Welcome To The Greatest Energy Crisis In History – Things Will Only Get Much More Painful From Here

Just as the western world was accelerating the transition away from traditional forms of energy, the COVID pandemic caused the most epic supply chain crisis in history, and now the largest land war in Europe since World War II has thrown global energy markets into a state of complete and utter chaos.  And if you think that things are bad now, just wait until a huge war erupts in the Middle East.  Energy prices are ridiculously high now, but they will eventually go much higher than this.  Needless to say, skyrocketing energy prices will have a catastrophic impact on worldwide economic conditions during the troubled months and years ahead of us.

Do you remember when Joe Biden promised that he would do all that he possibly could to drive down the price of gasoline?

Yeah, that isn’t exactly working out too well

Retail gasoline prices in the United States rose on Tuesday and hit another all-time record, surpassing one set in March, as global refineries grappled with a bottleneck that has sent prices soaring ahead of driving season.

The average cost of a retail gallon of gasoline hit $4.374 early Tuesday, according to the American Automobile Association, surpassing the former record of $4.331.

Ultimately, it really is a matter of supply and demand.

We need more drilling, we need more refineries, and we need less regulation on traditional forms of energy all over the western world.

But with the leaders that are currently in place, you shouldn’t expect any significant changes any time soon.

So the price of gasoline will continue to rise.

And actually the price of diesel has been going up even faster

Tom Kloza, head of global energy research at OPIS, said that in years past a barrel of diesel typically sold for $10 above the price of crude oil. Today, that differential – known as the crack spread – has surged to a record high above $70.

“It’s become untethered, unmoored, a little bit unhinged. These are prices we’re not used to seeing,” he said, adding that there are large price differences across the U.S.

That is really bad news, because our economy runs on diesel fuel.

As I pointed out yesterday, our trains and our trucks are powered by diesel, and so rapidly rising diesel prices are going to have a huge economic impact.

In addition, most farm equipment uses diesel as well, and this is yet another factor that is putting an enormous amount of financial stress on America’s farmers.

One farmer that was asked about this admitted that he is “really concerned how bad it can get this next year”

“My family is preparing now and stocking up our freezers and pantry because we are really concerned how bad it can get this next year.”

He estimates that fertilizer prices near him have increased 200 or even 300 percent, “dependent on what program you are running.”

The rise in diesel prices has hurt him the most. “Farm equipment runs on diesel,” he pointed out.

According to AAA’s gas price website, diesel in Texas is running at an average of $5.231, up from $2.820 a year ago.

Needless to say, you should be stock up too, because things are going to look completely different a year from now than they do today.

Of course things are already getting quite crazy.  Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal warned that widespread electricity shortages in the U.S. could be coming as early as this summer

From California to Texas to Indiana, electric-grid operators are warning that power-generating capacity is struggling to keep up with demand, a gap that could lead to rolling blackouts during heat waves or other peak periods as soon as this year.

California’s grid operator said Friday that it anticipates a shortfall in supplies this summer, especially if extreme heat, wildfires or delays in bringing new power sources online exacerbate the constraints.

I am stunned that things have gotten this bad already.

And the Ukrainians have decided to make things even worse for the western world by cutting off a key source of Russian natural gas that Europe depends upon

Ukraine’s state-owned gas grid operator GTSOU said May 10 it had declared force majeure on the transit of Russian gas entering the Ukrainian system at Sokhranivka and would not accept gas at the entry point from May 11.

The force majeure declaration, the first of its kind since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, sent European gas prices sharply higher.

As energy prices rise, so will prices for everything else.

Because it takes energy to produce and transport virtually everything that we buy and sell.

So the inflation spiral that we are currently enjoying is likely to intensify even more in the months ahead.

At this point, economic conditions are already shifting so rapidly that some restaurants have decided to put stickers on their menus so that they can be easily changed

It’s not the prices on the menu so much that’ll shock you. They’re actually still very cheap (and the tacos really good). It’s the fact that the prices were scrawled in pen on stickers slapped on the menu. Those stickers are a tell-tale sign that prices are going up at such a rapid-fire clip that the staff is struggling to print new menus fast enough. Rewriting prices on old menus is easier and cheaper, too.

A quick scan of the restaurant’s Facebook posts lays out the increases. The special, offered every Wednesday and Friday, had been $1 per taco for years. That changed in February of last year, when it was raised to $1.25. A month later, it went to $1.50. This January, it shot up to $1.75. And now it’s $2.00.

This is the sort of thing that happens in Venezuela.

And now it is happening in the United States of America.

In a desperate attempt to get inflation under control, the Federal Reserve has recklessly raised interest rates.

This is going to absolutely crush the housing bubble, and financial markets appear to be poised to repeat history.

When I bring up the years 1929 and 2008, what do you immediately think about?

The answer to that question is obvious.

Now we stand on the precipice of another major financial disaster, but this time around there will not be a “return to normal”.

