Money

We Are Being Warned That The Global Economy Is Having “One Of Its Worst Years In Three Decades”

December 6, 2022 by Michael

Will 2022 go down in history as one of the most important economic turning points that we have ever seen? All over the planet, economic activity is beginning to decelerate and uncertainty about the future is in the air. Meanwhile, the cost of living continues to escalate and a very painful energy crisis has begun. Unless there is some sort of an economic miracle, it appears that 2023 will be a very difficult year, and the long-term outlook beyond next year is even more ominous. Suddenly, many of the talking heads on television are openly speculating about the hard times that are coming, and the word “recession” is being thrown around quite frequently.

But will we only be dealing with a “recession” in the months ahead, or will it be much worse than that?

At the moment, things are clearly heading in the wrong direction. The following comes from a Bloomberg article entitled “World Economy Heads for One of Its Worst Years in Three Decades”…

The world economy is facing one of its worst years in three decades as the energy shocks unleashed by the war in Ukraine continue to reverberate, according to Bloomberg Economics.

In a new analysis, economist Scott Johnson forecasts growth of just 2.4% in 2023. That’s down from an estimated 3.2% this year and the lowest — excluding the crisis years of 2009 and 2020 — since 1993.

The global economy is more interconnected than ever before, and so pain experienced on one side of the globe is often keenly felt on the other side.

Here in the United States, a huge wave of layoffs has now started. On Tuesday, yet another major media company announced brutal job cuts…

BuzzFeed is axing 12% of its workforce, or around 180 staffers, in a bid to cut costs as the digital media company faces headwinds including an ad-spending pullback and the completion of its integration of Complex Media.

The company informed affected employees via email Tuesday that they were being terminated. “In order for BuzzFeed to weather an economic downturn that I believe will extend well into 2023, we must adapt, invest in our strategy to serve our audience best, and readjust our cost structure,” CEO Jonah Peretti wrote in a memo to employees about the job cuts.

As the housing market crashes, the financial industry is being hit really hard as well.

In fact, it is being reported that approximately 1,600 Morgan Stanley employees will now be looking for new work…

Morgan Stanley cut about 2% of its staff on Tuesday, according to people with knowledge of the layoffs.

The moves, reported first by CNBC, impacted about 1,600 of the company’s 81,567 employees and touched nearly every corner of the global investment bank, said the people, who declined to be identified speaking about terminations.

Speaking of the housing market, we are being told that somewhere around 270,000 recent homebuyers in the U.S. are already underwater on their mortgages.

We haven’t seen anything like this since 2008 and 2009, but this is just the beginning.

If the Federal Reserve insists on hiking interest rates even higher, it won’t be too long before millions of homeowners will be underwater on their mortgages, and that will definitely be a nightmare scenario.

So many families are living on the edge of financial disaster in late 2022. If you can believe it, approximately 20 million U.S. households are currently behind on their utility bills…

According to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), roughly 20 million households in the U.S. — one out of six homes — are behind on their utility bills.

As of August, these families owe about $16.1 billion in total, with an average amount owed of $788 — and the consequences of this could be dire, especially as home heat costs are expected to reach their highest level in over 10 years.

We are already in a state of economic crisis right now.

But don’t expect the White House to admit that any time soon.

Meanwhile, the cost of living just continues to go higher and higher. Earlier today, I was stunned to learn that Walmart CEO Doug McMillon is actually admitting that double-digit price increases on packaged foods “are going to be with us for a while”…

Walmart (WMT) is the largest retailer in the United States and has a gauge into consumer habits and a wide array of products.

McMillon said that inflation was “most stubborn” on packaged food. Double-digit price increases on these essentials “are going to be with us for a while,” he said.

So we are going to have rapidly rising prices and an imploding economy at the same time.

Yes, 2023 is going to be a whole lot of fun.

At this point, even the mood on Wall Street is shifting.

Stocks were down once again today, and now the S&P 500 has fallen for seven of the last eight trading sessions…

The S&P 500 shed 1.44% to close at 3,941.26, while the Nasdaq Composite sank 2% to finish at 11,014.89. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 350.76 points, or 1.03%, to settle at 33,596.34.

Stocks added to Monday’s declines, with the S&P falling for a fourth straight day and its seventh negative session in eight. Tuesday’s moves bring the Dow’s two-day losses to more than 830 points.

Just a few weeks from now, 2022 will mercifully be over.

But if this year has been “one of its worst years in three decades”, what will the global economy look like a year from now?

As I have detailed above, the U.S. economy is really starting to deteriorate quite rapidly.

So how bad will things eventually get?

Let us hope for a “recession”, but let us also prepare for an economic nightmare.

***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.

Could 65 Trillion Dollars In “Hidden” Derivatives Cause The Entire Global Financial System To Crash?

December 5, 2022 by Michael

If you thought that the collapse of FTX was something, just wait until the entire global financial system comes crashing down all around us. Most people just assume that the system is being managed by rational people that behave in rational ways, but of course countless investors assumed the same things about FTX. Sadly, the global financial system has slowly but surely been transformed into the largest casino in the history of the world. It is a colossal Ponzi scheme, and once in a while authorities give us a little peek into what is really going on behind the curtain.

