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Are the months ahead going to be very painful for our economy?  This is something that I have been arguing for a long time, and apparently the vast majority of corporate CEOs now agree with me.  Of course economic conditions are not exactly good at this moment.  Core U.S. inflation just rose to a 40 year high, mortgage rates just hit the highest level in more than two decades, home values are plummeting all over the nation, and retail sales in the United States unexpectedly fell in September.  If you think that the U.S. economy is performing well right now, there is a very large bridge on the west coast that I would like to sell you.  Unfortunately, it appears that economic conditions are about to get significantly worse.  In fact, one recent survey found that 98 percent of corporate CEOs are planning “for a U.S. recession over the next year or year and a half”…

Nearly all CEOs are readying for the U.S. economy to fall into a recession, according to a survey released Thursday by The Conference Board.

The survey, The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence, found that 98% of CEOs indicated they were preparing for a U.S. recession over the next year or year and a half. That figure is five percentage points higher than in the third-quarter survey.

Talk about a consensus.

But why is the number only 98 percent?

What are the other 2 percent thinking?

This week we also learned that a model created by Bloomberg economists is now forecasting a 100 percent chance of a recession within the next 12 months…

A U.S. recession is effectively certain in the next 12 months in new Bloomberg Economics model projections, a blow to President Joe Biden’s economic messaging ahead of the November midterms.

The latest recession probability models by Bloomberg economists Anna Wong and Eliza Winger forecast a higher recession probability across all timeframes, with the 12-month estimate of a downturn by October 2023 hitting 100%, up from 65% for the comparable period in the previous update.

Of course it is pretty easy to forecast a recession when we are already in one.

But I don’t want to let that detail detract from the point that I am trying to make.

The point that I am trying to make is that the business community is bracing for things to get really bad in the months ahead.

And there are some sectors of the economy where things are already falling apart at a frightening pace.

For example, home prices are now being slashed “at a record clip”…

Home sellers are slashing their asking prices at a record clip as surging mortgage rates drive a downturn in the US housing market, according to a recent report from real estate firm Redfin.

About 7.9% of home listings reported price drops during the four-week period ending Oct. 9, according to a rolling average compiled by Redfin. That figure marked a record high and a significant uptick compared to the same period last year, when just 4% of listings reported price cuts.

A new housing crash is here.

And just like we witnessed in 2008, it is going to cause immense pain for Wall Street.

Sadly, there is a lot of pain on Main Street as well.

Every single day, more Americans are falling out of the middle class and into poverty.  As a result, our homeless population is absolutely exploding.

If you can believe it, the New York Post is reporting that there are approximately 120 tent cities in Washington D.C. right now…

In the past two years, homeless encampments have exploded in Washington D.C., as both the city and federal governments lifted enforcement measures during the COVID-19 pandemic — and made it a no-brainer for itinerants to lay down roots by providing for their every need.

A tour by The Post of the district’s major tourist areas this week found at least 35 vagrants in residence at a National Park Service site two blocks from the White House; more than 20 in the green spaces surrounding the State Department complex; and five across the street from the infamous Watergate Hotel.

And these sites accounted for less than 5 percent of the estimated 120 tent cities in Washington D.C.

Wow.

If things are this bad already, what will our major cities look like once economic conditions really start to spiral out of control?

Unfortunately, the man in the White House is in an advanced state of mental decline, and he is in complete denial about what is happening…

The comment came during a conversation with a reporter at a Baskin Robbins in Portland, Oregon, who asked the president if he had any worry about the strength of the U.S. dollar amid rising inflation.

With a chocolate chip ice cream cone in his hand, Biden answered: “I’m not concerned about the strength of the dollar. I’m concerned about the rest of the world. Our economy is strong as hell.”

Really?

Our economy is “strong as hell”?

I understand that he is trying to help Democrats do well in November, but nobody is going to believe such a delusional statement.

At this moment, the U.S. economy is in the worst shape that it has been since 2008, and the Federal Reserve seems determined to push us over the edge by raising interest rates even more.

In fact, James Bullard says that the Fed may raise rates by 75 basis points in both November and December…

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard left open the possibility that the central bank would raise interest rates by 75 basis points at each of its next two meetings in November and December, while saying it was too soon to make that call.

The Fed hiked rates by 75 basis points for the third straight meeting last month, to a target range of 3% to 3.25%. Officials projected 125 basis points of tightening for the rest of the year, suggesting a 75 basis-point move in November and 50 basis points in December. A further 25 basis points of tightening was penciled in for 2023, according to their median estimate.

It would be absolutely suicidal to raise rates by 75 basis points in each of the next two months.

But I think that the Fed might do it anyway.

In any event, the “Great American Economic Meltdown” that so many of us have been waiting for is here, and that is going to mean a tremendous amount of pain for all of us in 2023 and beyond.

In 2008, the Fed was able to contain the bleeding by pushing interest rates all the way to the floor and by pumping massive amounts of fresh money into the financial system.

This time around the Fed isn’t going to be able to make such dramatic moves because they are scared to death of inflation.

We really are facing a nightmare scenario, and virtually every CEO in America realizes that tough times are ahead.

Things could have turned out very differently if our leaders had made better decisions in the years leading up to this crisis.

But that didn’t happen, and so now we all get to suffer as a result.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, 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 digital copies as gifts through Amazon 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 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 ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.

