Biden

A Very Odd Confluence Of Events

August 29, 2021August 29, 2021 by Michael

August has definitely been a “turning point”, and in recent weeks we have had the opportunity to watch some incredibly shocking events unfold which will change the course of history permanently. At this moment, Hurricane Ida is the biggest story that everyone is discussing. As I warned about on Friday, Ida went through a period of “rapid intensification” in the Gulf of Mexico before coming ashore in Louisiana on Sunday as an absolutely monstrous storm. It hit New Orleans exactly 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina did, and many are pointing out that this seems to be a really “strange” coincidence.

When Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana in 2005, it was a Category 3 storm, but Hurricane Ida was actually a Category 4 storm when it made landfall near Port Fourchon…

Hurricane Ida’s initial impacts began early Sunday as the outer bands brought heavy rain to the Louisiana coast early Sunday. The Category 4 hurricane, packing sustained winds of 150 mph came ashore at 11:55 a.m. CDT near Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

Ida has become the first landfalling hurricane on United States soil in 2021, and AccuWeather forecasters, expecting extreme impacts for the Gulf Coast, have rated Ida a 4 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes.

The extremely high winds have torn roofs from countless homes and buildings, and in some cases power lines have been snapped in two.

At this hour, hundreds of thousands of local residents are without power, and Governor John Bel Edwards is telling the press that Ida could be the most powerful storm to hit Louisiana in over 160 years…

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said the storm could be the most powerful to pound the state in more than 160 years. Hurricane Katrina, which flooded most of New Orleans, killing almost 2,000 people and causing damages estimated at $125 billion, made landfall 16 years ago to the day – as a Category 3 storm.

From an economic standpoint, one of the biggest concerns is that nearly all of the oil production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico have been forced to temporarily close down…

More than 95% of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil production facilities have been shut down, regulators said Sunday, indicating the massive storm is having a significant impact on energy supply.

Six refineries in the New Orleans area — including PBF, Phillips, Shell, Marathon and two Valero refineries — are shut down right now, Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, a Houston-based consulting firm, told CNN Business. “It’s now a waiting game to assess whatever wind and flooding damage will be caused as the hurricane passes through the area.”

Needless to say, this is likely to cause another supply crunch, and we already being warned to expect significantly higher gasoline prices…

The Gulf of Mexico federal offshore oil production accounts for 17% of the country’s crude oil production and 5% of its federal offshore dry gas production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston, said Saturday that if the New Orleans refineries take a direct hit from a Category 4 storm, gas prices would likely rise by about 10 cents a gallon in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic markets.

Meanwhile, the greatest foreign policy debacle in modern American history continues to unfold in Afghanistan.

The way that the Biden administration has handled this crisis has been utterly shameful, and it has resulted in the deaths of 13 service members.

As Hurricane Ida was pummeling Louisiana on Sunday, Joe Biden and his minions were overseeing the transfer of the remains of those service members…

In a silence broken only by the sobs of bereaved families, Joe Biden stood Sunday, hand over his heart, to pay tribute as the remains of the US service members killed in the Kabul bombing attack were transferred from a military C-17 cargo plane to a closely parked row of gray hearses.

But Biden grew impatient at one point, and footage of the event actually shows him checking his watch.

If you have not seen this shocking moment yet, you can view it right here.

Did he really think that nobody would notice?

Later on, reporters wanted to ask Biden some questions about Afghanistan, but he abruptly refused…

‘I’m not supposed to take any questions, but go ahead,’ he said as he turned to the travelling press pool.

‘On Afghanistan…’ said a reporter before he cut him off.

He snapped: ‘I’m not going to answer Afghanistan now.’

The president turned away from the press pool to talk to FEMA staff as the reporter continued with a question about whether he still believed ‘there was an extreme risk at the airport.’

This crisis has clearly demonstrated that our new “woke military” has become weak and pathetic, and it is being led by weak and pathetic brass at the Pentagon.

Of course these days “weak” and “pathetic” are words that are often used to describe the man that is currently residing in the White House.

The Biden administration desperately needs a new distraction, and it appears the one has conveniently come along.

We are being told that the most extreme COVID variant yet has been identified in South Africa…

A new coronavirus variant, C.1.2, has been detected in South Africa and a number of other countries, with concerns that it could be more infectious and evade vaccines, according to a new preprint study by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform. The study is awaiting peer review.

Scientists first detected C.1.2 in May 2021, finding that it was descended from C.1, which scientists found surprising as C.1 had last been detected in January. The new variant has “mutated substantially” compared to C.1 and is more mutations away from the original virus detected in Wuhan than any other Variant of Concern (VOC) or Variant of Interest (VOI) detected so far worldwide.

