The Economic Collapse

Are They Covering Up The True Magnitude Of The New Ebola Outbreak?

Michael — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 20:24:43 +0000

Hundreds of people have been dropping dead from a horrifying hemorrhagic disease in central Africa. We are being told that this isn’t the Zaire strain, which is the most common form of Ebola. Instead, authorities are telling us that this outbreak is being caused by the very rare Bundibugyo virus. Unlike the Zaire strain, there is no cure for the Bundibugyo virus. If you get infected, your odds of dying are somewhere between 25 and 50 percent. This is an extremely high death rate, but so far global health authorities have been able to keep everyone calm. They are assuring us that the threat outside of Africa is very low, and most people seem to be buying that story.

But is it accurate?

The International Rescue Committee is claiming that the Ebola outbreak is “likely far worse” than the official numbers suggest…

The Ebola outbreak surging in multiple African countries is ‘likely far worse’ than official reports make it seem, health experts have warned.

New York-based aid group the International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned Monday that response efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the epicenter of an ongoing Ebola outbreak, are struggling due to delayed detection and low levels of contact tracing.

Of course the “official numbers” have been fluctuating all over the place.

On Tuesday, the WHO released figures that were far lower than they had previously been giving us…

The United Nations’ World Health Organization significantly scaled back on Tuesday the number of suspected Ebola cases in central Africa, lowering it to 116 from more than 900, with 330 total cases confirmed.

The WHO said that as of May 31, there were 116 suspected cases of the deadly virus registered in Democratic Republic of Congo — a massive reduction from the 906 that had been on the books late last week.

If the WHO has determined that this outbreak is actually much less severe than originally thought, that would be great news.

But if they are simply trying to keep everyone calm by releasing smaller numbers, that would not be good at all.

One expert is warning that the statistics that are being fed to the public are simply not telling us the whole story…

“The true scale of this Ebola outbreak is likely far worse than official figures suggest,” Rachel Howard, Senior Technical Emergency Health Advisor at the IRC, said.

“When four out of five contacts are not being traced, it becomes incredibly difficult to contain the outbreak or even understand its true scale. We’re especially concerned about the virus spreading to other countries like Burundi or South Sudan,” Ms Howard added.

We do know that large numbers of people have been dying in local hospitals.

And we also know that the Trump administration is so concerned about this virus that they are absolutely refusing to allow any U.S. citizens that get infected to be treated on U.S. soil…

The Trump administration said it “cannot and will not allow” any cases to enter the U.S. That’s a departure from the U.S. handling of the Ebola outbreak in 2014, when several infected American patients were treated on U.S. soil.

If this outbreak isn’t that big of a deal, why would the Trump administration do this?

Personally, I think that it is a far bigger deal than global health authorities are admitting.

It seems that the very first case appeared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in January…

The first Ebola case in the current epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) may date back as far as January, according to local medics.

The information was shared with several international NGOs, including the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Action Aid and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), by local medics last week, sources have told The Telegraph.

The medics believe the outbreak began with a patient treated at a hospital in Rwampara, a town in eastern DRC, in late January. They said the patient went on to infect eight healthcare workers before dying in February.

If one infected individual was able to infect eight different healthcare workers before he died, that is a very bad sign.

And if that case in January really was “patient zero”, that means that the virus was spreading unchecked for four months before global health authorities started to respond.

On Wednesday, we learned that the outbreak has now reached yet another new area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo…

Ebola has reached a health zone more than 100 miles from the mining town where Democratic Republic of Congo’s outbreak is believed to have begun, as responders track fewer than 40% of known contacts in the epidemic’s hardest-hit province.

Health officials in Ituri province, which accounts for almost 94% of confirmed infections, were actively monitoring only 39.3% of identified contacts, the country’s National Institute of Public Health said in a report Tuesday. The newly affected health zone of Mambasa lies southwest of the town of Mongbwalu, considered the outbreak’s point of origin, bringing the total number of affected health zones nationwide to 24.

The fact that this strain of Ebola is now spreading in Mambasa is very troubling news, because that part of the DRC is controlled by Islamic State militants…

A rare strain of Ebola has reached a corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo controlled by Islamic State militants, a place too dangerous for health workers fighting to stop the deadly virus.

The Bundibugyo strain has killed one person in the militant-controlled territory of Mambasa, which is some 100 miles from the outbreak’s epicenter in a gold-mining town of Mongbwalu. Mambasa is the stronghold of the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic State affiliate conducting an insurgency against Congolese and Ugandan troops.

Health authorities aren’t going to be able to do much of anything as the virus spreads throughout Mambasa.

We can only hope that the outbreak there fizzles out somehow.

Meanwhile, cases have started to pop up outside of the DRC as well…

A growing number of cases have also been detected in neighboring Uganda and South Sudan and patients are under observation in Italy and Brazil. An American who tested positive for the virus was evacuated for treatment to Germany.

The variant, which has no current treatments or vaccines, kills up to 50 percent of those infected.

I think that any hope of successfully containing this outbreak has already been lost.

In Uganda, the number of confirmed cases has now risen to 15…

Neighboring Uganda also confirmed six new cases Tuesday, bringing its total to 15 infections, including one death.

In Brazil, one of the individuals that was suspected of being infected has tested negative…

One of two patients being monitored by Brazilian health authorities for possible Ebola infection in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro has tested negative, officials said Sunday. The possible infections have sparked further concern over the deadly virus outbreak in central Africa spreading abroad.

A 37-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the outbreak has been concentrated, “exhibited symptoms such as fever, meeting the definition of a suspected case” of Ebola, the Sao Paulo state government said in a statement on Saturday.

While initial tests did not detect the Ebola virus in the patient, he is being monitored and isolated as a precautionary measure at a specialized infectious disease facility, the statement said.

That is good news.

But what about the other suspected case?

And what about the two suspected cases in Italy?

Ebola has never spread outside of Africa before.

If this outbreak does make that jump, we are going to start to see a lot of panic all over the world.

During the global pandemic that we went through earlier this decade, the death rate was extremely low.

But for the Bundibugyo virus, the death rate is somewhere between 25 and 50 percent…

The mortality rate for the Bundibugyo virus ranges from 25 to 50 percent.

The Zaire strain, which is the most common form of Ebola, can be treated with the drugs Inmazeb and Ebanga and the Ervebo vaccine, which is administered only during outbreaks.

If this outbreak had been caused by the Zaire strain, I would not be concerned at all.

Unfortunately, the tools that are used to fight the Zaire strain are not effective against the Bundibugyo virus.

Every day more people are dropping dead, and I will be watching this story very closely.

There are two last things that I wanted to mention in this article.

First of all, it has come out that a laboratory worker in Montana was bitten by a monkey that had been infected with a strain of Ebola last November…

Senator Tim Sheehy said this month he called for Montana’s Inspector General to open a probe into the Rocky Mountain Lab, a government research laboratory focusing on infectious diseases.

According to a letter Sheehy sent to officials, a worker at the laboratory was bitten through their protective equipment by a monkey infected with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a strain of Ebola, in November 2025.

The employee, who has not been publicly identified, was treated following the monkey attack but did not contract the lethal illness, and officials said they soon returned back to work.

Did the monkey bite puncture the skin of that employee?

And exactly how soon did that employee return to work?

Hopefully we will get answers to those two questions.

We have also just learned that two researchers that had been working at that exact same facility have been charged with attempting to smuggle the monkeypox virus into the United States…

Two researchers with the National Institutes of Health have been charged with allegedly trying to smuggle the infectious monkeypox virus into the United States, according to the Department of Justice.

In a news release issued Tuesday, the department announced Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe with the NIH Rocky Mountain Laboratory had been charged with “conspiracy to smuggle” the virus, as well as giving false statements to federal law enforcement in January.

The department says Munster and Kwe arrived at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, with “a large black plastic case” after traveling from Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, where an outbreak of monkeypox was occurring. Monkeypox, also known as Mpox, is a viral illness that is spread through close contact, with symptoms that include fevers, headaches and a rash that looks like blisters or sores, according to the World Health Organization.