The entire western world has been on a suicidal path for decades, and now a day of reckoning has finally arrived.

And since the U.S. and Europe are the two core pillars of the global economy, the whole world will feel the pain of the coming collapse.

So I would encourage you to buckle your seatbelts, because the road ahead is going to be exceedingly bumpy.

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

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

The Stock Market Carnage That You Have Been Waiting For Is Here

A lot of people out there have been waiting for this stock market bubble to implode for a really long time.  Well, the wait is now over.  Stock prices have been falling for months, but what we have witnessed within the past couple of weeks has been absolutely breathtaking.  Trillions upon trillions of dollars worth of paper wealth has been suddenly wiped out, and many investors are panic selling in a desperate attempt to lock in profits before the market completely collapses.

On Monday, the Dow lost another 600 points, but the really big news continues to be the staggering declines for both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 653.67 points to 32,245.70, or 1.99%. The S&P 500 fell 3.2% to settle at 3,991.24, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 4.29% to 11,623.25.

It has been stunning to see these sorts of numbers day after day.

One long-time market veteran actually used the word “violent” to describe what we have been witnessing…

“I’ve been in the markets for 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO and chief strategist for Quill Intelligence, a Wall Street and Federal Reserve research firm. “It’s violent not just volatile.”

Sadly, she is right on target.  Things have already gotten really crazy, but many believe that the most chaotic chapters of this market implosion are still ahead of us.

The S&P 500 just dropped below 4,000 for the first time in more than a year, and I am already seeing people talk about what will happen when it falls to 3,000.

As for the Nasdaq, it has already plummeted 27 percent from the all-time record high.

Needless to say, that puts the Nasdaq well into bear market territory.

Tech stocks were crushed once again to begin the week, with some of the biggest names leading the way

Rising rates continued to crush technology names such as Meta Platforms and Alphabet, which lost 3.7% and 2.8%, respectively. Amazon, Apple and Netflix all fell more than 5%, 3% and 4%, respectively, while Tesla and Nvidia plunged more than 9% each.

Ouch!

And check out these numbers for all of 2022 so far…

Tesla: down 25 percent

Disney: down 30 percent

Amazon: down 34 percent

Facebook: down 41 percent

Uber: down 45 percent

Snap: down 50 percent

Netflix: down 71 percent

Of course Palantir has them all beat

Palantir Technologies, which went public in September 2020 via a direct listing amid enormous hype and hoopla, has now earned a much coveted spot in my Imploded Stocks column.

Today, Palantir reported another huge loss, this time $101 million, on $446 million in revenues, bringing its total loss over the past four years, to $2.86 billion. Its revenue outlook for Q2 was below what Wall Street expected. Shares [PLTR] kathoomphed 22% so far today, and 84% from the peak in January 2021, to $7.40 a new all-time low.

Investors are starting to figure out that trendy “tech companies” that regularly lose hundreds of millions of dollars are not actually good investments.

Cryptocurrencies have been falling dramatically as well.

Bitcoin and other cryptos were hammered really hard once again on Monday, and at this point Bitcoin is down almost 55 percent from the all-time high…

Bitcoin is off nearly 55% from its November peak, and 40% of holders are now underwater on their investments, according to new data from Glassnode.

That percentage is even higher when you isolate for the short-term holders who got skin in the game in the last six months when the price of bitcoin peaked at around $69,000.

Those that bought Bitcoin low and got out in time ended up making a killing.

But those that got in at or near the top of the market and just kept holding on are going to get absolutely eviscerated.

Of course that is how the market works.  You either eat or you get eaten.

As for what is ahead, many of the experts are fearing the worst.  Here is just one example

“We expect markets to remain volatile, with risks skewed to the downside as stagflation risks continue to increase,” wrote Barclays’ Maneesh Deshpande. “While we cannot discount sharp bear market rallies, we think upside is limited.”

In the short-term, you would think that things should stabilize at some point.

The fact that the Fed recklessly raised interest rates last week really shook a lot of people up, but that wave of panic should soon subside.

The much bigger issue is the outlook for the U.S. economy moving forward.  Interestingly, even corporate media outlets are now adopting a very negative tone about what is coming…

Inflation is at a 40-year high. Stock prices are sinking. The Federal Reserve is making borrowing much costlier. And the economy actually shrank in the first three months of this year.

Is the United States at risk of enduring another recession, just two years after emerging from the last one?

Even without another unexpected “trigger event”, the U.S. economy should get progressively worse throughout the remainder of 2022.

But as I have detailed in my last couple of books, I believe that we have entered a time in history when unexpected “trigger events” will come fast and furious.

Keep a close eye on the Middle East for the rest of this year, and we will all want to carefully watch how the global food crisis develops.

When people don’t have enough food, violence tends to erupt.  We saw this during the Arab Spring of 2011, and we will undoubtedly see similar eruptions in the months ahead.

