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Once upon a time the United States was known as a “Christian nation”, but now our country is moving away from those roots at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking.  I spend a lot of time writing about the ongoing collapse of our economic system, but the truth is that we are witnessing a collapse of faith as well.  In 1972, a Pew survey found that 92 percent of all Americans identified as Christians, but the most recent Pew survey that asked this question discovered that only 63 percent of Americans still identify as Christians at this point…

Pew Research Center has been measuring religious identity since 2007 using a slightly different question wording – “What is your present religion, if any?” – as well as a different set of response options. Since 2007, the percentage of adults who say they are atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” in the Center’s surveys has grown from 16% to 29%. During this time, the share of U.S. adults who identify as Christian has fallen from 78% to 63%.

If you look at this chart, you will see that the decline has greatly accelerated in recent years.

Assuming that this trend continues, it won’t be too long before we are under 50 percent.

And it is very important to note that many Americans that still identify as “Christians” want absolutely nothing to do with traditional Christian values.

Church attendance in the United States has been steadily falling for decades as well, and the shift that we have seen since the pandemic started has been particularly dramatic…

Protestant pastors reported that typical church attendance is only 85% of pre-pandemic levels, McConnell said, while research by the Survey Center on American Life and the University of Chicago found that in spring 2022 67% of Americans reported attending church at least once a year, compared with 75% before the pandemic.

As a result, large numbers of churches are being forced to close all over the nation.

In fact, a recent Guardian article claimed that “thousands of churches are closing each year”…

Churches are closing at rapid numbers in the US, researchers say, as congregations dwindle across the country and a younger generation of Americans abandon Christianity altogether – even as faith continues to dominate American politics.

As the US adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year in the country – a figure that experts believe may have accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are going down the exact same road that almost every other western nation has already traveled.

At one time, virtually every nation in the western world was heavily Christian, but now most of them have been transformed into post-Christian societies.

It could be argued that the United States is already there as well, and one recent survey found that most parents do not consider it to be important to pass their faith on to their children…

“Parents place less importance on their children growing up to have religious or political beliefs that are similar to their own. About a third (35%) say it is extremely or very important to them that their children share their religious beliefs, and 16% say the same about their children’s political beliefs,” Pew researchers Rachel Minkin and Juliana Horowitz said in Parenting in America Today released on Tuesday.

Numbers such as these should make all of us very sad.

As Americans increasingly move away from what they have previously believed, it is inevitable that even more churches will close.

Meanwhile, many of the institutions that still remain are bitterly divided over sexuality.  Here is just one example…

The United Methodist Church announced a proposal Friday to split the denomination over what it called “fundamental differences” regarding its beliefs on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy.

The proposal, signed by 16 church leaders from around the world, will be voted on at the church’s 2020 general conference in May. If passed, it would allow for a “traditionalist” denomination to separate from the United Methodist Church, the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., with more than 12 million members worldwide.

And Roman Catholicism is also being torn apart by controversies related to sexuality…

Gay “clubs” operate openly in Catholic seminaries, the institutions that prepare men for the priesthood, the late Pope Benedict XVI has claimed in a posthumously published book scathing of Pope Francis’s progressive agenda.

In a blistering attack on the state of the Catholic Church under his successor’s papacy, Benedict, who died on Dec 31 at the age of 95, said that the vocational training of the next generation of priests is on the verge of “collapse”.

He claimed that some bishops allow trainee priests to watch pornographic films as an outlet for their sexual urges.

Our culture is being fundamentally transformed all around us, and many prominent Christian leaders are deeply concerned about where things are headed.

During a recent interview, Franklin Graham warned about what will happen if we do not change course…

Graham, who heads the Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, told CBN’s Faithwire he’s read Scripture and knows where culture is headed.

“I know where we’re going,” he said. “I’ve read Revelation. I know what’s getting ready to happen to this world. Judgment is coming.”

Graham continued, “God is going to judge this earth with the rejection of His Son, and there’s gonna be a great price to pay.”

Of course Franklin Graham is quite right.

These are the end times, and judgment is coming.

Unfortunately, most people are not interested in listening to the warnings.

But even though our society is rapidly moving away from religion, more evidence that validates the Christian faith continues to emerge.

For example, a team of researchers in France has determined that an ancient stone that is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris actually contains references to King David from the Bible…

The stele includes phrases such as “House of David” and “Altar of David,” but the damage to the stone’s face made accurate translation of the text difficult.

By using newer technology, including enhancing techniques in digital photography, researchers verified that the text does refer to the biblical King David.

I was so excited when I first read that.

And all over the Middle East, vast numbers of Muslims are becoming Christians after having supernatural experiences with Jesus…

The Rev. Lazarus Yeghnazar, founder of Transform Iran, an organization preaching the Gospel to Iran and planting churches, told CBN’s Faithwire many Iranians find themselves enraptured by Christ following these apparitions.

“They cannot stop talking about it. Hence the severe persecution, the severity of the brutality,” Yeghnazar said of the persecution many Iranian Christians face. “[Believers will say], ‘I saw a vision of a man with a white robe, with a cross on his shoulder or on his heart, and he says, ‘I’m Jesus.’”

Just as He has done throughout the past two thousand years, Jesus is still showing people that He is alive.

Sadly, many Americans simply do not care.

Our nation is choosing to reject faith like never before, and right now there are no indications that this is going to turn around any time soon.

