Money

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.

Inflation is a hidden tax on all of us.  Unfortunately, most Americans don’t understand this.  Most of them cheered when the federal government was handing out free checks as if they were candy.  And most Americans fully approved of the Federal Reserve propping up our financial markets by flooding the system with obscene amounts of money.  But now we are paying the price.  Our money doesn’t go nearly as far as it once did, and the cost of living has become extremely oppressive.

When I heard that one woman had financed a 1998 Ford Escort for $289 a month for 84 months, I initially thought that there must be some mistake.

I knew that used car prices had risen to insane levels, but I never expected to see something like this…

During tax season, people are often using their returns to buy outrageous things. Normally, people will buy an older model of luxury car, which they usually end up taking a loss on. Other times, people price themselves out by buying a new car that is out of their normal budget. However, there is a woman who has gone viral from Facebook for buying a 1998 Ford Escort under a horrible deal. Not only is she paying over $200 a month for the car, she is paying on it for the next seven years.

Obviously, someone really took advantage of this woman, because a 1998 Ford Escort is not worth much.

But this is the day and age that we are living in.  25 year old Ford Escorts are considered to be valuable assets, and financing of used vehicles is often stretched over 7 years so that poor Americans can afford to make the payments…

While she is spending less than $300 a month for her car, the car is already twenty-five years old. This lady has gone viral, because of the promo post, where she is making $289 monthly payments for the next 84 months, which is seven years.

The gap between the wealthy and the poor in the U.S. has never been larger than it is right now.

In fact, an entire industry has developed that literally sucks the blood out of poor people so that it can be given to rich people…

It consists of a network of hundreds of plasma extraction centers, deliberately built in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, towns, and cities. Places like Flint, Michigan, and Rexburg, Idaho, and El Paso, Texas. Places where companies know people need money and might do something a little unpleasant to get it. The centers prey on the precarity of people who live in these places, often ignored by the wider public, and a little bit too dark to dive deep under the surface. They use an American mixture of cheery customer service and ever-changing payment schemes that can make plasma sellers feel like they are the ones gaming the system, when reality is the other way around. They draw in more people of color because they are often built in the places where most people aren’t white. It is an industry that takes advantage of baked-in American economic and racial inequities.

When the cost of living rises, it hits those at the bottom of the economic food chain the hardest.

The Federal Reserve has been aggressively hiking interest rates in a desperate attempt to get inflation under control, but it is not working…

The Fed pays particular attention to the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index. The “Core PCE” price index (which excludes the volatile food and energy components) is its measuring stick for the 2% inflation target. Powell has been pointing at the services components of the PCE price index as a hotbed of inflation. And the PCE price index for January, released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, was a horror show on all counts.

Not only did all the relevant measures get a lot worse in January, but the prior three months, October through December, were revised higher – much like the CPI inflation readings a couple of weeks ago – showing substantially greater inflation momentum at the end of the year than originally shown. The whole thing throws a lot of cold water on the “disinflation” hoopla.

In particular, food inflation has gotten wildly out of control.

At this point, even Costco is charging ridiculous prices…

On Sunday, a Reddit post showcasing the new roast beef sandwich at a Costco location in Lynnwood, Washington, went viral because of the sandwich’s eye-popping asking price.

Costco wants customers to pay $9.99 for sliced roast beef with onion, relish, mayo/mustard blend, lettuce, roasted cherry tomatoes and red onions on a ciabatta roll.

While the 790-calorie sandwich looks good, Reddit users were astounded by the price tag — which is equivalent to a whole Costco pizza.

“10 dollars? Is it the same size as the pizza?” one user commented.

No matter how high the Fed hikes interest rates, food prices are going to continue to go up.

But higher rates are having an impact on employment.  In fact, today another prominent tech company announced that it will be conducting layoffs…

Palantir confirmed on Monday that it’s cutting about 2% of its workforce as layoffs continue to hammer the tech industry.

“We believe our company is at an inflection point and to continue to evolve, we are making the tough choice of reducing teams in several areas,” the company said in an emailed statement. “While less than 2% of our workforce is impacted by these changes, these are incredibly painful decisions but the right ones for the company’s future.”

There is no more debate.

The economy is clearly getting worse.

