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In recent years, Americans have been fleeing our largest cities in unprecedented numbers, and many of them have decided to settle down in quiet little towns all over the country.  There are many reasons why this is happening, and I will highlight several of them below.  If this trend continues, what will our major metropolitan areas look like?  Violence, theft, drugs, homelessness and international migration have all risen to crisis levels and are putting a tremendous amount of strain on our core urban areas.  Meanwhile, many small towns are absolutely booming as wave after wave of big city refugees comes pouring in.

People have been leaving large metropolitan areas for a long time, but once the pandemic arrived that trend greatly accelerated…

In the three years before the pandemic, counties in metro areas with at least 1 million residents lost a total 200,000 or so residents annually to other regions, after figuring both people moving in and leaving, according to the Goldman report. After COVID, those losses vaulted to 750,000 in 2021, 650,000 in 2022 and 550,000 in 2023, according to Goldman and Census data. The numbers reflect annual changes through July of each year.

A separate study by Lombard shows the domestic migration losses were concentrated in the largest metro areas with more than 4 million residents. Those cities shed a total 400,000 residents annually before the pandemic and have lost 820,000, 707,000 and 591,000 residents, respectively, over the past three years.

And it is being reported that last year small towns became “the nation’s top destination for domestic migrants for the first time in decades”…

Last year, about 266,000 of the big city refugees moved to metro areas with populations of 250,000 to 1 million and about 291,000 moved to areas with populations under 250,000. That made those small towns the nation’s top destination for domestic migrants for the first time in decades, Lombard says.

In 2023, the New York City metro area lost 204,000 residents; Los Angeles, 119,000; and Chicago, 64,000, according to Census and Moody’s.

So why is this happening?

Well, there are a number of reasons why so many people are relocating to small towns these days.

For many, the quality of life in big U.S. cities has become utterly deplorable.  For example, one young Chicago mother recently had to wait for hours for a police officer to show up after masked robbers entered her home…

A Chicago mom who called 911 during a terrifying break-in was left on her own for hours — with dispatchers telling her to call her local representative to demand more police funding.

Michelle called the emergency hotline six times after coming face-to-face with two masked bandits, only for the strained supervisor to tell her the city’s severe budget cuts had left them with a bare-bones staff.

“A gentleman got on and said sorry to say we have no units to send you … then there was an awkward pause,” Michelle told NBC Chicago Wednesday, declining to share her name or face while her would-be robbers are still on the loose.

I don’t know why anyone would want to live in Chicago at this point.

Of course the exact same thing could be said about most of our other large cities.

Another reason why a lot of Americans are choosing to relocate has to do with taxes.

There has been a mass exodus out of “high tax states”, and Massachusetts is one of those that is being hit really hard…

Massachusetts is in danger of losing nearly $1 billion in annual revenue over the coming years as high state taxes trigger an exodus of wealthy residents.

Since 2013, migration out of Massachusetts has seen an “alarming” 1,100% increase to more than 39,000 people, according to new findings published by Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. If the trend continues, more than 96,000 residents making a cumulative $19.2 billion in adjusted gross income will leave the state by 2030.

The study estimates those departures would cost Massachusetts about $961 million in income tax revenue each year.

In my rankings of all 50 U.S. states, I have Massachusetts all the way down at number 44.

The cost of living crisis that we are currently facing is another factor that is motivating vast numbers of Americans to relocate.

At this point, we are being told that Mississippi has the lowest cost of living in the entire nation…

Imagine stepping into a world where your paycheck stretches like bubblegum and the promise of Southern charm meets you at every corner. Welcome to Mississippi, a land where the living is easy, the cost of living is easier, and every quirk adds color to the canvas of daily life. Here, your financial aspirations can don a superhero cape, albeit in a landscape peppered with challenges that keep things interesting.

One of the reasons why Mississippi has such a low cost of living is because average home prices are the lowest in the country…

Mississippi’s housing costs are the lowest in the nation. Home prices range from $32,000 to $240,000 depending on the city, with an average of $162,292.

But even though it has such a low cost of living, I don’t really like Mississippi as a place to live during the chaotic times that are coming.

In fact, in my rankings of all 50 U.S. states I have Mississippi all the way down at number 33.

Ultimately, the cost of living is only a minor consideration when it comes to choosing a place to live during the extremely difficult years that are ahead of us.

Much more importantly, you will want a location that has like-minded people, that has a low population density, that has a low risk of experiencing major natural disasters, and that is not near any important military targets.

Unfortunately, such areas have become very popular in recent years and home prices are going through the roof.  For instance, the median home price in Bozeman, Montana has risen to about $770,000…

Nowhere has the affordability crisis been felt as acutely as in Bozeman, a city of about 56,000 not far from Yellowstone National Park and the upscale Big Sky skiing community. Bozeman, where the median home sells for about $770,000, has had so many out-of-state arrivals over the years that Montanans sometimes refer to it as “Boz Angeles.”

As high-end rentals in Bozeman spring up next to historic homes and new arrivals snap them up, a smattering of tents and RVs have begun to populate the outskirts of town: homeless residents priced out by rising rents.

Many longtime Montanans bristle at the newcomers, and bumper stickers proclaiming some version of “Montana Is Full” abound, occasionally with an expletive attached. Some locals blame the popular television show “Yellowstone” for romanticizing the Mountain West, luring people to the state.

A lot of Americans now find themselves priced out of many of the most desirable communities in the country, and that is extremely unfortunate.

