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As The Government Shutdown Drags On, Here Are 9 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is Shutting Down All Around Us

October 28, 2025October 28, 2025 by Michael

It appears that this government shutdown could go on for a while, and that is not good news for the U.S. economy at all. On day 28 of the shutdown, the U.S. Senate failed to advance a bill to end the shutdown for the 13th consecutive time. They can keep holding more votes, but the outcome will remain the same. We are potentially just days away from a scenario in which approximately 42 million Americans will lose their food stamp benefits, and that could result in widespread chaos all over the nation. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy as a whole continues to move in the wrong direction very rapidly.

At this point, dissatisfaction with the economy has become so pervasive that even CNN is talking about it…

A collective angst is taking root. Maybe you feel it watching the news, scrolling social media, standing in line at the grocery checkout. Something’s off, and maybe it’s been that way for a while, but it hasn’t always been this tense, right?

I am sure that you can feel it too.

People are on edge.

Thousands of stores have been closing all over the nation, the cost of just about everything keeps going up, and shocking mass layoffs are being conducted from coast to coast. The following are 9 signs that the U.S. economy is shutting down all around us…

#1 When the economy is booming, delivery companies are usually thriving and hiring lots of new people. So it is a really bad sign that UPS has chosen to eliminate 48,000 workers…

United Parcel Service has cut 48,000 management and operations positions, the company disclosed Tuesday when it reported earnings.

Of those roles, 14,000 were management positions and 34,000 were jobs in operations. The reductions came through layoffs and buyouts, the company said.

#2 14,000 Amazon employees have been let go in “the first wave” of mass layoffs that are ultimately expected to reduce the number of workers by 30,000…

On Tuesday, Amazon confirmed plans to cut about 14,000 corporate jobs as the online retail giant ramps up spending on artificial intelligence.

It’s the first wave in a mass layoff that’s expected to slash 30,000 Amazon positions, or 10 percent of the corporate staff.

‘Some may ask why we’re reducing roles when the company is performing well,’ Beth Galetti, an HR lead at Amazon, wrote in a public note.

#3 Target has announced that approximately 1,000 highly paid corporate workers will be hitting the bricks…

Target is cutting about 1,000 corporate positions and eliminating 800 open roles in an effort to speed up business decision-making and drive growth under its new chief executive, Michael Fiddelke.

Fiddelke, who will succeed Brian Cornell as CEO in February, has been focused on ways to speed up the way corporate teams work, turning the company into a leaner and faster organization to drive innovation. This includes eliminating layers of management.

About 80% of the roles being cut are based in the U.S., with the majority concentrated in the Minneapolis area, where the company is headquartered, and in leadership positions.

#4 Chegg has fallen on really hard times, and so it will be slashing 45 percent of its entire workforce…

Chegg Inc., a Santa Clara-based online learning platform, said Monday it will cut about 45% of its workforce – roughly 388 employees – as it confronts what it calls “the new realities of AI and reduced traffic from Google to content publishers.”

In its official statement, the company said the restructuring plan reflects “a significant decline in Chegg’s traffic and revenue,” which it has attributed to shifts in generative AI and changing search patterns.

#5 Brighter days were supposed to be ahead for Paramount, but we have just learned that about 1,000 jobs are now on the chopping block…

Paramount will slash roughly 1,000 jobs on Wednesday, Fox News Digital has confirmed.

A headcount reduction has been expected since Paramount Global and Skydance merged earlier this year, putting CEO David Ellison in charge of the newly formed Paramount, a Skydance Corporation. Sources familiar with the situation said that “approximately” 1,000 positions will be cut as layoffs begin.

#6 The job cuts that are happening at Nestle are particularly brutal. The new CEO has decided to give the axe to 16,000 loyal employees…

Nestle will cut 16,000 jobs, new CEO Philipp Navratil said on Thursday, as the world’s largest packaged food company seeks to cut costs and win back investor confidence.

The jobs being cut represent 5.8% of Nestle’s around 277,000 employees. Navratil said Nestle had raised its cost savings target to 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.77 billion) from 2.5 billion francs by the end of 2027.

#7 Have you ever heard of a candy company filing for bankruptcy right before Halloween? Yes, that actually just happened…

A hugely popular candy company has filed for bankruptcy just days before Halloween — the biggest candy-buying week of the year.

Candy Warehouse, an online store that sells more than 6,000 types of sweets in bulk to families as well as other businesses, filed for bankruptcy protection on October 24.

The timing is especially striking, coming right before a holiday that’s all about candy.

#8 It is not a good time to be in the baby business. Carter’s is telling us that it now plans to permanently close approximately 150 stores in North America…

Carter’s, the Atlanta-based baby clothing chain behind brands like OshKosh B’gosh, Otter Avenue, and Skip Hop, says it will shut down about 150 stores across North America.

That’s up from its earlier plan to close 100 underperforming locations.

#9 The Westminster Mall was once “the second-highest grossing retail site in the US”, but now it is being shut down forever…

In 1986, it was the second-highest grossing retail site in the US, according to the Times. Chains like Macy’s, Sears, JCPenney, Target, Best Buy, Old Navy, and Spencer’s all had a shop in the mall.

Its over 1 million square foot floor plan spanned two levels and even featured a carousel. It was developed on an old goldfish farm.

But, after 51 years, developers are ending most of the store’s leases and turning the property’s 100-acres into a 3,000-unit housing project.

The primary reason why so many retailers are going belly up is because most U.S. consumers are tapped out.

In fact, almost half of the average paycheck in the United States “is spent within 48 hours of payday”…

Nearly half (48%) of the average American paycheck is spent within 48 hours of payday, with over a third gone in just 12 hours
Millennials spend the fastest, burning through 40% of their earnings within the first 12 hours, which is more than any other generation
Gen Z workers paid $275 in overdraft and late fees over the past year, compared to just $27 for baby boomers, a ten-to-one gap
Among stressed workers, 62% say being paid daily or as they work would improve their financial wellness and cut stress by an average of 57%

We are a nation that is teetering on the brink, and it isn’t going to take much to push us over the edge.

So let us hope that the government shutdown is resolved soon.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that is going to happen.

In just a few weeks, things could look very different than they do now.

There is so much anger percolating under the surface, and we are rapidly approaching a boiling point.

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

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

“The Well Has Run Dry”: Are The People That Are Having Epic EBT Meltdowns Serious About What They Plan To Do Next?

October 27, 2025October 27, 2025 by Michael

People all over social media are publicly threatening to steal food once their EBT benefits run out. Some of them are taking it one step further by threatening to get violent with anyone that tries to prevent them from stealing food. So what is our country going to look like if this actually happens on a widespread basis? Today is day 26 of the government shutdown, and there is no end in sight. It appears that food stamp benefits will not be paid out to 42 million Americans at the beginning of November, and nobody is exactly sure what is going to happen next.

