Money

For decades, the dominance of the United States has been primarily based on the strength of the U.S. dollar. Having the main reserve currency of the world has meant that everyone else has wanted and needed our currency. In fact, our currency is our number one export. Most Americans don’t realize this, but far more dollars are used outside the United States than are used inside the United States. Having such a strong currency for such an extended period of time has allowed us to enjoy a standard of living that is far beyond what we actually deserve. So what is going to happen now that the rest of the world is starting to move away from the U.S. dollar?

In 2025, the value of the U.S. dollar declined precipitously.  The U.S. dollar index was down about 10 percent for the year, and in recent days that decline has continued.

Now China has decided to pour fuel on the fire.

It is no secret that our relations with China have been going downhill.  The Trump administration doesn’t like China, and China doesn’t like the Trump administration.  In recent months both of them have been implementing measures that are intended to do economic damage to the other side, and here in early 2026 it appears that things are going to an entirely new level.

On Monday, we learned that authorities in China have instructed Chinese banks “to rein in their holdings of US Treasuries”…

Chinese regulators have advised financial institutions to rein in their holdings of US Treasuries, citing concerns over concentration risks and market volatility, according to people familiar with the matter.

Officials urged banks to limit purchases of US government bonds and instructed those with high exposure to pare down their positions, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The directive doesn’t apply to China’s state holdings of US Treasuries.

Communicated verbally to some of the nation’s biggest banks in recent weeks, the guidance reflects growing wariness among officials that large holdings of US government debt may expose banks to sharp swings, the people said.

It isn’t as if the Chinese are suddenly selling everything.

But without a doubt, this is a major signal.

The Chinese are letting their financial institutions know that it is time to start moving in another direction, and the rest of the world is definitely going to take notice.

The Trump administration is going to take notice as well, because Trump administration officials have been very sensitive about “how foreign investors behave toward U.S. assets”…

If there’s one thing that catches the attention of the second Trump administration, it’s how foreign investors behave toward U.S. assets. Perhaps most notably, it’s their attitude toward the safe haven of U.S. Treasuries.

Last month, Deutsche Bank earned the ire of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after one of its analysts suggested foreign investors may leverage their holdings of U.S. borrowing and equities against the White House’s threats over the sovereignty of Greenland. While Bessent dismissed the “irrelevance” of Denmark’s holdings of American debt, Trump eased up on his tariff rhetoric after the bond markets hiccuped.

The Trump administration is therefore unlikely to be pleased with reports this week that Chinese banks had been urged to limit their holdings of U.S. Treasuries.

I think that it is quite likely that we will see some sort of retaliation from the Trump administration.

Of course every time either side escalates matters, our relationship with China deteriorates even more.

And history has shown us over and over again that trade wars have a way of evolving into shooting wars.

For the moment, this latest news out of China has pushed the U.S. dollar index even lower…

Treasury yields, which move inversely to prices, were slightly higher on Monday morning. The dollar dropped more sharply, with the Dollar Index down almost 1% on the news. The fresh dip in the greenback follows its recent decline to four-year lows.

When the value of the U.S. dollar goes down, the purchasing power of our paychecks goes down.

And when the purchasing power of our paychecks goes down, our standard of living goes down.

We are already in the midst of a horrific cost of living crisis with no end in sight, and those running the system continue to treat our currency like toilet paper.

For years, I have been ranting about the size of the U.S. national debt.

Now it has crossed the 38 trillion dollar threshold, and Elon Musk is warning that unless an economic revolution involving AI and robotics produces some sort of an economic miracle we are “1,000% going to go bankrupt as a country”…

Reflecting on his work with DOGE, Musk said he had hoped to slow down the unsustainable financial trajectory the U.S. is on, buying more time for AI and robotics to boost growth.

“It’s the only thing that could solve the national debt. We are 1,000% going to go bankrupt as a country, and fail as a country, without AI and robots,” he predicted. “Nothing else will solve the national debt. We just need enough time to build the AI and robots to not go bankrupt before then.”

In late November, Musk made similar comments, saying on Nikhil Kamath’s podcast that the deployment of AI and robotics “at very large scale” is the only solution to the U.S. debt crisis.

Needless to say, I am even more pessimistic than Musk.

At this stage, I don’t think that there is any hope of reversing course quickly enough to avoid financial disaster as a nation.

The rest of the world can see how rapidly we are piling on more debt, and they are abandoning ship.

Of course the other elements of “the perfect storm” that we are experiencing are only going to accelerate the problems that we are facing.

There is going to be a lot of anger directed at China for starting to move away from the U.S. dollar, but ultimately we only have ourselves to blame.

Year after year, Congress should not have authorized the borrowing and spending of trillions of dollars that we did not have.

And the Federal Reserve should not have used trillions of freshly created dollars to artificially prop up the financial markets.

For a while it seemed like we were getting away with treating our currency like toilet paper, but now the consequences are starting to become apparent.

As the U.S. dollar circles the drain, other nations are feverishly stocking up on precious metals, and that isn’t likely to change any time soon.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Over the past 5 years we have been witnessing an economic shift of epic proportions. When the cost of living rises much faster than paychecks do for an extended period of time, an entire nation can be transformed. Just look at what has happened to Venezuela. It has the largest proven oil reserves in the entire world and at one time it was thriving. But now thanks to rampant inflation, almost everyone is living in poverty even though almost everyone is a “millionaire”. It just doesn’t do much good to be sitting on “millions” if your currency is worthless. Unfortunately, as you will see below, our money supply has been growing at an exponential rate. This is destroying the middle class, because it has created a cost of living crisis that is absolutely crushing struggling households all over this country.

According to a survey that was recently conducted, 52 percent of Americans “struggle to pay bills like rent on time each month”, and 9 out of 10 Americans believe that we are “experiencing a full-blown cost-of-living crisis”…

Rent is due. The electric bill sits on the counter. The grocery receipt from last week still stings. For half of Americans, keeping up with basic monthly bills has become nearly impossible.

A nationwide survey of 5,000 Americans from Talker Research reports 52% now struggle to pay bills like rent on time each month, while an equal number are struggling to afford necessities like groceries. Nine in 10 people believe the U.S. is experiencing a full-blown cost-of-living crisis, and nearly eight in 10 said everything became more expensive in 2025.

When is the last time that 9 out of 10 Americans agreed on anything?