***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.

Economic conditions are much worse than you are being told.  Throughout the past year, prices have been rising much faster than most of our incomes have.  As a result, our standard of living has been rapidly declining.  It has become increasingly difficult for U.S. households to make it from month to month, and as you will see below, more than a third of all U.S. adults are actually relying on their parents to pay at least some of their bills at this point.  But even more alarming is what has been happening to real disposable income.  According to Fox Business, the most recent GDP report revealed that the decline in real disposable income that we witnessed in 2022 was the largest that has been measured since 1932…

The most troubling information in the GDP report is the precipitous drop in real disposable income, which fell over $1 trillion in 2022. For context, this is the second-largest percentage drop in real disposable income ever, behind only 1932, the worst year of the Great Depression.

Just think about that for a moment.

The last time real disposable income declined this quickly was literally during the peak of the Great Depression.

And as our incomes get squeezed tighter and tighter, more Americans are starting to fall behind on their bills.

For example, the proportion of subprime auto borrowers that are at least 60 days behind on their payments has just surged to the highest level that we have seen since 2008…

In December, the percentage of subprime auto borrowers who were at least 60 days late on their bills climbed to 5.67% — a major increase from a seven-year low of 2.58% in April 2021, according to Fitch Ratings. It marks the steepest rate of Americans struggling to make their car payments since the 2008 financial crisis.

We are already beginning to witness the largest tsunami of repossessions that we have seen since the “Great Recession”, and it is only going to get worse in the months ahead.

One woman in San Antonio that knows that her vehicle could be repossessed at any time has decided that hiding it is the best strategy for now…

For some, however, the only lesson is to try and outsmart the repo man: hardly the best long-term strategy. Take San Antonio native Zhea Zarecor who is currently trying to negotiate with her lender so her 2013 Honda Fit won’t get repossessed. In the meantime, she’s hiding it.

The 53-year-old, who is currently in school for her bachelor’s in information technology (and raking up massive student loans for an education she should have had some 35 years ago) splits the monthly bill for the car — about $178 — with her roommate. But then the roommate lost his job, and with prices for groceries and everyday items increasing, there just wasn’t enough for the car payments.

Zarecor is trying to make extra money with odd jobs like contract secretarial work and participation in medical studies, but it often feels hopeless, she said. “Our money doesn’t go as far as it used to,” she said. “I don’t see prices going down, so the only relief I see is when I get my degree.”

Sadly, most of the country is just barely scraping by at this juncture.

As I discussed in a previous article, one recent survey discovered that 57 percent of Americans cannot even afford to pay a $1,000 emergency expense right now.

And a different survey has found that a whopping 35 percent of all U.S. adults are still relying on Mom and Dad to pay at least some of the bills…

More than one third of adults (35%) admit they still have at least one bill on their parents’ tab. According to a new poll of 2,000 Americans, the top three expenses their parents still pay for are rent (19%), groceries (19%), and utilities (16%). In fact, almost one-quarter (24%) of millennials say their parents cover their rent.

Are things really this bad?

Unfortunately, economic conditions are only going to get even worse in the months ahead as countless more Americans lose their jobs.

On Monday, I was quite saddened to learn that electronics giant Philips will be giving the axe to another 6,000 workers…

Philips announced Monday that it’s cutting another 6,000 jobs worldwide as it works to boost profitability.

The workforce reduction will occur over the next two years with the first 3,000 cuts taking place this year, the Dutch consumer electronics and medical equipment maker said on Monday. In its earnings report, the company revealed it suffered a net loss of 1.6 billion euros in 2022, which is down from a net profit of 3.3 billion euros last year.

And it is also being reported that one of my favorite toymakers has decided to eliminate approximately “15% of its global full-time workforce”.

I could go on and on if you would like.

In fact, every day I could fill up my articles with nothing but job loss announcements.

We have entered a very painful economic downturn, and one prominent Wall Street economist is warning that the full impact of this crisis will not be felt until the second half of 2023…

According to one Wall Street economist, a looming recession this year will feel more like the 1970s than a 2008-07 slump.

“People are too focused on ‘08 and 2020. This is more like 1973, 74 and 2021,” Piper Sandler chief global economist Nancy Lazar said on “Mornings with Maria” Monday.

Lazar predicted feeling the full impact of a recession in the second half of 2023 as lag effects from the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes take hold.

Actually, it would be quite wonderful if her seemingly gloomy forecast is accurate.

Because I don’t believe that we are heading into a slowdown like we experienced during the early 1970s.

Rather, I see all sorts of evidence that indicates that we are in the very early stages of the economic equivalent of “the Big One”.

I believe that things will be very rough this year, and I believe that the long-term outlook is even worse.

Our leaders assured us that everything would be okay even as they were flooding the system with money and engaging in the greatest debt binge in all of human history.

Now a day of reckoning has arrived, and we will get to suffer the consequences of their very foolish decisions.

***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.

Are you ready for a catastrophic war in the Middle East?  When I heard that there had been multiple military strikes inside Iran on Saturday night, I went to several prominent mainstream news websites looking for confirmation.  But I didn’t see any stories about these strikes on any of their front pages.  That puzzled me, because social media is filled with videos of these attacks, and there are lots of stories about them in Middle Eastern news sources.  So why is the mainstream media here in the United States choosing to be so quiet about what is happening inside Iran?

I did find a Fox News story about the drone strike that happened in Isfahan, but that story appears to promote the Iranian view that it really wasn’t a big deal at all…

A loud blast has been reported at an Iranian military facility and officials in the country say it was the result of an “unsuccessful” drone attack.