The large plastic case that you see someone carrying through an airport could have a deadly virus in it.

And as we have seen, it is way too easy for a lab accident to happen.

We live at a time when mad scientists all over the globe are “playing god” with some of the deadliest diseases that humanity has ever known.

It is probably inevitable that more diseases that have been purposely modified will get out.

So enjoy this period of relative stability while you still can, because I am convinced that global pestilences will be a major theme during the chaotic months and years that are ahead.

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.

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The Average Monthly Mortgage Payment Is Up 44 Percent To $2,005, But American Families Are Paying Even More For Health Insurance

Michael — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:28:12 +0000

U.S. households are being financially squeezed at a level that we have never seen before. I have often said that we are in a long-term cost of living crisis that never seems to end, and that is not an exaggeration at all. Just about everything has been getting more expensive in recent years, and as a result our standard of living has been going down. In many areas of the country, you now have to earn six figures just to live a basic middle class lifestyle. The numbers that I am going to share with you in this article may be hard to believe, but they are very real. Inflation has been out of control for many years, and hard working American families are being absolutely crushed.

For the first time in U.S. history, the average monthly mortgage payment now exceeds $2,000…

Homeowners faced a sticker shock at the end of 2025 as the average monthly mortgage payment topped $2,000 for the first time—a historic milestone reflecting the combined pressure of high home prices and elevated interest rates.

In the fourth quarter of last year, the average payment for existing mortgage holders climbed to $2,005, representing a striking 44% surge compared to 2021, according to the latest quarterly outstanding mortgage report from the Realtor.com® economic research team.

In other words, the typical homeowner saw their monthly mortgage payment jump by more than $600 in just three years, an eye-watering surge.

Take another look at those figures.

All along, federal bureaucrats have been feeding us numbers that show that the inflation rate is very low, but the average monthly mortgage payment has risen by 44 percent just since 2021.

Needless to say, someone is not telling us the truth.

But that isn’t even the worst part.

Today, what the average American family is paying for health insurance each month is even higher than the average monthly mortgage payment…

The numbers don’t lie. The average American family now pays over $2,200 a month for health insurance; surprisingly, that’s more than the average monthly mortgage payment of $2,000. Let that sink in. Keeping a roof over your head costs less than keeping your family covered.

That is not a market failure. That is a system rigged by liberals and government bureaucrats designed to benefit corporate giants at the expense of everyday Americans. Premiums are soaring, and insurers are cashing in. It needs to stop.

Americans are noticing. A recent poll found that a staggering 90 percent of Americans say health insurance companies have too much control and should be broken up, with 74 percent strongly agreeing. The overwhelming majority of Americans know there is a problem. They are screaming for justice.

That is outrageous.

Is there anyone out there that wants to attempt to defend how expensive health insurance has become?

Our system is so broken, and the politicians in Washington have given up on trying to fix it.

Meanwhile, pretty much everything else is becoming more expensive too.

And thanks to the war in Iran, American households have had to shell out an extra 100 billion dollars in just three months…

The war in Iran has cost US households $100 billion in three months, Moody’s Analytics says.

Now in its fourth month, the conflict has cost nearly $750 per household. The increased cost to consumers has mostly been felt in energy prices, but the inflation picture continues to deteriorate the longer the war drags on without a resolution in sight. What’s more, Moody’s says that tailwinds for household like Donald Trump’s tax cuts have been offset by war-fueled cost increased.

This is money that is coming directly out of your pockets.

The rising cost of gasoline alone has sucked an extra 400 dollars out of the typical U.S. household…

According to researchers at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs, Americans have paid an additional $51.7 billion in gasoline and diesel costs since the conflict began on February 28, equivalent to nearly $400 per household. And Moody’s Analytics, in findings shared with CNBC, puts this figure even higher, at $450.

There is no end in sight for the crisis in the Middle East, and that means gasoline prices are likely to go significantly higher.

Commercial oil inventories are being rapidly depleted, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is “dropping toward levels not seen since the 1980s”…

America’s emergency oil reserve is dropping toward levels not seen since the 1980s, as the United States rapidly drains its supplies to stabilize global energy markets rattled by the war with Iran.

According to the latest report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. has 365.1 million barrels of oil sitting in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the week ending May 22, compared to 374.2 million a week prior and down by over 50 million barrels since the conflict began on February 28.

The price of oil has a direct impact on prices for just about everything else, and so that is really bad news.

As ordinary Americans are being squeezed harder and harder, household debt has been rising and the credit card delinquency rate has spiked to a very alarming level…

According to data released by the New York Fed in May, total U.S. household debt climbed to an all-time high of $18.8 trillion in the first quarter of 2026. Much of this is housing debt, and credit card balances dropped slightly over the period, but the rising total has coincided with an increase in late payments.

The percentage of credit card balances at least 90 days delinquent reached 13.1 percent in the first quarter, up 0.4 percent from the previous one and reaching its highest rate in 15 years.

Millions upon millions of Americans are working as hard as they can and it still isn’t enough.

To many people, it just seems like there is no way that they can win, and so many are choosing to simply drop out of the game.

In fact, one out of every three American men are no longer in the workforce at all…

The number of American men participating in the workforce has fallen to one of its lowest levels in nearly two decades, according to new federal labor statistics.

Just 66 percent of men age 20 and older were employed or actively seeking work as of April, according to data released earlier this month by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure has dropped sharply from 73 percent in 2006 and now sits near levels last seen during the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis.

The numbers mean roughly one in three American men are no longer in the workforce.

This is what a crumbling economy looks like.

Only 66 percent of American men that are at least 20 years old are working.

How low does that number have to drop for us to admit that we have a historic crisis on our hands?

I have heard from so many readers that are feeling more financial stress right now than they ever have in their entire lives.

That isn’t a coincidence.

Decades of incredibly foolish decisions have resulted in a sl0w-motion economic decline that has really started to pick up speed in recent years.

Now the pain is beginning to feel like it is unbearable, but the truth is that our problems are only going to intensify from here.

The post The Average Monthly Mortgage Payment Is Up 44 Percent To $2,005, But American Families Are Paying Even More For Health Insurance appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

The Total Collapse Of Negotiations With Iran Threatens To Cause Global Economic Devastation

Michael — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 19:59:24 +0000

This is a moment in history that we will remember for a long time to come. Even though we were told over and over again that a deal with Iran was almost “finalized”, the truth is that there never was going to be a deal with Iran. It was all smoke and mirrors. The U.S. couldn’t give Iran what it was demanding, and Iran simply refused to give the U.S. what it was demanding. Now negotiations have totally collapsed, and it appears that the war is back on. Needless to say, this is going to be absolutely devastating for the global economy.

The Iranians are absolutely furious that Israeli troops have been advancing deep into Lebanese territory during the ceasefire period, and they are identifying that as the primary reason why they have decided to pull out of talks with the United States…

Iran negotiators will stop exchanging messages with the U.S. through intermediaries, and Tehran will move to fully close the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for ongoing ceasefire violations, Iran’s state-affiliated news outlet Tasnim said Monday.

The report, in a translated post on the social media site Telegram, homed in on Israel’s military operations in Lebanon against the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah.

“No dialogue will take place” until Israel fully withdraws from occupied areas in Lebanon and stops all attacks in both Lebanon and Gaza, per Tasnim.

Israel will stop shooting as long as Hezbollah agrees to stop sending attack drones into northern Israel.

But there is no way that we are going to see the IDF completely pull out of Lebanon.

If the Iranians are waiting for that to happen, they will be waiting for a really, really long time.

The Iranians are alleging that the U.S. naval blockade of the Iranian coastline is also a violation of the ceasefire, and they want that to end too.

President Trump has vowed to keep that blockade going until a deal is finally reached, and so the Iranians are not going to get that either.

So it appears that any hope for a deal is completely dead, and the Iranians apparently intend to “completely block the Strait of Hormuz and activate other fronts including the Bab al-Mandeb Strait”…

“Also, the resistance front and Iran have resolved to completely block the Strait of Hormuz and activate other fronts including the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, in order to punish the Zionists and their supporters,” the report said.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a trade chokepoint that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

Since the war began, Saudi Arabia has still been able to export quite a bit of oil by sending it via pipeline to ports on the Red Sea.