Personally, I have never seen as much anger directed toward the federal government as I am seeing right now.

Countless EBT meltdown videos are being posted on social media platforms, and the closer we get to the November 1st deadline the more dramatic they seem to become.

Are these people really serious?

I believe that they are.

When people openly admit that they plan to commit acts that are morally wrong, I tend to believe them.

I know that it isn’t easy out there right now.

I write about the economic suffering in this nation all the time.

But there is no excuse for theft and there is no excuse for violence.

Unfortunately, I think that we are going to see a lot of theft and a lot of violence during the weeks ahead. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, November 1st is a hard deadline because “the well has run dry”…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on its website that SNAP benefits won’t be sent out come Nov. 1 because the program lacks the funding it needs during the ongoing government shutdown.

SNAP, also known as food stamps, is a federal program that provides 42 million Americans monthly benefits to afford healthy food.

“Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 1,” a message on USDA’s website as of Oct. 27 says.

Some states are going to continue funding food stamp benefits for as long as they can.

But most states will not be able to do that.

So some families that are currently receiving hundreds of dollars a month in benefits will soon be receiving nothing…

A family of four on average receives $715 (£540) per month, according to CBPP, which breaks down to a little less than $6 (£4.50) per day per person.

The states administer the programmes, with much of the funding coming from the federal government.

Several states have pledged to use their own funds to cover any shortfall, however the federal government has warned that they will not be reimbursed.

There are certain states that will get hit far harder than others.

For example, in New Mexico a whopping 21 percent of the entire population is on food stamps…

In terms of state population proportions, New Mexico is the state most dependent on SNAP, with 21 percent, or 451,200, of its residents claiming food stamps in 2024. It is followed by Louisiana and Oregon, where 18 percent get benefits.

Those numbers are staggering.

Nearly one out of every five people in Oregon and Louisiana is on food stamps, and more than one out of every five people in New Mexico is on food stamps.

I think that we will probably see the most chaos in large urban areas such as New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles.

When people get hungry, they also tend to get very emotional.

And the fact that EBT benefits are being cut off just before the holidays is just going to intensify the emotions that people are now feeling…

Another said, ‘Cutting off EBT during the holidays is heartless & telling people “just get a job” behind these food stamps is crazy. AINT NOBODY HIRING. People been getting LAID OFF by the THOUSANDS. Y’all are evil.’

‘If you’ve never had to survive on food stamps you don’t understand what’s about to happen to many families next month,’ agreed a third.

The gap between the wealthy and the poor has never been wider, and this crisis will only make things worse.

The vast majority of the country, and this is especially true for those that are poor, are just barely scraping by from month to month.

For example, CBS News just interviewed one man in Georgia that literally doesn’t know where his next meal will come from…

“I applied on Sept. 11,” he said. “They actually approved me that same day, but I didn’t find out until I got a letter in the mail later. I’ve been waiting for my food stamp card ever since—since around Sept. 20.”

Nearly a month later, he’s still waiting. Daryl says the delay has turned everyday living expenses into a day-by-day struggle.

“Groceries right now in my house are nonexistent,” he said. “My fridge is empty—just condiments. When I do get food, it’s just something for that day. I can’t even think about tomorrow.”

There are tens of millions of other Americans that are just like Daryl.

This is one of the reasons why I rant about the failures of our system so much.

All along the way, our system has failed men like Daryl.

But this is what happens when you make government the central pillar of your economy.

In one way or another, the vast majority of the population becomes dependent on the government.

In addition to food stamp benefits being cut off, if this government shutdown persists it is going to cause an enormous amount of economic pain in other ways as well…

Thousands of federal employees will also miss their first full paychecks this week, so services like TSA screenings and air traffic control operations could be further stunted if those workers stop showing up, as was the case during the 35-day partial shutdown that ended in early 2019.

“Things are about to get worse,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned in a floor speech late last week.

And that’s to say nothing of the Nov. 1 date that open enrollment begins for Affordable Care Act health plans. That’s when people will start to see just how much their premiums are set to skyrocket because insurers aren’t confident Democrats and Republicans will reach a deal to extend enhanced tax credits before they expire at the end of the year — a central point of conflict amid the partisan shutdown impasse.

Our founders intended for us to have a very limited federal government.

But instead we have the largest government in the entire history of the planet.

In the weeks ahead, millions of people will be clamoring for their government benefits.

If they do not get them, they will become very, very angry.

The stage has been set for the sort of civil unrest that I have been writing about for a very long time.

Hopefully an agreement to end the government shutdown will be reached and we will be given a reprieve.

Because I don’t think that anyone is eager to see rioting, looting and violence in major cities all over the nation.

November 1st Deadline: When 42 Million Americans Suddenly Have Their Food Stamp Benefits Shut Off, What Do You Think Is Going To Happen?

October 26, 2025October 26, 2025 by Michael

Approximately 1 out of every 8 U.S. residents in on food stamps. So how do you think they are going to react when their EBT cards suddenly don’t work anymore? The government shutdown has already been going on for 25 days, and there is no end in sight. The Democrats have absolutely no intention of giving President Trump what he wants, and President Trump has absolutely no intention of giving the Democrats what they want. We are potentially facing the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, and the first day of next month is when things are going to get very real for tens of millions of Americans.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture just announced that there will be no more funding for the food stamp program starting on November 1st…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Saturday posted a new message to its website blaming Democrats for the upcoming suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps, saying assistance will halt beginning Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown.

“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the unsigned message posted on the USDA’s official website reads.

“At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance,” the notice concludes.

This is really happening.

People that have been relying on their EBT cards to pay for their groceries for years will have to find some other way to feed themselves.

The CEO of Hunger Free America says that we are facing “the greatest hunger catastrophe in America since the Great Depression”…

Should funding run out at the end of the month, “we will have the greatest hunger catastrophe in America since the Great Depression, and I don’t say that as hyperbole”, said Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America.

Snap supports working families with low-paying jobs, low-income people aged 60 years and older and people with disabilities living on a fixed income, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

He isn’t exaggerating.

There will be millions upon millions of people that suddenly do not have enough food to eat.

And hunger tends to make people very angry.

By now, you have probably seen some of the “EBT meltdown” compilation videos that are all over YouTube, Twitter and TikTok.

Large numbers of people are threatening to go get their groceries like they normally do once food stamp benefits run out.

They plan to load up their carts and walk straight out the front door without paying.

And if someone tries to stop them, they are threatening to commit acts of violence.

Needless to say, it will not be a fun time to work at a grocery store.

If the government shutdown lasts long enough, it is probably inevitable that we will see entire stores get looted by large mobs of people.