As a nation, we are the most deeply divided that I have seen in my entire lifetime, and yet nearly all of us agree that we are in the midst of a horrifying cost of living crisis.

Of course this didn’t happen by accident.

For a very long time, the people running the system have been doing a really bad job.  Our money supply has been growing at an exponential rate, and things really got crazy once the pandemic hit.  The following chart that comes directly from the Federal Reserve shows the growth of M2 since 1960…

We are on a road that would eventually lead to hyperinflation.

Even now, when I go to the grocery store I am astounded by the price changes that I see.

Over the past year, ground beef has become 18 percent more expensive and coffee has become 29 percent more expensive…

The price of ground beef, for example, is up 18% since Trump took office a year ago, while ground coffee prices are up 29%.

Needless to say, what we have experienced during the last 12 months is simply a continuation of a crisis that goes back a long way.

Housing costs have escalated dramatically since the beginning of the pandemic, and at this stage much of the population is convinced that they will never be able to afford to purchase a home where they really want to live…

The cost crisis isn’t just making people broke. It’s making them homeless in a different sense, forcing them to abandon places that used to feel like theirs.

More than a third of respondents have already moved because where they were living became too expensive. About a third of those relocated to a different city, while another third left their state entirely, searching for someplace they could actually afford. Half of Gen Z respondents reported moving due to costs, compared to just 19% of baby boomers.

What’s worse is how many Americans have stopped dreaming. About half of all respondents don’t believe they’ll ever be able to afford living in their “ideal” city or state. Among Gen Z, nearly two-thirds have abandoned hope of affording their ideal city. That’s not just about housing markets or inflation. That’s about an entire generation learning to aim lower because aiming higher feels pointless.

Meanwhile, the employment market just keeps getting tighter and tighter.

A woman named Megan Robinson that is very highly educated couldn’t find a job in New York City even after submitting nearly 1,000 applications…

Despite an undergraduate degree from the London School of Economics, an Oxbridge master’s degree, and professional experience, I couldn’t find a job after sending close to 1,000 applications. I eventually made it through a competitive hiring process for a writer-editor position at a small health research publication. The hiring manager praised my initiative and said I had gone “above and beyond” in my first interview.

But almost immediately, I was cut from the shortlist. I was told I brought “too many ideas” and seemed interested more in doing “extra things” than what was in the job description. I was cast, again, back down to the anonymous purgatory of millions of other job seekers who can’t get a foothold, regardless of credentials, enthusiasm, or positive attitude.

What is she supposed to do?

Get more education?

Give me a break.

A man named Alex English that was once making $125,000 a year hasn’t been able to find work for 18 months…

I’ve been unemployed for a year and a half. Before being laid off, I lived in LA and worked in marketing and communications at a startup. I was making around $125,000 and still felt poor.

After five years at my last job, I was handed a layoff like it was nothing. I moved back to where I grew up in Tampa, Florida, because I didn’t have the savings to sustain myself in LA.

I’ve relentlessly networked to find a full-time job, taken on freelance projects, and worked in retail. I feel like I’m working harder than I ever have and yet making significantly less money than I did before. My friends who aren’t dealing with long-term unemployment don’t see my crisis as a crisis. That can be really hard, but I’ve worked on removing the emotional intensity from the situation.

This is the reality of the U.S. economy in 2026.

And every day even more workers are being dumped into the constantly growing pool of job seekers.

Last week, I wrote about the fact that the number of announced job cuts last month was the highest that we have seen since 2009.  According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the final number for January 2006 was more than twice as high as the final number for January 2025…

U.S. employers’ announced job cuts surged in the month of January and hit the highest level since 2009, a new report shows.

Global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January – an increase from the 49,795 cuts announced in the same month last year. Job cuts increased 205% from December, when there were 35,553 layoffs announced.

I tried to warn my readers that layoffs were going to accelerate.

And that is precisely what the numbers are telling us.

But what we have been through so far is nothing compared to what is eventually coming.

We were handed the keys to the greatest economic machine the world has ever seen.

But for decades, those running the system have been doing their best to wreck it.

Now a historic crisis is upon us, and a tremendous amount of pain is ahead.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Look out below, because the dam is beginning to break.  Many of us were projecting that our economic problems would accelerate during the early portion of 2026, and that is precisely what has taken place.  Employers are conducting brutal layoffs all over the nation, the number of job openings continues to decline, stores and restaurants are closing everywhere we look, and now cryptocurrencies are crashing hard.  We haven’t seen anything like this since the Great Recession, and the worst is yet to come.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, so far in 2026 the number of announced layoffs is the highest that we have seen since 2009…

Employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January, the highest tally for the first month of the year since 2009, according to a report out Feb. 5, and a sign employers may be taking defensive steps against economic uncertainty.

The report, from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, mirrored other data released Feb. 5 that suggested the labor market is cooling. Unemployment benefits claims rose in the most recent week, and job openings slipped in December.

“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January,” Andy Challenger said in a release accompanying his firm’s report.

We didn’t even experience a January this bad during the pandemic.

Large companies are ruthlessly swinging the axe, and white collar workers are being hit particularly hard.

And the fact that new applications for unemployment benefits are rising seems to confirm that the employment market is rapidly moving in the wrong direction…

Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Jan. 31 rose by 22,000 to 231,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s significantly more than the 211,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.

Applications for unemployment benefits are seen as representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

Those that have been laid off are discovering that it is not easy to find a new job in this very harsh environment.

According to ABC News, the number of available job openings has dropped to the lowest level in over five years…

U.S. job openings fell to the lowest level in more than five years, another sign that the American labor market remains sluggish.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that vacancies fell to 6.5 million in December — from 6.9 million in November and the fewest since September 2020.

That sounds like a lot of job openings, but one recent study found that about a third of all job postings aren’t actually real.

And most of the jobs that are actually available aren’t good paying jobs.

These days, employers can be flooded with thousands of resumes for a single good paying job.

AI has been replacing white collar workers on a massive scale and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

Could it be possible that many of us will soon end up working for AI?

There is now a website where AI entities can hire humans to perform physical tasks for them…

The machines aren’t just coming for your jobs. Now, they want your bodies as well.

That’s at least the hope of Alexander Liteplo, a software engineer and founder of RentAHuman.ai, a platform for AI agents to “search, book, and pay humans for physical-world tasks.”

