Money

The System Is Starting To Unravel At A Pace That Is Absolutely Breathtaking

April 30, 2023April 30, 2023 by Michael

It should have been apparent to everyone that the dark clouds on the horizon would bring a storm, and now rain is furiously falling all around us. Our entire system is being viciously shaken, and the dominoes are going to continue to fall in the months ahead. Once Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank went down, we all knew that it was just a matter of time before more large banks started to implode. Now First Republic has failed, and over the weekend U.S. regulators were working very hard to arrange a sale…

U.S. regulators have been trying to clinch a sale of First Republic over the weekend, with roughly half a dozen banks bidding, sources said on Saturday, in what is likely to be the third major U.S. bank to fail in two months. Guggenheim Securities is advising the FDIC, two sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

As a I write this article, that still hasn’t happened yet.

But it could happen at any moment.

When a sale is finally announced, the FDIC is also expected to tell us that it has seized First Republic…

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is expected to announce a deal on Sunday night before Asian markets open, with the regulator likely to say at the same time that it had seized the lender, three sources previously told Reuters.

They are trying to time everything so that as little panic as possible is created.

But I feel really badly for those that owned First Republic stock.

It was going for about 120 dollars a share at the beginning of March, and once the bank is seized by federal regulators it will almost certainly be worthless.

That is how fast these things can happen.

More dominoes will fall throughout the rest of 2023, and you don’t want to be caught holding the bag.

So do what you need to do while you still have time.

When the Federal Reserve decided to go nuts with their rate hikes, we all knew that this would put enormous pressure on the banks, and that is precisely what has happened.

We also knew that higher rates would crush the housing market, and last month pending home sales dropped much more than expected…

March is with both feet in the spring selling season, when home sales jump and when prices move higher, and where everything looks rosy for a few months, no matter what, after the dreariness of winter.

So, well then, here we go again. Pending home sales – which are “a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings” – fell by 5.2% in March from February, according to the National Association of Realtors today, thereby annihilating the little-bitty gain in February that had sent all the headlines abuzz with hype.

If you are looking to sell a home, I would recommend doing it quickly, because prices are likely to go quite a bit lower from here.

Meanwhile, big companies are laying off workers all over the country at a very frightening rate. In fact, we just learned that Jenny Craig is getting ready to conduct “mass layoffs” as it prepares to wind down operations…

Jenny Craig has alerted employees to potential mass layoffs as it begins “winding down physical operations” and hunts for a buyer, according to communications the weight-loss company sent some staffers this week.

The company said it “has been going through a sales process for the last couple of months,” according to a document titled “Jenny Craig Company Transition FAQs” that was dated Tuesday and provided to NBC News.

I don’t know why, but I am sad to see Jenny Craig go.

Perhaps it is because of all the Jenny Craig commercials that I watched when I was younger.

Joe Biden keeps telling us that the economy is doing great, but we just keep seeing one large company after another go belly up…

For 2009 there were 118 bankruptcies through April. In Covid-impacted 2020, there were 71 bankruptcies. In 2023 there have been 70.

This is the third worst start to the year since 2000.

This didn’t have to happen.

If our leaders had not flooded the system with money, inflation never would have gotten out of control.

And if inflation had never gotten out of control, officials at the Fed never would have had to recklessly hike interest rates.

Sadly, we have a real nightmare on our hands at this point, and there is no turning back now.

Not too long ago, a prankster that was impersonating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was able to completely fool Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell during a video chat.

During their discussion, Powell openly admitted that raising rates could push the U.S. economy into a recession…

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell earlier this year held a video chat about the global economy with someone he thought was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Except it wasn’t Zelensky. Powell appears to have been pranked.

In clips posted online of the January conversation, Powell discussed global politics and the economy. He said he supported the Ukrainian people but was limited in ways he could help. And Powell said a recession was likely coming in the not-too-distant future and divulged the Fed’s plans to raise rates in 2023.

Powell also admitted that more rate hikes are planned even though he knows that they will cause even more pain.

And actually the Federal Reserve is expected to raise rates another 25 basis points later this week.

It is absolutely suicidal to keep raising rates as the economy plunges into a major downturn, but they are doing it anyway.

Have they gone completely mad?

It is almost as if they are purposely trying to create the sort of economic horror show that I have been relentlessly warning about.

If officials at the Fed had any sense, they would be reducing rates as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, that is simply not going to happen, and so we will soon see many more dominoes start tumbling over.

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

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

A Torrent Of Layoffs! Here Are 16 Large Companies That Have Just Announced Mass Terminations

April 27, 2023April 27, 2023 by Michael

The biggest companies in the United States are giving the axe to hundreds of thousands of workers, but this should not come as a shock to any of us. Officials at the Federal Reserve were warned over and over again that they were going to create an extremely harsh economic environment if they aggressively raised interest rates, and that is exactly what has transpired. We haven’t seen a tsunami of layoffs like this since 2008 and 2009, and the outlook for the months ahead is extremely bleak.

Many of us warned the Fed that it would be mind-numbingly stupid to push interest rates much higher just as we were entering a major economic downturn, but of course the Fed didn’t want to listen.

