Money

“We Want Our Entitlements”: In November, Food Stamp Money Will Run Out For 42 Million Very Angry Americans

October 13, 2025October 13, 2025 by Michael

What do you think is going to happen when tens of millions of impoverished Americans suddenly stop getting their food stamp money from the government? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a lot of them will be extremely angry. Unfortunately, if the current government shutdown stretches into the month of November, we really will be facing a nightmare scenario. Vast numbers of extraordinarily frustrated people will be demanding their money, and if they don’t get it I have a feeling that we could see rioting and violence.

I haven’t written much about the government shutdown because I was hoping that it would be resolved quickly.

Sadly, that has not happened.

Neither the Democrats or the Republicans are budging, and House Speaker Mike Johnson is warning that we are potentially facing “one of the longest shutdowns in American history”…

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday the country is “barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history.”

As the funding crisis hits the two-week mark, lawmakers still don’t appear any closer to a compromise. The longest shutdown happened during President Trump’s first term and was largely related to disputes over a southern border wall. It lasted for 35 days.

The pain that is caused by this shutdown will only increase the longer that it persists.

For example, Axios is reporting that there won’t be enough money to pay food stamp benefits if the shutdown continues past the end of this month…

The Trump administration is warning states that there will be “insufficient funds” to pay full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits if the government shutdown extends past October, Axios has learned.

So for now, people are still getting their food stamp money.

But a letter has already gone out that clearly warns state agencies that “there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits”…

“As stated in our lapse of appropriation correspondence dated October 1, 2025, SNAP has funding available for benefits and operations through the month of October,” Ronald Ward, the acting associate administrator of SNAP, said in a letter to state agencies viewed by Axios.
“However, if the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation.”

Considering how tense things already are in our nation, what will happen if 42 million poor people suddenly no longer have enough money for food?

I hope that we don’t find out.

If the government did try to find money to pay food stamp benefits in November, that could actually violate federal law…

“Considering the operational issues and constraints that exist in automated systems, and in the interest of preserving maximum flexibility, we are forced to direct States to hold their November issuance files and delay transmission to State EBT vendors,” the letter says.
A person familiar with the matter told Axios that, if the cards were loaded up, it could violate the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress.

So I think that we are facing a very hard deadline.

And that is really bad news for tens of millions of Americans that are deeply dependent on government assistance. One of those individuals is a young mother in Minnesota named Barbie Anderson…

Barbie Anderson is trying to conserve the milk her three young children drink in case she doesn’t get her WIC benefits on October 15 as scheduled.

Though Anderson and her husband both work, they have depended on the federal food assistance program to stretch out their grocery budget since their older son was born nine years ago. The money is especially important because the prices are very high at the closest supermarket to their rural northern Minnesota home, with a gallon of milk costing more than $5.

If the money dries up, what is she supposed to tell her children?

What would you tell your children?

For a moment, let’s assume that there is a miracle and our politicians in Washington are able to come to an agreement to end the shutdown.

Even if that is the case, millions of Americans will still lose their food stamp benefits in the months ahead due to major changes to the program that were made by the “Big, Beautiful Bill”. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people will lose their food stamp benefits in the state of New York alone…

In July, President Donald Trump signed his “Big, Beautiful Bill” into law, enacting over $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (snap, also known as food stamps). Drastic changes to snap were expected to roll out starting next year, including expanded work requirements projected to cause hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to lose eligibility.

On October 3, the federal agency that oversees snap announced it would hasten that timeline by terminating waivers that have allowed dozens of states, including New York, to largely suspend work requirements. Those requirements limit recipients to three months of snap benefits over a three-year period, unless they continually certify they have worked, volunteered, or studied in school at least 80 hours per month. New York’s waiver was set to expire at the end of February, allowing officials to delay the implementation of work rules until March; it is now set to be cancelled in the first few days of November.

So one way or another, large numbers of Americans are about to lose their food stamp benefits.

Many of those impoverished individuals will turn to our nation’s food banks, and right now those food banks are bracing for the worst…

Across the country, food banks are stocking up on provisions and community service organizations are telling at-risk clients to warn their lenders of the potential for missed payments, leaders of the groups told The Washington Post. Small-business owners are keeping a close eye on their foot traffic. Federal workers are preparing their families for some financial belt-tightening.

Unfortunately, food banks all over the country have already been dealing with record high demand.

One food bank executive in Philadelphia told the Washington Post that he has “never seen our warehouse as empty as it has been in the last three months”…

In Philadelphia, serving the hungry has gotten more difficult for one of the region’s largest food banks, said George Matysik, the executive director of Share Food Program.

Before the shutdown, demand for Share’s services had already gone up by 120 percent, Matysik said, as the nonprofit saw $8.5 million worth of federal resources vanish under the Trump administration’s cuts to federal spending.

“I have never seen our warehouse as empty as it has been in the last three months,” Matysik said. “And on top of all this, we’re now layering a shutdown.”

I don’t think that I could overstate the gravity of the crisis that we are facing.

Homelessness in the U.S. is at the highest level ever, demand at food banks is at the highest level ever, and hunger is exploding all around us.

And now food stamp benefits are about to be cut off for 42 million Americans.

If all of this sounds eerily similar to what I have been warning about, that is because it really is eerily similar to what I have been warning about.

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

When people get hungry, they get angry.

And we do not want to see millions of very hungry people take to the streets.

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.

Historic Financial Carnage: More Than A Trillion Dollars In Market Value Was Just Wiped Out In A 24 Hour Period

October 12, 2025October 12, 2025 by Michael

Was this just an isolated incident, or is this the beginning of the Big Crash? The carnage that we witnessed on Friday was absolutely breathtaking. The largest single day wipeout in the history of the cryptocurrency industry was accompanied by a tech bloodbath of epic proportions. Many investors that were very highly leveraged got absolutely monkey-hammered. In particular, wave after wave of forced liquidations caused a cascading cryptocurrency crash that was unlike anything that we have ever seen before. Approximately 19.2 billion dollars in leveraged positions were suddenly liquidated, and as a result the collective value of all cryptocurrencies fell by almost 800 billion dollars in just 24 hours…

The cryptocurrency market suffered a massive wipeout, erasing nearly $800 billion in value within 24 hours. Around $19.2 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated as panic spread across exchanges.