In fact, a brand new Fox News poll discovered that 78 percent of all Americans believe that “the economy is in only fair or poor condition”…

Fully 78% say the economy is in only fair or poor condition, mostly unchanged for the last year.

That’s how the economy remains the top issue, with 36% saying it’s the most important problem facing the country — and it’s the number one choice among Democrats, Republicans, and independents.

But what most people don’t understand is that this is just the very beginning of this new crisis.

Eventually, conditions will get a whole lot worse.

So I would encourage you to make preparations for the hard times that are coming, because a tremendous amount of pain is 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.

The horrific environmental disaster in East Palestine, Ohio has contaminated the air, the soil and the water in much of the region.  So how much, if any, of the food that is grown in that part of the country will be safe to eat?  I had not thought about that question too much until I received a very alarming phone call.  One of the people that I spoke to during that phone call was a woman that I know personally.  I have known her for years, and I have visited with her in her own living room, and so I can vouch for her honesty.  She told me that her “son-in-law manages three organic food farms in California, Idaho, and Washington State”, and that he is “warning family and friends to get ready for severe food shortages starting this spring”.  Apparently there are several factors that will cause food supplies to be tighter, and one of the biggest is the fact that the “Ohio spill has contaminated a lot of land and water”.  Apparently there is a scramble “to find clean food” and her son-in-law is receiving lots of phone calls from buyers in the eastern half of the nation that want to buy what his farms are producing.

We will just have to wait and see if things will be as bad as this source is suggesting.

But we do know that some companies have already started to take action due to concerns about contamination.

For example, one grocery chain has already removed bottled water from store shelves “because it was bottled 25 miles from the derailment”…

Weeks after a train derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border left hazardous chemicals burning from railcars, fears of the potential impacts are being felt in places far from the accident.

Grocery chain Giant Eagle, with hundreds of stores in five states including Ohio and Pennsylvania, pulled bottled water off shelves out of an “abundance of caution” because it was bottled 25 miles from the derailment.

And we also know that large numbers of animals are dying.

In fact, officials are now publicly admitting that approximately 43,000 “fish, amphibians, crustaceans and other aquatic animals” are already dead…

The derailment in East Palestine potentially killed more than 43,000 fish, amphibians, crustaceans and other aquatic animals in nearby streams, state officials said Thursday.

It will take time for the stream ecosystem to recover, said Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

“We know it won’t be quick,” she said. “But it’s going to come back.”

Ultimately, the final death toll among animals will inevitably be much larger.

Another thing that we know is that lots of people that live in and around East Palestine are getting sick.  The following example comes from the New York Post…

Wade Lovett’s been having trouble breathing since the Feb. 3 Norfolk South train derailment and toxic explosion here. In fact, his voice sounds as if he’s been inhaling helium.

“Doctors say I definitely have the chemicals in me but there’s no one in town who can run the toxicological tests to find out which ones they are,” Lovett, 40, an auto detailer, said in an extremely high-pitched voice. “My voice sounds like Mickey Mouse. My normal voice is low. It’s hard to breathe, especially at night. My chest hurts so much at night I feel like I’m drowning. I cough up phlegm a lot. I lost my job because the doctor won’t release me to go to work.”

We have never seen anything quite like this before, and there are so many questions that are going unanswered.

Right now, a lot of people are wondering why the EPA has suddenly stopped all shipments of contaminated waste from the disaster site…

Federal environmental authorities have ordered a temporary halt in the shipment of contaminated waste from the site of a fiery train derailment earlier this month in eastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania state line.

Region 5 administrator Debra Shore of the Environmental Protection Agency said Saturday the agency ordered Norfolk Southern to “pause” shipments from the site of the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine but vowed that removal of the material would resume “very soon.”

Why can’t they tell us why they made this decision?

And why won’t Joe Biden go to Ohio?

When he was directly asked about visiting East Palestine, this is how he responded…

The president answered, ‘At this point, I’m not,’ but then he appeared confused and strained as he tried to explain himself.

‘I did a whole video, I mean, um, what the hell, on,’ Biden rambled as he looked for reporters to fill in the gap.

‘Zoom?’ one of the reporters said, trying to help the president.

‘Zoom! All I can think of every time I think of Zoom is that song in my generation, Who’s Zoomin’ Who,’ he said, referencing the Aretha Franklin song.

Come on Joe.