For example, this week the Bank for International Settlements released a report that warned that 65 trillion dollars in “hidden” currency derivatives could potentially be a major threat to the stability of the entire system…

There’s a hidden risk to the global financial system embedded in the $65 trillion of dollar debt being held by non-US institutions via currency derivatives, according to the Bank for International Settlements.

In a paper with the title “huge, missing and growing,” the BIS said a lack of information is making it harder for policy makers to anticipate the next financial crisis. In particular, they raised concern with the fact that the debt is going unrecorded on balance sheets because of accounting conventions on how to track derivative positions.

Last year, the total value of all goods and services produced in the entire world was just 96 trillion dollars.

So we are talking about an amount of money that is almost unimaginable.

Everything will be okay as long as financial conditions remain relatively stable.

But BIS analysts warn that “the next time dollar funding liquidity is squeezed” we could have an enormous crisis on our hands…

“Off-balance-sheet dollar debt may remain out of sight and out of mind—but only until the next time dollar funding liquidity is squeezed,” the analysts write. “Then, the hidden leverage in pension funds and insurance companies’ portfolios . . . could pose a policy challenge.”

So let’s hope that such a scenario does not materialize any time soon.

According to the BIS report, banks outside the U.S. are particularly vulnerable…

For researchers at the BIS, it’s the sheer scale of the swaps that’s worrying. They estimate that banks headquartered outside the US carry $39 trillion of this debt — more than double their on-balance sheet obligations and ten times their capital. Accounting conventions only require derivatives to be booked on a net basis, so the full extent of the cash involved isn’t recorded on a balance sheet.

“There is a staggering volume of off-balance sheet dollar debt that is partly hidden, and FX risk settlement remains stubbornly high,” said Borio, head of the monetary and economic department at the BIS.

When this thing finally implodes, there isn’t going to be enough money in the entire world to fix it all.

But don’t worry.

The “experts” are telling us that everything is fine.

Meanwhile, more of our largest corporations are planning layoffs. According to the Wall Street Journal, this even includes PepsiCo…

PepsiCo is reported laying off headquarter workers, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A person familiar with the matter told the Journal that hundreds of jobs are being cut in the head office of the North American snacks and beverages divisions.

Employees in Purchase, N.Y., Chicago, Ill. and Plano, Tex. are said to be impacted.

I thought that PepsiCo was doing well.

I guess not.

But don’t worry.

The “experts” are telling us that everything is fine.

This week some of the biggest names in the mainstream media have also announced layoffs…

Hundreds of media industry staffers were laid off this week during a brutal period that saw Warner Bros. Discovery, Gannett and others slash headcount as economic uncertainty plagues news organizations.

Gannett, a newspaper juggernaut that owns dozens of local media outlets along with USA Today, began its latest round of layoffs on Thursday. The cost-cutting effort impacted roughly 6% of the company’s news workforce of about 3,440 employees.

I can’t remember ever seeing such a wave of layoffs at our largest media companies.

But don’t worry.

The “experts” are telling us that everything is fine.

Of course the truth is that everything is not fine.

Economic conditions are deteriorating all around us, and the ripple effects are being felt everywhere.

According to Fox Business, even Las Vegas is feeling the pain…

Inflation is taking its toll on Sin City as fewer tourists are visiting the gambling Mecca, and those who do spend less than usual, according to a new report.

The University of Las Vegas business school released a report forecasting the city’s economic outlook between 2022 and 2024 and noted that its economy turned grim in June of this year, according to Fox 5.

“Interest rates have gone up. And we know that we know that prices are going up as well. And that’s what the Fed is trying to get their hands around and solve. So it may be that the Fed’s policies is having an effect not only nationally, but it’s also affecting our economy locally,” one of the study’s authors, Professor Stephen Miller, told the outlet.

2008 and 2009 were incredibly difficult years for Las Vegas.

Now those that run businesses in Sin City are bracing for another extended downturn.

In all my years of writing, I have never been more concerned about the short-term economic outlook them I am right now.

It is very likely that 2023 will be a really hard year for the U.S. economy, and of course this comes at a time when the entire globe is being hit by crisis after crisis.

For ages we have been warned that a day of reckoning would eventually be coming, and now it appears that day of reckoning has already arrived.

There is certainly nothing wrong with hoping for the best. But there is also wisdom in getting prepared for the worst.

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

Gloomy December: Manufacturing Orders From China Are Down 40 Percent As Companies Brace For A Brutal Holiday Season

December 4, 2022December 4, 2022 by Michael

We continue to get more evidence that the U.S. economy is really slowing down. As you will see below, the amount of stuff that we are ordering from manufacturers in China is plunging dramatically. I have never seen a dip of this magnitude before, and I think that it is a really bad sign for 2023. Based on all of the economic numbers that have been released in recent weeks, I anticipate that economic conditions in 2023 and beyond will be worse than anything that we have experienced since the Great Recession. So I would encourage you to enjoy the next few weeks while you still can, because once 2023 arrives we will want to brace ourselves for an extremely harsh economic environment.