I am trying to sound the alarm about this as loudly as I can.  The global food crisis just continues to intensify, and things are going to get really bad in 2023.  As you will see below, two-thirds of European fertilizer production has already been shut down, currency problems are causing massive headaches for poor nations that need to import food, global weather patterns continue to be completely crazy, and the bird flu is killing millions upon millions of chickens and turkeys all over the planet.  On top of everything else, the war in Ukraine is going to restrict the flow of agricultural and fertilizer exports from that part of the world for a long time to come, because there is no end to the war in sight.  In essence, we are facing a “perfect storm” for global food production, and that “perfect storm” is only going to get worse in the months ahead.

Global hunger has been on the rise for years, and the UN World Food Program is warning that we are heading for “yet another year of record hunger”…

The world is at risk of yet another year of record hunger as the global food crisis continues to drive yet more people into worsening levels of severe hunger, warns the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in a call for urgent action to address the root causes of today’s crisis ahead of World Food Day on October 16.

The global food crisis is a confluence of competing crises – caused by climate shocks, conflict and economic pressures – that has pushed the number of severely hungry people around the world from 282 million to 345 million in just the first months of 2022. The U.N. World Food Programme scaled up food assistance targets to reach a record 153 million people in 2022, and by mid-year had already delivered assistance to 111.2 million people.

But as I have consistently warned, this is only just the beginning.

Eventually, there will be billions of people that don’t have enough to eat on a regular basis.

In all my years, I have never seen hunger spread so rapidly.  In fact, there are large numbers of people that are now facing starvation in the backyard of the United States…

The United Nations is warning that hunger in one of Haiti’s biggest slums is at catastrophic levels, as gang violence and economic crises push the country to “breaking point”.

Nearly 20,000 people in the capital’s impoverished Cité Soleil area have dangerously little access to food and could face starvation, the UN says,

Across Haiti, almost five million are struggling with malnutrition.

“Haiti is facing a humanitarian catastrophe,” a top UN official said.

But most people in the western world won’t care until they are going hungry themselves.

Unfortunately, that day may be a lot closer than a lot of people ever imagined.

Right now, a whopping two-thirds of all fertilizer production capacity in Europe has already been shut down because of the skyrocketing price of natural gas…

Europe’s fertilizer crunch is deepening with more than two-thirds of production capacity halted by soaring gas costs, threatening farmers and consumers far beyond the region’s borders.

Russia’s squeeze on gas shipments in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is hurting industries across Europe. But fertilizer companies are being especially affected because gas is both a key feedstock and a source of power for the sector.

There simply will not be enough fertilizer for European farmers in 2023.

And there won’t be enough for everyone else that depends on fertilizer production from Europe.

This is a really big deal, because without fertilizer we would only be able to feed approximately half the planet.

Do you want to volunteer to be among those that don’t get enough food?

Meanwhile, the surging U.S. dollar is causing immense headaches for food importers all over the world…

In Ghana, importers are warning about shortages in the run up to Christmas. Thousands of containers loaded with food recently piled up at ports in Pakistan, while private bakers in Egypt raised bread prices after some flour mills ran out of wheat because it was stranded at customs.

Around the world, countries that rely on food imports are grappling with a destructive combination of high interest rates, a soaring dollar and elevated commodity prices, eroding their power to pay for goods that are typically priced in the greenback. Dwindling foreign-currency reserves in many cases has reduced access to dollars, and banks are slow in releasing payments.

The value of the U.S. dollar has been spiking because the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates.

When the value of the dollar goes up, poor countries have to pay a lot more for food in their own local currencies.

So the Federal Reserve is actually making the global food crisis worse by hiking rates.

But they are going to keep doing it anyway.

At the same time, global weather patterns continue to go completely haywire.

This summer we witnessed the worst drought in Chinese history, Europe endured the worst drought in 500 years, and the western U.S. continued to suffer through the worst multi-year megadrought in at least 1,200 years.

Needless to say, all of this drought is absolutely devastating agricultural production.

According to the Washington Post, “more than 80 percent of the U.S. is facing troubling dry conditions” right now.  In the middle of the country, this has caused a horrific crisis for barge traffic along the Mississippi River…

The barge industry is quite important. It’s crucial for moving aluminum, petroleum, fertilizer and coal, particularly on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. About 60% of the grain and 54% of the soybeans for U.S. export are moved via the noble barge. Barges touch more than a third of our exported coal as well.

Right now the barge industry — and all of us who depend on its wares — is mired in a crisis. Water levels on the Mississippi River Basin are at its lowest point in more than a decade.

Last week, approximately 2,000 barges were struck at one point.

Sadly, very dry conditions are expected “over the next several weeks”, and so things are not likely to get better any time soon…

Low water levels and dredging shuttered barge traffic heading north and south on the Mississippi last week. At one point, more than 100 towboats and 2,000 barges were stuck waiting. The blocked-off section of the river, between Louisiana and Mississippi, reopened Monday. Traffic is limited to one way, according to Petty Officer Jose Hernandez of the U.S. Coast Guard.

That’s certainly better than zero-way traffic, but the Mississippi is still expected to become even more parched. Lisa Parker, a representative of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, told FreightWaves that drier conditions are expected over the next several weeks. The river is slurping up water reserves right now, Parker added, but those reserves will eventually run out.

As a result of this crisis, rates to move goods by barge have gone through the roof, and we could ultimately see massive amounts of agricultural produce rot before it can get to consumers…

Since many barges are stuck and cannot move at all, barge prices are reportedly hyperinflating. As of this writing, the highest USD per ton price shown is $90.44. Prior to the massive spike, it was under $10 to move a ton of goods.

The vast majority of the now-stranded bean piles and other farm goods were intended for major export terminals in the Gulf of Mexico. While at least some of them appear to be covered and ventilated, how long will they really last before spoiling?

On another note, we continue to see crabs die off at a staggering rate.

