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	<title>NASDAQ &#8211; The Economic Collapse</title>
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	<description>Are You Prepared For The Coming Economic Collapse And The Next Great Depression?</description>
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		<title>Why Is The Mainstream Media Signaling That A Much Larger Stock Market Decline Is Coming?</title>
		<link>http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/why-is-the-mainstream-media-signaling-that-a-much-larger-stock-market-decline-is-coming/</link>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2020 02:50:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Banksters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal Reserve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Collapse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash 2020]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Melt Up]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Meltdown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Next Depression]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wall Street]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=17623</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Why would the mainstream media want all of us to believe that stock prices are about to fall dramatically?  Just like we witnessed earlier this year at the beginning of the pandemic, the corporate media is full of reports that seem to imply that it is a virtual certainty that stock prices are going to ... <a title="Why Is The Mainstream Media Signaling That A Much Larger Stock Market Decline Is Coming?" class="read-more" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/why-is-the-mainstream-media-signaling-that-a-much-larger-stock-market-decline-is-coming/">Read more</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/why-is-the-mainstream-media-signaling-that-a-much-larger-stock-market-decline-is-coming/">Why Is The Mainstream Media Signaling That A Much Larger Stock Market Decline Is Coming?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/why-is-the-mainstream-media-signaling-that-a-much-larger-stock-market-decline-is-coming/wall-street-pixabay#main" rel="attachment wp-att-17625"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-17625" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Wall-Street-Pixabay-560x358.jpg" alt="" width="560" height="358" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Wall-Street-Pixabay-560x358.jpg 560w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Wall-Street-Pixabay-300x192.jpg 300w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Wall-Street-Pixabay-768x491.jpg 768w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Wall-Street-Pixabay.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px" /></a>Why would the mainstream media want all of us to believe that stock prices are about to fall dramatically?  Just like we witnessed earlier this year at the beginning of the pandemic, the corporate media is full of reports that seem to imply that it is a virtual certainty that stock prices are going to go even lower.  Of course it would make perfect sense for stock prices to go down because they are incredibly overvalued right now, but normally the mainstream media does not try to tell us where stock prices are going next.  And the fact that so many news outlets are repeating the same mantra right now is particularly troublesome.</p>
<p>Without a doubt, the momentum of stock prices is taking us in a downward direction at the moment.  All of the major stock indexes have posted declines for three weeks in a row, and it looks like this week could make it four.</p>
<p>As I write this article, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 4.5 percent for the month, the S&amp;P 500 is down over 6 percent, and the Nasdaq has fallen about 8.5 percent.  Overall, the market is on pace for the worst September <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mondays-stock-market-selloff-sets-up-worst-september-in-18-years-11600706182">in 18 years</a>, but the corporate-controlled media seems convinced that things are going to get even worse.  For example, the following comes from a CNBC article entitled <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/21/stock-sell-off-accelerates-and-is-expected-to-get-worse-before-it-gets-better.html">&#8220;Stock sell-off accelerates and is expected to get worse before it gets better&#8221;</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Stock investors focused on new worries about the coronavirus and economy, selling into a market Monday that was already technically shaken and <strong>set for further declines</strong>.</p></blockquote>
<p>I looked for evidence that would back up the assertion that the market is &#8220;set for further declines&#8221; in the remainder of that article, but I didn&#8217;t see any.</p>
<p>Without a doubt, I definitely agree that stock prices have a long, long way to fall, but there is no reason why they couldn&#8217;t bounce back for the rest of this week.</p>
<p>So it seems odd that CNBC would be so dogmatic.</p>
<p>And USA Today <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/09/21/financial-crisis-stocks-debt-economy-deutsche-bank-report/5851809002/">just posted an article</a> that suggested that we are facing &#8220;a looming global financial crisis&#8221;&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Massive fiscal and monetary policy stimulus&#8221; that came together to prop up the economy has caused debt to balloon and stocks to become potentially overvalued, posing &#8220;<strong>the serious risk of a looming global financial crisis</strong> as central banks begin to shift away from easy (monetary) policy at some point in the years to come.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Once again, I definitely agree that a global financial crisis could erupt at any time.</p>
<p>But normally we don&#8217;t see the mainstream media using such language.</p>
