Money

106.4 Million U.S. Adults Do Not Have A Job Right Now

November 20, 2023November 20, 2023 by Michael

19 months in a row! The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now fallen for 19 months in a row. When something happens for 19 consecutive months, that is definitely a trend. The economy is clearly in big trouble, and conditions are getting worse with each passing day. But the mainstream media continues to insist that the economy is doing just great. They tell us that inflation is low, but if it was still measured the way that it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation would be well into double digit territory. And they tell us that the unemployment rate is low, but if honest numbers were being used the official rate of unemployment would be about 25 percent right now. There are highly qualified people that can’t even get an interview even though they are sending out hundreds and hundreds of resumes. What are they doing wrong?

Of course the truth is that they aren’t doing anything wrong. The employment market is far tighter than we are being led to believe, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

When a working age American is not working, the government puts that individual into one of two categories.

Right now, there are only 6.5 million U.S. adults that are officially considered to be “unemployed”.

But another 99.9 million U.S. adults are considered to be “not in the labor force”. So they don’t count as being “unemployed”.

When you add those two numbers together, you get a grand total of 106.4 million U.S. adults that do not have a job right now.

At no point during the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009 did that number even reach 90 million.

So don’t let anyone convince you that unemployment is low.

The elite are trying to do their best to convince us that everything is just fine, but meanwhile the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now fallen for 19 months in a row…

A key measure of the direction of the U.S. economy fell for the 19th straight month and once again indicated that a recession is looming.

The leading economic index fell 0.8 percent in October, the Conference Board said Monday. The LEI is based on 10 indicators that tend to forecast the direction of the economy.

Economists had expected a milder decline of 0.8 percent.

The last time the index declined for 19 months in a row was during the Great Recession when it fell from the end of 2007 through 2009.

The last streak of this magnitude started in 2007.

But we didn’t have a recession in 2007.

And things still seemed relatively fine in early 2008 too.

Of course then we got to the end of 2008 and everything fell to pieces.

That is why they are called “leading” economic indicators.

They tell us what is coming.

And what is coming in our time is not going to be fun.

Needless to say, most of the population is not prepared at all for a major economic storm.

Survey after survey has shown that most of the U.S. population is currently living paycheck to paycheck…

The majority of U.S. adults are living paycheck to paycheck heading into this holiday season, a report shows.

LendingClub’s latest report shows that as of October, 60 percent of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck. Around 40 percent of consumers consider themselves to be worse off now than in 2022.

Even higher earners are struggling to get by, with 42 percent of those making six figures also living check-to-check under President Joe Biden.

According to a separate CNBC survey, the number of adults struggling to save between checks is up from 58 percent in March.

As long as those paychecks keep coming in, they can keep scraping by from month to month.

But now layoffs are starting to surge again all over the nation.

Young Americans are in particularly dire straits.

Millions upon millions of young Americans have low paying jobs and are deeply struggling with student loan debt, and this is one of the reasons why the average age of a U.S. homebuyer just keeps going higher and higher…

The average American homebuyer is now 49-years-old – 18 years older than in 1981 – as inflation, college costs and house prices make it harder for young people to get a foot on the ladder.

Research by the National Association of Realtors has revealed that the median age of all homebuyers has steadily crept up over the past forty years.

The most shocking contrast is for first time buyers where the median age is now 35, up from 31 in 2013 and 29 in 1981.

The American Dream is now out of reach for most of the nation, and that is especially true among those that are under the age of 40.

But the mainstream media absolutely refuses to acknowledge the truth.

They just keep telling us that things look great for the U.S. economy in 2024 and beyond. The following comes from a Yahoo Finance article entitled “The election year economy looks good for Biden”…

The much-predicted recession still hasn’t arrived. Will it materialize in 2024, at the worst possible moment for President Joe Biden, as he’s trying to convince voters to give him a second term?

It’s not looking that way. As economists roll out their forecasts for 2024, the prevailing theme is moderation: slowing but still-positive economic growth, a declining rate of inflation, and continued low unemployment.

Seriously?

Come on man.

Do they actually expect us to consume that pablum?

We are already in an economic crisis right now, and things are going to get so much worse during the years ahead.

You can stick your head in the sand and pretend that everything is okay if you want.

But nothing is going to change the fact that the “endgame” has arrived.

Decades of very foolish decisions have brought us to this stage, and now we are truly going to reap what we have sown.