But if the Bab al-Mandeb Strait is also closed, the Saudis won’t be able to export any oil at all.

Last week, I published an article that discussed the fact that global oil inventories have already been dropping at the fastest pace ever recorded.

Shutting down the Bab al-Mandeb Strait would dramatically accelerate the depletion of existing supplies.

In other words, we are about to enter unprecedented territory.

Once news broke that the Iranians were cutting off negotiations, the price of oil rose by quite a bit on Monday…

The price of oil rose sharply on Monday, after Iranian government-aligned media reported that the country was cutting off talks with the United States to end the ongoing war.

U.S. crude oil soared as much as 8.5% to nearly $95 per barrel, an increase of almost $8. International Brent crude climbed as much as 7.3% to more than $97 per barrel, a $6 spike.

Heating oil, a proxy for jet fuel, also rose 7%, while wholesale gas prices rose 4%.

Of course this is just the beginning.

If the crisis in the Middle East is not resolved, the price of oil is going to go absolutely haywire.

A few days ago, the CEO of Chevron made some very alarming comments that have received a lot of attention…

That is what made Chevron CEO Mike Wirth’s remarks at the Bernstein 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on May 28, 2026, so striking.

He wasn’t hedging.

“The buffers and the shock absorbers are being steadily drawn down, and the ability for the market to absorb this imbalance is drastically diminished today versus where we started,” Wirth said, according to Seeking Alpha.

He is exactly correct.

We are in a far worse position today than we were when this war began.

And Wirth is projecting that the months of June and July could represent a major turning point…

Wirth went further: “Over the next few weeks, we’re likely to see those pressures flow through more directly to physical prices, and there’s more upwards pressure that I would expect as we get into June and certainly into July.”

That is a specific, directional warning from the CEO of one of the world’s largest energy companies. The Iran war has been grinding through global oil reserves for more than ten weeks. The cushion that absorbed the initial shock is nearly gone. And the data is starting to confirm what Wirth is describing.

All along there was hope that we would be bailed out by a deal between the Iranians and the Trump administration.

But now the rug has been pulled out from underneath our feet.

Exxon Senior Vice-President Neil Chapman recently warned that once inventory levels start hitting critical levels, we could see the price of oil soar to 150 dollars or 160 dollars a barrel…

There have been others that have warned that the price of oil could soon hit 180 dollars a barrel.

It is difficult to project exactly how high the price of oil will go, because we have never faced anything like this before.

And the higher the price of oil goes, the worse it is going to be for the global economy.

Of course the collapse of negotiations is also really bad news for our farmers, because now there is no end in sight for the global fertilizer crisis…

The effective closure of the strait of Hormuz has throttled global supplies of fertilizer, as well as oil. So far, the effect on consumers has been mostly felt as high prices at the gas pump, but global food supply chains, from seed to grocery shelf, tend to have longer lags. On May 7, John Denton, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce warned during an interview with Forbes TV that the fertilizer shortage could cause deadly food scarcity and price hikes.

In April, a statement by the American Farm Bureau Federation said that around 70% of U.S. farmers report being unable to afford all the fertilizer they need. The AFBF’s Fertilizer Availability Survey of nearly 6,000 farmers and ranchers across the country also found that nearly six in 10 U.S. farmers report worsening finances, because of rising fertilizer and fuel costs during spring planting.

We had one shot at avoiding a horrifying global economic implosion.

We desperately needed the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened, and that isn’t going to happen.

If you have been waiting for a sign that will make it clear which way things are going to go, you just got it.

From this point forward, global events are going to move at a blinding pace.

Negotiations have collapsed, Iran has chosen war, and the crisis in the Middle East is about to get really crazy.

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Permadrought: 75 Percent Of The Global Population Lives In A Country That Is Being Affected By “The Great Drying”

Michael — Sun, 31 May 2026 21:02:50 +0000

Our planet is drying out at a pace that is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Once massive lakes are rapidly shrinking, once mighty rivers are steadily dwindling, and colossal underground aquifers are being pumped dry all over the world. This is an absolutely enormous problem, because very soon we simply will not have enough fresh water to support 8 billion people. In fact, drought conditions are severely affecting global crop production in 2026. If current trends continue, it will become increasingly difficult to grow food. In other words, if the land on our planet doesn’t stop drying out there is no way that we will be able to avoid an era of widespread global famines.

This isn’t something that just started happening recently.

Over the last several decades, the world has been losing fresh water “at an unprecedented rate”…

The world is losing fresh water at an unprecedented rate, two decades’ worth of satellite data has revealed.

Measurements from NASA’s twin GRACE satellites and GRACE follow-on missions have shown that since 2002, the amount of land suffering from water loss has been increasing year on year by twice the area of the state of California. That includes the loss of water from surface reservoirs such as lakes and rivers and underground aquifers, which are an important source of drinking water around the globe.

Mega-drying regions have emerged across the Northern Hemisphere with the worst-hit areas extending across the western coast of North America, Southwestern North America and Central America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Just look at what has been happening to the Great Salt Lake.

Once upon a time it was absolutely gigantic.

But now it has lost approximately 73 percent of its water and approximately 60 percent of its surface area.

Of course this isn’t just happening in the United States.

One study found that 75 percent of the population of the world currently lives in a country that is being affected by “continental drying”…

Much of the Earth is suffering a pandemic of “continental drying,” affecting the countries containing 75% of the world’s population, the new research shows.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, examined changes to Earth’s total supply of fresh water and found that nearly 6 billion people live in the 101 countries facing a net decline in water supply, posing a “critical, emerging threat to humanity.”

I was stunned when I first read that.

If 6 billion people live in nations that are steadily drying out, what does that mean for the future of humanity?

We aren’t just talking about a few isolated deserts.

The United Nations is telling us that excluding Antarctica, drylands now account for more than 40 percent of all the land on this planet.

And more than three-quarters of all the land on this planet has been getting drier over the past 30 years…

As Earth continues to warm, more and more of the planet is becoming dry. A 2024 UN report found that in the last three decades, over three-fourths of all the world’s land became drier than it had been in the previous 30 years.

Drylands now comprise 40.6% of all global land (excluding Antarctica). In addition, the number of people living in drylands doubled over the last 30 years to 2.3 billion, which represents over 25% of the global population. In a worst-case climate change scenario, this number could climb to 5 billion by 2100.

Many of us have just come to accept that drought is a normal part of life.

If you look at the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, it is a nightmare.

Right now, more than 60 percent of the continental United States is experiencing at least some level of drought…

As of May 26, 2026, 50.77% of the United States and Puerto Rico and 60.77% of the Lower 48 states are in drought.

Some of the areas that are being hit the hardest are where we grow our food.

In particular, wheat farmers in the U.S. are having a very challenging time this year…

It’s a perfect storm of terrible conditions for wheat farmers this year. Drought, dramatic swings in temperature, the skyrocketing price of fertilizer and diesel, plus multiple viruses affecting wheat have all led to one of the most challenging years for farmers in decades.

There are different classes of winter wheat, but they’re all down when compared to last year’s crop, explained Todd Hubbs, a crop marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University Extension.

What are they supposed to do?

If it doesn’t rain, it doesn’t rain.

Unfortunately, it is being projected that the winter wheat harvest in the U.S. will be down by 21 percent compared to last year…

The most widely produced class of wheat in the U.S., Hard Red Winter wheat, has a current production forecast of 515 million bushels. That may sound like a lot, but it would end up being the lowest since 1957, Hubbs said.

Soft red winter and white wheat varieties are also having tough years, with the lowest production volume in 6 to 10 years.

In all, growers will see their smallest wheat crop in terms of production since 1972, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture; 1.56 billion bushels this year, down 21% from 2025.

Are you going to eat 21 percent less wheat this year?

I don’t think that anyone is planning to make that kind of sacrifice.