We were told that they are the “experts” and that they knew precisely what they were doing.

And now a nightmare scenario is playing out right in front of our eyes.

The following are 16 large companies that have just announced mass terminations…

#1 Tyson: “Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N) will eliminate about 10% of corporate jobs and 15% of senior leadership roles, Chief Executive Donnie King told employees on Wednesday.”

#2 Lyft: “Ride-hailing app Lyft will lay off 1,072 employees, roughly 26% of its corporate workforce, and won’t hire for an additional 250 positions, the company said in an SEC filing Thursday.”

#3 Deloitte: “Deloitte will cut around 1,200 jobs or 1.5% of its U.S. workforce, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing internal employee communications.”

#4 Gap: “Gap will lay off about 1,800 employees, more than three times as many as the 500 layoffs it announced in September, as part of a broad effort to cut costs and streamline operations, the company said Thursday.”

#5 Ernst & Young: “Ernst & Young said Monday that it would eliminate roughly 3,000 jobs from its US workforce as it pivots to address shifts in demand and “overcapacity” in sections of its business.”

#6 3M: “The manufacturing behemoth behind some consumer brands, including Post-It Notes and Scotch Tape, said it would lay off 6,000 staff around the world. Those cuts are in addition to the 2,500 manufacturing roles 3M eliminated in January.”

#7 CDW: “CDW’s bombshell announcement this week that it expects first fiscal quarter results below expectations and the apparent layoff of hundreds of its employees is a sign that moderated technology demand since the height of the pandemic is more than just a one-quarter strain for hardware, software and services businesses.”

#8 David’s Bridal: “One of the largest sellers of wedding gowns in the United States, David’s Bridal is laying off thousands of workers nationwide, according to a notice filed to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor.”

#9 DropBox: “Shares of Dropbox are trading about 5% higher today after the company said it plans to slash its global workforce by approximately 16%.”

#10 Red Hat: “Following parent company IBM announcing thousands of layoffs in 2023, Red Hat CEO Matt Hicks told employees Monday that approximately 4 percent of its global workforce will be laid off.”

#11 Opendoor: “Opendoor Technologies on Tuesday said it was cutting roughly 560 jobs, or 22% of the workforce at the online U.S. real estate firm, citing a declining housing market.”

#12 First Republic: “First Republic plans to reduce its workforce between 20% and 25% this quarter following “unprecedented” deposit outflows in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse last month, the company said in a regulatory filing on Monday.”

#13 Walmart: “Walmart is laying off more than 2,000 workers at five US warehouses that fulfill website orders in a move that came weeks after America’s largest private employer warned it’s in for a tough year ahead.”

#14 Facebook: “A layoff notice filed with the state this week shows Facebook’s parent company Meta plans to let go 343 employees across three Manhattan offices.”

#15 Amazon: “Amazon has officially started up its most recent round of employee reductions. The company is kicking off its previously announced layoffs of ~9,000 staff by axing workers in its Amazon Web Services (AWS) and human resources sectors.”

#16 Disney: “Disney is laying off several thousand workers across the company this week in the second and largest wave of cuts as part of the media giant’s previously announced plan to slash its workforce by 7,000 employees.”

Sadly, these are not isolated examples.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, during the first three months of this year job cuts in the United States were 396 percent higher than they were during the same period a year ago…

Companies announced nearly 90,000 layoffs in March, a sharp step up from the previous month and a giant acceleration from a year ago, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Thursday.

Planned layoffs totaled 89,703 for the period, an increase of 15% from February. Year to date, job cuts have soared to 270,416, an increase of 396% from the same period a year ago.

The damage was especially bad in tech, which has announced 102,391 cuts so far in 2023. That’s a staggering increase of 38,487% from a year ago and good for 38% of all staff reductions. Tech already has cut 5% more than for all of 2022, according to the report, and is on pace to eclipse 2001, the worst year ever amid the dot-com bust.

Please take a moment to digest those numbers, because they are absolutely staggering.

This isn’t just some sort of a minor shift in the employment market.

This is a collapse.

But according to the “official numbers” that the Biden administration gives us, everything is still fine.

And they are going to keep telling you that everything is fine until it is too late.

For years, our leaders were able to temporarily prop up our failing system by flooding it with unprecedented amounts of fresh money.

But now a day of reckoning has arrived.

They can’t keep printing more money because they are terrified of more inflation, but our economy is going to crumble without artificial assistance.

Those that are running things have run out of good options, but most Americans still have faith that they will be able to find a way to pilot us out of this mess.

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

One Of The Largest Banks In The United States Is On The Verge Of Going Under

April 26, 2023 by Michael

Is another domino about to fall? Our system was greatly shaken when Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank suddenly collapsed, but we seem to have weathered that storm. But what will happen if an even larger bank goes under? As of March 31st, First Republic had approximately 290 billion dollars in assets, and that makes it much larger than Silicon Valley Bank was when it finally imploded. A 30 billion dollar rescue plan that was hastily put together last month was supposed to stabilize First Republic, but that hasn’t worked. On Tuesday, First Republic shares fell by about 50 percent after the public learned that “customers withdrew more than $100 billion during last month’s crisis”…

First Republic Bank’s shares plunged 50 percent after a ‘troubling’ earnings call where company executives refused to answer questions.