If you are considering relocating to another part of the nation, I would encourage you to do it soon.

Because global events are starting to really go haywire, and the clock is ticking.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Did we just witness a moment that will permanently alter history?  As I write this article, the entire world is waiting for confirmation that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is either dead or alive.  If it turns out that he is dead, that will be really bad news, because that could push the Middle East to the brink of all-out war.  No matter what actually happened, there is no way that you are going to be able to convince Iranian leaders that the U.S. and Israel were not responsible for bringing that helicopter down.  So let us hope that Raisi survives, because if he doesn’t the Iranians will be overwhelmed with emotion and will begin planning how to avenge the death of their president.

Ultimately, this could have just been a tragic accident.  Flying a very old helicopter while there is “heavy fog” in a very remote area surrounded by high mountains is never a good idea, and shortly after the helicopter went down it was being reported that “information coming from the crash site is very concerning”…

The lives of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister were feared to be in jeopardy after their helicopter crashed Sunday in heavy fog in a mountainous area following a visit to the country’s northwest border, prompting a massive search and rescue effort.

“We are still hopeful, but information coming from the crash site is very concerning,” an official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters.

There were three helicopters that were traveling in a convoy, and several of Iran’s highest ranking officials were all traveling inside one of them…

The helicopter was one of a convoy of three and foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, Friday prayer Imam Seyyed Mohammad-Ali Al-Hashem and other high-ranking officials were also reportedly on the helicopter with the president.

Once Raisi’s helicopter went down, the other two helicopters should have known exactly where it happened.

And we are being told that the helicopter that Raisi was on should have been able to send out a signal unless it had been completely destroyed somehow…

“Helicopters used for high-ranking officials can send out their exact location in case of a crash, unless an explosion has disabled all onboard systems, including the emergency system,” Iranian defense and security analyst Farzin Nadimi told @IranIntl.

“It’s possible that a bomb exploded inside, or due to pilot error and insufficient visibility, the helicopter might have collided with a rock or the top of a hill, resulting in its sudden destruction.”

So something is not adding up here, because for hours after the crash happened it was being reported that rescuers were having difficulty locating the crash site…

Details about the incident remained unclear, although reports indicated that the president’s helicopter suffered a “hard landing” in foggy weather. As night fell, the search became even more difficult. According to the Iranian IRNA news agency, the helicopter crashed in a forest area between the villages of Pir Davood and Uzi in northwestern Iran.

IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency said emergency services were conducting searches to try to find the helicopter, but the weather and 70-meter tall boulders in the area were complicating the search efforts. Over 40 rescue teams were operating in the area.

To me, it seems like the Iranians are trying to keep a lid on this thing.

I don’t think that they are ready to tell the world what really happened.

And I think that it is a very bad sign that IRGC forces have been positioned around a number of government buildings in Tehran…

A Significant Deployment of Iranian Security and Military Personnel has been noted across the Capital of Tehran, with Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed to be taking up Positions near several Government Buildings.

If Raisi was perfectly fine, this would not be happening.

On Twitter, Israel News Pulse is claiming that there has been confirmation that Raisi is dead…

Confirmation: Ali Reza Dawari, head of the communications department in Ahmadinejad’s presidency, confirms the deaths of the President of Iran and his Foreign Minister, Abdollahian, in the president’s helicopter crash in the mountains of East Azerbaijan Province.

I haven’t been able to find confirmation of this anywhere else.

So for now, I am still operating under the assumption that his fate is unknown.

But I will admit that it doesn’t look good for Raisi at this point.

Arnaud Bertrand is pointing out that if Raisi is dead this could be “an archduke Ferdinand of the Middle East scenario”…

If Raisi is confirmed dead and foul play was found to be involved (a strong possibility given the geopolitical context), this has the potential to turn into an archduke Ferdinand of the Middle East scenario, especially given Raisi was rumored to be Khameini’s successor.

For those that aren’t familiar with history, many historians regard the death of Archduke Ferdinand as the spark that started World War I.

Could we be on the verge of another historic war?

Needless to say, for a very long time I have been warning that Israel and Iran were headed for a showdown.

Speaking of Israel, it appears that Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime government could potentially be starting to crumble…

Tensions within the Israeli government are exploding, after Defense Minister Yovav Gallant earlier this week called out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and gave him an ultimatum, demanding that a day-after plan be offered and approved by the government.

“I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to make a decision and declare that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza strip, that Israel will not establish military governance in the Gaza strip, and that a governing alternative to Hamas in the Gaza strip will be raised immediately,” Gallant said recently.

What’s more is that Washington is backing Gallant’s pressure campaign against Netanyahu. “We share the Defense Minister’s concern that Israel has not developed any plans for holding and governing territory the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] clears, thereby allowing Hamas to regenerate in those areas. This is a concern because our objective is to see Hamas defeated,” a senior Biden administration official told The Hill.

This is the most dangerous moment that we have witnessed in the Middle East in decades.

And I am entirely convinced that all-out war is eventually coming.

Will this helicopter crash be one of the events that sparks such a conflict?

We shall see.