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

11 Signs That U.S. Consumers Are In Very Serious Trouble As We Head Into The Final Stretch Of 2023

November 19, 2023November 19, 2023 by Michael

U.S. consumers are getting weaker and weaker and weaker. Today, debt levels have risen to unprecedented heights, but thanks to roaring inflation our standard of living has been steadily going down. Most Americans are working extremely hard, but they have very little to show for it. And now the latest economic downturn is really starting to bite. Layoffs are starting to surge again, once thriving businesses are shutting down all over the nation, and hunger and homelessness are exploding. If economic conditions continue to deteriorate at this pace, what will things look like a year from now?

For decades, we have been able to count on U.S. consumers to just keep spending money no matter what the economic outlook was, but now things have changed.

The following are 11 signs that U.S. consumers are in very serious trouble as we head into the final stretch of 2023…

#1 U.S. renters are spending 30 percent of their incomes just on rent…

Renters remained burdened in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2023 despite a slight improvement as insurance costs to landlords mounted, according to a new report by Moody’s Analytics.

Moody’s Analytics found that in Q3, the U.S. rent-to-income ratio (RTI) declined slightly by 0.5% and ended at 30%, a level that is the threshold for being rent-burdened. Renters are considered “burdened” if their rent payments consume 30% or more of their gross, or pre-tax, income. This comes after last year marked the first time that the median renter household in the U.S. paid over 30% of their income on an average-priced apartment when the national RTI reached a high of 30.8%.

#2 One food bank executive just told USA Today that she is seeing “the worst rate of hunger in my career” right now…

“This is the worst rate of hunger in my career,” said Morgan, who has worked at food banks in Boston, San Francisco and Anchorage, Alaska. “It’s so large, it’s hard to wrap your head around.”

#3 Wells Fargo just shut down 13 bank branches in a single week…

Six banks filed to close almost 40 branches last week leaving millions of Americans without access to vital financial services, with Wells Fargo alone axing 13 locations.

Wells Fargo has been a leader in the closure of branches around the country, having closed 160 in the first half of the year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

#4 Average hourly earnings for all employees have fallen by 3.32 percent since Joe Biden entered the White House…

Millions of Americans have received a pay cut over the past two years thanks to high inflation, a blow to President Biden as he attempts to center his re-election campaign around “Bidenomics.”

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that average hourly earnings for all employees was $11.05 in October — a 3.32% decline from the $11.43 figure in January 2021, when Biden took office.

#5 Due to a lack of consumer demand, three different major Burger King franchisees have recently declared bankruptcy…

Premier Kings, a 172-unit Burger King franchisee whose owner died in 2022, declared bankruptcy protection, saying that operating losses even after the company closed restaurants forced the issue.

It’s the third time this year that a major Burger King operator has taken such a step, while several others closed restaurants around the country in the aftermath of the chain’s sales and profit challenges.

#6 Vice Media has announced that it will be laying off dozens of staffers…

Vice Media, the one-time digital media darling that has seen its value and influence greatly diminish in recent years, moved on Thursday to further hollow out its once prestigious news division, shutting down several shows and laying off dozens of staffers.

#7 According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, almost 20,000 media jobs have already been eliminated this year…

Nearly 20,000 jobs have been eliminated across the media industry this year as of October, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

#8 Amazon is laying off hundreds of workers in its Alexa division…

Amazon on Friday said that it is cutting “several hundred” jobs within its Alexa division.

The layoffs come as the e-commerce giant is “shifting some of our efforts to better align with our business priorities, and what we know matters most to customers —which includes maximizing our resources and efforts focused on generative AI,” an Amazon spokesperson confirmed to FOX Business.

#9 Just in time for the holidays, Citigroup has decided to conduct large scale layoffs…

Citigroup will soon begin layoffs in CEO Jane Fraser’s corporate overhaul, CNBC has learned.

Employees affected by the cuts will be informed starting Wednesday, with new dismissals announced daily through early next week, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Those impacted will include chiefs of staff, managing directors and some lower-level employees, said the people. The cuts will spread to more rank-and-file staff by February, they added.

#10 As consumer wealth has dried up, federal tax receipts have been falling on a quarterly basis since the third quarter of 2022…

Rather, federal spending is rising even as federal revenues have fallen, year over year, for ten of the last twelve months. Moreover, on a quarterly basis, federal receipts have been falling—quarter-to-quarter—since the third quarter of 2022.

#11 80 percent of U.S. households are actually poorer than they were when the COVID pandemic originally hit this country…

As of June, the bottom 80% of households by income, when adjusted for inflation, had lower bank deposits and other liquid assets compared to their status in March 2020. The decline marks a significant shift from the initial phases of the pandemic, where various factors, including government financial support and restricted spending opportunities during lockdowns, led to an accumulation of excess savings.