Bitcoin plunged to $110,951, marking a 16% drop, while Ethereum slipped to $3,795, down more than 12%. The total crypto market capitalization fell to $3.69 trillion, its sharpest single-day decline in months. Altcoins were hit even worse. XRP fell 25% to $2.34, and Dogecoin dropped 28% to $0.18. Solana slid to $177, Cardano fell over 25%, and BNB lost ground, trading near $1,122.

This was basically a “1929 event” for cryptocurrencies.

I wish that I was exaggerating, but I am not.

Some lesser known tokens lost nearly all of their value.

This is what happens when people borrow massive amounts of money and bet it on “sure things” that they think will never go down.

As Ash Crypto has aptly described, what we essentially witnessed was “a chain reaction in a highly leveraged game of musical chairs”…

We saw the biggest crash in the history of crypto with $19.2 billion liquidated and approx $800 billion in value wiped out across the board.

Altcoins were hit the hardest , with many dropping 50%or more in just hours.

Prices for some tokens, like IOTX on Binance, even briefly hit zero due to the chaos.

But what exactly started this crash?

To break it down simply, think of it like a chain reaction in a highly leveraged game of musical chairs.

When the music stops, a lot of players get forced out, making things worse for everyone.

A lot of people that believed that they were very wealthy on Thursday are now picking up the pieces.

But apparently one crypto whale had advance knowledge that the crash was coming…

A crypto whale made over $160 million in profit by shorting Bitcoin and Ethereum on Hyperliquid ahead of Trump’s 100% China tariff announcement
The trader closed all ETH short positions for $72.33 million profit and still holds $92.84 million in BTC shorts with 5.38x leverage

That is extremely suspicious.

Hopefully authorities will look into that.

Also on Friday, the largest U.S. tech companies collectively lost 770 billion dollars in market capitalization…

Shares of Amazon, Nvidia and Tesla each dropped around 5% on Friday, as tech’s megacaps lost $770 billion in market cap, following President Donald Trump’s threats for increased tariffs on Chinese goods.

With tech’s trillion-dollar companies occupying an increasingly large slice of the U.S. market, their declines sent the Nasdaq down 3.6% and the S&P 500 down 2.7%.

When you add the losses in the cryptocurrency market to the losses in the stock market, you get a grand total that greatly exceeds a trillion dollars.

Ouch.

The primary reason why the financial markets are being shaken is because there have been shocking new developments in the trade war between the United States and China…

On Thursday, China’s commerce ministry said that starting on Dec. 1 a license will be required for foreign companies to export products with more than 0.1% of rare earths from China or that are made with Chinese production technology.

That prompted President Donald Trump to announce Friday that he will impose an additional 100% tariff on China and limit U.S. exports of software. But while it seemed like the latest tit-for-tat exchange in the U.S.-China trade war, there’s much more at stake.

As I discussed at the end of last week, this is extremely serious.

For years, the Chinese worked tirelessly to dominate the global rare earth marketplace, and now they have the ability “to forbid any country on Earth from participating in the modern economy”…

“We should not miss the fundamental point on rare earths: China has crafted a policy that gives it the power to forbid any country on Earth from participating in the modern economy,” Dean Ball, who served as a senior advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy earlier this year, wrote on X on Saturday.

“They can do this because they diligently built industrial capacity no one else had the fortitude to build. They were willing to tolerate costs—financial and environmental and otherwise—to do it. Now the rest of the world must do the same.”

China has a stranglehold on rare earths, producing more than 90% of the world’s processed rare earths and rare earth magnets. They are used across industries, from the tech sector to automakers and defense contractors.

While we were playing checkers, the Chinese were playing chess.

And so now we are in a world of hurt.

On Sunday, President Trump tried to reassure us that everything will be just fine.

But the Chinese are not backing down.

They are furious about the sanctions and the port fees that the U.S. is imposing, and they are warning that they are prepared to introduce even more “countermeasures”…

Donald Trump’s latest threat to impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods is “a typical example of US double standards”, China’s government has said.

A commerce ministry spokesperson also said China could introduce its own unspecified “countermeasures” if the US president carries out his threat, adding it was “not afraid” of a possible trade war.

We are in far more trouble than most people realize.

This really could be the crisis that pushes the financial markets over the edge.

The stock market boom that we witnessed earlier this year was driven by AI, and the truth is that AI has now become the biggest financial bubble of all time. OpenAI is just one example of how absurd this AI bubble has become…

Fast forward, and OpenAI now has deals to build 16 gigawatts of data centers. Based on Wall Street estimates, they are likely to cost about $750 billion.

OpenAI has also committed to buying $300 billion worth of cloud computing services from Oracle over the next five years. Altogether, OpenAI is now on the hook for roughly $1 trillion of spending.

OpenAI may very well be the hottest start-up of all time—and there is a long line of investors looking to back them—but a trillion dollars is, to put it succinctly, nuts. It’s roughly 3.4% of 2024 U.S. gross domestic product and about a quarter of all nonresidential private investment.

All this from a start-up that still has large and growing losses. I’m a big believer in AI, but I still believe in math. And the numbers don’t add up.

Do you remember how bad it was when the “dotcom bubble” burst?

Well, this is going to be much, much worse.

At this stage our entire financial system is essentially a giant unsustainable Ponzi scheme, and nobody is going to be able to keep it from totally collapsing.

For many crypto investors, it is already too late to get out in time.