There are now dozens of variants running around out there, and each new variant is a threat to cause another new “wave” of this pandemic.

Prior to 2020 I was warning that it would be “one thing after another” once we got into the “perfect storm” that we are currently experiencing, and we are now being told that Americans are developing “disaster fatigue” because of all of the bad things that have happened over the last couple of years.

Sadly, many believe that much more chaos is dead ahead.

These are extremely troubled times, and we desperately need strong leadership from our representatives in Washington.

Unfortunately for all of us, Washington has become a complete and total cesspool, and the whole world is laughing at the endless stream of incompetence emanating from the White House.

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

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five others that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

3 New Polls Show That They Are Going To Need To Cart Out Much Bigger Doses Of “Hopium”

August 2, 2021August 2, 2021 by Michael

The mood of the nation has dramatically changed. Survey after survey has shown that Americans are much less optimistic than they were during the first half of 2021, and that could have enormous implications for the economy as we roll through the second half of this calendar year. When consumers are pessimistic about the future, they tend to hold on to their money more tightly, and they also tend to allocate money to different priorities. Earlier this year, so many pundits were telling us that a new golden era of prosperity was ahead because the worst of the pandemic was behind us and Joe Biden was now in the White House. But now the Delta variant is causing another wave of mass panic, and an increasing number of Americans are losing faith in the Biden administration. Needless to say, the honeymoon is over, and Americans are not pleased with what they see as they peer into a very bleak future.

Let me start by discussing the Gallup survey that just came out. In June, Americans overwhelmingly thought that the worst of the pandemic was in the past, but now the numbers have completely changed…

In a dramatic shift from last month, more Americans now say the coronavirus situation in the U.S. is getting worse (45%) rather than better (40%). In June, a record 89% said the situation was getting better, while only 3% said it was getting worse.

I can’t remember the last time I saw poll numbers move that much in such a short period of time.

The Gallup survey also found that a whopping 42 percent of all Americans anticipate that “societal disruptions related to COVID-19” will continue to be around beyond the beginning of the new year…

Americans now expect societal disruptions related to COVID-19 to persist at least through the end of the year, or longer. Whereas in June, nearly half of Americans expected COVID-related disruptions in society to last only a few more weeks or months, now just 17% believe they will end by then.

Instead, 41% expect the COVID-19 disruptions to persist through the end of the year, and 42% — up from 17% in June — believe they will stretch into 2022.

Joe Biden’s job approval rating is also shifting quite rapidly.

In fact, a different survey just found that Biden’s approval rating has dropped a total of 10 points since June…

President Biden and Congress’s job approval are taking a hit amid a resurgence of the coronavirus.

A Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey released Monday found Biden’s approval dropping to 52 percent. He may still be above water — only 43 percent of respondents disapprove of the job he’s doing in the Oval Office — but he’s down 10 points from where he was in June, when his approval was at 62 percent.

Without a doubt, this has not been a good summer for the Biden administration.

If Biden keeps fumbling the football over and over, it won’t be too long before his net approval rating turns negative.

A third survey that I wanted to mention recently found that the percentage of Americans that are “pessimistic about the direction of the country” has risen by 19 points since May 2nd…

As President Joe Biden completed 100 days in office, the country was optimistic about the coming year, but now, just after hitting the six-month mark, Americans’ optimism about the direction of the country has plummeted nearly 20 points, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds.

A majority — 55% — of the public say they are pessimistic about the direction of the country, a marked change from the roughly one-third (36%) that said the same in an ABC News/Ipsos poll published May 2.

That is a 19 percent shift in just 3 months!

Have we ever seen a “direction of the country” poll move that much in three months?

I don’t know, but this certainly is not good news for the Democrats. When Americans are in a bad mood, they tend to gravitate toward the party that is currently out of power.

Of course one of the biggest reasons why Americans are in such a sour mood these days is all of the new restrictions that are currently being implemented around the nation.

For example, we just learned that Louisiana Governor Bel Edwards has decided to institute a statewide mask mandate…

Today, Gov. John Bel Edwards has temporarily reinstated Louisiana’s statewide mask mandate indoors for all people age five and older as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise across Louisiana, threatening the ability of Louisiana’s hospitals to deliver care during this fourth surge of COVID. Louisiana is currently in the worst surge of the COVID-19 pandemic so far in terms of case growth rate, percent positivity and hospitalizations.

In recent days, our corporate news outlets have been packed full of stories about the Delta variant. On Monday, the country was shocked by news that U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has tested positive even though he has been “fully vaccinated”…

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, even though he was fully vaccinated.