Most Americans have been getting poorer, but the cost of living just keeps getting even more oppressive.

As a result, the middle class is literally being hollowed out.

The absolutely massive gap between the ultra-wealthy and everyone else has become an extremely pressing issue in this country, and it is going to lead to enormous civil unrest during the chaotic years that are ahead of us.

Our leaders were able to keep the economy propped up for a long time by injecting trillions of fresh dollars into the system.

But now the “endgame” has arrived, and it is going to be incredibly painful.

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

The Bottom 80% Has Gotten Significantly Poorer Since The Pandemic Began, And This Is Creating A “Robin Hood Mentality” All Over America

November 16, 2023November 16, 2023 by Michael

The rich have been getting richer and the poor have been getting poorer, and this is causing all sorts of societal problems. Thanks to social media, the poor can see the incredible affluence that the wealthy are enjoying, and they are deeply envious. Of course it certainly doesn’t help that flaunting wealth has become one of the favorite pastimes of the wealthy. Many of them love to post photos and videos of their luxury lifestyles on their social media accounts, and that is not a good thing. Because times have not been good for most of the country. In fact, a brand new study from the Federal Reserve has discovered that the bottom 80 percent have “lower bank deposits and other liquid assets compared to their status in March 2020”…

As of June, the bottom 80% of households by income, when adjusted for inflation, had lower bank deposits and other liquid assets compared to their status in March 2020. The decline marks a significant shift from the initial phases of the pandemic, where various factors, including government financial support and restricted spending opportunities during lockdowns, led to an accumulation of excess savings.

In other words, the vast majority of all Americans have been getting poorer.

Meanwhile, the rich have just kept on getting even richer…

The Federal Reserve, along with Bloomberg calculations, identified a rapid drawdown of these excess savings, particularly stark among the lower-income groups. While all income groups have experienced a decrease in real-term cash balances from the peak in 2021, the disparity is noteworthy. The wealthiest one-fifth of households still have cash savings approximately 8% above their pre-COVID levels. In stark contrast, the poorest two-fifths have witnessed an 8% decrease, and the next 40% — broadly representing the middle class — have seen their cash savings fall below pre-pandemic levels.

Right now, the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us is the greatest that it has ever been in the entire history of our nation.

According to a different report that was just put out by the Labor Department, average hourly earnings are lower today than they were when Joe Biden first entered the White House…

Millions of Americans have received a pay cut over the past two years thanks to high inflation, a blow to President Biden as he attempts to center his re-election campaign around “Bidenomics.”

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that average hourly earnings for all employees was $11.05 in October — a 3.32% decline from the $11.43 figure in January 2021, when Biden took office.

And as the pace of layoffs picks up, soon millions of Americans won’t have a job to go to at all.

This week, we learned that Citigroup has begun large scale layoffs…

One of the U.S.’ top banks will begin massive layoffs on Wednesday in a corporate overhaul as the company seeks to trim its operating expenses to levels more in line with its competitors, according to CNBC.

Citigroup will begin cutting employees on Wednesday, with new terminations continuing to be announced through next week, affecting some chiefs of staff, managing directors and lower-level employees, according to CNBC. Following the initial round of layoffs, more employees in less senior positions are expected to be dismissed in February, with the layoffs being expected to be fully completed by March 2024.

And Stellantis has just announced that it has offered buyouts to approximately half of their salaried employees…

Stellantis, one of the Big Three U.S. automakers, on Monday offered buyouts to about half of its salaried employees as it looks to cut costs as it transitions to electric vehicles (EVs) and takes on increased costs from a new union contract.

The parent company of major car brands like Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram offered voluntary buyouts to about 6,400 of its roughly 12,700 salaried employees who aren’t represented by a union and have at least five years of experience. Employees who accept the incentive will depart the company before the end of December.

As economic conditions have deteriorated, crime has soared.

In recent days I have written about the shocking thefts that we are witnessing all over the nation, but this one tops them all…

This is the shocking moment a mob of 40 people looted a FedEx truck while it was stopped at a red light in Memphis, Tennessee.

Around 8:30pm Saturday, a 53-foot trailer was ransacked while it sat in traffic at the intersection of Riverport Road and West Mallory Avenue.

After the driver reported the theft, the Memphis police arrived and saw vehicles speeding away recklessly along with a number of boxes thrown across the road.