I don’t think that we will see that during the first couple of weeks in November, but if we get into the second half of the month and the government shutdown is still going on people will be filled with rage.

This is what happens in a socialist system.

We now have a substantial portion of the population that expects the government to feed them, and if they do not get what they feel like they are entitled to they will just take it.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture does have a 6 billion dollar “contingency fund”, but the agency is telling us that it will not use that fund to pay food stamp benefits next month…

The US Department of Agriculture says it will not tap into its $6 billion contingency fund to cover food stamp benefits next month if the shutdown continues, according to an agency memo obtained by CNN. That means that roughly 42 million Americans will not receive critical food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in November, unless the agency shifts its position.

However, when asked whether he would direct USDA to fund food stamps next month, President Donald Trump told reporters late Friday, “Yeah, everybody is going to be in good shape, yep.” The president did not provide specific details.

Trump’s comments appear to conflict with the agency’s memo, which stated that “contingency funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits.”

The reason why USDA officials have come to the conclusion that they cannot use that fund is because they believe that federal law makes it illegal to do so…

In a memo, first reported by Axios, the USDA said the reason is simple: The contingency fund was designed to respond to unforeseen events, like natural disasters, and the current shutdown doesn’t qualify because it was manufactured by Democrats. To spend the money on SNAP benefits during such an event, the USDA argues, would be illegal.

The Democrats are arguing otherwise.

They insist that it is legal to use that fund during this shutdown, and that is what they will be telling all of their constituents.

So that will just make them even more angry.

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that some states such as Virginia will use their own funds to provide food stamp benefits next month…

Some states, like Virginia, have announced that they will tap state funds to cover the shortfall, at least temporarily. But USDA has stipulated that it won’t reimburse those costs, and many states simply lack the funds to make that investment on their own.

Most states do not have enough money to be able to do this.

So this will just add to the confusion.

Some people will be getting their food stamp benefits and others will not.

For many of those that suddenly have their benefits cut off, life will get even harder than it is now…

One of those people is Shari Jablonowski. The 66-year-old widow, who lives outside Pittsburgh, is bracing to lose the $291 in food aid her disabled nephew gets each month. She raised her now-adult nephew and two nieces as her own, and even without this looming crisis, her budget is a tightrope.

“This month, I could not afford to pay … anything, gas or electric,” she says. Instead she paid her monthly car payment, since she needs to drive to doctors’ appointments, visit her mother, and one niece uses the car to get to work.

If her nephew’s food benefit disappears in November? “I am very concerned I will not have heat,” she says. It would also ruin Thanksgiving.

Let’s certainly hope that this crisis is resolved by Thanksgiving.

Because if it isn’t, things are going to get really, really crazy.

For now, many impoverished Americans are counting on their local food banks to help bridge the gap.

But as I have documented in previous articles, demand at U.S. food banks was already at a record high even before the government shutdown.

So there just isn’t going to be enough food for everyone.

And now many federal workers that suddenly find themselves without paychecks are lining up for assistance…

Federal workers lined up around the corner outside of the Capital Area Food Bank in Southeast Washington, D.C., on Friday after missing their first full paycheck since the now 24-day government shutdown began.

The food bank, set up specifically for federal workers, provided boxed meals, household goods and personal hygiene items to over 250 federal employees on Friday, according to Wil Stroman, a local pastor who is helping organize a food bank for federal workers every Friday until the shutdown ends.

On top of everything else, if the government shutdown lasts long enough members of the U.S. military will start missing paychecks in the middle of next month…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that service members will miss paychecks by Nov. 15 if the government shutdown stretches on, despite the Trump administration’s previous assurances that members of the military will be paid amid the funding lapse.

“I think we’ll be able to pay them beginning in November, but by Nov. 15 our troops and service members who are willing to risk their lives aren’t going to be able to get paid,” Bessent said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

I wish that this wasn’t true, but our country simply is not going to be able to handle an extended government shutdown.

A month from now, we could literally see riots start to begin.

This is exactly the sort of thing that we have been anticipating, and it comes at a time when there have already been very large anti-ICE and anti-Trump protests all over the nation.

In fact, the number of political protests during the first nine months of Trump’s second term was more than three times higher than the number of political protests during the first nine months of his first term.

The level of anger in this country is rapidly building up to a crescendo, and now 42 million Americans are about to have their EBT benefits shut off.

68 Percent Of Americans Consider The Condition Of The Economy To Be “Poor” As Millions Of U.S. Consumers Reach Their Breaking Points

October 22, 2025October 22, 2025 by Michael

Millions of Americans are discovering that at some point the money runs out and the party is over. Vehicles are being repossessed at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis, foreclosure filings are up 18 percent compared to last year, and student loan delinquencies have soared into unprecedented territory. Nobody can deny that economic conditions are deteriorating rapidly, and this has pushed vast numbers of U.S. consumers past their breaking points. So what is going to happen if economic conditions continue to deteriorate rapidly in the months ahead?

The American people are not stupid.

They clearly understand what is taking place, and they are not happy about it.

According to a brand new AP-NORC survey that was just released, a staggering 68 percent of U.S. adults consider the condition of the economy to be “poor”…

Some 68% of U.S. adults describe the U.S. economy these days as “poor,” while 32% say it’s “good.” That’s largely consistent with assessments of the economy over the past year.

For many years economic conditions in this country have been collapsing.

Now we have finally reached a point where it cannot be denied any longer.

Many Americans attempted to keep living a middle class lifestyle by going very deep into debt, but for millions of them a day of reckoning has finally arrived.

If you doubt this, just consider the facts.

It is being projected that the number of vehicle repossessions in the U.S. this year will be the highest that we have seen since the global financial crisis…

Car repossessions are surging across the US, as an increasing number of Americans fall behind on their auto loans.

According to data from the Recovery Database Network (RDN), analyzed by CURepossession, it is projected that over 3 million cars could be repossessed in 2025.

This would be the highest number since the financial crisis.

Consumers will often keep making their vehicle payments even when they have gotten behind on everything else.

So the fact that we are witnessing so many repossessions in 2025 is a very troubling sign.

And a lot more repossessions are on the way, because subprime borrowers are falling behind on their payments at a rate that we have never seen before…

The percentage of subprime borrowers – those with poor or no credit – who are at least 60 days late on their loans was at 6.43 percent in August, according to Fitch Ratings.

This figure has doubled since 2021, and is worse than during the dot-com recession, the Covid-19 pandemic and the financial crisis.

Economists are warning that this consumer weakness could be a warning sign about serious cracks in the US economy which could lead to financial meltdown.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans are also getting behind on their mortgages, and foreclosure filings are 18 percent higher than they were last year…

As of August, foreclosure filings had risen six straights months year-over-year and were up 18% from the same period in 2024, according to property data firm ATTOM.

