Money

It’s Happening: Here Is A List Of 11 Big Companies That Have Announced Layoffs Within The Last 2 Weeks

August 3, 2022August 3, 2022 by Michael

When the economy slows down, layoffs inevitably happen. We witnessed this on a very large scale in 2008 and 2009, and now it is happening again. U.S. economic numbers are rapidly getting worse, and companies all across America don’t want to get caught with bloated payrolls as we plunge into a recession. As you will see below, many of the firms that are laying off workers are either in the real estate industry or the tech industry. Those are two industries that were on the leading edge of the “boom times”, and now it appears that they will also be on the bleeding edge as the economy crashes.

It is always a tragedy whenever any hard working American is forced out of a job. Unfortunately, what we are witnessing right now is just the beginning. The following is a list of 11 big companies that have announced layoffs within the last 2 weeks…

#1 Ultratec Inc. says that it will be laying off more than 600 workers.

#2 Electric truck maker Rivian will be laying off approximately 840 workers.

#3 7-Eleven has announced that it will be eliminating 880 corporate jobs.

#4 Shopify is laying off about 1,000 people.

#5 Vimeo says that it will be eliminating 6 percent of its current workforce.

#6 Redfin will be reducing the size of its workforce by 8 percent.

#7 Compass will be reducing the size of its workforce by 10 percent.

#8 RE/MAX will be reducing the size of its workforce by 17 percent.

#9 Robinhood will be reducing the size of its workforce by 23 percent.

#10 It is being reported that Ford “is preparing to cut as many as 8,000 jobs in the coming weeks”.

#11 Geico has closed every single one of their offices in the state of California, and that will result in vast numbers of workers losing their jobs…

GEICO, one of the largest insurance companies in the United States, reportedly closed all 38 of it’s California offices on Monday, resulting in hundreds of workers being laid off.

According to the company, GEICO would not be leaving outright, and will still be offering policies directly online, with all insurance functions continuing as normal. Buying directly through agents by phone, however, will not be possible.

“We continue to write policies in California, and we remain available through our direct channels for the more than 2.18 million California customers presently insured with us,” said GEICO in a statement on Monday.

On top of everything else, Amazon has announced that it reduced the size of its workforce by approximately 100,000 workers in just one quarter…

With recession fears mounting — and inflation, the war in Ukraine and the lingering pandemic taking a toll — many tech companies are rethinking their staffing needs, with some of them instituting hiring freezes, rescinding offers and making rounds of layoffs.

Amazon.com Inc. was one of the latest companies to discuss its belt-tightening efforts this week. During its quarterly earnings call Thursday, the e-commerce giant said it’s been adding jobs at the slowest rate since 2019. After relying on attrition to winnow its staff, Amazon now has about 100,000 fewer employees than in the previous quarter.

You could fill up two very large football stadiums with 100,000 workers.

Eventually, this wave of job losses will become a tsunami, and millions of Americans will suddenly find that they are unable to continue paying their bills.

Meanwhile, our new housing crash is starting to pick up speed as well.

In fact, we just witnessed an absolutely massive spike in the number of Americans that are searching for the term “sell my home fast” on Google…

Within hours of the latest GDP report on Thursday, which raised fears that the United States could be entering a recession, online search volume for “sell my home fast” spiked a whopping 2,750%.

Shortly after the Commerce Department released the report on July 28, revealing that the economy showed negative growth for a second straight quarter — shrinking by an annual pace of 0.9% — home sellers hoping for higher housing prices to continue are now concerned.

Just like in 2008 and 2009, a lot of Americans that bought near the peak of the market are going to end up underwater on their homes.

We didn’t learn from history, and so now we are repeating it.

And things are going to get worse and worse for the housing market as the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates.

Of course it isn’t just the U.S. that is going to be suffering in the months ahead.

The whole planet appears to be heading for a major downturn, and one of the largest shipping companies in the entire world has just confirmed that global economic activity is really starting to slow down…

AP Moller-Maersk on Wednesday predicted a slowdown in global shipping container demand this year amid weakening consumer confidence and supply chain congestion.

The Danish shipping and logistics company — one of the world’s largest and a broad barometer for global trade — said it loaded 7.4% fewer containers onto ships in the second quarter when compared to the same period in 2021, prompting it to revise the full-year outlook for its container business.

Europe is being hit harder than just about anywhere else.

Many of the numbers that are coming out of Europe are surprisingly bad, and now thanks to the war in Ukraine they are bracing for an extremely cold and bitter winter…

Germany’s presidential palace in Berlin is no longer lit at night, the city of Hanover is turning off warm water in the showers of its pools and gyms, and municipalities across the country are preparing heating havens to keep people safe from the cold. And that’s just the beginning of a crisis that will ripple across Europe.

It might still be the height of summer, but Germany has little time to lose to avert an energy shortage this winter that would be unprecedented for a developed nation. Much of Europe is feeling the strain from Russia’s squeeze on natural gas deliveries, yet no other country is as exposed as the region’s biggest economy, where nearly half the homes rely on the fuel for heating.

We haven’t seen anything like this in Europe since World War II.

In Spain, they have already resorted to extreme measures as they desperately attempt to conserve energy…

Responding to Europe’s energy crisis, Spain has controversially banned air conditioning from dropping below 27°C (80.6°F) in the summer.

The new government decree, which applies to a whole host of public buildings as well as shops, hotels and other venues, will also stop heating from being raised above 19°C during the winter.

“The rules will be mandatory in all public and commercial buildings, including bars, cinemas, theatres, airports and train stations,” reports EuroNews.

I am stunned by many of the things that I see in the news every day.

And things are only going to get worse as time rolls along.