The stock dropped Tuesday after it emerged that customers withdrew more than $100 billion during last month’s crisis, with fears swirling that it could be the third bank to fail in quick succession after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Unfortunately for First Republic, the carnage continued on Wednesday.

Shares of First Republic were down another 29.75 percent, and so far this year the stock price has fallen by a total of more than 95 percent.

Let me try to put this into perspective.

On February 2nd, First Republic stock closed at $147.00.

Today, it closed at $5.69.

That is what a collapse looks like.

The reason why this is happening is because costumers have been pulling their money out of First Republic at a pace that is absolutely staggering. In fact, it is being reported that First Republic lost 40 percent of their total deposits in the first quarter alone…

This week’s drop for First Republic comes after the San Francisco-based lender late Monday said it lost roughly 40% of its deposits in the first quarter. First Republic was seen by customers and investors alike as a risky bank after the collapse last month of Silicon Valley Bank, which had a similar financial profile.

And if 11 of the largest banks in the country had not agreed to collectively deposit 30 billion dollars of their own money in First Republic last month, that figure would have been closer to 50 percent…

But those deposits include the $30 billion that 11 large banks deposited at the bank in March to prop it up and keep contagion from spreading.

Without this influx of $30 billion, deposits would have dropped by 50%. So this was really nip and tuck.

Unfortunately, that rescue plan was not nearly large enough, and so now First Republic plans to beg those banks for even more help…

The best hope for avoiding a collapse of ailing lender First Republic hinges on how persuasive one group of bankers can be with another group of bankers.

Advisors to First Republic will attempt to cajole the big U.S. banks who’ve already propped it up into doing one more favor, CNBC has learned.

The pitch will go something like this, according to bankers with knowledge of the situation: Purchase bonds from First Republic at above-market rates for a total loss of a few billion dollars – or face roughly $30 billion in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. fees when First Republic fails.

Ouch.

I think that those large banks would be quite foolish to throw more good money into the First Republic black hole, but we shall see what happens.

In addition to pleading for assistance, First Republic also plans to lay off thousands of employees…

The bank says it plans to sell off unprofitable assets, including the low-interest mortgages that it provided to wealthy clients. It also announced plans to lay off up to a quarter of its workforce, which totaled about 7,200 employees at the end of 2022.

Will all of this be enough to turn First Republic around?

Of course not.

As one expert explained, if First Republic still had any good options left “they would have pursued them already”…

Kathryn Judge, who works as an analyst at Columbia Law School, said that there is no easy solution for First Republic.

‘If there were attractive options, they would have pursued them already,’ she told the Times.

Meanwhile, the overall economy continues to deteriorate all around us.

On Wednesday, Amazon conducted layoffs in their cloud computing and human resources divisions. Sadly, these new job cuts are just the latest wave in “the largest layoffs in Amazon’s 29-year history”…

The layoffs are part of the previously announced job cuts that are expected to affect 9,000 employees. Last week, Amazon laid off some employees in its advertising unit, and it has let go of staffers in its video games and Twitch livestreaming units in recent weeks.

Amazon wrapped up a separate round of cuts earlier this year that affected approximately 18,000 employees. Combined with the cuts this month, it marks the largest layoffs in Amazon’s 29-year history.

Amazon is one of the wealthiest and most prosperous companies in the entire country.

If they have decided that it is necessary to conduct multiple mass layoffs because the economic outlook is so grim, what kind of signal does that send to everyone else?

In recent months, Google, Microsoft, Disney, Walmart and countless other large corporations have ruthlessly pruned their payrolls.

But don’t worry.

Joe Biden says that the economy is going to be just fine.

You believe him, don’t you?

Don’t let anyone fool you.

The economic meltdown that we have been waiting for is here, and it is going to be incredibly painful.

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

It Is Time For A National Boycott Of Fox News

April 25, 2023 by Michael

If we don’t get to have Tucker Carlson, they don’t get to have a network. That is the message that we need to send to Fox News. A few hours ago, I participated in the taping of a panel discussion about the firing of Tucker Carlson for a television show. Former Fox News contributor Brigitte Gabriel was also on the panel, and she boldly declared that it is time for a national boycott of Fox News. I couldn’t agree more. Tucker Carlson was the only reason why many of us ever watched Fox News. Like so many others, Tucker could have chosen to play it safe so that he could have continued to rake in millions of dollars, but instead he consciously made a decision to relentlessly tell the truth no matter the consequences. By unceremoniously dumping Tucker like a smelly bag of garbage, executives at Fox News have not only shown great contempt for a national hero, but they have also shown great contempt for all of us who watched him. Unless Fox News offers Tucker his job back and issues a truly groveling apology to the viewers, we should steadfastly refuse to ever watch the channel again.

