember when I warned that we were heading into the worst commercial real estate crash in history?

Well, this is what a crash looks like.

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

Today, I was saddened to learn that Electronic Arts is laying off approximately 700 workers…

Another day, another round of mass layoffs in the games industry. Electronic Arts (EA) has announced it will cut around five percent of its employees, putting almost 700 people out of a job. It’s also cancelling games and shutting down at least one development studio.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson announced the layoffs in an email to employees, which was subsequently posted to the company’s blog on Wednesday.

And we just learned more details about the layoffs that Citigroup is conducting…

Citigroup is cutting nearly 300 workers in New York as it continues its massive layoff spree in an effort to rein in expenses, according to filings with the State Labor Department.

About 239 workers in the primary banking subsidiary, 44 from its broker-dealer unit and three from its technology arm are getting cut, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices filed this week.

In early January, the company announced that it was cutting 20,000 roles “over the medium-term,” as part of a reorganization effort. The cuts are slated to save the company between $2 billion and 2.5 billion.

We have not seen anything like this since the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009.

On Thursday, Zero Hedge published a list of 50 different mass layoffs that we have seen recently…

1. Everybuddy: 100% of workforce
2. Wisense: 100% of workforce
3. CodeSee: 100% of workforce
4. Twig: 100% of workforce
5. Twitch: 35% of workforce
6. Roomba: 31% of workforce
7. Bumble: 30% of workforce
8. Farfetch: 25% of workforce
9. Away: 25% of workforce
10. Hasbro: 20% of workforce
11. LA Times: 20% of workforce
12. Wint Wealth: 20% of workforce
13. Finder: 17% of workforce
14. Spotify: 17% of workforce
15. Buzzfeed: 16% of workforce
16. Levi’s: 15% of workforce
17. Xerox: 15% of workforce
18. Qualtrics: 14% of workforce
19. Wayfair: 13% of workforce
20. Duolingo: 10% of workforce
21. Rivian: 10% of workforce
22. Washington Post: 10% of workforce
23. Snap: 10% of workforce
24. eBay: 9% of workforce
25. Sony Interactive: 8% of workforce
26. Expedia: 8% of workforce
27. Business Insider: 8% of workforce
28. Instacart: 7% of workforce
29. Paypal: 7% of workforce
30. Okta: 7% of workforce
31. Charles Schwab: 6% of workforce
32. Docusign: 6% of workforce
33. Riskified: 6% of workforce
34. EA: 5% of workforce
35. Motional: 5% of workforce
36. Mozilla: 5% of workforce
37. Vacasa: 5% of workforce
38. CISCO: 5% of workforce
39. UPS: 2% of workforce
40. Nike: 2% of workforce
41. Blackrock: 3% of workforce
42. Paramount: 3% of workforce
43. Citigroup: 20,000 employees
44. ThyssenKrupp: 5,000 employees
45. Best Buy: 3,500 employees
46. Barry Callebaut: 2,500 employees
47. Outback Steakhouse: 1,000
48. Northrop Grumman: 1,000 employees
49. Pixar: 1,300 employees
50. Perrigo: 500 employees

Just look at that list.

That is nuts!

Anyone that thinks that the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction is simply being delusional.

Greg Hunter just interviewed economic analyst David Morgan, and he is warning that we are actually “entering into a global depression the likes of which the world has never seen”…

Economic analyst and financial writer David Morgan has gone against the majority in the past with predictions that seemed unbelievable at the time. One prediction last year is the Fed not cutting interest rates in 2023. The Fed didn’t, and Morgan is still predicting there will be no Fed interest rate cut anytime soon. Now, with a record high stock market, Morgan is predicting “We are entering into a global depression the likes of which the world has never seen.”

Global central banks were able to delay the inevitable by flooding the system with colossal mountains of money.

But that just created a tremendous amount of inflation and now a horrifying economic crisis is coming anyway.

So I would encourage everyone to brace themselves for the “hard landing” that is rapidly approaching, because it is going to be exceedingly painful for the unprepared.