The FedEx truck had nowhere to go, because once it reached the intersection there were cars that suddenly moved into position to block it…

The truck driver told the police that cars blocked the intersection just before a group of men broke open the sealed back door and looted the trailer.

Three men have since been detained after the raging group caused nearly $10,000 in damages – and stole numerous items such as Kicker Speakers, a box of air liners and three DirectTV cable boxes.

In my brand new book entitled “Chaos”, I specifically warn people to avoid Memphis if at all possible.

It has become one of the most dangerous cities in the entire country.

But of course we are starting to see these sorts of crimes everywhere.

Large groups of people have decided that it is okay to take from the rich and the corporations that they control and give to the poor (themselves) because the rich probably exploited the poor to get their wealth in the first place.

This sort of “Robin Hood mentality” is extremely dangerous, and it is rapidly spreading.

And now we have an election season and a war in the Middle East to add fuel to the fire. On Thursday, a crazed group of protesters shut down the entire Bay Bridge…

A well-coordinated group of hundreds of Pro-Palestine protesters shut down the Bay Bridge on Thursday morning, tying up traffic during rush hour and calling out to world leaders to end the war in Gaza during the APEC summit.

The four-hour chaotic event, which started around 7:45 a.m., ended with at least 70 arrests and 29 towed cars. All lanes finally reopened just before noon, but not after at least 200 protesters had chained themselves together and purposefully tossed their car keys into the bay, stalling efforts to reopen the span to frustrated drivers.

Needless to say, this is just the beginning.

The war in the Middle East is going to continue to escalate, and 2024 will be the most chaotic election year that any of us have ever seen by far.

So buckle up and hold on tight, because we are going to see staggering levels of civil unrest and crime in 2024 and beyond.

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

If We Don’t Start Locking Up The Criminals, We Are Literally Going To Have To Lock Up EVERYTHING

November 15, 2023November 15, 2023 by Michael

Crime is completely and utterly out of control in this nation. During the first six months of this year, retail theft was up 109 percent in the city of Los Angeles. In response to this tsunami of theft, retailers are starting to lock up products all over the nation. But if we don’t start locking up the criminals, we are literally going to have to lock up everything. Unfortunately, right now we cannot lock up all of the criminals, because the number of criminals far exceeds the number of empty spots in our prisons. Even though we have more people locked up than any other nation on the entire planet, our streets are still absolutely teeming with predators. This is what an advanced stage of social decay looks like, and it isn’t pretty.

During a recent interview with CNBC, the CEO of Target insisted that customers are thankful that the retailer is now locking up body wash, toothpaste and deodorant…

Still, the retailer’s CEO, Brian Cornell, claimed many shoppers are actually grateful to see their body wash, toothpaste and deodorant behind a glass panel.

On a media call with reporters discussing Target’s fiscal third-quarter earnings, CNBC asked Cornell if the retailer can quantify the sales lost from shoppers who are frustrated with waiting for employees to unlock cases in-store. He said the shopper response to the policy has been “positive.”

“Courtney, just in the last week I’ve been on the East Coast and on the West Coast in many of those stores that you’ve talked about where, items have been locked up,” he said. “And actually what we hear from the guests is a big thank you, because we are in stock with the brands that they need when they’re shopping in our stores. And because we’ve invested in team member labor in those aisles and make sure we’re there to greet that guest, open up those cases and provide them the items they’re looking for.”

The reason why customers are thankful that those products are locked up is because they would never be in stock if they weren’t locked up.

That is how bad our shoplifting epidemic has become.

As I mentioned the other day, CVS is even locking up toilet paper and paper towels…

Witness a CVS store in our nation’s capital, forced by rampant, serial theft to pull toilet paper and paper towels from the shelves, replacing them with framed photos of the missing products and a buzzer.

Customers trying to buy Charmin or Bounty must buzz to summon a clerk, who will (eventually) retrieve the precious commodity from a back room.

In other words, the capital of the most powerful nation in human history has been reduced to Third World-style security systems to sell basic goods.

Did you ever imagine that theft would become so rampant in America that stores would actually have to lock up toilet paper and paper towels?

Sadly, this is our country now.

This is where we are.

Even if every single product in every single store was locked up, predators would still target the delivery trucks.

On Sunday, thieves in the Washington D.C. area actually carjacked an entire UPS delivery truck…

An armed carjacking of a UPS truck in Prince George’s County was caught on a doorbell camera.

A UPS driver was out delivering packages Sunday when several suspects surrounded her, and took off with her truck in broad daylight.