“One of (the drones) was hit by the … air defense and the other two were caught in defense traps and blew up. Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack did not cause any loss of life and caused minor damage to the workshop’s roof,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA.

If you just read that story, you would be tempted to believe that this attack was a complete nothingburger.

Of course this is what the Iranians often do when they are attacked.  They act tough and deny that any serious damage has been done.

But the Jerusalem Post is reporting that the strike on Isfahan was actually “a tremendous success”…

Despite Iranian claims, the drone attack on Iran at Isfahan was a tremendous success, according to a mix of Western intelligence sources and foreign sources, The Jerusalem Post initially reported on Sunday morning.

According to the Post, the facility that was hit is involved in “developing advanced weapons”, and “four large explosions” were recorded…

There were four large explosions at the military industry factory, documented on social media, against a facility developing advanced weapons. The damage goes far beyond the “minor roof damage” that the Islamic Republic claimed earlier Sunday and has falsely claimed in past incidents.

And a major British news source says that a “huge fire” erupted at the facility after it was attacked…

A huge fire has erupted at an Iranian military industry factory following a suspected drone strike – as mystery surrounds who was responsible for the attack.

A loud explosion struck the factory close to Iran’s central city of Isfahan overnight amid rising global tensions.

Footage close to the scene shows huge flames engulfing the facility and plumes of black smoke rising from the area, while emergency vehicles and fire trucks could be seen outside the complex.

In addition, it is also being reported that a “massive fire” erupted at an oil refinery “in northwestern Iran” around the same time…

A massive fire broke out at an oil refinery in northwestern Iran on Saturday, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

The refinery is near the city of Tabriz in East Azerbaijan Province.

“The firefighting is still going on and the size and intensity of the fire made it difficult to extinguish,” Fars reported.

But these were apparently not the only targets that were struck on Saturday.

There were reports of explosions from multiple locations, and some are claiming that Israel has decided to launch a “special military operation” against the Iranians.

#Israel launches special military operation inside #Iran – #AlArabiya
-A center for production of ammunition, UAVs is on fire, 5 locations.
-An oil refinery is on fire.
-A weapons manufacturing plant is on fire.
-Explosions at a military base in Hamadan & Kereja.#iranunderattack pic.twitter.com/yIWLzMoLCK

— MidnightVisions (@MidnightVision5) January 29, 2023

Unfortunately, Israeli officials don’t want to talk, the Iranians are trying to deny that much damage has been done, and the mainstream media in the U.S. is mostly ignoring this story.

But it is abundantly clear that something really huge just happened.

Iran claims it “thwarted: last night’s drone attacks.

OK…. I guess they mean the guys with the water buckets? pic.twitter.com/4SXuAj8X4E

— Zionwarrior6 – FREE IRAN! (@ZionWarrior6) January 29, 2023

And there are reports all over social media that are claiming that more strikes are being conducted on Sunday night.

Incoming news that an IRGC base in Mahabad has been hit.

Iran is getting a beating the 2nd night in a row. #Iran pic.twitter.com/h3Ms3tAbaD

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) January 29, 2023

In fact, some reports are even claiming that a headquarters of the Revolutionary Guard has been targeted.

Explosions are reported at the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in #Iran. pic.twitter.com/lObUt24Dia

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) January 29, 2023

It sure would be nice if we still had real journalists that were actually interested in reporting important breaking news from around the globe.

But instead of real journalism, most of what we get from the mainstream media is corporate fluff that is carefully designed to promote one particular agenda or another.

Often, I find myself going to foreign news sources in order to find out what is really going on.  And according to a news source in the UK, we are being warned that IDF officials believe that a full-blown war between Israel and Iran “will happen before summer”…

And that assurance is key, said Middle East expert Catherine Perez-Shakdam, as Israel seeks to build a coalition ahead of anticipated conflict.

“We know time is running out in terms of Iran’s nuclear programme,” said Ms Perez-Shakdam, of the Henry Jackson Society think tank.

“Israel is preparing for war. Senior IDF officials believe it will happen before summer.”

Yes, the major war in the Middle East that we have been warned about for a long time is actually coming.

Meanwhile, it appears that the coming conflict between the United States and China is even closer than a lot of people would have imagined…

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that the possibility of war between China and Taiwan is “very high.”

Anchor Shannon Bream said, “I want to start with this reports of a top general who is making a comment about a potential war with China in 2025, get your reaction to this. NBC News is citing a memo to his officers with this quote, ‘I hope I am wrong,’ he says to them. ‘My gut tells me will fight in 2025.’ That’s being met with a lot of different reactions, some skepticism this is attributed to the opinion of one man. What do you make of that?”

McCaul said, “I hope he’s wrong as well. I think he’s right, though, unfortunately.”

We live at a time of wars and rumors of wars.

And thanks to the recklessness of the Biden administration, the U.S. could soon be involved in multiple major wars simultaneously.

I realize that there are many of you out there that don’t want to hear this.

But it is the truth.

The dogs of war have been released, and the world will never be the same from this point forward.

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

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Once the nukes start flying, there will be no going back.  So I hope that you all understand that we are playing for all the marbles here.  Sadly, our leaders don’t seem to get it.  They just keep escalating the conflict in Ukraine, and on the other side the Russians just keep escalating matters as well.  On Thursday, Russia responded to news that the U.S. and Germany would be giving highly advanced tanks to the Ukrainians by firing “a barrage of missiles and drones across the country”.  The Russians are now so invested in this war that there is no way that they could ever back down.  Of course the same thing is true for the Biden administration.  Joe Biden has staked his presidency on winning this war, and Congress has already approved approximately 100 billion dollars in total aid for the Ukrainians.  We are on a collision course with destiny, and the cataclysmic war with Russia that I have been warning about for many years is now right on our doorstep.

