Money

The mainstream media continues to tell us that the economy is in fine shape, and you can believe that if you want.  But evidence continues to mount that indicates that we are headed for very serious trouble.  Inflation is out of control, home sales have fallen for 12 months in a row, large corporations all over America are conducting mass layoffs, and hunger is spreading like wildfire as economic conditions rapidly deteriorate.  If this is “fine”, I would hate to see what “bad” would look like.  Virtually everything that normally occurs during the early stages of a major economic downturn is happening right now, and that includes an inversion of Treasury yields…

On Tuesday, the difference in the yield on 2-year and 10-year Treasury notes further inverted, with the yield on the 10-year falling 103 basis points, or 1.03 percentage points, below the yield on the 2-year yield. This dynamic has preceded each of the last eight U.S. recessions.

Please read that last sentence again.

This has happened for eight recessions in a row.

Do you think that by some miracle we won’t have a recession this time?

At this point, we are actually witnessing the deepest inversion that we have seen “since September 1981”…

The spread between the monetary policy-sensitive two-year U.S. Treasury yield (US2Y) and the 10-year (US10Y) UST yield reached the deepest inversion since September 1981, as bond-market investors priced in higher-for-longer interest rates following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s Senate testimony earlier in the session.

Wow.

1981 was more than 40 years ago.

As one analyst told his clients, this is “a big psychological level” that has just been breached…

“We are not sure that -100bps means anything different than -80bps or -90bps did, but it is likely a big psychological level that many will notice,” BTIG analyst Jonathan Krinsky wrote in a note to clients.

But don’t worry.

CNN says that everything will be just fine.

You believe them, don’t you?

Needless to say, a lot of Americans don’t believe them.

In fact, at this point the amount of confidence that Americans have that their finances will improve in the next year has dropped to a depressingly low level…

Americans’ confidence in their finances is at its lowest level in at last 13 years, as inflation and fears of a recession cast a pall of uncertainty over the economy.

In February, just 31% of Americans believed their personal financial situation would improve in the next year, the lowest figure on records dating back to 2010, according to Fannie Mae’s monthly survey released on Tuesday.

The bureaucrats in Washington can radically “adjust” the economic numbers that they are giving us in a desperate attempt to make us feel better, but they can’t hide the fact that mass layoffs are happening all around us.

For example, a historic paper mill in North Carolina that has been in business for more than a century is now shutting down and laying off all of their employees…

Union representatives with Smokey Mountain Local 507 were reportedly called to a meeting with Pactiv Evergreen officials Monday and told about the plans to close the paper mill.

It employs 1,100 people and is considered a keystone of the local economy.

The words are simply not enough,” Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers said, according to local outlet ABC15. “When I was downtown and I saw grown men with tears in their eyes, there are not words, and no one was prepared on this dark Monday to deal with that.”

What can you possibly say to those men to convince them that everything is going to be okay?

That town will never be the same again after this.

A massive economic implosion is already happening all around us, but as long as stock prices remain elevated many people will be fooled into thinking that conditions are normal.

But the financial markets are starting to show cracks too.

In fact, one expert just told Fox News that the indicators that he closely watches are pointing to “one of the highest probabilities of a crash in the stock market looking out 60 days”…

After Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated the bank isn’t finished raising rates, one market expert has warned a crash could come in a matter of days.

“They’re playing catch up, and while they were doing quantitative easing in 2021, inflation started to rage and now they’re trying to catch up,” The Bear Traps Report founder Larry McDonald said Wednesday on “Mornings with Maria.”

“Our 21 Lehman systemic risk indicators that look at equity and credit point to one of the highest probabilities of a crash in the stock market looking out 60 days,” McDonald, who is also known for writing a best-selling book on the Lehman Brothers collapse, cautioned.

I really hope that he is wrong.

I really hope that we have more time.

But the reality of what is now taking place should be evident to everyone.

A major economic meltdown has begun, and it will eventually get a whole lot worse.

We aren’t just witnessing the end of an economic cycle.

What we are actually witnessing is the end of a deeply corrupt, deeply flawed system.

The greatest debt bubble in the history of the entire planet is starting to burst, and the whole world will soon be experiencing severe pain as a result.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

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 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.

Angry citizens are taking to the streets all over the world, and often they are lashing out in wild and unpredictable ways.  The eruptions of civil unrest that you will read about below are all happening for different reasons, but they all have one thing in common.  People are deeply frustrated with the direction that things are going, and they have lost faith in the ability of their elected representatives to solve their problems.  Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.  For years I have been warning my readers that we will eventually see civil unrest on a scale that we have never seen before.  Could it be possible that we are now entering the leading edge of that storm?

On Tuesday, the streets of Paris were turned into a war zone as French citizens expressed their displeasure with the pension reforms that French President Emmanuel Macron seems determined to implement…

Violence erupted on the streets of Paris today as thousands took to the streets across France to protest against pension reforms.