Is that really the best that you can do?

Meanwhile, we continue to see very odd disasters happen at critical facilities all over North America.  On Thursday, massive fires suddenly erupted at three different Pemex facilities…

Three separate fires at Petroleos Mexicanos facilities on Thursday killed one worker, left at least eight people injured and several others missing, putting the Mexican state oil company’s safety record under scrutiny ahead of its earnings call on Monday.

There were three separate fires in three different oil refineries owned by the same company, Pemex. All in one day.

What is going on???pic.twitter.com/4KJ55ARd49

— Sara Gonzales (@SaraGonzalesTX) February 24, 2023

Are we supposed to believe that three separate facilities all had catastrophic “accidents” on the exact same day?

Here in the United States, more than 100 food processing facilities have been mysteriously destroyed over the past couple of years.

How many incidents have to happen before authorities will finally admit that there is some sort of a pattern?

Food production just keeps getting hit over and over gain, and this comes at a time when the global food shortages that we have been anticipating have already begun.

I would highly recommend stocking up while you still can, because we are moving into times of great uncertainty.

***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 knew exactly what would happen when China unveiled their peace plan for the conflict in Ukraine.  The night before, I told my wife that western leaders would immediately dismiss it.  Sadly, that is precisely what happened.  Of course any peace plan proposed by China was not going to be perfect.  But for the good of humanity our leaders should be willing to at least sit down and talk with the Russians.  Because if we stay on the path that we are currently on, eventually somebody will use nuclear weapons.  And once things go nuclear, we could be facing a nightmare scenario in which hundreds of millions of people die.

This is not a game.

At some point, peace talks may become impossible.  So if we have an opportunity to talk now, we should grab it.

But instead, our leaders made it abundantly clear that they aren’t even interested in considering China’s peace plan…

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, speaking on CNN, brushed off the Chinese proposal, saying it should have ended after the first bullet point, which calls for “respecting the sovereignty of all countries.”

“This war could end tomorrow, if Russia stopped attacking Ukraine and withdrew its forces,” he said.

Asked about the proposal, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “China doesn’t have much credibility” in light of its failure to condemn Putin’s war.

And Volodymyr Zelensky is completely rejecting the idea of ever negotiating with Vladimir Putin…

The Ukrainian president has repeatedly rejected the idea of negotiating a peace deal that would see Ukraine lose any of its territory. Speaking on Friday, he said he would not negotiate with Putin – even though he was prepared to speak to him before the war started.

“It is not the same man. There is nobody to talk to there,” he said.

I think that Zelensky would see things quite differently if he was one of the men that was being forced into the meat grinder in eastern Ukraine.

According to a former U.S. Marine that is fighting there, the “average life expectancy of a front-line soldier in eastern Ukraine is just four hours”…

The average life expectancy of a front-line soldier in eastern Ukraine is just four hours, a former US Marine fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in the Donbas told ABC News.

“It’s been pretty bad on the ground. A lot of casualties. The life expectancy is around four hours on the front line,” American Troy Offenbecker said.

It is a really, really horrible war.

But those that are far from the front lines can afford to talk about how glorious the war is…

Just one day before the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion, the official Twitter account for the NATO military alliance has come under criticism for a post that said Ukraine is “hosting one of the great epics of this century” and compared the war to Hollywood movies.

The post, which quoted a Ukrainian soldier named Pavlo, said: “We are Harry Potter and William Wallace, the Na’vi and Han Solo. We’re escaping from Shawshank and blowing up the Death Star. We are fighting with the Harkonnens and challenging Thanos.”

The idea of comparing the war, which has claimed thousands of lives, seen widespread destruction, and destabalised the world’s food and energy supplies, to fictional characters was quickly deried by many on the social media platform.

I would like to see leaders from both sides be forced to serve on the front lines.

If that ever happened, this war would end really quick.

Sadly, a conflict with Russia is apparently not enough, and so the Biden administration is now relentlessly provoking the Chinese.

This week, a new round of sanctions that were announced by the Biden administration actually included entities located inside China…

The White House has announced yet another package of sweeping sanctions targeting Russia on the one-year anniversary of its brutal invasion of Ukraine – with new efforts to target third countries including China for sanctions evasion.