But there simply won’t be as much wheat as normal in 2026.

Kansas is a key wheat producing state, and a lack of rain has created nightmare conditions in much of the state…

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) data, published May 28, shows 57% of Kansas suffering from drought, Sittel said.

“For the 26-year history of the USDM, the median coverage of drought in Kansas is 22%, which is another way to look at our current conditions against a historical time series,” Sittel said.

Typically, the winter wheat crop receives a few inches of rainfall in the spring, but that didn’t happen this year.

“The majority of the crop didn’t get that extra rainfall, and where we didn’t get any of that rainfall, a lot of times the crop already got terminated and insurance was called upon,” Lollato said. “Or we’re looking at very, very limited yield potentials, like 15–20 bushels per acre.”

We just experienced the driest first three months of a year ever recorded in the United States.

That is really saying something.

In addition to a seemingly endless drought, U.S. farmers are also facing much higher prices for diesel fuel and fertilizer.

On top of everything else, now a “Super El Niño” is coming, and that means that drought conditions will greatly intensify in many parts of the world.

This may be a good time to remind my readers that the “Super El Niño” of 1877-1878 caused horrifying droughts that killed more than 50 million people all over the globe.

Unfortunately, scientists are warning that the “Super El Niño” that will start later this year could be even more powerful.

Yes, we really are facing a catastrophic scenario.

But for now most of the population is still pretending that everything is going to be just fine, and so they continue to party as things rapidly get worse all around them.

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Shortages And Rationing Loom As Global Oil Reserves Fall At The Fastest Rate In History

Michael — Thu, 28 May 2026 19:23:46 +0000

No matter what happens now, the world is facing a very painful energy crisis. Let’s be as wildly optimistic as we possibly can and assume that Iran agrees to allow free passage through the Strait of Hormuz with absolutely no tolls or restrictions starting tomorrow. Before normal traffic through the Strait could resume, Iran would first have to remove all of the mines that they have laid in the Strait, and that could take months. Once all of the mines have been removed, it will take the tankers that are currently trapped in the Persian Gulf weeks to arrive at their destinations. Moving forward, Persian Gulf countries will be exporting much less oil and natural gas for the foreseeable future because of all the oil and natural gas infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed during the war. It will take years before all of that infrastructure is fully repaired and rebuilt. Meanwhile, global supplies of oil and natural gas will be very tight for an extended period of time.

What I have just laid out for you is the best case scenario.

Ultimately, what we end up facing could be so much worse.

Over the past couple of months, global oil reserves have been falling at the fastest rate ever recorded…

Record inventory draw: Global oil stocks have fallen by 246 million barrels in March-April, with draws in May hitting a record 8.7 million barrels per day.

Hormuz closure impact: The Strait of Hormuz shutdown has cut off 25% of the world’s seaborne oil, compounding already low reserves and boosting prices.

US price outlook: Analysts expect U.S. gasoline prices could reach $5 this summer unless flows resume, with relief unlikely before autumn.

Needless to say, this is not sustainable.

Here in the United States, the strategic petroleum reserve has been dropping at a record-breaking pace…

The SPR’s most recent drawdown, covering the week ended May 22, shows a drop of 9.1 million barrels, leaving the reserves at 365 million barrels. The previous weekly drawdown, covering the week of May 15, was its steepest on record — the U.S. withdrew 9.92 million barrels from the SPR then.

Before that record-breaking decline, the largest weekly drop in the SPR’s history occurred in the week ended Oct. 7, 2022, when the reserves dropped by 7.41 million barrels, and was connected to the war in Ukraine.

Commercial oil inventories are being rapidly depleted as well.

At some point the tanks are going to hit minimum operating levels and we are going to have an enormous crisis on our hands.

The chief economist at Capital Economics is projecting that commercial oil inventories “could reach critically low levels by the end of June”…

“At the current pace of drawdown, commercial oil stocks could reach critically low levels by the end of June,” Neil Shearing, chief economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note on May 18.

If supply conditions don’t improve soon, “prices could rise sharply,” Shearing warned.

Jeff Currie is warning that Asia is already very close to minimum operating levels, and he is projecting that the U.S. could potentially be dealing with shortages in July…

Oil markets are nearing minimum operating levels in Asia, with Europe likely next and the U.S. potentially facing shortages by July, said veteran market strategist Jeff Currie on Monday, underscoring the global energy shock due to the Iran war.

Headline global inventory figures can be misleading as much of the oil stored worldwide cannot be used immediately, said Currie, Carlyle’s chief strategy officer of energy pathways and co-chairman of Abaxx Markets.

A large portion of that oil is needed to keep pipelines and storage systems running safely, leaving only a smaller share available for the market. Asia is already close to these so-called “minimum operating levels,” Currie told CNBC on the sidelines of the UBS Wealth Conference in Singapore.

This is really happening.

The Australian government is so concerned about what is ahead that they have already prepared a plan to limit the amount of fuel each vehicle can purchase per day when that becomes necessary…

Contained in documents obtained by Guardian Australian under freedom of information, one option the government had at its disposal to arrest a local fuel supply shortage would be to impose a “maximum transaction value per vehicle per day” – a rationing rule which would limit how much fuel a single vehicle can buy at a service station over a 24-hour period.

If the Strait of Hormuz does not get reopened, we could eventually see similar measures get implemented all over the world.

Of course rationing of motor oil has already started…

Nissan is rationing 5W-30 and 0W-20 Nissan Genuine Motor Oils. Starting this week, Nissan’s stock of these oils has dropped by 30% year-on-year. With only 70% left in the tank, the brand is already taking precautions, sending memos to dealers to manage its stock during the shortage.

The brand will prioritize certain owners, such as those claiming “warranty, extended warranty, recall repairs, goodwill, and prepaid maintenance,” according to Kim Less, the vice president of aftersales at Nissan Americas, in the bulletin addressed to Nissan dealers.

“Given these constraints, it is critical to prioritize the use of Nissan Genuine 0W-20 (and 5W-30, where applicable) for warranty, extended warranty, recall repairs, goodwill, and prepaid maintenance,” Kim Less, vice president of aftersales, Nissan Americas, said in the May 15 bulletin to Nissan dealers.

I would encourage my readers to stock up on motor oil while they still can.

Supplies are only going to get tighter from this point forward.

The pharmaceutical industry is also very dependent on raw materials from the Middle East, and one pharmacist is claiming that the current drug shortage is the “worst I’ve ever known”…

Some people living with heart conditions, stroke risks, eye infections and bipolar disorder are among those unable to get the medications they rely on, a pharmacist has said.

Graham Jones, who owns Shrivenham Pharmacy in Oxfordshire, said vital medication like aspirin was harder to obtain because of surging global prices and government funding which was not keeping up with costs.

Jones said the current medication shortage was the “worst I’ve ever known”.

Personally, I am even more concerned about the global fertilizer shortage.

The UN is telling us that we could be facing a worldwide food crisis that could last for “years”…

The de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz risks a global food crisis that could extend for years, the UN warned.

Global fertilizer companies have slashed production over shortfalls of sulphur, required to make many farming inputs; about half of the global supply passed through the strait before the Iran war.

As a result, farmers are likely to produce lower yields in coming harvests. Richer economies like those in Europe are mulling building fertilizer stockpiles, reducing duties on imports, and onshoring production, but poorer ones have limited room to adapt.

I want to be very clear about what lies in front of us.

No matter what happens now, there will be shortages and rationing.

It is just a matter of how intense they will be and how long they will last.

Needless to say, the outlook for the global economy in the months ahead is not promising at all.

We really do have a major crisis on our hands, and it will become a historic nightmare if the Strait of Hormuz does not get reopened soon.