Riot police fought running battles with demonstrators in the capital city on a so-called Black Tuesday of industrial action across the country.

The worst trouble was close to the Port Royal metro station, where hundreds of riot police used tear gas and baton charges. As projectiles rained down on them, bins were set on fire and bus stops destroyed by so-called Black Bloc anarchists.

Clashes are intensifying in Paris as workers protest against the government’s pension reform plans. Video footage shows riot police using tear gas and batons to repress protesters who are responding with pyrotechnics and anything else they can get their hands on. #grevedu7mars pic.twitter.com/3yOoQzOldx

— red. (@redstreamnet) March 7, 2023

A lot of people out there believed that Emmanuel Macron would emerge as a great leader that would be capable of uniting all of Europe behind him.

That is obviously not going to happen.

A few days before the protests in Paris, farmers in Belgium literally rolled 2,700 tractors into the heart of the capital of the European Union…

Convoys of tractors brought traffic in Brussels to a standstill Friday, as thousands of Belgian farmers protested the Flemish regional government’s plans to limit nitrogen emissions from agriculture.

Some 2,700 tractors rolled into Brussels from the Flanders region, according to police estimates, filling the streets with a cacophony of honks as farmers vented their anger over the planned cuts, which they say threaten to put many of them out of business.

I fully support what those farmers are trying to do.

What the EU is doing to farmers is literally insane, and I can definitely understand why they are so upset.

Elsewhere in Europe, demonstrations against NATO involvement in the war in Ukraine are getting larger and larger…

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Brussels and Paris to show support for Ukraine on Saturday, while a demonstration against supplying Ukraine with weapons attracted 10,000 people in Berlin and London

If the American people actually understood what was at stake, we would see similar anti-war protests here in this country too.

Hopefully our citizens will wake up before this conflict goes nuclear.

Down in South Africa, an unprecedented energy crisis literally has the entire nation on the verge of “collapse”…

South Africa is on the verge of “collapse” amid rolling blackouts and warnings a total power grid failure could lead to mass rioting on the scale of a “civil war”.

Western embassies including the United States and Australia have advised their citizens in the country to stock up on “several days worth” of food and water and be on high alert during extended blackouts sweeping the country.

Sadly, what I have shared so far is just the tip of the iceberg.  Economic conditions continue to deteriorate all over the globe, and we are being warned that a lot more civil unrest is on the way…

Growing social inequality and the cost-of-living, foundering faith in governments and institutions and increasingly polarized politics, together with a rise in activism and environmental concerns, are the main factors expected to fuel ongoing incidences of unrests, strikes, riots and civil commotion (SRCC) around the world, according to a new report from insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS).

Here in the United States, a “frenzied 150-strong mob” of Antifa radicals viciously attacked a police facility in the Atlanta area on Sunday…

A frenzied 150-strong mob of Antifa ‘terrorists’ descend on Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ construction site before hurling Molotov cocktails and destroying machinery in newly-released aerial footage of Sunday’s riots.

The group, filmed by a police chopper’s heat-sensitive cameras, march through scrub and woodland around the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center before unleashing havoc and setting fire to a power line.

Police officers protecting the site are forced to stand off as the mask-clad attackers overrun the site, which has been a hotbed for Antifa violence since last spring, and target machinery. The officers are then pelted with rocks and fireworks by the thugs, many of whom travelled from outside of Georgie to take part in the violence.

Aerial view of Antifa attacking a police training facility in Atlanta pic.twitter.com/yrUdHm7DUG

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) March 7, 2023

Democrats run Atlanta, and we have a Democrat in the White House.

But the Democrats appear to be incapable of controlling their own people.

Meanwhile, crime continues to spiral out of control in major cities all over the nation.

In New York City, the police are actually asking businesses to require customers to take off their masks before entering because masked thieves have become such a problem…

The New York Police Department is advising businesses to ask patrons to take off their masks before entry in light of the high number of thefts and robberies across the city.

Removing masks should be made a “condition of entry,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press conference last week, noting that criminals have been taking advantage of masks to avoid detection on surveillance cameras.

“People are coming up to our businesses, sometimes with masks, sometimes masks, hoods and latex gloves, and they’re being buzzed in, they’re being allowed to enter into the store and then we have a robbery or some kind of property being stolen,” Maddrey said.

Isn’t that ironic?

For such a long time, authorities in New York were so determined to get everyone to put masks on.

But now they are desperate to get everyone to remove the masks because crime has gotten so bad.

This is the world that we live in now.

The thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted on a daily basis is rapidly disappearing, and chaos in the streets will be a normal part of life from this point forward.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

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 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.

We haven’t seen anything like this in a long time.  A couple of factors are combining to push millions of Americans into a state of food insecurity.  First of all, food prices have been rising aggressively throughout the past year, and so our money does not go nearly as far as it once did.  Meanwhile, food stamp benefits are being slashed.  The federal government had greatly enhanced food stamp benefits for many Americans during the pandemic, but now that emergency program is coming to an end.  So what this means is that many Americans are going to have very little money to spend on food at a time when economic conditions are starting to get really rough.