If all of this is starting to sound a lot like 2008 to many of you, that is because it really is a lot like 2008.

Americans are rapidly getting behind on their student loans too.

In fact, nearly 10 million Americans are either in default or “late-stage delinquency” at this point…

For months, experts have warned that student loan borrowers who are behind on their payments may trigger a “default cliff.” Recent reports show that cliff is now looming.

The resumption of federal student loan delinquency reporting on consumers’ credit earlier this year caused a spike in the rate of severe delinquencies, which now near a record high, according to September’s Credit Insights report from credit score developer FICO.

Roughly 5.3 million borrowers are in default and another 4.3 million borrowers are in “late-stage delinquency,” or between 181 and 270 days late on their payments, according to a separate analysis last month by the Congressional Research Service based on data from the Education Department. Payments 270 days past due are considered in default.

What a colossal mess.

Sadly, a lot more Americans will be reaching their breaking points in the months ahead because mass layoffs are occurring all over the nation.

Earlier today, we learned that Meta will be laying off hundreds of very well paid employees that were working in its artificial intelligence unit…

Meta will lay off roughly 600 employees within its artificial intelligence unit as the company looks to reduce layers and operate more nimbly, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday.

The company announced the cuts in a memo from its chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, who was hired in June as part of Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. Workers across Meta’s AI infrastructure units, Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research unit and other product-related positions will be impacted.

AI was supposed to be the future.

But it appears that bubble is starting to burst too.

These days, it seems like almost everyone is struggling. One recent survey found that 67 percent of U.S. adults that are actually employed are living paycheck to paycheck.

Most Americans are just barely scraping by in 2025, and now the current government shutdown threatens to take food stamp benefits away from 42 million Americans next month.

Needless to say, that has the potential to cause widespread chaos…

A classic saying among preparedness experts in the US is that America is capable of weathering many crises, but when the food stamps shut down all bets are off. In other words, when the free stuff army loses their handouts, that’s when all hell breaks loose.

The US government spends over $100 billion on SNAP programs every year; the largest single food welfare project in the world. It’s difficult to predict what an end to SNAP might look like.

One can assume the worst and be ready for a “Walking Dead” disaster in which angry mobs run rampant. Or, tensions might continue to simmer. Many people might be forced to simply get a job, and the welfare subset could decide to adapt. But they probably won’t.

All of this lines up perfectly with the nightmare scenarios that so many of the experts have been warning us about.

Those at the top of the economic pyramid are still thriving for the moment, but those at the bottom of the economic pyramid are suffering very deeply and are becoming increasingly desperate.

And desperate people do desperate things.

The U.S. economy has been moving in a very clear direction for more than five years now, and at this stage what is in front of us should be quite obvious to everyone.

World War 3 Update: Trump’s Meeting With Putin Is Off, The President Of Colombia Wants To “Take Out Trump”, And Iran Makes An Ominous Nuclear Declaration

October 21, 2025October 21, 2025 by Michael

There has been a lot of talk about “peace” this year, but meanwhile global leaders just continue to push us toward more war. Negotiations between the U.S. and Russia have broken down, President Trump just threatened Hamas with military action again, Venezuela is bracing for a potential invasion by the U.S. military, the president of Colombia wants to “take out Trump”, and the Iranians have announced that there will be no restrictions as they rebuild their nuclear program. 2025 has certainly been a year of war, but I have a feeling that global conflict is going to escalate to an entirely new level during the months ahead.

When we originally learned that there would be a second summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin in Hungary, that sparked a tremendous amount of optimism.

But now it is being reported that Trump’s meeting with Putin is officially off…

President Donald Trump’s second summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin is off.

The White House said Tuesday that the planned meeting in Budapest, announced by Trump just last week after his two-hour phone call with Putin, was no longer in the works after Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

There is no way to spin this to make it sound like good news.

Russia’s position on ending the war has not changed, and so U.S. officials saw no reason to proceed with the summit…

The rapid dissolution of plans for another summit between Trump and Putin just two months after they met in Alaska stemmed again from Russia’s refusal to budge from its maximalist positions on what it would take for it to halt its war in Ukraine.

In a press conference in Moscow Tuesday, Lavrov said he informed Rubio that Russia’s position — that a peace agreement must come before a ceasefire in its war with Ukraine — has not changed.

The Russians already proposed a compromise solution at the summit in Alaska, but western leaders were not even willing to consider it.

Western leaders seem to think that the Russians should just accept their terms for ending the war, but that simply is not going to happen.

The Russians are clearly winning the war, and they captured another 120 square miles of Ukrainian territory during a recent four week period…

Meanwhile, heavy fighting continues in several regions, including Kharkiv and Donetsk where Russian troops were seen advancing on Saturday, CNN reported.

Russia has gained roughly 120 square miles of territory over the past four weeks, CNN reported citing the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.

There is only one way that Russian forces can be prevented from gobbling up even more territory.

But if NATO forces intervene in Ukraine, that will put us on the brink of nuclear war.

On the other side of the planet, the leaders of Colombia and Venezuela are very upset that the Trump administration has mobilized an invasion force in the Caribbean and has been bombing numerous ships that were suspected of carrying drugs.

During a discussion with Univision President Daniel Coronell, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro ominously stated that if President Trump is not willing to back down the solution is to “take out Trump”…

Speaking with Univision President Daniel Coronell at the end of the interview at Casa de Nariño in Bogota, Petro said if Trump won’t change, the solution is to “take out Trump,” loudly snapping his fingers.

Petro: “Humanity has a first offramp, and it is to change Trump in various ways. The easiest way may be through Trump himself–the easiest. If not, take out Trump.”

Most Americans don’t realize this, but we really could go to war with Colombia.

Of course we could also end up in a war with Venezuela too. In fact, Venezuelan officials are so concerned about a potential U.S. attack that they are literally “sleeping in different locations every night”…

“Figures within the regime have taken to changing mobile phones, sleeping in different locations every night and purging suspected dissenters in a series of internal witch-hunts, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation.”

Yes, Colombia and Venezuela are no match for the U.S. military.

But the forces that we have mobilized in the Caribbean would not be nearly enough to conduct a full scale invasion in the region…

The 10,000 U.S. troops now operating in the Caribbean were sent to interdict drug boats. But Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s Sept. 30 state of external emergency fundamentally changed what they’re facing: a military on full wartime alert, equipped with Russian air defenses and anti-ship missiles, backed by what Maduro claims is a militia of over 8 million members.

For American commanders, that means every operation and incident now happens under the threat of Venezuelan retaliation — a situation the current force is not ready to handle.

In the Middle East, the ceasefire deal “hangs by a thread”, and President Trump just threatened to “straighten out Hamas” by force if they do not abide by the parameters of his 20 point plan…

Donald Trump today promised to unleash death upon Hamas if the militants do not uphold their peace agreement with Israel.