In fact, it is now being reported that the winter harvest of snow crab in Alaska has been suspended because the crab population has experienced a catastrophic decline…

Alaska officials have canceled several crab harvests in a conservation effort that sent shock waves through the crabbing industry in the region.

Officials canceled the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest and, for the first time on record, are also holding off on the winter harvest of snow crab, according to multiple reports.

The decision comes after stark recent population declines of the animals. Data from an NOAA eastern Bering Sea survey shows a 92% decline in overall snow crab abundance from 2018 to 2021, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game confirmed to USA TODAY. An 83% decline occurred from 2018 to 2022, as some small crab entered the population in 2022, according to the department’s Division of Commercial Fisheries.

And thanks to the global bird flu pandemic, birds continue to die in staggering numbers as well.

If you can believe it, nearly 100 million chickens and turkeys have already been wiped out during this pandemic in the United States and Europe alone, and experts are warning that this pandemic will only intensify now that cold weather is arriving.

Those of you that have been to the grocery store lately already know that egg prices, chicken prices and turkey prices have surged to absolutely crazy levels.  At this point, prices are so high that one recent survey found that one out of every four Americans plans to skip Thanksgiving this year in order to save money…

One in five Americans are unsure if they will be able to cover the costs of Thanksgiving this year, and one in four plan to skip it to save money, a recent Personal Capital survey found.

The state of economic affairs in President Joe Biden’s America is affecting Americans’ holiday plans. According to the survey, one quarter of Americans are planning to skip Thanksgiving this year to save money, and one in five “doubted they would have enough money to cover the costs of Thanksgiving this year.”

More specifically, one-third expect their 2022 Thanksgiving dinner to be “smaller,” and 45 percent, overall, said they are “finically stressed” by Thanksgiving.

Yes, things are already that bad.

But according to Joe Biden, everything is just fine.  In fact, he says that “our economy is strong as hell”…

The comment came during a conversation with a reporter at a Baskin Robbins in Portland, Oregon, who asked the president if he had any worry about the strength of the U.S. dollar amid rising inflation.

With a chocolate chip ice cream cone in his hand, Biden answered: “I’m not concerned about the strength of the dollar. I’m concerned about the rest of the world. Our economy is strong as hell.”

You believe him, don’t you?

Our leaders would have us believe that all of the problems that we are facing right now are just temporary and that a golden new age of peace and prosperity is just around the corner.

But if that is true, why are they so eager to have us eat bugs?

A tremendous amount of time, energy and resources is being put behind a campaign to promote insects as one of the solutions to the rapidly growing global food crisis.

But I don’t plan to eat bugs, and I am sure that you don’t either.

Unfortunately, there isn’t going to be nearly enough food for everyone on the planet in 2023, and millions upon millions of deeply suffering individuals will soon be desperately hungry.

They can push bug eating all they want, but that isn’t going to fix our problems.  Right now, they have absolutely no solutions that will prevent large numbers of people from starving to death during the difficult years that are in front of us.

🇳🇱 WEF agenda in full force: Hundreds of schools in The Netherlands have started a campaign introducing 10-12 y/o kids to mealworms & insects as a ‘sustainable’ meat substitute. The goal is to bring about “behavioral changes through unprejudiced children”
pic.twitter.com/jiQTbvzTFZ

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) October 15, 2022

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, 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 digital copies as gifts through Amazon 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 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 ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.

Earlier this year the Federal Reserve declared war on inflation, and since that time we have seen a series of interest rate hikes that has been absolutely breathtaking.  We knew that this would negatively impact the financial markets, and we have already seen trillions of dollars in asset values wiped out.  We also knew that this would negatively impact the housing market, and right now housing prices are plummeting all over the nation.  But Fed officials assured us that any short-term “pain” would be worth it because inflation would be brought under control.  Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened.  In fact, on Thursday we learned that the core consumer price index has just hit “the highest level since 1982”…

A closely watched measure of US consumer prices rose by more than forecast to a 40-year high in September, pressuring the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates even more aggressively to stamp out persistent inflation.

The core consumer price index, which excludes food and energy, increased 6.6% from a year ago, the highest level since 1982, Labor Department data showed Thursday. From a month earlier, the core CPI climbed 0.6% for a second month.

The overall CPI increased 0.4% last month, and was up 8.2% from a year earlier.

The Fed has been repeatedly hitting inflation with an over-sized sledgehammer, and it isn’t working.

Prices just continue to surge higher month after month.

In particular, the price of food is rising at a rate that is extremely alarming…

Prices at the grocery store continued to soar last month, adding even more pressure to shoppers’ wallets.

The food at home index, a proxy for grocery store prices, increased 0.7% in September from the month prior and a stunning 13% over the last year, according to new government data released Thursday.

Fed officials assured us that they had everything under control, but it was just a charade.

Thursday’s report makes it exceedingly clear that the Fed’s plan is failing in a major way…

“This inflation report today was an unmitigated disaster,” wrote Christopher S. Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds, a financial markets research company. “It shows whatever Fed officials are doing, it is just not working.”

So will the Fed change course?

Of course not.

Instead, they are going to give us more of the same.

According to Fox Business, it is being anticipated that another 75 basis point rate hike is on the way in November…

The report will also have significant implications for the Federal Reserve, which has embarked on one of the fastest tightening paths in decades. Policymakers have already approved five straight rate hikes, including three back-to-back 75-basis-point increases, and have shown no signs of slowing down.

Following the hotter-than-expected September inflation report, the central bank is widely expected to approve a fourth straight 75-basis-point increase when policymakers next meet at the beginning of November.

As I warned many months ago, these rate hikes are not going to solve the inflation crisis.

But they will absolutely kill the housing market.