<p>At this point, we are less than a month and a half away from the election, and many have suggested that uncertainty about the outcome could weigh heavily on the market.  In fact, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/21/investing/dow-stock-market-today/index.html">CNN is telling us</a> that we should anticipate &#8220;that volatility will be high&#8221; during the period surrounding election day&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Market experts have warned <strong>that volatility will be high toward the end of the year and around the election</strong>, especially because many expect the winner won&#8217;t be known immediately.</p></blockquote>
<p>Could it be possible that there will be an attempt to disrupt the market in an attempt to make one of the candidates look bad?</p>
<p>I know that would sound absurd during normal times, but these are definitely not normal times.</p>
<p>And ultra-wealthy insiders definitely seem to believe that something is coming, because they have been selling stocks like crazy recently.  According <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ultra-wealthy-are-selling-billions-dollars-stock">to Zero Hedge</a>, &#8220;during the week ended September 11, insiders sold $473 million in shares while only buying $9.5 million.&#8221;</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t know about you, but those numbers definitely got my attention.</p>
<p>Of course stock prices should have never, ever gotten so high in the first place.  The unprecedented market rally that we have witnessed in 2020 has occurred during a time when we have actually plunged into a new economic depression.  Almost every day I share more horrific economic numbers with my readers, and here are some more <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/09/21/almost-90-percent-of-nyc-bars-and-restaurants-couldnt-pay-august-rent/">from the New York Post</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Nearly 90 percent of New York City bar and restaurant owners couldn’t pay their rent in August, heightening the continued crush the coronavirus shutdown has inflicted on Gotham’s economy.</p>
<p>Eighty-seven percent of bars, restaurants, nightclubs and event spaces in the five boroughs could not pay their full August rent, according to data from 457 businesses surveyed between Aug. 25 and Sept. 11, in a new study released Monday by the nonprofit NYC Hospitality Alliance.</p></blockquote>
<p>How in the world can anyone possibly use the phrase &#8220;economic recovery&#8221; when we are seeing numbers like that?</p>
<p>We have never seen an economic downturn of this magnitude in all of modern American history, and many believe that what we have experienced so far <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/2020-has-been-a-nightmare-year-for-america-and-the-economic-fallout-is-just-getting-started">is just the beginning</a>.</p>
<p>With each passing day, we see more societal turmoil <a href="http://themostimportantnews.com/">in the headlines</a>, and the upcoming election threatens to bring our societal tensions to a thundering crescendo.</p>
<p>In such an environment, a huge stock market crash would not be surprising at all, and some are suggesting that the shove that pushes us over the edge could actually happen on purpose.  In his most recent video, Greg Mannarino warned that the upcoming financial crash &#8220;is going to be epic&#8221;, and he told his audience that our largest financial institutions could collapse the market <a href="https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/greg-mannarino-on-the-coming-financial-crisis-buckle-up-this-is-going-to-be-epic">any time that they want</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;They can crush the global economy or the market. The global economy, which is the middle class, is already crushed, ok. They can destroy the stock market like this [snaps fingers.] And you can see it playing out right now. So all to of this is more than likely going to get brushed under the rug as it always does,&#8221; Mannarino says of the banks controlling the world.</p></blockquote>
<p>It is not unusual for pundits such as Mannarino to make such bold predictions, but what alarms me is that the mainstream media is also strongly suggesting that a market crash is coming.</p>
<p>Even if the mainstream media is not attempting to do it on purpose, their words can become a self-fulfilling prophecy as countless investors spooked by their reports pull money out of the marketplace.</p>
<p>Sadly, this is one instance in which the mainstream media will ultimately be proven correct.  Whether it happens in the immediate future or not, the truth is that we are heading for a financial meltdown <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ6Y81Q">that will be absolutely horrifying</a>.</p>
<p>In recent months, the Federal Reserve was able to reinflate our financial bubbles one more time, and hordes of investors eagerly jumped aboard the rally train.</p>
<p>But now that train is in danger of being derailed, and those that do not hop off in time could find themselves plunging into a nightmarish financial abyss.</p>
<p><strong>***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available <a title="in paperback" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DBNHDJS" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in paperback</a> and <a title="for the Kindle" href="https://www.amazon.com/Prophecies-Future-America-Michael-Snyder-ebook/dp/B08DJ6Y81Q/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">for the Kindle</a> on <a class="vglnk" title="Amazon.com" href="http://amazon.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a>.***</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ6Y81Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-17619" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Lost-Prophecies-Of-The-Future-Of-America-560x840.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Lost-Prophecies-Of-The-Future-Of-America-560x840.jpg 560w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Lost-Prophecies-Of-The-Future-Of-America-200x300.jpg 200w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Lost-Prophecies-Of-The-Future-Of-America-768x1152.jpg 768w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Lost-Prophecies-Of-The-Future-Of-America.jpg 907w" alt="" width="560" height="840" /></a></p>