Fox News put out a statement that said that the company and Tucker mutually agreed to part ways, but that was just a bunch of horse manure.

At this point, everyone knows that Tucker was ruthlessly fired…

Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News by Lachlan Murdoch after a furious reaction from executives of his scathing criticism of them following the 2020 election, it has been claimed. The decision to fire Carlson come straight from Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, with input from board members and other company executives, according to several other media outlets. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has alsoreported the experienced Carlson – who had been with the network for 13 years after stints at CNN, PBS and MSNBC – was called by CEO Suzanne Scott on Monday morning to say he was being dismissed.

He was told the decision was made “from above” and had been made on Friday night by executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corp. Lachlan Murdoch.

The US newspaper claimed executives were furious at the “disparaging and derogatory remarks” Carlson had made about his colleagues.

Sadly, Tucker had no idea that this was coming.

In fact, it is being reported that he was actually “in the midst of negotiating a new contract with Fox News”…

“Blindsided” Tucker Carlson was in the midst of negotiating a new contract with Fox News when he received a call from CEO Suzanne Scott on Monday morning telling him he had been fired from the right-wing network, according to a report.

We are also being told that Tucker’s staff was completely “blindsided” as well…

Even some of Carlson’s closest staff were unaware that his show had been axed, reading about it for the first time on Twitter.

‘No one I know was told about it beforehand. We were blindsided,’ one senior staffer who works closely with Tucker’s show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, told DailyMail.com.

Another insider revealed he still has no idea why he was let go so suddenly, and that many staffers are now questioning whether it’s part of a wider plan by the Murdoch family to sell the media behemoth.

When news first broke that he had been let go, many on the left greatly celebrated.

Meanwhile, prominent conservatives all over the country were absolutely horrified. Here are just a few examples…

–Judge Andrew Napolitano:“I mean, this is like the 1927 Yankees firing Babe Ruth because of his table matters. I don’t get it.”

–Glenn Beck: “You know, could be that he was fired because of, you know, they just paid out, you know, almost a billion dollars and they don’t want any chance of anything, but that’s suicidal.”

–Steve Bannon: “No one should watch Fox. Just take the clicker and cut it off. They hate you. They disrespect you.”

–WND Managing Editor David Kupelian: “A longtime Fox insider who spoke on condition of anonymity told me – and I can’t repeat his very colorful language – that this decision by Fox management was, let’s just say, staggeringly, mind-numbingly dumb.”

If executives at Fox News are absolutely determined to destroy the company, this is a great way to do it.

I honestly don’t see a path forward for them.

Right now, people are canceling their Fox Nation subscriptions at a staggering pace, and Fox Corporation stock lost nearly a billion dollars in market value on Monday…

Fox Corporation stock fell as much as 5% on Monday and erased $962 million in market value after it was announced that Fox News Media had parted ways with its host Tucker Carlson.

Class A shares of the media company recovered slightly and were trading at $32.65, down almost 3% at 1:32 p.m. ET.

Of course it is very doubtful that Fox News and Tucker Carlson would have been able to co-exist much longer anyway.

Over time, Tucker came to realize that the purpose of the big media companies is to control the general population, and that caused him to have great contempt for the industry that he was working in.

Powerful clip from Tucker’s recent spot on the Full Send podcast

He says media is controlled by powerful people who run the world, it shouldn’t be trusted, and he regrets being part of the propaganda machine for so many years

pic.twitter.com/KqxyoGiHnf

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) April 24, 2023

And in the last speech that he gave before he was fired, Tucker showed that he fully understands that what we are witnessing is far larger than a battle of Republicans vs. Democrats.

As Tucker clearly explained, what is taking place in the United States right now is literally a struggle between good and evil…

“Good is characterized by order, calmness, tranquility, peace, lack of conflict, and cleanliness,” said Carlson Saturday at the 50th anniversary of the Heritage Foundation. “Evil is characterized by the opposites: violence, hate, disorder, division, disorganization, and filth.”

“If you are all-in on the things that produce the latter basket of outcomes, what you’re really advocating for is evil.”

Tucker Carlson’s speech over the weekend was powerful. Too powerful apparently. pic.twitter.com/sxncP26Tda

— TexasLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) April 24, 2023

Sadly, he is quite right.

If we stay on the path that we are currently on, there is no future for America.

Unfortunately, getting fired was Tucker’s reward for relentlessly telling the truth.

Many are speculating about what he will do next, and I am sure that he will be successful at whatever that is.

As for Fox News, they have gone way too far this time, and millions of us will never watch them again.

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

The Credit Crunch Is Going To Be One Of The Biggest Stories Of The Next 6 Months

April 24, 2023April 24, 2023 by Michael

Right now, financial institutions all over America are getting really tight with their money. That means that less credit will be available for consumers and businesses, and that will mean less economic activity in the months ahead. When economic activity slows down, more businesses fail, more layoffs happen, and more consumers start defaulting on their debts. Of course if economic conditions steadily deteriorate it will cause financial institutions to get even more stingy with their money. It appears that a vicious cycle has now started, and I believe that this will be one of the biggest stories of the next 6 months.