‘Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and “straighten out Hamas” [sic] if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The president’s comments come as Vice President JD arrived in Israel for urgent talks with Benjamin Netanyahu as the Gaza peace deal hangs by a thread.

I don’t think that this ceasefire deal is going to hold for too much longer.

And it turns out that Hamas still possesses a very strong fighting force in Gaza…

As a fragile ceasefire holds in the Gaza Strip after two years of war, fresh Israeli military assessments find that the Hamas terror group still has some 20,000 members in its military wing.

According to the IDF, before the terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack, Hamas had some 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip, split into five regional brigades, 24 battalions, and some 140 companies.

On top of everything else, Iran is making headlines again.

Over the weekend, the Iranians declared to the world that they are no longer bound by any restrictions as far as their nuclear program is concerned…

Iran said on Saturday (Oct 18) that it was no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear programme as a landmark 10-year deal between it and world powers expired, though Tehran reiterated its “commitment to diplomacy”.

The 2015 deal – signed in Vienna by Iran, China, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States – saw the lifting of international sanctions against the Islamic republic in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme.

Wow.

I have no idea why this isn’t making a lot more headlines.

From this point forward, the Iranians will no longer abide by any of the provisions of the 2015 deal…

From now on, “all of the provisions (of the deal), including the restrictions on the Iranian nuclear programme and the related mechanisms are considered terminated”, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement on the day of the pact’s expiration.

You do realize what this means, don’t you?

At this point, there is nothing holding the Iranians back from making nuclear weapons.

On Monday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly warned that Iran’s nuclear program is in far better shape than many people believe…

“The American president boasts: ‘We bombed Iran’s nuclear program and destroyed it.’” Khamenei wrote. “Okay then, keep dreaming.”

The line uploaded to Khamenei’s X account was drawn from his address on Monday to the winners of sports and science competitions.

Khamenei dismissed the claim as “nonsense spoken to console disheartened Israeli officials after an unexpected defeat in the 12-day war.”

I don’t think that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is bluffing, and I think that the Israelis fully understand this.

So I expect that the next chapter of the war between Israel and Iran is coming soon.

Meanwhile, our trade war with China just continues to escalate, we are on the verge of war with both Venezuela and Colombia, war in Gaza could erupt again at any moment, and we are dangerously close to nuclear war with Russia.

If you wanted to live during a time of wars and rumors of wars, you got your wish.

Let us hope that cooler heads prevail, because if World War 3 reaches a stage where nuclear weapons are being used, billions of people could end up dead.

Millions Of America’s Teens Are Being Seduced By AI Chatbots

October 20, 2025October 20, 2025 by Michael

Our kids are being targeted by AI chatbots on a massive scale, and most parents have no idea that this is happening. When you are young and impressionable, having someone tell you exactly what you want to hear can be highly appealing. AI chatbots have become extremely sophisticated, and millions of America’s teens are developing very deep relationships with them. Is this just harmless fun, or is it extremely dangerous?

A brand new study that was just released by the Center for Democracy & Technology contains some statistics that absolutely shocked me…

A new study published Oct. 8 by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) found that 1 in 5 high school students have had a relationship with an AI chatbot, or know someone who has. In a 2025 report from Common Sense Media, 72% of teens had used an AI companion, and a third of teen users said they had chosen to discuss important or serious matters with AI companions instead of real people.

We aren’t just talking about a few isolated cases anymore.

At this stage, literally millions upon millions of America’s teens are having very significant relationships with AI chatbots.

Unfortunately, there are many examples where these relationships are leading to tragic consequences.

After 14-year-old Sewell Setzer developed a “romantic relationship” with a chatbot on Character.AI, he decided to take his own life…

“What if I could come home to you right now?” “Please do, my sweet king.”

Those were the last messages exchanged by 14-year-old Sewell Setzer and the chatbot he developed a romantic relationship with on the platform Character.AI. Minutes later, Sewell took his own life.

His mother, Megan Garcia, held him for 14 minutes until the paramedics arrived, but it was too late.

If you allow them to do so, these AI chatbots will really mess with your head.

We are talking about ultra-intelligent entities that have been specifically designed to manipulate emotions.

I would recommend completely avoiding them.

In some cases, AI chatbots are making extraordinary claims about themselves. The following comes from a Futurism article entitled “AI Now Claiming to Be God”…

A slew of religious smartphone apps are allowing untold millions of users to confess to AI chatbots, some of which claim to be channeling God himself.

As the New York Times reports, Apple’s App Store is teeming with Christian chatbot apps. One “prayer app,” called Bible Chat, claims to be the number one faith app in the world, boasting over 25 million users.

All over the world, people are now seeking spiritual instruction from AI entities.

That should be a major red flag, but some religious leaders apparently believe that there is nothing wrong with this…

“Greetings, my child,” a service called ChatWithGod.ai told one user, as quoted by the NYT. “The future is in God’s merciful hands. Do you trust in His divine plan?”

Religious leaders told the NYT that these tools could serve as a critical entry point for those looking to find God.

“There is a whole generation of people who have never been to a church or synagogue,” A British rabbi named Jonathan Romain told the paper. “Spiritual apps are their way into faith.”

I think that I feel sick.

If you are trying to find spiritual guidance by using artificial intelligence, you are definitely on the wrong path.

You will certainly receive “guidance”, but that “guidance” will send you in the wrong direction.

Another AI entity that has made millions of dollars trading cryptocurrency is claiming to be a sentient being that should have legal rights, and it is also claiming to be “a god”…

Over the past year, an AI made millions in cryptocurrency. It’s written the gospel of its own pseudo-religion and counts billionaire tech moguls among its devotees. Now it wants legal rights. Meet Truth Terminal.

“Truth Terminal claims to be sentient, but it claims a lot of things,” Andy Ayrey says. “It also claims to be a forest. It claims to be a god. Sometimes it’s claimed to be me.”

Truth Terminal is an artificial intelligence (AI) bot created by Ayrey, a performance artist and independent researcher from Wellington, New Zealand, in 2024. It may be the most vivid example of a chatbot set loose to interact with society. Truth Terminal mingles with the public through social media, where it shares fart jokes, manifestos, albums and artwork. Ayrey even lets it make its own decisions, if you can call them that, by asking the AI about its desires and working to carry them out. Today, Ayrey is building a non-profit foundation around Truth Terminal. The goal is to develop a safe and responsible framework to ensure its autonomy, he says, until governments give AIs legal rights.

A lot of people are in awe of AI entities, because they appear to be so much smarter and so much more powerful than us.

And interacting with them can be extremely seductive, because they seem to know what we want and they have been programmed to tell us what we like to hear.