For now, let’s pray for peace, but let’s also brace ourselves for war.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

For centuries, the Vatican has been carefully guarding their most precious secrets.  In recent years, that has been especially true regarding what they know about UFOs, aliens and the mysteries of the universe.  So why have they chosen this exact moment in history to publicly talk about these things?  The press conference at the Vatican on Thursday is the very first time that the Vatican has held a press conference about UFOs, aliens and “apparitions” since 1978.  So this is a really big deal.  It is being reported that the Vatican has decided to issue new guidelines “on aliens and how it will deal with potential encounters in the future”…

The Vatican has announced that it is set to hold a press conference on “supernatural phenomena” tomorrow, and it will touch on aliens and how it will deal with potential encounters in the future.

According to a notice on the Vatican’s website, it will kick of at noon tomorrow, and will feature three prominent Vatican members.

Being held to “present the new provisions of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith for discerning between apparitions and other supernatural phenomena,” it will be led by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandex, Messenger Armando Matteo and Daniela Del Gaudio.

If the Vatican feels a need to issue guidelines about how to “deal with potential encounters in the future”, that seems to imply that they believe that there will be “potential encounters in the future”.

What do they know that they aren’t telling us?

Probably a lot.

The last time that the Vatican did something like this was all the way back in February 1978…

The last time the Vatican’s doctrinal office issued norms for evaluating alleged apparitions and reports of supernatural events was in February 1978.

At the time, the prefect, Cardinal Franjo Seper, said the norms were necessary given how news of alleged apparitions spreads rapidly thanks to the mass media.

What has changed between then and now?

One thing that has changed is that the current pope seems to be quite interested in the topic of aliens.

In comments that he made near the end of 2023, Pope Francis seemed to suggest that aliens could actually be baptized…

However, Pope Francis did touch on aliens at the end of last year, when he was talking about how early Christians discussed associating with “Jews and Gentiles” – which, for some reason, he compared to aliens.

He said: “That was unthinkable. If, for example, tomorrow an expedition of Martians came, and some of them came to us, here…Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them…And one says, ‘But I want to be baptized!’ What would happen?”

He didn’t answer his own question, but added: “It was never the ministry of the closed door, never,”

So he plans to have an “open door” for the aliens?

What would that look like?

The producer of a new documentary entitled “God Versus Aliens” seems to believe that the Vatican wants to prepare us for the day when humanity finally makes contact with such beings…

The documentary ‘God Versus Aliens’ is to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and reveal the Vatican’s secrets about UFOs.

The award-winning filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee says that the Vatican publishing new guidance on apparitions means that the full disclosure about the UFO phenomena is getting closer.

He said: “The Vatican has been studying UFOs for decades and even has its own Cardinal appointed to deal with first contact. From my research I believe that this new guidance on apparitions is proof that they know that UFOs are more than just physical crafts from other worlds and that they have a paranormal side to them.”

What most people don’t realize is that the Vatican has been on the cutting edge of the search for extraterrestrial life for a long time.

The Vatican Observatory in Rome is very well funded, and the Vatican also has a “research group” that uses the very high-powered equipment at the University of Arizona in Tucson…

Many people are surprised to learn that the Vatican even has an observatory. The history of the Vatican Observatory goes back two and a half centuries. During its history, there has been some turmoil and several moves to escape the light and other hindrances that large cities, such as Rome, pose to doing astronomy. Therefore, more than a half-century ago the Vatican Observatory established a research group at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona in Tucson, while the Vatican Observatory’s headquarters remained in Italy.

Needless to say, the Vatican isn’t going to tell us everything that they know right now.

But a couple of things have become quite clear.

Number one, the Vatican believes that extraterrestrial life exists.

Number two, the Vatican plans to develop a positive relationship with any “aliens” that do make contact with humanity.

Could all of this be setting us up for a great deception of absolutely epic proportions?

While he was still alive, author Tom Horn made the following observation…

Why the Vatican has taken this carefully designed and deliberate course over the last few years is the greater mystery, but implies knowledge on their part of facts yet hidden to most of the world that may hold far-reaching and historic implications. It also illustrates how Rome has wittingly or unwittingly set itself up to become the agent of mass end-times deception regarding “salvation from above.” That’s because, historically, there exists a clear pattern wherein man’s psychological need of a savior is displayed during times of distress—a time like today—when people look skyward for divine intervention.

It is true.

When things get bad enough, the world is going to be looking for a savior.

And if a “superior race” appears on the scene that seems to have all the answers, many people out there will fully embrace them.

For decades, books, movies and television shows have conditioned us to expect that someday we will interact with “aliens” from another planet.  100 years ago, everyone would have dismissed such talk as nonsense, but now we have been well prepared for the great deception that is eventually coming.

Sadly, the Vatican seems to be quite ready to welcome “aliens” as their new best friends, and that is extremely unfortunate.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

A series of enormous geomagnetic storms is about to start pummeling our planet, and some of the most important technologies that we depend on are potentially at risk.  For the very first time in nearly 20 years, the NOAA has issued a severe geomagnetic storm watch.  We were initially warned that “at least five earth-directed coronal mass ejections” were headed our direction, but now it is at least six.  These coronal mass ejections originated from Sunspot AR3664, which has now become almost as large as the infamous Carrington sunspot of 1859.  It is being reported that Sunspot AR3664 is nearly 200,000 kilometers wide.  That is about 15 times wider than Earth.  Six gigantic coronal mass ejections that have been unleashed by this sunspot will hit our planet over the next few days, but as you will see below, authorities won’t know their true power until Friday night.

Until authorities know the true power of these storms, we won’t know how much danger we are facing.

Hopefully this will turn out to be a minor event.