Normally, U.S. consumers have an insatiable appetite for cheap plastic goods from China.

But now something has changed.

According to CNBC, manufacturing orders from China have fallen by a whopping 40 percent, and as a result many Chinese factories will be closing much earlier in January than usual…

U.S. manufacturing orders in China are down 40 percent, according to the latest CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map data. As a result of the decrease in orders, Worldwide Logistics tells CNBC it is expecting Chinese factories to shut down two weeks earlier than usual for the Chinese Lunar New Year — Chinese New Year’s Eve falls on Jan. 21 next year. The seven days after the holiday are considered a national holiday.

“Many of the manufacturers will be closed in early January for the holiday, which is much earlier than last year,” Monaghan said.

As with so many other numbers that we have been getting lately, there is no way to possibly spin this to make it look good.

What we are facing is truly “a collapse in demand”, and as a result container freight rates are absolutely plummeting…

Carriers have been executing on an active capacity management strategy by announcing more blank sailings and suspending services to balance supply with demand. “The unrelenting decline in container freight rates from Asia, caused by a collapse in demand, is compelling ocean carriers to blank more sailings than ever before as vessel utilization hits new lows,” said Joe Monaghan, CEO of Worldwide Logistics Group.

The bottom line is that U.S. consumers are simply not buying as much stuff as retailers originally anticipated.

And survey after survey has shown that Americans plan to spend less during the holiday season this year. Here is just one recent example…

Inflation is weighing heavily on the holidays this year.

Roughly half of shoppers will buy fewer things due to higher prices, and more than one-third said they will rely on coupons to cut down on the cost, according to a recent survey of more than 1,000 adults by RetailMeNot.

Of course consumers over in western Europe are suffering right now as well.

In fact, economic conditions are deteriorating even faster over there.

If you can believe it, one recent survey found that approximately two-thirds of all adults in the UK “are worried that they will not be able to afford Christmas dinner”…

Two-thirds of adults are worried that they will not be able to afford Christmas dinner, according to a survey.

The survey, commissioned by the Salvation Army, calculated the cost of Christmas dinner at £7.50 per head but – as the price of food is continuing to rise – the cost has increased since the survey was carried out on 22 October.

All over the western world, we are facing an unprecedented cost of living crisis.

Inflation has been rising much faster than our paychecks have, and that is causing a tremendous amount of financial pain.

Meanwhile, a lot of people have seen the value of their investments go down substantially over the past 12 months.

I really feel badly for those that were heavily invested in crypto. There are many tokens that have “lost more than 70% of their value”, and the collapse of FTX has raised questions “about whether crypto has a future”…

Already reeling from the so-called crypto winter, investors were dealt a major blow with the high-profile collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange in early November, which sent Bitcoin tumbling. To top it off, BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink said this week that he expects most crypto companies will fold after FTX’s demise. A Schwab index tracking crypto-linked stocks is coming off its worst month since June, and is down 63% this year.

“Questions about whether crypto has a future have become prevalent after a year during which many tokens lost more than 70% of their value and the collapse of FTX has exacerbated a crisis of confidence that had started in the spring,” said Mark Palmer, an analyst at BTIG LLC.

At the same time, home values have been falling and falling.

As I have covered in previous articles, U.S. homeowners lost a record high 1.3 trillion dollars in home equity during the third quarter alone.

But at least the latest employment number that the government gave us was good, right?

Actually, it wasn’t so good. It turns out that the Household and Establishment surveys are telling two completely different stories. Zero Hedge has posted an absolutely outstanding article that breaks this down in great detail…

Recall that back in August, September, and October we showed that a stark divergence had opened between the Household and Establishment surveys that comprise the monthly jobs report, and since March the former has been stagnant while the latter has been rising every single month. In addition to that, full-time jobs were plunging while part-time jobs were surging and the number of multiple-jobholders soared.

Fast forward to today when the inconsistencies not only continue to grow, but have become downright grotesque.

I would encourage you to read the entire article. Since March, the gap between the Household and Establishment surveys has ballooned to nearly 2.7 million workers, and some are suggesting that this is being done for political purposes…

What is even more perplexing, is that despite the continued rise in nonfarm payrolls, the Household survey continues to telegraph growing weakness, and as of Nov 30, the gap that opened in March has since grown to a whopping 2.7 million “workers” which may or may not exist anywhere besides the spreadsheet model of some BLS (or is that BLM) political activist.

Of course the truth is that the employment market is not in good shape.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the number of layoffs in November 2022 was 417 percent higher than it was in November 2021.

A tsunami of layoffs has begun, and I expect to see a whole lot more in the months ahead.

So it is quite likely that this will be a really gloomy month, but I expect that 2023 will be even gloomier.