“I was just informed by the House physician I have tested positive for COVID-19 even after being vaccinated,” he said.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

And it turns out that lots of “fully vaccinated” people have been catching the virus lately…

Fourteen of 24 vaccinated friends who visited the Cape Cod town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, in July caught COVID-19, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.

Millions of people raced out to get vaccines because they were promised immunity, but now the CDC is releasing new numbers that are deeply upsetting lots of Americans…

In a study released on Friday, the CDC tracked 469 cases among Massachusetts residents who visited the town.

They found that 74% of those were fully vaccinated. An overwhelming majority of the cases were caused by the Delta variant, the study reported.

Let us hope that the number of new cases starts to fade, because this latest wave of the pandemic is causing a tremendous amount of fear and panic right now.

And the more fear and panic that we see, the less optimistic Americans are going to be about the road ahead.

Of course even if this pandemic disappeared tomorrow, there would still be a great deal for Americans to be concerned about as we roll into the next stages of “the perfect storm”.

I know that most Americans just want life to “return to normal”, but the truth is that the past couple of years have changed the U.S. and nations all over the globe on a permanent basis.

The troubles of 2020 and 2021 should have brought us together, but instead they just keep tearing us apart.

Meanwhile, we continue to see national governments around the planet move in an authoritarian direction, and that is a deeply, deeply alarming trend.

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

Go To The Stores And Stock Up Now Because Things Are About To Get Really Crazy

June 1, 2021June 1, 2021 by Michael

If there are things that you need to stock up on, you should do it right away. For weeks, I have been writing articles about the rampant inflation that we are witnessing right now. We haven’t seen anything like this since the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s, and many are warning that it is going to get even worse in the months ahead. So that means that prices are never going to be lower than they are at this moment. Even more importantly, we are also being warned that the widespread shortages in our economy are about to get even worse. In fact, the largest meatpacker in the entire world was just hit by a cyberattack, and this has forced it to stop activity “at its plants in several U.S. states”…

The White House said on Tuesday that Brazil’s JBS SA has informed the U.S. government that a ransomware attack against the company that has disrupted meat production in North America and Australia originated from a criminal organization likely based in Russia.

JBS is the world’s largest meatpacker and the incident caused its Australian operations to shut down on Monday and has stopped livestock slaughter at its plants in several U.S. states.

Many of you may not be familiar with JBS, but this is a very big deal.

According to Bloomberg, “a fifth of America’s production” will be wiped out while these plants are down…

JBS’s five biggest beef plants in the U.S. — which altogether handle 22,500 cattle a day — have halted processing following a weekend attack on the company’s computer networks, according to JBS posts on Facebook, labor unions and employees. Those outages alone have wiped out nearly a fifth of America’s production. Slaughter operations across Australia were also down, according to a trade group. One of Canada’s largest beef plants was idled for a second day.

Until this crisis passes, and hopefully that will be as soon as possible, meat will be harder to get and prices will be higher.

The Biden administration is once again blaming Russia for this latest cyberattack. Whether that is true or not, relations between the U.S. and Russia will continue to rapidly deteriorate, and many are deeply concerned about where all of this hostility will eventually take us.

Sadly, this new meat shortage is just the tip of the iceberg. Earlier today, the Drudge Report linked to an article with this stunning headline: “How the World Ran Out of Everything”. The following is a short excerpt from that article…

In Conshohocken, Pa., Mr. Romano is literally waiting for his ship to come in.

He is vice president of sales at Van Horn, Metz & Company, which buys chemicals from suppliers around the world and sells them to factories that make paint, ink and other industrial products.

In normal times, the company is behind in filling perhaps 1 percent of its customers’ orders. On a recent morning, it could not complete a tenth of its orders because it was waiting for supplies to arrive.

You may have noticed that products are increasingly going “out of stock”, and this trend isn’t going away for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, inflation threatens to spiral wildly out of control. At this point, even Costco executives are publicly warning that inflation has become a major problem…

Don’t tell Costco executives that inflation is low.

The big-box club chain said it’s been seeing accelerating prices across a range of products, including shipping containers, aluminum foil and a 20% spike in meat prices over the past month.

“Inflationary factors abound,” CFO Richard Galanti said on the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call Thursday.

If you know that you are going to need something in the months ahead, buy it now, because with the way things are going there is a very good chance that you will be paying much more if you wait.

Have you noticed that some companies are trying to hide inflation by shrinking package sizes? This is a phenomenon that is known as “shrinkflation”…

Consumers are paying more for a growing range of household staples in ways that don’t show up on receipts – thinner rolls, lighter bags, smaller cans – as companies look to offset rising labor and materials costs without scaring off customers.