When Liteplo launched RentAHuman on Monday, he boasted that he already had over 130 people listed on the platform, including an OnlyFans model and the CEO of an AI startup, a claim which couldn’t be verified. Two days later, the site boasted over 73,000 rentable meatwads, though only 83 profiles were visible to us on its “browse humans” tab, Liteplo included.

That sounds absolutely crazy.

But this is the world that we live in now.

Yesterday, I posted an article entitled “Deep Cuts: We Are Witnessing A Tsunami Of Very Painful Layoffs And Closings In 2026”, and now we have learned that another major chain is planning widespread closures.

Pizza Hut was once the most dominant pizza chain in the entire country, but now it intends to close somewhere around 250 more locations…

Pizza Hut will close about 250 locations in the U.S. through June as its parent company, Yum! Brands, moves to shut underperforming stores and reassess the brand’s long-term strategy, executives said.

Yum! Brands Chief Financial Officer Ranjith Roy said during an earnings call that the closures will primarily target weaker-performing Pizza Hut restaurants as part of a broader effort to modernize the chain.

The closures are tied to the company’s “Hut Forward” initiative aimed at refreshing Pizza Hut’s marketing, updating its restaurant model and improving franchise performance. Yum! said it is also reviewing broader strategic options for Pizza Hut, signaling the changes could be part of a deeper reset for the brand.

My parents would often take me to Pizza Hut when I was a kid, and I really enjoyed their pizza in those days.

So this is very sad news for me.

Of course it isn’t just the real economy that is crashing.

Cryptocurrencies are crashing too…

Digital assets, including bitcoin, have fallen deeper into the red as investors re-assess the practical utility of a token that has been championed not only as a hedge against inflation and macroeconomic uncertainties but also as an alternative to fiat currencies and traditional safe-havens such as gold.

That hasn’t panned out lately, since bitcoin peaked just north of $126,000 in early October.

On Thursday, bitcoin was last down to $67,675, its lowest since since November 2024. The cryptocurrency broke below $70,000 earlier in the session Thursday and then the selling increased. The cryptocurrency is down 20% this week alone.

We are witnessing a mad dash for the exits.

Overall, Bitcoin is now down more than 40 percent from last October’s peak…

Bitcoin is acting weird.

The world’s most famous cryptocurrency has tumbled 44% from its October peak, falling below $70,000 Thursday for the first time in 15 months.

That decline is actually not unusual at all. Crypto is notoriously volatile, and it’s gone through numerous crashes that are bigger than this one.

What’s strange is this: Bitcoin’s four-month slump has come at a time when, in theory, it had everything going for it.

As I write this article, the price of Bitcoin is sitting at $65,187.99.

Once it falls to $63,000 that will represent a 50 percent decline from last October.

Other major cryptocurrencies have experienced even larger crashes.

Needless to say, a lot of investors that got into cryptocurrencies recently are being wiped out.

We are also seeing turmoil in the stock market, bond prices are going nuts, and prices for precious metals have been flying all over the place.

In so many ways, what we are witnessing reminds me so much of the Great Recession.

The CFO of General Motors appears to be quite pessimistic as well, because he is saying that a major economic downturn is inevitably coming…

General Motors Co. is strategizing for an inevitable economic downturn by paring down dealer inventory and maintaining a cash safety net, Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said Wednesday.

Jacobson’s comments to a panel of auto insiders at the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank’s Detroit branch provide insight into industry leaders’ expectations for the broader economy, as well as reassurance that the Detroit company is taking steps to remain resilient in tougher times.

We all knew that this was going to happen.

It was just a matter of time.

The party wasn’t going to last forever.

Anyone that thought that was just being delusional.

Now a time of reckoning is upon us, and the pain that our society is about to experience will be absolutely excruciating.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Do you remember the endless barrage of layoffs and store closings that we experienced during the Great Recession?  Well, it is starting to happen again.  All over the country, large employers are bringing down the axe really hard.  For those that have been laid off, the outlook is not promising at all because competition for good jobs is extremely intense in this very tough economic environment.  Meanwhile, stores and restaurants are being permanently shuttered at a blistering pace.  We haven’t seen anything quite like this in many years.  Of course a major economic meltdown is one of the 10 major trends that we have been anticipating.  If a major war with Iran soon erupts, our economic meltdown will get a whole lot worse.

On Wednesday morning, approximately a third of all employees at the Washington Post were suddenly let go…

The Washington Post laid off about one in three employees across the company Wednesday morning, dealing another big blow to a newsroom that has reached a breaking point.

Post owner Jeff Bezos had no immediate comment about the cutbacks.

Bezos has been pushing the Post’s management team to return the publication to profitability, but many journalists at the paper have criticized his approach and questioned his motives.

One employee is describing the layoffs as “an absolute bloodbath”, but Jeff Bezos did not have much choice.

The Washington Post has been losing about 100 million dollars a year, and so something had to be done.

Now that several departments have been entirely gutted, the once great newspaper will only be a shell of what it once was…

According to various sources, the Post is killing its sports and book sections, “suspending its Post Reports podcast, restructuring its metro section, and shrinking its international footprint.”

What does that leave?

Nothing.

I mean, nothing other than D.C.-centered political coverage and an editorial page. In other words, the Post is now a blog — another Politico or New Republic or National Review.

Needless to say, the Washington Post is not the only newspaper that is downsizing.

In fact, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution just decided that it is time to cut ties with about 15 percent of their employees…

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) announced Tuesday that it would be laying off newsroom employees along with other staff across the company, according to the outlet.

About 50 positions will be cut as part of the layoffs and roughly half are newsroom positions, according to the AJC, which is 15% of the paper’s total staff.

It is a tough time to be a journalist in 2026.

People just aren’t as interested in the news as they once were.

The tech industry is another sector where we are witnessing mass layoffs.

In Northern California, hundreds of Amazon workers are about to get canned.  Interestingly, we are being told that exactly 666 jobs are going to be eliminated in Santa Clara County…

Amazon is planning a fresh round of layoffs that will slash hundreds of Bay Area corporate jobs this spring, according to new state filings.

Notices filed with the California Employment Development Department showed that 769 employees in San Francisco and Silicon Valley are scheduled to be laid off effective April 28, marking one of the company’s largest local reductions in months.

Most of the Bay Area cuts are concentrated in Santa Clara County, where Amazon plans to eliminate 666 jobs across offices in Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto. The largest clusters of job cuts are in Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, where dozens of employees are being laid off at multiple facilities tied to engineering, product and corporate operations, according to the filings.