The post Shortages And Rationing Loom As Global Oil Reserves Fall At The Fastest Rate In History appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

99 Percent Of CEOs Are Planning AI Job Cuts, And The Gap Between The Rich And The Poor Just Continues To Explode

Michael — Wed, 27 May 2026 20:46:25 +0000

Our economy is being transformed at a faster pace than we have ever experienced before. Thanks to giant leaps in the field of artificial intelligence, human labor is not as valuable as it once was. All over the world, millions of human workers are being replaced and that trend is only going to accelerate. For those that have already retired or are on the verge of retirement, this isn’t that big of a deal. But for younger workers, this is absolutely terrifying. There is no loyalty in corporate America today. The moment that AI can do your job more efficiently than you can, you could be out the door. This is already happening at some of the biggest companies in the entire country. Good paying jobs are evaporating all around us, and as a result the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us is absolutely exploding.

I knew that the employment marketplace was changing really fast, but the results of a brand new survey that was just released still completely shocked me.

According to that survey, 99 percent of corporate executives are planning AI-related job cuts within the next 2 years…

A new study from consulting firm Mercer finds that virtually every employer is planning to cut jobs due to the technology (2). The 2026 Global Talent Trends report spoke with 825 C-suite leaders, along with 1,650 HR leaders, and a jaw-dropping 99% of the executives surveyed said they expect AI to lead to at least some headcount reduction in the next two years.

Nearly as many (98%) said they are also planning organization design changes in that same time period.

Meanwhile, just 32% of the CEOs surveyed said they believed the workforce can combine both human and machine worker capabilities in an optimal manner, despite just under two-thirds saying they felt that redesigning work to incorporate automation will drive the greatest return on investment.

If your job does not require much thinking or creativity, your job is potentially in danger.

Just look at what is happening at Meta. 1,400 highly paid workers in Washington state are about to get the axe…

Meta’s artificial intelligence overhaul is now hitting one of the country’s largest tech corridors, with the Facebook parent company preparing to cut nearly 1,400 workers across Washington state.

New filings submitted to Washington state officials show Meta will begin terminating employees in Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond and remote positions starting July 22 as the company restructures operations around AI initiatives.

The filings provide one of the clearest looks yet at how Meta’s broader workforce overhaul is affecting employees on the ground after the company announced plans last week to eliminate roughly 10% of its workforce while shifting thousands of workers into AI-focused roles.

Sadly, it isn’t just workers in Washington state that will be affected by the “artificial intelligence overhaul” that they have planned.

Overall, Meta is letting approximately 8,000 workers go in this latest round of layoffs…

Welcome to another day of corporate America hemorrhaging engineers and other white-collar workers with insurmountable student debt as AI adoption accelerates. This era will likely be remembered in history as the great “white-collar purge,” and the response will be continued hatred of data centers.

We’ve been covering for weeks that today is D-Day for Meta Platforms employees, who have finally learned their employment fate at the company that owns Facebook and Instagram.

Bloomberg reports that the new round of layoffs affects roughly 8,000 roles globally, with engineering and product teams expected to be at the center of the cuts as CEO Mark Zuckerberg reduces labor in favor of GPUs.

In this environment, it doesn’t matter how hard you work or how much you have sacrificed for the company.

If those at the top think that they can make more money by squeezing you out, you will be gone.

PayPal is making plenty of money, but they are apparently looking at cutting one-fifth of their entire workforce…

PayPal is reportedly weighing cuts of up to 20% of its workforce as the payments giant ramps up cost-cutting efforts under new leadership.

The potential layoffs come as PayPal faces mounting pressure on profitability despite continued revenue growth.

Who is going to step up to replace the six figure jobs that are being lost?

Needless to say, the truth is that most of the good jobs that are disappearing are never going to be replaced, and that is just going to make the gap between the rich and the poor even worse.

Today we are living in a K-shaped economy, and even the Federal Reserve is admitting that this has resulted in “a remarkable increase in food insecurity”…

The so-called K-shaped economy is now linked to “a remarkable increase in food insecurity,” according to a new blog post by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Large segments of the population are facing high levels of financial strain, according to a post published on Wednesday, based on data from the Survey of Consumer Expectations.

Among this group, lower- and middle-income households have been hardest hit by prolonged inflation. A greater share of their spending is allocated to goods that have seen prices soar since the pandemic, such as housing, food and utilities, causing them to cut back on groceries, the researchers found.

In this environment, tens of millions of Americans are skipping meals on a regular basis because they simply do not have enough money for groceries.

So if you always have plenty of food to eat, you should count your blessings.

In general, those over the age of 45 are doing fairly well.

But those that are age 45 or younger control just 11 percent of the nation’s wealth…

To paraphrase the late jazzman Mose Allison, young Americans ain’t got nothing in the world these days.

Americans ages 45 and under control only 11% of the nation’s wealth, according to household data from the Federal Reserve.

In other words, nine-tenths of America’s assets belong to the older half of America. People ages 45 and over make up about 42% of the nation’s population, and about 54% of the adults.

I was stunned when I saw those numbers.

There is a reason why Americans have never felt as bad about the U.S. economy as they do right now.

Mass layoffs are being conducted all over the country and the cost of virtually everything just keeps going up.

Thanks to the crisis in the Middle East, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has now reached $4.46…

Now, gasoline prices are also dragging down the lower prong of the K. The national average gasoline price reached $4.46 a gallon as of Wednesday, up about 40% from a year ago, according to AAA.

If the crisis in the Middle East is not resolved soon, things will get a lot worse.

And that is really bad news for people like 57-year-old Kris Massey that are barely scraping by each month…

Kris Massey stood at a jeweler’s counter last month, hoping to sell a couple of her grandmother’s gifted pieces to possibly cover some bills.

Even though Massey, a 57-year-old nurse practitioner, makes six figures a year, her financial situation has grown untenable. Years of fast-rising prices and a recent monthslong bout of unemployment had taken their toll.

She worked two jobs from 2012 to 2023, but a second job is not an option after an extensive back surgery. Her retirement was drained when she was out of work.

“I’m just trying to hang on,” she told CNN.

Can you imagine selling off your prize possessions just so that you can make it through another month?

This is the reality that we live in now.

For 51-year-old Bill Brantner, any extra spending at all has become a thing of the past…

For Brantner, there’s absolutely no wiggle room now.

There’s no discretionary spending – no movies, no restaurants, no driving around town, no new clothes, no new shoes; his coffee is whatever’s available in the breakroom; his bumper is strapped on with Gorilla Tape.

“If I sign a lease again, and they raise my rent again, I can’t do it; if they raise my insurance premiums again, I can’t do it,” Brantner said. “They have squeezed every drop of blood that there is to be squeezed out of this stone.”

Come next May, if his rent is hiked for a fifth consecutive year, he might have to resort to living in his car outside of Colorado Springs city limits, where sleeping in a vehicle isn’t illegal.

The U.S. economy has been in a state of decline for decades.

For a long time, our leaders tried to hide what was happening, but now the truth is becoming apparent to everyone.

Those at the very top of the economic pyramid are still thriving, but virtually everyone else is really struggling.

The middle class is being systematically dismantled and the ranks of the poor are rapidly growing.

I have been warning about all of this since the early days of the Obama administration, and now a time of reckoning is at hand.

The post 99 Percent Of CEOs Are Planning AI Job Cuts, And The Gap Between The Rich And The Poor Just Continues To Explode appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

What Do They Have Planned? Scientists Are Projecting That The Population Of The World Could Fall By 50 Percent By 2064

Michael — Tue, 26 May 2026 20:18:51 +0000

The global elite have been warning about overpopulation for a long time. Many of them are convinced that humanity is the greatest environmental threat that our planet faces, and so they believe that dramatically reducing the number of people walking around should be a top priority. A number of very twisted measures have been implemented in an effort to advance that agenda, but the population of the globe has continued to grow. Needless to say, this has greatly frustrated population control advocates. The things that they have been doing are not working fast enough, and there are some that are pushing for more extreme measures.

Getting rid of large numbers of people is not easy, but scientists at the University of Milan are projecting that we could see a massive population shift during the years ahead.

In fact, they are claiming that the population of the world could fall by 50 percent by the year 2064…

Earth’s population currently sits at 8.3 billion people – but it could crash within the next 40 years, experts have warned.

Scientists say that, in a worst–case scenario, humanity could potentially be halved by the year 2064.