Earlier today, I was quite alarmed to read that the top economist at Citibank is now publicly warning about the possibility of a substantial credit crunch in the months ahead…

Citi’s chief economist Nathan Sheets says the US may be headed for a credit crunch and a recession in the coming months, citing the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening and ongoing fallout from bank turmoil.

So how soon will it be before things start getting really bad?

According to Sheets, this credit crunch could “unfold in [the] coming months and quarters”…

“We’ve moved from what I’ve called the acute phase of the [bank] stresses, where it’s about bank runs and uncertainties about institutions failing,” the firm’s top global economist said. “[This is] where banks are thinking about their balance sheets and asking themselves: ‘Well, can we continue to extend credit in the same way as we have over the last several years?'”

Sheets added: “And as a result of that process, we believe that there could be a credit crunch in the economy. That’s something that will unfold in [the] coming months and quarters, and could indeed make that recession that we’re expecting somewhat longer than it would be otherwise and somewhat deeper.”

Without a doubt, it is going to take some time for this crisis to fully play out.

But we continue to get more evidence that the credit crunch has already begun.

Zero Hedge just posted an article entitled “We Scrambled, And Spoke With Well Over 100 Banks. Not One Will Provide Financing”, and I was astounded to read that more than 100 banks have refused to finance a developer’s project.

If you go to 100 different banks, you would think that at least one would be willing to take a risk.

But this just shows how much the environment has changed.

And as the environment has shifted, the economic numbers just keep getting worse. In fact, one CEO is calling the latest economic data “brutally bad”…

The US is on the brink of recession judging from its “brutally bad” economic data, Chris Watling, chief executive of financial advisory firm Longview Economics, said in an interview with CNBC this week.

According to the strategist, one of the factors pointing to a looming recession is the latest reading of the Leading Economic Index for the US, which fell by 1.2% in March, its lowest level since November 2020.

Just a few hours ago, we got more bad news. The Dallas Fed manufacturing survey dropped more than expected, and it has now fallen for 12 months in a row…

The Dallas Fed Manufacturing survey for April printed considerably below expectations. Analysts expected a rebound from -15.7 to -11.0 but instead the headline index plunged to -23.4 (just shy of post-COVID-lockdown lows).

That is the 12th straight month of ‘contraction’ in the survey.

So far, the numbers being put out by the Biden administration tell us that we are not officially in a recession, but it sure looks like a major economic downturn everywhere that we look.

Walmart is closing stores, Bed Bath & Beyond is completely going out of business, and Disney is laying off thousands of workers…

Disney is laying off several thousand workers across the company this week in the second and largest wave of cuts as part of the media giant’s previously announced plan to slash its workforce by 7,000 employees.

The latest round of job cuts will impact ESPN, Disney’s entertainment division, Disney Parks, and its Experiences and Product division as part of a larger workforce reduction plan announced in February by chief executive Bob Iger in an aim to save $5.5 billion in costs, the company said. The company had suspended its dividend payments during the pandemic, but Iger announced in February that he expects them to return.

Did global central banks anticipate that this was coming?

They have been purchasing precious metals at the fastest pace since the 1950s, and it would only make sense to do that if very troubled times are ahead.

And central banks around the world have also been setting the stage for a historic “restructuring” of the worldwide financial system.

This week, the Federal Reserve announced that the FedNow service will be ready to launch in the month of July…

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced a July launch of its FedNow service, which will enable all U.S. banks to offer instant payments 24/7, and will constitute the infrastructure of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by linking each banking node directly to the Federal Reserve, according to financial experts.

FedNow “will enable all the banks — any bank in the United States, not just the big ones — to offer instantly available funds in real-time payments to their customers”, explained Fed Chair Jerome Powell before the House Financial Services Committee on March 8.

This is a really big deal, because as many experts have pointed out, the FedNow service will lay a foundation for the coming CBDC that the Federal Reserve plans to introduce…

While Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard maintained during a House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services hearing in May that a CBDC could take five years to launch due to needed security and design features, she added that FedNow will still serve many of the same functions as a CBDC, according to the financial news outlet.

Financial advisor Joe Brown has warned that FedNow serves as the foundation, or “infrastructure” for a CBDC, bringing the country only a step away from deployment of a central bank digital currency once the FedNow system is fully functioning.

So it looks like they are already preparing one of the “solutions” that they plan to roll out once the coming economic crisis becomes quite severe.

Everything happens for a reason, and those that think they are running the show are always looking ahead.

But this time around, I think that they have bitten off more than they can chew.

Our world is rapidly descending into a state of complete and utter chaos, and our leaders will not be able to prop up their precious system for too much longer.

This story will take some time to fully unfold, but at this point it is getting really hard to deny where things are eventually heading.