Only this time around, the food shortages that we are facing threaten to develop into a long-term phenomenon.

In all my years of writing, I have never been more concerned about what is in front of us.

We have already been hit by crisis after crisis so far in 2022, but it looks like the second half of this year is going to be even crazier than the first half.

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

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

18 Signs That Food Shortages Will Get A Lot Worse As We Head Into The Second Half Of 2022

If you think that things are bad now, just wait until we get into the second half of this year.  Global food supplies have already gotten very tight, but it is the food that won’t be produced during this current growing season in the northern hemisphere that will be the real problem.  Worldwide fertilizer prices have doubled or tripled, the war in Ukraine has greatly reduced exports from one of the key breadbaskets of the world, a nightmarish bird flu pandemic is wiping out millions of chickens and turkeys, and bizarre weather patterns are absolutely hammering agricultural production all over the planet.  I have often used the phrase “a perfect storm” to describe what we are facing, but even that phrase really doesn’t seem to do justice to the crisis that we will be dealing with in the months ahead.  The following are 18 signs that food shortages will get a lot worse as we head into the second half of 2022…

#1 The largest fertilizer company on the entire planet is publicly warning that severe supply disruptions “could last well beyond 2022”

The world’s largest fertilizer company warned supply disruptions could extend into 2023. A bulk of the world’s supply has been taken offline due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. This has sparked soaring prices and shortages of crop nutrients in top growing areas worldwide; an early indication of a global food crisis could be in the beginning innings.

Bloomberg reports Canada-based Nutrien Ltd.’s CEO Ken Seitz told investors on Tuesday during a conference call that he expects to increase potash production following supply disruptions in Russia and Ukraine (both major fertilizer suppliers). Seitz expects disruptions “could last well beyond 2022.”

#2 The world fertilizer price index has skyrocketed to absurd heights that have never been seen before.

#3 It is being reported that global grain reserves have dropped to  “extremely low” levels…

Global grains stocks remain extremely low, an issue that has become amplified because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

“We think it will take at least 2-3 years to replenish global grains stocks,” Illinois-based CF Industries Holdings Inc.’s president and chief executive officer Tony Will said in a statement in Wednesday’s earnings report. 

#4 Due to the war, agricultural exports from Ukraine have been completely paralyzed

Nearly 25 million tonnes of grains are stuck in Ukraine and unable to leave the country due to infrastructure challenges and blocked Black Sea ports including Mariupol, a U.N. food agency official said on Friday.

The blockages are seen as a factor behind high food prices which hit a record high in March in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, before easing slightly in April, the FAO said on Friday.

#5 The out-of-stock rate for baby formula in the United States has now reached 40 percent

The out-of-stock rate for baby formula hovered between 2% and 8% in the first half of 2021, but began rising sharply last July. Between November 2021 and early April 2022, the out-of-stock rate jumped to 31%, data from Datasembly showed.

That rate increased another 9 percentage points in just three weeks in April, and now stands at 40%, the statistics show. In six states — Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri, Texas and Tennessee — more than half of baby formula was completely sold out during the week starting April 24, Datasembly said.

#6 In six U.S. states, the out-of-stock rate for baby formula has actually risen to 50 percent or greater.

#7 Searches for the phrase “how to make homemade formula for babies” on Google have spiked 120 percent.

#8 We are being told that this is a “perfect storm” as shelves become increasingly bare at food banks all around the nation.

#9 In Canada, more than 1.7 million chickens and turkeys have already been lost in recent months due to the global bird flu pandemic.

#10 In the United States, more than 37 million chickens and turkeys have already been wiped out due to the global bird flu pandemic.

#11 The two largest reservoirs in California, Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville, have both fallen to “critically low levels”.

#12 Some communities in southern California won’t be able to make it through the coming summer months without “significantly cutting back” on their water usage.

#13 Many of the largest lakes around the world are currently in the process of disappearing because they are rapidly drying up.

#14 Wildfires continue to absolutely devastate agricultural land all across the western half of the United States.  This weekend, it was New Mexico’s turn to be hit the hardest

After a few days of calm that allowed some families who had fled wildfires raging in northeast New Mexico to return to their homes, dangerous winds picked up again Sunday, threatening to spread spot fires and complicate work for firefighters.

More than 1,500 firefighters were on the fire lines at the biggest blaze east and northeast of Santa Fe, which grew another 8 square miles (20 square kilometers) overnight to an area more than twice as large as the city of Philadelphia.

#15 We are being told that steak prices in the United States will “keep rising” in the days ahead.

#16 Due to hail and frost, the Spanish apricot crop is going to be way below expectations

In Spain, the latest forecasts suggest production will not reach 60,000 tonnes, compared with 110,000 tonnes in 2019 and 100,000 tonnes in 2020 and 90,000 tonnes in 2021.

In Murcia, where around two-thirds of Spain’s apricot production is located, farmers in the Mula River and northwest regions have been forced to write off the entire season following a severe hailstorm on Monday which not only resulted in the loss of the fruit, but also caused widespread damage to trees.