But most other investors still have a window of opportunity to get out before there is a mad rush for the exits, but that window of opportunity will not stay open for long.

U.S. Relations With China Just Went Down The Tubes, And So Brace Yourself For Much Higher Prices And Shortages Of Certain Items

October 10, 2025 by Michael

Did we just witness the economic trigger event that will cause the dramatic stock market crash that we were just warned about? On Friday, U.S. stock prices absolutely plummeted once President Trump announced that China’s new rare earth export restrictions would be countered by “a massive increase” in tariffs on Chinese imports into the United States. If tariff rates go above 100 percent, many Chinese-made goods that are currently filling our stores will no longer travel across the Pacific at all. In addition, whatever does come over from China will cost a lot more. For example, you may have noticed that many things that were priced at $1.25 at Dollar Tree are now priced at $1.50 or $1.75. Of course this is just the beginning. Once the new tariff rates on Chinese-made goods go into effect, we will see price shocks like we have never seen before.

The reason why President Trump feels compelled to hit China with “a massive increase” in tariff rates is because China has decided to implement extremely strict restrictions on rare earth exports.

Some of those restrictions have already taken effect, some will take effect on November 8th, but the most comprehensive restrictions will take effect on December 1st.

It is being reported that companies will have to get approval from the Chinese government “to export items containing even small traces of Chinese rare earths”…

The rules require foreign companies to obtain special approval to export items containing even small traces of Chinese rare earths.

The same applies if using Chinese processing, smelting, recycling, or magnet-making technology. Exports for military purposes are expected to be denied.

The Chinese had to know that President Trump would be absolutely livid over this, and that is precisely what has happened.

On Friday, Trump posted an extremely long message about this crisis on his Truth Social account…

Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the World, that they want to impose Export Controls on each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China. Nobody has ever seen anything like this but, essentially, it would “clog” the Markets, and make life difficult for virtually every Country in the World, especially for China. We have been contacted by other Countries who are extremely angry at this great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere. Our relationship with China over the past six months has been a very good one, thereby making this move on Trade an even more surprising one. I have always felt that they’ve been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right! There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World “captive,” but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time, starting with the “Magnets” and, other Elements that they have quietly amassed into somewhat of a Monopoly position, a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least. But the U.S. has Monopoly positions also, much stronger and more far reaching than China’s. I have just not chosen to use them, there was never a reason for me to do so — UNTIL NOW! The letter they sent is many pages long, and details, with great specificity, each and every Element that they want to withhold from other Nations. Things that were routine are no longer routine at all. I have not spoken to President Xi because there was no reason to do so. This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the Leaders of the Free World. I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so. The Chinese letters were especially inappropriate in that this was the Day that, after three thousand years of bedlam and fighting, there is PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. I wonder if that timing was coincidental? Dependent on what China says about the hostile “order” that they have just put out, I will be forced, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their move. For every Element that they have been able to monopolize, we have two. I never thought it would come to this but perhaps, as with all things, the time has come. Ultimately, though potentially painful, it will be a very good thing, in the end, for the U.S.A. One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America. There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

It is certainly true that the Chinese essentially have a “monopoly position” when it comes to the rare earth industry…

China controls roughly 70 percent of the global supply of rare earth minerals and 90 percent of the processing of it, meaning it has huge it leverage over the high-tech supply chain.

Rare earth metals are in our phones, they are in our televisions, and they are in our electric vehicles.

If you are planning to purchase anything that contains rare earth metals, I would get it now.

A lot of the pundits don’t seem to understand why the Chinese are doing this, but the Chinese would argue that they are simply responding to recent moves by the United States.

For example, the U.S. just slapped sanctions on “about 100 individuals, entities and vessels” in China…

The U.S. imposed sanctions on about 100 individuals, entities and vessels, including a Chinese independent refinery and terminal, that helped Iran’s oil and petrochemicals trade, the administration of President Donald Trump said on Thursday.

The Treasury Department sanctioned the Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group, which it said is an independent teapot refinery in Shandong Province that has purchased millions of barrels of Iranian oil since 2023.

In addition, extremely painful port fees will go into effect on Chinese-built cargo ships next week…

Port fees on Chinese-made freight vessels are set to go into effect next week.
The fees are a bid by the Trump administration to counter China’s dominant position in freight ship manufacturing and spur a moribund U.S. shipbuilding industry.
But confusion and fears are running high among ocean carriers now scrutinizing ship financing deals to determine if their vessels may be considered Chinese entities based on terms.

This trade war never should have started.

But it did, and now here we are.

As a result of other restrictions that have recently been implemented by the U.S., thousands upon thousands of packages are now stuck at UPS distribution hubs all over the nation…

Thousands of U.S.-bound packages shipped by UPS are trapped at hubs across the country, unable to clear the maze of new customs requirements imposed by the Trump administration.

As packages flagged for customs issues pile up in UPS warehouses, the company told NBC News it has begun “disposing of” some shipments.

Hopefully you don’t have a package that has been caught in that web.

One expert says that he has “never seen anything like this before”…

Frustrated UPS customers describe waiting for weeks and trying to make sense of scores of conflicting tracking updates from the world’s largest courier.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Matthew Wasserbach, brokerage manager of Express Customs Clearance, said of the UPS backlog. “It’s totally unprecedented.”

Nothing that I have discussed in this article is going to be good for our economy.

Global trade is starting to freeze up, and everyone is going to feel it.

Just look at what is happening to our farmers. They are experiencing the worst downturn in 50 years, and one of the main reasons for that is because the Chinese are not buying our soybeans…

The ongoing trade dispute with China has created serious headwinds for American farmers, with soybean producers having lost access to the world’s largest market for the commodity.

China halted purchases of American soybeans this spring in retaliation for the Trump administration’s tariffs, as a means of looking to gain leverage in trade talks by shifting its purchases away from U.S. producers to countries such as Brazil and Argentina. China is the world’s leading importer of soybeans, bringing in 61% of the world’s traded soybean supplies over the last five marketing years, according to data from the American Soybean Association (ASA).