And it is being reported that the U.S. will soon “quadruple” that number of U.S. troops in Taiwan…

The US is expected to quadruple the number of forces deployed to Taiwan in the coming months as tensions with Beijing continue to simmer.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the Pentagon plans to deploy between 100 and 200 troops to the self-ruled island, up from around 30 a year ago.

Service members from the Marines and the special forces have been sent to Taiwan in the past and the number has fluctuated over the years.

The Chinese consider Taiwan to be their sovereign territory.

This is something that they believe with a passion.

And so the fact that the Biden administration will be sending more U.S. troops to the island has really pissed them off…

A commentator for the Global Times, a media project of the Chinese Communist Party, issued a threat to the United States on Thursday night, intimating that China would not hesitate to engage U.S. forces stationed in Taiwan if the Chinese launched an invasion of the island nation.

Hu Xijin, formerly the editor-in-chief of the Global Times, reacted to a Wall Street Journal report about U.S. troops traveling to Taiwan by calling it “illegal” and suggesting that the Chinese would treat them as enemy combatants.

“It’s illegal for these US soldiers to go to Taiwan and Chinese mainland won’t take any responsibility for their safety,” tweeted Hu. “If we take military action when necessary, they’ll be wiped out together with the resisting Taiwan troops. They can also be eliminated first as the invading army.”

But most Americans don’t understand any of this.

Most Americans have absolutely no idea that we are literally on the verge of a war with China.

Unfortunately, such a conflict is getting a little bit closer with each passing day.  In fact, we just witnessed a very alarming incident over the South China Sea…

A voice, saying it’s coming from a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) airport, crackles over the radio of the US Navy P-8 Poseidon as a CNN crew, given rare access aboard the US flight, listens in.

“American aircraft. Chinese airspace is 12 nautical miles. Not approaching any more or you bear all responsibility,” it says.

For some reason, the U.S. Navy aircraft was carrying a CNN crew, and the Chinese fighter jet got so close to them that they “could make out the red star on the tail fins and the missiles it was armed with”…

In a few minutes, a Chinese fighter jet armed with air-to-air missiles intercepts the US plane, nestling in just 500 feet off its port side.

The Chinese fighter jet was so close, the CNN crew could see the pilots turning their heads to look at them – and could make out the red star on the tail fins and the missiles it was armed with.

Why does the Biden administration see the need to endlessly provoke China at a moment like this?

It is madness.

We could easily find ourselves involved in conflicts with both Russia and China at the same time, and I have been precisely warning of such a scenario for a very long time.

Unfortunately, we have a hothead in the White House that is in an advanced stage of mental decline.

And he is surrounded by irrational warmongers such as Jake Sullivan, Antony Blinken and Victoria Nuland.

They do not want peace.

So global war is coming, and I would strongly encourage you to get prepared for such an outcome.

***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.

In our rotting, decaying society, there are literally hordes of rotting, decaying people in the streets.  In this article, I am going to tell you about an immensely powerful drug that is taking America by storm.  It makes people stagger about like zombies, and it also causes raw, gaping wounds that will literally rot away arms and legs if left untreated.  Of course the U.S. was already facing an unprecedented drug crisis even before this new “zombie drug” started to spread like wildfire.  More than a million Americans have died of a drug overdose since 1999, and the drug overdose epidemic has actually greatly accelerated within the past few years.  At this point, more than 100,000 Americans a year are dying from a drug overdose.  According to the CDC, someone dies from an overdose in this country every five minutes, and most of those drug overdose deaths are being caused by a drug known as fentanyl.  An amount of fentanyl equivalent to a grain of rice is enough to kill a person, and right now fentanyl is actually the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45…

Fentanyl has become the leading cause of death for adults aged between 18 and 45, the CDC confirmed.

Former White House drug policy advisor Professor Keith Humphreys told The U.S. Sun: “The US has an established population of several million people who are already addicted to opioids.

“This creates a lucrative market for drug traffickers selling blends of opioids with other drugs included.”

Thanks to our unprotected borders, it is quite easy for other countries to absolutely flood our communities with fentanyl.  For example, last week state troopers in Arizona discovered “enough fentanyl to kill nearly 800,000 people”…

Arizona state troopers last week seized enough fentanyl to kill nearly 800,000 people. The fentanyl had been smuggled in a pickup truck and made it nearly 150 miles north of the border, authorities said.