It’s a form of retail camouflage known as “shrinkflation,” and economists and consumer advocates who track packaging expect it to become more pronounced as inflation ratchets up, taking hold of such everyday items such as paper towels, potato chips and diapers.

For example, I absolutely love Tillamook ice cream. It is the best ice cream that I have ever had in my entire life, and if you have tasted it then you know what I am talking about.

Unfortunately, they recently felt forced to shrink the size of their packaging from 56 ounces to 48 ounces, but they kept the price the same.

Lots of companies are now doing this, because the cost of raw materials is going through the roof. Even Elon Musk is complaining about rising prices for raw materials…

Perhaps finally realizing it can’t turn a profit selling vehicles or perhaps truly between a rock and a semiconductor hard place, Tesla is raising prices (and ditching features) from its vehicles.

CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter late on Memorial Day to explain the hikes, blaming them on the convenient scapegoat of supply chain issues.

“Prices increasing due to major supply chain price pressure industry-wide. Raw materials especially,” Musk wrote in a Tweet late on Memorial Day.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

Governments around the world continue to borrow and spend money as if tomorrow will never come, and global central banks continue to pump gigantic mountains of new money into their respective financial systems.

In this sort of environment, an “invisible sculpture” that is nothing but air can literally be sold for $18,000…

An Italian artist was able to sell his invisible “immaterial” sculpture – which technically does not exist (in this plane at least) – for thousands of euros.

Salvatore Garau, 67, challenged the boundaries of contemporary art even further after cashing in ¢15,000 (around $18,000 or P875,000) for his work titled “Io sono” (I am) at a recent auction, as per Il Giorno on May 21.

The inflationary nightmare that so many of us have been relentlessly warning about is here, and it is going to continue to get worse.

In addition, I have a feeling that quite a few major “surprises” are coming our way during the second half of this year.

So go to the stores and stock up now, because things will soon get really crazy.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Biden’s $6 Trillion Socialist Budget Will Cause Even More Inflation And Even More Shortages

May 27, 2021May 27, 2021 by Michael

If you are enjoying the ride on the highway to hyperinflation, then you are going to absolutely love Joe Biden’s new budget. Instead of realizing the mistakes that he has made and reversing course, Biden has decided that now is the time to push the accelerator to the floor. That means that a lot more inflation is on the way, and I am encouraging all of my readers to do what they can to get prepared for that. In my latest book, I sound the alarm about what hyperinflation will eventually do to our economy. We are literally in the process of becoming Venezuela, and most Americans have absolutely no idea how horrific that will be. In Venezuela today, almost everyone is a millionaire, but just about everyone is also living in poverty because the money is absolutely worthless. We don’t want to end up like that, but that is the road that we are on.

While he was still in the White House, President Trump’s proposed budget for 2021 was $4.8 trillion. That is an extremely high number, but Joe Biden’s new budget for 2021 is actually 25 percent larger…

The proposal represents a 25 percent increase over what former President Donald Trump proposed in his final budget – in a year that would be upended by the coronavirus.

The spending levels would continue on an upward trajectory, hitting $8.2 trillion at the end of a decade, according to detailed top-line numbers leaked to the New York Times.

I could sit here all day and still probably not be able to come up with sufficient words to describe how insane it would be for the U.S. government to spend 6 trillion dollars in a single year.

According to Biden, his new tax increases will offset part of the new spending, but even his own projections show us running trillion dollar deficits long into the future…

The budget would have the nation continue running deficits of more than $1 trillion, a level it already topped with the onset of the pandemic – with estimated annual deficits of $1.3 trillion amid enacted and proposed federal programs.

Of course these sorts of projections are usually way too optimistic.

In my estimation, Biden’s plan would have us facing deficits of at least two trillion dollars per year throughout his presidency and beyond.

We can’t keep doing this to our children and our grandchildren. Already, borrowing and spending giant mountains of money that we do not have has resulted in the worst stretch of inflation since the Jimmy Carter years of the 1970s.

Larry Summers was the former director of the National Economic Council under Barack Obama, and even he is warning that big time inflation is coming…

He told a CoinDesk conference: ‘We’re taking very substantial risks on the inflation side.

‘I think policy is rather overdoing it. The sense of serenity and complacency being projected by the economic policymakers, that this is all something that can easily be managed, is misplaced,’ he added.

When even Larry Summers is sounding the alarm, you know that it must be really late in the game.