This week, mortgage rates surged close to 7 percent…

Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates reached their highest level in more than 20 years this week and are likely to climb even further as the Federal Reserve has all but promised more rate increases in its battle to tamp down persistent inflation.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average key 30-year rate climbed to 6.92 percent from 6.66 percent last week. Some lenders are now even offering rates above 7 percent.

Last year at this time, the rate was 3.05 percent.

If the Federal Reserve keeps hiking rates, that will just push mortgage rates higher and higher.

And that will inevitably push home prices much lower.

In fact, home prices are already starting to come down all across the United States…

A home-price slump taking place across popular housing markets in the Sun Belt and other regions could result in some relative bargains for shrewd homebuyers, according to market data released Monday.

The median home listing price has plunged by more than 10% in Austin, Texas, since June, according to an analysis conducted by Realtor.com. That marked the steepest decline of any city in the US over that period.

If you are a potential homeowner that has been forced out of the market by rising mortgage rates, you could try to rent a place while you wait for home prices to fall.

But thanks to raging inflation, rents are absolutely skyrocketing in many of our largest cities…

The latest numbers were released in Realtor.com’s September report, and showed that median rent across the country as a whole rose 7.8 percent last month, and remained a whopping 25 percent higher than pre-pandemic rents.

The 10 cities with the highest median rent increases last month were Chicago at 23.9 percent, Boston with 19.9 percent, New York with 18.2 percent, Providence with 16.7 percent, Oklahoma City at 13.8 percent, Miami with 13.2 percent, Kansas City at 11.2 percent, San Jose with 10.7 percent, Cleveland with 9.8 percent, and Hartford with 9.6 percent.

I still remember the days when I could rent a nice apartment for 300 dollars a month.

Sadly, those days are long gone.  In fact, one couple in New York recently decided to move out of the city entirely when the rent on their one-bedroom apartment went from $5,000 a month to $7,000 a month…

Last May, Charlotte, 31, and her husband packed up their one-bedroom apartment on Christopher Street after learning the rent would likely skyrocket from $5,000 per month to $7,000. The couple loved living in the West Village, but homeownership was out of reach, even with her job in finance and him being in tech.

They were both working from home, so they could live anywhere. It was time, they decided, to leave New York.

Can you imagine paying $7,000 a month for a one bedroom apartment?

That is nuts!

Unfortunately, our whole system is going crazy at this point.

The great economic meltdown that I warned my readers about for so long has begun, and the months ahead are going to be very painful.

Fed officials will do all they can to fix the giant mess that they have created, but it isn’t going to work.

They have lost control, and everyone can see it.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, 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 digital copies as gifts through Amazon 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 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 ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.

Normally, we shouldn’t have economic stagnation and rampant inflation at the same time.  But that is exactly what we’ve got.  U.S. GDP actually declined during the first two quarters of this year, and we are being warned that economic activity could slow down a whole lot more in the months ahead.  Meanwhile, we are in the midst of the worst inflation crisis since the Jimmy Carter era.  The cost of living has become extremely oppressive, and this is particularly true when it comes to food.  We just got some new numbers from the Department of Labor on Wednesday, and quite a few of them are absolutely stunning…

• Fresh and dried vegetables: up 15.7 percent for the month and 40.2 percent for the year.
• Grains: up 10.7 percent for the month and 30.4 percent for the year.
• Fresh eggs: up 16.7 percent for the month and 97.3 percent for the year.
• Bakery products: up 0.8 percent for the month and 14.0 percent for the year.
• Pasta: up 1.1 percent for the month and 34.1 percent for the year.
• Finfish and shellfish: up 2.5 percent for the month and 2.9 percent for the year.
• Processed fruits and vegetables: up 2.6 percent for the month and 16.0 percent for the year.
• Dairy products: down 1.6 percent for the month but up 18.2 percent for the year.
• Soft drinks: up 1.9 percent for the month but up 15.8 percent for the year.
• Pork: up 5.5 percent for the month but down 2.0 percent for the year.
• Fresh fruits and melons: down 1.2 percent for the month but up 20.7 percent for the year.
• Turkey: up 0.5 percent for the month and 38.2 percent for the year.

This is crazy.

In my entire lifetime, I have never seen anything like this.

Everywhere you look in the grocery store, prices are rising to levels that are completely nuts.  If you can believe it, even Pepsi has raised prices on their products by an average of 17 percent over the past year…

The 12% increase it expects from full year organic revenue, noted by the Wall Street Journal this morning, comes at the hands of average prices rising an astonishing 17% from the year prior. The price hikes have also helped the company raise its profit outlook. It now expects per-share earnings growth of 10% for the year, the report notes.

The rise in prices has helped offset a “slight decline” in overall sales volume, the report says. This means that Pepsi is fighting the recession that the country is in with more inflation.

Has the size of your paycheck gone up by 17 percent during the past 12 months?

If not, you are losing ground.

Sadly, most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck these days, and more of us than ever are falling behind on our bills.  Just check out the results of a brand new LendingTree study…

That’s according to a new LendingTree study, which found that 32% of Americans have paid a bill late over the past six months, and an overwhelming majority – about 61% – said it’s because they did not have enough money to cover the costs.

Another 40% of respondents said they are struggling more to afford their bills than they were just one year ago. Most said they fell behind on a utility bill, credit card payment or cable or internet bill.

“Life is getting more expensive by the day, and it’s shrinking Americans’ already tiny financial margin for error down to zero,” said Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief credit analyst.

At the same time that the cost of living is becoming excruciatingly painful, economic activity in the United States is really starting to slow down and big companies are starting to lay off workers.