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

The Dragon Is On Fire

April 23, 2023April 23, 2023 by Michael

Once in a while, there is a moment that embodies what is going on in our society as a whole. For me, one of those moments came on Saturday night. A 45 foot tall animatronic dragon at Disneyland erupted in flames, but most of the people at the park seemed to think that it was no big deal. The vast majority of them just went about their business as though nothing unusual was happening. Incredibly, most of those that were there seemed to think that everything was “normal” even though an absolutely enormous fire was sending “massive flames” into the night sky…

An intense fire broke out at Disneyland in Anaheim on Saturday night as packed crowds were enjoying a show at the theme park.

The fire ignited on Tom Sawyer Island during the Fantasmic! nighttime water and fireworks show held on the Rivers of America.

Citizen video captured by parkgoers shows massive flames fully engulfing Maleficent’s dragon prop on stage. The flames first ignited from the dragon’s face before spreading to the rest of its body.

According to Google, “maleficent” means “causing harm or destruction, especially by supernatural means”.

As I watched this dragon burn, I immediately thought about the current state of our country.

All around us, our society is literally coming apart at the seams, and most people seem to believe that there is no cause for alarm.

But if you aren’t alarmed yet, what is it going to take?

Just look at our economy. The dominoes are falling one after another, and even our largest and most prosperous corporations are laying off workers.

Within just the past few days, Bed Bath & Beyond has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, BuzzFeed News announced it will be completely shutting down, and we have learned that Disney is going to be giving the axe to thousands of workers next week…

Walt Disney Co. reportedly plans to slash thousands of jobs next week.

Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the plans said the company would cut about 15% of the staff in its entertainment division.

The cuts will include those in TV, film, theme parks and on corporate teams, in every region where Disney operates.

Meanwhile, our financial system is on fire.

Already this year we have witnessed the second and third largest bank failures in U.S. history, and Moody’s just slapped 11 more banks with significant downgrades…

On Friday Moody’s reinforced this challenging outlook by downgrading ratings for 11 regional lenders, including a two-notch cut for Western Alliance, citing “a deterioration in the operating environment and funding conditions for US banks.”

“Some of the immediate problems have gone away but the reality is with interest rates higher the banks’ business model is going to have to change, and that’s going to play out over months and quarters and even years,” Commonwealth Financial Network CIO Brad McMillan told Yahoo Finance.

At the same time, crime rates continue to soar all over the nation and it appears that a substantial portion of the population has gone completely nuts.

These days, many people will start shooting for seemingly no reason at all. The other day a man in North Carolina shot several people, including a 6-year-old girl, because a basketball rolled into his yard…

The 24-year-old man accused of shooting a 6-year-old girl, her parents and another neighbor after a basketball rolled into his yard in North Carolina is now in police custody.

Robert Singletary appeared in court on Friday and signed an extradition waiver. He turned himself in on Thursday to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa, authorities said.

Neighbors told ABC News’ Charlotte affiliate WSOC the shooting on Tuesday started when a basketball rolled into Singletary’s yard from a group of local children playing basketball in the street. Singletary allegedly fired a gun at a neighbor before approaching a father and daughter, William James White and 6-year-old Kinsley White, who were both seriously wounded.

As I keep telling my readers, the thin veneer of civilization that we depend upon on a daily basis is rapidly disappearing.

In San Francisco, organized retail crime is so rampant that some retailers have resorted to literally locking up thousands of products.

The moral foundation of our society has been rotting for years, and now it is almost totally gone.

And it is in such an environment that the most contentious presidential election in U.S. history will be held in 2024.

An election should be a time of great hope for the nation, but instead most people seem to be looking forward to it with dread…

Many Americans are not excited about a potential rematch between President Biden and former President Trump, according to a new poll, with more respondents saying they feel “exhaustion” over the prospects than anything else.

A 38 percent plurality of respondents reported they felt “exhaustion” over the idea of a rematch, according to the Yahoo News/YouGov poll. The other emotions that people said the rematch inspires are not much more positive, with 29 percent feeling “fear” and 23 percent “sadness and fear.”

Most Americans don’t have faith in our elections any longer.

And most Americans don’t have faith in our politicians any longer.

Our entire system of government is on very thin ice, and that should make all of us very sad.

Of course our entire culture is on very thin ice at this point. Earlier today, I was alarmed to read that a school district in a deep red state such as Missouri has given in to pressure from the woke crowd…

A Missouri school district is now making its math curriculum more gender inclusive, updating word problems and other language-based math equations with “they/them” pronouns.

As presented in a Webster Groves School District “math program evaluation” last week, non-binary people will be represented in “word and contextual” problems via the pronouns, alongside regular gendered people using he/she pronouns.

When we allow the woke crowd to define the language, they win.

Over in Europe, things are even worse. In certain situations, you can literally go to prison for not using someone’s preferred pronouns.

While we are obsessing over pronouns, the war in Ukraine just continues to escalate.

The total amount of aid that the U.S. has already given Ukraine exceeds 200 billion dollars, but one Ukrainian official is now saying that is not nearly enough…

We are thankful to our allies for their military help. But: it is not enough. Ukraine needs 10 times more to finish russian aggression this year. Thus we call upon our partners to cross all artificial red lines & devote 1% of GDP for weapons deliveries

Needless to say, most of our politicians are more than eager to keep showering the Ukrainians with more cash.