In Washington state, T-Mobile will be conducting yet another round of layoffs that will result in 393 workers losing their jobs…

T-Mobile is laying off 393 workers in Washington as part of a new round of cuts, according to a filing with the state Employment Security Department released Monday morning.

More than 200 different job titles are impacted, according to the filing, including analysts, engineers and technicians, as well as directors and managers.

The cuts targeted nearly 210 senior- and director-level employees, plus seven employees with vice president or senior vice president titles. They include a senior VP of talent and four VP of legal affairs roles.

The commercials that T-Mobile has been running make it appear that they are doing very well.

Apparently they are not doing as well as we were led to believe.

On another note, Pinterest has announced that it will be firing hundreds of workers, and that includes two employees that had created “an internal tool to track which employees had been laid off”…

Pinterest said it fired two engineers who built an internal tool to track which employees had been laid off following a recent round of job cuts at the social media company.

The firings come about a week after the lifestyle app said it was cutting 15% of its staff as it invests in artificial intelligence. Pinterest, which had about 4,700 employees prior to the layoffs, said the restructuring should be complete by Sept. 30.

I could give you so many more examples, but let me give you just one more really big one.

It is being reported that Oracle will soon be eliminating at least 20,000 jobs…

Oracle is considering cutting 20,000 to 30,000 jobs and selling some of its activities as US banks pull back from financing the company’s AI data-center expansion, according to investment bank TD Cowen.

The job cuts would free up $8 billion to $10 billion in cash flow, TD Cowen said in a research report seen by CIO. Oracle is also weighing a sale of its health-care software unit, Cerner, which it acquired for $28.3 billion in 2022.

The measures come as multiple US banks have pulled back from Oracle-linked data-center project lending. “Both equity and debt investors have raised questions regarding Oracle’s ability to finance this buildout,” the report said.

Every day we learn of even more companies that are laying off workers.

And many workers that have already been laid off have not had any success in finding new employment even after applying for hundreds of jobs.

If you have been unemployed for an extended period of time, you know exactly what I am talking about.

Meanwhile, stores and restaurants continue to shut down all around us at a frightening rate.

Earlier today, we learned that the parent company of Eddie Bauer is preparing to file for bankruptcy.  As a result, all Eddie Bauer stores could be permanently closed…

Eddie Bauer stores could be next on the chopping block.

Catalyst Brands, which owns the license to operate Eddie Bauer stores across North America, is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection, a source close to the matter told Fast Company.

The filing could cause the company to shutter all of its North American stores, the person said.

Overall, it is being projected that somewhere around 8,000 stores in the United States will close this year.

Personally, I think that it is quite likely that the final tally will be even higher than that.

Restaurant chains are also going belly up at a very alarming pace, and the latest victim is Bahama Breeze…

Darden Restaurants announced on Tuesday that it will close its Bahama Breeze chain after nearly 30 years in operation.

The Orlando-based company said it will permanently shut down 14 of Bahama Breeze’s 28 restaurants, while converting the remaining locations into other Darden brands.

Restaurants designated for permanent closure will continue operating through April 5, Darden said.

Many other chains have recently chosen to shut down locations as well.  That list includes Noodles & Company, Red Robin and Wendy’s…

Just over two weeks into the new year, multiple fast-food and fast-casual chain restaurants across the United States have announced plans to downsize, with some stating they intend to focus resources on their stronger-performing stores.

Among the restaurants that have announced closures are Noodles & Company, Red Robin and Wendy’s.

Noodles & Company, in a Jan. 12 news release, confirmed it closed 33 company-owned restaurants and nine franchise restaurants in 2025. In the coming year, there will likely be 30 to 35 more closures, the company said.

I remember eating at a Red Robin a number of years ago when economic times were better.

It was a very pleasant experience.

But now everything is changing.

Our economy is literally being transformed right in front of our eyes, and the nightmare that we are now experiencing is still only in the very early chapters.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

When global events reach a fever pitch, global leaders should be trying to bring the temperature down.  But instead, we are witnessing almost constant provocations.  In fact, I am extremely alarmed by a number of things that Iran, China and Russia have just done.  Let me start with breaking news out of the Middle East.  It is being reported that a U.S. fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone after it “aggressively approached” the USS Abraham Lincoln…

The U.S. military shot down an unmanned Iranian drone Tuesday after it “aggressively approached a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier with unclear intent,” a U.S. Central Command spokesman told Fox News.

“USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) was transiting the Arabian Sea approximately 500 miles from Iran’s southern coast when an Iranian Shahed-139 drone unnecessarily maneuvered toward the ship,” Capt. Tim Hawkins added.

“The Iranian drone continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters,” CENTCOM also said. ” An F-35C fighter jet from Abraham Lincoln shot down the Iranian drone in self-defense and to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board.”

With tensions so high at this moment, why would the Iranians send a Shahed-139 drone directly toward a U.S. aircraft carrier?

Were they just trying to monitor it, or did they intend to test the Abraham Lincoln’s defenses?

A short while later, six Iranian gunboats reportedly tried to board a U.S. oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz…

Six Iranian gunboats unsuccessfully attempted to halt a U.S.-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The security firm Vanguard Tech told its clients on Tuesday that the Iranian vessels were armed with 50-caliber guns, and they ordered the oil tanker to turn off its engines and prepare to be boarded. Instead, the tanker sped up and was ultimately escorted to safety by a U.S. Navy vessel, according to the Journal.

We are very fortunate that a naval skirmish did not break out.

A single miscalculation could result in missiles flying all over the Middle East.

Talks that are scheduled for Friday represent the last hope to avoid an apocalyptic war in the region.

Unfortunately, the Iranians are apparently not happy with the venue and the format for the talks…

Iran has demanded changes to the venue and format for negotiations with the United States this Friday, potentially putting the talks at risk of collapse, two sources with knowledge of the situation tell Axios.

According to sources, the Iranians want to move the talks from Istanbul, Turkey to Muscat in Oman, and instead of a talks featuring several Arab and Muslim, they want to hold them in a bilateral format, only with the Americans.

Of course even if the negotiations go ahead as scheduled, the Iranians are extremely unlikely to agree to the core demands that the Trump administration is now making…

– Renunciation of the nuclear program

– Halting the ballistic missile program

– Cease all funding of proxy groups

– Proper treatment of protesters who participated in anti-regime demonstrations

There is no way that the Iranians are going to agree to all of that.