The group said the U.S. has historically served as a primary supplier for China, as American soybean farmers exported an average of 28% of their crop to China before the 2018 trade war. That figure dropped to a low of 11% in the 2018-19 crop year, but recovered during the pandemic, reaching 31% in 2020-21 before declining to 22% in 2023-24.

Unless we see some sort of a miracle, the outlook for the months ahead is extremely dire.

I think that today’s events helped a lot of people on Wall Street to realize this, because the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 878 points and the Nasdaq was down 820 points.

Our relations with China just went down the tubes, and those that follow my work regularly understand why that is such an important development.

History has shown that trade wars have a way of becoming shooting wars.

So let us hope that cooler heads prevail, because right now we are on a path that will not lead anywhere good.

Is This A Signal? The Head Of America’s Largest Bank Warns About A Stock Market Crash As The Housing Market Implodes

October 9, 2025October 9, 2025 by Michael

Are the financial markets about to be greatly shaken? The housing market is imploding, corporate bankruptcies are surging, there are all sorts of warning signs in the employment market, and much of the population is feeling our seemingly endless cost of living crisis very keenly. But so far the stock market has seemed immune to the growing problems that are plaguing the real economy. We have witnessed an AI-driven stock market boom in recent months, and those at the top of the economic pyramid have greatly benefited.

But could this boom soon go bust? JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon seems to think so. He just publicly admitted that he is “far more worried than others” about a stock market crash…

The chances of the US stock market crashing is far greater than many financiers believe, the head of America’s largest bank has said.

Jamie Dimon, who is the chair and chief executive of the giant Wall Street bank JPMorgan Chase, said he was “far more worried than others” about a serious market correction, which he predicted could come in the next six months to two years.

Dimon is typically very optimistic when he is speaking publicly about the financial markets.

Was this a case of him letting his guard down, or was something else going on here?

A lot of people are going to hear what Dimon has said, and they will act accordingly.

Of course I certainly agree that the stock market is primed for a crash.

This month stock prices have been the most overvalued that I have ever seen in my entire lifetime, and the Bank of England is comparing the current state of affairs to the dotcom bust…

Much of the rapid growth in the stock market in recent years has been driven by investment in AI.

On Wednesday, the Bank of England drew a comparison with the dotcom boom (and subsequent bust) of the late 1990s – and warned that the value of AI tech companies “appear stretched” with a rising risk of a “sharp correction”.

What goes up must eventually come down.

Over the past two years, the “Magnificent Seven” have seen their stock prices more than double…

The old truism that the stock market is not the economy risks underplaying how much today’s powerful investment trends could impact the prosperity and lives of the whole country.

Artificial intelligence is obviously the megatrend of the moment. Scale is everything, and the U.S. tech giants are driving the spending, while investors are scrambling to get on board an already overcrowded train.

The so-called Magnificent Seven – U.S. tech companies that now make up a record 36% of the S&P 500’s market value – have seen their stock prices more than double over the past two years, after rebounding a whopping 60% from the troughs of this year.

There has been so much hype about AI, but the truth is that this boom is not even close to sustainable.

What companies have been spending on AI vastly exceeds the revenues that AI is producing for those companies.

As a result, a colossal mountain of AI-related debt has been accumulated.

In order to make the AI boom sustainable, an additional $800,000,000,000 in AI-related revenue would be required…

The current AI boom is not sustainable, a Deutsche Bank research note warned this morning, because tech spending won’t “remain parabolic.” AI capex is now so massive it is keeping the U.S. out of recession, the bank said. Separately, Bain & Co. estimate there will be an $800 billion shortfall in the revenues needed to fund the demand for AI computing power. About half the S&P 500’s gains this year have been driven by tech stocks.

There is no way that revenue gap is going to be closed.

So this bubble is going to burst.

It is just a matter of time.

Meanwhile, the housing market continues to implode.

According to Redfin, there were 72.3 percent more condo sellers than buyers during the month of August…

There were an estimated 72.3% more condo sellers than buyers (108,945 more) nationwide in August. That marks the fifth straight month in which there have been at least 70% more condo sellers than buyers in the U.S. housing market.

That makes spring and summer 2025 the strongest buyer’s market for condo buyers in records dating back to 2013, with the exception of April 2020, when the start of the pandemic halted homebuying activity.

Condo prices have started to plummet all over the nation, and this is particularly true in the markets that were once considered to be the hottest.

At the same time, home purchase agreements are being canceled at an unprecedented rate…

Roughly 56,000 U.S. home-purchase agreements were canceled in August, equal to 15.1% of homes that went under contract that month. That’s up from 14.3% a year earlier and marks the highest August rate in records dating back to 2017.

This is based on a Redfin analysis of MLS pending-sales data. The data are seasonal, which is why we compare this August to past Augusts. Please note that homes that fell out of contract during a given month didn’t necessarily go under contract the same month. For example, a home that fell out of contract in August could have gone under contract in July.

This is exactly what we would expect to see if our housing bubble was starting to burst.

Another thing that we would expect to see is a spike in foreclosures…

Foreclosure rates have surged across the country and are up almost 20% from this time last year.

“In 2025, we’ve seen a consistent pattern of foreclosure activity trending higher, with both starts and completions posting year-over-year increases for consecutive quarters,” says Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data.

Do you remember when millions of Americans lost their homes in 2008 and 2009?

Well, it is starting to happen again.

Sadly, the homeless population in the U.S. was already at a record level coming into this year, and it just continues to grow.

We can see signs of this all around us.

For example, it is being estimated that approximately 1,500 “mole people” now live in the tunnels underneath the Las Vegas Strip…

Tourists may have deserted the gambling capital of the world but the number of homeless has skyrocketed. Among them are the ‘Mole People’ who dwell in the decaying tunnels below the Las Vegas Strip.