Prince George’s County police say around 2 p.m., detectives responded to the 9000 block of Elk Avenue in the newly developed Westridge Westphalia neighborhood in Upper Marlboro.

The carjacking was caught on camera and FOX 5 got a look at the exclusive Ring doorbell footage.

We have never seen thieves be as bold as they are right now.

In San Francisco, a Czech news crew that was there to cover the APEC summit was robbed at gunpoint…

Czech TV journalist Bohumil Vostal found himself in a tense situation as he aimed to capture a striking scene: the renowned City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, immersed in the dimming twilight.

Vostal and his cameraman fell victim to a harrowing robbery, orchestrated by three masked assailants wielding guns. The incident, occurring at 5 p.m. on Columbus Avenue, resulted in the theft of equipment and valuable footage worth over $18,000. The perpetrators targeted the journalists despite the heightened international attention drawn by the APEC summit, which gathered leaders from 21 economies.

The entire world is shocked by the crime and depravity that we allow to run wild in our streets.

And if you think that things are bad now, just wait until economic conditions get really bad.

When millions of Americans cannot even provide the basics for themselves and their families, we will witness much worse theft than we are seeing now.

Resources just keep getting tighter and tighter, and the outlook for the years ahead is very alarming. For example, the size of the U.S. beef cow herd has fallen to the lowest level since 1962, and it is being projected that it will “continue shrinking” for several more years…

Brazilian processor Marfrig Global Foods SA warned the US cattle herd will continue shrinking through the midpoint of the decade. Less supplies will pressure meatpackers and keep the prices of steak and hamburgers at elevated levels.

During a conference call, Tim Klein, the head of Marfrig’s North American operation, explained the availability of fattened animals for meatpackers to slaughter and process should trough between 2025 and 2026. He said this is because ranchers have not yet started keeping cows for breeding.

As we’ve noted, years of drought and high feed costs forced ranchers across the Midwest to send the cows to slaughterhouses, leading to a sharp reduction in the nation’s overall herd size. In January, the beef cow herd size was the smallest since 1962.

We really are moving into unprecedented times.

But most Americans don’t want to hear this.

Most Americans want to hear that everything is going to be just great.

If you are one of those people, just keep drooling over the latest gossip about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce or whatever else you are obsessing over these days.

But ignoring the social decay that is ripping our nation apart is not going to make it go away.

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

Conditions Are “Drier Than The Dust Bowl Years” In The Heartland Of America

November 14, 2023November 14, 2023 by Michael

The seemingly endless drought in the heartland of America is not going to be good for food production. For years, I have been relentlessly warning my readers that Dust Bowl conditions would return to the middle of the country. And now, Dust Bowl conditions have returned to the middle of the country. In fact, as you will see below, it is being reported that conditions are “drier than the Dust Bowl years” in some parts of Iowa. If the heartland of America doesn’t start getting more precipitation, we are going to be facing some enormous problems in the years ahead.

According to drought. gov, half of the Midwest is experiencing drought right now, and things are particularly dire in the state of Iowa…

94% of Iowa is currently in drought, with 24% in extreme drought (D3). Despite decent improvement over the last month, drought is still impacting 68% of Wisconsin and 58% of Minnesota.

Needless to say, the heartland of America produces much of our food.

So it should deeply concern all of us that communities all over the Midwest are starting to run out of water…

The southeast Kansas city of Caney will run out of water by March 1 without rain, officials said. Its school district has moved to a four-day week to conserve water. Four wells in Belle Plaine, Iowa, are producing 40% as much water as usual. Residents of Osceola, near Des Moines, can be fined $65 or more if they defy water restrictions.

Residents in many towns aren’t allowed to wash their cars. Port-a-potties have replaced some public bathrooms.

“We’re hoping it just rains,” said James Rainbolt, manager of a wholesale water plant that supplies parts of four counties in southern Kansas. “We’re at the mercy of the weather.”

Ultimately, we are all at the mercy of the weather.

Despite all of our advanced technology, we remain highly vulnerable to shifting weather patterns.

And at this moment we are being told that some parts of Iowa are literally “drier than the Dust Bowl years”…

Two counties in Iowa have had the driest three-year period on record, going back at least to the 1890s, he said.

“Drier than the Dust Bowl years,” he said.

Dozens of other communities are “carefully watching well levels and streams,” Hall said, “trying to make sure they don’t end up in the same situation as Belle Plaine or Osceola,” which are experiencing water shortages.