In fact, we just learned that Walmart will be laying off almost 1,500 more workers…

As Walmart continues making adjustments to the structure of its business plan, the e-commerce-based company has announced it will let go of nearly 1,500 employees by the beginning of December. The employees will all be laid off from one specific fulfillment center in Atlanta, Georgia. This may come at a bad time for all the employees with the holidays quickly approaching, but the company is doing this to ensure their future.

A recent blog post published by the Senior Vice President, Karisa Sprague, breaks down and shares details of just how they are developing their fulfillment network for the future. Essentially, the Senior VP says that Walmart is making necessary adjustments to provide the highest level of customer service that they can, as well as also doing the best by their employees. She goes on the mention that evolution is essential as times change.

And Crypto.com has just laid off approximately 40 percent of their entire workforce..

Crypto.com has laid off some 2,000 employees in one of the biggest downsizes in the cryptocurrency industry yet. The cuts account for about 40% of the DeFi exchange’s staff, according to CoinDesk. The current layoffs come after the exchange cut over 400 jobs in the middle of June.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

Many more layoffs are coming.

And just like we witnessed in 2008, the U.S. housing market is really starting to implode.

Rapidly rising rates are scaring off buyers, and demand for new mortgages is absolutely plummeting…

The average interest rate on US home loans has hit its highest level since 2006, as the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes to fight inflation continue to raise borrowing costs for homebuyers.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage hit 6.81 percent for the week ending October 7, the eighth straight weekly increase, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said on Wednesday.

Higher borrowing costs have sent home sales volume plunging. The MBA’s Purchase Index, which measures new mortgages to buy a home, dropped 2 percent from the prior week and 39 percent from a year ago.

This is what stagflation looks like.

And thanks to a series of colossal errors by our leaders, it is going to be with us for a while.

We were warned that an economic day of reckoning would eventually come, and now it is here.

If you are searching for someone to thank for this mess, you can thank Joe Biden, our free spending Congress critters, and the “experts” at the Federal Reserve.

Most Americans trusted them when they told us that they had everything under control.

Now we can see that it was all a charade, and the months ahead are looking exceedingly bleak indeed.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, 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 digital copies as gifts through Amazon 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 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 ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.

All of our lifestyles are about to change in a major way, but the vast majority of the population still does not understand what is coming.  Throughout our entire lives, we have always been able to depend on a couple of things.  There would always be cheap gasoline to fuel our vehicles and there would always be mountains of cheap food at the grocery store.  No matter who was in the White House and no matter what else was going on in the world, those two things always remained the same.  Unfortunately, those days are now over and they aren’t coming back.

We have entered the greatest energy crisis that any of us have ever experienced, and it isn’t going to go away any time soon.

So you might as well get used to high gas prices.  Earlier this month, brand new all-time record highs were set all over southern California…

• Los Angeles-Long Beach – $6.46 (Record high)
• Orange County – $6.42 (Record high Saturday)
• Ventura County – $6.40
• Riverside County – $6.33 (Record high)
• San Bernardino County $6.32

But that isn’t the real problem.

The real problem is with natural gas.

Thanks to the war in Ukraine, supplies of natural gas in Europe have become extremely tight, and this has pushed prices into the stratosphere.

Needless to say, this is going to greatly affect food productions in the months ahead.  According to Bloomberg, over two-thirds of all fertilizer production capacity in Europe has already been shut down due to soaring natural gas costs…

Europe’s fertilizer crunch is deepening with more than two-thirds of production capacity halted by soaring gas costs, threatening farmers and consumers far beyond the region’s borders.

This is an absolutely massive story, but hardly anyone in the United States is covering it.

Global fertilizer production is going to be greatly reduced, and that is going to have very serious implications for agricultural production all over the world…

“Nitrogen plant shutdowns in Europe are not simply a problem in Europe,” she said. “Reduced supply on the scale seen this week not only raises the marginal cost of production of nitrogen fertilizers, but will also tighten the global market, putting pressure on plant nutrients’ availability in Europe and beyond.”

We’re already seeing prices elsewhere rise again. The price of the common nitrogen fertilizer urea in New Orleans rose over 20% in weekly prices Friday, the most since March, a few weeks after the war began, according to Green Markets.

I know that fertilizer may not be the most exciting topic for a lot of people, but the truth is that approximately half the global population would starve if we didn’t have any…

In fact, it’s estimated that nitrogen fertilizer now supports approximately half of the global population. In other words, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch — the pioneers of this technological breakthrough — are estimated to have enabled the lives of several billion people, who otherwise would have died prematurely, or never been born at all.

Let that paragraph sink in for a moment.

The only way we can even come close to feeding everyone on the planet is by using vast quantities of fertilizer, but now fertilizer plants all over Europe are being forced to shut down because of the price of natural gas.

As long as this global energy crisis persists, the global food crisis will also persist.

Russia is normally the largest exporter of natural gas in the entire world, and an end to the war in Ukraine would go a long way toward solving our current problems.

But there isn’t going to be an end to the war in Ukraine.

Once again, western leaders are assuring us that the war will not end until Russia is forced out of every inch of Ukrainian territory.

That includes Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea.

Of course the Russians would use tactical nukes long before we ever get to that point.

And once the Russians use tactical nukes, the west will do the same.

As it currently stands, there is no “off ramp” for this war.

Instead, we are simply counting down the days until it goes nuclear.

I am sorry to tell you that, but it is the truth.

If the American people truly understood what was at stake, there would be massive peace protests all over the nation right now.

Meanwhile, the worst multi-year megadrought in 1,200 years continues to absolutely ravage agricultural production in the western half of the United States.

