The Economic Collapse

The last time interest rates were this high, the U.S. economy plunged into “the Great Recession” and millions of Americans lost their jobs.  But the Federal Reserve is not going to stop here.  In fact, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is telling us that more rate increases are on the way and that officials at the Fed are determined to “stay the course until the job is done”.  If “the job” is to destroy the U.S. economy, they have already made a tremendous amount of progress toward that goal.  The housing market is completely and utterly imploding, and economic activity is steadily slowing down all around us.  But even though Powell can see the damage that is happening, he insists that the Fed will keep raising rates until the official rate of inflation returns to 2 percent. (Read More...)

They are trying really hard to convince all of us that everything is just fine.  But close to one-fifth of the U.S. population is skipping meals because food prices are too high.  And nearly 40 percent of our small businesses couldn’t pay rent in October.  Our leaders are trying to put a positive spin on things, but the truth is that we are witnessing a tremendous amount of economic suffering all over the United States right now.  The core consumer price index just surged to “the highest level since 1982”, and this is putting an enormous amount of financial stress on American families and businesses. (Read More...)

In my entire lifetime, global supplies of diesel fuel have never been tighter than they are right now.  And that is really bad news, because the entire economy of the western world runs on diesel.  If we suddenly had no more diesel fuel, virtually all of our trains, trucks and ships would stop running.  Needless to say, just about everything that stocks our store shelves comes to us via trains, trucks and ships.  So the fact that there is not enough diesel fuel to go around is a really big deal.  Supplies have been declining for months, and at this point diesel inventories have fallen so low that we only have a 25 day buffer remaining… (Read More...)

We have reached a point where nearly two-thirds of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.  So what happens if millions of those people suddenly lose their paychecks during the severe economic downturn that is ahead of us?  In 2008, unprecedented numbers of Americans found themselves unable to pay their mortgages when the recession struck, and foreclosures surged to absolutely shocking levels.  Unfortunately, we have set ourselves up for the same thing to happen again.  Most Americans are literally teetering on the brink of financial disaster, and it won’t take much to push them over the edge. (Read More...)

Things haven’t looked this bad for the U.S. economy since 2008.  We are in the midst of the worst inflation crisis in decades, the housing market has started to collapse, some of the largest companies in America have begun laying off workers, and economic activity is slowing down all around us.  Of course Joe Biden is telling us that our economy is “strong as hell”, but that is just because he wants his party to do well in the upcoming elections.  Ultimately, anyone that takes a truly objective view of things is forced to admit that the outlook for the months ahead is incredibly bleak.  The following are 12 reasons why it is impossible for any rational person to be optimistic about the U.S. economy at this point… (Read More...)

Inflation is systematically destroying our standard of living, and the middle class is shrinking a little bit more with each passing day.  The Social Security Administration just released wage statistics for 2021, and the numbers that they have given us are quite stunning.  As you will see below, half of all American workers made less than $3,133 a month last year.  Once upon a time, you could live a very comfortable middle class lifestyle on $3,133 a month.  But thanks to inflation, such a wage now puts you just barely above the poverty level.  The decisions that our leaders have been making are absolutely eviscerating the middle class, and that should deeply trouble all of us. (Read More...)

The U.S. housing market is absolutely imploding, but nobody should be surprised.  In fact, we were warned way ahead of time that this would happen.  When the Federal Reserve told us that they would be aggressively raising interest rates, we all knew what this would do to the housing bubble.  It was obvious that home prices would fall, home sales would plummet and home builders would get absolutely crushed.  Sadly, that is precisely what we are witnessing.  But instead of reversing course after witnessing all the damage that they have caused, Fed officials are insisting that even more rate hikes are necessary.  So as bad as things are right now, the truth is that they are going to get even worse in the months ahead. (Read More...)

It is starting to get cold outside.  Are you ready for a winter that will be unlike any other?  As I have been documenting on The Economic Collapse Blog for months, the nightmarish global energy crisis that has erupted is not going to end any time soon.  In fact, it has the potential to get a whole lot worse in 2023 and beyond.  Energy prices have already risen to absolutely absurd levels, and now winter is coming.  Unfortunately, many forecasters are warning that this winter is going to be a doozy.  Colder than normal temperatures are expected across much of the northern hemisphere, and if that actually happens that would put a tremendous amount of strain on the system. (Read More...)