A petite blonde-haired woman in a red sundress, who goes by Natasha, emerges from her home under the Sahara Hotel and Casino on a sweltering late September day.

She is just one of an estimated 1,500 people, many of whom are drug, alcohol or gambling addicts, who live underneath the glittering Strip in a vast 600-mile system of storm drain tunnels built in the early 1990s.

Even though so much has been going wrong, many have pointed to the success of the stock market as an indication that everything will be okay.

But the clock is ticking.

The AI boom will inevitably come to a dramatic end, and once that occurs our economic problems will accelerate significantly.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon can see what is on the horizon, and he is sounding the alarm.

Unfortunately, most Americans just blindly trust the system, and so they will be blind-sided when it finally comes crashing down.

Gold Hits $4,000 For The First Time Ever And Silver Is Closing In On $50 As The U.S. Dollar Collapses

October 8, 2025 by Michael

It is exciting to see the price of gold soar to unprecedented levels, but we should also be horrified by what is happening to the U.S. dollar. For years, many of us warned that debasing our currency was a really bad idea. There are two primary ways that our leaders have done this. Firstly, we have added more than 27 trillion dollars to the national debt since 2009. Borrowing money that we do not have and pumping it into the economy temporarily raises our standard of living, but it also debases our currency. Secondly, the Federal Reserve created trillions of dollars out of thin air and used it to buy bonds. A lot of pundits hailed “quantitative easing” as a wonderful thing when it was introduced, but it has had very serious consequences. Now the wealthy are swimming in cash, but the value of our currency has plummeted and our standard of living has crashed. The first half of 2025 was the worst first half of a year for the U.S. dollar in more than 50 years. In other words, the purchasing power of your money has gone way down.

The reason why the price of gold is skyrocketing is not because everyone has suddenly discovered how great gold is.

The reason why the price of gold is skyrocketing is because the U.S. dollar is in the process of collapsing.

On Wednesday, the price of gold crossed the $4,000 threshold for the first time ever…

Gold surged past the $4,000 an ounce level for the first time on Wednesday, building on a record-breaking rally as broader geopolitical and economic uncertainty, as well as expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts sent investors flocking to the safe-haven asset.

Spot gold was up 1.58% at $4,047.28 per ounce. U.S. gold futures for December delivery gained 1.58% to $4,067.70. Silver also latched on to gold’s rally, gaining 3.24% to $49.37 per ounce, and hovering just below its all-time high of $49.51.

A lot of people are celebrating this milestone, and there is nothing wrong with that.

But let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture.

So far this year, the price of gold has increased by 54 percent…

Gold, traditionally seen as a store of value during times of instability, is up 54% year-to-date, after gaining 27% in 2024. It is one of the best-performing assets of 2025, outpacing advances in global equity markets and bitcoin and losses for the U.S. dollar and crude oil.

Its rally has been propelled by a combination of factors, including expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts, mounting political and economic uncertainty, strong central bank buying, hefty inflows into gold-backed ETFs and a weakening dollar.

It has been an amazing rally, and most of the experts expect the price of gold to continue to rise during the months ahead.

In fact, Goldman Sachs is now projecting that the price of gold will reach $4,900 by the end of next year…

Last quarter marked the strongest quarter on record for inflows into gold-backed exchange-traded funds. Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs analysts lifted their gold forecast for December 2026 from $4,300 to $4,900 per troy ounce.

Needless to say, the price of silver has been going up even faster.

So far this year, the price of silver has gone up nearly 70 percent.

That is crazy.

I never imagined that silver would be closing in on the $50 mark in October 2025.

But here we are, and it just shows how late in the game it really is.

As the U.S. dollar collapses, investors are pouring into “the so-called debasement trade”…

The moves reflect a continuation of the so-called debasement trade, in which investors pour into hard assets and crypto to hedge against what they see as the erosion of fiat currency value driven by inflation, heavy government spending, and mounting debt financed by money creation.

I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

Governments all over the world have been recklessly debasing their currencies, and so investors are looking for assets that will retain their value in a world gone mad.

The U.S. government has been a particularly egregious offender. As Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has aptly observed, stockpiling gold and silver is a way “to effectively de-dollarize”…

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has expressed concern as investors increasingly view gold as a safer asset than the US dollar. Speaking to Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua on Monday, Griffin noted that substantial capital is moving away from the dollar as investors seek to de-dollarize or reduce exposure to US sovereign risk. He added:

“We’re seeing substantial asset inflation away from the dollar as people are looking for ways to effectively de-dollarize, or de-risk their portfolios vis-a-vis US sovereign risk.”

Many of us have been warning about the death of the U.S. dollar for many years.

Now it is in the process of happening right in front of our eyes.

Right now, a lot of “gold bugs” are gleefully celebrating the fact that they have been proven right.

There is nothing wrong with celebrating, but we also need to view things from a longer term perspective.

When global events really hit the fan, you will want to have physical assets that you actually have in your possession.

So please don’t put your faith in paper.

The entire system that so many of us are completely and utterly dependent upon is failing.

Yes, the price of gold is likely to continue to go up during the months ahead.

Yes, the price of silver is likely to continue to go up during the months ahead.

But whatever you choose to do, I highly recommend that you invest in things that you can physically touch.

I am entirely convinced that really big things are about to start happening.

As our world is shaken by catastrophic events, there is going to be a tremendous amount of panic.

My recommendation is to become as independent of the system as possible, because a lot of people out there are going to get absolutely crushed as the system fails all around them.