Decades of incredibly foolish decisions have brought us to this point, and instead of reversing course our leaders continue to take us down the exact same road.

So we shall reap what we have sown, and it appears that there is an enormous amount of pain on the horizon.

***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.

A Matter Of Life And Death: Tens Of Millions Of Americans Will Be Without Medicine Once Trade With China Stops

August 2, 2022August 2, 2022 by Michael

If you are against a war with China, you need to make your voice heard while you still can. Because once the bullets start flying, it will be too late. Once a war with China starts, our current standard of living won’t just be interrupted. The truth is that our current standard of living would end. There are thousands upon thousands of products that we currently get from China that would very quickly disappear from store shelves. They simply would not be available any longer. And Taiwan produces more of our microchips than anyone else in the world by a very wide margin. When the microchips stop flowing our whole economy will come to a crashing halt. So the stakes are incredibly high, and most people don’t seem to realize this.

Nancy Pelosi knew that her visit to Taiwan would absolutely enrage the Chinese, but she did it anyway…

Pelosi and the rest of her delegation disembarked from a U.S. Air Force transport plane at Songshan Airport in downtown Taipei after the nighttime landing on a flight from Malaysia to begin a visit that risks pushing U.S.-Chinese relations to a new low. They were greeted by Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, and Sandra Oudkirk, the top U.S. representative in Taiwan.

Her arrival prompted a furious response from China at a time when international tensions already are elevated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has never renounced using force to bring it under its control. The United States warned China against using the visit as a pretext for military action against Taiwan.

China is warning that there will be a military response, and the whole world is waiting to see what that will be.

If the Chinese don’t do anything more than they have already done, it will look like a big victory for Nancy Pelosi and the United States. There is no way that Xi Jinping is going to allow that to happen, and what happens next could change everything.

It is being reported that Chinese forces are gathering near the coast for a potential invasion, but I don’t think that China will launch a full-blown invasion of Taiwan quite yet.

Instead, I think that it is far more likely that China could grab a couple of the small islands right off the Chinese coast that currently belong to Taiwan.

If that happens, I believe that the Biden administration would feel compelled to respond very forcefully.

Of course if both sides keep raising the stakes it could escalate into a full-blown war in the Pacific very rapidly.

And once a conflict begins, our trading relationship with China will halt.

Are you prepared for that?

Needless to say, this would hurt us very badly in countless ways. For example, very little of our medicine is actually made here in the United States, and that is an enormous problem.

According to a statement posted on the official website of U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher earlier this year, 80 percent of the drugs that Americans use come from overseas, and China is the largest supplier…

“The Chinese Communist Party has threatened to withhold lifesaving drugs from the U.S. once and we’d be crazy to think they won’t attempt to do so again,” said Rep. Gallagher. “Congress needs an aggressive plan to protect our critical pharmaceutical supply chains and end our reliance on China. This is a national security imperative and to many Americans, a matter of life and death.”

“The United States must end our reliance on China for lifesaving drugs and critical medical equipment,” Stefanik said. “We have become far too dependent on China’s supply chain, and their malign regime represents too great a threat to our national security for us to be at their mercy. I am proud to sponsor this legislation to equip our domestic pharmaceutical and medical manufacturers to be able to efficiently produce these items here in the United States. Through this effort, Americans can have better peace of mind regarding who they rely on for their own personal health needs,” said Conference Chair Elise Stefanik.

“Eighty percent of the drugs that Americans depend on come from overseas,” said Rep. Bill Posey. “China, whose pharmaceuticals have been subject to numerous recalls, is the largest manufacturer. As a result of this reliance, the U.S. has not produced basic medicines like in the case of penicillin since 2004.”

Are the pills that you take every day made in China?

You might want to check.

And once war with China starts our supply of antibiotics will also dry up very, very rapidly…

Right now, the U.S. has virtually no capacity to manufacture antibiotics. That’s because China currently controls roughly 90% of the global supply of inputs needed to make the generic antibiotics that treat bronchitis, pneumonia, pediatric ear infections, and life-threatening conditions such as sepsis.

At the peak of last year’s COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S., these generic antibiotics—including azithromycin—were urgently needed to treat secondary bacterial infections. However, the U.S. faced a potential shortage, since the key materials for azithromycin and other drugs are supplied by China.

We should have never allowed ourselves to become so dependent on one of our primary global rivals.

All of the experts could see a scenario like this coming, but nothing was ever done. Two years ago, there was a major article about this in the New York Times…

“If China shut the door on exports of core components to make our medicines, within months our pharmacy shelves would become bare and our health care system would cease to function,” said Rosemary Gibson, a senior adviser with the Hastings Center and an author of “China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine.”

Read that quote again.

If this thing with Taiwan gets out of control and we go to war, our health care system “would cease to function” for the duration of such a conflict.

So what would we do then?

Does anyone out there have an answer for that?

If people can’t get their pills, many of them will go absolutely insane. Never has there been a population that is more dependent on pharmaceutical drugs than we are…

Almost 70 percent of Americans take at least one prescription medication, and more than half take at least two, according to a new study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic. The most common prescriptions are for antibiotics, antidepressants and opioid painkillers.

One-fifth of Americans are taking five or more prescription drugs, CBS Atlanta reports.

As I have been warning for years, a full-blown war with China would be absolutely unthinkable.

But our leaders are provoking one anyway.

I wish that I had the words to express what I am feeling.

We are so close to a truly cataclysmic conflict, and if it happens it will be far more horrifying than any Hollywood movie studio could ever imagine.