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

The Numbers Are Screaming That A Giant Tsunami Of U.S. Layoffs Has Now Begun

December 1, 2022December 1, 2022 by Michael

We knew that economic conditions were deteriorating, but this is getting ridiculous. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the number of layoffs in November was 127 percent higher than it was in October. That isn’t just a trend, that is an avalanche. And compared to the same month in 2021, the number of layoffs in November was 417 percent higher. Please take a moment and let that figure sink in. A 417 percent increase is a colossal shift. Essentially, these numbers are telling us that a giant tsunami of U.S. layoffs has now begun, and I believe that things will get even worse in 2023 and beyond. Our leaders have pursued policies that have been extremely destructive to the U.S. economy, and many of us have been warning that a day of reckoning would arrive. Well, it appears that a day of reckoning for America’s workers is now here, and the months ahead are not going to be pretty.

There is no way to spin these numbers to make them look good. Major layoff announcements are popping up in the news every single day, and what we have witnessed over the past several weeks is nothing short of staggering…

The pace of job cuts by U.S. employers accelerated in November, with the number of layoffs climbing 127% from just one month ago, according to a report published on Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Companies announced 76,835 job cuts in November, led by the technology sector, the analysis showed. That is 417% higher than the same time one year ago.

And these numbers don’t even include the latest layoffs that have just happened.

As our new housing crash continues to accelerate, Wells Fargo has decided that now is the time to lay off “hundreds more mortgage employees”…

Wells Fargo & Co. cut hundreds more mortgage employees Thursday, the latest in a series of reductions across the industry after higher interest rates brought the pandemic-era home-lending boom to halt.

The reductions took place across the country, according to people familiar with the plans, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The latest wave comes amid ongoing Federal Reserve rate hikes to tame persistent inflation, pushing mortgage rates toward their highest levels in two decades. Refinancings have dried up and some potential homebuyers have been sidelined in the process.

Normally, big companies would be compassionate enough to at least wait until after the holiday season to let people go.

But now times have changed and a lot of these large firms are really feeling a sense of urgency to reduce payrolls.

Shockingly, that even includes FedEx…

FedEx Freight, the nation’s largest less-than-truckload carrier, will begin furloughing an undetermined number of drivers on Sunday, the FedEx Corp. unit confirmed Wednesday.

The voluntary furloughs will run until March 6, with drivers getting a guarantee to return to work, the unit confirmed.

FedEx Freight is offering drivers a $300 weekly incentive to accept a furlough. The total payments will be made when the drivers return to work, according to the FedEx unit.

Have you ever heard of FedEx getting rid of workers prior to the holidays before?

I haven’t either.

This is nuts.

If we are seeing this many layoffs now, what will things look like once the holidays are over?

At this point, even the Federal Reserve is admitting that more layoffs are coming. In fact, Fed officials are now estimating that about a million Americans will lose their jobs by the end of 2023…

Updated projections from the Fed’s meeting showed unemployment rising to 4.4% by the end of next year, up from the current rate of 3.5%. That is significantly higher than in June when policymakers saw the jobless rate inching up to 3.7%. That could mean roughly 1 million Americans lose their jobs between now and the end of 2023.

Of course Fed projections are almost always way too optimistic.

If Fed projections were accurate, we would still be in a low inflation environment right now.

Let’s be honest. If we get to next December and only a million Americans have lost their jobs, we should have a massive national celebration because that would definitely represent the sort of “soft landing” that Jerome Powell has been hoping for.

Needless to say, that sort of wildly optimistic scenario is not likely to play out.

As I discussed a few days ago, 41 percent of all small business owners in America could not pay rent in the month of November.

How bad is the Biden Economy?

A stunning 41% of Small Businesses couldn’t pay Rent in November #ChalkTalk pic.twitter.com/Wsc6wZtiJG

— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) November 30, 2022

When more than four out of every 10 small businesses cannot even pay rent, your economy is in serious trouble.

I warned that we would soon be facing a severe downturn if the Fed kept aggressively hiking interest rates, and many others issued similar warnings.

But the Fed didn’t listen to any of us.

In fact, Fed officials keep telling us that rates are going to go even higher.

So what will their excuse be when the economy completely crashes?

Just like SBF, perhaps they will tell us that they are “deeply sorry about what happened”.

AUDIENCE LETTER: “Can you please ask SBF why he decided to steal my life savings?”

SBF: “Yeah— Um, I mean— I’m deeply sorry about what happened.”

pic.twitter.com/tTKCFNEw8n

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 30, 2022

But will the millions of Americans that will soon lose their jobs be in any mood to accept such apologies?

Losing a good paying job that you absolutely love can be absolutely devastating.

Sadly, countless Americans are going to have to endure the sudden loss of a job in the months ahead, and no amount of babbling from our leaders will make the pain go away.