<p><strong>About the Author</strong>: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled <a title="“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”" href="https://amzn.to/2CU4JB0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”</a> is now available <a title="on Amazon.com" href="https://amzn.to/2CU4JB0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">on Amazon.com</a>.  By purchasing the book 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 <a title="The Economic Collapse Blog" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Economic Collapse Blog</a>, <a title="End Of The American Dream" href="http://endoftheamericandream.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">End Of The American Dream</a> and <a title="The Most Important News" href="http://themostimportantnews.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Most Important News</a>, 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.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available <a title="on Amazon.com" href="https://amzn.to/2Br7dm0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">on Amazon.com</a> including <a title="The Beginning Of The End" href="https://amzn.to/2WAovFI" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Beginning Of The End</a>, <a title="Get Prepared Now" href="https://amzn.to/2HS2mzf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Get Prepared Now</a>, and <a title="Living A Life That Really Matters" href="https://amzn.to/2FzGaGw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Living A Life That Really Matters</a>. (#CommissionsEarned)  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 <a title="Facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/michael.snyder.5076" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a> and <a title="Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/Revelation1217" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Twitter</a>, 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 <a title="to share the gospel of Jesus Christ" href="http://themostimportantnews.com/important-thing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">to share the gospel of Jesus Christ</a> with as many people as we possibly can.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/why-is-the-mainstream-media-signaling-that-a-much-larger-stock-market-decline-is-coming/">Why Is The Mainstream Media Signaling That A Much Larger Stock Market Decline Is Coming?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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		<title>A September Stock Market Crash?</title>
		<link>http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a-september-stock-market-crash/</link>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Sep 2020 04:22:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Collapse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash 2020]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Melt Up]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Meltdown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Next Depression]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wall Street]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=17551</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Many of us have been waiting to see what surprises the month of September would bring, and it appears that a stock market crash may be one of them.  Even the most ardent market optimists were admitting that the absurd bubble that had developed over the course of the summer was completely unsustainable, and the ... <a title="A September Stock Market Crash?" class="read-more" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a-september-stock-market-crash/">Read more</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a-september-stock-market-crash/">A September Stock Market Crash?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/a-september-stock-market-crash/stock-market-crash-pixabay-2#main" rel="attachment wp-att-17609"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-17609" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Stock-Market-Crash-Pixabay-560x373.png" alt="" width="560" height="373" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Stock-Market-Crash-Pixabay-560x373.png 560w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Stock-Market-Crash-Pixabay-300x200.png 300w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Stock-Market-Crash-Pixabay-768x512.png 768w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Stock-Market-Crash-Pixabay.png 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px" /></a>Many of us have been waiting to see what surprises the month of September would bring, and it appears that a stock market crash may be one of them.  Even the most ardent market optimists were admitting that the absurd bubble that had developed over the course of the summer was completely unsustainable, and the only real debate was over when it would finally burst.  So is this it?  Stock prices have certainly plunged quite dramatically over the last several trading sessions, but it is always possible that things could stabilize for a little while.  But whether it happens in September, October, November, December or next year, the truth is that everyone knows that a crash is coming.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell another 632 points, but that wasn&#8217;t the real story.  Far more noteworthy was the fact that the Nasdaq was down another 4.1 percent, and that means that it has now dropped a total of more than 10 percent since it hit a brand new record high last week.</p>
<p>Only two times since 2001 has the Nasdaq fallen more rapidly over three trading sessions.  The index is now officially in correction territory, and the losses have been staggering.  In particular, the six largest tech stocks have collectively lost <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/08/six-big-tech-stocks-down-1-trillion-in-three-days.html">more than a trillion dollars</a> in value during this three day stretch&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>The six biggest tech stocks have lost more than $1 trillion over the last three days alone, but it’s really just a dent coming off a huge rally that peaked last week.</p>
<p>Apple, which hit a $2 trillion market cap on Aug. 19, is down about $325 billion in that time period. Microsoft’s down $219 billion, Amazon fell $191 billion, Alphabet cratered by $135 billion, and Tesla, which fell 21% on Tuesday to mark its worst single-day loss in its history, is down $109 billion in the last three days. Finally, Facebook is off by $89 billion.</p></blockquote>