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

This Is What Will Happen To The U.S. Economy When We Go To War With China

August 1, 2022August 1, 2022 by Michael

Nancy Pelosi knows exactly what she is doing. She knows that going to Taiwan without China’s permission will create a major international incident, but she is doing it anyway. It is being reported that Pelosi will arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday, spend the night in downtown Taipei on Tuesday night, and then potentially meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday. If she does meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, that will infuriate the Chinese even more. Pelosi is directly challenging China’s sovereignty over the island, and that is something that the Chinese will simply not tolerate.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is on the verge of a third term in office, and so he cannot afford to show any weakness right now. The following comes from Bloomberg…

Her travels come before China’s leadership usually heads to the seaside town of Beidaihe for an annual summer gathering. President Xi Jinping is just months away from a twice-a-decade Communist Party leadership reshuffle where he’s expected to secure a third term in office, increasing the political stakes.

The timing means Xi can’t afford to look weak in response to what Beijing views as foreign interference in its affairs. China held live-fire military drills over the weekend off the coast of Fujian province, which is opposite Taiwan.

In recent days Chinese authorities have been warning us over and over again that China will respond very strongly if Pelosi goes ahead with her visit.

On Monday, yet another very ominous warning was issued…

“We would like to tell the US once again that China is standing by, and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will never sit idly by. China will take resolute responses and strong countermeasures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters, when asked about the fallout from Pelosi leading a congressional delegation to Taipei.

“As for what measures, if she dares to go, then let’s wait and see,” Zhao added.

This is a threat that isn’t veiled at all.

The Chinese are openly telling us that the People’s Liberation Army will take action if Pelosi goes through with her visit.

And a video was just released on social media which definitely appears to have been intended to send a message…

A video by the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, which showed scenes of military exercises and preparations and was posted on state media sites on Monday evening, urged troops to “stand by in battle formation, be ready to fight upon command, bury all incoming enemies.”

If you have not seen it yet, you can find the video right here. If you have an understanding of Chinese culture, then you know that things like this are never done lightly.

Here in the United States, we are being told to disregard such “propaganda” and the “empty threats” that the Chinese are supposedly making.

But are they really “empty threats”?

What if they aren’t? What if the Chinese really mean what they say?

I think that something that Caitlin Johnstone tweeted sums things up quite well…

Russia: Don’t cross our red lines in Ukraine or we’ll take action.

US politicians: They’re bluffing. Cross those red lines.

*Russia invades.*

China: Don’t cross our red lines in Taiwan or we’ll take action.

US politicians: They’re bluffing. Cross those red lines.

Ultimately, the Chinese were probably planning to invade Taiwan fairly soon anyway, but Pelosi’s visit certainly has the potential to greatly accelerate matters.

And even though Taiwanese officials are welcoming Pelosi’s visit, they are also preparing for war at the same time…

Taiwanese defense officials have canceled the leave of some soldiers and officers “to immediately prepare” for the chance of war in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Asia this week, according to local reports.

Sadly, war with China is coming.

It is just a matter of time.

So what would such a conflict do to the U.S. economy?

Well, for one thing it would absolutely devastate the pharmaceutical industry…

Consider that Chinese firms are said to supply more than 90 percent of US antibiotics, 70 percent of acetaminophen (that’s Tylenol), and almost half of the anti-coagulant heparin. “Are said to” because we struggle even to gather information on this because of the opacity of the Chinese market and state-dominated record keeping. Some studies suggest up to 80 percent of the basic ingredients in US drugs come from the PRC. China is also the second largest exporter of biologics and the prime source of medical devices per the FDA. In some cases, it appears that India is a prime source of a key import – generics, for example – but that masks the fact that India sources up to 75 percent of its own pharma ingredients from China.

The food industry would also be turned upside down. In fact, it is being reported that “it is almost impossible to have a diet with foods that were not produced in China”…

According to CNN.com, experts believe that it is almost impossible to have a diet with foods that were not produced in China. Products such as chips and garlic are produced in China. Spices and herbs such as ginger and garlic are grown in China and exported to foreign markets. Chinese factories make vegetarian meat products. Many canned foods on market shelves were manufactured in China.

Our ability to produce our own food would also be greatly affected, because China produces so much of our farm machinery…

Farm machinery such as tractors, egg incubators and harvesters are manufactured in China. Chain saws, wood chippers and shredders are also produced in the country. Elevators and bulldozers are also assembled in China.

Are you starting to get the picture?

We should have never become so dependent on Chinese production, because it really is a major national security threat.

Of course the Chinese also produce a lot of our clothes…

Chinese factories manufacture winter coats, gloves, mittens and hats for consumers around the world. These factories also produce maternity clothes and infant clothes as well as wedding dresses and tuxedos. Underwear, T-shirts and slips are among the items exported from China to consumers around the world. Sports caps are also produced in China as are belts and bras.

And it turns out that 70 percent of our shoes come from China too…

The United States sources 99 percent of shoes sold from overseas, with 70 percent of those coming from the PRC. Same with 72 percent of smartphones. The artificial sweeteners in Diet Coke. Toys, furniture, sports equipment … what you buy every time you go to Target.

The moment we go to war with them, the flow of cheap goods from China completely stops.

In addition, once the Chinese invade Taiwan there will be an absolutely excruciating computer chip shortage.

It was recently being projected that chipmakers in Taiwan would have a 66 percent share of the total global market by the end of 2023…

Taiwan’s contract chipmakers will expand their global market share to 66% by revenue this year, cementing the island’s dominant position in the chip supply chain, a new industry forecast shows.

As I have discussed previously, just about every industry in the United States relies on equipment that contains computer chips.

If the flow of chips from Taiwan is eliminated, the entire global economy would come to a crashing halt.

I am not just talking about a recession or a depression.