#17 Overall, Spanish fruit production is expected to drop to the lowest level in 40 years.

#18 Kansas Senator Roger Marshall is openly warning that a horrifying worldwide famine is coming

The war in Ukraine will lead to a worldwide famine in the next two years, warned Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Ky.), who serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee, warned on Tuesday.

“You know I’m a big agriculture guy. Twelve, 15 percent of the agriculture products – corn and wheat, sunflower oil – come through that Black Sea, so— and fertilizers come from that area as well, so there actually is going to be a famine one to two years from now. I think two years from now will be even worse,” he told Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria Bartiromo” on Tuesday.

The alarm bells are ringing.

Are you listening?

In all of the years that I have been writing, I have never seen anything even close to this, and this crisis is only going to intensify as the months roll along.

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

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

The Stock Market Is Crashing! Is This 1,000 Point Wipeout Just The Beginning Of A Historic Financial Nightmare?

Is this “the Big One”?  On Wednesday, I warned that the Federal Reserve had made a “colossal mistake” when it increased its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points, and it looks like investors on Wall Street fully agree.  We just witnessed one of the largest single day stock market crashes in history, and of course this comes at a time when stock prices had already fallen quite dramatically.  Even before the carnage on Thursday, stocks were off to their worst start to a year in decades.  So will things settle down soon, or is this the beginning of a truly historic stock market collapse?

Millions of Americans better hope that it is the former, because trillions upon trillions of dollars in paper wealth is on the line.

I have always warned my readers that you only make money in the stock market if you get out in time.

It doesn’t matter if you were holding certain stocks when they soared to all-time record highs.  What is going to determine if you make a profit or not is when you choose to sell.

And markets tend to go down a whole lot faster than they go up.

On Thursday, the Dow was down more than 1,000 points, the S&P 500 plunged more than 3.5 percent, and the Nasdaq got absolutely crushed

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,063 points, or 3.12%, to close at 32,997.97. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 4.99% to finish at 12,317.69, its lowest closing level since November 2020. Both of those losses were the worst single-day drops since 2020.

The S&P 500 fell 3.56% to 4,146.87, marking its second worst day of the year.

The reason why the Nasdaq plummeted so dramatically was because tech stocks were in “free fall mode” once again

Large tech stocks were under pressure, with Facebook-parent Meta Platforms and Amazon falling 6.8% and 7.6%, respectively. Microsoft dropped 4.4%. Salesforce tumbled 7.1%. Apple sank 5.6%.

If you think that those numbers are bad, just look at what happened to Etsy and eBay

Etsy and eBay dropped 16.8% and 11.7%, respectively, after issuing weaker-than-expected revenue guidance. Shopify fell nearly 15% after missing estimates on the top and bottom lines.

The declines dragged Nasdaq to its worst day in nearly two years.

We have seen other bad days on Wall Street in recent years, but this definitely feels different.

I think that Kim Forrest has done a better job than anyone else of summarizing what we just witnessed

“I expected some selloff, but the great puking that’s happening, I didn’t expect,” said Kim Forrest, founder and chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners. “Is this capitulation? I remember what capitulation feels like — this kind of feels like capitulation, when everything, even the good names, are getting barfed out.”

I could not have said it better myself.

So precisely what was the trigger that prompted this rush for the exits?

Well, a lot of analysts are pointing to the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates on Wednesday.  Here is one example

“It’s going to be incredibly difficult for the Fed to normalize interest rates without having a negative impact on growth and earnings,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management. “So stock prices are too high if we’re going to see a flattening or a decline in earnings per share.”

Because there is so much leverage in the market right now, rapid declines could precipitate wave after wave of forced selling.

In fact, it appears that this is already happening to a certain degree.

Ultimately, it certainly won’t take too much to turn this “market slide” into a “market avalanche”.

Meanwhile, we continue to get more indications that the U.S. economy as a whole is really slowing down.  On Thursday, we learned that worker productivity declined “at its fastest pace in nearly 75 years” during the first quarter…

Worker productivity fell to start 2022 at its fastest pace in nearly 75 years while labor costs soared as the U.S. struggled with surging Covid cases, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.

Nonfarm productivity, a measure of output against hours worked, declined 7.5% from January through March, the biggest fall since the third quarter of 1947.

At the same time, we continue to get more bad news on the inflation front.

One of the largest meatpackers in the western hemisphere is warning that steaks and burgers will get even more expensive in the months ahead…

Beef will be getting even more expensive at U.S. grocery stores in the months ahead, according to one of the country’s biggest meatpackers.

National Beef Co., controlled by the Brazilian giant Marfrig Global Foods, sees relatively stable margins in the next two quarters, according to Tim Klein, who heads Marfrig’s U.S. operations. That means even though their costs to buy cattle are increasing, the company will ultimately be able to pass that on to consumers in the form of pricier steaks and burgers.