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

The U.S. Economy Just Took A Very Dark Turn

November 30, 2022 by Michael

The road ahead certainly does not look promising. For much of 2022, there has been a lot of debate about whether or not the U.S. economy is in a recession, is headed for a recession, or is about to turn in a positive direction. Unfortunately, virtually all of the numbers are now telling us that economic conditions are starting to deteriorate quite rapidly as we approach the beginning of 2023, and even rabidly optimistic business leaders such as Jeff Bezos are warning us to prepare for harder times. So now the framework for the debate over our economic future has shifted. At this point, there are some that expect a relatively minor recession and then a recovery, and there are those such as myself that expect immense pain in the years ahead. There are so many warning signs that indicate that the entire system is starting to crack and crumble, but a lot of the “experts” are still hoping that our leaders will find a way to turn things around somehow.

On Wednesday, those of us that closely watch the economic numbers received quite a shock.

The latest figure for the Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index came in way, way below expectations, and that is really bad news.

If you are not familiar with the Chicago PMI, here is a pretty good definition…

The Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) determines the economic health of the manufacturing sector in Chicago region. A reading above 50 indicates expansion of the manufacturing sector; a reading below indicates contraction. The Chicago PMI can be of some help in forecasting the ISM manufacturing PMI.

Economists were expecting the survey to come in at around 47, but instead the final number came in at just 37.2…

In a massive downside surprise, the Chicago PMI survey just printed 37.2 (vs 47.0 expectations), plunging to its lowest level since the peak of the COVID lockdowns in 2020. This was below the lowest estimate of 25 economists surveyed.

In the entire history of the survey, the Chicago PMI has only plunged below 40 during times when the U.S. economy has been in a recession.

Other data points are also telling us that the U.S. economy is clearly trending in the wrong direction…

-Consumer confidence has declined for two months in a row.

-U.S. home prices have now fallen for three months in a row.

-Existing home sales have now dropped for nine months in a row.

The housing industry has not been in this much of a mess since the last housing crash.

According to the NAR, home sales were way down all over the nation last month…

“From a year ago, all four regions had double-digit declines in sales in October. The West had the most significant dip at 37.5%, followed by the South, which fell 27.2%. The Midwest decreased by 25.5%, followed by the Northeast, down 23.0%.”

And if the Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates, things are only going to get worse.

Even now, we are beginning to see layoffs in the industry that once would have been unimaginable. For example, Reverse Mortgage Funding “laid off 80% of its staff on Tuesday”…

One week after deciding to “pause” all of its mortgage originations, Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC (RMF) laid off 80% of its staff on Tuesday.

Various social media posts by former employees maintained that the company, based in Bloomfield, N.J., had closed, but that is not the case, according to someone familiar with Tuesday’s events who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

Countless others will be laid off in the months ahead.

Of course other industries are starting to feel quite a bit of pain as well. Earlier today, I was surprised to learn that CNN has decided that a large wave of layoffs has become necessary…

Cable news giant CNN will be hit by layoffs Wednesday and Thursday, part of continued cost-cutting by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, which is trying to integrate the legacy WarnerMedia businesses (like CNN) and the Discovery businesses.

In a memo Wednesday morning, CNN CEO Chris Licht wrote that the channel will inform paid contributors Wednesday as part of a new reporting strategy, with full-time employees being informed of their status on Thursday.

I don’t wish ill on anyone, but the truth is that CNN brought this on themselves.

CNN has lied over and over again in recent years, and those lies have deeply hurt millions upon millions of people.

Elsewhere, the stunning layoffs in the tech industry just continue to accelerate. On Wednesday, DoorDash announced that it would be eliminating approximately 1,250 corporate jobs…

DoorDash on Wednesday said it will lay off about 1,250 corporate employees after growing its team too quickly during the pandemic, making it the latest tech company to cut staff in recent weeks.

The cuts represent about 6% of DoorDash’s staff, according to a company spokesperson.

Just within the past few weeks, we have seen so many prominent tech companies lay off workers.

In fact, CNBC is reporting that over 50,000 tech workers lost their jobs during the month of November alone…

Within weeks, mass layoffs primarily in tech, including at Twitter, Meta, Amazon, Salesforce, HP, Lyft, Doordash and more, have flooded headlines. More than 50,000 workers in tech lost their jobs in November, up from 12,600 in October, according to Layoffs.fyi.

Sadly, most American workers are not in a position to handle a job loss.

As the Republicans in the House of Representatives recently noted, more than 60 percent of the country is currently living paycheck to paycheck…

Over 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck in Joe Biden’s economy.

Nearly 40% of workers are considering a second job to stay afloat.

When you are living paycheck to paycheck, it can be extremely difficult to keep paying the bills once you lose a job.

And in the months ahead, we are going to see many more people suddenly get the axe.

Our leaders have pursued policies that have made the coming economic nightmare inevitable, and now we are all going to pay a very great price for their foolishness.

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

Who Is Killing The Crypto Millionaires?