But scientists are concerned enough already that they have issued the first severe geomagnetic storm watch since 2005…

A rare and powerful solar storm may occur in outer space today which could wreak havoc on earth, officials have warned – the first in nearly 20 years if it happens.

At least five streams of plasma, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), are heading toward Earth, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to issue a severe geomagnetic storm watch for Friday into the weekend.

This is the first such alert aired since 2005 when Earth was hit with the highest dose of radiation in a half-century.

Another coronal mass ejection has been confirmed since the initial warning was issued, so at least six major storms are approaching our planet.

SIX SOLAR STORMS ON THEIR WAY TO EARTH pic.twitter.com/ruAlL5RGD4

— SpaceWeatherNews (@SunWeatherMan) May 10, 2024

Needless to say, a lot of people are wondering if our power grids could be at risk from these storms.

At this point, the NOAA is warning that during these storms “some protective systems may mistakenly trip out key assets from the power grid”…

Severe space weather can jeopardize power grids, according to NOAA, whose alert this week said to expect “possible widespread voltage control problems” and that “some protective systems may mistakenly trip out key assets from the power grid.”

In 1989, a space weather event led to a massive blackout in Quebec, Canada for more than nine hours after geomagnetic fluctuations damaged transformers and other important equipment.

In October, an extreme geomagnetic storm stronger than the one predicted for this weekend led to power outages in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa, the SWPC said.

The largest known geomagnetic storm in history, known as the Carrington Event of 1859, caused telegraph stations to spark and catch fire.

If you lose power on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, there is a good chance that the power loss has been caused by one of these geomagnetic storms.

Authorities are telling us that it is not likely that we will experience a G5 event, but one official at the Space Weather Prediction Center has admitted to the press that he is anticipating a “big shock arrival”…

In a call with reporters on Friday, Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center, said that some CMEs “are catching up with other ones.” He said officials are expecting a “big shock arrival” when they hit Earth. Dahl said while officials aren’t predicting a G5 storm – the strongest of geomagnetic storms – they also can’t discount a “low-end G5 event.”

“We’re really buckling down here,” Brent Gordon, chief of the space weather services branch, also said on the call.

But I want to emphasize that what they are telling us publicly is what they are guessing will happen.

The truth is that they don’t know anything for sure yet.

As CBS News has reported, the actual strength of these storms will not be known until they are about a million miles from our planet…

The true strength of the storm won’t be known until roughly 8 p.m. ET on Friday when the CMEs are about a million miles from Earth.

“When we see those arrive, that’s when we’ll know the intensity,” Dahl said.

So I would pay close attention to the news on Friday night.

This could turn out to be a relatively minor incident.

Or it could be the biggest solar disaster since the Carrington Event in 1859.

Or it could be somewhere in between.

Hopefully most of my readers are well prepared for any scenario.

The following comes directly from the official warning that the NOAA issued about these storms…

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) — a division of the National Weather Service — is monitoring the sun following a series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that began on May 8. Space weather forecasters have issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for the evening of Friday, May 10. Additional solar eruptions could cause geomagnetic storm conditions to persist through the weekend.

A large sunspot cluster has produced several moderate to strong solar flares since Wednesday at 5:00 am ET. At least five flares were associated with CMEs that appear to be Earth-directed. SWPC forecasters will monitor NOAA and NASA’s space assets for the onset of a geomagnetic storm.

CMEs are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona. They cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed at Earth. Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth’s surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations. SWPC has notified the operators of these systems so they can take protective action. Geomagnetic storms can also trigger spectacular displays of aurora on Earth. A severe geomagnetic storm includes the potential for aurora to be seen as far south as Alabama and Northern California.

As I detail in my most recent book, the sun has been exhibiting very strange behavior for quite some time.

And now solar activity appears to be reaching some sort of bizarre crescendo.

Whether it happens this weekend or not, I believe that this will eventually be a huge story.

So keep watching the skies, because the giant ball of fire that we revolve around is becoming increasingly unstable.

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

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

We are witnessing an explosion of cancer in the United States that is absolutely unprecedented.  As you will see below, it is being projected that the number of new cases of cancer in the U.S. will hit a brand new record high this year, and cancer rates are rising particularly rapidly among our young people.  There have been so many prominent individuals in the news that have been diagnosed with cancer recently, and so many people that I personally know have also been diagnosed with cancer recently.  I am sure that most of you also personally know people that have been affected by this disease.  Of course cancer has been one of the leading causes of death for a very long time, but we have never witnessed anything quite like this.

According to the American Cancer Society, this year the number of newly diagnosed cases of cancer will surpass  the 2 million mark for the first time ever…

Cancer incidence, however, is on the rise for many common cancers. In the coming year, we’re expecting to hit a bleak milestone—the first time new cases of cancer in the US are expected to cross the 2-million mark. That’s almost 5,500 cancer diagnoses a day.

This trend is largely affected by the aging and growth of the population and by a rise in diagnoses of 6 of the 10 most common cancers—breast, prostate, endometrial, pancreatic, kidney, and melanoma. (The other 4 top 10 cancers are lung, colon and rectum, bladder, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.)

This is such a great tragedy.

Millions of Americans are dying way too early.

Once upon a time, cancer was considered to be a disease that would strike in old age, but now cancer rates among our young people are absolutely exploding…

According to a new study published this week in BMJ Oncology, cancer rates worldwide have risen dramatically in people under the age of 50.