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

Shoplifting In America Is Wildly Out Of Control

February 28, 2024February 28, 2024 by Michael

Shoplifters are going hog wild all over America, and our politicians seem powerless to stop this crisis. When I was growing up, shoplifting was something that was pretty rare. Once in a while some irresponsible idiot would slip a candy bar into his pocket, but it wasn’t something that retailers were too stressed out about. But now everything has changed. Retail “shrink” broke the 100 billion dollar barrier in 2022, and the final number for 2023 is expected to be even higher. Stuff is being stolen from our major retailers on an industrial scale, and this is having very serious consequences.

From coast to coast, retail locations are being permanently shut down because there is no end in sight to this madness.

This is particularly true in our largest urban areas. In San Francisco, a Macy’s store that had been open for 77 years is being closed down, and employees are telling the press that shoplifting was the primary factor behind the decision…

Employees at Macy’s flagship San Francisco store in Union Square have blamed its planned closure on shoplifting – despite mayor London Breed claiming crime was not a factor.

The Union Square store announced earlier this week it will be closing its doors after 77 years as part of a plan to close 150 locations across the nation over the next three years.

It isn’t just a few things that are going missing at that Macy’s store.

According to one employee, the men’s department is being systematically looted on a daily basis…

“It happens every day,” employee Steve Dalisay said.

Hanging up blazers in the Macy’s sixth-floor men’s department, Dalisay said blazers, wallets and boxer briefs are the items most frequently stolen from his department. He said thieves take at least four blazers every day, adding that he typically sees about 10 wallets and 20 briefs stolen daily.

Another employee says that most of the shoplifting is being done by drug users and groups of teens…

Shoplifters, he said, tend to be in two categories: drug users going after specific items for fences or teens entering the store in teams on brazen shoplifting blitzes.

“I’m not in charge of making the estimates of how much we lose in a day, but last year we were told the losses were in the millions,” the employee said.

“It’s a big thing,” he added. “What we have learned is a lot of drug users have deals with the fencers. They’ll give the drug users a list of stuff from the store, and they’ll go try to execute the list.”

Our national shoplifting crisis and our national drug crisis are very closely related.

Drug users need money to fund their habits, and shoplifting is one of the easiest ways to obtain things to sell.

At this point, it would be difficult to overstate the severity of the drug crisis in the state of California. According to Governor Gavin Newsom, authorities in his state seized enough fentanyl last year “to potentially kill the global population nearly twice over”…

Roughly 62,000 pounds of fentanyl smuggled into California was confiscated by authorities in 2023. The total amount of the potent synthetic opioid seized last year “is enough to potentially kill the global population nearly twice over,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Tuesday.

In 2023, the California National Guard supported other law enforcement agencies in counter-drug operations across the state, seizing a record 62,000 pounds of fentanyl at ports of entry, according to a news release from Newsom’s office.

That is certainly a lot of fentanyl.

If you can believe it, the amount of fentanyl that was seized in the state in 2023 was more than 10 times greater than the amount that was seized in 2021…

Compared with just a few years ago, the amount of fentanyl seized by authorities has dramatically surged. In 2021, California authorities seized more than 5,300 pounds of the drug, with a street value of $64 million. In 2022 that rose to 28,000 pounds, with a street value of $230 million, based on the U.S. Department of Justice evaluation of illegal-drug values in the Los Angeles region.

We have never seen anything like this before.

A lot of that fentanyl comes from Mexico, but a lot of it also comes from China.

The streets of California cities are flooded with addicts, and they are going to do whatever they have to do to feed their addictions.

So this shoplifting crisis is not going away.

At one hardware store in San Francisco, employees are now escorting customers around the store in a desperate attempt to reduce the level of shoplifting…

A longtime San Francisco business is trying something new to curb what it says has been “rampant shoplifting.”

Fredericksen’s Hardware and Paint in Cow Hollow is now offering a one-on-one shopping experience. The idea is to separate actual customers from those looking to steal from the store.