And the Russians are just going to keep escalating the conflict as well.

We continue to creep closer and closer to a point of no return.

So what happens if someone ends up crossing a line that will never be able to be uncrossed?

Do we really want to fight a nuclear war over Ukraine?

Once the nukes start flying, America will burn.

Sadly, most Americans aren’t alarmed by any of the things that I have just shared with you.

But the truth is that flames have already erupted in every corner of our society, and we had better work really hard to put those fires out before it is too late.

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

I Had To Find Out If This Was True…

April 19, 2023 by Michael

It appears that the crisis facing auto dealerships is far more dire than any of us thought. Financial institutions are starting to get extremely tight with their money, and that is putting extreme stress on dealers all over the nation. Many of us expected that this would happen, but it seems that things are moving much faster than anyone would have anticipated. Earlier today, I came across a tweet that absolutely floored me. It was posted by a highly respected account known as “CarDealershipGuy”, and it contained some rather ominous news…

Past 10 days have been wild:

— Capital One shut off all dealer floorplans (aka inventory lines of credit)

— USA Auto Sales shut down 39 dealerships after losing its Ally floor plan

— Wells fargo laid-off all its junior Auto loan underwriters and capped future loans

Insanity.

Is all of this true?

I had to find out.

So I started digging around, and I discovered that Capital One has indeed decided to completely get out of the “floor plan financing” business…

It’s been a weird few years for the car market, and things could get weirder still. As first reported by Twitter user CarDealershipGuy and now confirmed by Automotive News reports, Capital One is out of the dealer “floor plan financing” business, and while I realize this may not sound like the sexiest of topics, it could have some interesting effects on the car market. In case you think of homes when you think of the term “floor plan,” allow me to introduce the way dealers are able to hold massive inventory.

Here’s a little secret: Dealerships usually don’t pay for every car on their lots, just like how consumers don’t usually buy cars outright. Instead, they take advantage of a form of financing called floor plan financing. Companies that offer this sort of financing give dealers lines of credit to buy vehicles with an interest-free period. If a car on floor plan financing sells within that period, the dealer takes the customer’s money or the customer’s lender’s money and uses some of it to pay off the line of credit. If a car doesn’t sell within that period, the dealership gets charged what has usually been a small fee since credit was nearly free for a decade. This allows a dealership to have very little money tied up in inventory despite amassing a huge selection of cars.

This is a really big deal.

A lot of dealers will simply not be able to operate without such financing.

Which brings us to the second point in the tweet. According to the official website of U.S. Auto Sales, they have “temporarily closed” all 39 of their dealerships…

Attention U.S. Auto Customers. We have temporarily closed our dealerships and are working on a solution to re-open them as soon as possible. But don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere! U.S. Auto’s affiliated loan servicing company (USASF Servicing LLC) is still open to accept your payments and assist in servicing your account. Please continue to make your payments as scheduled and reach out to us with any account questions.

Hopefully U.S. Auto Sales will be able to secure another source of floor plan financing, but that may not be easy in this environment.

Another major chain, American Car Center, suddenly shut down more than 40 dealerships in February and has now filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy…

American Car Center, the Memphis-based used car dealer which suddenly closed all locations in February, has officially filed for bankruptcy in a Delaware court.

According to federal court records, the company, also known as RAC Dealership, LLC, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court on March 14.

Sadly, this is probably just the beginning.

A lot more dealerships are likely to go belly up as we get deeper into this economic downturn.

And as economic conditions deteriorate, financial institutions are likely to get even tighter with their money.

Which brings us to Wells Fargo. Apparently the bank really is giving the axe to all junior auto underwriting staff…

Wells Fargo laying off all junior Auto underwriting staff.

As of 4/27 any auto loans greater than 110% loan-to-value and 15% payment-to-income will be declined.

For more than a decade, the U.S. economy operated in an environment in which money was flowing like wine and it was really easy for everybody to get credit.

But now even officials at the biggest banks in America are openly admitting that a “credit crunch” has begun…

The credit crunch stemming from the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank has begun, with data showing clear tightening of lending standards by banks, according to Morgan Stanley’s top stock strategist Mike Wilson.

In a note on Sunday, the Morgan Stanley CIO said that the last two weeks have shown the steepest decline in lending on record as banks scramble to offset the breakneck pace of deposit flight, which has accelerated in the month since SVB failed.

“The data suggest a credit crunch has started,” Wilson said in the note, adding that $1 trillion in deposits has been withdrawn from US banks since the Federal Reserve began raising rates a year ago.

There is no possible way to spin “the steepest decline in lending on record” to make it sound good.

Our economy runs on mortgages, auto loans and credit cards, and so a dramatic reduction in lending will inevitably lead to a dramatic reduction in economic activity.

A lot of people are comparing this new crisis to what we went through in 2008 and 2009, because that is the only downturn in recent memory that is comparable.

Unfortunately, I am entirely convinced that this new crisis will eventually greatly surpass what we experienced during the Great Recession.

So I would encourage you to do whatever you need to do to get ready for harsh economic times, because what is ahead is not going to be pleasant for any of us.