The stuff gets over the border so easily because the politicians in Washington have turned our border security into a joke.

The only reason why state troopers were able to intercept it 150 miles north of the border is because the vehicle it was being transported in was involved in a terrible accident.

Fentanyl was bad enough, but now it is being combined with an extremely powerful animal tranquilizer known as Xylazine…

Xylazine is thought to be 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine, which is why it has taken over at the No. 1 drug in Philadelphia.

The combination of Fentanyl and Xylazine is known as “Tranq Dope”, and it is being sold on the streets of our major cities “for just a few dollars”…

When cut with fentanyl, xylazine has a bigger hit with it inducing a semi-conscious state which leaves people’s upper bodies hanging over their legs in the street and they move very slowly or not at all.

This is where it gets its name “zombie drug” from, however with a bigger hit comes a bigger need for addicts to buy it.

The drug is sold on the street for just a few dollars and is often injected into the body.

In this footage from the streets of Philadelphia, you can see what this “zombie drug” does to people.

Philadelphia… pic.twitter.com/ujezeg42Ep

— PiE_r (@Megohelie1) February 22, 2023

We have never seen anything quite like this before.

Recently, authorities in Philadelphia tested 39 different drug samples, and they found Xylazine in every single one of them…

The city’s public health department recently found Xylazine in every sample of drugs tested. While the sample of 39 was small, health experts are alarmed at the trend and the wounds they are seeing.

Of course it isn’t just Philly that is dealing with “Tranq Dope”.

This new combination is now being bought and sold in communities all over America, and users are discovering that it literally causes raw, gaping wounds to appear on their bodies…

Tranq users have found raw wounds erupting on their skin at the injection sites which have rotted the surrounding skin and caused infection, sometimes leading to amputation.

The wounds turn into a crust of dead tissue called eschar, which if untreated will cause people to lose limbs.

Some former addicts have even spoken about seeing people continue to inject the drug into their stumps.

Sadly, most addicts are not able to quit.

These drugs are just too strong.

So even though their wounds just keep getting worse and worse, most addicts just keep injecting themselves with this poison.

One user named Sam told Sky News about the holes that have appeared in his legs and feet…

Tranq is basically zombifying people’s bodies. Until nine months ago, I never had wounds. Now, there are holes in my legs and feet.

Just cleaning them is so painful. The wound care truck put on band aids but I kept them on for a week in the rain and it all looked a hundred times worse.

And a 39-year-old user named Tracey McCann actually told the New York Times that her arms are “dying” from the wounds that she has developed…

Last month, one Philly user suddenly developed xylazine-specific wounds near her opioid injection sites.

“I’d wake up in the morning crying because my arms were dying,” Tracey McCann, 39, told the New York Times.

But most of them simply cannot get off these drugs on their own.

So they will just keep going back to the dealers to buy more.

When I say that our major cities have become rotting, decaying hellholes, I am not exaggerating one bit.

And what is truly tragic is that our leaders could stop all of this is they really wanted to do so.

But they won’t do it.

Even though more than a million Americans are already dead, they refuse to take action.

For a long time I have been relentlessly warning my readers about what was happening to our cities, and now the deterioration has greatly accelerated.

If you currently live in a drug-infested area, I would encourage you to move somewhere safe while you still have the opportunity to do so.

Unfortunately, the number of safe areas continues to shrink, because these drugs just continue to infest more communities with each passing year.

***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.

It is kind of like watching a really bad Hollywood disaster movie slowly play out, except in this case billions of people could end up dead.  Thanks to the endless bumbling of the Biden administration, Russia and China have been pushed into each other’s arms, and now they seem determined to confront the western powers together.  For those of you that have not been paying attention, the apocalyptic alliances that we have been anticipating for years have now formed.  It is going to be the U.S. and Europe on one side, and Russia and China will be on the other.  All of the marbles are at stake, and both sides have plenty of nuclear weapons.

On Tuesday, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi publicly declared that his nation is “ready to join forces with the Russian side”…

The People’s Republic of China is ready to join forces with Russia to decisively stand up for national interests and promote mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas, Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee, said on Tuesday as he met with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev.