As I have detailed in numerous recent articles, prices are absolutely exploding all over the nation right now. And today we learned that one prominent analyst is claiming that “US inflation data surprises are at their highest in the 20-year history of the series”…

As we noted over the weekend, positive US data surprises seem to be normalizing (i.e. the Citi US econ surprise index has flatlined) due to a combination of analysts catching up with the prior stronger pace of growth, and also due to some evidence that the rate of change of US growth is peaking out (JPMorgan disagrees).

However as DB’s equity strategist Parag Thatte points out in his latest positioning piece, “US inflation data surprises are at their highest in the 20-year history of the series with the last 10 data points almost ‘off the chart’.“

We should be taking emergency measures to get inflation under control, but instead Joe Biden has decided that this is the perfect time for a spending spree.

Inflation is one of the hallmarks of a socialist economy, and another thing that we commonly see in socialist systems are shortages.

At this moment, we are witnessing the most severe shortages that the U.S. has experienced in my entire lifetime. As I discussed the other day, Bloomberg is reporting that “the world economy is suddenly running low on everything”.

When there are way too many dollars chasing way too few goods and services, it is inevitable that shortages will happen. And we are being told to expect that some of the shortages will get even worse in the months ahead. In fact, CNN is telling us to expect very serious gasoline shortages this summer…

And that could be the least of the problems for the those taking to the highways for summer vacations. The gas shortages experienced earlier this month when a key pipeline shut down could once again be on the horizon, according to experts.

This time, the squeeze could be triggered by the lack of tank truck drivers to deliver the fuel, and a repeat of panic buying by travelers topping off their tanks.

Meanwhile, economic conditions continue to deteriorate for those at the bottom of the food chain.

Earlier today, an article about current economic conditions in New York City really struck an emotional chord with me…

In Times Square, the most densely tourist-populated place in the United States, a mentally disturbed man known as Mr. Kim begs cops to kill him. ‘I want to die. You have a gun? Shoot,’ he pleads. After the officers demur, he picks up a plank of wood and starts smashing it against the Pele soccer shop.

On Sutton Place, one of the most affluent residential areas in the city, a lone man squats on the sidewalk, intently reading a paperback novel next to a shopping cart that contains his worldly goods. He begs for cash with a sign saying he has lost everything. ‘Trying to survive,’ it adds.

Joe Biden may think that he is going to bring the U.S. economy back to life with all of the borrowing and spending that he is doing, but the truth is that it is just going to make our long-term problems even worse.

Unfortunately, a lot of our long-term problems are rapidly becoming short-term problems, and that is not good news for any of us.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

Biden Is Being Hailed As An “Economic Success” For Helping To Cause Rampant Inflation And Widespread Shortages

May 25, 2021May 25, 2021 by Michael

No matter what Joe Biden does, the corporate media is going to try to spin it into some sort of a success. Right now, the U.S. is experiencing a problem with inflation that is on par with what we witnessed during the Jimmy Carter years of the 1970s. And at this moment, we are facing persistent widespread shortages that are unlike anything that I have seen in my entire lifetime. In fact, Bloomberg is openly admitting that “the world economy is suddenly running low on everything”. But instead of denouncing the decisions that got us into this giant mess, the corporate media is attempting to frame our current circumstances as evidence that Joe Biden’s policies have been successful.

For example, today I came across a CNN article that openly acknowledged that “prices are surging”…

It’s time to sound the inflation alarm inside the White House.

From used cars and gasoline to lumber and food, prices are surging. The return of inflation, after a decades-long absence, is squeezing families and businesses recovering from the pandemic.

But instead of pointing out the economic mistakes that Joe Biden has made, that very same article claimed that rampant inflation is “evidence” that Biden’s policies are working as intended…

In many ways, higher prices can be seen as evidence that President Joe Biden’s economic and health policies are working.

Using the standard that CNN is using, the Weimar Republic would be considered the greatest economy that the world has ever seen.

Rampant inflation is not a good thing. Anyone that lived through the 1970s will tell you that.

Let me share a couple of charts with you that will help to explain why inflation is wildly out of control. This first one shows the growth of M2…

What we were doing before the pandemic was insane, but now we are destroying the value of our currency at an exponential rate.

Borrowing and spending trillions and trillions of dollars that we do not have is a really foolish thing to do, but apparently CNN believes that this is sound economic policy.

Now let me show you how the Fed balance sheet has grown…

Ack!

As you can see, the size of the Fed balance sheet has roughly doubled since the beginning of the pandemic.

This has created the greatest rally in stock market history, but it is also helping to fuel a dramatic rise in inflation. Just look at what has been happening to housing prices…

Home prices surged in March, up 13.2% from the year prior, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index.