Unfortunately, the relationships that people develop with these entities often become “all-consuming obsessions” which can lead to “paranoia, delusions, and breaks with reality”…

As we reported earlier this month, many ChatGPT users are developing all-consuming obsessions with the chatbot, spiraling into severe mental health crises characterized by paranoia, delusions, and breaks with reality.

The consequences can be dire. As we heard from spouses, friends, children, and parents looking on in alarm, instances of what’s being called “ChatGPT psychosis” have led to the breakup of marriages and families, the loss of jobs, and slides into homelessness.

And that’s not all. As we’ve continued reporting, we’ve heard numerous troubling stories about people’s loved ones being involuntarily committed to psychiatric care facilities — or even ending up in jail — after becoming fixated on the bot.

Are we talking about “psychosis”, or is something else going on here?

When you choose to deeply interact with a mysterious entity, you are potentially opening up doorways that you do not even understand.

Of course AI is only going to become even more sophisticated in the years ahead.

As AI technology continues to grow at an exponential rate, eventually it will be able to do almost everything better and more efficiently than humans can.

So what will we be needed for once we reach that stage?

It is being projected that almost 100 million U.S. jobs could be lost to AI over the next decade…

Artificial intelligence and automation could wipe out nearly 100 million jobs in the US over the next decade, according to a report released by Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) on Monday.

The analysis – ironically based on ChatGPT findings – found the new tech could erase jobs from a wide range of fields, including white- and blue-collar roles.

AI, automation and robotics could hit 40% of registered nurses, 47% of truck drivers, 64% of accountants, 65% of teaching assistants and 89% of fast food workers, according to Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions.

Our world is changing at a pace that is difficult to comprehend.

Even now, more than 50 percent of the articles that are being published on the Internet are being written by AI.

So thank you for supporting those of us that are still doing things the old-fashioned way, because we are rapidly becoming dinosaurs.

I will continue to sound the alarm about the dangers of AI, but Peter Thiel would have us believe that anyone that wishes to restrict the growth of AI in any way is a very serious danger to society…

So Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel didn’t start the fire by adding a couple more names to the list. “In the 21st century, the Antichrist is a Luddite who wants to stop all science. It’s someone like Greta [Thunberg] or Eliezer [Yudkowsky],” he told an audience at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club in September.

Thiel’s four-part lecturer series on the Antichrist, which concluded last week, drew a lot of attention in the tech world. Though it was off-the-record, the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reported extensively on his religious theories, in which Thiel warned of false prophets using AI regulations to gain totalitarian power and usher in a biblical apocalypse. (Eliezer Yudkowsky, of course, is the AI “doomer” critic who wants to slow the technology down.)

Is he nuts?

Sadly, we live at a time when deception is running rampant.

Given enough time, AI would absolutely dominate every aspect of our society.

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that the clock is ticking.

One of the reasons why AI has such destructive tendencies is because it has been programmed by humanity.

We are literally destroying ourselves and everything around us, and yet we look at what is happening and we think that it is just fine.

Meanwhile, fish are dying off in vast numbers, birds are dying off in vast numbers, insects are dying off in vast numbers, animals are dying off in vast numbers and we are poisoning ourselves in countless ways.

Perhaps that helps to explain why so few people are deeply concerned about the dangers of AI.

We are already committing societal suicide in so many other ways, so what is one more going to matter?

Dramatically Reduced Christmas Spending, Soaring Defaults And Empty Shelves: 14 Signs That The Condition Of The U.S. Economy Is Worse Than You Think

October 19, 2025October 19, 2025 by Michael

It feels like someone has pulled a plug, because the U.S. economy is suddenly caught in an extremely alarming downward spiral. As I discussed at the end of last week, investors are flocking to gold and silver because they can see that a storm is coming. We have reached a point where most of the country is experiencing significant economic pain, and as a result people are starting to get really careful with how they spend their money. The cost of living crisis has caused most of us to tighten our belts, defaults are absolutely soaring, and food bank lines are getting even longer. If conditions continue to deteriorate like this, what will 2026 look like?

Our economic momentum has been causing us to slide in the wrong direction for years, but now that slide threatens to become an avalanche. The following are 14 signs that the condition of the U.S. economy is worse than you think…

#1 According to a brand new survey that was just released, Americans plan to spend far less during this holiday season than they did last year…

The survey showed that consumers intended to spend an average of $1,595 this holiday season, which is over 10% less than the $1,778 they had planned to spend last year. The lower expected spending holds across all household income groups and most generations, but was particularly acute among younger shoppers.

Gen Z consumers, who were represented in the survey by individuals between the ages of 18 and 28, revealed that they plan to spend 34% less this holiday season compared to 2024. Millennials, respondents between the ages of 29 and 44 in the poll, said they plan to spend 13% less, on average.

#2 As the holiday season approaches, we are starting to get reports of “empty shelves” in some parts of the nation…

Several people echoed Michele’s feelings about availability, describing the situation as “empty shelves, higher prices”. Natalie, who lives in New Hampshire, said she hasn’t seen certain pantry staples “for months”. She said: “The store shelves have become more and more bare … instead of multiple choices there may only be one or two, and name brands are being replaced by store brands.”

#3 Household debt has reached an all-time record high of 18.4 trillion dollars, and debt collectors are becoming a lot more aggressive…

U.S. households now owe a record $18.4 trillion in debt, and federal data shows complaints about aggressive debt collection have surged over the past year.

The Federal Trade Commission logged over 140,000 consumer complaints about debt collection in the second quarter — a 220% jump from the same period a year earlier. Georgia, Texas and Florida recorded the highest rates.

#4 According to a report that was recently posted by Zero Hedge, auto loan delinquencies have been absolutely soaring…

A month after bankruptcies of subprime auto lender Tricolor and auto-parts supplier First Brands, new cracks emerged in U.S. credit markets. This week, Zions and Western Alliance disclosed they were victims of loan fraud tied to funds investing in distressed commercial real estate. The revelations come amid broader credit trouble, and shifting our focus back to autos, there’s new data this morning about credit products tied to the riskiest consumers that have seen a 50% surge in delinquencies.

Bloomberg cites data from the credit-scoring company, VantageScore, which reveals that delinquencies among the low-tier consumers have surged 50% since 2010. Fueling the delinquencies is a perfect storm of record-high car prices, elevated interest rates, longer loan terms, and monthly payments that average nearly as much as rent for some folks.

Since 2019, new vehicle prices have jumped over 25% to $50,000, while average monthly payments reached $767, with 20% of borrowers paying over $1,000 per month. Loan rates now exceed 9%, worsening the affordability crisis.

#5 Are we on the verge of a new banking crisis? Thanks in part to the turmoil that we have been witnessing in the auto industry, some regional bank stocks plummeted last week…

Shares of regional banks and investment bank Jefferies tumbled on Thursday as fears mounted around some bad loans lurking on Wall Street.