“During a virtual meeting at the end of last year our leaders (Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin – TASS) came up with a plan for further development of bilateral relations. We are ready to join forces with the Russian side, in accordance with the high-level agreements, to decisively stand up for national interests and virtues, and promote mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas,” he said.

And the Wall Street Journal is reporting that plans are being made for Chinese leader Xi Jinping to travel to Moscow for a high level summit with Vladimir Putin…

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is preparing to visit Moscow for a summit with Russia’s president in the coming months, according to people familiar with the plan, as Vladimir Putin wages war in Ukraine and portrays himself as a standard-bearer against a U.S.-led global order.

Meanwhile, the Chinese are using increasingly harsh words to describe U.S. involvement in the war in Ukraine…

”Fight to the last Ukrainian.The US has pursued a policy of fighting ti the last Afghan in Afghanistan”- Chinese Foreign Ministry pic.twitter.com/3Cih0f2Rra

— AZ (@AZgeopolitics) February 22, 2023

And the Chinese are now calling for the UN to investigate the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines…

China has called on the United Nations to investigate the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, describing the blasts as a “deliberate act” by state actors.

At a UN Security Council briefing on Tuesday, Chinese ambassador Zhang Jun said China shared the position of many countries in calling for an investigation “to uncover the truth and identify those responsible”.

So why would China request such an investigation?

Because they know that we did it.

And we know that they know that we did it.

And they know that we know that they know that we did it.

Thanks to Seymour Hersh, the whole world now knows that the Biden administration was behind one of the greatest terror attacks in modern history.

Biden administration officials can lie until they are blue in the face, but the gig is up.

Everyone knows what really happened, and the credibility of the Biden administration has completely evaporated.

U.S. relations with China have been steadily deteriorating for quite some time, but the Biden administration seems absolutely determined to make them even worse.

Just look at how the whole “Chinese spy balloon” incident was handled.

The Chinese are not going to forgive, and they are definitely not going to forget.

So now Russia and China have decided to become best buddies, and the guy that we keep sending billions of dollars to over in Ukraine is warning that this could result in a “world war”…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned China in a newspaper interview on Monday against supporting Russia in its war on Ukraine and said doing so would bring on a world war.

Zelenskiy’s comments came as China said that the United States was in no position to make demands, after the top U.S. diplomat warned his Chinese counterpart at the weekend against China providing weapons to Russia in its war in Ukraine.

Sadly, he is quite right about this.

There will be a war, and the alliances for that war have already formed.

Needless to say, many of our leaders are absolutely horrified that Russia and China are getting close.  For example, just check out what Senator Lindsey Graham said just a few days ago…

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday said China would be making a colossal blunder if it decides to provide lethal aid to Russia for its war with Ukraine.

“If you jump on the Putin train, you’re dumber than dirt,” the South Carolina Republican said of China in an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”

“It would be like buying a ticket on the Titanic after you saw the movie.”

If our leaders were smart, they would be looking for a peaceful way out of this mess while it is still possible.

But instead, Joe Biden just continues to spew incoherent drivel about how it is important for us to back the war in Ukraine for as long as necessary…

Joe Biden in Warsaw, Poland:

“Would we respond? Or would we look the other way? Would we be strong? Or would we be weak? Would be, you, we would be, would we the, all of our allies would be united, or divided?” pic.twitter.com/8VlMNK2j8b

— Real Mac Report (@RealMacReport) February 21, 2023

Meanwhile, President Trump is publicly warning that “World War III has never been closer than it is right now”…

President Trump:

“World War III has never been closer than it is right now.”pic.twitter.com/TilWKjCIDW

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) February 21, 2023

Trump was right on target with that statement.

In my entire lifetime, the United States has never been closer to an apocalyptic war than it is right now.

It appears that we could end up fighting Russia and China at the same time, and that sort of a nightmare scenario will not be good for any 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.

It’s happening.  Throughout 2021 and 2022, a whole host of experts were warning that we were going to see another economic crisis like we witnessed in 2008 and 2009, and now it is here.  In fact, it is unfolding at a pace that is even more rapid than most of the experts had anticipated.  The housing market is crashing, hordes of retail stores are closing, the commercial real estate market is headed for a colossal disaster, food prices continue to surge, and the worst wave of layoffs in more than a decade just continues to get even worse.  So many of the economic trends that I have been tracking on The Economic Collapse Blog are now reaching a crescendo, but most Americans still don’t understand how bad things will eventually become.