“Everybody expected housing to really sort of dry up with the rest of the economy,” said National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard. “And in fact, the opposite has happened. People who have been sort of scared out of the cities by the pandemic.”

If you don’t want to pay an extremely high price for an existing home, you could try to build your own, but rampant inflation and widespread shortages are making that exceedingly difficult…

“The material shortage issue has shot to the top of the charts, if you will. It has been there since at least last fall, said Dan Durden, chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Builders Association.

“It’s not just that prices are going up; it’s how quickly they’re going up, and nothing’s coming down,” he said. “And it’s not just the case that the item – particularly lumber – is so high, but that you can’t get it, no matter what you’re willing to pay.”

According to Durden, prices for just about everything that goes into a home are “through the roof” these days…

“There’s glass, there’s cement, there’s anything made of aluminum, there’s anything made of steel. We can’t get drywall at a decent price, copper products, pipe, everything’s through the roof,” Durden said. “Lumber’s gone through the roof, but everything else has gone up faster than the rate of inflation.”

Sadly, this is just the beginning. Joe Biden and other world leaders are making decisions that are helping to set the stage for a very apocalyptic future.

But for the moment, most Americans appear to be convinced that the party can continue for the foreseeable future. Speculation on Wall Street is at an all-time high, and some “investors” have been using extreme leverage to make lots of money in the cryptocurrency markets…

When traders use margin, they essentially borrow from their brokerage firm to take a bigger position in bitcoin. If prices go down, they have to pay the brokerage firm back in what’s known as a “margin call.” As part of that, there’s often a set price that triggers selling in order to make sure traders can pay the exchange back.

Brian Kelly, CEO of BKCM, pointed to firms in Asia such as BitMEX allowing 100-to-1 leverage for cryptocurrency trades.

Of course what goes up must come down, and on the way down that sort of leverage is going to completely crush a lot of “investors” that thought that they had the game all figured out.

When things really start going haywire, will the corporate media come to a point where they finally turn on Joe Biden?

Needless to say, Joe Biden has not been the only one making really, really bad decisions. Throughout the course of this pandemic, politicians and central bankers all over the globe have been flooding the world financial system with giant mountains of fresh money, and we have an emerging global crisis of epic proportions on our hands as a result.

There is no way that this is going to end well, but most of you already knew that.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

Could The U.S. Could Soon Be Involved In Wars In Taiwan, Ukraine And The Middle East Simultaneously?

April 12, 2021April 12, 2021 by Michael

Warmongers are now firmly in control in Washington, and they are pushing us toward war a little bit more each day. A military conflict with Russia, China or Iran would be a nightmare scenario, but there is also a possibility that we could end up fighting all three of them simultaneously. Such an outcome would have been unthinkable under the Trump administration, but times have changed. Biden administration officials have been boldly declaring that “America is back”, and they have been trying to aggressively exert U.S. influence all over the globe. Unfortunately, the rest of the world is not as intimidated by the U.S. military as it once was.

Tensions with China have been rising for quite some time, and Taiwan has become the central point of contention.

Taiwan continues to edge closer to declaring formal independence, and the Chinese insist that is a red line that must never, ever be crossed.

In recent weeks, the Chinese have been attempting to send a message by repeatedly sending military aircraft into Taiwan’s airspace, and on Monday we witnessed the most alarming incursion yet…

China’s People Liberation Army flew 25 warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Monday, its largest incursion yet as tension in the Taiwan Strait continues to escalate.

According to Taiwan’s defence ministry, the PLA warplanes – 14 Jian-16 fighter jets, four Jian-10s, four H-6K bombers, two Y-8 anti-submarine warfare planes and one KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft – entered the island’s southwest zone on Monday.

China has been conducting extremely detailed military exercises which simulate an invasion of Taiwan, and the military plans for such an invasion are already drawn up.

Everything is ready to go for when the order is finally given.

The only thing stopping the Chinese is the U.S. military, and on Sunday Secretary of State Antony Blinken once again confirmed that the U.S. will stand behind Taiwan…

“What we’ve seen, and what is of real concern to us, is increasingly aggressive actions by the government in Beijing directed at Taiwan, raising tensions in the Straits. And we have a commitment to Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act, a bipartisan commitment that’s existed for many, many years, to make sure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself, and to make sure that we’re sustaining peace and security in the Western Pacific. We stand behind those commitments. And all I can tell you is it would be a serious mistake for anyone to try to change the existing status quo by force,” Blinken said Sunday during an interview with NBC News’ Meet the Press.

China understands that an invasion of Taiwan would mean war with the United States, and so the Chinese will probably hold off for the moment.