Donald Trump is warning that a worst case scenario is coming too.  On Thursday, he posted a message that instantly made headlines all over the world…

A Truth Social post from Trump on Thursday appeared to react to the recent wave of announcements on Western tank deliveries.

“FIRST COME THE TANKS, THEN COME THE NUKES. Get this crazy war ended, NOW. So easy to do!” Trump wrote.

BREAKING: President Trump slams escalation in Ukraine – calls for war to end

No other world leader is calling for this pic.twitter.com/8grdhPTT7j

— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) January 26, 2023

He is quite correct.

We must end this war before the nukes start flying.

And actually Joe Biden once warned that we would be facing “World War 3” if we ever sent tanks into Ukraine.

Just going to leave this here. #ww3 pic.twitter.com/Br5VaTRqUX

— Clayton Morris (@ClaytonMorris) January 25, 2023

But now the Biden administration is trying to assure us that sending tanks into Ukraine is perfectly fine.

Look, at this point we are providing more funding for the war in Ukraine than everyone else combined, more military equipment for the war in Ukraine than everyone else combined, more ammunition for the war in Ukraine than everyone else combined, and more military intelligence for the war in Ukraine than everyone else combined.

In addition, we are regularly flying Ukrainians into this country for training.

Once their training is done, they are sent to the front lines where many of them will soon die.

Sadly, as long as it isn’t our boys and girls that are dying on the plains of eastern Ukraine, most Americans are simply not going to care.

But the truth is that this has become our war, and the Russians understand this very clearly…

“There are constant statements from European capitals and Washington that the sending of various weapons systems to Ukraine, including tanks, in no way signifies the involvement of these countries or the alliance in hostilities in Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“We categorically disagree with this, and in Moscow, everything that the alliance and the capitals I mentioned are doing is seen as direct involvement in the conflict. We see that this is growing.”

Over and over again, the Russians have threatened us with nuclear weapons, but for some reason we are not taking those warnings seriously.

This week, the head of Russia’s lower house of parliament wrote something that should send a chill up all of our spines…

The head of Russia’s State Duma has said that the promised deliveries of additional weapons to Kyiv by Western countries could heighten the war in Ukraine to a new level that could result in a “global catastrophe.”

Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel on January 22 that “if Washington and NATO countries supply weapons that will be used to strike civilian cities and attempt to seize our territories…this will lead to retaliatory measures using more powerful weapons.”

The comments by the head of Russia’s lower house of parliament were broadly taken to mean nuclear weapons, and he has now joined other high-ranking Russian officials who have recently threatened a significant escalation of the unprovoked war the Kremlin launched against Ukraine 11 months ago.

But the Biden administration can’t back down now.

Biden has essentially pushed all of his chips into the middle of the table and is betting everything that this war will be a success…

Biden has pinned his legacy on a major land war in Europe in which the United States has engaged in an effective proxy battle with nuclear rival Russia. This fight – which is, in a way, the last battle of the Cold War – is a test of will between an American president and a Kremlin strongman deeply influenced by the US-Soviet standoff. Biden is leading the most significant foreign policy venture at least since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Its success is critical for America’s credibility as well as his own. The magnitude of the mission is likely to overshadow much of the rest of his presidency – including the current investigation into misplaced classified documents – in world history.

So more escalations are inevitably coming.

It is time for the American people to face the truth.  We are at war, and there is no way out.

Recently, an extremely long line of tanks was spotted rolling across Kansas.

Looks like the decision for war has already been made.

Kansas, U.S. today.pic.twitter.com/M5CtZikN2K https://t.co/HOo2YTs4Qg

— Financelot (@FinanceLancelot) January 25, 2023

Scenes such as this will become increasingly common in the days ahead.

If the American people truly understood what was at stake, there would be massive protests in every major U.S. city right now.

But they don’t understand what is at stake.

We are literally closer to nuclear annihilation than we have ever been in our entire history, and the Russians have actually been preparing for such a scenario for decades.

Unfortunately, the backbone of the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal is still made up of hopelessly outdated Minuteman missiles that first went into service back in the 1970s.

Would you want to use a computer or a phone from the 1970s?

Well, then why would we want to fight a nuclear war with missiles from the 1970s?

But instead of addressing that glaring need, the Pentagon is gearing up for conventional wars on multiple fronts, and this is making U.S. arms manufacturers very happy…

The Post also notes the budget proposal does far more than that: “It lays the foundation for a vastly revitalised defence industrial base – and does so with one eye on the People’s Republic of China.” 25 new mass-assembly lines will soon roll out weapons quantities “far in excess of what is required to replenish Ukraine.” 700 HIMARS systems are ordered vs. the 20 sent to aid Kyiv, and 3,600 of two kinds of anti-ship missile, more appropriate for the South China than the Black Sea.

One way or another, the military industrial complex always seems to win.

But if a nuclear war erupts, there will be no winners.

Only losers.

Joe Biden and his minions are assuring us that the war in Ukraine can be won without nuclear weapons ever being used by either side.

Do you believe them?

Hopefully they are correct, because if their gamble fails it will literally mean the end of civilization as we know it today.