The Washington Post recently sent a reporter named Tim Craig to Kentucky, and he discovered that poor people are waiting in “a mile-long line” just to get some free food…

As he claimed the first spot in a mile-long line for free food in the Appalachian foothills, Danny Blair vividly recalled receiving the letter announcing that his pandemic-era benefit to help buy groceries was about to be slashed.

Kentucky lawmakers had voted to end the state’s health emergency last spring, by default cutting food stamp benefits created to help vulnerable Americans like Blair weather the worst of covid-19. Instead of $200 a month, he would get just $30.

Blair actually gets up at 4 AM in the morning so that he can be first in line for these handouts.

On the Friday that the reporter from the Washington Post interviewed him, he ended up staying in that line for nine hours.

I couldn’t imagine waiting in line for that long, but Blair feels like this is what he and his wife must do in order to survive…

He crumpled up the letter and threw it on the floor of his camper.

“I thought, ‘Wow, the government is trying to kill us now,’” said Blair, 63, who survives on his Social Security disability check and lives in a mobile home with his wife after their house burned down five years ago. “They are going to starve us out.”

Blair and his wife hop into their truck twice a month at 4 a.m. to ensure they get a few staples at the Hazel Green Food Project’s giveaway. On a recent Friday, they waited nine hours until local prisoners on work duty started loading bags of meat and vegetables, potato chips and cookies into vehicles in one of the nation’s most impoverished communities.

Sadly, there are countless others out there that are in the same position.

The Post also interviewed another man named Henry Tolsen that openly admitted that he is so poor that the day before he “only ate a bowl of cereal and a can of peaches”…

“Yesterday, I only ate a bowl of cereal and a can of peaches,” said Tolsen, as he turned off his truck to save gas until the line started moving again. “I would like to be able to eat bacon and eggs, biscuits and gravy for breakfast, a decent lunch, and a homegrown supper like I used to.”

This is the country that we live in now.

Once upon a time, we had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now the middle class is being systematically destroyed.

The cost of living is increasing faster than our paychecks are, and that means that our standard of living is going down.

For example, it is being reported that housing is more unaffordable right now than it was at any time during the last housing crash…

The Atlanta Fed’s Housing Affordability Monitor, which compares median home prices and other housing costs with median household income, shows that housing affordability is worse today than during the peak of the 2008 housing bubble. As of December, the median American household would have to spend about 42.9% of their income to afford the median-priced house, according to the index.

Auto loans have become extremely oppressive as well, and now that the economy is going downhill the number of Americans getting behind on their payments is rapidly increasing…

Borrowers with low credit scores are falling behind on their car loan payments as inflation eats away at consumer spending power.

A report from Cox Automotive found 1.89% of auto loans in January were “severely delinquent” and at least 60 days behind payment, the highest rate since 2006.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

We are in the early chapters of a major economic downturn, and the tsunami of layoffs that we have been witnessing is going to get a lot worse.

In fact, we just learned that Salesforce will be giving the axe to approximately 8,000 highly valued workers…

Salesforce, the cloud-based “customer relationship management” software colossus co-helmed by the definitely-not-Hawaiian Marc Benioff, is the latest in a slew of tech giants to lay off thousands of employees, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Per the WSJ, the company will be letting go of 8,000 members from its massive workforce, formerly referred to by Benioff — who, again, is definitely not Hawaiian — as the “Salesforce ohana,” ohana being the Hawaiian name for “family.” (Salesforce stepped away from using that and other Hawaiian terminology and practices back in 2019 due to cultural appropriation concerns.)

The economic despair that we are already witnessing should break all of our hearts, but it is just the tip of the iceberg.

As economic conditions continue to deteriorate, the suffering that we will eventually see will be off the charts.

And when people get desperate, they can often do desperate things.

Earlier today, I was horrified to learn that Antifa just attacked a police facility in the Atlanta area…

Antifa are domestic terrorists and I’m introducing my resolution to officially declare them a terrorist organization on
Tuesday. https://t.co/GTg7XqsmoL

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) March 6, 2023

That attack appears to have been politically motivated, but I believe that much of the civil unrest that we will eventually see will be sparked by economic turmoil.

When people don’t have enough food to eat, they tend to get really angry.

And at this moment hunger is spreading like wildfire all across America.

You better buckle up, because we are about to experience a very bumpy ride.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

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 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.

If you truly wanted complete and total privacy, you would need to give up nearly all of the technology that you are currently using.  I wish that wasn’t true, but this is the reality of the world in which we now live.  The “Big Brother surveillance grid” is constantly growing and evolving all around us, and those that are using it to watch, monitor, track, influence and control us have an insatiable appetite for more data.  They are constantly pushing the envelope, and most people don’t seem to care.  But if we don’t stand up for our rights now, eventually we will find ourselves living in a society where there is absolutely no privacy at all.