And the rapidly rising cost of fertilizer will inevitably make trips to the grocery store much more painful later this year…

A fertilizer shortage is putting the food supply at risk.

Fertilizer prices have tripled from where they were in 2021 and it’s forcing Mid-Michigan farmers to change how they grow their crops.

“You’re cutting off one hand to save the other,” said Seth Cords.

So many things are simultaneously going wrong, and the outlook for the second half of this year is exceedingly bleak.

But for a long time stock prices were able to defy economic reality.

Even though economic conditions were rapidly deteriorating all around us, investors just continued to party on as stock prices just kept going higher and higher.

Of course now everything has changed.

Trillions of dollars in paper wealth has already been wiped out, and trillions more will likely be wiped out in the days ahead.

But Wall Street doesn’t even realize that what we have been through so far is just a warm up act.

Much more difficult days are coming, and eventually we will see financial disaster on a scale that is absolutely unprecedented in our history.

Hopefully that time can be put off for as long as possible.

But the clock is ticking, and what happened on Thursday should be a major league wake up call for all of us.

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

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

The Federal Reserve Just Made A Colossal Mistake

You don’t raise interest rates when the economy is already falling into a recession.  U.S. GDP contracted during the first quarter of 2022, and if it contracts again in the second quarter of 2022 that will officially confirm that we are already in a recession right now.  Any central banker that would choose to raise interest rates just as a new recession is starting is absolutely nuts.  But the “experts” at the Fed decided to go ahead with a 50 basis point rate hike on Wednesday anyway.  This was the largest rate hike that we have seen since the year 2000, and it appears that more rate hikes are coming later in the year.

Let me start my analysis by clearly stating that I believe that the Federal Reserve should be abolished.  A centrally managed economy is extremely odious to those of us that truly believe in free market economics, but unfortunately most of the population still fully embraces our economic overlords at the Fed even though they keep making enormous policy errors again and again.

Previously, we have seen the Fed tighten just as the U.S. economy began to slow down, and that resulted in some of the worst economic downturns in our history.

Now it is happening again, and we keep getting more confirmations that the economy has already been cooling off.  For example, the ADP employment report for the month of April was way below expectations

U.S. companies added far fewer jobs than expected in April, suggesting the tightest labor market in decades has made it difficult for businesses to fill a record number of open positions, according to the ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday morning.

Companies added 247,000 jobs in April, sharply missing the 395,000 gain that economists surveyed by Refinitiv had predicted. It also marked a big decline from March, when private employers added an upwardly revised 479,000 jobs.

The officials at the Fed can see what is happening, but they are desperate to get the inflation monster that they played a major role in creating under control.

During his post-meeting news conference, Jerome Powell conceded that inflation is causing “hardship” for the American people…

“Inflation is much too high,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters at a post-meeting news conference. “We understand the hardship it is causing, and we’re moving expeditiously to bring it back down. We have both the tools we need and the resolve that it will take to restore price stability on behalf of American families and businesses.”

It is certainly true that inflation is much too high.

But a 50 basis point hike is not going to make much of a difference on that front at all.

On the other hand, everyone agrees that the 50 basis point hike will have a substantial short-term impact on economic activity…

It’s expected to set off a domino effect through the economy, pushing up rates for credit cards, home equity lines of credit and adjustable-rate mortgages, among other loans.

In particular, this move will have enormous implications for the housing market.

Just as we have reached the peak of yet another housing bubble and foreclosures are starting to surge, Powell and his minions have decided to unleash chaos.

Do you remember 2008?  Well, if officials at the Fed keep raising interest rates we could be in for a crisis in the housing market that is even worse.

Unfortunately, it sounds like that is exactly what Powell and his minions are planning

“There is a broad consensus (among Fed policymakers) that additional (half-point) rate increases should be on the table at the next couple of meetings,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference.

Don’t do it Powell.

Please don’t do it.

Going down that road will only end in tragedy.

Incredibly, the Fed is also telling us that it is going to start reducing the size of its balance sheet

The Fed also announced that it will start reducing its massive $9 trillion balance sheet, which nearly doubled in size during the pandemic as the central bank bought mortgage-backed securities and other Treasurys to keep borrowing cheap. In a plan outlined Wednesday, the Fed indicated that it will begin winding down the balance sheet on June 1 at an initial combined monthly pace of $47.5 billion, a move that will further tighten credit for U.S. households. It will increase the run-off rate to $95 billion over three months.

Essentially, this will be “quantitative easing” in reverse.

The Fed created the unprecedented stock market bubble that we have now by pumping trillions of dollars into the financial system, and now they are threatening to burst that bubble.

And this comes at a time when stocks have already been falling precipitously.  Stocks are off to their worst start to a year in decades, and the Fed seems to think that this is a perfect time to make things even worse.

What in the world are the “experts” at the Fed thinking?