They will be waiting for an opportunity, and that could come when we are tied up with a major military conflict on the other side of the globe.

Speaking of which, the Israeli cyberattack on the Natanz nuclear facility is yet another sign that the “shadow war” between Israel and Iran is getting dangerously close to a shooting war.

Israel has not formally taken responsibility for the attack, but even the Israeli media is acknowledging what everybody else already knows…

Iran blamed Israel on Monday for an attack on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged its centrifuges — sabotage that imperils ongoing talks over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal and brings a shadow war between the two countries into the light.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack, but Israeli media widely reported that the country had orchestrated a devastating cyberattack that caused a blackout at the nuclear facility. Israeli officials rarely acknowledge operations carried out by the country’s secret military units or its Mossad intelligence agency.

In the aftermath of the attack, Iranian officials pledged to “take revenge” on Israel…

“The Zionists want to take revenge on the Iranian people for their success in lifting the oppressive sanctions, but we will not allow it and we will take revenge on the Zionists themselves,” Zarif said in comments carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

If a major war does erupt and missiles start flying back and forth between Israel and Iran, the U.S. will enter the conflict on the side of Israel.

The Iranian nuclear program has been a seemingly unsolvable problem for a number of years, and I think that Israeli leaders are starting to realize that there simply is not going to be a diplomatic solution.

Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine continue to edge closer to a major military conflict. In fact, one of the most popular news anchors in Russia just stated that the Russians may be forced to “de-Nazify” Ukraine by force…

Russia is ‘one step from war’ with Ukraine, state TV has warned in the latest bout of sabre-rattling between Moscow and Kiev that has jangled nerves across Europe.

Dmitry Kiselyov, a Russian news anchor who has been called a ‘Putin propagandist’ in the past, issued the warning during a primetime broadcast in Russia on Sunday.

He branded Ukraine a ‘Nazi’ state, saying that Russia may be forced to ‘de-Nazify’ it by force – a process he said would bring about its ‘economic and military collapse’.

And a top Russian official just made headlines all over the world by suggesting that a full-blown military conflict “would be the beginning of the end of Ukraine”…

The deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration, Dmitry Kozak: “I support the assessment that the start of military action – this would be the beginning of the end of Ukraine.”

Of course things would have never gotten to this point if the Biden administration hadn’t decided to use Ukraine as a tool to put pressure on Russia.

I do not think that Russia intends to invade Ukraine right now. But when the Russians learned what the Biden administration and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky were planning, they rapidly massed forces in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

The Russians are going to keep those forces in the region for the foreseeable future, and that is going to keep tensions high.

Hopefully this show of force will convince Biden administration officials that they should not try to push things any further. Because the Russians are quite willing to strike first if they believe that a move by the other side is imminent.

And once the Russians start pouring across the line of separation, the U.S. and Russia will be at a state of war, and that is something that nobody should want to see.

Of course the United States can’t exactly afford any new wars at this point, because we are absolutely drowning in debt.

If you can believe it, our budget deficit for the month of March was a whopping 660 billion dollars…

The U.S. federal budget deficit widened 454% in March from a year earlier, as the government issued a third round of stimulus checks to help Americans ride out the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The budget gap rose to $660 billion in March, the Treasury Department said Monday, from $119 billion in the same month last year. Revenue rose 13% to $268 billion in March, while spending increased 161% to $927 billion.

A budget deficit of 660 billion dollars for an entire year would be bad enough.

To achieve that level in just one month is catastrophic.

Needless to say, even one war would make our fiscal situation much worse, and multiple conflicts would probably break us financially.

Of course if a global war does erupt, financial problems won’t exactly be among our greatest concerns at that point.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

In Just A Few Days, Biden Has Brought The U.S. Much Closer To A War With China

January 26, 2021 by Michael

The warmongers are back in control in Washington, but this time the wild-eyed lunatics that Joe Biden has surrounded himself with won’t just be starting wars in the Middle East. Relations with China are already taking a turn for the worse, and the Chinese are warning that actions that the Biden administration is taking could soon push us to the brink of military conflict. I know that this may surprise many of my readers, because a major Republican talking point has been that Joe Biden and his family have been way too friendly with the Chinese in the past. Many had assumed that Biden would have a very cozy relationship with China now that he is in the White House, but it looks like the opposite is going to be true. The Biden administration is taking a very aggressive posture, and the Chinese are not happy about that at all.