As a result of the extremely dry conditions, major dust storms are becoming increasingly common in the Midwest.

Earlier this year, a colossal dust storm in Illinois actually caused a vehicle pileup that involved dozens of motorists…

Gusting winds in the Midwestern United States have kicked up a fatal dust storm, reducing visibility to zero and triggering a major vehicle pileup that killed at least six people on an Illinois highway.

More than 30 additional motorists, from ages 2 to 80, were hurt in the crash as a result of Monday’s storm, according to Illinois state police. Their injuries ranged from minor to life-threatening.

The lack of precipitation is also causing enormous headaches all along the Mississippi River, and authorities are warning that this is not likely to change any time soon…

Lack of rain brought drought to much of the Mississippi River basin early this summer, and it’s likely going to linger into winter, Army Corps of Engineers leadership said during a press conference on Nov. 8 in Memphis, while a dredge was working nonstop to keep the river channel open a few miles south.

It’s the second year in a row that extreme drought has caused a shrinking channel, forcing the Corps to dredge later in the season than normal. Last year, low river levels lingered into the winter, and dredging continued until January.

It’s shaping up to be the same this year.

Welcome to the “new normal” along the Mississippi River.

And considering the fact that so much of our food is transported on vessels that use the Mississippi River, this is a big problem for all of us.

Of course drought is just one of the factors that has been depressing food production in this nation. Overall, natural disasters “caused $21.5 billion in agricultural losses” in the United States last year…

Research from the American Farm Bureau Federation suggests that nationwide, natural disasters caused $21.5 billion in agricultural losses last year. Only about half of those were protected by insurance, the majority of which is sold through federally-backed programs. Their payouts to farmers have increased over 500 percent in the last two decades.

That number is almost certainly going to be even larger this year.

And this is one of the reasons why food prices are going to continue to go up no matter what our leaders choose to do.

Food production is being hammered from one direction after another, and this is happening at a time when global supplies of food are becoming tighter and tighter.

So I hope that you decided to stock up on food while prices were still relatively low.

Because they are a lot higher now, and it won’t be too long before they reach exceedingly painful levels.

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

The Middle Class Is Working Harder Than Ever, But It Is Being Absolutely Eviscerated By “Bidenomics”

November 13, 2023November 13, 2023 by Michael

What in the world is happening to the middle class? Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world. When I was growing up, a single income was all that was needed to support a middle class lifestyle for an entire family. My mother didn’t work outside of the home, and that was the case with many other mothers that lived in our middle class neighborhood. None of the kids that I played with or went to school with were “wealthy”, but everyone lived comfortably. But now everything has changed. The middle class in America is working harder than ever, but it has been steadily shrinking. With each passing day, more Americans are falling out of the middle class and into poverty, and this is a trend that should deeply alarm all of us.

In most families, both parents have to work extremely hard just so that the bills can be paid each month.

In fact, in many cases both parents are either working multiple jobs or putting in insane amounts of overtime. At this point, squeezing endless hours out of workers has become a permanent state of affairs in many industries. The following comes from an NBC News article entitled “36-hour shifts, 80-hour weeks: Workers are being burned out by overtime”…

From firehouses and police stations to hospitals and manufacturing plants, workers say they are being required to work increasing overtime hours to make up for post-pandemic worker shortages — leaving them sleep-deprived, scrambling to cover child care duties, and missing birthdays, holidays and vacations. While the extra hours can provide a financial boost, some workers say the trade-off is no longer worth it as they see no end in sight to a problem that has now lasted for several years.

“It’s getting to that fever pitch moment,” said Gonano, who is president of the Virginia Beach Professional Fire and EMS union. “It’s just rampant. People are tired of working all the overtime. It’s definitely causing morale issues.”

Many years ago when I worked in Washington D.C., I remember putting in 80 hour weeks.

Working such long hours can really affect your health after a while.

Unfortunately, these days many Americans have no other choice. The only way that the bills are going to get paid is by working countless hours.

But even though Americans are working so hard, they aren’t doing so well. According to a brand new survey, only 14 percent of U.S. voters say that Joe Biden’s economic policies have made them better off…

A new poll spells out the steep economic cliff that President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is facing.

Just 14 percent of voters think his policies have made them better off, according to the survey published Monday.

And overall almost 70 per cent said Biden’s economic policies had either hurt the US economy or had no impact, including 33 per cent who said they believed the president’s policies had ‘hurt the economy a lot.’

This is one of the primary reasons why so many voters have soured on Biden.