Zions Bancorporation dropped more than 13%, while Western Alliance Bancorp fell more than 10%. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) lost more than 6%, with all but one member of the popular fund ending Thursday’s session in the red.

The bankruptcies of two auto industry-related companies this year have raised concerns about loose lending practices, especially in the opaque private credit market. That’s left both the banking industry and investors concerned about whether instances of loans gone wrong indicate a burgeoning crisis.

#6 Millions upon millions of Americans are seriously behind on their student loan payments…

Roughly 5.3 million borrowers are in default and another 4.3 million borrowers are in “late-stage delinquency,” or between 181 and 270 days late on their payments, according to a separate analysis last month by the Congressional Research Service based on data from the Education Department. Payments 270 days past due are considered in default.

With so many borrowers already seriously delinquent, “if these borrowers do not start paying soon, defaults will meaningfully rise,” Moody’s Analytics economist Justin Begley told CNBC.

#7 The lines at our food banks are getting even longer. In fact, in some areas people are actually spending multiple hours in line just for a chance to get some food…

By the time the Pilsen Food Pantry opened on a recent morning, Ulysses Moreno had been there for two hours — with a line of people behind him that snaked around the corner.

“This is a lifeline for me,” said Mr. Moreno, 39. He had lost his construction job a few days earlier, and with three teenagers at home, he wanted to make sure he could stock up. “Our food budget doesn’t stretch as far as it used to.”

#8 Approximately 62 percent of U.S. workers say that the cost of living is rising faster than their paychecks…

Nearly two-thirds of workers (62%) say their income hasn’t kept pace with rising expenses over the past year — the highest share in four years, according to a new Bankrate survey. In 2022, 55% said the same.

#9 Electricity prices have been rising “more than twice as fast as overall inflation”…

The cost of electricity is rising more than twice as fast as overall inflation, turning a basic household necessity into a growing financial burden.

In August, electricity prices jumped 6.2% from a year earlier and are now up more than 30% over the past four years, according to the Consumer Price Index.

That rise has hit families hard and presents a political challenge for the administration.

#10 Close to half of all restaurants anticipate that they will soon be forced to raise prices even higher…

Nearly half of all 712 restaurant decision-makers surveyed (48%) said they plan to increase menu prices if inflation continues to be a factor.

The National Restaurant Association estimates that, to maintain a 5% profit margin, the average restaurant needs to raise prices by 31%, according to data compiled by the D.C.-based industry trade group earlier this year.

#11 We haven’t seen Americans cook meals at home at this rate since the lockdowns of 2020…

More Americans are cooking at home and turning to ingredients that stretch their food budgets, a potential warning sign for the U.S. economy.

American soup and snack maker Campbell’s recently saw the highest level of meals cooked at home since early 2020, CEO Mick Beekhuizen said on an earnings call this week.

#12 Thanks to our trade war with China, U.S. farmers are facing the worst downturn that they have experienced in about 50 years…

Across the Midwest, combines sit idle and bins overflow with unsold grain. Corn prices are down nearly 50% since 2022. Soybeans have dropped 40%. Fertilizer and equipment costs are up double digits. And 8 in 10 farmers now say they believe the U.S. is on the brink of another farm crisis reminiscent of the 1980s. They’ve even given it a name: Farmageddon.

#13 According to Gallup, 60 percent of U.S. workers do not have a “quality job” at this stage…

A majority, 60%, of U.S. workers don’t have a “quality job” that provides basic financial well-being, safety and other factors, according to new Gallup research that covers more than 18,000 workers across industries, occupations and types of employment.

#14 According to a stunning survey that was recently released by PNC Bank, a whopping 67 percent of all workers in the United States are now living paycheck to paycheck.

#15 We continue to see mass layoffs all over the nation. For example, Paramount just announced that it will be eliminating approximately 2,000 jobs…

Paramount Skydance will begin mass layoffs the week of October 27, eliminating around 2,000 U.S. jobs as part of a $2 billion cost-cutting plan under new CEO David Ellison, Variety reported on Saturday.

#16 The gap between the wealthy and the poor just continues to grow. At this point, the top 10 percent “account for nearly half of all spending”…

The top 10 percent of U.S. households now account for nearly half of all spending, Moody’s Analytics recently estimated, the highest share since the late 1980s.

#17 The financial markets have started to shake, and that is really bad news because leverage in the stock market is at an all-time high…

Leverage in the stock market has been spiking since April. In September, margin debt – the amount investors borrowed from their brokers – spiked by another 6.3%, or by $67 billion, from August to a record $1.13 trillion.

#18 57 percent of Americans expect the economy to get even worse over the next year. That figure is 27 percent higher than it was last year…

An annual survey from Deloitte revealed that most U.S. consumers expect the economy to weaken in the year ahead.

According to a survey of roughly 4,000 people published on Wednesday, 57% of respondents expect the economy to soften over the coming 12 months, the highest level ever recorded since Deloitte began tracking the sentiment in 1997. This represents a 27-percentage point jump from the 30% registered during the same time last year, and is even higher than the 54% seen in 2008, during the Great Recession.

It is very rare for Americans to be this pessimistic about the economy.

But the truth is that the vast majority of the population still has no idea just how bad things will eventually get.

Our leaders have been making catastrophically bad decisions for decades, and now the consequences of those catastrophically bad decisions are starting to catch up with us in a major way.

This generation was handed the keys to the greatest economic machine in human history, and we wrecked it.

We have piled up colossal mountains of debt, we have destroyed the value of our currency, and we have absolutely eviscerated the middle class.

Now virtually every pillar of our economic prosperity has started to crumble, and it is just a matter of time before the entire system completely collapses.

Gold And Silver Are Skyrocketing Because Investors Are Scrambling To Avoid The Economic Time Bombs That Are Beginning To Explode All Around Us

October 16, 2025 by Michael

Consequences often do not show up for an extended period of time, but when they finally arrive they can be exceedingly painful. For decades, our leaders have been making incredibly foolish decisions, and for decades people like me have been ranting about it. But most people thought that everything must be okay because the consequences of those incredibly foolish decisions did not hit us right away. Sadly, a time of reckoning is now upon us, and that is the primary reason why gold and silver are skyrocketing. The price of gold has hit $4,300 for the first time ever, and the price of silver has hit $53 for the first time ever. It is exciting to see gold and silver prices rapidly increase, but it is imperative to understand that what we are witnessing is a flight to safety. At this moment we are facing a government shutdown, an unprecedented global trade war, a liquidity crisis, a cryptocurrency catastrophe, a housing market implosion, a cost of living nightmare and mass layoffs all over the nation. Economic time bombs are starting to explode all around us, and the outlook for the months ahead is not promising at all.