In fact, many would argue that we are already there.

Recently, I was horrified to learn that researchers have been working on a way to use WiFi to look through the walls of our homes to see what we are doing.  The following is a brief excerpt from a Vice article entitled “Scientists Are Getting Eerily Good at Using WiFi to ‘See’ People Through Walls in Detail”…

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University developed a method for detecting the three dimensional shape and movements of human bodies in a room, using only WiFi routers.

To do this, they used DensePose, a system for mapping all of the pixels on the surface of a human body in a photo. DensePose was developed by London-based researchers and Facebook’s AI researchers. From there, according to their recently-uploaded preprint paper published on arXiv, they developed a deep neural network that maps WiFi signals’ phase and amplitude sent and received by routers to coordinates on human bodies.

As we have seen with so many other highly intrusive surveillance technologies, those that have developed this method are touting the benefits that it could have…

The researchers ague that their Wi-Fi approach to imaging humans in households could be applied to home healthcare, where patients may not want to be monitored with a camera in places like the bathroom or with other sensors and tracking devices.

No matter how old I get, I don’t ever want anyone using any technology to monitor me while I am taking a dump.

If that makes me old-fashioned, so be it.

Sadly, this is not the first time that researchers have developed this sort of technology.

Most people don’t realize this, but scientists have been working on ways to see through our walls for about a decade…

Researchers have been working on “seeing” people without using cameras or expensive LiDAR hardware for years. In 2013, a team of researchers at MIT found a way to use cell phone signals to see through walls; in 2018, another MIT team used WiFi to detect people in another room and translate their movements to walking stick-figures.

Did you know that cell phone signals can be used “to see through walls”?

Neither did I.

Of course cell phones are probably the most comprehensive surveillance devices ever created, and the vast majority of us willingly carry them around wherever we go.

If you don’t get what I am talking about, perhaps this information from the American Bar Association will help you to understand…

Depending on the number of apps installed, a cell phone may send data regarding its location thousands of times per day. Indeed, some phone apps will share as many as 200 individually time-stamped location data points within a 12-hour interval. These data are sent in real time to multiple companies, each of which can track the phone in real time or retrace the phone’s path by analyzing the logged historical data. According to the Times, every minute of every day, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies . . . largely unregulated, little scrutinized . . . are logging the movements of tens of millions of people with mobile phones and storing the information in massive data files.

Location data are collected by companies along with millions of other data points, commonly packaged and sold as marketing analysis to advertisers, financial institutions, real estate investors, and other third parties. Location data are particularly lucrative to advertisers, who use it to determine the places people frequent and the times they go to these locations.

Nothing you do on your cell phone is private.

Ever.

And your cell phone makes a record of every location that you visit.

So you better not get into trouble while carrying your phone, because law enforcement agencies can use cell phone data “to follow people’s movements months back in time”…

Local law enforcement agencies from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina have been using an obscure cellphone tracking tool, at times without search warrants, that gives them the power to follow people’s movements months back in time, according to public records and internal emails obtained by The Associated Press.

Police have used “Fog Reveal” to search hundreds of billions of records from 250 million mobile devices, and harnessed the data to create location analyses known among law enforcement as “patterns of life,” according to thousands of pages of records about the company.

We really do live in a “Big Brother society”, and there is no going back.

In fact, things will only get worse in the years ahead.

Last week, I was greatly disappointed to learn that Ford has just patented technology that can remotely control your vehicle…

Ford Motor Co. has filed for a patent on technology that could remotely shut down your radio or air conditioning, lock you out of your vehicle, or prompt it to ceaselessly beep if you miss car payments. Ford said it has no plans to use the technology, contained in just one of the many patents filed by the auto-making giant.

Still, it emerges at a troubling time for car owners. Loan delinquencies have been steadily ticking back up from their pandemic lull. Cox Automotive data showed severely delinquent auto loans in January hitting their highest point since 2006. The use of technology to aid repossessions isn’t new, but the patent application is wide-ranging, even proposing the idea that an autonomous vehicle could drive itself to a “more convenient” location to be collected by a tow truck.

I don’t think that I will be buying a Ford any time soon.

Of course it is just a matter of time before all of the auto companies are using similar technologies.

A decade ago, I included several cutting edge surveillance technologies in a novel that I wrote, but since that time the “Big Brother surveillance grid” has gotten exponentially more intrusive.

So why aren’t more people upset about this?

Why aren’t such technologies a major political issue?

They have herded all of us into a giant technological cage, and the vast majority of the population has willingly accepted it.

So they are just going to keep pushing things even further, because at this point they are experiencing very little resistance at all.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

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 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.