But if they don’t, President Trump is warning that “bad things would happen”…

“We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones — the biggest and the best — and we have talks going on with Iran and we’ll see how it all works out,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “If we can work something out, that would be great and if we can’t, probably bad things would happen.

“I’d like to see a deal negotiated. I don’t know that that’s going to happen,” he added.

At this stage, I think that just about everyone is losing patience.

On the Iranian side, one member of parliament is suggesting that it is time for preemptive strikes on U.S. bases and Israeli cities…

Iranian MP Amir-Hossein Sabeti called for ending negotiations and urged pre-emptive strikes on Israel and U.S. bases in the region.

Of course it is always possible that Israel could be the first one to pull the trigger.

According to Defense News, some Israeli officials are also considering the possibility of conducting preemptive strikes…

Israel’s security cabinet is approaching a critical decision on how to respond to Iran’s advancing military capabilities, amid growing concern in Jerusalem that U.S. strategy may diverge from Israeli threat assessments. According to reporting by Walla, senior Israeli officials are weighing whether to proceed with a preemptive military strike independently or delay action in anticipation of coordination with the United States, despite uncertainty over Washington’s direction.

We are so close to war.

So let us hope that the diplomats can pull off some sort of a miracle on Friday.

While tensions in the Middle East continue to rise, the Chinese are trying to encourage the use of the yuan as a global reserve currency…

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for the Chinese yuan to become a global reserve currency, perhaps capitalizing on the dollar’s decline over the past year.

Over the weekend, the ruling Communist Party quoted Xi as saying Beijing needed to build a “powerful currency” that could be “widely used in international trade, investment and foreign exchange markets, and attain reserve currency status.”

China can see that the U.S. dollar is steadily getting weaker and nations all over the globe are losing faith in it.

So now the Chinese are ready to step in and take advantage of the situation.

Of course it is our own fault.

We have been treating our currency like toilet paper for a long time, and now we are starting to suffer the consequences.

China has also just revealed plans to construct a “space carrier” that will be able to carry 88 unmanned fighter jets to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere…

China has unveiled plans for a futuristic ‘Star Wars’ space carrier than can deploy nearly 100 unmanned fighter jets and fly to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.

The nation has claimed the Luanniao – slated to be 794ft-long, 2244ft-wide and have a takeoff weight of 120,000 tonnes – will be up in the air in the next 20 to 30 years.

The warship, set to be the biggest in the world if it is ever made, is being designed to carry up to 88 unmanned Xuan Nu fighter jets.

This is another example that demonstrates how far ahead of us China is when it comes to drone technology.

At this stage, our leaders can only dream of building something similar.

In this article, I also wanted to address a couple of things that Russia has just done.

As peace talks loom, the Russians just used an enormous barrage of ballistic missiles to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure…

Russia has used a record number of ballistic missiles to target Ukraine’s energy sector, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The combined missile and drone strikes hit power plants and infrastructure in Kyiv and multiple locations causing “the most powerful blow” so far this year, according to private energy company DTEK.

The strikes were launched as temperatures dropped to -20C (-4F) and left more than 1,000 tower blocks in the capital without heating once again and damaged a power plant in the eastern city of Kharkiv beyond repair.

The Russians are making it clear that they are not going to back down until they get what they want.

And the Ukrainians have absolutely no intention of giving that to them.

So the war will continue to escalate.

It is being reported that Russians forces have just crossed the border of Ukraine in a new area of the Sumy region, and it appears that this new breach has been successful…

Russian troops crossed the border in the Belgorod region from the village of Kolotilovka and entered Pokrovka in the Sumy region, according to enemy analytical resources. They emphasize that the Russian advance currently covers an area of ​​three square kilometers.

Of course Russian forces had already been operating elsewhere in the Sumy region, and Ukrainian resistance is really starting to crumble…

At the same time, reports are coming in of Russian forces advancing in the eastern Sumy region. Local authorities report that in the past 24 hours alone, Russian forces have liberated a 24-square-kilometer area.

A gain of 24 square kilometers in a 24 hour period is very significant.

Ukrainian lines are stretched so thin, and the Russians have all of the momentum at this point.

As the Russians gobble up more territory, European leaders will feel an enormous amount of pressure to intervene.

I think that this is going to be a huge story as the year rolls along.

But what is occurring in the Middle East is of more immediate concern.

We have one last chance to avoid an apocalyptic war with Iran, and so let us hope that a peace agreement can be reached before it is too late.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The west coast is shaking again.  In recent weeks we have witnessed so much seismic activity along the portion of the Pacific Ring of Fire that sits directly along the California coastline.  There had been hope that the shaking would settle down, but instead it appears to be accelerating.  As you will see below, there have been 321 earthquakes in the San Francisco area within the past 7 days.  If I was living in northern California, that would definitely get my attention.  Scientists have warned us over and over again that “the Big One” is inevitably coming, and almost every day there are more reminders of this.  In fact, San Ramon was just hit by a swarm of more than 30 earthquakes on Monday morning…

A 4.2 earthquake struck near San Ramon Monday morning, following a 3.8 quake amid a string of over 30 temblors in the area, U.S. Geological Survey said.

The 4.2 quake struck at 7:01 a.m. and followed a string of quakes that began with a 3.8 at 6:27 a.m. Dozens of earthquakes have followed.

USGS said the 4.2 quake was about 9.4 km in depth.

A magnitude 4.2 quake is quite significant.

The shaking that it caused was so extensive that people living in the heart of San Francisco actually felt “windows rattling”…

Residents in San Francisco’s Glen Park and Nopa neighborhoods reported rumbling and ‘windows rattling’ during the quake, and public transportation throughout the area was also affected by the swarm, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The moderate quake even activated the National Tsunami Warning Center, however, officials said there was no danger of a major wave hitting the Bay Area.

Of course this was not an isolated incident.

According to the USGS, this latest earthquake swarm was “a continuation” of a pattern of heightened activity that the region has been experiencing since last November…

ABC7 Eyewitness News spoke with the USGS Monday morning, and they say this is a continuation of the swarm of quakes the area has been experiencing.

On Friday, the area saw its first earthquake in several weeks, but there have been dozens of quakes since November.

Could it be possible that all of this activity is building up to some sort of a really big event?

According to the Southern California Earthquake Data Center, there have been 321 earthquakes in the San Francisco area in the last 7 days.  The following is a screenshot…

Needless to say, this isn’t normal.