November 29, 2022November 29, 2022 by Michael

Are some of the cryptocurrency industry’s most important pioneers being targeted by someone? We just learned that a 53-year-old cryptocurrency billionaire named Vyacheslav Taran has died, and he is the third big name to suddenly meet his maker in recent weeks. So is this just one giant coincidence, or is there some common denominator that links all three of them? There is so much that we don’t know right now, but it is interesting to note that all three of these deaths have happened at a time when the cryptocurrency community is going through an unprecedented amount of turmoil. The collapse of FTX is threatening the legitimacy of the entire industry, and many that were once crypto millionaires on paper have had their fortunes completely wiped out.

Vyacheslav Taran died when the helicopter that he was riding in suddenly slammed into a hillside. He was the co-founder of a trading platform known as Libertex, and his involvement in the cryptocurrency industry had made him a very wealthy man.

Unfortunately for Taran, he won’t be able to spend any more of that wealth because his life is now over…

A Russian billionaire has become the third top cryptocurrency trader to die suddenly in recent weeks.

Vyacheslav Taran, 53, the co-founder of trading and investing platform Libertex, died after his helicopter mysteriously crashed in a resort town near Monaco.

The vehicle plummeted on November 25 afternoon, killing Mr Taran, who had lived in Monaco for a decade, as well as a veteran pilot.

As we have seen so many times over the years, riding in helicopters can be extremely dangerous.

And it is interesting to note that “another passenger allegedly cancelled last minute”…

The finance titan was flying with an experienced pilot, 35, from the city on the shores of Lake Geneva after another passenger allegedly cancelled last minute.

The single-engine light helicopter Eurocopter EC130 operated by Monacair collided with a hillside near Eze village at around 2pm, Monaco Life reported

Hopefully we will find out the identity of the “other passenger” that decided not to go at the last minute .

That may give us a clue about what really happened.

In the end, this may have just been a tragic accident, or Taran may have been targeted for a reason that does not involve cryptocurrency.

A lot of prominent Russians have been dying lately, and so this could just be another instance where wealthy Russians are being targeted.

We just don’t know.

But what we do know is that another co-founder of a prominent cryptocurrency company was suddenly found dead last week.

It is being reported that 30-year-old Tiantian Kullander died unexpectedly while he was sleeping…

Tiantian Kullander, co-founder of Hong Kong-based digital asset company Amber Group, died unexpectedly last week in his sleep. He was 30 years old.

The company confirmed the news in a statement, saying that Tiantian, also known as “TT,” had “passed away unexpectedly in his sleep on November 23, 2022.”

Once again, it is certainly possible that this death could have absolutely nothing to do with the cryptocurrency industry.

Throughout 2022, lots of seemingly healthy young people have been dropping dead, and Kullander may just be another to add to the list.

But just like Taran, Kullander was one of the cryptocurrency industry’s most important pioneers…

“Besides co-founding Amber and building it into a multi-billion fintech unicorn, TT sat on the Board of Fnatic (one of the world’s most successful e-sports organizations) and founded KeeperDAO (the first on-chain liquidity underwriter) before giving it back to its community,” the company’s statement continued. “TT was a devoted husband, a loving father and a fierce friend. His passing is a tragedy and our thoughts and prayers are with his family. He is survived by his wife and their beloved son. We kindly request that you respect their privacy during this difficult time.”

It is often said that two is a coincidence, but three is a trend.

Well, there is one more mysterious cryptocurrency industry death that I would like to discuss in this article.

On October 28th, 29-year-old Nikolai Mushegian was found dead on a Puerto Rico beach.

In this particular case, Mushegian actually predicted ahead of time that he would soon be killed…

A brilliant young cryptocurrency pioneer named Nikolai Mushegian tweeted on Oct. 28 that intelligence agencies were going to murder him — and was found dead on a Puerto Rico beach hours later.

“CIA and Mossad and pedo elite are running some kind of sex trafficking entrapment blackmail ring out of Puerto Rico and Caribbean islands,” Mushegian, a developer of blockchain-based decentralized finance platforms who wanted to end global banking corruption, tweeted at 4:57 a.m. “They are going to frame me with a laptop planted by my ex [girlfriend] who was a spy. They will torture me to death.”

Of course we can’t actually prove that shadowy forces killed him.

All we know is that just hours after his ominous tweet his body was found in the waves on Ashford Beach. Interestingly, he still “had his wallet on him”…

The 29-year-old then left his $6 million beach house in the luxe Condado area of San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a walk. A little after 9 a.m., a surfer off Ashford Beach, a spot considered so rife with riptides that local hotels warn against ocean swimming, discovered Mushegian’s body in the waves. He was wearing his clothes and had his wallet on him, sources told The Post.

If some criminals jumped him on the beach, they would have certainly taken his wallet.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that he was murdered.

He could have simply drowned after going for a swim, and there is also the possibility that he could have killed himself.

According to those that knew him, he had very serious mental health issues that he was dealing with, and it appears that he was also a heavy drug user…

A person who knew Mushegian very well for years until they had a falling-out two years ago said that the developer was “very very smart” but also suffered from extreme bouts of paranoia.

“He had mental problems,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He saw a psychiatrist at times. He smoked a lot of pot. A tremendous amount.”