<p>A trillion dollars is a serious amount of money.</p>
<p>If you had started spending a million dollars every single day when Jesus was born, you still wouldn&#8217;t have spent a trillion dollars by now.  So we are talking about a giant pile of money that is almost unimaginable.</p>
<p>Apple has the largest market cap of any of the tech giants, and over the past three trading days it is down a total of more than 14 percent.  That is the worst three day stretch for Apple since October 2008.</p>
<p>But if you want to see a real disaster, just look at what has been happening to Tesla&#8217;s stock price.  Do you remember <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/signs-of-trouble-as-we-make-the-turn-toward-the-fall">a few days ago</a> when I said that it would still be overvalued if it went down 90 percent?  Well, after Tuesday we only have 69 percent more to go <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/08/tesla-shares-slump-10percent-in-premarket-trading-after-sp-500-snub.html">before that actually happens</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Tesla shares closed down 21.06%, making it the worst one-day loss on record. Tuesday’s drop brought the company’s market valuation to $307.7 billion. The stock has been on a tear this year, having risen around 300%, and the company is now worth more than some of the world’s largest automakers, including <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=7203.T-JP">Toyota</a> and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=VOW3-DE">Volkswagen</a>.</p></blockquote>
<p>It was widely assumed that Tesla would be added to the S&amp;P 500 on Friday, and when that didn&#8217;t happen it was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/08/investing/tesla-stock-plunge/index.html">&#8220;a big disappointment for investors&#8221;</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>But while S&amp;P Indexes announced late Friday that it was adding Etsy, an online marketplace for crafters; Teradyne (TER), a company specializing in industrial automation and robotics; and Catalent (CTLT), which develops pharmaceuticals, to the index, the absence of Tesla was a big disappointment for investors, prompting the sell-off.</p></blockquote>
<p>But the bigger disappointment for Tesla investors will come when the general public finally realizes that a company that sold less than 100,000 vehicles and actually lost 862 million dollars last year is simply not worth 307 billion dollars.</p>
<p>I understand that people like to make money flipping Tesla stock, but to me the entire company is a giant mirage <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/ios6gz/let_it_go_my_brothers/">that will eventually collapse in spectacular fashion</a>.</p>
<p>As for the market as a whole, I am not too excited about this current downturn just yet.  When CNBC asked Kristina Hooper about what we are seeing, she simply labeled it <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/08/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html">&#8220;a healthy period of consolidation after a dramatic run-up&#8221;</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>“Some are suggesting this is the start of another dramatic sell-off, similar to the spring of 2000 when the ‘tech bubble’ burst. I highly doubt that,” Kristina Hooper, Invesco Chief Global Market Strategist, said in an email to CNBC. “I think of this rout not so much as a correction, but as a digestion given that the NASDAQ Composite rose more than 60% from its March bottom in the course of less than six months. All In all, I think this is a healthy period of consolidation after a dramatic run-up.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Yes, it is still entirely possible that this could turn into the big crash that everyone has been waiting for.</p>
<p>But I think that I will wait until the Dow falls below 25,000 before I start hyperventilating.</p>
<p>Of course I am among those that are entirely convinced that a stock market crash is definitely coming at some point.  At this moment in history, stock prices are absurdly overvalued.  Back in 1990, the total value of all U.S. stocks was sitting at a level that was approximately 60 percent of U.S. GDP, and these days that number has been hovering <a href="https://technocodex.com/this-us-stock-bubble-could-rank-among-the-biggest-in-history/">around 200 percent</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>In his 2007 <a href="https://ig.ft.com/sites/business-book-award/books/2007/shortlist/the-age-of-turbulence-by-alan-greenspan/" data-trackable="link">memoir</a>, former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan wrote, referring to late 1996, that “America was turning into a shareholders’ nation”. He noted that the total value of US stock holdings had risen from 60 per cent of gross domestic product in 1990 to 120 per cent of GDP by 1996 — “a ratio topped only by Japan at the height of its 1980s bubble”.</p>
<p>In Japan, that ratio had jumped to 140 per cent by the end of 1989, according to the World Bank. The ratio of market capitalisation-to-GDP in the US in 2000, to the amazement of Mr Greenspan, would go on to reach that same level. Today, the market capitalisation-to-GDP ratio in the US is just shy of 200 per cent. The S&amp;P 500 companies alone are worth about $30tn, or 150 per cent of GDP.</p></blockquote>
<p>So that would seem to imply that stock prices could ultimately fall by more than two-thirds, although I believe <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ6Y81Q">in the long-term</a> they will go a whole lot lower than that.</p>
<p>In the short-term, we will see what happens.  10 of the 20 worst single day percentage declines in stock market history have happened <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_daily_changes_in_the_Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average#:~:text=8%20External%20links-,Largest%20percentage%20changes,list%20of%20largest%20percentage%20losses.">during the months of September and October</a>, and it wouldn&#8217;t surprise me at all to see some huge waves of volatility during the weeks ahead.</p>