Could you imagine 4 billion people being erased from the planet in less than 40 years?

The researchers at the University of Milan are saying that their projections are based on a “deliberately conservative” worst case scenario…

‘Under a deliberately conservative worst–case assumption that Earth’s sustainable carrying capacity suddenly dropped to around two billion people, our model predicts a rapid global population decline, with humanity potentially halving by around the year 2064.’

In order to hit the number that they are talking about, billions of people would have to die.

Just think about that.

Ultimately, these researchers are envisioning a world with a “carrying capacity” of just two billion people…

But in a ‘worst–case illustration’ Earth’s carrying capacity could plummet to just two billion, they warned.

This would mean that the maximum number of people our planet could sustain indefinitely would be around a quarter of its current population.

And, in turn, it would trigger a crash which could see the number of people on Earth halved.

So what are some things that could kill billions of people?

As I detailed extensively in my last book, nuclear war and the nuclear winter that follows could kill billions of people.

Widespread global famines could also achieve that goal, and it appears that widespread global famines are rapidly approaching.

But perhaps the easiest way to kill billions of people would be a global pandemic with a very high death rate.

Right now, Bundibugyo virus is spreading like wildfire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Unlike other forms of Ebola, there is no cure for Bundibugyo virus.

We are being told that it has a death rate of between 25 and 50 percent, and so once you get it there is a very good chance that you will die.

Some of the symptoms include fever, headache, nausea, abdominal pain, intense weakness, nosebleeds and vomiting blood.

A lot of people that didn’t take this outbreak seriously are starting to pay attention now that two suspected cases have popped up in Italy…

TWO suspected Ebola cases have been detected in northern Italy in the past 24 hours, triggering a health alert.

A man, 31, and a woman, 33, developed a high fever, nausea, vomiting and intestinal problems – symptoms of the deadly virus – after returning from Uganda.

The cases concern a man from Bulgarograsso and a woman from Lurate Caccivio, had spent three months in the East African country working in humanitarian aid.

Other members of their families were travelling with them, but it is still unclear if they are also presenting with any symptoms.

Hopefully authorities in Italy have isolated those two individual in time.

Because it appears that this version of Bundibugyo virus spreads very easily.

At this stage, we are being told that the outbreak in central Africa “is spreading faster than efforts to contain it”…

The deadly outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda is spreading faster than efforts to contain it, the World Health Organization warned Monday.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said those responding to the epidemic were “playing catch-up” because of delays in detecting cases.

Nobody has any idea how many people are actually infected.

And more people are dropping dead with each passing day.

One official with the International Rescue Committee has ominously declared that “warning signs are flashing red”…

“The initial failure to detect this outbreak has allowed it to spread to several areas of Ituri province in northeast DRC, where the first cases were identified, as well as to North Kivu (just to the south of Ituri) and South Kivu provinces, and now Uganda,” the International Rescue Committee, one of the aid groups on the ground, said in a report published on Tuesday.

With cases reported in key population centers such as Goma, the capital of North Kivu, and Kampala in Uganda, there is a significant risk of onward spread of the disease, the group assessed.

“The warning signs are flashing red,” Bob Kitchen, vice president of emergencies for the group, said in a statement.

Global health authorities are openly admitting that they do not have this outbreak under control.

And it certainly does not help that some victims have been running away from treatment centers…

Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have reported a disturbing new trend of patients fleeing from treatment centers when they come under attack from angry mobs – something that is happening with increasing frequency, as youths in the eastern Congo demand the remains of friends and family be handed over for funerals, in defiance of outbreak protocols.

When victims run back to their family and friends, they are just going to spread the disease to others.

And in some cases, mobs of young people are actually attacking treatment centers…

First on Saturday and again on Sunday, residents of Mongbwalu town in the DRC attacked the Mongbwalu general referral hospital.

Dr Richard Lokodu, medical director of the facility, told Reuters that 18 Ebola patients had fled on Saturday after “unidentified individuals” burned tents, erected by Médecins Sans Frontières, where patients were being isolated.

The hospital came under four waves of attacks on Sunday, he added, by young people mobilised by relatives of a religious leader who died of Ebola. Seven other patients escaped and Congolese police and soldiers had to intervene to restore order.

This is an unmitigated disaster.

Bundibugyo virus is going to spread all over the region, and perhaps that is what was intended.

Can you imagine the panic that we will witness if this horrifying disease starts spreading in the United States?

Authorities have already ordered enhanced screening for anyone entering the U.S. from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and South Sudan…

Officials in the US said on Friday that people returning to the US from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and South Sudan would need to fly to one of three US airports for screenings: Washington Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC; Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia; and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas.

Bundibugyo virus is not supposed to transmit easily from person to person.

But this version does.

Healthcare workers that have taken extreme precautions are even catching it.

We could potentially be just weeks away from a major global health scare.

I will be watching this outbreak very closely, and I think that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than we are being told.

The post What Do They Have Planned? Scientists Are Projecting That The Population Of The World Could Fall By 50 Percent By 2064 appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Americans Have Never Felt This Bad About The U.S. Economy In The Entire History Of Our Country

Michael — Mon, 25 May 2026 20:07:59 +0000

For much of the nation, it feels like we are in a permanent economic crisis with no end in sight. I have been documenting our long-term economic decline for years, and now we have reached a point where Americans have literally never felt this bad about the state of the U.S. economy. Considering everything that we have been through over the last several decades, that is saying a lot. So how will the American people be feeling if economic conditions continue to deteriorate? We might want to be thinking about that, because all of the long-term trends are taking us in the wrong direction very rapidly.

The University of Michigan has been tracking consumer sentiment for more than 70 years.

On Friday, we learned that the University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded…

American attitudes just hit a milestone of sorts. On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that its index of consumer sentiment fell to the lowest level ever recorded in 70-odd years of surveys.

Sentiment was already low at the start of this year, but it fell sharply after the Iran war began at the end of February and sent gas prices sharply higher.

Until this year, the previous lowest level was in June 2022, when inflation was running at the highest level in decades. Friday’s sentiment reading was 10% below even that number.

“Prices remain extremely high, labor markets have unambiguously weakened in the last four years, and now we’re in the middle of a war,” said Joanne Hsu, director of consumer surveys for the University of Michigan. “I don’t think the fact that we’re lower than June 2022 should come as a surprise to anyone.”

At this stage, nobody can deny what is happening.

Those at the very top of the economic pyramid are still thriving, but just about everyone else is really hurting.

Since the 1970s, there have been many periods of great economic turmoil, but even during those times Americans felt better about the economy than they do right now…

Indeed, households are feeling worse about their personal finances and the broader state of the economy than they did during the Great Inflation of the 1970s, when the cost of groceries doubled and the government was forced to ration gasoline; the Volcker shock, from 1979 to 1982, when the average interest rate on 30-year mortgages hit 18.6 percent and the country went into devastating back-to-back recessions; the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, when 200,000 firms collapsed, the unemployment rate flirted with 15 percent, and essentials such as infant formula became impossible to find; and the Great Recession, when the stock market lost half its value, the banking system teetered on the brink of implosion, and lenders foreclosed on 6 million homes.

Read that paragraph again and let it really sink in.

Even during our darkest economic moments, Americans always had hope that things would eventually turn around.

Unfortunately, that is no longer true.

According to one financial expert, consumers are now “entrenched in financial stress”…

Americans “are entrenched in financial stress,” Bruce McClary, senior vice president of membership and media relations at NFCC says — the result of elevated prices on top of near-historic highs of consumer debt on credit cards and auto loans.

The nonprofit organization, which provides education and solutions for individuals struggling with their finances, especially debt management, reported a “significant surge” in consumers reaching out for credit counseling, which could be a warning sign for the broader economy, NFCC says. While it’s encouraging to see individuals seeking help before they have run out of options and can’t pay their bills at all, the widespread struggle could be evidence of the overall consumer economy’s health declining, the organization says.

Financial stress has become a permanent part of most of our lives.

Our seemingly endless cost of living crisis is getting even worse, and consumers are drowning in an ocean of debt.