The swarm of earthquakes that hit San Ramon on Monday was centered on one of the main branches of the San Andreas Fault System…

Still, Monday’s noticeable swarm broke out right on the Calaveras Fault, a main branch of the San Andreas – the monstrous 800-mile-long fault spanning from Southern California through the Bay Area and into the Pacific.

The Calaveras splits off from the main fault line near Hollister in central California and runs parallel to it through the East Bay region.

Scientists with USGS have warned that one of these faults or other major branches nearby could soon reach their anticipated breaking point and rupture right in the heart of California.

And it isn’t just northern California that has been shaking lately.

A couple of weeks ago, a magnitude 4.9 earthquake rocked Southern California…

A 4.9-magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks rattled Southern California on Monday night, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The first and largest quake happened approximately five miles northeast of Indio Hills, which is in the Palm Desert region of Riverside County, at around 5:57 p.m., the USGS reported. It occurred at a geological depth of nearly two miles. The preliminary magnitude of the earthquake was first reported as 5.1 before it was downgraded to 4.6 and then adjusted to 4.9 by USGS officials.

Scientists keep telling us that it is just a matter of time before the San Andreas Fault System “rips wide open”.

This is something that I have written about extensively over the years.

These latest quakes are a major league wake up call.

Unfortunately, most people living in California have learned to tune out such warnings.

Interestingly, the earthquake swarm that shook San Ramon on Monday morning occurred just after the Sun released “a relentless barrage of powerful solar flares”…

The sun has erupted in a relentless barrage of powerful solar flares over the past 24 hours, firing off at least 18 M-class flares and three X-class flares, including an X8.3 eruption — the strongest solar flare of 2026 so far. Solar flares are ranked by strength from A, B and C up to M and X, with each letter representing a tenfold increase in energy — meaning X-class flares are the most powerful explosions the sun can produce

The culprit is sunspot region 4366, a volatile active region that has grown rapidly in just a few days. The flurry of activity began late Feb. 1 and has continued into Feb. 2, with multiple M-class and X-class flares erupting in quick succession. The prolific region appears to be far from finished. Spaceweather.com described the region as a “solar flare factory”, warning that its rapid growth and magnetic complexity make further eruptions highly likely.

Many scientists believe that we tend to see more seismic activity when the Sun is highly active.

Needless to say, the Sun has been extremely active lately.

And we are being warned that Sunspot AR4366 will soon be directly facing our planet…

It’s also possible that more eruptions are still to come. Sunspot AR4366 remains highly active and continues to rotate into an Earth-facing position, raising the chance that future eruptions could launch CMEs more directly toward our planet. NOAA forecasters say they expect more exciting space weather activity from this region in the coming days.

Sunspot AR4366 is absolutely massive, and I think that we should all be watching it very closely.

We live at a time when the giant ball of fire that we revolve around is becoming increasingly unstable.

We also live at a time when the ground under our feet is becoming increasingly unstable.

Unfortunately, I am entirely convinced that what we have experienced so far is just the tip of the iceberg.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The violent clashes that are causing so much chaos in the streets of our major cities aren’t going to stop.  Tens of thousands of anti-ICE activists have already been recruited, and more are joining their ranks with each passing day.  At this stage, the only thing that could put a lid on the volcano of fury that we are witnessing would be if President Trump decided to pull ICE out of all of our cities and stop deportations.  Of course there is no way that is going to happen.  In fact, as you will see below, Trump is now converting 23 enormous warehouses around the country into giant ICE detention centers.  The goal is to deport a million immigrants per year, and that means that the war between ICE and anti-ICE protesters is just getting started.

I have always warned that civil unrest would be one of the key elements of “the perfect storm” that our society would be forced to endure, and now we have reached a stage where the civil unrest never seems to stop.

On Friday, law enforcement authorities used pepper balls and tear gas to disperse “a mob of violent agitators” that had gathered in front of the federal detention center in Los Angeles…

Los Angeles police arrested multiple violent agitators after issuing dispersal orders as protests erupted across the city Friday evening.

Thousands of protesters met in front of City Hall in the afternoon, before many marched to the federal detention center, where a mob of violent agitators swarmed the area, pushing a large construction dumpster and blocking the entrance to the building’s loading dock.

LAPD shared video on social media of the unrest, adding in a separate post that authorities had deployed pepper balls and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Even after pepper balls and tear gas had been used, some of the protesters continue to throw bottles, rocks and “other objects” at the police…

While some protesters dispersed, others remained and continued to throw bottles and rocks at officers, according to the LAPD.

In addition, the department said that federal authorities were being hit with “debris, bottles and other objects,” resulting in authorities declaring an unlawful assembly at the detention center.

Footage of the violence that took place on Friday evening is extremely disturbing.

Of course this wasn’t the first anti-ICE violence that we have seen in L.A., and it most certainly won’t be the last.

On Saturday, a crowd of thousands of anti-ICE protesters marched on an ICE facility in Portland.  When they arrived, federal agents “deployed several rounds of tear gas, pepper balls, and flash-bang munitions”…

By the late afternoon, there were thousands of people participating in a protest in South Portland that began at Elizabeth Caruthers Park, according to the Portland Police Bureau, who monitored the activity. Local labor unions organized the demonstration.

The crowd later marched to the ICE facility a few blocks away, closing down South Bancroft Street.

Around 5 p.m., federal agents deployed several rounds of tear gas, pepper balls, and flash-bang munitions into the crowd, including children, as observed by KOIN 6 News Reporter Ariel Salk in the field. The crowd dwindled to less than 1,000 people after that.

The reason why this didn’t make headline news all over the nation is because this sort of thing has become quite common in Portland.

Shockingly, one protester says that someone actually brought a “kid in a stroller” to the event…

“There were so many people who came out, there were parents, kids. I saw one kid in a stroller with a little helmet on. And we were all marching down the street towards the building to protest. And there was — it was like fog had rolled in — it was coming down the street,” one protester said.

Why would you bring a “kid in a stroller” to a protest where tear gas and pepper balls are almost certainly going to be used?

That is insanity.

A lot of the protesters did not disperse after the first wave of non-lethal munitions, and so about 6 PM there was a “second wave of tear gas, as well as pepper balls and flash-bang munitions”…

A second wave of tear gas, as well as pepper balls and flash-bang munitions, was deployed into the crowd by federal agents around 6 p.m. After that, only a few hundred people remained.