Ultimately, we may never know if all three of these deaths are connected somehow.

But I find it very interesting that all three of these men were key pioneers in the industry.

And now they are all gone.

Life is so short, and for some it ends far sooner than they were anticipating.

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

It Is Beginning: 41 Percent Of All Small Business Owners Could Not Pay Rent In November

November 28, 2022November 28, 2022 by Michael

Many experts are now warning that we could see the housing market and the commercial real estate market simultaneously crash in 2023. If that were to happen, it would put an extreme amount of stress on our financial system. The only way we will avoid such a fate is if the Federal Reserve starts reducing interest rates. Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen. In fact, officials at the Federal Reserve keep telling us that interest rates are going to keep going up. This is literally a suicidal course of action, because higher rates are going to absolutely crush the economy.

If you doubt this, just consider what is already happening.

According to a new Alignable survey that was just released, 41 percent of all small business owners in the United States could not pay rent in November…

Due to high inflation, reduced consumer spending, higher rents and other economic pressures, U.S.-based small business owners’ rent problems just escalated to new heights nationally this month, based on Alignable’s November Rent Poll of 6,326 small business owners taken from 11/19/22 to 11/22/22.

Unfortunately, 41% of U.S.-based small business owners report that they could not pay their rent in full and on time in November, a new record for 2022. Making matters worse, this occurred during a quarter when more money should be coming in and rent delinquency rates should be decreasing. But so far this quarter, the opposite has been true.

In September, that same survey found that 30 percent of all small business owners could not pay rent.

Many were deeply alarmed by that figure, and then it jumped up to 37 percent in October.

Now we are at 41 percent, and if there is any time when small business owners should be able to pay rent it is during the holiday season.

When commercial real estate tenants cannot pay rent, it inevitably has a domino effect.

It appears that we will soon have millions of empty commercial spaces all over the nation, and many owners will soon be unable to make loan payments because sufficient rent money is not coming in.

If the Federal Reserve insists on raising rates even higher, I anticipate that we will eventually be facing a commercial real estate crash of unprecedented size and scope.

Meanwhile, the implosion of the housing market continues to pick up speed.

Existing home sales have now declined for nine months in a row, and the median price of a home in the U.S. has now fallen by about 7 percent.

Sadly, many experts are now warning that things will only get worse in the months ahead. Here is one example…

“In one line: Collapse in prices is coming,” wrote Kieran Clancy, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

I told my readers that this would happen if the Federal Reserve aggressively hiked interest rates.

Of course home prices could soon fall a lot more. In fact, Pantheon is projecting that they could ultimately fall by a total of 20 percent from the peak…

Pantheon estimates that existing home prices will keep falling, ultimately dropping by about 20% from their June peak of around $414,000.

If you are planning to sell a home, I would try to do it as quickly as possible before prices go way down.

Meanwhile, another troubled cryptocurrency firm has just filed for bankruptcy…

Distressed crypto firm BlockFi has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey following the implosion of putative acquirer FTX.

So why is BlockFi in so much trouble?

Well, the truth is that there are a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest is the fact that they loaned 275 million dollars to FTX that will never be repaid…

In the filing, the company listed an outstanding $275 million loan to FTX US, the American arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s now-bankrupt empire.

I warned my readers that FTX would not be the last domino to fall.

And now another one has tumbled over.

Needless to say, there will be many more, because FTX “has more than 1 million creditors”…

In a matter of days, FTX went from a $32 billion valuation to bankruptcy as liquidity dried up, customers demanded withdrawals and rival exchange Binance ripped up its nonbinding agreement to buy the company. Gross negligence has since been exposed. Ray added that a “substantial portion” of assets held with FTX may be “missing or stolen.”

FTX has more than 1 million creditors, according to updated bankruptcy filings, hinting at the huge impact of its collapse on crypto traders and other counterparties with ties to Bankman-Fried’s empire.

FTX was just one giant Ponzi scheme, but of course the entire system is just one giant Ponzi scheme.

The entire thing is eventually coming down, and a lot of prominent voices are trying to sound the alarm about this.

For instance, author Robert Kiyosaki tweeted the following just a few days ago…

Many of you know I do not invest in equities, bonds, ETS or MFs. Please DO NOT listen to what I’m going to say next: “I would get out of paper assets.” The world economy is not a “Market.” I believe economy is the biggest bubble in world history.

Of course he is quite correct.

We have been living in the largest bubble in all of human history.

And once it finally shatters into billions of pieces nobody is going to be able to put it back together again.

So get ready for a massive adjustment in your standard of living.

With very hard times looming, the Washington Post is encouraging their readers to reduce food costs by eating bugs…

The Washington Post advised Americans Sunday that instead of a traditional season dinner, which now is unaffordable for a quarter of families, they should instead look to eating bugs.

Yes really.

In an article headlined Salted ants. Ground crickets. Why you should try edible insects, the Post stated “Consumers can already find foods like salted ants on Amazon and cricket powder protein bars in Swiss grocery stores.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on ever eating bugs.