Right now, economic conditions are rapidly slowing down all over the world and the UN has warned us that we are heading into the worst global food crisis since World War II.

So this is a perfect opportunity for the Fed to depress economic activity even more?

Something doesn’t smell right about all of this.

I have been a very strong critic of the Federal Reserve for many years, but even I have a hard time believing that the officials at the Fed are this incompetent.

We are currently dealing with the largest land war in Europe since the 1940s, impending global famine, a horrifying bird flu pandemic and rapidly deteriorating economic conditions all over the planet.

And the Fed chooses this moment to tighten?

What a colossal mistake.

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

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

America Is About To Explode With Emotion, But Overturning Roe Wouldn’t Actually Change Much

Before you get upset with my headline, please read my analysis.  I think that overturning Roe v. Wade is long overdue, and it is an absolutely wonderful thing for our country.  But as I will explain in this article, that step alone won’t dramatically change the number of abortions that are performed in the United States.  In most blue states, the abortion industry will continue to operate normally, and in most red states the anti-abortion laws that will be implemented will not cover most abortions.

Democrats in Congress would like to “codify Roe v. Wade” on the federal level, but in this article I am going to assume that they don’t have the votes in the U.S. Senate to either get rid of the filibuster or to pass such a law with the filibuster in place.

If both of those assumptions are correct, then the individual states will get to make their own determinations about the legality of abortion once Roe v. Wade is overturned.  Some prominent news sources are running greatly exaggerated stories about what will happen if that takes place.  For example, the following comes from NBC News

Abortion rights would be up to the states if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Two-dozen states and territories would ban it immediately, and 13 have “trigger laws” waiting for the ruling.

What you just read is false.

Abortion will not be completely banned in two dozen states if Roe is overturned.  Whoever wrote that doesn’t know what they are talking about.

So let me take this one step at a time and try to explain precisely what would happen.

The states of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin have abortion laws on their books that existed before Roe v. Wade was decided.  Needless to say, not all of those states would enforce those old laws if Roe is overturned.  In particular, I know that the Democratic governors of Michigan and Wisconsin are quite determined not to enforce those old laws.

There is another group of states that have passed “trigger laws” that will go into effect after Roe v. Wade is overturned.  These are the states in that category: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

As you can see, the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas are in both groups.

There are other states that have passed laws that partially restrict abortion in recent years, and most of those laws have been struck down by the courts.  But if Roe is overturned, those laws would theoretically become enforceable.

But none of the state laws that have been passed since Roe v. Wade was decided are designed to totally ban abortion.  Some would restrict legal abortion to the first six weeks, while other laws have deadlines of eight, fifteen or twenty weeks.  Here is how that breaks down by state…

Six weeks: Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas

Eight weeks: Missouri

Fifteen weeks: Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi

Twenty weeks: Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska and North Carolina

Some states appear multiple times, and that is because more than one law that restricts abortion was passed in those particular states in recent years.

I know that all of this can be confusing, but the bottom line is that a bunch of laws that restrict abortion will go into effect in a number of red states once Roe is overturned.

However, these laws are not going to cover most of the abortions that happen in those states.

According to the CDC, 66 percent of all abortions happen during the first eight weeks of pregnancy.

And approximately 90 percent of all abortions occur within the first 13 weeks.

So once these laws are implemented, even in the red states the abortion industry will continue to pretty much operate as normal.

Once Roe is overturned, we will desperately need state laws that completely ban abortion, and that may be attempted in a small handful of states.

But overall, women that get pregnant are still going to be able to run over to Planned Parenthood and terminate the lives of their children.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am very excited that Roe v. Wade is being overturned, but that isn’t the end of the battle.

In fact, it is just the beginning.

Ultimately, if we ever hope to end abortion in America, we have got to change millions upon millions of hearts.

Because right now most polls show that Americans want to keep Roe by about a two to one margin.  In fact, another such poll was just released

Washington Post-ABC News poll published Tuesday found that a majority of Americans support the Supreme Court upholding Roe v. Wade. The poll, conducted last week, found 54% of Americans support upholding Roe, while 28% support overturning it. The poll found 18% had no opinion.

Those numbers are extremely sad.

And unfortunately there is a tremendous amount of passion and energy on the pro-abortion side.

In the last 24 hours, there have been lots of very angry leftists on social media that have been openly threatening to start burning things down.  Here is one example.

And here is another.

Not to be outdone, one particularly crazed leftist suggested that it is time to “burn everything to the ground”.

You can see even more examples of what I am talking about here, here and here.

We are going to witness a national temper tantrum of epic proportions, but most of those that are upset actually live in blue states where access to abortion will continue on as normal.

And even in the reddest of the red states most abortions that happen now will still be permitted.

If anyone should be infuriated, it should be those on the pro-life side of the debate.  Because if we keep going down the road that we are currently on, there isn’t going to be an America.

Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, more than 60 million babies have been “terminated”.