By the end of this month, there will be no more Walmart stores in Portland.  More than 641,000 people live within the city limits of Portland, and so you would think that there should be a lot of money to be made there.  But Walmart has decided to wave the white flag.  Portland has been transformed into a complete and utter hellhole, and apparently Walmart executives have determined that things are not going to turn around any time soon.  So they have announced that the last two Walmart stores in Portland that were still operational will be permanently shut down by the end of March…

The last two Walmart stores within Portland’s city limits will close in late March, the company announced.

The locations, at 1123 North Hayden Meadows Drive and at 4200 Southeast 82nd Avenue at the Eastport Plaza, will both close on Friday, March 24. Walmart says they are closing the stores because they were not meeting financial expectations.

A spokesperson for Walmart used very careful language to explain why these stores are being closed…

“The decision to close these stores was made after a careful review of their overall performance. We consider many factors, including current and projected financial performance, location, population, customer needs, and the proximity of other nearby stores when making these difficult decisions. After we decide to move forward, our focus is on our associates and their transition, which is the case here,” a spokesperson with Walmart said.

Of course this isn’t exactly the truth.

But what do you expect Walmart to say?

Do you expect a corporate spokesperson to admit that Walmart is leaving Portland because it has become a drug-ridden, crime-infested hellhole?

One customer that was interviewed about the store closings addressed the real reason why Walmart is leaving…

“We gotta resolve the shoplifting one way or another,” she added, addressing the topic of retail theft at the city’s locations, “because that is simply the problem. It’s gotta stop.”

At this point, much of Portland has been turned into a giant tent city for the homeless.

And a very high percentage of the homeless are addicted to drugs.

The only way that many of those addicts can fund their addictions is by theft, and as I noted in an article that I posted yesterday, over 2,600 downtown businesses have left Portland in recent years as a result…

Business owners are fleeing Portland in droves amid a pronounced rise in crime and homelessness, officials in the Democratic stronghold have revealed.

Public data shows that since the pandemic, more than 2,600 downtown businesses have filed changes of address with the U.S. Postal Service to leave their downtown ZIP codes.

Several big-name employers, such Umpqua Bank, have been among the mass exodus, carried out by owners who have taken issue with the rising crime levels and homelessness – and the city’s failure to address it.

We really are in the midst of the worst drug crisis in the entire history of our country.

And it is getting worse with each passing year.

We have also just learned that Amazon will be shutting down retail locations in New York City, Seattle and San Francisco…

Amazon plans to close eight of its Go convenience stores, the company said Friday, a decision that coincides with a pullback in its physical footprint and a broader effort to cut costs.

The company will shut two Go stores in New York City, two locations in Seattle, and four stores in San Francisco. The stores will close on April 1, and Amazon said it will work to help affected employees secure other roles at the company.

Needless to say, all three of those cities are also dealing with massive crime waves that are being fueled by desperate drug addicts.

And is it just a coincidence that virtually all of the major cities that are having enormous problems with crime are run by Democrats?

Look, the truth is that our entire country is rapidly degenerating all around us, and that includes areas run by Republicans.

But the far left policies that have been implemented by radical Democrats all over America have clearly been a complete failure.

In 2022, the ten states with the highest official rates of unemployment were all run by Democrats…

The ten states with the highest unemployment rates in 2022 were: Nevada (5.4 percent), whose governor was Democrat Steve Sisolak; Illinois (4.6 percent), whose  governor was Democrat J.B. Pritzker; Delaware (4.5 percent) whose governor was Democrat John Carney; Pennsylvania (4.4. percent), whose governor was Democrat Tom Wolf; New York (4.3 percent), whose governor was Kathy Hochul; Washington (4.2 percent), whose governor was Democrat Jay Inslee; Oregon (4.2 percent), whose governor was Democrat Kate Brown; Michigan (4.2 percent), whose governor was Democrat Gretchen Whitmer; Connecticut (4.2 percent), whose governor was Democrat Ned Lamont; and California (4.2 percent), whose governor was Democrat Gavin Newsom.

Do you think that is just a coincidence?

Sadly, it isn’t just our society that is deteriorating.

As Egon von Greyerz has aptly noted, the entire world “has been in a process of self-destruction” for a very long time…

For at least half a century, the world has been in a process of self-destruction.

As the decline accelerates, the next phase of 5-10 years will include major political, social, economic as well as wealth – destruction.

What can be more heinous than a total economic and financial collapse accompanied by a potential World War III that at worst could destroy the world totally.

Sadly, he is quite correct.

If we stay on this self-destructive path, the consequences are going to be far more horrible than most people are even willing to imagine right now.

So let us hope that we reverse course while there is still time to do so.

Unfortunately, evil continues to spread like wildfire all throughout our society, and the clock is ticking.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

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 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.