And when that same survey asked about the sources of financial stress, the number one response was inflation…

When asked what was causing them most financial stress, some 82 percent of those surveyed said price increases.

‘Every group — Democrats, Republicans and independents — list rising prices as by far the biggest economic threat . . . and the biggest source of financial stress,’ said Erik Gordon, a professor at Michigan’s Ross School.

‘That is bad news for Biden, and the more so considering how little he can do to reverse the perception of prices before election day.’

Over the past several years, the cost of living has gone up much faster than paychecks have.

Just look at the cost of housing. Home prices have gone into the stratosphere, and as a result housing is now more unaffordable than it has ever been before…

The income of a typical homebuyer in the United States surged to $107,000 from $88,000 last year, as home affordability precipitously worsened, according to an annual report from the National Association of Realtors.

The 22% jump was the highest annual increase on record, and puts homeownership out of reach for many families in the United States, where the median income is about $75,000, according to the Census Bureau.

Buying a home has become much harder for people as mortgage rates surged over the past two years and home prices continue to rise due to very low inventory.

And don’t even get me started on food prices.

When I get to the checkout counter at my local supermarket, I feel like asking the cashier what organ I should donate in order to pay for my cart of groceries.

In order to get inflation under control, the Federal Reserve has been aggressively hiking interest rates, and an economist that worked at the Fed for six years is warning that interest rates are going to go even higher…

“I worked at the Fed for six years and if inflation expectations are drifting higher and they’re not under control, the Fed absolutely will act,” Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors, told CNN.

“That is the one thing that gives them trouble sleeping at night. They don’t lose sleep over recessions because they come and go, but they do lose sleep over long-term inflation expectations drifting higher,” he said.

Of course high interest rates are already absolutely devastating many sectors of the economy.

For example, the trucking industry is in the midst of “the great trucking recession” right now…

“Everybody’s calling this the great trucking recession, and it’s true because all the trucking companies right now are in dark times,” he said. “This is not a good time to be in the trucking industry. Just to paint a picture, the trucking industry is the engine that drives the American economy forward. We’re fueling growth [and] prosperity by transporting goods to where they need to be and when the engine breaks down or stops, it works like a heart. When that ceases to be, it brings the entire economic system to a halt.”

Yellow Corporation, for example, which is one of the nation’s oldest and largest trucking companies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August, laying off 30,000 employees. Convoy Inc., a Seattle-based trucking startup that was valued by investors at $3.8 billion just last year, shut down last month.

Our politicians in Washington have been borrowing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars in a desperate attempt to prop up the economy, but it isn’t working.

But all of that borrowing and spending is making our long-term financial outlook a lot worse. In fact, Moody’s just reduced the rating outlook for the U.S. government from “stable” to “negative”…

Moody’s Investors Service on Friday lowered its ratings outlook on the United States’ government to negative from stable, pointing to rising risks to the nation’s fiscal strength.

The ratings agency has affirmed the long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings of the U.S. at Aaa.

“In the context of higher interest rates, without effective fiscal policy measures to reduce government spending or increase revenues,” the agency said. “Moody’s expects that the US’ fiscal deficits will remain very large, significantly weakening debt affordability.”

We really are in the endgame.

Our leaders were able to keep the party going for a long time, but now the jig is up.

Inflation is out of control, the value of our currency is being destroyed, and debt levels have reached cataclysmic proportions.

The era of seemingly endless prosperity is over, and an extraordinary amount of pain is ahead of us.

A full-blown economic meltdown has now begun, and there is nothing that Joe Biden can do to reverse this process.

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

Why Is Volcanic Activity Starting To Go Crazy All Over The Planet?

November 12, 2023November 12, 2023 by Michael

All of a sudden, the giant rock that we all live on is starting to go a bit nuts. Unusual volcanic activity is happening all over the globe, but the “experts” are assuring us that there is nothing to be concerned about. But could it be possible that they are wrong? After you have reviewed the information that I provide in this article, come to your own conclusion. To me, it definitely appears that what we are currently witnessing is not normal.

Right now, volcanic activity is causing a brand new island to emerge from the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of Japan’s Iwo Jima island…

A newborn island that recently emerged from the Pacific Ocean after an underwater volcanic eruption is now visible from space, images from the European Space Agency (ESA) reveal. The satellite images show the new landmass sitting around 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) off the coast off Japan’s Iwo Jima island.

The submerged volcano began erupting on Oct. 21, with activity ramping up over the next 10 days. By Oct. 30, explosions were taking place every few minutes, according to a translated statement. The eruption threw large lumps of rock into the air, and shot a jet of gas and ash over 160 feet (50 meters) almost vertically above the water’s surface.