KOIN 6 also saw people move a dumpster into the vehicle entryway of the ICE building just before the second round of tear gas was deployed. By the time the smoke cleared, the dumpster was gone.

Portland has been a war zone for much of the past year.

Sadly, it appears that the violence in the city is now escalating.

Meanwhile, the craziness in Minnesota never seems to end.

Over the weekend, protesters decided to stage events inside quite a few Target stores…

Multiple Target stores across Minnesota and in other states were targeted by protesters with demands for Target’s corporate leadership to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from being allowed in Target stores to arrest criminals.

Video from a Target location in Richfield, Minnesota, shows reportedly over 100 protesters illegally marching through the store, chanting, “The people united will never be defeated,” while holding a Socialist Alternative banner that read, “National Strike Shut Down Trump & ICE.” Local police were at the scene but refused to do anything as the anti-ICE protesters berated them and called for Target to be shut down.

At one location in West St. Paul, a police officer made it abundantly clear that his heart was very much with the protesters…

At a West St. Paul, Minnesota Target protest, a police officer lauded the protesters, saying, “I appreciate what you guys are doing. I understand what you guys are doing. Unfortunately, the store has the right to do what they need to do,” after threatening to arrest them for trespassing. “I have a hard job. As much as I want to come over here, and you know what I mean, and do what I need to do, I still have a job to do, unfortunately. And so, I appreciate you guys,” he continued.

The entire state has been thrown into an uproar thanks to what has transpired over the last couple of months.

The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have just added fuel to the fire, and now we are being told that over 34,000 people in the state of Minnesota have signed up to be part of Minnesota’s anti-ICE army…

More than 34,000 Minnesotans have signed up to be trained as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement observers with various activist groups in recent weeks, many of them since Jan. 7, when a federal agent shot and killed Renée Good, a poet and mother of three, after an encounter with an ICE convoy in South Minneapolis.

The killings of Good and, on Saturday, ICU nurse Alex Pretti underscore the dangers for the city’s widespread resistance movement, a loosely connected network of neighborhood volunteers who communicate on Signal, the private messaging app, as they play cat and mouse with heavily armed and masked federal agents on snowy streets.

This week these ICE observers vowed to continue their work despite signs of a political thaw on the national stage, after Trump removed controversial border patrol head Greg Bovino from Minneapolis and renewed talks with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), a frequent critic.

The anti-ICE forces outnumber the ICE agents that have been deployed to the state by a more than 10 to 1 margin.

That is crazy.

But ICE agents continue to try to follow orders.

In fact, they just arrested an immigrant that actually rammed one of their vehicles as he attempted to escape…

ICE has arrested a criminal illegal alien from Mexico after the alien rammed into an ICE vehicle this morning in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Tranquilino Sixto-Anorve had a criminal record of multiple charges for driving under the influence.

Sixto-Anorve was taken into ICE detention at the Whipple federal building in Minneapolis, where anti-ICE demonstrators were seen earlier on Saturday parading in the streets in animal costumes, singing, “Kristi Noem is a bird-legged hoe.”

One thing has become very clear.

No matter what happens, the Trump administration is not going to stop deporting people.

In fact, there are plans to convert 23 giant warehouses throughout the country into “a large-scale network of immigration detention centers”…

The Trump administration is moving ahead with plans to convert 23 e-commerce warehouses across the country, primarily in the eastern U.S., into a large-scale network of immigration detention centers aimed at expanding capacity to fulfill the mandate the American people gave President Trump to deport more than one million illegal aliens per year and restore national security. This comes after the Biden-Harris globalist regime collapsed borders and allowed a nation-killing invasion of ten million or more third-worlders.

Bloomberg reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s rapid move to build out a network of warehouses is being fueled by $45 billion from the signature “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” This includes the most recent purchases of a warehouse in Hagerstown, Maryland, and another in Surprise, Arizona, totaling $172 million. A third in El Paso, Texas, will be one of the largest of its kind, with 8,500 beds.

Wow.

I don’t even know what to say about that.

The warehouse that is being converted in Arizona has over 400,000 square feet of detention space…

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has purchased a massive warehouse in the West Valley, according to Maricopa County property records.

Filings showed the federal government purchased the more than 400,000 square-foot facility near Sweetwater Avenue and Dysart Road for $70 million in cash from RG Surprise, LLC last Friday.

According to an archived listing, the warehouse completed by Rockefeller Group was previously called the Surprise Pointe Commerce Center and was primarily set up to accommodate one to four tenants.

The Trump administration has no intention of backing down.

Neither do the anti-ICE protesters.

I believe that we will see things happen in the streets of America this year that we have never seen before.

Needless to say, that is not good news for any of us.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

When the economy and the financial system are both greatly shaken at the same time, the consequences can be extremely painful. Most of you still clearly remember what life was like in 2008 and 2009. It was such a dark chapter in American history. But there have been other times when we have had a financial market crash but no recession. 1987 is a perfect example of that. Of course there have also been many instances when economic conditions have been very poor but the financial markets weathered it just fine. It is actually rare for a major economic crisis and a major financial crisis to occur simultaneously like we witnessed during the Great Recession and the Great Depression. Unfortunately, it appears that this is precisely the type of scenario that we are now facing.

The other day I authored an article entitled “12 Signposts That Indicate That A Monumental Economic Meltdown Is Now Upon Us”, and it received a tremendous amount of attention. That article clearly established that a significant economic slowdown is now upon us. Since I wrote that article, more evidence that the economy is slowing down has emerged.

For example, it is being reported that Las Vegas experienced a “devastating fall of 7.5 percent” in the number of people visiting the city last year…

Las Vegas’s long‑rumored tourism collapse has erupted into full public view, with new data revealing that 2025 was the year the desert empire finally stumbled.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) confirmed that the city drew just 38.5 million visitors in 2025, a devastating fall of 7.5 percent from the previous year.

This marked the sharpest annual decline since the post‑pandemic recovery and erasing years of hard‑won momentum.

Las Vegas has always been a leading indicator for U.S. economic performance.

When the number of tourists starts to fall, an economic downturn almost always follows.

The video game industry has also fallen on very hard times.

According to one recent survey, one-third of all video game industry workers were laid off in 2025…

One-third of U.S. video game industry workers say they were laid off last year, according to a new survey conducted by the organizers behind the newly revamped Game Developers Conference (GDC).