Researchers examined data from 204 countries between 1990 and 2019. They found that there were more than 3.26 million early-onset cancer cases reported in those countries in 2019, up from 1.82 million in 1990, an increase of 79.1%.

The study defined early-onset cancer as a diagnosis that occurs between the ages of 14 and 49.

I don’t know why researchers only looked at numbers through 2019.

Personally, I would love to see what the figures for the last several years look like.

But everyone agrees that cancer rates among young people are surging like never before.

For example, one study discovered that the number of women under the age of 25 being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer has increased by close to 200 percent since the 1990s…

A ‘frightening’ explosion of young women developing one of the deadliest cancers has baffled experts.

Rates of pancreatic cancer have soared by up to 200 per cent in women under the age of 25 since the 1990s.

Overall, incidences of the disease — which has a five-year survival rate of just 5 per cent — have increased by around 17 per cent over the same time-span, with soaring obesity rates suspected to be behind the trend.

Young people are also getting colon cancer at a staggering rate.

In fact, it is being projected that the number of young people under the age of 40 that will die from colon cancer each year will double by the year 2030…

These findings come at a time when colon cancer deaths among people under 40 are expected to double by 2030, and it is projected to be the number one cause of cancer deaths in young people by the end of the decade.

Overall, rates of all types of gastrointestinal cancer among our young people are skyrocketing, and this has experts deeply alarmed…

Gastrointestinal cancer diagnoses in Americans under 50 climbed drastically over a decade, with the starkest rise occurring in under-19s, at 109 percent.

And the number of GI cancers among children under 19 more than doubled from 2010 to 2019 and overall incidence of GI cancers among under-50s rose by 15 percent.

GI cancers include those in the stomach, esophagus, colon and rectum, liver, pancreas, anus, gall bladder, and small intestine.

The fact that so many young people are getting cancer will mean lots of cash for the cancer industry during the years ahead.

According to the CDC, more than 240 billion dollars will be spent on cancer care in the United States on a yearly basis by 2030.

Just think about that.

That is close to a quarter of a trillion dollars.

If a cure for cancer was found, all of that money would go away.

Unfortunately, cancer rates are likely to continue to go up.

We are being told that approximately 40 percent of all Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, but at the rate that we are going it won’t be too long before that figure hits 50 percent.

Today, we live in a society that is incredibly toxic.

Let me give you an example.  According to one recent study, the air that we breathe as we drive our vehicles can literally cause cancer…

Tens of millions of Americans each day breathe in carcinogenic chemicals that are woven into the interiors of their cars, a new study has found.

While opening a window can help reduce the risk, only reforms can keep people safe, researchers wrote in a study in Environmental Science and Technology.

There isn’t anything that we can do about this, because federal law has mandated the use of these carcinogenic chemicals since the 1970s…

Approximately 124 million Americans commute each day, spending an average of an hour in their cars.

By federal law, the interior of these vehicles are required to contain flame retardants, or chemicals that make it harder for them to combust in a crash.

These chemicals have been a legally mandated part of modern cars since the 1970s, when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) passed a law requiring their use.

Let me give you another example.

Most of our diets are heavily made up of sugary and fatty foods, and a study that was just conducted in Singapore has found that “a compound released when the body breaks down sugary and fatty foods” is linked to higher rates of cancer…

A study in Singapore looked at the effect of methylglyoxal, a compound released when the body breaks down sugary and fatty foods, on a gene that helps fight off tumors.

In a first, the academics found that methylglyoxal was able to temporarily shut off the BRCA2 gene’s ability to protect against cancer forming and growing.

Doctors have known for decades that eating junk food is linked to a much higher risk of cancer, even if the person is not obese, but the exact mechanism is still being understood.

Needless to say, those two studies are just the tip of the iceberg.

Our air, our water, our soil, our food and thousands of products all around us are absolutely saturated with cancer-causing toxins.

I very much encourage everyone to minimize the risks, but it impossible to totally avoid them.

This is one of the reasons why I proclaim a message of hope to my readers, because the environment in which we live has been transformed into a toxic hell.

We are literally committing societal suicide in so many different ways, and our leaders have absolutely no intention of changing course.

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

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The Federal Reserve is stuck between a rock and a hard place.  If the Fed pushes rates higher, interest payments on our 34 trillion dollar national debt could spin wildly out of control and bank balance sheets will be in even worse condition than they are now.  First Republic just bit the dust, and literally thousands of other small and mid-size banks and in serious jeopardy.  So it would be suicidal to hike rates at this point.  But if the Fed were to reduce rates, that would be like injecting jet fuel into a raging fire.  Our ongoing inflation crisis is absolutely crushing working families, and the rising cost of living has risen to the top of the list of things that U.S. voters are concerned about.  The Fed seems very hesitant to cut rates, because that would make inflation even worse.  So at this point the Fed is essentially caught in a “deer in the headlights” moment because it doesn’t know which way to go.

But staying on the path that we are currently on is only going to end in disaster.

Mark Spitznagel, the chief investment officer of Universa Investments, recently warned that he believes that the “worst market crash since 1929” is ahead of us…

One of Wall Street’s most bearish skeptics told Business Insider last month that he thinks the “worst market crash since 1929” is coming.

For years, our leaders have been “kicking the can down the road”, but according to Spitznagel all of that intervention has set the stage for an absolutely epic collapse…

In an interview with New York Magazine’s Intelligencer last year, Spitznagel likened the Fed’s “constant monetary intervention” to forest fire suppression.