Trump Is Threatening To Bomb Iran Again, But Israel May Beat Him To It

October 6, 2025October 6, 2025 by Michael

During the weeks ahead, I will be watching Israel and Iran like a hawk. Prior to the 12 day war between Israel and Iran earlier this year, it was clear that something was up. Now we are witnessing similar signs, and many experts are concerned that the very fragile ceasefire that was agreed to at the end of the 12 day war could soon collapse. Iran is rebuilding their nuclear sites and is telling western countries that there will be no more negotiations. On the other side, the U.S. and Israel have both pledged that Iran will not be allowed to rebuild their nuclear program. In fact, on Sunday President Trump publicly threatened to bomb Iran again…

“They were going to have a nuclear weapon within a month,” Trump said. “And now they can start the operation all over again, but I hope they don’t because we’ll have to take care of that too if they do, I let them know that. You want to do that, it’s fine, but we’re going to take care of that and we’re not going to wait so long.”

Of course President Trump knows very well that Iranian officials have repeatedly stated that they will never give up their nuclear program, and satellite images prove that Iran has been conducting construction work at two very important enrichment facilities…

Three months after US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, new satellite images show signs of construction work at two of its key enrichment facilities.

An analysis of high-resolution satellite imagery captured by Maxar Technologies on 18 September reveals work on a new perimeter and tunnel south of the Natanz enrichment complex.

Multiple construction vehicles are visible in an area south of the complex while digging work appears to be underway. Images also show work to extend a perimeter around that same area.

The Iranians responded to Trump’s threat of more bombing on Monday.

They called the U.S. “a law-breaking country”, and they made it clear that there will be no negotiations…

Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday branded the United States a “law-breaking” country, rejecting any prospect of talks with Washington after US President Donald Trump warned he would again bomb Iran if it resumes nuclear activities.

Trump’s public remarks amounted to an admission of “a criminal and illegal act” that only reinforced America’s image as a violator of international law, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said during his weekly briefing.

“It will be clear to the international community and to the Iranian nation that the United States is a law-breaking country,” Baghaei added. “We have no plan for negotiations.”

The Iranians have clearly made their choice.

So how long will Trump wait before he pulls the trigger again?

We were surprised by Trump’s timing during the 12 day war, and we may be surprised the next time it happens too.

If we bomb Iran, one of the first places that Iran will hit will be our base in Qatar.

Interestingly, President Trump recently signed an order that makes any attack on Qatar a “threat to the peace and security of the United States”…

President Donald Trump signed an order Monday offering a U.S. guarantee for Qatar’s security — a significant commitment for the rising non-NATO Arab ally.

“The United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States,” the order, made public Wednesday, read in no uncertain terms.

“In the event of such an attack, the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar and to restore peace and stability.”

Recently, the U.S. military sent a whole bunch of air tankers to our base in Qatar, and that created quite a stir.

Because the last time we witnessed a deployment of air tankers of this magnitude, Iran got bombed…

Behnam Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, tells the Daily Mail, while ‘correlation is not causation’, he can’t help but think of the last time there was a mass tanker deployment by the United States.

‘Soon after that something went boom in the Middle East. Critically, in Operation Midnight Hammer, the Trump administration executed a decoy or deception effort to mask the flight of the B-2 bombers to Iran,’ Taleblu said, emphasizing that he is the only US president in two decades to deploy over military force against Iranian nuclear facilities.

‘Big military movements on his watch are something to keep an eye on,’ Taleblu added.

Of course it is also possible that those tankers may have been deployed to assist Israel in new strikes against Iran.

As I discussed in a previous article, Iranian forces have already been put on high alert because Iranian leaders are extremely concerned that new attacks could happen at any moment.

And the Institute for the Study of War has come to the conclusion that those running Iran “believe that the ceasefire with Israel will collapse”…

Officials in Iran believe that the ceasefire with Israel will collapse and that conflict will resume in the future, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The assessment by the Washington, DC think tank outlined how Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SCNC) had directed military and civilian officials to designate successors in the event of leadership disruption to ensure continuation in the event of war.

If at some point the Iranians are convinced that an Israeli strike is imminent, could they actually choose to strike first in order to get the upper hand?

Israeli politician Avigdor Liberman is convinced that this is the case, and he is urging Israeli citizens to “be careful and close to protected spaces” during Sukkot…

He urged Israelis to celebrate cautiously on the coming Sukkot, which starts Monday night and lasts for seven days: “Spend time with family and friends, but be careful and close to protected spaces.”

This year, the first day of Sukkot runs from the evening of October 6th to the evening of October 7th.

Needless to say, October 7th is a very significant date for Israel.

Two years ago, the war in the Middle East started when Hamas terrorists came pouring across the border.

It looks like the conflict in Gaza may be wrapping up, but things with Iran are a long way from being resolved.

Before Israeli leaders sign a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement, they want the threat that Iran poses to be completely neutralized.

So I think that we will soon see major events occur in the Middle East, and when that happens the entire globe will be shocked.

Bounties Are Being Put On The Heads Of Federal Agents As America’s Domestic Terror Crisis Escalates

October 5, 2025October 5, 2025 by Michael

Chaos has erupted on the streets of America. We used to talk about civil unrest and political violence as threats that would be coming in the future, but now they have become reality. And of course the domestic terror crisis that we are now dealing with is just one element of “the perfect storm” that we are now facing. As economic conditions continue to deteriorate and as global events continue to go haywire, domestic terrorism will get even worse. The groups that are committing acts of domestic terror are very highly organized, and they are recruiting more crazed lunatics with each passing day.

On Sunday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem dropped a bombshell.

She told Fox News that bounties are being put on the heads of federal law enforcement agents…

During a Sunday interview appearance on Fox & Friends Weekend, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said some federal agents have been targeted amid increasing immigration enforcement throughout the country by having bounties placed on them by “gangs, cartel members and known terrorist organizations.”

How would you feel if a bounty was placed on your head?