<p>But it is probably going to take some sort of a &#8220;trigger event&#8221; for the really big crash to happen.</p>
<p>That &#8220;trigger event&#8221; could happen tomorrow, or it may not happen for quite some time.  But without a doubt the market is perfectly primed for a major disaster, and it certainly won&#8217;t take too much to push it over the edge.</p>
<p><strong>***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available <a title="in paperback" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DBNHDJS" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in paperback</a> and <a title="for the Kindle" href="https://www.amazon.com/Prophecies-Future-America-Michael-Snyder-ebook/dp/B08DJ6Y81Q/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">for the Kindle</a> on Amazon.com.***</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://amzn.to/2CU4JB0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-17378" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Lost-Prophecies-Of-The-Future-Of-America-560x840.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Lost-Prophecies-Of-The-Future-Of-America-560x840.jpg 560w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Lost-Prophecies-Of-The-Future-Of-America-200x300.jpg 200w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Lost-Prophecies-Of-The-Future-Of-America-768x1152.jpg 768w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Lost-Prophecies-Of-The-Future-Of-America.jpg 907w" alt="" width="560" height="840" /></a></p>
<p><strong>About the Author</strong>: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled <a title="“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”" href="https://amzn.to/2CU4JB0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”</a> is now available <a title="on Amazon.com" href="https://amzn.to/2CU4JB0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">on Amazon.com</a>.  By purchasing the book 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 <a title="The Economic Collapse Blog" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Economic Collapse Blog</a>, <a title="End Of The American Dream" href="http://endoftheamericandream.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">End Of The American Dream</a> and <a title="The Most Important News" href="http://themostimportantnews.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Most Important News</a>, 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.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available <a title="on Amazon.com" href="https://amzn.to/2Br7dm0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">on Amazon.com</a> including <a title="The Beginning Of The End" href="https://amzn.to/2WAovFI" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Beginning Of The End</a>, <a title="Get Prepared Now" href="https://amzn.to/2HS2mzf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Get Prepared Now</a>, and <a title="Living A Life That Really Matters" href="https://amzn.to/2FzGaGw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Living A Life That Really Matters</a>. (#CommissionsEarned)  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 <a title="Facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/michael.snyder.5076" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a> and <a title="Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/Revelation1217" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Twitter</a>, 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 <a title="to share the gospel of Jesus Christ" href="http://themostimportantnews.com/important-thing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">to share the gospel of Jesus Christ</a> with as many people as we possibly can.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a-september-stock-market-crash/">A September Stock Market Crash?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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		<title>The Dow Plunges 372 Points As Trump Impeachment Talk Reaches A Fever Pitch On Capitol Hill</title>
		<link>http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/dow-plunges-372-points-as-trump-impeachment-talk-reaches-a-fever-pitch-on-capitol-hill/</link>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 May 2017 21:04:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Comey Memo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservative]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservative America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservative Causes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservative News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservative Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservatives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Snyder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Political]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politicians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[President Trump]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Dow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The S&P 500]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trump]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=12267</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>The wolves are circling, and members of Congress from both political parties are now openly talking about impeaching President Trump.  On Wednesday, speculation of a looming Trump impeachment sent stocks plunging.  The Dow was down 372 points, and the S&#38;P 500 and the Nasdaq both experienced their largest declines in eight months.  