Much Worse Is Coming

It has been heartbreaking to watch what has been transpiring on the streets of America in recent months.  Our founders intended for us to be united by a common set of values, but now our differences are literally tearing our nation to pieces.  Americans are fighting other Americans in the streets, and that should make all of us incredibly sad.  Does anyone out there actually believe that all of this violence will be resolved by the upcoming election?  If anything, rising political tensions are likely to make the violence even worse, and if the result of the presidential election is contested by either side that could easily take things to an even higher level.  We have entered such a dangerous chapter in American history, and I am extremely concerned about the months ahead. (Read More...)

Things Have Gotten So Bad That A Million New Claims For Unemployment Benefits In One Week Is Considered “Good News”

The Labor Department announced on Thursday that another 1.006 million Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week.  Prior to this year, the all-time record for a single week was just 695,000, and so the number of Americans that are losing their jobs each week continues to remain at a catastrophic level.  But this latest figure is actually being spun as “good news” because at least it was lower than the week before.  And I am willing to concede that point, because we should definitely welcome any sign that the numbers are starting to move in the right direction.  However, there is no doubt that what we have experienced up to this point in 2020 is nothing short of an economic cataclysm.  Over the last 23 weeks, more than 58 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits.  Even if zero workers filed for unemployment for the rest of 2020, this would still be the worst year for unemployment claims in all of U.S. history by a gigantic margin.  Vast hordes of workers have been losing their jobs week after week as the U.S. economy melts down right in front of our eyes.  This has truly been an economic horror show, and the most nightmarish chapters are still ahead of us. (Read More...)

“Full Beast Mode”: Hurricane Laura Has The Potential To Be One Of The Greatest Natural Disasters In All Of U.S. History

Hurricane Laura has become one of the most powerful hurricanes that we have ever seen in the Gulf of Mexico.  When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, it was a category 3 storm with maximum winds of 125 mph.  As I write this article, Hurricane Laura is a category 4 storm with maximum winds of 150 mph.  Experts are using phrases such as “full beast mode” and “unsurvivable storm surge” to describe what coastal communities are facing, and many of those that refused to evacuate may not survive.  And at this hour we are being told that Laura may get even stronger before it finally makes landfall.  In fact, National Weather Service meteorologist Donald Jones says that Laura is “probably” going to become a category 5 storm… (Read More...)

17 Facts That Prove The U.S. Economy Is A Complete And Total Disaster Zone At This Point

If you know people that actually believe that the U.S. economy is moving in a positive direction, just show them this article.  In all the years that I have been writing about the economy, I have never seen anything that even comes close to what we are experiencing now.  More than 100,000 businesses have permanently failed, and tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs.  If you still have a good job you should cling to it with all of your might, because there are so many families that have no idea how they are going to pay the bills next month, or the month after that, or that month after that.  When it gets to the point where you can’t even pay the rent or the mortgage, financial worries can absolutely consume your life.  If you have been there, you know exactly what I am talking about.  And if you have children, that just makes things even worse.  How do you explain to them that “home” is no longer “home”? (Read More...)

We Should Mourn For What Is Happening To America

This week it was Kenosha, Wisconsin and next week it will probably be somewhere else.  Yet another senseless police shooting was followed by more rioting, looting and violence.  Of course rioting, looting and violence have basically become a nightly occurrence in America at this point anyway.  The protests never seem to end in some cities, and crime rates are absolutely skyrocketing all over the country.  Much of what is written about all of this chaos is focused on trying to pin the blame on someone, but even if we correctly identify who is to blame, will that actually stop the violence?  I don’t believe that it would.  In fact, I don’t think that anything is going to stop the violence any time soon. (Read More...)

The State Of California Is Never Going To Be The Same After This…

The state of California sure has been through a lot this year.  The COVID-19 pandemic hit the state particularly hard, fear of the virus sent the unemployment rate soaring, civil unrest has ripped permanent scars in most of the major cities, and earlier this month a historic heatwave caused rolling blackouts all over the state for the very first time since 2001.  So California certainly didn’t need anything else to deal with in 2020, because it has just been one thing after another all year long.  Unfortunately, it looks like the massive wildfires that have been roaring across the state over the last week are about to get even worse.  A “red flag” warning has been issued for Monday, and just about everyone is expecting this week to be a really, really bad week. (Read More...)

2020 Is An Economic Nightmare – And Things Just Got Even Worse

More than a million Americans were not supposed to be losing their jobs every week by the time we got to the middle of August.  By now, vast hordes of unemployed Americans were supposed to be returning to their old jobs and economic activity was supposed to be returning to normal levels.  But it hasn’t happened that way.  Instead, the U.S. economy continues to unravel at a steady pace.  Every week more businesses go under, more layoffs are announced and more people get behind on their bills.  What we have already been through has been far worse than anything that we experienced during the last recession, and it appears that this new economic downturn is entering yet another new phase.  On Thursday, we learned that another 1.106 million Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week… (Read More...)

Does America Worship “A God Of Money”?

The one that you serve the most is the one that you really worship.  In America today, we don’t actually get down on our knees and pray to our stock market portfolios and the money in our bank accounts, but has our wealth become more important to us than anything else?  It is well known that material comfort greatly motivates most Americans.  We tend to vote for the politicians that we perceive will be the best for our economy, we religiously track the performance of our investments, and for many of us our financial goals are more important to us than any of our other goals.  We desperately want to “do well”, and we tend to exalt others that are “doing well”.  Of course “doing well” is defined primarily in financial terms in our society, and that is extremely unfortunate.  A poor man that has greatly loved his family and those around him his entire life is generally not considered to be “successful”, while a billionaire that may actually be living in emotional misery every day of his life is lifted up as an example for all of us to follow.  Our priorities are all messed up, and I believe that we will ultimately deeply regret the great love that we have developed for the debt-fueled “prosperity” that we have been enjoying for so many years. (Read More...)

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