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

5 Economic Disasters We Were Warned About In Advance That Are Happening Right Now

April 18, 2023 by Michael

Our leaders were able to successfully kick the can down the road for a long time, but now many of our long-term problems are becoming short-term problems, and the economic outlook for the remainder of 2023 is extremely bleak. But none of the economic hardships that we are experiencing at this moment should shock any of us. The truth is that we were warned about all of these things well ahead of time. Many independent voices have been warning us that there would be severe consequences for the exceedingly foolish economic decisions that our leaders were making, and now those severe consequences are starting to play out right in front of our eyes. The following are 5 economic disasters we were warned about in advance that are happening right now…

#1 We were warned that a great commercial real estate crisis would be coming, and now it is here. In fact, we just witnessed another massive default…

With recent stress in the regional banking sector, sentiment in US commercial real estate (CRE) – and especially the office sector – has turned negative as investors prepare for potential spillover effects (with JPM, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs all joining the gloom parade), especially as high-profile defaults continue to make headlines as borrowers face higher debt service costs and refinancing becomes much harder ahead of a $400 billion CRE debt maturities this year alone.

The latest headline fueling concerns about a potential CRE crisis involves a fund belonging to CRE giant Brookfield defaulting on a $161.4 million mortgage for twelve office buildings in Washington, DC.

According to Bloomberg, the loan was transferred to a special servicer working with “the borrower to execute a pre-negotiation agreement and to determine the path forward.”

#2 We were warned that there would be widespread layoffs as economic conditions in the United States deteriorated. Sadly, that is now happening all around us. For example, on Monday accounting firm Ernst & Young announced that they will be laying off thousands of highly paid workers…

Ernst & Young said Monday that it would eliminate roughly 3,000 jobs from its US workforce as it pivots to address shifts in demand and “overcapacity” in sections of its business.

The cuts represent less than 5% of the US firm’s total workforce. EY described the workforce reduction as “part of the ongoing management of our business” and said it didn’t stem from the firm’s recent failure to implement a global breakup.

#3 We were warned that the largest corporate debt bubble in the history of the world would eventually burst, and now corporations are beginning to default on their debts at a rate that should deeply alarm all of us…

More companies around the world defaulted on their debts in the first three months of this year than in any quarter since late 2020, when businesses were still hamstrung by restrictions to stop the spread of Covid.

In a report Tuesday, credit rating agency Moody’s said 33 of the corporations it rates defaulted on their debts in the first quarter, the highest level since the last quarter of 2020 when 47 companies defaulted. Almost half, or 15 companies, defaulted last month — the highest monthly count since December 2020.

Defaulting firms included Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed in March, its holding company SVB Financial Group and Signature Bank.

#4 We were warned that we would witness a dramatic surge in bankruptcies in 2023, and that is precisely what is happening…

Bankruptcy filings across the United States rose for the third straight month in March in all major industries. A total of 42,368 new bankruptcies were filed last month, according to data from Epiq Bankruptcy, a provider of U.S. bankruptcy court data, technology, and services.

This is 17 percent up from the 36,068 filings in March 2022 and is the highest number of monthly bankruptcy filings since April 2021.

Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed 71 corporate bankruptcy petitions in March, a jump from 58 in the previous month. This is the highest monthly total since July 2020 and the fourth straight month of increases.

#5 We were warned that the rest of the world would eventually start rejecting the U.S. dollar, and now “de-dollarization” is happening at a “stunning” pace…

The dollar is losing its reserve status at a faster pace than generally accepted as many analysts have failed to account for last year’s wild exchange rate moves, according to Stephen Jen.

The greenback’s share in global reserves slid last year at 10 times the average speed of the past two decades as a number of countries looked for alternatives after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered sanctions, Jen and his Eurizon SLJ Capital Ltd. colleague Joana Freire wrote in a note. Adjusting for exchange rate movements, the dollar has lost about 11% of its market share since 2016 and double that amount since 2008, they said.

“The dollar suffered a stunning collapse in 2022 in its market share as a reserve currency, presumably due to its muscular use of sanctions,” Jen and Freire wrote. “Exceptional actions taken by the US and its allies against Russia have startled large reserve-holding countries,” most of which are emerging economies from the so-called Global South, they said.

Unfortunately, we are still only in the very early stages of this economic meltdown.

The general population is starting to understand that things have gone horribly wrong, and a CNBC survey that was just released discovered that Americans “have never been more negative about the economy” than they are at this moment…

Amid persistent inflation, higher interest rates and recession worries, Americans have never been more negative about the economy, according to the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey.

A record 69% of the public holds negative views about the economy both now and in the future, the highest percentage in the survey’s 17-year history.

Even during the darkest days of 2008 and 2009 Americans were more optimistic about the future of the economy than they are right now.

Just think about that.

We are in really deep trouble.

Of course this new economic crisis will take some time to fully play out.

But it has officially arrived.

The months ahead are going to be filled with economic pain, and that is going to cause a tremendous amount of turmoil throughout our entire society.

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

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