No matter how bad things get, I just couldn’t eat ants or crickets or beetles.

Unfortunately, most people are completely and utterly unprepared for the times that we will soon be facing.

A tremendous amount of economic chaos is on the way.

The Federal Reserve could help matters a great deal if they would just stop raising interest rates.

But that isn’t going to happen, and so it appears that 2023 will be a year of severe economic pain all over the nation.

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

100 Million Dead Birds Are Just The Beginning, Because This Pestilence Is Far From Over…

November 27, 2022November 27, 2022 by Michael

Did you know that an extremely vicious virus that is currently sweeping across the globe has already killed more than 100 million birds? If you haven’t heard about this yet, don’t feel bad, because most people in the general population don’t know about this either. Like so many of the other nightmares that we are facing right now, the mainstream media continues to downplay the bird flu crisis and continues to insist that authorities have everything under control. But of course the truth is that they don’t have this outbreak under control. Flocks are being steadily wiped out all over the planet, and prices for turkey, chicken and eggs just keep going higher and higher. If the bird flu spreads even faster in 2023 than it did in 2022, it won’t be too long before we have some pretty serious shortages on our hands.

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, it was being reported that the official death toll in the U.S. has now reached 50.54 million. That makes this “the worst animal-health disaster in U.S. history”…

More than 50.54 million U.S. birds have died in what is the worst Avian flu outbreak in U.S. history, according to data from the Department of Agriculture, Reuters reports. It also marks the worst animal-health disaster in U.S. history.

But it is perfectly “normal” for tens of millions of our turkeys and chickens to be wiped out, right?

Unfortunately, this pestilence is not just limited to the United States. In fact, the UK and the European Union “are also suffering their worst avian-flu crises”…

Losses of poultry flocks sent prices for eggs and turkey meat to record highs, worsening economic pain for consumers facing red-hot inflation and making Thursday’s Thanksgiving celebrations more expensive in the United States. Europe and Britain are also suffering their worst avian-flu crises, and some British supermarkets rationed customers’ egg purchases after the outbreak disrupted supplies.

We have never seen anything like this before.

According to CNBC, the number of dead birds in the EU alone has reached “nearly 50 million”…

Governments across Europe have culled bird populations to limit the spread of avian flu. Almost six million birds have been killed in the Netherlands since October 2021, while Spain, Bulgaria, Denmark and France have also been badly affected.

Nearly 50 million birds have been killed in Europe this year as countries try to contain the disease, according to the EU’s Food Safety Agency.

Actually, that figure is a bit old, but I was not able to find an updated one.

But if you take that number and add 50 million from the United States, that gives us a grand total of approximately 100 million dead birds, and that doesn’t even account for the remainder of the globe.

For example, nearly 3 million birds have already been wiped out in Japan, and at this point the bird flu is beginning to spread like wildfire in that country…

Cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, are spreading at an unusual pace in Japan, with 18 outbreaks confirmed this season through Saturday at poultry farms in 12 of the country’s 47 prefectures.

But that number is expected to rise further, in line with global trends.

This has truly become a worldwide crisis.

Past outbreaks have either greatly subsided or completely gone away during the hot summer months, but that did not happen this year.

In 2022, the virus “continued to fester” during the warmer months, and now authorities are concerned that things could get much worse during the cold months that are in front of us…

“The virus has mostly impacted turkey and egg operations, sending prices to all-time highs and contributing to soaring food inflation. While the spread slowed during the warmer months, it continued to fester and now risks further spread as cooling temperatures prompt more birds to migrate,” Bloomberg said.

Of course this comes at a really bad time, because if you follow my work on a regular basis you already know that global food production is being hit hard from countless directions right now.

The UN has already been warning us that 2023 will be a year of famine in many areas of the planet, and so it would be very helpful if the bird flu were to disappear.

Unfortunately, that is not likely to happen any time soon.

And actually we have been extremely fortunate so far.

If the bird flu were to mutate into a form that humans can catch and spread easily, we would rapidly be facing a global health scare of epic proportions.

Up to this point, it has been rare for humans to catch the bird flu, but when it does happen the death rate can be as high as 60 percent…

But when the bird flu does infect people, it can be quite severe, with a mortality rate estimated to be at approximately 60 percent, according to the CDC.

Can you imagine how frightened people would be if such a virus started spreading among humans in our major population centers?

The panic would be far beyond anything that we have experienced over the past few years.

So this is a story that we will want to keep a close eye on.

For years, I warned my readers that we were moving into an era of great pestilences.

Sadly, the times that I warned about have now arrived.

Of course what we have been through so far is just the beginning.

The pestilences that we are currently dealing with will continue to spread, and more are coming.

Millions upon millions of people have died up to this point, and tens of millions more will eventually die.

A lot of you have been waiting for life to “return to normal”, but that isn’t going to happen.

Global events have begun to spiral out of control, and things are only going to get more intense as we roll into 2023.

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

+ More