During certain hours, Fredericksen’s blocks off part of the store’s entrance and has people wait for an employee to help them instead of allowing people to just roam the store. The store’s longtime manager says it’s a move that was worth trying for the sake of the business, their employees, and their customers.

I think that we will soon see many more retailers offer “one-on-one shopping experiences” to their customers.

UNREAL. This store in San Francisco now has a barrier when you walk in and shoppers need to be accompanied by staff as they shop through the store because crime has got so bad.

Welcome to @GavinNewsom’s California pic.twitter.com/c2bixYEUbO

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 25, 2024

Major retailers just can’t keep losing inventory like they have been.

The amount of retail “shrink” in the United States has more than doubled in recent years, and it just continues to explode higher…

Shrink is the industry term for inventory loss often attributed to theft, damage, or errors. Once simply considered a cost of doing business, shrink resulted in retail profit losses exceeding a staggering $100 billion in 2022.

What’s more problematic, the trend of shrink appears to be far from reversing course, with losses more than doubling over the past five years. In an industry where margins and profitability are already under significant pressure, the rise in retail shrink is capturing the attention of all levels within retail organizations.

Sadly, there are some parts of the country where the looting of retailers has essentially become a way of life.

In fact, this has even been happening in our nation’s capital…

A Washington D.C. CVS store is shutting its doors after being repeatedly ransacked by thieves, the chain has confirmed.

The pharmacy, located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, went viral last October when videos emerged of it totally stripped of all its products after being targeted by a teen gang.

Staff claim more than 45 schoolkids would go into the store and steal chips and drinks in the morning, after their classes and late at night. It will close on February 29, according to WTTG-TV.

Those kids wouldn’t have been able to loot that store multiple times per day if they had been put in prison the first time they did it.

But our politicians don’t want such harsh laws.

They want to coddle the criminals, and as a result much of the rest of the population is living in fear.

This is just another example of how upside down our society has become.

The solutions to our national shoplifting crisis are simple enough, but I doubt that we will see things turn around any time soon.

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

Cereal For Dinner: As The Economy Implodes, The CEO Of Kellogg Is Trying To Convince Americans That Frosted Flakes And Froot Loops Are A Cheaper Alternative

February 27, 2024February 27, 2024 by Michael

Would you eat Cheerios for dinner? What about Lucky Charms? Many years ago when I was a college student, I would often eat cereal instead of a normal meal in the evening. Needless to say, that wasn’t good for my health at all. But now “cereal for dinner” has become quite trendy. Food prices have soared in recent years and millions of Americans are trying to cut costs anywhere that they can. As the economy continues to implode and more consumers find themselves “under pressure”, the CEO of Kellogg thinks that he will be able to convince even more of us that choosing cereal for dinner is a great way to save money…

Gary Pilnick, CEO of WK Kellogg Co., told CNBC, “When we think about our consumer under pressure, … cereal … has always been quite affordable and it tends to be a great destination when consumers are under pressure.”

He said his company has been focusing on messaging “to reach the consumer where they are, so we’re advertising about cereal for dinner. If you think about the cost of cereal for a family versus what they might otherwise do that’s going to be much more affordable.

“The price of a bowl of cereal with milk and with fruit is less than a dollar so you can imagine where a consumer under pressure might find that to be a good place to go.”

Pilnick said when looking at company data, “breakfast cereal is the number one choice for in home consumption” with over 25% of cereal consumption being outside of breakfast. “Cereal for dinner is something that is probably more on trend now and we would expect to continue as that consumer is under pressure.”

Hey, I have an even better idea.

Instead of eating cereal, all of us could make our dollars stretch even farther by eating pet food for dinner.

Doesn’t that sound great?

At this stage in my life, the idea of eating processed cereals for dinner is just disgusting.

But as food becomes less and less affordable, many Americans will be looking to survive from month to month any way that they can…

The interview followed news from the Wall Street Journal that showed Americans spending 10% or more of their income on food, the most they have in 30 years. Previous reporting from USA TODAY highlights that the average family is spending more than $1,000 on groceries each month.