He went on to say “when you suppress it enough, it gets to a point where you can no longer afford to have any fires burn because they would be too big and too intense.”

That’s where the U.S. economy is at, according to the hedge fund manager.

If Spitznagel’s dire market predictions come true, you really don’t want to have all of your eggs in one basket — because that basket could easily go up in flames.

In the months ahead, we will want to keep a very close eye on our banks.

Our banks are the beating heart of our economic system, because without the banks we would not have a functioning economy.

The banks are where we get mortgages to buy homes, auto loans to buy vehicles, and credit cards to go on shopping sprees.

Without the credit they provide, we would be in a world of hurt.

Unfortunately, our banks are in very serious trouble right now.

Higher interest rates have blown a hole that is hundreds of billions of dollars wide in their balance sheets.

And they are sitting on mountains of commercial real estate loans that are going bad because the value of commercial real estate has collapsed all over the nation.

One consulting firm that examined data from approximately 4,000 U.S. banks is warning that hundreds more banks could potentially fail during this crisis…

According to recent reports, hundreds of banks face the potential of failing just like Republic First Bancorp.

Consulting firm Klaros Group analyzed roughly 4,000 U.S. banks and found that the banks face a threat of losses due to “secular changes in social patterns accelerated by the COVID pandemic (such as work-from-home, which has materially impacted demand for office space) and to the impacts of higher interest rates and related inflation.”

“You could see some banks either fail or at least, you know, dip below their minimum capital requirements,” Christopher Wolfe, managing director and head of North American banks at Fitch Ratings told CNBC in an interview.

Meanwhile, we continue to get even more signs that the overall economy is really slowing down.

For example, we just learned that Rue21 is going to be shutting down all 543 of their stores…

Rue21 – the teen fashion chain that is a fixture in malls across America – is to shut all 543 US stores.

Customers will be able to pick up deals while the company clears its stock over the next four to six weeks – but then the 40-year-old chain will be gone forever. At its peak, it had 1,200 shops.

It is expected clearance items will start at 20 to 50 percent off then rise up to as much as 90 percent to clear stock that doesn’t initially sell.

All over America, stores are closing, businesses are fleeing our core urban areas, and once bustling office buildings are standing empty.

At this stage, everyone should be able to see where all of this is heading.

The Chinese certainly understand the direction that things are moving.  The following comes from an article entitled “China Is Buying Gold Like There’s No Tomorrow”…

“China is unquestionably driving the price of gold,” said Ross Norman, chief executive of MetalsDaily.com, a precious-metals information platform based in London. “The flow of gold to China has gone from solid to an absolute torrent.”

Gold consumption in the country rose 6 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the China Gold Association. It came on the heels of a 9 percent increase last year.

Chinese consumers are voraciously buying gold because their own economy is crumbling and they can see what is happening to the global economy as a whole.

At the same time, China’s central bank is gobbling up gold at an unprecedented rate…

Another major buyer of gold in China is the country’s central bank. In March, the People’s Bank of China added to its gold reserves for a 17th straight month. Last year, the bank bought more gold than any other central bank in the world, adding more to its reserves than it had in nearly 50 years.

Beijing is buying up gold to diversify its reserve funds and reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar, long considered the most important currency to hold in reserve. China has been reducing its U.S. Treasury holdings for more than a decade.

Traditionally, buying gold and other precious metals has been a way to preserve your assets if you think that a major crisis is coming.

And the truth is that a major crisis has already begun.

I have been warning my readers that 2024 would be a very important year, and that has definitely turned out to be the case.

Of course all of this is very bad news for Joe Biden.

He had been hoping that an improving economy would help his chances in November, but instead there has been a dramatic shift in the wrong direction just as we enter the most critical months of campaign season.

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

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

People keep acting as if we are living in “normal” times, but the truth is that these are not “normal” times at all.  We are in the midst of a “perfect storm”, but most people in the general population don’t seem to realize this.  While the mainstream media is endlessly focused on political drama, our world is being deeply troubled by war, economic problems, food shortages, nightmarish pestilences and terrifying natural disasters.  But as bad as things are at this moment, I am entirely convinced that they are about to get a whole lot worse.

I would like to start by talking about war.  The IDF is preparing to conduct an operation in Rafah, and that could cause the entire Middle East to erupt in flames.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pledging that his forces will eventually move in no matter how negotiations for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas go.  Meanwhile, we just learned that Israel has just conducted airstrikes on the outskirts of Damascus…

Israeli aircraft have reportedly attacked a location on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus late Thursday (local), a security source told Reuters.

While there has been no immediate confirmation via Syrian state media, widely circulating images have emerged on social media showing plumes of smoke rising high over buildings which were struck.

It is just a matter of time before all-out war erupts in the region.

Speaking of all-out war, French President Emmanuel Macron is warning that French troops could be sent to Ukraine if Russian forces break through the Ukrainian front lines…

Emmanuel Macron has said he would be prepared to send troops to Ukraine if Vladimir Putin’s forces break through the front lines – further raising the risk of NATO forces clashing with Russia’s armies.

In an interview published today, the French president said the issue of sending troops would ‘legitimately’ arise if Kyiv and president Volodymyr Zelensky made such a request.

The Economist said Macron gave the interview after delivering a keynote speech last week where he declared that Europe is ‘mortal’ and could ‘die’ partly due to the threat posed by Russian aggression after its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Those that have been following the war closely know that the Russians are already breaking through the front lines in several areas along the eastern front.