Needless to say, a new island is not born very often.

I have been warning my readers about the alarming rise of volcanic activity in our oceans, and this is yet more evidence that something really strange is taking place down there.

But when it comes to Japan, there is another volcano that I believe is far more of a threat.

Let’s keep a very close eye on Mt. Fuji in 2024 and beyond, because when it finally blows it is going to cause death and destruction on an absolutely massive scale.

Meanwhile, in Iceland residents of the town of Grindavík are being evacuated because thousands of earthquakes have “raised concerns that a volcanic eruption may be imminent”…

Some residents of the southwestern Iceland town of Grindavík were allowed to briefly return home Sunday to quickly gather essential belongings and pets left behind when evacuations were ordered amid thousands of earthquakes that have rattled the region and raised concerns that a volcanic eruption may be imminent.

Iceland’s government declared a state of emergency and began the mass evacuation of Grindavík on Friday.

Overall, that region has been hit by more than 4,000 earthquakes in recent days, and at least 1,000 of those quakes were actually “recorded within the magma tunnel”…

The Icelandic Met Office (IMO) has been providing continuous updates on the potential disaster and said that based on observations, there is a “significant likelihood” of a volcanic eruption in the coming days.

More than 4,000 earthquakes have struck the region over the past two days, and the IMO said that since midnight on Sunday, 1,000 earthquakes were recorded within the magma tunnel, or dike, that formed at the end of last week.

Here in the United States, Mount St. Helens has been rattled by 400 earthquakes since the middle of July…

400 earthquakes have been recorded under Mount St. Helens since mid-July, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

This is the longest series of tremors since the volcano’s last eruption ended in 2008.

We are being told that “magma has been flowing through chambers deep underground” as the volcano recharges…

Specialized equipment has detected that magma has been flowing through chambers deep underground, causing the volcano to recharge.

There are fears the earthquakes could lead to another massive explosion reminiscent of 1980s eruption that left 57 people dead and permanently altered the area’s ecosystem.

I do believe that Mount St. Helens will erupt again.

But as my regular readers already know, I am even more concerned about Mt. Rainier.

On the other side of the world, seismic activity has been regularly shaking an absolutely massive supervolcano known as Campi Flegrei…

It is now the site of multiple volcanoes that have been active for 39,000 years, many of which lie underwater. It’s also populated with villas, small villages and shopping malls and home to 800,000 people and a hospital under construction. More than 500,000 of the locals live in what Italy’s civil protection agency has deemed a “red zone,” an area encompassing 18 towns that’s at highest risk in the event of an eruption. An additional 3 million residents of Naples live immediately outside the eastern edge of the caldera, according to the civil protection agency.

The last major eruption of Campi Flegrei was in 1538, and it created a new mountain in the bay. Seismic activity in the area has been intensifying since December of 2022, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), and experts fear that the volcano could be reawakening after generations at rest.

So far this year, Campi Flegrei has been hit by more than 3,400 earthquakes, and this has generated quite a bit of alarm…

Currently in a state of positive bradyseism, when the ground moves upward, the entire volcanic zone is also experiencing a surge in earthquakes that has rattled nerves and sent residents seeking safety out into the streets. In September, the strongest earthquake in 40 years struck the region, and that 4.2 magnitude quake was followed by one of a similar strength just days later.

So far in 2023 Campi Flegrei has recorded more than 3,450 earthquakes, 1,118 of which occurred in August alone. This is more than triple the previous year’s total, according to INGV’s data. More than 500 earthquakes occurred in October, the strongest of which hit 4.0 magnitude, followed by a dozen aftershocks.

All of this seismic activity has been happening at a time when the giant ball of fire that our planet revolves around has been extremely active.

In fact, a large coronal mass ejection that was just unleashed hit us this weekend…

That’s because the sun has unleashed an enormous coronal mass ejection (CME) which is set to hit the Earth this weekend, sparking a geomagnetic storm between Saturday and Sunday.

This will fling charged particles into our planet which will interact with oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere to emit green and red colours over our poles.

The Met Office’s Space Weather arm said Aurora borealis would likely be visible across parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and even ‘as far south as central England and Wales’ if skies are clear.

Scientific “experts” are going to just keep telling you that nothing unusual is happening at all.

And people like me are going to just keep telling you that cataclysmic times are now upon us.

So who is right and who is wrong?

As is the case with so many other things, time will reveal the truth…

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

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