Americans need to be prepared to eat a lot less beef, because the size of the national cattle herd is steadily shrinking.  And of course this is happening in the context of a much larger crisis.  As I detailed in a previous article, even CNN is admitting that we are currently in the midst of “the worst food crisis in modern history”.  But even though children are literally dropping dead from starvation on the other side of the planet, a lot of people here in the United States refuse to take this crisis seriously.  As long as their stomachs are full they think that everything is just fine.  But the truth is that conditions are also starting to get tight here in the United States.

According to the latest biannual report from the USDA, the number of beef cows in this country has fallen to the lowest level since 1962…

The USDA’s biannual cattle report showed that, as of Jan. 1, 2023, there is a 89.3 million head inventory — which is three percent lower than the total from a year ago and the lowest since 2015. Of that number, 38.3 million cows and heifers have calved.

Additionally, there are 28.9 million beef cows, which are those explicitly bred for slaughter and meat sales, as of the start of this year — which is down nearly four percent from last year and the lowest the agency has recorded since 1962.

In 1962, 184 million people lived in the United States.

Today, that number has risen to 331 million.

So we have a problem.

But even though beef prices have been soaring, most Americans don’t realize the gravity of this shortage yet because we are still eating cattle that were slaughtered some time ago.

And according to livestock economist Kenny Burdine, “cattle production’s downward trend does not seem like it will reverse in 2023”…

University of Kentucky’s Kenny Burdine and James Mitchell, extension livestock economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, recently explained that “There was no question that the beef cow herd had gotten smaller” and that the cattle production’s downward trend does not seem like it will reverse in 2023.”

“There is a pretty substantial biological lag in the beef supply chain,” Mitchell noted. “What consumers experience at the grocery store is a product of what cattle producers were going through a year or two ago. It takes about two years for a new calf to become the steak on your dinner plate.”

The corporate media is already calling beef “a luxury meat”, and prices are inevitably going to go a lot higher in the months ahead.

So if you love beef, you should stock up now.

Meanwhile, food shortages continue to intensify all over the globe.

In Yemen, literally millions of children “suffer from acute malnutrition” at this point…

The Global Hunger Index currently ranks Yemen the worst in the world for level of hunger. Millions of Yemeni children, in some areas as many as 95% according to doctors in those areas that I spoke to, suffer from acute malnutrition.

The resulting stunted physical development had me convinced that I was in a kindergarten classroom when in fact I was meeting with eight and nine-year-olds. And those children were, as a colleague unnervingly put it, “the lucky ones.”

In North Korea, ordinary citizens are “reportedly dropping dead on the streets every day” due to the severe famine that is taking place in that nation…

THIS is the moment Kim Jong-un and his cronies gorged on popcorn and champagne as North Korea faces the worst famine in three decades.

Stockpiles of food are dwindling fast in the secretive state, and dozens of malnourished North Koreans are reportedly dropping dead on the streets every day.

In Somalia, the “longest and most severe” drought in that country’s history has produced unprecedented suffering…

About 1.3 million people, 80 percent women and children, have been internally displaced in Somalia by the drought sweeping the Horn of Africa. After five consecutive poor rainy seasons, the ongoing drought has already become the longest and most severe in Somalia’s recent history.

Close to 23 million people are thought to be highly food insecure in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, according to a food security working group chaired by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development.

Sadly, most of us in the western world don’t care about poor people on the other side of the globe.

So let me give you an example from the western world.

In the UK, the largest supermarkets are now strictly rationing many fruits and vegetables…

The UK’s largest supermarket, Tesco, and discounter Aldi have said they are putting limits of three per customer on sales of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

Asda has capped sales of lettuces, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflowers and raspberry punnets to three per customer, along with tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

And Morrisons has set limits of two on cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuces and peppers.

And it is being reported that approximately 22 percent of all British households “skipped meals or even fasted for a whole day in January”…

A British NGO has warned that as many as four million children are now in food poverty amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

The survey on behalf of the Food Foundation, an NGO which promotes healthy eating, found that 22 percent households said they had skipped meals or even fasted for a whole day in January this year, an increase on the 12 percent reporting the same at the start of last year.

This is really happening.

But it can be really easy for those that still have plenty of food to turn a blind eye to the suffering of others.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

As I prove in my new book, global food production will drop precipitously in the years ahead no matter what our leaders do now.

We are running out of top soil, fertilizer supplies will become insanely tight in the years ahead, and trillions of extremely small particles of plastic are literally raining out of the sky on farms all over the planet.

Many of our leaders understand what is going to happen, but they don’t want to alarm the general public.

Those that are wise will see what is happening and will get prepared.

Unfortunately, most of the population continues to assume that everything will magically work out just fine somehow, and so they will not be ready for the horrors that are ahead of us.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

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 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.

I am so alarmed by the economic numbers that have been coming out recently.  I wrote about some of them in an article that I posted yesterday, and I am going to write about some more of them today.  Ever since the end of the Great Recession, Americans have been piling up debt at a staggering pace, and now that debt bubble is starting to implode.  There isn’t really a precedent for this, and so we can’t look back at past events in order to project what will happen next.  But it should be obvious to all of us that things will soon start getting really bad in this country.