***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 don’t have to tell you that your money doesn’t go as far as it once did.  You see it every time that you go shopping.  Our leaders flooded the system with money and pursued highly inflationary policies for years, and now we are all paying the price.  The cost of living has been rising much faster than our incomes have, and this is systematically destroying the middle class.  Survey after survey has shown that a solid majority of the population is living paycheck to paycheck, and at this point most U.S. consumers are tapped out.  In fact, one brand new survey just discovered that 57 percent of Americans cannot even afford to pay a $1,000 emergency expense…

According to Bankrate’s Annual Emergency Fund Report, 68% of people are worried they wouldn’t be able to cover their living expenses for just one month if they lost their primary source of income. And when push comes to shove, the majority (57%) of U.S. adults are currently unable to afford a $1,000 emergency expense.

When broken down by generation, Gen Zers (85%) and Millennials (79%) are more likely to be worried about covering an emergency expense.

These numbers are quite ominous, because they clearly demonstrate that we are completely and utterly unprepared for any sort of a major economic downturn.

And thanks to the rapidly rising cost of living, we are losing even more ground with each passing month.

Another survey that was recently released found that “earnings are falling behind the cost of living” for 72 percent of middle income families…

Nearly three-quarters, or 72%, of middle-income families say their earnings are falling behind the cost of living, up from 68% a year ago, according to a separate report by Primerica based on a survey of households with incomes between $30,000 and $100,000. A similar share, 74%, said they are unable to save for their future, up from 66% a year ago.

We haven’t experienced anything like this in the United States in decades.

When I walked into a Walmart store the other day, I was shocked by how high the prices are now.

Isn’t Walmart supposed to be the place with “low prices every day”?

Well, the prices were certainly not “low” when I walked through the store.

And I was stunned to learn that McDonald’s is now selling one hash brown for three dollars.

McDonald’s charging $3 for 1 (one) hash brown is actually insane pic.twitter.com/qZwZrPTrTV

— cabral (@comradeaux) January 18, 2023

Are you kidding me?

I am sure that many of you can remember a time when they were 50 cents.

Sadly, those days are not coming back.

Food prices are going to continue to go up, and the CEO of Unilever recently admitted that his company has actually “been accelerating the rate of price increases that we’ve had to put into the market”…

“For the last 18 months we’ve seen extraordinary input cost pressure … it runs across petrochemical derived products, agricultural derived products, energy, transport, logistics,” he said.

“It’s been feeding through for quite some time now and we’ve been accelerating the rate of price increases that we’ve had to put into the market,” he added.

That doesn’t sound good at all.

And he also ominously warned that “there’s more inflationary pressure coming”…

Unilever’s view, he said, was that “we know for sure there’s more inflationary pressure coming through in our input costs.”

As food prices continue to rise, these big companies are going to look for ways to reduce input costs.

One way that they are going to do that is by starting to put crushed bugs in our food.

I know that this may sound really bizarre to you, but this is already happening in Europe…

As of yesterday, a food additive made out of powdered crickets began appearing in foods from pizza, to pasta to cereals across the European Union.

Yes, really.

Defatted house crickets are on the menu for Europeans across the continent, without the vast majority of them knowing it is now in their food.

So you might want to start reading labels a lot more carefully from now on.

Of course it isn’t just the cost of food that has become extremely oppressive.

Just about everything has gotten more expensive, and this has broken the remaining strength of the U.S. consumer.

If you doubt this, just consider some of the latest economic numbers that we have seen.

-U.S. retail sales fell once again last month…

US retail sales continued their fall in December, dropping by 1.1% as inflation remained high, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

That’s the largest monthly decline since December 2021, and practically every category (except for building materials, groceries and sporting goods) saw sales drop from the prior month.

-Sales of existing homes have now fallen for 11 months in a row…

U.S. existing home sales slowed for the 11th consecutive month in December as higher mortgage rates, surging inflation and steep home prices sapped consumer demand from the housing market.

-More Americans than ever before are being forced to pay at least 30 percent of their incomes on rent…

The average US household is now considered ‘rent-burdened’ as a record-high number of people are spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent.

According to Moody’s Analytics’ latest affordability report, the national average rent-to-income (RTI) ratio reached 30 percent for the first time since the company began tracking the data more than 20 years ago.

U.S. consumers are being stretched financially like never before, and many are turning to debt to help them maintain their current lifestyles.

As a result, the savings rate has plunged to a historic low, credit card debt has surged to a record high, and the average rate of interest on credit card balances has also risen to a record high.  As Zero Hedge has aptly noted, this is “nothing short of catastrophic”…

The combination of record high credit card debt and record high credit card interest is nothing short of catastrophic for both the US economy, and the strapped consumer who has no choice but to keep buying on credit while hoping next month’s bill will somehow not come. Unfortunately, it will and at some point in the very near future, this will also translate into massive loan losses for US consumer banks; that’s when Powell will finally panic.

For a long time, we have been warned that the very foolish economic policies that our leaders were implementing would have deeply tragic consequences.

And now it is starting to happen right in front of our eyes.

Sadly, the truth is that this is just the beginning.

The entire system is cracking and crumbling all around us, and there is much more pain ahead.

***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.

How can you get people to wake up if they are determined to keep sleeping?  For decades, global events have been moving us in a very ominous direction, and ever since this decade began the pace of change has accelerated dramatically.  But even though we just keep getting hit by one major crisis after another, most people still do not get it.  Almost everyone seems to be under the impression that the massive problems that we are experiencing right now are “just temporary” and that everything will “return to normal” soon.  Meanwhile, apocalyptic scenarios continue to unfold all around us at a breathtaking pace.