Their blood is crying out for justice, but at this point only a small minority of Americans actually want Roe to be overturned.

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

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

What Comes Next After Roe Is Overturned? Chaos On The Streets Of Washington Like We Have Never Seen Before…

I am sitting here absolutely stunned as I write this.  According to a draft decision obtained by Politico, the U.S. Supreme Court is going to overturn Roe v. Wade.  My initial reaction was that this is the best news that we have had in decades.  We all knew that the Dobbs case had the potential to be really big, but I was skeptical that Roe would actually be overturned.  I just didn’t think that the votes were there.  But if this draft opinion is the real deal, it appears that is precisely what is about to happen.  The draft opinion was apparently written by Samuel Alito, and Politico is calling it “a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision”

The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.

The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.

I knew that Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas were ready to overturn Roe, but three more votes were needed.

I always felt like Amy Coney Barrett was a potential vote, but I have been very critical of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh in the past because I felt like they were very poor choices for the Court.

Now I am going to have to apologize to both of them, because it appears that they were the deciding votes.

In the draft decision, it is noted that “there was no support in American law for a constitutional right to obtain an abortion” until the Supreme Court created one out of thin air in 1973

The conservative justice attached to his draft a 31-page appendix listing laws passed to criminalize abortion during that period. Alito claims “an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment…from the earliest days of the common law until 1973.”

“Until the latter part of the 20th century, there was no support in American law for a constitutional right to obtain an abortion. Zero. None. No state constitutional provision had recognized such a right,” Alito adds.

Roe was dead wrong from the very beginning, and it is a great tragedy that it has taken this long for the Court to recognize what a horrible error it was.

But of course the battle isn’t over yet.

This draft decision was obviously leaked to put pressure on the justices during the period before the final ruling is formally announced.

As Politico has correctly explained, votes can be changed and draft opinions can be substantially altered up until the day that a decision is officially revealed…

Deliberations on controversial cases have in the past been fluid. Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, sometimes until just days before a decision is unveiled. The court’s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months.

Normally, draft opinions are guarded very carefully so that they don’t get leaked to the public.

In fact, this is the very first time in the modern history of the Court that a draft opinion has been leaked while a case is still pending.

Needless to say, things are about to get really crazy in Washington.

Almost immediately after this story broke, authorities began putting up security barricades around the Supreme Court building.

Sadly, that isn’t nearly enough.  The threat of violence is very real, and I believe that a greatly extended security perimeter is needed.

But our politicians are not likely to allow that to happen, because many of them actually will want to have scenes of giant mobs of protesters in front of the Supreme Court on the nightly news for many weeks to come.

In fact, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are already feeding the anger

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., issued a joint statement saying “the Supreme Court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past fifty years – not just on women but on all Americans,” if the report is acurate.

“The Republican-appointed Justices’ reported votes to overturn Roe v. Wade would go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history,” they said.

We are about to see a massive explosion of emotion on the streets of Washington, and it will make headlines all over the globe.

Abortion will now become the hottest political issue in America once again, and nothing will ever be the same from this point forward.

What a lot of people don’t understand is that overturning Roe v. Wade would not actually make abortion illegal.

It would just remove the constitutional protection for abortion, and it would theoretically allow the states to make their own determinations about whether abortion should be legal or not.

And unfortunately the truth is that the vast majority of states would not completely ban abortion.

Of course there are many Democrats that believe that a federal law can be passed that would make Roe v. Wade the law of the land no matter what the Supreme Court decides.  For example, just check out what Bernie Sanders said after he heard about this draft decision…

Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders said that 60-vote thresh hold, often called the filibuster, must be removed to legalize abortion.

‘Congress must pass legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade as the law of the land in this country NOW. And if there aren’t 60 votes in the Senate to do it, and there are not, we must end the filibuster to pass it with 50 votes,’ he tweeted on Monday night.

During the weeks ahead, we are going to witness an absolutely massive national temper tantrum.

Survey after survey has shown that approximately two-thirds of all Americans want to keep Roe v. Wade, and the fury that we are going to see from the left is going to be off the charts.

But the only hope that our nation has is to stop killing babies.  More than 60 million have died since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, and the death toll just keeps rising with each passing day.

We are going to get one more chance to show the world that we are willing to do the right thing, and I desperately hope that we take advantage of this opportunity.

Because if we continue down the road that we are currently on, it will only end in tragedy.

The fate of our nation hangs in the balance, and so I think that it is quite appropriate that a full-blown national debate about abortion will take place at this absolutely critical moment in our history.

If we don’t change direction now, we may never get another chance.

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

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

Is This Finally The End For America’s Greatest Stock Market Bubble?