It was only a matter of time before bankruptcies began to soar, and according to CBS News that is precisely what is happening…

The end of federal pandemic aid is putting many Americans and businesses under mounting financial pressure, leading to a spike in bankruptcies.

Total bankruptcy filings in January shot up 19% in January to 31,087, up 19% from a year ago, according to data from Epiq, a legal research firm. The number of Americans who filed for bankruptcy across Chapters 7, 11 and 13 shot up 20% in January from a year ago.

I am particularly concerned about the number of large companies that are now being forced into bankruptcy.  According to Zero Hedge, large companies are filing for bankruptcy at the fastest pace that we have seen since the days of the Great Recession…

The spike in defaults was not a fluke, and according to Bloomberg data, one month later – as of the end of February – no less than 39 large companies had filed for bankruptcy in the US so far this year, as February’s pace matches that of January; the YTD total represents the fastest pace of companies filing for bankruptcy since the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2009.

As I keep warning, one sector to keep a very close eye on is commercial real estate.

In September 2021, PIMCO acquired Columbia Property Trust Inc. in a blockbuster multi-billion dollar deal…

In September that year, Pacific Investment Management Co. said it was acquiring Columbia Property Trust Inc., which owned 19 office buildings in New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and other cities. The deal valued Columbia at $3.9 billion.

But now here we are less than two years later and Columbia is failing.

In fact, it has just defaulted “on more than $1.7 billion of debt backed by seven of its buildings”…

Columbia has now defaulted on more than $1.7 billion of debt backed by seven of its buildings, according to people familiar with the matter, which makes it one of the biggest office defaults during the pandemic period.

This is just the beginning.

We really are on the brink of the worst commercial real estate crisis in U.S. history, and it is going to be a complete and utter nightmare.

Meanwhile, U.S. consumers are also drowning in debt like never before.

Over the past couple of years, vehicle prices have escalated dramatically, and at this point millions of Americans are making monthly vehicle payments “of $1,000 or more”…

For the typical American, a new car is increasingly out of reach. Today, about two out of 13 people are making monthly car payments of $1,000 or more. For many, there’s no choice: They have few or no public transportation options and need a car to get to work, bring children to school and buy groceries.

I couldn’t imagine paying over $1,000 a month on a vehicle.

That is insane.

But this is the reality of living in this day and age.

As Steve Cortes has pointed out, Americans have also accumulated more than a trillion dollars in credit card debt…

A Trillion dollars in Credit Card debt.

What does it mean, especially for working class families?

Answers here in a new Cortes #ChalkTalk pic.twitter.com/uNcTebpA44

— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) February 21, 2023

The average rate of interest on credit card balances recently hit an all-time record high, and rates are likely to only go higher from here.

Sadly, we are also in the early stages of the worst housing crash since 2008.

As I detailed in a previous article, U.S. home prices have now declined for six months in a row.

And we have just learned that mortgage applications have fallen to the lowest level that we have seen in 28 years…

Applications for a mortgage fell for the third week in a row and now sit at a 28-year low for the second-straight week, according to data released Wednesday.

With mortgage rates half a percentage point higher over the past month, home buyers are pulling back even as the spring home buying season should be heating up.

Just think about that for a moment.

Even during the darkest days of 2008 and 2009, the number of mortgage applications never dropped this low.

If you have been waiting for the housing bubble to burst, you can stop, because it is already happening.

The Federal Reserve could certainly help the industry by reducing interest rates, but instead Fed officials just keep insisting that rates need to go even higher.

So a lot more pain is ahead for the housing sector and for the economy as a whole.

And this comes at a time when millions of Americans will soon have less money in their pockets because food stamp benefits are being reduced…

Putting food on the table will be a lot harder for millions of Americans starting in March.

Food stamp recipients will each receive about $90 a month less in benefits, on average, as a pandemic hunger relief program comes to an end nationwide three years after Congress approved it.

Every household in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as food stamps are formally known, will see their monthly benefits shrink by at least $95. Some larger families could experience monthly reductions of $250 or more, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The days ahead are going to be incredibly challenging.

But the truth is that 2023 is just going to be a warm up for what is coming in 2024 and beyond.

Do you remember how horrible 2008 and 2009 were?

Well, it is time to get ready for the sequel.

Decades of incredibly foolish decisions have brought us to this point, and now a full-blown economic nightmare is about to break loose.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

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 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.

Why is the U.S. economy suddenly deteriorating so rapidly all around us?  Well, the short answer is that this downturn is way overdue.  For years, our leaders tried to cheat the laws of economics.  The Federal Reserve pushed interest rates all the way to the floor, which is something that never would happen in a true free market economy, and they pumped trillions of fresh dollars that they literally created out of thin air into the financial system.  Meanwhile, our politicians in Washington were engaging in the greatest debt binge that the world has ever seen.  All of this reckless manipulation seemed to work for a while, but many of us warned that it would inevitably create a major inflation crisis, and that is precisely what happened.  So now the Fed is aggressively hiking interest rates in a desperate attempt to tame the inflation monster that they helped to create, and higher rates are absolutely crushing economic activity.