Earlier today, I pulled up a USA Today article about the Doomsday Clock that boldly declared that “the world is closer to annihilation than it has ever been”…

The world is closer to annihilation than it has ever been since the first nuclear bombs were released at the close of World War II, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said Tuesday. The time on the Doomsday Clock moved forward from 100 seconds to midnight to 90 seconds to midnight.

It’s a reset of what has come to be known as the Doomsday Clock, a decades long project of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists featuring a clock face where midnight represents Armageddon.

Yes, we really are on the brink of nuclear war, but the vast majority of the general population hasn’t gotten the memo.

Instead, most of them are having a great time partying, spending money like there is no tomorrow, and getting into other sorts of trouble.

But just because most Americans choose to ignore the war does not alter the reality of what is taking place.

Sadly, both sides just continue to escalate the conflict.  In fact, it appears that the Biden administration will soon be sending M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine for the very first time…

The Biden administration is leaning toward sending “a significant number” of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, two U.S. officials said, and an announcement could come as early as this week.

The development comes amid a public standoff with German officials, who are under pressure to send their own Leopard tanks and allow other European countries that operate the German-made vehicles to do so as well.

And it is being reported that the German government has reversed course and has now decided to send Leopard 2 tanks to the Ukrainians…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has finally decided to send a battalion of sought-after Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Der Spiegel reported on Tuesday, after weeks of pressure from Ukraine and European allies.

On the other side, the Russians have chosen to send a warship armed with hypersonic missiles within shooting range of major east coast cities…

A Russian warship armed with “unstoppable” hypersonic missiles is sailing towards the US coast in a show of strength, reports claim.

The guided missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov has been closely monitored by Nato navies on its maiden voyage armed with 6,670mph Zircon weapons.

An unconfirmed Russian Telegram channel report says it was “spotted on radar in neutral waters of the Atlantic Ocean – at an effective salvo launch distance from the US coast”.

Both sides are playing a very dangerous game.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov just warned that we on the verge of seeing “a real war” between the western powers and Russia…

‘When we speak about what is happening in Ukraine – it is a war, not a hybrid one, almost a real war, that the West has been plotting for a long time against Russia,’ Lavrov said today.

If our leaders were sane, they would be trying to find a peaceful solution to this crisis while it is still possible.

Instead, we seem to be playing a very twisted game of “nuclear chicken” where we see how close we can come to the line without actually starting a nuclear war.

So what happens if a “mistake” is made and the missiles start flying?

You might want to start thinking about that.

Meanwhile, it appears that the coming war between Israel and Iran is also getting closer.

In fact, the U.S. and Israel are conducting “the most significant exercise between the United States and Israel to date”…

The Israel Defense Forces and U.S. Central Command on Monday announced the launch of a large-scale drill, which a senior U.S. defense official called “the most significant exercise between the United States and Israel to date.”

The unprecedented drill, dubbed “Juniper Oak 2023,” involves over 140 aircraft, 12 naval vessels, and artillery systems from both countries and will last until Friday, CENTCOM said in a statement.

Once the war between Israel and Iran starts, our planet will never be the same again.

Speaking of the planet, it is being reported that the inner core has apparently stopped moving…

A new study published in Nature Geoscience by geophysicists Yi Yang and Xiadong Song of Peking University in Beijing explored the nature of movement of Earth’s inner core, largely made up of iron and molten liquids. They found the inner core’s movement recently reduced enough they consider it “paused,” all part of what “seems to be associated with a gradual turning back of the inner core as a part of an approximately seven-decade oscillation.”

But don’t worry, because scientists think that this is normal.

Maybe it is.

Probably it is.

Hopefully it is.

Because if it isn’t normal for the Earth’s inner core to “pause”, then there is a possibility that we are all in really big trouble.

In other planetary news, an enormous asteroid that was “just discovered this past weekend” is about to zip past our world at an “extremely close” distance…

An asteroid just discovered this past weekend is set for an extremely close encounter with Earth—and you can watch it live as it zooms past our planet.

Most people assume that our scientists have a really good idea of what is going on up there, and that if a major threat was coming they would tell us about it.

Unfortunately, the truth is that their ability to detect giant space rocks is still fairly limited, and this new space rock that was “just discovered this past weekend” will come closer to us than we are to the center of our planet…

At that point, the space rock will come “only” about 6,500 miles from the center of the Earth while traveling at roughly 33,300 miles per hour. Given that the average radius of the Earth—the distance from the center to the surface—is considered to be roughly 4,000 miles, 2023 BU will zip past us at an altitude of around 2,500 miles above the ground.

Let me try to explain this another way.

This space rock will come more than 30 times closer to us than the moon is…

The approach is so close that it is less than 3 percent of the average distance between the Earth and the moon. The asteroid will also pass within the orbits of geostationary satellites, which circle the Earth above the equator at an altitude of 22,236 miles.

In other words, a space rock that was “just discovered this past weekend” is going to come very close to hitting us.

But it won’t hit us.

Maybe.

Probably.

Hopefully.

If everything else that I have shared so far is not enough, it is also being reported that “excess deaths” are soaring all over the globe…

Healthcare spending is at record-high levels across the Western world, yet systems are struggling to cope. The combined effects of the pandemic and a rapidly ageing population are stressing hospitals, ambulance crews and social care services to their limit. Excess deaths – those beyond usual numbers – are consequently soaring: the crisis is global.