According to Noem, there are “specific officers and agents” that have been targeted. The reward for a successful kidnapping is $2,000, and the reward for a successful assassination is $10,000…

“We have specific officers and agents that have bounties that have been put out on their heads. It’s been $2,000 to kidnap them, $10,000 to kill them,” the DHS secretary said. “They’ve released their pictures. They’ve sent them between their networks, and it’s an extremely dangerous situation and unprecedented.”

This is what happens when you allow years of unchecked illegal immigration.

The gangs now outnumber the police in Chicago by more than 10 to 1, and the largest gangs in the Windy City are immensely powerful.

But the Trump administration does not plan to back down.

In fact, Noem is absolutely convinced that the domestic terrorists will be defeated.

The months ahead are going to be crazy, because the violence is getting out of control.

On Saturday, a woman was shot by federal agents after her vehicle was involved in an assault on CBP agents…

Amid escalating tensions in Chicago over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents on Saturday shot and wounded a woman they alleged was part of a convoy of protesters that rammed their vehicles during an “ambush.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Border Patrol agents opened fire on the woman in self-defense, alleging she was armed with a semiautomatic weapon and was driving one of three vehicles that “cornered” and rammed the CBP agents’ vehicles.

It is being reported that a caravan of 10 vehicles was following federal agents through the streets of Chicago, and at one point things got violent once the agents were cornered…

Amid ongoing immigration enforcement, Noem described a violent incident in Chicago on Saturday that ended with agents shooting a civilian, saying that a caravan of 10 vehicles followed and cornered federal agents on duty.

“They had followed them [the agents] and gotten them cornered, pinned them down, and then our agents, when getting out of their cars, they tried to run them over, and had semi-automatic handguns on them to where our agents had to protect themselves, and shots were fired, and an individual ended up in the hospital that was attacking these officers,” Noem said, adding it was a “very dangerous situation.”

What these leftists are doing is insane.

Chasing federal agents through the streets while carrying guns can get you killed.

Marimar Martinez is very fortunate that she was just wounded.

It could have been far worse.

The following is how this very alarming confrontation is being described on the official DHS website…

This morning, Border Patrol law enforcement officers were ambushed by domestic terrorists that rammed federal agents with their vehicles. The woman, Marimar Martinez, driving one of the vehicles, was armed with a semi-automatic weapon and has a history of doxxing federal agents. She took defensive fire from CBP agents and has been discharged from the hospital and is currently in the custody of the FBI. The driver of another vehicle, Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, involved in the ramming has been apprehended by law enforcement.

The scene became increasingly violent as more domestic terrorists gathered and began throwing smoke, gas, rocks, and bottles at DHS law enforcement. Another domestic terrorist was arrested for assaulting CBP at the scene. Following JB Prtizker’s refusal to allow local police to help secure the scene, Secretary Noem has deployed special operations teams to restore law and order.

As our ICE law enforcement was responding to the shooting, a domestic terrorist followed them and rammed their vehicle in an attempt to run them off the road. This individual has also been arrested and is in HSI custody.

An ICE vehicle popped a tire and was subsequently mobbed by domestic terrorists, forcing law enforcement to abandon the vehicle for their own safety. The vehicle was significantly damaged.

Several CBP law enforcement officers were sent to the hospital with various injuries.

Did you notice how many times “domestic terrorists” or “domestic terrorist” was used in that press release?

I have highlighted each instance so that you will not miss them.

This is how the federal government now views these nuts.

Needless to say, our laws treat “terrorists” far differently than ordinary criminals.

Following the incident in which Marimar Martinez was shot, radical leftists were filmed hurling rocks and bottles at federal vehicles as they were traveling away from the scene.

I have a feeling that the Windy City is going to be one of the epicenters of political violence for quite some time to come.

Approximately 25 percent of the U.S. population lives within 500 miles of Chicago, and it has one of the largest populations of migrants in the entire nation.

In an attempt to restore order, President Trump is planning to send in National Guard troops…

President Trump pressed ahead Saturday with plans to mobilize federal troops in cities led by Democrats, this time in Illinois, even as a federal judge in Oregon issued a sharply worded order blocking the administration from sending National Guard members to Portland.

In addition, President Trump is deploying National Guard troops from California to the city of Portland…

President Donald Trump sent 300 California National Guard troops to Oregon on Sunday, defying a court order blocking him from deploying Oregon’s own National Guard to patrol Portland in an ongoing White House campaign targeting Democratic cities.

On Saturday, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut in Portland temporarily blocked the Pentagon from sending 200 Oregon National Guard members to protect an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland from protests.

She rejected the Pentagon’s claims that Portland faced a “danger of rebellion,” and said “the president’s determination was simply untethered to the facts,” a week after Trump told military leaders that he planned to punish “dangerous” cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York by using them as military training grounds to combat “a war within.”

The ICE facility in Portland has been under siege for months, and there has been complete and utter chaos in the streets in that part of the city this weekend.

The leftists in Portland are a special kind of crazy.

It won’t be easy to get them to back down.

But this is just the beginning. The Trump administration is making it clear that it is going to have zero tolerance for domestic terrorism.

The tragedy that is unfolding right in front of our eyes is not a surprise to anyone that has been following my work for an extended period of time.

The hatred that is now exploding in the streets has been percolating for many years.

Now a time of reckoning has arrived, and it is going to be completely insane.

18 Numbers Which Clearly Show What Direction Things Are Going

October 3, 2025October 3, 2025 by Michael

I hear from so many people that are deeply hurting right now. If you are one of those people, I want you to know that you aren’t alone. There really are millions of Americans that are completely stressed out over their finances. There really are millions of Americans that can’t seem to find work no matter how hard they try. And there really are millions of Americans that can’t believe how expensive things have become. Of course there is a small segment of our society that is doing perfectly fine. The wealth of the top 1 percent has reached $52 trillion, and CEO salaries have jumped 1,094 percent since 1978. Many of those that are sitting at the top of the economic pyramid wonder what all of the fuss is about. But for the rest of us, we know how badly economic conditions have deteriorated because we are living it every day. The following are 18 numbers which clearly show what direction things are going…

#1 According to ADP, the U.S. lost 32,000 jobs last month. That was the largest drop in two and a half years…

Private payrolls saw their biggest decline in 2½ years during September, a further sign of labor market weakening that compounds the data blackout accompanying the U.S. government shutdown.