On Tuesday, we learned that existing home sales in the United States have now fallen for 12 months in a row…

U.S. existing home sales slowed for the 12th consecutive month in January as high mortgage rates, surging inflation and steep home prices sapped consumer demand from the housing market.

Sales of previously owned homes tumbled 0.7% in January from the prior month to an annual rate of 4 million units, according to new data released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). On an annual basis, existing home sales are down 36.9% when compared with January 2021.

It is the slowest pace since November 2010, when the U.S. was still in the throes of the housing crisis triggered by subprime mortgage defaults.

Just think about these numbers for a moment.

Existing home sales have dropped every single month for an entire year.

That is catastrophic.

Overall, existing home sales are a whopping 36.9 percent lower than they were at this time last year.

We haven’t seen anything like this since the last housing crash.

Meanwhile, rapidly rising interest rates and the work at home trend that began during the pandemic have combined to create a giant mess for the commercial real estate industry.

At this point, projects are starting to fail at a furious pace…

The giant investment manager Brookfield Asset Management recently defaulted on a total of over $750 million in debt for a pair of 52-story towers in Los Angeles, according to a February securities filing. Real-estate firm RXR is in talks with creditors to restructure debt on 61 Broadway, a 34-story tower in Manhattan’s financial district, according to people familiar with the matter. Handing over the building to the lender is among the options under consideration, these people said.

In another sign of distress, a venture of an investment manager affiliated with Related Cos. and BentallGreenOak is in similar debt-restructuring talks over a $150 million warehouse-to-office conversion project in Long Island City, N.Y., that hasn’t filled up as much space as expected, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

As I discussed the other day, I believe that we will eventually see the worst commercial real estate crisis in the entire history of our nation.

Of course the whole economy is moving into very troubled times.  The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now dropped lower in each of the past ten months.

The last time we witnessed a streak of this magnitude was in 2008.

Even Walmart and Home Depot are acknowledging that a very challenging economic environment is in front of us, and bleak forecasts from both companies helped to spark another round of panic selling on Wall Street…

US stocks plunged on Tuesday after fourth-quarter earnings and forecasts from mega-retailers like Walmart and Home Depot raised concerns about the strength of the US consumer.

The Dow and S&P 500 each closed with their worst day since December 15 – the Dow fell about 696 points, or 2.1%, while the S&P dropped by 2%. The Nasdaq Composite closed 2.5% lower.

Consumer spending accounts for about 70% of America’s gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the US economy, so a slowdown could weigh on growth and even send the United States into a recession.

As economic activity slows down, major retailers are closing hundreds of locations all over the country…

America is bracing for a mass exodus of retail stores across the nation this year, with more than 800 big box locations set to close from California to New York.

Among the iconic names to announce they are downsizing includes Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart, Gap and Party City.

At least 803 stores are set to be shuttered over the rest of 2023, with many forced into desperate cost cutting measures amid rampant inflation and declining bottom lines.

Sadly, there will be more.

A lot more.

Needless to say, a lot more layoffs are coming too.  In fact, we just learned that McKinsey & Co “plans to eliminate about 2,000 jobs”…

McKinsey & Co. plans to eliminate about 2,000 jobs, one of the consulting giant’s biggest rounds of cuts ever.

The firm known for devising staff-reduction plans for its clients is taking the ax to some of its own, with the move expected to focus on support staff in roles that don’t have direct contact with clients, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

So many people are going to lose their jobs in the months ahead.

The tech industry is supposed to be one of the backbones of our economy, but they have been laying off workers faster than almost any other sector.  And the numbers tell us that the pace of tech layoffs in 2023 is already way ahead of last year.

If you do not have a job right now, I would recommend grabbing one while you still can.

And if you do have a job that you value, I would try to hold on to it as hard as you can.

These are the times that we have been warned about, and eventually economic conditions will be even worse than they were in 2008 and 2009.

Those running our economy were able to keep things propped up for quite a while by pushing interest rates all the way to the floor and by flooding our system with mountains of fresh money.

But in the process they created a tremendous amount of inflation, and meanwhile our long-term economic problems just continued to get even worse.

Now a day of reckoning has arrived, and our leaders are all out of solutions.

***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.