I am talking about an economic collapse on a scale that most people would not be able to comprehend right now.

This is why I am so horrified by what Nancy Pelosi is doing.

In a book that I published two years ago, I specifically warned that war with China would be coming.

Now Nancy Pelosi has us right on the brink of such a conflict.

I don’t even have the words to describe how reckless our leaders are being.

Let us hope that cooler heads will prevail, because once war with China starts nothing in this country will ever be the same again.

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

Severe Economic Desperation Rises Rapidly All Over America As Nearly Half The Nation Cuts Back Spending On Food

July 31, 2022July 31, 2022 by Michael

It is starting to look a lot like 2008. Extremely long lines are forming at food banks all over the country, job losses and layoffs are starting to spike, countless small businesses are right on the brink of going under, a housing crash that could be even worse than what we witnessed in 2008 has begun, and large numbers of Americans are actually moving into sheds in a desperate attempt to save money. This new economic downturn is still only in the very early stages, and yet the economic suffering that we are already seeing all over the country is truly frightening. If people are struggling this much now, what will conditions be like six months down the road?

If you find yourself cutting back spending on groceries and gasoline these days, you are definitely not alone.

According to a Suffolk University/USA TODAY survey that was just released, about half the nation is in the same boat…

According to the survey, 45.3 percent of Americans have had to cut back their spending on groceries, and 59.4 percent said they are now going out to eat less often as the result of inflation.

Another 48 percent said they are driving less, and 45.4 percent said they are postponing or canceling vacations/travel plans due to rising costs.

Inflation is absolutely eviscerating our standard of living, and millions upon millions of Americans are deeply hurting right now.

And when people are deeply hurting, they often become quite desperate.

There has been a very alarming rise in shoplifting all over the United States, and food and other essentials have become prime targets.

In New York City, things have gotten so bad that one store has actually decided to start “locking up cases of Spam”…

With robberies up nearly 40 percent in New York City, it’s perhaps no surprise that a local pharmacy has taken the extreme steps of locking up cases of Spam.

Twitter user Willy Staley noticed the tins of $3.99 processed meat sealed in a theft-proof plastic container at the Duane Reade inside the Port Authority bus depot in Midtown Manhattan – known as one of New York’s grimiest areas.

Staley also found a $3.49 tin of Celebrity ham, which retails for a similar price, protected with the same measure.

You can see a photo of spam in a “theft-proof plastic container” right here.

I have a couple of reactions to this.

First of all, who in the world would pay $3.99 for a can of Spam? It is absolutely disgusting and I wouldn’t eat it under any circumstances even if someone gave it to me for free.

Secondly, why would anyone ever steal a can of Spam when they are so many other options that are actually edible?

I just don’t understand.

Of course it isn’t just Spam that is being locked up these days. According to CNN, at this point a lot of retailers have been transformed into “fortresses” due to rapidly rising theft…

These days, it feels like many stores are fortresses.

Most of the products on the drug store shelf are behind lock and key, even everyday items such as deodorant, toothpaste, candy, dish detergent, soap and aluminum foil. Manufacturers that supply lock cases and devices to chain stores have seen their businesses boom.

The reason why this is happening on such a widespread basis is because “organized retail crime” has become a really big thing here in the United States…

Walgreens and Rite Aid have said that the problem of organized retail crime — rings of criminals that steal products from stores and then often resell them on online marketplaces — is causing them to lock more products up and close some stores.

If this is taking place while the U.S. economy is still at least somewhat relatively stable, what will it be like once we officially plunge into a full-blown economic depression?

Another very troubling sign is the massive lines that we are starting to see at food banks all over the country.

According to Zero Hedge, food banks from coast to coast are reporting “record high demand and record low supply”…

In the past month there has been a steady stream of reports from pantries across the US stating that they are now hitting record high demand and record low supply. From New York to Wisconsin to Ohio to Missouri to Florida to Arkansas to California and beyond, pantries are running out. On top of that, it’s the middle of summer – The busiest time for food banks and the Salvation Army is during the winter holidays.

The majority of pantries indicate that they are most in need of cash donations and that these have started to fade out. When it comes to necessities, most people will not or cannot reduce the frequency of their purchases. Food, gas, housing, utilities, etc. are fixed income costs, and when these costs rise workers must cut costs elsewhere. Charities are usually the first to see the chopping block.

The level of demand at our food banks is only going to increase during the months ahead.

At some point there simply will not be enough food for everyone.

I really hope that you are getting prepared for the very difficult times that are coming, because there will be a limit to what charitable organizations are able to do for you.

Some Americans are attempting to radically reduce their expenses by literally moving into a shed.

One woman in Texas that was interviewed by Newsweek really regretted spending all of her money on a shed because the living conditions turned out to not be pleasant at all…

A woman’s account of her life in a $2,000 shed during the Texas heatwave has sparked an anguished debate about affordable housing.

Elizabeth Rishforth, posting on TikTok under the username @a_nobody_goodbye, shared a video of herself red-faced and sweating on June 23. She was living in a shed without electricity or running water in Houston, Texas, she said.

“Me and my boyfriend [used] all the savings we had to get the shed,” Rishforth told Newsweek.

But others have found “shed life” to be quite nice.

A mother of four named Jessica Taylor is actually loving “shed life” even though her family uses a “composting bathroom”…

“One of the things people find really weird about us living in a shed is that we use a composting bathroom rather than a traditional toilet,” Taylor, 30, who now resides in a lofted shed in western Tennessee, told The Post.