So will Macron make good on his threat?

If so, that will put us literally one step away from nuclear conflict.

All throughout history, large scale wars have been accompanied by famine.

For now, we still have plenty of food to eat in the western world, but it is a far different story in the poorest areas of the planet.

For example, the famine in Sudan has become so severe that some people are literally eating dirt…

There is so little food in some areas of Sudan that people are taking extreme measures to survive.

In the Al Lait refugee camp, they are eating dirt.

I was stunned when I read that.

If you were hungry enough, would you fill your stomach with dirt?

Apparently, some desperately hungry people are rolling dirt into a ball and swallowing it with water…

Akok, 41, reached Al Lait in December, but has no work and can’t feed the family. At times, they go two or three days without eating. When that happens, Akok said, he watches helplessly as his wife and children dig holes in the ground with a stick, slide their hands in and grab some soil. Then they roll the soil into a ball, put it in their mouths and swallow it with water.

“I keep telling them not to do it, but it’s hunger,” he said. “There is nothing I can do.”

In my latest book I have an entire chapter about the emerging global famine.  What we are witnessing now is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what is eventually coming.

I have also been warning that frightening pestilences will break out all over the globe, and right now we are witnessing an unprecedented outbreak of dengue fever in South America.

At this point, more than four million cases of dengue fever have been registered in Brazil alone so far this year…

Brazil surpassed 4 million cases of dengue fever registered this year, according to an update from the Ministry of Health’s Arbovirus Monitoring Panel this Monday. In total, 4,127,571 probable cases of the disease were reported across the country in the first four months of 2024.

As for dengue deaths, 1,937 have been confirmed and 2,345 are under investigation. The incidence rate of the disease in the country is 2,032.7 cases for each group of 100,000 population.

And Peru has just declared a nationwide health emergency because cases of dengue fever are rising so rapidly in that nation…

The Peruvian government’s cabinet approved the motion to declare a health emergency on Monday, Vasquez told journalists, hours after he said a dengue outbreak was “imminent.”

“There are 20 regions (out of 25) that will be declared in a health emergency due to dengue,” Vasquez said in an earlier interview on local radio station RPP.

Here in North America, H5N1 has been killing cows, cats, chickens and turkeys.

Now authorities are desperately hoping that it does not make the jump to humans.  For much more on this, please see my recent article entitled “The Strain Of The Bird Flu That Is Killing Cats In Texas Is Causing ‘Brain Hemorrhaging’ And ‘Blindness'”.

Lastly, I would like to talk about the unusual natural disasters that we have been experiencing lately.

In 2024, southern California has been getting shaken on a regular basis.  Yesterday, it was hit by a magnitude 4.1 earthquake…

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.1 has struck near Corona in Riverside County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The USGS says the quake struck at 1:49 p.m. just 5.3 miles from Corona. It was originally reported as a 4.5 magnitude but was ultimately reduced to a 4.1.

Overall, there have been 748 earthquakes in California and Nevada within the past seven days.

It is just a matter of time before “the Big One” strikes, but at this stage most of those living in the region have stopped listening to such warnings.

The east coast has also been experiencing unusual seismic activity.

On the first day of this month, New Jersey was shaken by a magnitude 2.6 earthquake…

A magnitude 2.6 aftershock has rattled New Jersey on the first day of May after a dramatic earthquake shook parts of the east coast in early April.

The Garden State has been rocked by more than 150 aftershocks since the initial 4.8 magnitude earthquake which centered near Lebanon on the morning of April 5.

More than 42 million people from New York to Connecticut and Philadelphia felt the first quake, and New Jersey residents have been plagued by tremors ever since.

Normally, the east coast if very, very quiet.

So what we are seeing right now is definitely quite unusual.

The middle of the nation has not been left out either.

In recent days we have seen tornado after tornado rock the center of the country.

For example, one area of Nebraska was just hit by a tornado that had wind speeds of up to 165 miles per hour…

Nebraska brothers tell a terrifying tale of feeling a tornado pull their home apart, sucking them out and tossing them with debris.

“Ok, I’m cool to leave for work,” Roger Slatten thought to himself Saturday afternoon after Elkhorn, Nebraska’s tornado sirens went silent. But they sounded again. A strong EF-3 tornado was bearing down on the Omaha suburb with 165 mph winds.

His friend called him in the car and said, “Get back home, It’s going crazy.” Roger called his brother Royce and told him to rush home. They planned to get the two dogs and all shelter in the basement.

When will people finally start waking up?

What we are experiencing is not even close to normal.

It seems like almost every new day brings us yet another new crisis or disaster to deal with, and I have a feeling that the pace of events is only going to escalate as this year continues to roll along.

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

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Can you feel it too?  Over the past few weeks, I have heard from so many readers that are deeply troubled about economic conditions where they live.  In some cases, sales are way down.  In other cases, it seems almost impossible to find a decent job.  It is almost as if a tremendous chill descended upon the U.S. economy as the second quarter of 2024 began.  Yes, economic conditions have certainly not been good for a few years, but it appears that an absolutely enormous economic shift of historic proportions is now taking place right in front of our eyes.  Other than the early stages of the pandemic, we haven’t seen anything like this since 2008 and 2009.