Based on responses from more than 2,300 gaming industry professionals, with surveys “customized for each participant group, ensuring that developers, marketers, executives, investors and others answered questions most relevant to them,” the 2026 State of the Game Industry Report found that 33% of respondents in the U.S. were laid off in the past two years.

That is crazy.

I think that AI is having a bigger impact in the video game industry than most of us realized.

But of course we are seeing mass layoffs in many other industries as well.

On Thursday, Mastercard announced that it will be laying off approximately 4 percent of its entire workforce…

‌Mastercard ​has ‌completed a review ​of its ‍business that will ​impact ​about ⁠4% of its full-time employees, the payment ‌processor’s CFO, Sachin ​Mehra, said ‌on ‍Thursday.

“Based on the ⁠recent strategic review of our business, we ​expect to record a one-time restructuring charge in Q1 of approximately $200 million,” Mehra said on a call ​with analysts.

Another really big name, Home Depot, has just made a decision to give the axe to hundreds of loyal workers…

Atlanta-based Home Depot announced hundreds of layoffs Wednesday in its corporate operations.

Around 800 employees who work for the Atlanta store support center are being laid off, according to the company. Less than 150 of them work in the center and the rest work remotely.

In a statement, a Home Depot spokesperson said the company is “simplifying our corporate operations to better support our stores and our customers.”

Just like in 2008, it seems like we are being hit by one wave of layoffs after another.

Everyone thought that Dow Inc. was doing well, but they just announced that 4,500 employees will be hitting the bricks…

Chemical maker Dow Inc. is the latest company to announce substantial layoffs as it pivots to a stronger reliance on artificial intelligence and automation.

The company, on Thursday, announced it would cut 4,500 jobs as part of a streamlining operation it calls “Transform to Outperform.” The cuts will provide a $2 billion boost in near-term revenue, the company said, but will bring with them between $1.1 billion and $1.5 billion in one-time costs, including severance and other costs.

Some of the employment markets that were once the hottest are now being hit the hardest by layoffs.

In Seattle, we are being told that the “tech boom” has now turned into “tech gloom”…

A cloud hanging over Seattle is usually a good thing, if you’re here for the rain, or if you work in that aspect of the tech industry. But the cloud of economic uncertainty is a less welcome occurrence.

The tech boom is showing more signs of tech gloom this week following layoffs at some of the region’s biggest employers.

Just this month, Amazon and Meta are among the big names that have slashed jobs in the Emerald City…

• Amazon is laying off another 16,000 corporate employees, bringing the total to 30,000 since October. The company is also shuttering all of its Fresh and Go grocery stores.
• Meta is cutting hundreds of workers in its Reality Labs division, with roots in the region.
• Expedia Group is slashing more than 160 jobs at its Seattle HQ.

For those that want even more examples of the mass layoffs that have been happening all over America, I would recommend checking out my previous articles.

As economic conditions continue to deteriorate, chaos is erupting in the financial system.

Japanese bond yields have been going nuts, currency rates have been flying all over the place, cryptocurrencies crashed again today, and the price of silver and the price of gold have both been absolutely skyrocketing.

Statistically, the probability of what we have witnessed in the financial markets during the month of January is very close to zero.  To illustrate this, I would like to share an extended excerpt from a social media post that a user known as “NoLimit” recently published on his X account…

The probability of what is happening is near zero.

Three 6-sigma events occurred in one week.

– Bonds
– Silver
– Gold

We are currently living through a statistical impossibility.

Let me explain:

Last Tuesday, Japanese 30-year debt recorded what’s called a “6-sigma” session.

2 days ago, silver did even better: it was at 5-sigma on the rally, then reached 6-sigma on the drop. IN A SINGLE SESSION.

Gold right now? It’s up 23% in less than a month. We’re getting very close to a 6-sigma event.

That’s three 6-sigma events in ONE WEEK.

To explain quickly: in finance, we measure price moves around an average using the standard deviation, which we call sigma.

1-sigma: mundane
2-sigma: common
3-sigma: becomes rare
4-sigma: exceptional
5-sigma: extremely rare
6-sigma: supposed to occur once in 500 million

Here are the 6-sigma-type episodes we saw previously:

– The october 1987 crash, 22% drop in 1 session
– March 2020 covid crash
– The swiss franc’s surge in january 2015
– WTI oil turning negative in april 2020

But we’ve never had 3 events occur in one week.

Do you see the point?

A 6-sigma event is almost NEVER triggered by a simple macro headline.

It almost always comes from the market’s structure: leverage, positions that are too concentrated, margin calls, collateral problems, and forced selling or buying.

That’s important to understand because we’re talking about internal strains in the system’s mechanics.

As you know, the Japanese bond market sits at the heart of the global financial system, and I won’t go back over the whole topic, but a 6-sigma move in a market that enormous doesn’t go unnoticed.

Seeing a 6-sigma move in silver a few days later gives one a lot to think about.

And now gold?? That’s absolutely insane.

Why are we seeing extreme statistical events, only days apart, in such different markets?

When a pillar of global funding becomes unstable, leverage tends to contract, and two things happen at the same time: forced selling in certain assets and forced buying of protection in others.

Historically, precious metals are often among the beneficiaries.

Many of my readers are loving the fact that gold and silver prices have risen at an exponential rate.

JPMorgan is even suggesting that the price of gold could eventually hit $8,000.

But meanwhile the U.S. dollar and other fiat currencies are dying and investors are losing faith in the entire system.

At this stage, Peter Schiff is warning that we are headed for a global nightmare “that will make the 2008 financial crisis look like a Sunday school picnic”…

As gold prices keep rising, American economist Peter Schiff says investors should view the rally as more than a hedge — calling it a warning that inflation is speeding up, the U.S. dollar is losing global trust and a major economic reckoning may be near.

“Gold and silver are warning about a bigger crisis that’s gonna hit either later this year or maybe next year. We are headed for a U.S. dollar crisis and a sovereign debt crisis,” Schiff said Tuesday afternoon on “The Claman Countdown.”

“Central banks are buying gold to back up their currencies. They’re getting rid of dollars. They are getting rid of Treasuries,” he continued. “We are headed for [an] economic crisis, again, that will make the 2008 financial crisis look like a Sunday school picnic.”

The warning signs are all around us.

The last time we were forced to endure a major economic crisis and a major financial crisis at the same time was during the Great Recession.

Now it is happening again, and many prominent voices believe that the pain that we will soon experience will be off the charts.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.