A reporter from FOX recently visited the cornfields of Wayne County, Nebraska and what he discovered is extremely chilling…

“I’m standing in the middle of a cornfield that, if this was a normal year or in other words, if the corn was growing the way it was supposed to be, you wouldn’t even really be able to see me right now,” FOX Business’ Connell McShane reported from Wakefield, Nebraska. “It would be way up above my head. But now I look at this, maybe knee-high at best.”

McShane visited field after field in Wayne County and found the same short stalks with very sparse ears. Over 99% of that county is in exceptional drought.

This drought has been going on for years and years.

And it just keeps getting worse.

On the west coast, we are being warned that production of tomatoes, garlic and onions will be very disappointing this year due to the drought.

As a result, prices are going to go much higher in 2023…

In addition to tomatoes, other crops like garlic and onion are also expected to be impacted.

“What you’re seeing harvested this summer that really hasn’t even hit the grocery shelf is a 25% increase in the cost of the product to the processors — the canners, the buyers downstream,” California State Board of Food and Agriculture President Don Cameron told Reuters. “The onions and garlic have already been negotiated for 2023 with another 25% increase in price.”

This is really happening.

Food prices may seem high to you right now, but the truth is that this is the lowest that they are going to get.

The cost of living is becoming extremely oppressive, and countless people out there are really struggling to make it from month to month.

Earlier today, I came across a tweet from a 47-year-old lawyer that really hammered this point home…

-20 years ago, working as a server, I lived in a corner 1 bdrm apt downtown with amazing water views for $700/month.

-A similar apt now $3,600/month, more than 5x as much.

-As a lawyer at age 47 I am unable to afford living in the apartment I did at age 27 while waiting tables

Sadly, what we have been through so far is just the beginning.

The cost of gasoline is going to continue to go up.

The cost of natural gas is going to continue to go up.

The cost of food is going to continue to go up.

In fact, the cost of just about everything is going to continue to go up.

The artificially-inflated lifestyles that we were able to enjoy for decades are now disappearing, and there is a tremendous amount of pain on the horizon.

We were warned that this would happen, and now a day of reckoning is here.

I would encourage you to prepare accordingly.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, 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 digital copies as gifts through Amazon 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 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 ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.

It’s wake up time.  For months, there has been a tremendous amount of denial out there.  So many of the “experts” assumed that the Federal Reserve and other central banks had everything under control and that things would “return to normal” before too long.  But that hasn’t happened.  Instead, the wheels seem to be coming off the bus and nobody seems to know what to do.  The Fed appears to be determined to keep raising interest rates in a desperate attempt to fight inflation, and this has forced other central banks all over the globe to raise rates as well in order to keep their currencies from absolutely tanking.  But all of these interest rate hikes are taking us into a major global economic downturn, and central bankers in Europe are literally screaming at the Fed to end the madness.

But the Fed is not going to end the madness, and so things are going to get really bad.

In fact, Bank of America is now projecting that the U.S. economy will lose 175,000 jobs a month during the first quarter of 2023…

As pressure from the Fed’s war on inflation builds, nonfarm payrolls will begin shrinking early next year, translating to a loss of about 175,000 jobs a month during the first quarter, the bank said. Charts published by Bank of America suggest job losses will continue through much of 2023.

“The premise is a harder landing rather than a softer one,” Michael Gapen, head of US economics at Bank of America, told CNN in a phone interview Monday.

In my opinion, if our job losses are that small during the first three months of next year I think that will be a huge win.

Another bankster, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, is also deeply concerned about the future of the U.S. economy…

“But you can’t talk about the economy without talking about stuff in the future – and this is serious stuff,” Dimon said, citing inflation, quantitative easing, and Russia’s war with Ukraine.

“These are very, very serious things which I think are likely to push the U.S. and the world – I mean, Europe is already in recession, and they’re likely to put the U.S. in some kind of recession six to nine months from now,” he said.

Actually, the U.S. economy is in a recession right now.

But I agree that things will soon get a whole lot worse.

At this point, even the most optimistic woman on Wall Street is warning of disaster.

Ark Investment Management’s Cathie Wood says that what the Fed is doing has the potential to create a “deflationary bust” in this country…

Could it be that the unprecedented 13-fold increase in interest rates during the last six months––likely 16-fold come November 2––has shocked not just the US but the world and raised the risks of a deflationary bust?

The Fed giveth and the Fed taketh away.

Cathie should understand that very well by now.

She looked like a genius on the way up, but the ride down is going to be very painful for her and for everyone else that was swimming in piles of cash during the boom years.

Under normal conditions, I am sure that the Fed would love to ride to Wall Street’s rescue.

But that isn’t going to happen because Fed officials are scared to death of the inflation monster that they played a major role in creating.

All over America, consumers and businesses are being absolutely devastated by rapidly rising prices.

Inflation causing higher prices at the local bakery, explaining all of the price changes for his ingredients. pic.twitter.com/q51hDV1q3U

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) October 9, 2022

Until inflation is under control, the Fed is going to continue to raise rates.

And that might take quite a while.

So for now, stocks and bonds are just going to keep going lower and lower.  On Monday, the Nasdaq actually hit the lowest level in two years…

Stocks closed lower on Monday with the Nasdaq Composite index falling to the lowest level in two years as tech shares continue to be the hardest hit in this bear market because of spiking interest rates.

The Nasdaq Composite closed 1.04% lower at 10,542.10, hitting its lowest close since July 2020, weighed down by a slump in semiconductor stocks such as Nvidia and AMD. The S&P 500 also fell 0.75% to 3,612.39, dragged down by semi stocks and dips in major tech names like Microsoft, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 93.91 points, or 0.32%, to close at 29,202.88.