“It’s a bucket system,” the former bartender-turned-home-schooler (or shed-schooler) explained of her hut’s outhouse. “And [when] you [urinate or defecate], you cover it with wood chips each time. After two days, whether the bucket is full or not, we dump [the waste] into a composting bin in the woods, and then after a couple of years, [the waste] turns into soil for ornamental plants.“

In recent months, housing has become the most unaffordable that it has ever been in the United States, and so “shed life” has absolutely exploded in popularity.

In fact, the “#ShedLife” hashtag has now been shared on TikTok more than 22 million times…

On TikTok, shed dwellers have stamped videos of their hovels-turned-homes with the hashtag #ShedLife over 22.2 million times.

“More and more people are breaking free from the mindset that you have to have the big expensive, fancy house to feel like they’re making it,” said Taylor of the allure of shed life. “There’s value in living modestly. We’re able to spend more time together gardening and enjoying nature rather than working to afford lavish accommodations.”

What about you?

Would you like to live in a shed?

As the economy continues to deteriorate, more and more Americans will be forced to choose “alternative lifestyles” in the months ahead.

But of course the elite are going to continue to insist that everything is just fine. If you can believe it, the definition of “recession” on Wikipedia was just changed to reflect the narrative of the Biden administration, and it has been locked to prevent any additional editing.

Do they actually believe that such heavy-handed measures will be effective?

The truth is that most Americans know that we are in a recession, and many have pointed out that even Bill Clinton has publicly acknowledged that a recession happens when GDP is negative for two quarters in a row.

But as I noted earlier, what we have been through so far is just the tip of the iceberg.

This economic downturn is going to get a lot worse, and that means that millions upon millions of Americans will soon become even more desperate.

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

Why Does The United States Just Keep Getting Hit By One Historic Nightmare After Another?

July 28, 2022July 28, 2022 by Michael

Have you become numb to all the bad news yet? Almost every single day, something really horrible seems to happen in the United States. It is just one thing after another and it has been that way for months. It is as if we are in the midst of some sort of a “perfect storm” that never seems to end. In all my years of writing, I have never seen anything like this. There is so much bad news happening right now that it is literally impossible to keep up with it all. Events are starting to accelerate at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking, and I am extremely concerned about what the remainder of 2022 will look like.

For months, I have been writing extensively about the endless drought in the western half of the nation. We are being told that it is the worst multi-year megadrought that the region has experienced in 1,200 years, and it just keeps getting worse and worse.

Meanwhile, we are witnessing absolutely unprecedented flooding in the eastern half of the United States. For example, some parts of Kentucky were just pummeled by more than 10 inches of rain in a 24 hour period…

Heavy rain poured down across eastern Kentucky late Wednesday into Thursday, triggering flash flooding that caused mudslides, washed away homes and roadways and promoted a flash flood emergency. The deluge produced more than 10 inches over a 24-hour period in the hardest-hit areas and came only days after another disastrous flood inundated the St. Louis area.

In some areas, it literally looks like a tsunami has just come through. One local meteorologist admitted that he does not “have the words” to describe the incredible devastation that has taken place…

Chris Bailey, WKYT’s chief meteorologist said: ‘I don’t have the words to describe the amount of devastation daylight will uncover across eastern Kentucky.

‘This is likely to go down as one of the worst flash flood events to ever hit the state.’

Governor Andy Beshear is telling us that this was “one of the worst and most devastating events in Kentucky’s history”, and he isn’t sure why such bad things keep happening to his state…

Beshear described this as “one of the worst and most devastating events in Kentucky’s history” during the press conference. Beshear said the state was in the middle of an ongoing natural disaster and warned of the possibility for more rain to fall through Thursday night. Damage assessment and restoration were likely to continue for several days, but the dangerous flooding was hindering first responders’ ability to rescue residents, as well as allow utility workers to get power restored.

“I wish I could tell you why we keep getting hit here in Kentucky,” Beshear said. “I wish I could tell you why areas, where people may not have that much, continue to get hit and lose everything. I can’t give you the why, but I know what we do in response to it. And the answer is everything we can. These are our people. Let’s make sure we help them out.”

Of course this disaster in Kentucky came just one day after one of the worst flooding events in the history of the state of Missouri.

We are being told that we just witnessed “the wettest day ever for St. Louis”, and in some areas of the city the water actually got more than 8 feet deep…

One person died when a car in St. Louis was found covered in more than 8 feet (2.4 meters) of water. Several puppies drowned when a building became flooded at Stray Paws Adoptables, a stray dog rescue operation in St. Peters, a St. Louis suburb. Firefighters in boats rescued other dogs from the building.

Damage across the region was widespread after a massive downpour dropped more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain in parts of St. Charles County and up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) elsewhere in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Most of the rain fell in a few hours shortly after midnight.

I really wish that we could take all of that water and give it to ranchers and farmers in the western half of the country, because the endless drought is absolutely crushing them.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is now dealing with two major simultaneous pandemics for the first time in my entire life.

Despite everything that health officials have tried, the first pandemic is still raging, and now another frightening disease is spreading like wildfire.

This current monkeypox outbreak began in Europe, but this week the U.S. officially became the world leader in confirmed cases…

With more than 18,000 cases worldwide, the monkeypox outbreak is now a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization declared this week. And the U.S. has recorded more monkeypox cases since the beginning of the year than any other country, according to the most recent statistics.

The number of confirmed cases continues to rise at an exponential rate, and this is one disease that you definitely do not want to get.

Many victims have described experiencing absolutely excruciating pain once skin sores start developing, and one man that has had both COVID and monkeypox is telling us that monkeypox is “100 times worse”.

On top of everything that I have already discussed, we just got confirmation that the U.S. economy has plunged into a recession…

The U.S. economy contracted for the second straight quarter from April to June, hitting a widely accepted rule of thumb for a recession, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday.