Shortly after Biden was inaugurated, the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its battle group entered the South China Sea. It is being called a “Freedom of Navigation Operation”, but the Chinese are viewing this aircraft carrier battle group as a major provocation…

CHINA has angrily accused the US of “flexing its muscles” in the South China Sea after new President Joe Biden sent an aircraft carrier group into the disputed waterway in a move which Beijing warned could trigger a disastrous war.

Meanwhile state-run Chinese media has claimed the new administration is seeing how far it could push China, both with regard to the South China Sea and Taiwan.

In addition, the U.S. State Department issued a very blunt statement on January 23rd which greatly alarmed the Chinese…

The United States notes with concern the pattern of ongoing PRC attempts to intimidate its neighbors, including Taiwan. We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan’s democratically elected representatives.

We will stand with friends and allies to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values in the Indo-Pacific region — and that includes deepening our ties with democratic Taiwan. The United States will continue to support a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues, consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people on Taiwan. The United States maintains its longstanding commitments as outlined in the Three Communiqués, the Taiwan Relations Act, and the Six Assurances. We will continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability. Our commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region.

China considers Taiwan to be Chinese territory, and any suggestion otherwise is considered to be extremely offensive.

So for the Biden administration to say that Taiwan is China’s “neighbor” is a really big deal in Beijing.

And I guarantee you that the phrase “deepening our ties with democratic Taiwan” really pissed off Xi Jinping and other top Chinese officials.

If all of that wasn’t enough, the Biden administration actually invited the de facto ambassador from Taiwan to the inauguration. That is something that hadn’t been done since the 1970s.

As much as Trump liked to anger the Chinese, not even he went that far.

China has responded to these moves by sending military aircraft into Taiwanese airspace on a daily basis. The following is from a news report that was posted on January 23rd…

CHINA has breached Taiwan’s Air Defence Zone with eight bombers and four fighter jets in a blatant provocation against the autonomous island, sending a clear signal to new US President Joe Biden in the process.

CNN’s Aditya Raj Kaul tweeted: “Taiwan’s Defence Ministry says that 8 Chinese PLA Bombers and 4 Fighters have Breached Island’s Air Defence Zone. Airborne alert sorties had been tasked, radio warnings issued and air defense missile systems deployed to monitor the activity.”

And then on Saturday and Sunday, China sent more planes than ever toward Taiwan…

China sent 13 warplanes into Taiwan’s ADIZ on Saturday and 15 on Sunday. The first incursion included nuclear-capable bombers, fighter jets, and an anti-submarine aircraft. The second incursion featured more anti-sub planes, advanced fighters capable of using stealth technology, and a reconnaissance aircraft.

On both days, Taiwan scrambled fighter jets, activated its surface-to-air missile defenses, and broadcast radio warnings to the Chinese planes.

I don’t think that military action is imminent, but it is important to remember that the Chinese have been rehearsing an invasion of Taiwan for a very long time.

In addition to the saber rattling by the Chinese military, China’s state-run Global Times published a very strongly worded editorial on Monday…

If the tension across the Taiwan Straits is to be eased, we must return to its deteriorating starting point, which is the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities in Taiwan refusing to recognize the 1992 Consensus and opposing the one-China principle. All tensions across the Taiwan Straits originate from the DPP authorities’ perverse act. And this is in contradiction with the US establishment’s general direction in controlling the situation in the Taiwan Straits, and is also incompatible with the three China-US joint communiqués. If the US places its China policy on the basis of the DPP authorities’ reckless moves, which obviously have a trend of Taiwan secessionism, then it will bear long-term and cumulative strategic risks.

The easing of the tension in the Taiwan Straits should start from the political point of view. It cannot reach a breakthrough through strategy. The interaction among the Chinese mainland, the US and the island of Taiwan has been broken in all directions and is difficult to repair. In the later period of the Trump administration, the situation across the Taiwan Straits actually reached the edge of collapse. If the Biden administration does not want the situation to get out of control or get itself seriously involved, they should sent out a clear political signal to distinguish themselves from the previous administration’s mischief, and restore the controllability of the Taiwan Straits on the basis of the one-China principle.

As far as the Chinese government is concerned, the status of Taiwan, the status of Hong Kong, and the status of the South China Sea are non-negotiable issues.

If the Biden administration continues to push the envelope on those issues, it will inevitably bring us closer and closer to a future military conflict with China.

Of course many would argue that we need to be tough on bullies such as China, and it is hard to argue with that reasoning.

But foreign policy takes finesse, because if you push the other side too fast or too hard they could snap and do something irrational.

President Reagan understood this very well, and his patience was one of the reasons why we were able to win the Cold War.

Now a new Cold War is here, and the warmongers that Biden has put in charge of our foreign policy could end up starting a war with China that nobody wants.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***