The amount of financial wealth that has already been wiped out is truly frightening, but much worse could be on the horizon.

If stocks and bonds continue to plunge, eventually we will see forced selling by pensions and other large investors, and at that point we truly will be in the midst of a very bitter nightmare…

Indeed, pensions don’t even need to have a near-death experience like in the UK: if the value of underlying assets drops enough, the forced selling will begin sooner or later.  And once the capitulation really kicks in – as even formerly bullish Goldman strategists warn – followed closely by mass layoffs, only then will we find just how determined Powell is to pull a Volcker 2.0 and blow up the US economy and markets before he is fired by the president as his parting gift for unleashing the worst recession since the global financial crisis.

I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

But at least we are still in better shape than Europe.

A U.S. Army Special Forces veteran named Michael Yon recently told SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily what he believes conditions in Europe will soon be like…

Yon said some people “talk about energy as if everything’s interchangeable, as if solar panels and windmills and nuclear plants can replace natural gas, which [they] simply cannot.”

He noted that of the 26 major plants in Europe that produce nitrogen-based fertilizers, all are either closed down or on the verge of closing.

“This will lead to famine. It’s just mathematics at this point,” he said.

The loss of the Nord Stream pipeline already has driven people in Germany and other European nations to cut down trees to heat their homes.

“People are going to literally freeze to death in Germany,” Yon said. “They’re going to freeze, and then they’re going to starve.”

Personally, I believe that the winter that begins in 2023 will be much worse than this upcoming winter for Europe.

At least the Europeans had the luxury of storing up Russian natural gas ahead of time for this winter.

Next winter, they will not have that opportunity.

And that is when things will get really insane.

But what everyone should be able to agree on is the fact that we are heading into a truly historic crisis.

We will soon see things happen that once would have been unimaginable for most people.

I would very much much encourage you to do what you can to get prepared in advance, because the road ahead of us is going to be incredibly challenging.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, 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 digital copies as gifts through Amazon 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 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 ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.

Europe is facing an extremely cold winter that will be filled with energy shortages, blackouts and absurdly high power bills.  All across the continent, ordinary people can see what is coming, and many of them are starting to panic.  Demand for wood stoves is off the charts, and many Europeans are hoarding wood and other materials to burn in their existing wood stoves during the bitterly cold months ahead.  We truly are in unprecedented territory, and things are about to start getting really crazy out there.

If you live in Europe and you haven’t purchased a wood stove yet, it is probably already too late to get one for the beginning of winter.

It is being reported that any stoves ordered now could take “months to deliver”, and prices for wood pellets have almost doubled…

As much as 70% of European heating comes from natural gas and electricity, and with Russian deliveries drastically reduced, wood — already used by some 40 million people for heating — has become a sought-after commodity.

Prices for wood pellets have nearly doubled to 600 euros a ton in France, and there are signs of panic buying of the world’s most basic fuel. Hungary even went so far as to ban exports of pellets, and Romania capped firewood prices for six months. Meanwhile, wood stoves can now take months to deliver.

With wood and wood pellets being so expensive, some people in Europe are considering “other options” that once would have been unthinkable.

For example, we are being told that some Europeans are actually contacting local chimney sweeps to inquire about the possibility of burning horse poop in their stoves…

Inexperience is also evident in Germany, where the country’s association of chimney sweeps is dealing with a flood of requests to connect new and old stoves, and customers are inquiring about burning horse dung and other obscure fuels.

If you were cold enough, would you burn horse poop in order to stay warm?

Under normal conditions, no rational person would do such a thing.

But at this point, Europeans can see that they may not be able to rely on their national power grids this winter.

In fact, one top EU official is openly warning that energy shortages could lead to widespread blackouts in the months ahead…

The European Union could face blackouts this winter as the continent faces an ongoing energy crisis amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, but Brussels is preparing for worst-case scenarios, according to EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarčič.

Asked in an interview published Tuesday by Germany’s RND media network whether EU countries would need disaster relief due to the energy crisis, Lenarčič responded: “Yes, that is quite possible.”

Sadly, this is true even in Germany.

The Germans have the largest economy in the EU by a wide margin, but their leaders are publicly acknowledging that Germany “may run out of gas” at some point by the end of the winter…

German Federal Economy Minister Robert Habeck expressed concern over the looming energy crisis this winter, telling German media that the situation was extremely tense and there is a possibility that Germany may run out of gas.

Habeck spoke on Friday, appealing to Germans to reduce their consumption of natural gas ahead of this winter a day after the German government launched a new price break programme to help Germans with the rising costs of energy.

And whoever bombed the NordStream pipeline system made sure that Russia would not be able to come to the rescue by providing much needed natural gas at a critical moment.

Germans desperately need to cut back if rationing is to be avoided, but here we are just weeks away from severely cold weather and that is still not happening…

The head of Germany’s Federal Network Agency, which would be in charge of gas rationing in the event of a supply emergency, repeated his warning a week ago that consumption was too high.

“We will struggle to avoid a gas emergency this winter without at least 20% savings in private households, businesses and industry,” Klaus Mueller of the Bundesnetzagentur told Reuters.

“The situation may become very serious if we do not significantly reduce our gas consumption,” he added.

The situation in the UK is quite dire as well.

Last week, a warning that the British people could potentially face three hour rolling blackouts this winter made headlines all over the globe…

Households could experience a series of three-hour power cuts this winter if Vladimir Putin shuts off gas supplies from Russia and Britain experiences a cold snap, National Grid has warned.

Such an event would mean consumers in different parts of the country being notified a day in advance of three-hour blocks of time during which their power would be cut off, in an effort to reduce total consumption by 5%.