What this means is that far more people are dying than normal all over the world.

In fact, we are being told that there were approximately 15 million “excess deaths” worldwide in 2020 and 2021…

Nearly 15 million excess deaths from any cause are thought to have occurred during 2020 and 2021, according to new WHO research – nearly three times the 5.42 million coronavirus fatalities reported over the same period. Health statistician William Msemburi said the figure was also likely especially high due to people dying from delayed health screenings and medical procedures.

More people will be dropping dead today, and more people will be dropping dead tomorrow.

But at least you won’t be one of them.

Maybe.

Probably.

Hopefully.

I could go on and on, but this article is already getting way too long.  We keep getting hit by one thing after another, and I really like how Hal Lindsey summarized the current state of affairs in his most recent article…

The price of eggs… a Mall of America security guard threatening the wearer of a “Jesus saves” t-shirt… attacks on the US power grid… a worldwide obsession with pornography… another wave of nuclear threats coming out of Russia… a universal weakening of democratic institutions… a global reshuffling of leaders… threats of “civil war” in Israel… corruption in the highest levels of government across the world… weaponized Artificial Intelligence… deep fake audio and video enabling previously unimagined levels of deception… global economic chaos… and on and on.

What do these and hundreds of other things like them have in common?

Needless to say, the answer to Hal’s question is quite obvious.

The reason why so many apocalyptic things are happening is because we really are living in apocalyptic times.

Hopefully the general population will wake up and realize what time it is, because the clock is ticking.

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

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

A shockingly large wave of layoffs has already begun, and we are being warned that much larger layoffs are coming in the months ahead.  That is very chilling to hear, because job cut announcements are already coming in so rapidly that I couldn’t possibly share them all with you.  I wrote about some of the major layoffs that are happening just a few days ago, and now I have more to share.  We haven’t seen anything like this since 2008, and many of you still have very painful memories of what the “Great Recession” was like.  Unfortunately, America is now plunging into another severe economic downturn, and that means that there will be a tremendous amount of pain in the weeks and months to come.

Earlier today, I was stunned to learn that a new survey has found that 20 percent of business economists “expect employment at their company to fall in the coming months”…

A growing number of business economists expect companies to reduce their headcounts for the first time since the pandemic, a sign the job market is beginning to cool amid an increasingly dark economic outlook.

That’s according to a new survey published on Monday by the National Association for Business Economics, which shows that about 20% of the group’s members expect employment at their company to fall in the coming months.

Is this survey representative of the U.S. economy as a whole?

If it is, that is truly chilling.

Can you imagine what our economy would look like if about one-fifth of all U.S. companies started suddenly letting workers go all at once?

Hopefully that will not happen.

But it appears that the coming layoffs in the banking industry could be historic.

In fact, one expert is publicly warning that “the job cuts that are coming are going to be super brutal”…

Banks are set to undertake the largest wave of job cuts in 15 years amid declining revenues.

Industry watchers told the Financial Times (FT) the layoffs — expected to be in the tens of thousands — reverse a trend of widespread hiring and banks’ reticence to let go of workers during the pandemic.

“The job cuts that are coming are going to be super brutal,” Lee Thacker, owner of financial services headhunting firm Silvermine Partners, told the FT in a Saturday (Jan. 21) report.

He didn’t just say that the job losses will be “brutal”.

He said that they will be “super brutal”.

Of course many would argue that the outlook for tech industry workers is even worse.

At this point, “tens of thousands of employees” have already been laid off within just “the past few months”…

Big tech giants have laid off tens of thousands of employees over the past few months as recession fears, persistent inflation, and rising interest rates continue to weigh on earnings results. The likes of Google, Amazon, and Meta have let go of nearly 40,000 employees combined.

But Gene Munster, managing partner at the tech-focused investment and venture capital firm Deepwater Asset Management (formerly Loup Ventures), believes the worst is yet to come.

“There’s still another 15% to 20% of headcount reductions for these big tech companies in the next three to six months,” he told CNBC on Monday.

The startling layoffs that we just witnessed at Google made headlines all over the planet, because most of the experts didn’t see them coming.

Sadly, many of those that were laid off didn’t see them coming either.

Can you imagine giving 20 years of your life to Google and then getting suddenly laid off one day via email?…

A software engineer described the way he found out Google was laying him off as a “slap in the face.”

Jeremy Joslin, whose LinkedIn profile says he had worked at the tech giant since 2003, said Friday the company gave him the news over email.

“It’s hard for me to believe that after 20 years at Google I unexpectedly find out about my last day via an email,” he tweeted. “What a slap in the face. I wish I could have said goodbye to everyone face to face.”

That is cold.

But it appears that this is becoming something of a trend.

In fact, Vox just laid off 7 percent of its workforce, and those that lost their jobs were “notified through email”…

Vox Media, the publisher of news websites such as Vox and The Verge, in addition to New York magazine, will lay off 7% of its workforce, chief executive Jim Bankoff said in a Friday morning memo to staff.

Bankoff said the layoffs, which will result in about 130 people losing their roles, impacted multiple teams, including editorial. Those who had their jobs eliminated were notified through email, followed by a later meeting with a human resources officer who would discuss severance packages with them.

If you are in human resources and you are reading this, please don’t ever do something so cruel at your own company.

It may be much easier to fire people by email, but it is simply the wrong thing to do.

On Monday we also learned that Spotify will be conducting mass layoffs…

Spotify has joined a slew of other tech giants in laying off employees.