Gross domestic product fell 0.9% at an annualized pace for the period, according to the advance estimate. That follows a 1.6% decline in the first quarter and was worse than the Dow Jones estimate for a gain of 0.3%.

Of course Joe Biden will never admit that a recession has now started.

According to him, everything is just great…

Biden noted that ‘both Chairman Powell and many of the significant banking personnel and economists say we’re not in a recession.’

‘Businesses are investing in American in record rates,’ Biden boasted.

But everyone can see what is happening to the economy, and we are being warned that we must endure some “short-term pain” in order to get inflation under control…

“We have to endure the short-term pain in the economy in order to get inflation back under control,” said Tara Sinclair, a senior fellow at the Indeed Hiring Lab. She compared the Fed hiking interest rates and tightening monetary policy to a medical treatment that might require patients to undergo something painful in order to have longer-term health. “Then, going forward, we can have a much more stable environment where we know prices are going to be growing about 2 percent per year, we have more certainty about that, we have a better sense of demand and supply coming together. That’s a better working environment for the economy as a whole, and businesses want that kind of certainty.”

Without a doubt, we desperately need to do something about inflation because it is absolutely eviscerating those at the bottom of the economic food chain.

For example, just consider the plight of one woman that was recently interviewed by CNN…

For 17 years, Ana Duran worked full time as a travel counselor. Late last year she lost that job, shortly before seeing the price of eggs rise to $7.99 a dozen and the price of a single avocado rise to $2.99 at her local store. In June, it cost her $94 to fill up her gas tank, instead of the $50 it cost her last year.

Duran has been receiving unemployment benefits and working part-time as a caregiver for a resident at a senior center. To make ends meet, she’s also been selling her own gold jewelry and crushing aluminum cans to recycle for extra cash.

Unfortunately, what the Fed is trying to do isn’t going to work. The inflation rate will likely stabilize, but we aren’t going back to a low inflation environment.

However, dramatically raising interest rates will definitely crash the housing market.

Ultimately, we are going to get to enjoy 1970s-style inflation and a repeat of the housing crash of 2008 all at the same time.

Won’t that be fun?

A historic economic meltdown of epic proportions has begun, and it is going to get a whole lot worse.

We seem to be in the midst of some sort of a “perfect storm” with no end in sight.

So why is this happening to us?

Why does the United States just keep getting hit by one historic nightmare after another?

We appear to have entered an ominous new chapter in our history, and I believe that events will accelerate even more during the difficult months that are ahead of us.

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

Oh Goody! Now We Get To Have Rampant Inflation And A Housing Collapse At The Same Time!

July 27, 2022 by Michael

Under normal circumstances, this would never happen. Normally, you would never have raging inflation and a housing crash at the same time. But thanks to the Federal Reserve that is precisely what we are now facing. The Fed has created a colossal inflation monster which is going to be exceedingly difficult to tame, and meanwhile the most epic housing bubble in the history of our country is starting to burst. This combination is going to cause immense pain for U.S. consumers in the months ahead, and there is no short-term hope on the horizon.

If you have been to the grocery store lately, you have probably noticed that prices are a lot different than they were just a few short months ago.

Unfortunately, some of our largest corporations are telling us that they are going to continue to pass cost increases along to consumers…

Consumers looking for relief from higher prices might have to wait a while.

The makers of Coca-Cola beverages, Dove shampoo, Huggies diapers and Big Macs have been raising prices as their costs increase on everything from wood pulp to wages. The executives behind these global brands on Tuesday said they would keep passing along those costs to shoppers, for now. Consumers are continuing to buy even as inflation takes a toll on households, these executives said.

In a desperate attempt to get the inflation spiral that they created under control, officials at the Federal Reserve keep raising interest rates.

In fact, on Wednesday we witnessed another historic interest rate increase…

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday enacted its second consecutive 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase as it seeks to tamp down runaway inflation without creating a recession.

In taking the benchmark overnight borrowing rate up to a range of 2.25%-2.5%, the moves in June and July represent the most stringent consecutive action since the Fed began using the overnight funds rate as the principal tool of monetary policy in the early 1990s.

Fed officials seem to think that they can tame inflation just like Paul Volcker and his minions did in the early 1980s.

But the truth is that the environment is completely different this time around.

In the early 1980s, the money supply was relatively stable.

Today, we are coming off two years in which our leaders behaved very foolishly. Our politicians borrowed and spent trillions of dollars that we did not have, and the Federal Reserve pumped trillions of fresh dollars that they created out of thin air into the financial system.

No matter how high the Fed pushes interest rates, it isn’t going to make all of that new money magically disappear.

In addition, we are dealing with some very serious long-term supply issues that would have been unimaginable in the early 1980s.

I expect that those supply issues will intensify over time, and this will especially be true if more military conflicts erupt around the globe.

If officials at the Fed think that they can solve our inflation crisis by just crushing demand, they are simply being delusional.

But raising interest rates will certainly do one thing.

It will absolutely eviscerate the housing market, and that is already starting to happen.

On Wednesday, we learned that pending home sales in the U.S. were 20 percent lower this June than they were last June…

Signed contracts to purchase existing homes dropped 20% in June compared with the same month a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

That is the slowest pace since September 2011, with the exception of the first two months of the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, when sales plunged briefly and then rebounded sharply.

On a monthly basis, pending home sales fell a wider-than-expected 8.6% in June. A Dow Jones survey of economists had predicted a 1% drop.

Those numbers are absolutely horrible, and they were much worse than expected.

And everyone agrees that this is happening because the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates.

At this point, things are particularly bad in “Zoomtowns” such as Boise, Idaho…

During the pandemic-fueled housing boom, Boise emerged as one of America’s hottest “Zoomtowns,” communities that experienced a spike in population from an influx of remote workers.