At this point, most Americans understand that something has seriously gone wrong, and this is pushing consumer confidence lower.

On Tuesday, we learned that consumer confidence has now fallen for two straight months to start 2023…

U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly fell for the second straight month in February as Americans’ outlook on the economy tumbled further, showing how persistent inflation is weighing on shoppers amid looming recession fears.

The Conference Board’s latest Consumer Confidence Index released Tuesday declined to 102.9 for this month, slipping from 106.0 in January — which was revised lower. Economists polled by Refinitiv had expected February’s index to tick up to 108.5.

Even more troubling is the fact that Americans seem to be bracing themselves for more economic turbulence as 2023 rolls along.

The Conference Board’s senior director of economics, Ataman Ozyildirim, is warning that U.S. consumers are planning to do far less spending in the months ahead…

“Expectations for where jobs, incomes, and business conditions are headed over the next six months all fell sharply in February,” Ozyildirim reported, noting that “consumers may be showing early signs of pulling back spending in the face of high prices and rising interest rates.”

“Fewer consumers are planning to purchase homes or autos and they also appear to be scaling back plans to buy major appliances,” the economist added. “Vacation intentions also declined in February.”

So home sales could go down even more?

That is really bad news, because home sales in southern California have already fallen to the lowest level ever recorded…

When Christmas lights go up, home sales typically go down as buyers and sellers take a break.

But this past Christmas, Santa delivered a giant lump of coal to Southern California’s housing market, as well as to real estate agents, lenders, escrow officers and anyone else who gets paid by the transaction.

Closed sales this past January — which reflect deals signed during the holiday season — fell to 9,938, the lowest number of transactions in records dating back 35 years, real estate data firm CoreLogic reported Tuesday, Feb. 28.

As I keep telling my readers, a new housing crash has begun.

In fact, U.S. home prices have now declined for sixth months in a row…

US home prices fell for the sixth month in a row in December, as rising mortgage rates pushed prospective buyers out of the housing market, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller US National Home Price Index, released Tuesday.

Sadly, home prices will likely fall quite a bit more in many areas if the Federal Reserve keeps raising rates.

Higher rates are also really hurting the auto industry, and Zero Hedge is reporting that one of the most prominent subprime auto lenders in the entire country has just collapsed…

Well, after a lengthy period in which nothing seemed to happen, suddenly the dominoes are starting to fall, and as Bloomberg reports, used car retailer and subprime auto loan lender, American Car Center, told employees the business was closing its doors, just one day after the company had hoped to pull off a funding Hail Mary by selling a $222 million bond (it failed).

According to Bloomberg, the used car retailer, which targets consumers regardless of their credit history (and thus targets almost entirely subprime borrowers who can’t get a loan elsewhere), said in an email to employees on Friday the firm was ceasing all operations, closing its headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, and that all employees would be terminated by the end of the business day, the people said. It employed about 288 people at its headquarters.

Yes, the dominoes are certainly starting to tumble.

But at least things in the U.S. are still better than they are over in Europe.

Right now, consumers in the UK are literally fighting over cucumbers as the nationwide rationing of fruits and vegetables starts to become extremely painful…

A supermarket shopper has described ‘customers fighting over the last box of cucumbers’ on the first day that Aldi and Tesco imposed rationing on some of its fresh produce. The two retailers announced limits on purchases of certain fruit and vegetables on Thursday.

It followed similar moves from Morrisons and Asda, with four major supermarkets now limiting the number of items people can buy across items such as peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes. The temporary measures are in response to a nationwide shortage of some fruit and veg.

And food prices in the UK continue to spiral completely out of control…

A measure of UK grocery price inflation soared to a record high this month — that’s more bad news for consumers already facing a shortage of fruit and vegetables that has led to rationing at major supermarkets.

Grocery prices rose 17.1% in the four weeks to February 19, compared with the same period a year ago, according to data published by Kantar Tuesday. That’s the highest rate of inflation since the data company started tracking it in 2008, and is equivalent to adding an extra £811 ($980) to a household’s average yearly grocery bill.

Unfortunately, what we are facing is a global crisis.

Economic conditions all over the planet will deteriorate in the months ahead, and so I would encourage you to brace yourself for a tremendous amount of economic turbulence.

Because it is coming, and at this point there is nothing that our leaders can do to stop it.

For such a long time, central banks and politicians all over the world tried to cheat the system.

But in the process they made our long-term problems even worse.

Now a moment of reckoning is here, and every man, woman and child on the entire planet will feel the pain.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

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 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.