As prices go up and up, our standard of living is steadily going down.

One recent survey asked Americans if they have reduced spending in certain areas or not, and the results were absolutely shocking…

dining out: 54 percent say yes, while 44 percent say no;
entertainment or leisure activities like going to movies, shows, or sporting events: 49 percent say yes, while 47 percent say no;
vacation plans: 48 percent say yes, while 49 percent say no;
grocery shopping: 43 percent say yes, while 56 percent say no;
driving: 36 percent say yes, while 60 percent say no.

When close to half the country is reducing spending in multiple areas, that is really bad news for the economy.

In the past, when the economy has started to waver our politicians in Washington have intervened by borrowing and spending more money.

Borrowing and spending money that we do not have provides a short-term economic boost, but it also creates a long-term economic problem.

Now we are trapped in a nightmarish debt spiral, and so any short-term help that our politicians in Washington will be able to provide moving forward will be very limited…

The national debt held by the public, about $31 trillion, is now the size of the U.S. economy, up from 39 percent of the economy in 2008 and 79 percent in 2019. For most of the country’s history, the fact that the economy’s growth rate surpassed the interest rate on the debt enabled us to keep paying our bills.

But as my colleagues and I show in a policy brief for the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research, the fiscal outlook today is much more challenging. We concluded that the combination of higher deficits and climbing interest rates raises the risk that borrowing will become more expensive and will push government debt levels to climb relentlessly. This is a debt spiral.

The math is simple and unforgiving. Say both your annual income and your debt equal $100. Suppose you face a 2 percent interest rate but you get a 4 percent raise. You’ll have no problem paying your creditor their $2 in interest from your $4 in added income. But if you swap those rates around, every year puts you further in the hole.

It took decades of incredibly bad decisions to get us into this hole.

Sadly, there is no easy way out.

What this means is that a tremendous amount of pain is ahead.

If you think that economic conditions are bad now, just wait until you see what is coming.

We tried to defy the laws of economics for a long time, but now economic reality is catching up with us in a major way.

The post Americans Have Never Felt This Bad About The U.S. Economy In The Entire History Of Our Country appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Everybody Is Talking About The Cost Of Gasoline – Soon Everybody Will Be Talking About The Cost Of Food

Michael — Thu, 21 May 2026 22:39:22 +0000

For most people, the price of gasoline is the most obvious consequence of the war in the Middle East. As I write this article, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is $4.56. Of course in some parts of the country consumers are paying much more than that. This is a big story, and the truth is that gasoline prices are going to go even higher in the months ahead. But if you think that the price of gasoline is bad, just wait until you see what eventually happens to food prices. The price of diesel has been rising even faster than the price of regular gasoline, and fertilizer prices have been absolutely skyrocketing. Those costs will get passed along to the rest of us. It is just a matter of time. Meanwhile, our farmers are dealing with drought conditions that are unprecedented and now a “Super El Niño” is coming.

What all of this means is that food prices will rise to very painful levels.

So even though everyone is complaining about rising gasoline prices at the moment, one prominent economist is warning that “the next story is food”…

The cost of food in the U.S. appears poised to rise sharply alongside oil prices, as war-related supply disruptions put pressure on the companies and farmers who keep the country’s shelves stocked.

“The big story right now is oil,” economist Justin Wolfers told MS NOW on Tuesday. “The next story is food.”

Oil prices have risen over 50 percent since the conflict began on February 28, pushing gas prices to a nationwide average of over $4.50 for the first time since 2022.

Can you imagine what would happen if food prices were to rise another 50 percent from current levels?

Over the past year, many of the most common items that Americans purchase at the grocery store have already become much more expensive…

When compared to the same time last year, fruits and vegetables have seen some of the biggest price hikes. Tomatoes are 40% more expensive now than they were this time last year. Bad growing weather, tariffs, and rising fuel prices have all contributed to the huge change in tomato prices, reports the New York Times.

Coffee, another imported product, is 19% more expensive than it was last spring.

You’re also likely seeing inflated prices at the butcher counter. Meat is up 9% overall, but beef has grown even more expensive. Ground beef is about 15% pricier, beef roasts are 18% more, and steak is up 16%.

We can blame the war with Iran for the recent price hikes that we have been experiencing, because the war has made diesel much more expensive.

And diesel is used to transport most of what we eat…

What’s contributing to the price spikes? Fuel prices have soared while the Iran war prevents cargo ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for global oil supplies. Diesel fuel powers fishing boats, tractors and the trucks that ship 83% of U.S. agricultural products.

Just as you’re paying more at the pump, so are truckers who transport goods all around the country. Some vendors and suppliers are adding fuel surcharges to make up for the increased cost of transporting and delivering their goods.

In addition, fertilizer prices have gone absolutely haywire, and those costs will be passed along to us once harvest season arrives.

The solution to this crisis would be for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen.

But Iran isn’t willing to do that.

Instead, Iran intends to make the status quo in the Strait of Hormuz permanent…

Iran and Oman are actively discussing a permanent security mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is pushing to institutionalize and normalize a transit fee or toll on commercial shipping vessels navigating the narrow waterway. According to an Iranian diplomatic envoy, the proposed system is designed to secure the long-term positioning of Iran and Oman as the primary regulators of the strait, effectively transforming a temporary leverage point from the recent military conflict into a permanent sovereign right.

To formalize its grip, Iran’s newly established Persian Gulf Straits Authority began applying conditional rules and hefty transit tolls, in some cases exceeding one million dollars per vessel, while granting selective exemptions to friendly nations like Russia or China. By engaging Oman, which shares territorial jurisdiction over the Strait, Iran is seeking to build a coalition that validates these tolls under the guise of funding localized maritime security.

The US maintains an opposing view on the matter, viewing the permanent toll as a non-negotiable barrier to reaching a sustainable peace deal. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, international straits are governed by transit passage protocols that guarantee the uninterrupted flow of global commercial shipping, a principle the US insists must be restored without conditions.

This is one of the reasons why there is not going to be an agreement to end the war.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio just warned that what Iran is attempting to do with the Strait of Hormuz “will make a diplomatic deal impossible”…

“A toll collection system in the Strait of Hormuz will make a diplomatic deal impossible.”

“We are very disappointed with NATO allies, we will discuss the issue of troop deployment at the upcoming meeting.”

If the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, a global inflation crisis is guaranteed.

And on top of everything else, now a “Super El Niño” is rapidly approaching.

We are being warned that it could potentially be the most powerful “Super El Niño” in recorded history…

Scientists have warned that an imminent ‘super El Niño’ could be even more powerful than a previous event which caused over 50 million deaths.

The 1877 El Niño was one of the most severe climate events in recorded history, triggering a global humanitarian disaster known as The Great Famine.

Climate reconstructions suggest water temperatures in a key region of the Pacific Ocean rose by 2.7°C (4.86°F), which caused disruption to rainfall patterns around the world.

If the Super El Niño of 1877-1878 killed 50 million people when the global population was just a fraction of what it is today, what would an even more powerful Super El Niño do?

An associate professor at Washington State University is telling us that “multiyear droughts similar to those in the 1870s could happen again”…

Estimates indicate the resulting scarcity of food and disease outbreaks killed up to four per cent of the Earth’s population at the time.

That would be the equivalent of at least 250 million people if it happened today.

Now, forecasts suggest water temperatures could potentially exceed 3°C (5.4°F) above average later this year – making the upcoming super El Niño even more powerful than the one nearly 150 years ago.

‘Simultaneous multiyear droughts similar to those in the 1870s could happen again,’ Deepti Singh, associate professor at Washington State University, told the Washington Post.

Worldwide food production was already going to be way down this year due to the global fertilizer crisis.

Now an immensely powerful “Super El Niño” is being added to the equation.

What do you think that all of this is going to do to food prices?

Needless to say, the answer is obvious.

We are in far more trouble than most people realize, but for now most of the population just continues to party.