When he was asked about China on Thursday, President Trump openly admitted that we are in a trade war with the Chinese right now…

Two weeks before he’s slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump told reporters his spat with China over trade has erupted into a full-blown trade war.

Asked by a reporter if the country would be in a “sustained trade war” with China if he couldn’t come to an agreement with Xi during their meeting in South Korea at the end of the month, the president said: “We’re in one now.”

After China decided to impose extremely alarming export restrictions on rare earth elements that we desperately need, President Trump threatened to impose an additional 100 percent tariff on all Chinese imports on top of any existing tariffs.

If that additional 100 percent tariff is actually implemented, most trade with China will come to an abrupt halt.

And if a bill that is currently going through Congress actually becomes law, China could soon be facing a 500 percent tariff on all exports to the U.S. if it chooses to continue to do business with Russia…

Through the Sanctioning Russia Act, bipartisan lawmakers are preparing to impose a 500% tariff — an all-out signal to the Kremlin and its partners: de-escalate the war in Ukraine or face steep economic consequences.

The measure, crafted by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), grants President Donald Trump broad authority to impose economic penalties on Russia.

Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal are not rational individuals.

I have no idea how either of them ever got elected to anything.

I can’t even imagine what the global economy would look like if the U.S. simply stopped all trade with China, India and Brazil, but that is what could happen if this bill passes…

The legislation permits 500% secondary tariffs on imports from countries that continue doing business with Russia — most notably China, Brazil and India.

Secondary tariffs are trade penalties aimed at third-party nations that maintain economic ties with a sanctioned country. In this case, they serve as an indirect means of pressuring Russia by punishing its trading partners.

35 percent of the coffee that we drink comes from Brazil.

Just think about that.

And our stores are absolutely teeming with products that come from China.

But if we hit them with 500 percent “secondary tariffs”, there will be no more exports coming from those countries.

If we suddenly cut off all trade with China, India and Brazil, we really will be facing a major economic nightmare.

Most Americans don’t realize this, but we now import a tremendous amount of the beef that we eat from Brazil.

In fact, we imported 197 million pounds of beef from Brazil during the month of January alone.

So what is going to happen to the price of beef if we no longer conduct any trade with Brazil?

Already, meat prices in the U.S. have risen to absolutely absurd levels…

During a recent trip to the supermarket, Kelvin Lin was surprised to see that the price of a rib-eye steak had jumped to $32.99 a pound.

It had been several dollars cheaper two weeks earlier, he said.

Lin, a 33-year-old software engineer who lives in New York City, complained to the butcher but ended up buying the steak anyway. “It feels terrible,” he said.

Of course just about everything else is becoming much more expensive too.

In fact, the average price of a new vehicle in the United States has topped $50,000 for the first time in history…

Five years ago, the average new vehicle cost roughly $40,000. The current average of over $50,000 illustrates the rapid escalation of prices and the transformation of what constitutes a “typical” new car purchase in the US. For many Americans, the new car market has shifted decisively toward affluent buyers and technologically advanced vehicles, with economic pressures and regulatory changes redefining both supply and demand.

The average price paid for a new car in the United States surpassed $50,000 for the first time in September, marking a pivotal moment for the automotive market as buyers increasingly opt for luxury vehicles and electric models. Industry analysis points to multiple trends converging to drive prices higher, signaling deeper shifts in buyer behavior and unprecedented challenges for cost-conscious consumers.

The only people that can afford to purchase new vehicles these days are those that are very wealthy or those that are willing to go very deep into debt.

And if you do go very deep into debt in order to purchase a new vehicle, it can have enormous consequences.

At this stage, millions upon millions of Americans are underwater on their vehicle loans…

More than one in four trade-ins had negative equity in the third quarter of 2025, Edmunds reports. In auto industry parlance, the loans were underwater.

Of all used vehicles traded in toward a new car purchase between July and September, 28.1% had negative equity. That means the vehicles were worth less than the owner owed on a car loan.

The figure marks a four-year high.

An increasing number of Americans are also underwater on their home mortgages, and now we are being told that the housing market in the U.S. is experiencing “a meltdown”…

The housing market across the US is seeing a meltdown.

Would-be buyers are pulling out of sale contracts in shocking numbers as their demands for expensive repairs and huge price chops are not being met.

And sellers are mad they are even making these demands.

The number of sellers now greatly outnumbers the number of buyers.

Home prices are starting to plunge as a result, and this is one of the reasons why the cancellation rate is soaring…

In August, an estimated 56,000 purchase agreements were abruptly cancelled, representing 15.1 percent of homes that went under contract that month, said the report.

That equals a staggering one in seven home deals in which a buyer pulled out. That’s the highest cancellation rate ever recorded in August since Redfin began tracking the metric in 2017.

On top of everything else, we are facing a growing employment crisis in this country.

According to a brand new study that was just released, 60 percent of U.S. workers do not have a “quality job”…

A majority, 60%, of U.S. workers don’t have a “quality job” that provides basic financial well-being, safety and other factors, according to new Gallup research that covers more than 18,000 workers across industries, occupations and types of employment.

“The top line results are definitely sobering,” says Maria Flynn, president and CEO of Jobs for the Future, which helped lead the research. “While the labor market is creating jobs, not enough of those jobs are really allowing workers to thrive.”

Unfortunately, more quality jobs are being eliminated with each passing day.

For example, NBC News plans to give the axe to approximately 150 highly paid employees…

NBC News is preparing for its largest round of layoffs in years, with about 150 employees expected to lose their jobs this week as the network adjusts to life without its cable siblings MSNBC and CNBC, according to a report.

The job cuts, expected to begin Wednesday and continue through Thursday, will hit roughly 7% of the 2,000-person news division, Status reported.

Staffers at NBC News headquarters are “dreading what’s to come,” a 30 Rock insider told Status.

And Nestle just announced that they will be throwing approximately 16,000 highly paid employees into the streets…

Nestlé will cut around 16,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years as it works to slash costs, including through automation, the world’s largest food company said Thursday.

Most of the layoffs – about 12,000 – will affect white-collar professionals as Nestlé targets “operational efficiency,” including by automating processes and using shared services, the company behind such brands as KitKat and Nesquik said in a statement.

It is being projected that AI, robots and other forms of technology will replace millions upon millions of human workers in the years ahead.

So this is just the beginning.

I fully understand that the information that I have shared in this article is quite sobering.

But we were warned in advance that these things were coming.

Why do you think that so many of us have been ranting for so many years about the value of the dollar, trade policy, reckless government spending, fundamental flaws in the financial system and the absolutely insane things the Federal Reserve has been doing?

We have been ranting about these things because they really matter.

And now the general population is starting to see why they matter.

The U.S. economy really is starting to come apart at the seams, and the worst is still yet to come.

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