Even though there have been so many problems with the economy over the last 12 months, many Americans continued to believe that everything would eventually be okay because stock prices remained stubbornly high.  But now that stock prices are crashing, the cold, harsh reality of what we are facing is starting to set in for millions upon millions of people.  Trillions of dollars in paper wealth has already been wiped out, and many experts are warning that the worst is still yet to come.  I have always warned my readers that you only make money in the stock market if you get out in time, and unfortunately there are a whole lot of investors out there that didn’t get out in time.

On Friday, the financial carnage that we witnessed was quite impressive

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell nearly 4.2% to 12,334.64, weighed down by Amazon’s post-earnings plunge. The S&P 500 retreated by 3.6% to 4,131.93. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 939.18 points, or close to 2.8%, to 32,977.21.

Of course this was just the continuation of a trend that has been developing for quite some time.

April was the worst month for the S&P 500 since March 2020, and it was the worst month for the Nasdaq since the financial crisis of 2008.

For the year, the Dow has fallen 9.3 percent, the S&P 500 has dropped 13.3 percent, and the Nasdaq has plunged 21.2 percent.

Overall, the Dow is now down 10.8 percent from the all-time high, the S&P 500 is down 14.3 percent from the all-time high, and the Nasdaq is down 23.9 percent from the all-time high.

Tech stocks were on the bleeding edge of this stock market bubble on the way up, and now they are also on the bleeding edge of the crash on the way down.

On Friday, the price of Amazon fell about 14 percent.  That represented the largest single day decline for that stock since 2006.

As a result, Jeff Bezos is now 20 billion dollars poorer…

Jeff Bezos saw $20.5 billion of his fortune melt away after Amazon.com Inc.’s results left investors disappointed, helping fuel the worst month for technology stocks in years.

Can you imagine losing 20 billion dollars on a single day?

I can’t.

When asked about the market, Bezos was rather philosophical

Most people dramatically underestimate the remarkableness of this bull run.

Such things are unstoppable … until they aren’t.

Markets teach. The lessons can be painful.

Of course it isn’t just Amazon that has been plummeting.  All of the major tech stocks have fallen by double digit percentages from their all-time highs at this point.

Since last November, FANG stocks have collectively lost more than 1.6 trillion dollars in market capitalization.

That is one huge pile of money.

On Friday alone, the 500 wealthiest people on the globe lost over 54 billion dollars

The world’s 500 richest people lost a total of more than $54 billion Friday amid the broader market rout, according to the Bloomberg index.

But not everything is going down.

April was actually the best month for the Russian ruble since 1993.

Needless to say, Joe Biden’s promise to crush the ruble has not exactly gone to plan.

As for our financial markets, we are being told that there is a variety of reasons why they are suddenly imploding…

“The market is worried about a very fragile economic outlook, as it should be,” said Joe LaVorgna, chief Americas economist at Natixis and former Trump White House economic adviser. “The economy is fundamentally soft: The Fed is going to hike next week, the situation in Ukraine is not getting better and high inflation is cutting into costs.”

And many are warning that even darker days are ahead.  For example, the following originally comes from John Hussman

Buckle up, buttercup.

The most challenging financial event for investors in the coming decade will be the repricing of securities to valuations that imply adequate long-term returns, following more than a decade of reckless and intentional Fed-induced yield-seeking speculation.

As I have repeatedly warned my regular readers, stock valuation ratios always return to their long-term averages eventually.  Because stock prices have been so ridiculously high, getting back to those long-term averages will be exceedingly painful.

But there is also a danger that stock prices could ultimately fall much lower than that.

Here in 2022, we have been hit by one crisis after another.  A major land war has erupted in Europe, we have been hit by plague after plague, and we are being warned that we are heading into the worst global food crisis since World War II.

We are definitely in the midst of a “perfect storm”, and we get more bad news with each passing day.

In fact, we just learned that a man in Colorado has the H5N1 bird flu virus.  The following comes from the official CDC website

A person has tested positive for avian influenza A(H5) virus (H5 bird flu) in the U.S., as reported by Colorado and confirmed by CDC. This case occurred in a person who had direct exposure to poultry and was involved in the culling (depopulating) of poultry with presumptive H5N1 bird flu. The patient reported fatigue for a few days as their only symptom and has since recovered. The patient is being isolated and treated with the influenza antiviral drug oseltamivir. While it is possible the detection of H5 bird flu in this specimen is a result of surface contamination of the nasal membrane, that can’t be determined at this point and the positive test result meets the criteria for an H5 case. The appropriate public health response at this time is to assume this is an infection and take actions to contain and treat.

As I discussed last week, approximately 35 million chickens and turkeys have already died during this new pandemic, but bird flu does not normally spread easily among humans.

However, if bird flu does mutate into a form that can spread easily among humans, everything will change.

COVID completely paralyzed our society, but it has a death rate that is well below one percent.

The CDC says that the bird flu can have a death rate of up to 60 percent in humans, and so we better hope that widespread human to human transmission does not become a reality.

This is a story that I will be watching very closely, because it has the potential to completely change the trajectory of the remainder of this year and beyond.

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

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