Now, the housing boom around Idaho’s capital city has ground to a halt. Buyers are balking at record prices and mortgage rates that last month hit a 13-year high. Sixty-one percent of listings in the Boise metro area had a price cut in June, the highest rate out of 97 metro areas surveyed, according to brokerage Redfin Corp. Home builders who couldn’t keep up with demand last year are cutting back on construction.

If you are trying to sell a house right now, I feel really bad for you.

As mortgage rates go even higher, even more potential buyers will be pushed out of the marketplace.

Meanwhile, we are starting to see an alarming surge in foreclosures as the overall economy slows down. Just check out these very alarming figures…

Looking specifically at foreclosure starts, this metric was up 26.6% in June on a monthly basis, but up 440.91% year-over-year. Starts also represented the highest share (4%) of serious delinquencies since March 2020, but less than half the rate in the years leading up to the pandemic.

440 percent on a year over year basis?

Are you kidding me?

We haven’t seen anything like this since 2008.

And we all remember what happened in 2008.

A new housing crash is here, and the Federal Reserve is making things even worse by dramatically hiking interest rates.

What in the world are they thinking?

You don’t raise interest rates when a recession has already begun. That is completely and utterly insane.

But that is precisely what they are doing.

I am concerned that economic conditions in America could soon very closely resemble my first novel.

Economic activity is slowing down everywhere that you look, layoffs are on the rise, the housing market is collapsing, but meanwhile prices for essentials such as food and energy continue to keep rising.

The people that are going to get hurt the most by all of this are those at the bottom of the economic food chain.

A very dark chapter in American history has begun, and the months ahead are going to be filled with pain.

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

We Are Going To See Energy Prices Go Absolutely Nuts This Winter Just As We Plunge Into A Horrifying Global Economic Crisis

July 26, 2022July 26, 2022 by Michael

How would you feel if your power bill went up by 50 percent this winter? How about 100 percent? Unfortunately, these kinds of price increases are already being announced. The world was heading into a major energy crisis even before the war in Ukraine started, and now that conflict threatens to create an extremely severe energy crunch that would have been unimaginable just a couple of years ago. If some sort of a miracle doesn’t happen, it is going to be a really, really cold winter for countless people in the western world.

The Russians have been trying to use energy as leverage, and on Monday they announced that the amount of natural gas flowing through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will be reduced “to just 20% of its capacity”…

The Biden administration is working furiously behind the scenes to keep European allies united against Russia as Moscow further cuts its energy supplies to the European Union, prompting panic on both sides of the Atlantic over potentially severe gas shortages heading into winter, US officials say.

On Monday, Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom said it would cut flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany in half, to just 20% of its capacity. A US official said the move was retaliation for western sanctions, and that it put the West in “unchartered territory” when it comes to whether Europe will have enough gas to get through the winter.

In essence, Vladimir Putin is “turning the screws”, and it may just be a matter of time before he cuts off the gas completely.

The Europeans never should have allowed themselves to become so dependent on Russian energy, and now a major crisis is staring them in the face.

Last Wednesday, a modest rationing plan for the member states of the EU was introduced…

The “Save Gas for a Safe Winter” plan announced Wednesday sets a target for the 27 member states to reduce their gas demand by 15% between August and March next year. That reduction is based on countries’ average gas consumption during the same months over the previous five years.

The plan is focused on curtailing demand by businesses and in public buildings, rather than private homes. Among the proposed measures, the EU Commission is encouraging industry to switch to alternate energy sources — including coal where necessary — and to introduce auction systems that compensate companies for reducing their gas consumption.

Of course such a plan is going to be almost impossible to enforce, and even if all of the member states meet their goals it still won’t be enough if the Russians stop the flow of gas entirely.

The U.S. has been ramping up exports to Europe in an effort to help, and one official is openly admitting that this could cause a dramatic increase in prices here in the United States…

“This was our biggest fear,” said the US official. The impact on Europe could boomerang back onto the US, spiking natural gas and electricity prices, the official said. It will also be a major test of European resilience and unity against Russia, as the Kremlin shows no signs of retreating from Ukraine.

Sadly, we are already starting to see the price of natural gas rise to very alarming levels.

According to Wolf Richter, the price of U.S. natural gas has “more than doubled” over the past year…

So here we go again. This morning, natural gas futures jumped to $8.29 per million Btu, adding to the jumps over the past week. The price has regained much of the lost spike, and is up about 30% from a month ago, and has more than doubled from a year ago.

Ouch.

Needless to say, U.S. consumers are going to be feeling a tremendous amount of pain this winter.

For example, just check out the rate hikes that were just announced in New Hampshire…

Electricity bills in New Hampshire are about to get higher.

Eversource is raising its energy supply rate by about 50% on Aug. 1. With customers using, on average, 25% more energy in the summer, a typical customer could expect to see a $70 monthly increase, the utility said.

The energy service rate for New Hampshire Electric Co-op will go up 77%, Liberty Utilities will jump 100% and Eversource’s rate will rise by 112%.

In the coming months, we will see similar rate hikes all over the nation.

So are you ready for your power bill to soar into the stratosphere?

And all of this comes at a time when the percentage of U.S. adults that are “having difficulties paying their bills” has just hit a brand new high…

The share of Americans who report having difficulties paying their bills has surpassed its 2020 pandemic peak in a US Census Bureau survey, underscoring the toll of soaring prices on budgets.

Four in ten adults said it has been somewhat or very difficult to cover usual household expenses in a poll conducted end of June and early July. That’s the highest since the Census started asking the question in August 2020. It implies that more than 90 million families are struggling, up from about 60 million a year ago.