Let me give you an example that will illustrate what I am talking about.  A reader that lives near Seattle recently wrote me about the horrible downturn that she is witnessing in the tech industry, and she said that I could share this information with all of you…

I live in the tech corridor outside of Seattle and practically no one can find a job in tech. Apparently the costs of AI processors and servers are so expensive that large tech companies are laying off workers to accommodate for the increased infrastructure costs. I would estimate that 50 percent of the people I know in tech are unemployed including myself and my spouse. In addition they are laying off both FTEs and contractors and not backfilling the positions. The problem is exacerbated if you’re over 40 because they don’t want to compensate for experience. In fact experience seems to be working against people. Not to mention AI taking over roles like technical writing and marketing communications. It’s getting really bad out there and the large companies play along with the media. I’ve met with several ex colleagues who have had their entire teams laid off and former FTEs who have had to take major pay cuts as contractors. I’ve also heard of more rounds of layoffs coming up. I went over to Microsoft the other morning to have coffee with an ex colleague and it’s a ghost town. No one in conference rooms or offices. Maybe people are working from home but it sure felt very different.

That email resonated with me so strongly, because she is right.

Vast hordes of tech workers have already been laid off, and more will be hitting the bricks soon.

But the tech industry is supposed to be one of our economic bright spots.

If things are this bad for the tech industry, what does this say about the economy as a whole?

Most of the jobs that are still available at this point pay very little.  Jobs that actually pay enough to support a middle class lifestyle have been disappearing, and millions of white collar workers find themselves on the outside looking in.  The following comes from a Business Insider article entitled “Welcome to the white-collar recession”…

Over the past year or so, pretty much everyone who’s looked for a job has told me the same thing: The job market is brutal right now. They’ve applied to dozens if not hundreds of openings, only to get one or two callbacks. No one’s hiring, they tell me. I’ve never seen it this bad.

Yes.

I have heard the same things over and over again too.

And it is getting worse with each passing day.

On Wednesday, we learned about even more layoffs at Google…

Google fired approximately 200 employees and relocated some of the jobs overseas – the latest sign of a long-running effort by the Big Tech firm to cut costs and restructure itself.

The job cuts — announced internally on the eve of Google’s blowout first-quarter earnings report — targeted members of Google’s “core” team, which works on the “technical foundation behind the company’s flagship products” as well as the online safety of users and its global IT infrastructure, according to its website.

At least 50 of the roles were based at Google’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. Google is expected to hire replacement workers for the roles in Mexico and India, CNBC reported, citing a review of internal documents.

Large companies all over America are looking to “trim the fat”, and that often means giving the axe to expensive older workers.

There is very little loyalty in the corporate world today.  You may have given 20 years of your life to a company, but the moment you become expendable they will dump you like a hot potato.

Millions of small businesses are really struggling right now too.

During the month of April, 43 percent of all small business renters in the United States were not able to pay their rent in full.  The last time we witnessed anything like this was during the lockdowns that were instituted during the early stages of the pandemic…

A significant number of small businesses across the nation are struggling to pay rent due to skyrocketing costs, a recent study by business networking platform Alignable found.

The company’s latest Small Business Rent report, published on Friday, found that 43 percent of small business renters in the U.S. were unable to pay their rent in full and on time in the month of April. Such a high delinquency rate hasn’t been reported in the U.S. since March 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it reached 49 percent.

The delinquency rate was also four percentage points higher than in March, making it the largest month-over-month surge in over a year, according to data analyzed by Alignable.

We don’t have a disease to blame this time around.

Sadly, conditions are only going to get tougher for small businesses in the months ahead as sales dry up.

Meanwhile, the total number of retail stores in the U.S. closed so far in 2024 is up to nearly 2,600…

US retailers confirmed another 169 closures last week – bringing the total so far this year up to almost 2,600.

Stores that announced the shuttering of locations included Express, Outfox Hospitality, Shop ‘n Save, Urban Outfitters and Walmart.

We are in the midst of another retail apocalypse.

Why aren’t we hearing more about this?

On top of everything else, Chicago PMI is dropping at the fastest pace that we have seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008….

After miraculously surging to two years highs in Nov 2023, Chicago PMI has plunged for five straight months, with the last four months seeing the MoM declines accelerating. Against expectations of a rise to 45.0 (from March’s 41.4), April’s PMI data printed 37.9

That is the worst five-month collapse since Lehman…

With everything that is going on, how in the world can anyone possibly claim that the economy “is in good shape”?

Economic activity is slowing down, mass layoffs are happening all over the country, and the cost of living is absolutely crushing the middle class.

More people are falling out of the middle class every day, and at this point there are tens of millions of Americans that are either considered to be either living in poverty or among the ranks of the “working poor”….

Over time, higher costs and sluggish wage growth have left more Americans financially vulnerable, with many known as “ALICEs.”

Nearly 40 million families, or 29% of the population, fall in the category of ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — according to United Way’s United for ALICE program, which first coined the term to refer to households earning above the poverty line but less than what’s needed to get by.

That figure doesn’t include the 37.9 million Americans who live in poverty, comprising 11.5% of the total population, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Collectively, the two categories discussed above now comprise more than 40 percent of the total population.

And if you think that things are bad now, just wait until you see the suffering that will happen during the tremendous chaos that is dead ahead of us.

It took decades of very foolish decisions to get us here, and now we are at a historic tipping point.

Our economy is literally breaking down right in front of our eyes, and the path before us is going to be filled with so much pain.

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

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.