Companies shed a seasonally adjusted 32,000 jobs during the month, the biggest slide since March 2023, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for an increase of 45,000.

In addition to the drop in September, the August payrolls number was revised to a loss of 3,000 from an initially reported increase of 54,000.

#2 The number of long-term unemployed workers in the United States has risen to the highest level since the pandemic…

As of August, the number of long-term unemployed people had risen to 1.9 million, according to government data — the highest level since 2021, when the nation was still reeling from the pandemic.

#3 Reuters is reporting that over 150,000 federal workers will permanently leave their jobs this week…

More than 150,000 federal employees will leave the U.S. government payroll this week after accepting buyouts – the largest single-year exodus of civil servants in nearly 80 years, triggering what unions and governance experts warn is a damaging loss of institutional expertise.

The official resignations begin on Tuesday for workers who opted into a deferred exit program that kept them on the payroll through September. The buyouts are a cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s push to shrink the federal workforce, combining financial incentives with threats of dismissal for those who declined the offer.

#4 The number of movie jobs in Los Angeles County has fallen by 30 percent in just two years…

The far-left Wall Street Journal reports that at the end of 2024, there were only 100,000 motion picture jobs in Los Angeles County, compared to 142,000 two years earlier.

That’s a 30 percent collapse.

#5 Approximately 900 GM employees are facing indefinite layoffs…

General Motors is placing 900 workers on indefinite layoff at Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas, the company told the Detroit Free Press on Oct. 1, as it retools the plant for production of the gas-powered Equinox. Those employees were placed on temporary layoff as of Sept. 4.

#6 Exxon has confirmed that it plans to eliminate 2,000 high paying jobs…

A spokesperson for Exxon confirmed to Barron’s on Tuesday that the company plans to cut 2,000 jobs, representing 3% to 4% of the energy company’s global workforce.

The news was first reported by Bloomberg, which said Exxon sent a memo to employees noting the company is consolidating smaller offices into regional hubs as part of a long-term restructuring plan.

#7 The tech industry has laid off more than 166,000 workers so far in 2025.

#8 A 37-year-old tech worker that lost her job last November still hasn’t found work even though she has applied for hundreds of jobs…

When Anna Whitlock was let go from her job in the technology industry in November of 2024, she wasn’t worried about lining up a new position. The Washington state resident had 11 years of experience managing network infrastructure projects, a specialized role that involves equipping buildings with internet access, cameras and wifi security systems.

“The last time I had to job search, I found something pretty easily,” she said.

Almost a year later, the 37-year-old is still without a job. Whitlock said she has applied to hundreds of jobs — even for positions she’s overqualified for — to no avail.

#9 According to Mark Mitchell of Rasmussen Reports, only 48 percent of U.S. adults under the age of 30 currently have a full-time job.

#10 Our standard of living has been steadily declining for a very long time. In 1950, more than 50 percent of 30-year-olds in the United States owned a home and were married. Today, that figure has fallen to just 13 percent…

Since the postwar era, the share of 30-year-olds in America with both a family and a home has plummeted—from about 52% in 1950 to just 13% in 2025. That’s a staggering 75% decline over 75 years.

#11 44.4 percent of Americans struggle to make their housing payments each month…

More than two in five (44.4%) U.S. homeowners and renters struggle to afford their regular rent or mortgage payments, according to a recent Redfin survey. We consider survey respondents to struggle with housing payments if they selected “I struggle greatly to afford them,” “I regularly struggle, but sometimes okay,” or “I sometimes struggle, but generally okay.”

#12 46 percent of Americans worry about debt every single day.

#13 Prices were slashed on 19.9 percent of home listings last month as the U.S. housing bubble starts to burst…

Nearly one in five American homes listed for sale reportedly saw a price cut in September, as rising inventory shifted more power to buyers.

The number of listings with price cuts reached 19.9%, unchanged from August but up modestly from last year. Homes priced between $350,000 and $500,000 saw the steepest markdowns at 21.6%, while luxury properties over $1 million were less likely to see reductions, at just 13.3%, according to a Thursday report from Realtor.com.

#14 49 percent of Americans say that the cost of living is the biggest challenge that they are facing.

#15 67 percent of U.S. workers are now living paycheck to paycheck.

#16 The price of ground beef has risen more than 12 percent over the past year…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index report for August showed a surge in beef prices over the past year. Ground beef prices were up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis in August, while beef roasts were up 13.6%, and steak prices were 16.6% higher.

#17 The number of cows in the United States has fallen to the lowest level since 1951…

Cattle rancher Mike Martz of Larson Farms in Maple Park, Illinois, told FOX Business’ Kelly Saberi that cattle inventories have declined in recent years due to drought affecting important ranching areas.

“The real issue here is the drought that happened a number of years ago, and Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, the Southeast lost all their grass, all their forage. And when that happens, you’ve got to liquidate cows, and that’s what we’ve done,” Martz said. “We’ve got the lowest cow inventory since 1951, so that’s the cause of this.”

#18 The cost of living the American Dream for a lifetime has now reached 5 million dollars.

We haven’t seen anything like this since 2008 and 2009.

Of course I am entirely convinced that what we are facing will ultimately be far worse than 2008 and 2009.

If you are having a really tough time in 2025, it is so important to realize that you aren’t alone, and I also want you to understand that it isn’t your fault.

If you feel like you are drowning financially, or if you can’t find work no matter how much effort you put into your job search, it is not because you are a failure.

The truth is that the entire system has been failing for a long time, and now the consequences of decades of really bad decisions are overtaking us.

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