Monday’s announcement shared by CEO Daniel Ek said that impacted employees, about 6% across the company, will be notified Monday morning.

I suppose that they have to pay Joe Rogan somehow.

But it always pains me when I hear of people losing good paying employment.

Sadly, for many firms one wave of layoffs will not be enough.

As we plunge into a very harsh economic environment, some companies will have to get out the axe again and again.

For example, just look at what the Winklevoss twins are doing.  They just conducted their third round of layoffs within the last eight months…

Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini is slashing 10 percent of its staff – the third round of layoffs within just eight months.

The announcement was made in an internal message on Monday by founders and identical twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, 41, The Information reported.

The company also cut staff in July, according to TechCrunch, just a month after it laid off 10 percent in June.

Instead of subjecting us to horrifying renditions of some of our most beloved classic songs, perhaps they should have spent more time trying to figure out how to keep their company afloat.

In any event, it turns out that the doe-eyed optimists were dead wrong and the economic realists were quite correct.

The massive economic meltdown that we have been relentlessly warned about is happening.

Hordes of American workers have already been laid off, and countless more will be laid off as 2023 rolls along.

So you may want to try to butter up your boss while you still can, because otherwise you may be one of the people that gets “laid off by email” in the months ahead.

***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.

You can call everyone for dinner, because our goose is cooked.  We are so deep in debt that the only way we can keep the entire system from collapsing is to keep borrowing even more money.  Perhaps you have been through a similar scenario with your own personal finances.  When you simply do not have enough money to pay your bills, borrowing more money can seem like a really easy short-term solution.  Unfortunately, the U.S. government has been doing this for decades, and now our national debt spiral has reached a terminal stage.  Even if we gathered up all of the money that exists in every bank account in America, we could not pay off the national debt.  The debt level is exploding upwards at an exponential rate, and the only way that the federal government can continue to pay the bills is to keep borrowing and spending colossal mountains of money that we must borrow from someone else.

As I write this article, the U.S. national debt is sitting at 31.4 trillion dollars.

But the total value of all goods and services produced in the United States last year was only about 25 trillion dollars.

Our leaders in Washington could try to reverse course by balancing the budget, but that would lead to a short-term economic disaster.

Just think about it.

What do you think would happen if a couple trillion dollars of government spending was suddenly sucked out of the economy?

We would immediately plunge into a horrifying economic depression.

Sadly, the truth is that we have been borrowing from the future to make the present a lot more pleasant.  We are enjoying an artificially-inflated standard of living that we do not deserve, and we have been using debt to fund that artificially-inflated standard of living.

But now a day of reckoning is here.

Of course it isn’t just the federal government that has gone completely insane.

Our state and local governments are collectively more than 3 trillion dollars in debt.

Corporate debt in the United States has now surpassed the 12 trillion dollar mark.

And total U.S. household debt is now over 18 trillion dollars.

As the U.S. economy has slowed down in recent months, an increasing number of Americans have turned to credit card debt.

So now credit card debt is rising at an exponential rate while the savings rate has dropped to a historic low.

And at this point the average rate of interest on credit card balances is the highest ever.

I don’t even have the words to describe how self-destructive we are being.

On every level of society, debt levels are absolutely skyrocketing.

We are literally committing national financial suicide, but many people don’t seem to care.

And many people don’t seem to care because they don’t even understand what is happening.

At this point, our “system of education” has produced hordes of completely clueless individuals that can barely even function in a modern society.

If we had a population that was properly educated and properly informed, they would be absolutely horrified by what our leaders have been doing to us.

But instead, our leaders have been free to systematically destroy our financial future for a very long time, and very few of us have even cared enough to object.

Unfortunately, we have reached a point where there is no turning back.

We have already destroyed the reserve currency of the planet.

We have already created rampant inflation.

The Federal Reserve has been feverishly hiking interest rates, but that is dramatically raising debt service costs at every level of our society, and it is also causing economic activity to slow down all around us.

Companies all over America are now laying off workers, and that even includes Google…

On Friday, Alphabet-owned Google announced it was cutting 12,000 employees, roughly 6% of the full-time workforce. While employees had been bracing for a potential layoff, they are questioning leadership about the criteria for layoffs which surprised some employees, who woke up to find their access to company properties cut off. Some of the laid-off employees had been long-tenured or recently promoted, raising questions about the criteria used to decide whose jobs were cut.

Shortly after CEO Sundar Pichai’s initial email to employees Friday morning, Google’s search boss Prabhakar Raghavan sent an email to employees saying he “also feels the responsibility to reach out” and asking for them to save questions for next week’s town hall. There will be “bumps in the road” as the organization moves forward with the layoffs, Raghavan noted.

Why is Google doing this?

No corporation in the entire country is stronger than they are.

If there is one company in America that should not be laying off workers, it is Google.

Of course just about every large tech company is laying off workers these days.

Microsoft is laying off workers.

Amazon is laying off workers.

Facebook is laying off workers.

Twitter is laying off workers.

We haven’t seen anything like this since 2008, and that is because we haven’t had an economic crisis like this since 2008.

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

And the economic pain that we will experience in 2023 will be just the beginning, because the entire system is starting to come down all around us.

Did you actually think that we could go on the greatest debt binge in all of human history and that everything would work out just fine somehow?

That is not how the real world works.

We sat by and did nothing while our leaders made disastrous decisions for decades, and now we will be forced to watch in horror as the consequences of those decisions play out right in front of our eyes.

***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.