“The cereal category has always been quite affordable,” Pilnick said. Kellogg, which owns cereals like Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Corn Flakes and Raisin Bran, “tends to be a great destination when consumers are under pressure,” Pilnick said, adding that the price of cereal with milk and fruit “is less than a dollar.”

This is the real state of our economy.

Most Americans are living right on the edge, and hunger has been rapidly growing all over the nation…

17 million households were not able to get enough food in 2022, according to the administration. In about 6.8 million of those households, a member had to skip meals or make other changes at times because there was not enough money and resources for food.

Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come.

It appears that the economy has taken a sharp negative turn in early 2024. For example, we just learned that consumer confidence declined much more than expected this month…

The survey’s index fell in February to 106.7, down from a reading of 110.9 in January. Americans became less worried about rising food and gas prices, but more concerned about the job market, the survey showed.

“The drop in confidence was broad-based, affecting all income groups except households earning less than $15,000 and those earning more than $125,000,” Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, said in a release. “Confidence deteriorated for consumers under the age of 35 and those 55 and over, whereas it improved slightly for those aged 35 to 54.”

Americans’ outlook for the economy in the following months, including their expectations for income and business conditions, declined this month, slipping below a threshold that “often signals recession ahead,” according to the report.

Concerns about the job market are definitely warranted, because large employers are conducting mass layoffs from coast to coast.

Earlier today, we learned that Sony will be laying off 900 employees in its PlayStation division…

Sony becomes the latest company to announce layoffs stating that it will make cuts to its PlayStation division. In the announcement, sent out on Tuesday Feb. 27, the gaming company said that it will lay off 900 employees, about 8% of its workforce, across several of the company’s locations.

And Expedia just announced that 1,500 workers will be hitting the bricks…

Expedia, the online travel agency, is eliminating about 1,500 employees as part of an “organizational and technological transformation.”

The cuts, which amount to nearly 9% of its 17,100-strong global workforce, come amid slowing travel demand following a post-pandemic boom and a broader shakeup at the company, including a new CEO.

Everywhere we look, we see weakness.

Personally, I was greatly saddened to hear that Macy’s has decided to shut down approximately 150 stores…

Macy’s plans to close roughly 150 of its locations over the next three years in a strategy shift that leans more heavily on its luxury Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury chains.

The company announced the shift publicly Tuesday morning, saying it was entering a “bold new chapter” with a new CEO, Tony Spring. Macy’s will be down to 350 stores once all of the planned closures occur.

When will the legacy media finally admit what is happening?

The U.S. economy is rapidly moving in the wrong direction, but they don’t want to admit that because it would make Joe Biden look bad.

In January, orders for durable goods were depressingly low…

The last few months have been volatile – to say the least – for US durable goods orders, with preliminary January data showing an enormous 6.1% MoM plunge in the headline (worse than the already bad 5% decline expected). That is the weakest MoM print since the middle of the COVID lockdowns in April 2020, dragging year-over-year orders growth down to -0.8% – the lowest and first annual contraction since August 2020…

That is a very clear sign that a major economic shift has begun.

Why can’t more people see this?

And major banks continue to shut down branches at a feverish pace…

American banks filed to close 31 branches in a single week this month, with Wells Fargo and PNC accounting for more than half.

Each of the two banks said they would shut eight branches, across Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, California, Connecticut, North Dakota and New Jersey.

Texas was worse hit, with closures set for Houston, Laredo and Cypress.

Other banks to have announced they would shutter locations between February 11 and 17 include Bank of America, Santander, Chase, Citizens, KeyBank and Legacy.

So much bad economic news is coming in that I can’t possibly keep up with it all.

But the Biden administration insists that everything is just fine.

They would like you to believe that the future is going to be filled with sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.

But that isn’t the truth.

The truth is that the U.S. economy has started to implode, and a lot more Americans are going to be eating cereal for dinner by the end of this calendar year.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is 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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