The post Everybody Is Talking About The Cost Of Gasoline – Soon Everybody Will Be Talking About The Cost Of Food appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

We Are 6 Months From Global Food Shortages Because Farmers Are Facing A Quadruple Whammy Crisis

Michael — Wed, 20 May 2026 20:12:15 +0000

We have never faced anything quite like this. Diesel fuel and fertilizer have become far more expensive as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, and extreme weather is playing havoc with crops all over the planet. Here in the United States, we just experienced the driest first three months of a year in recorded history. No, that isn’t an exaggeration. Now a “Super El Niño” is coming, and that means that drought conditions are going to get even worse in many areas of the world. The “Super El Niño” of 1877-1878 resulted in widespread droughts that killed more than 50 million people, and now we are being warned that the upcoming “Super El Niño” could be even worse. Our farmers have never faced a “perfect storm” of this magnitude, and global food production is going to be way down in the months ahead.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization is publicly warning that a severe global food crisis could strike about 6 months from now if something really dramatic does not happen…

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz could trigger a severe global food price crisis within six to 12 months unless governments act quickly, the Food and Agriculture Organization warned Wednesday.

Decisions now by farmers and governments on fertilizer use, imports, financing and crop choices will determine whether food prices spike later this year or in early 2027, the agency said.

I don’t know what national governments around the world are supposed to do.

They can’t create fertilizer out of thin air.

Thanks to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, millions of farmers all over the northern hemisphere didn’t get the fertilizer that they needed for the spring planting season.

UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo is telling us that as a result “many places in the world will have problems of food shortage” once harvest season arrives…

Food shortages are expected to hit many parts of the world from September or October following a fertilizer production plunge, the U.N. Development Program’s head said on Monday.

“In September, (or) October, many places in the world will have problems of food shortage,” as agricultural production is expected to be much lower following the fertilizer production slump resulting from high oil prices amid Middle East conflicts, UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo said in an interview in Tokyo.

Even if fertilizer is available, many farmers simply cannot afford it.

In fact, one recent survey discovered that 70 percent of U.S. farmers could not afford to buy all of the fertilizer that they needed for the spring planting season because it has become so expensive.

Meanwhile, diesel has become painfully expensive as well.

Virtually all farm equipment runs on diesel, and as I write this article the average price of a gallon of diesel in the U.S. is sitting at about five and a half dollars.

But in California, the average price of a gallon of diesel has reached nearly seven and a half dollars…

According to AAA, the average price for diesel fuel in California is about $7.43 per gallon, which is $2.36 higher compared to last year. In Fresno, prices are slightly higher.

“In Fresno, you’re paying about $6.06 for a gallon of regular gasoline, but you’re paying $7.48 for a gallon of diesel,” Johnson said.

You may not care about what is happening in California, but you should because California produces more fruit and more vegetables than any other state by a very wide margin.

Drought is another major problem that U.S. farmers are dealing with.

In West Texas, the cracks in the ground caused by endless drought are big enough to swallow an entire human hand…

Scott Irlbeck crouched in a field of stunted wheat plants in a parched stretch of West Texas and slipped his hand into a crack wide enough to swallow it.

Last autumn, Irlbeck planted a crop that barely grew because rain never came. He now hopes his insurance adjuster will declare it a total loss so he will not need to spend money on pricey fuel to harvest it next month.

Coming into this year, the southwestern portion of the nation was experiencing the worst multi-year drought in at least 1,200 years.

And then the first three months of this year were the driest first three months of a year for the entire country ever recorded.

As a result, it is being projected that the winter wheat harvest will be a disaster…

Crop estimates underscore just how bad the situation is. Growers will see their smallest wheat crop in terms of production since 1972, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture; 1.56 billion bushels this year, down 21% from 2025. That’s especially harmful to Kansas, one of the top overall producers of wheat in the U.S.

This year, only 22 million acres of winter wheat will be harvested, and the abandonment rate is above 32 percent…

Only 32.4 million acres (13.1 million hectares) of wheat were planted this year to begin with, and harvested acreage hit just 22 million, marking abandonment, which is when farmers stop tending to a crop before harvesting, at slightly above 32% of this year’s wheat crop, according to USDA estimates.

Just think about those numbers for a moment.

Our farmers simply gave up on nearly a third of this year’s winter wheat crop.

Wow.

Looking ahead, we are being told that the number of acres of wheat that U.S. farmers are planting in the spring will be the fewest “since record keeping began in 1919”…

U.S. growers were poised to plant the fewest acres of wheat since record keeping began in 1919, as high costs for fertilizer, seeds, and equipment have made it difficult to turn a profit.

In 1919, there were 104 million people living in the United States.

Today, there are more than 340 million people living in the United States.

It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out that we are headed for trouble.

And now a “Super El Niño” is looming…

A “Super El Niño” may be on its way and could impact weather in the United States and worldwide for the next several months.

El Niño is described by the National Weather Service (NWS) as “a state where the water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean near the equator become abnormally warm.” These warmer waters trigger significant weather pattern changes across the globe.

One expert is warning that there is approximately a 50 percent chance that this “Super El Niño” will be the most powerful ever recorded…

“I would suggest there is roughly a 50 per cent chance of the event becoming the strongest in the historical record right now,” Paul Roundy, a professor of atmospheric science at the University at Albany, in the US, told BBC Science Focus. “A few weeks ago, I was suggesting maybe 20 per cent.”

In a previous article, I discussed the fact that the “Super El Niño” of 1877-1878 caused widespread global famines that resulted in the deaths of 50 million people.

So how many will die during the “Super El Niño” that will begin later this year?

According to the UN, the number of people around the world there were experiencing acute hunger was already at an all-time record high even before the war with Iran started.

Now global hunger is spiking, and when people get really hungry they get really desperate.

For example, just check out what is going on in Afghanistan…

Khwaja Ahmad barely gets out a few words before he starts sobbing.

“We are starving. My older children died, so I need to work to feed my family. But I’m old, so no one wants to give me work,” he says.

When a local bakery near the square opens up, the owner distributes stale bread among the crowd. Within seconds, the loaves have been pulled apart, half a dozen men clutching onto precious pieces.

This should break your heart.

One extremely hungry man in Afghanistan says that he is willing to sell his own daughters just so that he will have enough money to buy food…

Abdul Rashid Azimi takes us into his home and brings out two of his children – seven-year-old twins Roqia and Rohila. He holds them close, eager to explain why he’s making unbearable choices.

“I’m willing to sell my daughters,” he weeps. “I’m poor, in debt and helpless.

“I come home from work with parched lips, hungry, thirsty, distressed and confused. My children come to me saying ‘Baba, give us some bread’. But what can I give? Where is the work?”

This is what is already happening.

Six months from now, the level of desperation around the world will be so much worse.

We need the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened as soon as possible, but that simply is not going to happen.

The Iranians are never going to give President Trump what he wants, and they are preparing for the next phase of the war…

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf claimed Wednesday that the U.S. is looking to “start a new war,” a report said.

“The enemy’s movements, both overt and clandestine, show that despite economic and political pressure, it has not abandoned its military objectives and is seeking to start a new war,” Ghalibaf said in a statement shared by Iranian media, according to The Times of Israel.

“Close monitoring of the situation in the United States reinforces the possibility that they still hope for the surrender of the Iranian nation,” he reportedly added.

The next chapter of this war is not going to look like the last chapter.

The IRGC is openly telling us that they are ready to attack “in places you cannot even imagine”…

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned on Wednesday that any new attack on the country would provoke them to spread the war beyond the Middle East, raising the stakes of diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

In a statement reported by Iranian state media, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a powerful military force that answers directly to the country’s supreme leader, said that if “aggression against Iran is repeated,” it would deliver blows “in places you cannot even imagine.”

The Iranians know that they cannot win the war by fighting symmetrically.

So they are going to use asymmetric tools to get the job done.

And some of those asymmetric tools will not be conventional.

When fighting erupts again, I expect things to get really crazy.

What this means is that the Strait of Hormuz is going to remain closed for a long time, and that is really bad news for farmers all over the globe.

The post We Are 6 Months From Global Food Shortages Because Farmers Are Facing A Quadruple Whammy Crisis appeared first on The Economic Collapse.