As I discussed yesterday, a recession in the United States is already here.

Will the entire world soon follow?

On Tuesday, the IMF warned that we could be on the verge of a major global economic slowdown…

The global economy is already in trouble, yet risks keep piling up.

In a report released Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund once again lowered its world economic forecast as it predicted major slowdowns in the three biggest economies: the United States, China and Europe.

Those downturns, combined with the ongoing war in Ukraine, inflation surging faster than expected, and tighter monetary policy around the world have continued to slam the already fragile global economy, it said.

It is often said that “energy is the economy”, and global supplies of energy just keep getting tighter and tighter.

There isn’t any short-term help on the horizon, and if we stay on the path that we are on this new global energy crisis is just going to get worse and worse.

Of course there is also the possibility that something could come along that could greatly accelerate our energy problems.

A Chinese invasion of Taiwan is likely to happen at some point, and I have been warning that a war between Israel and Iran will erupt sooner rather than later.

In either case, our new global energy crisis would rapidly evolve into a global energy nightmare.

So enjoy this relatively quiet summer while you still can, because I have a feeling that this upcoming winter is going to be quite crazy.

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

The Gaslighting Has Escalated To Extremely Absurd Levels As The Biden Administration Desperately Attempts To Move The Goalposts

July 25, 2022 by Michael

They are trying to do it to us again. Over the past two years, they have lied to us over and over again, and now they are going back to the same old playbook one more time. Everyone is anticipating that Thursday’s GDP number will show that the U.S. economy has now contracted for two quarters in a row, and when that happens that will mean that we have fallen into an economic recession. In fact, if you go to Google and type in “recession definition”, this is what you will find: “a period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters.” But the Biden administration doesn’t like that definition for obvious reasons. If everyone starts throwing around the word “recession” to describe what is going on, the outlook for the Democrats in the midterm elections is likely to get even bleaker.

So instead of facing reality, Biden administration officials are now attempting to move the goalposts. Just check out how Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen responded to a question posed to her by Chuck Todd of Meet The Press on Sunday…

“Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd asked Yellen: “If the technical definition is two quarters of contraction, you’re saying that’s not a recession?”

“That’s not the technical definition,” Yellen responded. “There is an organization called the National Bureau of Economic Research that looks at a broad range of data in deciding whether or not there is a recession. And most of the data that they look at right now continues to be strong.

“I would be amazed if they would declare this period to be a recession, even if it happens to have two quarters of negative growth,” Yellen said.

Okay, so can Yellen show us a time when the U.S. economy contracted for two quarters in a row without it being considered a recession?

Someone should ask her that question.

Meanwhile, an article that has been posted on the official White House website is also trying to convince us that what we are experiencing is not actually a “recession”…

What is a recession? While some maintain that two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP constitute a recession, that is neither the official definition nor the way economists evaluate the state of the business cycle. Instead, both official determinations of recessions and economists’ assessment of economic activity are based on a holistic look at the data—including the labor market, consumer and business spending, industrial production, and incomes. Based on these data, it is unlikely that the decline in GDP in the first quarter of this year—even if followed by another GDP decline in the second quarter—indicates a recession.

Really?

Let’s take a look at some of the economic news that has recently come out…

-The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has fallen for four months in a row.

-The number of Americans submitting new claims for unemployment benefits is the highest that it has been in eight months.

-Sales of previously owned homes have now dropped for five months in a row.

-Home prices are starting to rapidly fall all over the nation.

-One recent survey found that 35 percent of all small business owners in the U.S. “could not pay their rent in full or on time in June”.

You can find more troubling numbers like these in an article that I posted just yesterday.

All of the trends are clearly pointing in one direction, and we received more bad news on Monday. The following comes from Zero Hedge…

Another day, another set of disappointing data confirming the ‘r’ word is imminent. Both the Dallas Fed and Chicago Fed dropped some truth bombs in their surveys of local and national (respectively) economic activity.

The Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook Level of General Business Activity tumbled further in July, dropping to -22.6 from -17.7 (and worse than expected)…

That is an absolutely horrible number, and the Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index has now fallen for two months in a row for the very first time since the early days of the COVID pandemic…

Shifting from local pain to national pain, The Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index signaled a second straight month of contraction in June (first time since early 2020). The smoothed index dropped into negative territory for the first time since May 2020.

Sadly, the Democrats will deny that we are in a recession until they are blue in the face because they want to do well in November.

I can understand that.

But do they really think that the American people are stupid enough to believe them?

Everywhere around us, economic activity is slowing down.

Even Walmart is starting to experience the pain. The following numbers were just posted on the official corporate Walmart website…

Operating income for the second-quarter and full-year^2,3 is expected to decline 13 to 14% and 11 to 13%, respectively. Excluding divestitures¹, operating income for the full year² is expected to decline 10 to 12%.

Adjusted earnings per share⁴ for the second quarter and full year is expected to decline around 8 to 9% and 11 to 13%, respectively. Excluding divestitures¹, adjusted earnings per share⁴ for the full year is expected to decline 10 to 12%.

Of course this is just the beginning.

The Biden administration would have us believe that any bumps in the road are just temporary and that a golden new age of prosperity for America is just around the corner.

Alternatively, I am entirely convinced that we are heading into a historic economic meltdown of epic proportions.

Someday let’s look back and see who was right and who was wrong.

Honestly, I would love for the Biden administration to be correct.

If we really were moving into a time of great peace and prosperity, I would absolutely love it.

Unfortunately, that is not the truth.

At this point, the vast majority of Americans can see that hard times are coming, and the Biden administration is going to be powerless to stop the nightmare that is now coming straight at us.

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

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