What would you do if the power went out for three hours on one of the coldest days of the year?

You might want to think about that.

Here in the United States, it appears unlikely that we will face energy shortages this winter, but heating costs will definitely surge to record highs as energy prices continue to soar all over the planet.

And we definitely do not want prices to go higher, because approximately 20 million Americans are already behind on their power bills…

At least 20 million households — or about 1 in 6 American homes — are behind on their power bills as soaring electricity prices spark what is said to be the worst-ever crisis in late utility payments, according to Bloomberg, citing data from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (Neada).

Neada said electricity prices had increased significantly since 2020 after a decade of stagnation. The steep rise has resulted in billions of dollars in overdue power bills.

The greatest energy crisis in any of our lifetimes is here, and it is setting the stage for the kind of historic economic meltdown of epic proportions that so many prominent voices have warned would be coming.

The price of energy has already gotten so high that some major European manufacturers have already been forced to shut down operations.

If energy costs make it impossible to operate profitably, the only logical thing to do is to close up shop until energy costs come back down.

But they aren’t going to come back down any time soon.

Europe is truly entering a new “Dark Ages”, and right now there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, 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 digital copies as gifts through Amazon 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 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 ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.

Our politicians in Washington are literally destroying our future.  But do you see anyone out in the streets protesting their calamitous policies?  By now, you have probably heard that the U.S. national debt has hit 31 trillion dollars.  To be more precise, as I write this article the U.S. national debt is currently sitting at $31,142,591,307,260.01.  It is the largest single debt in the history of the world, and given enough time it would completely destroy our economy all by itself.  Unfortunately, hardly anyone in Washington seems to care about our rapidly exploding debt at this point.

In the old days, the Republicans would at least put on a show for us.  They would huff and puff about the national debt but then give the Democrats virtually all of the spending that they wanted anyway.

But now they have figured out that such a charade is no longer necessary, because most of their constituents just don’t care.

So most of our politicians no longer even pretend to care about fiscal responsibility.  In recent years they have been on the biggest borrowing and spending binge in our entire history, and there are no indications that they ever plan to stop.

They borrow and spend trillions upon trillions of dollars, and they expect you, your children, and your grandchildren to pay it back.

Of course that will never happen.

We are never going to pay back the 31.1 trillion dollars that we have borrowed.

Instead, we are just going to push the accelerator all the way to the floor until we finally go off a cliff.

During the month of August alone, the U.S. government ran a $219.6 billion budget deficit…

Some things never change — such as the federal government spending more money than it has month after month after month.

August was no different. The US government ran a massive $219.6 billion budget deficit last month, according to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement. That nudged out July as the second-largest monthly deficit in fiscal 2022.

Sadly, I didn’t hear of anyone in Washington giving a major speech when that happened, because the national debt is not even considered to be an important national issue today.

But our entire standard of living depends on the value of the U.S. dollar.  Having the default reserve currency of the world has been such a massive advantage for the United States, and now we are frittering it away.

The rest of the world can see what we are doing.

We are transforming our currency into toilet paper, and it is just a matter of time before it completely collapses.

Today, our politicians are stealing more than 200 million dollars from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day.

Just think about that.

The old geezers in Washington know that they are near the end of the road.

So they know that they will never have to pay any of this money back.

But they get to spend it on whatever they want.

Of course it was inevitable that all of this borrowing and spending would eventually create rampant inflation, and now we are facing the worst inflation crisis in our history.

Yes, even worse than the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s.

The Federal Reserve is rapidly hiking interest rates in a desperate attempt to get inflation under control, but that is causing all sorts of problems.

For one thing, the interest payments on our national debt will soon exceed a trillion dollars a year…

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this is exactly what will happen. It projects interest payments will triple from nearly $400 billion in fiscal 2022 to $1.2 trillion in 2032. And it’s worse than that. The CBO made this estimate in May. Interest rates are already higher than those used in its analysis.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that the current system will survive until 2032.

Previous generations handed us the keys to the reserve currency of the world and the greatest economic machine that the planet had ever witnessed.

Sadly, we took those precious gifts and completely destroyed them.

As a society, we have lost all regard for long-term consequences.

Let me give you another example.  Joe Biden just announced that he will be releasing more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve…

“At the president’s direction, the Department of Energy will deliver another 10 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the market next month as part of the historic 180-million-barrel release the President ordered back in March. And the President will continue to direct SPR releases as necessary,” she said.

What an incredibly foolish thing to do.

It is only supposed to be used in the event of a national emergency, and what Biden has decided to do is absolutely unprecedented.

The fact that things are not looking good for his party in November is not an “emergency”, and Senator Tom Cotton is not amused…

Whoa, say critics, including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

“Well, it’s called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It’s not the political petroleum reserve,” Cotton told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham Wednesday night.

We are going to need that oil someday.

But thanks to Biden, most of it will already be gone.

If we found ourselves in the middle of a major war, the worldwide flow of energy supplies would suddenly be greatly restricted.  That is the sort of emergency scenario that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was designed for.

Sadly, thanks to the warmongers in the Biden administration we may soon find ourselves fighting wars with Russia, China, North Korea and Iran simultaneously.

Most Americans have no idea what is going on behind the scenes.  Things with North Korea are getting really, really tense, and a major war in the Middle East could erupt at any time.

World War 3 has already started, but thankfully we haven’t gotten to the part where billions of people die just yet.

Unfortunately, our current crop of leaders couldn’t care less about the long-term future of humanity.

So they continue to pursue policies that are incredibly self-destructive, and we are all going to pay a very great price for their foolishness.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, 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 digital copies as gifts through Amazon 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 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 ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.