This downturn was ... <a title="The Dow Plunges 372 Points As Trump Impeachment Talk Reaches A Fever Pitch On Capitol Hill" class="read-more" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/dow-plunges-372-points-as-trump-impeachment-talk-reaches-a-fever-pitch-on-capitol-hill/">Read more</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/dow-plunges-372-points-as-trump-impeachment-talk-reaches-a-fever-pitch-on-capitol-hill/">The Dow Plunges 372 Points As Trump Impeachment Talk Reaches A Fever Pitch On Capitol Hill</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/dow-plunges-372-points-as-trump-impeachment-talk-reaches-a-fever-pitch-on-capitol-hill/trump-whitehouse-gov" rel="attachment wp-att-12268"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-12268" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Trump-Whitehouse.gov_-460x460.jpg" alt="" width="460" height="460" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Trump-Whitehouse.gov_-460x460.jpg 460w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Trump-Whitehouse.gov_-300x300.jpg 300w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Trump-Whitehouse.gov_-425x425.jpg 425w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Trump-Whitehouse.gov_-400x400.jpg 400w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Trump-Whitehouse.gov_.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px" /></a>The wolves are circling, and members of Congress from both political parties are now openly talking about impeaching President Trump.  On Wednesday, speculation of a looming Trump impeachment sent stocks plunging.  The Dow was down 372 points, and the S&amp;P 500 and the Nasdaq both experienced their largest declines in eight months.  This downturn was sparked by a New York Times report that said that a memo that FBI Director James Comey wrote in February stated that Trump requested that Comey &#8220;end the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn&#8221;.  Democrats and Republicans are both jumping on this memo as potential evidence of &#8220;obstruction of justice&#8221;, but as I will explain below, even if everything that Comey is saying is true there is no evidence of obstruction of justice in this case.  However, perception is often more important than reality, and at this moment Wall Street and many of Trump&#8217;s fellow Republicans in Washington believe that the Trump administration is coming apart at the seams.  After the events of this week, it is clearer than ever that it is imperative that we get Trump <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/michael-snyder-is-calling-for-an-army-of-pro-trump-activists-to-run-for-office-all-over-america">some friends in Congress in 2018</a>.</p>
<p>Following Trump&#8217;s surprise election victory in November, stocks surged as investors anticipated the implementation of a robust pro-business agenda.</p>
<p>But now that the Trump administration is deeply embroiled in controversy, many fear that Trump&#8217;s pro-business agenda <a href="https://www.axios.com/questions-pile-up-for-trumpworld-after-comey-memos-2411100890.html">will never become a reality</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;A week ago<strong>, </strong>we were talking about the agenda grinding to a halt,&#8221; the Republican said. <strong>&#8220;Now, the train is going down the hill backwards.&#8221;</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>And even before Wednesday&#8217;s revelation about Comey&#8217;s memo, some top Republican leaders were already disavowing Trump&#8217;s agenda.  For example, just check out what <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-17/gop-reels-from-trump-chaos-as-congress-struggles-to-chart-course">Bloomberg</a> is reporting about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Earlier Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he’s prepared to block Trump on many of his proposed budget cuts and won’t support major tax cuts that add to the deficit. Nor would he commit to building Trump’s border wall.</p></blockquote>
<p>The financial markets had already &#8220;priced in&#8221; big tax cuts, reduced regulations and a massive increase in infrastructure spending.</p>
<p>If the markets believe that none of those things are going to happen now, that is likely to result in a significant downturn for stocks.</p>
<p>Of course the Democrats are just thrilled by these latest developments.  U.S. Representative Jim Himes told MSNBC that the Republican agenda is now <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/ryan-trump-controversies-theres-clearly-lot-politics-being-played">&#8220;lying in ruins on the floor of this building&#8221;</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Speaking earlier on Wednesday, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a member of the House intelligence committee, said the Republican legislative agenda “is lying in ruins on the floor of this building.”</p>
<p>“It was tenuous when they got through their so-called health care bill in the House.  You can still see blood on the floor here for what it cost them to get that through the House,” Himes told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in an interview from the U.S. Capitol.</p>
<p>“Now, you know, things like tax reform , which is, you know, very, very difficult in the best of times &#8212; with that cloud, with this cloud, hanging over this building, that legislative agenda is all but gone.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Previously, I have warned about the <a href="http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/donald-trump-seth-rich-and-the-gangster-culture-that-permeates-washington">&#8220;gangster culture&#8221;</a> in Washington D.C., and the truth is that the &#8220;Deep State&#8221; has been out to get Trump since the moment he was elected.</p>
<p>There are thousands upon thousands of laws that apply to the presidency, and the jackals among the establishment have been waiting for Trump to trip up just a little bit so that they can try to take him down for good.</p>
<p>And things are starting to move very quickly now.</p>
<p>Within hours of the revelation about the Comey memo, Democratic Representative Al Green called for Trump to be impeached <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/05/17/texas-rep-al-green-calls-president-trumps-impeachment-house-floor/101786744/">from the House floor</a>: &#8220;This is about what I believe. And this is where I stand. I will not be moved. The president must be impeached.&#8221;</p>
<p>It isn&#8217;t much of a surprise to see this sort of rush to judgment from the Democrats, but the speed at which Republicans are turning on Trump is more than just a little bit alarming&#8230;</p>
<p>-Senator John McCain raised the specter of impeachment when he told the press that the crisis surrounding Trump has reached <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-apos-impeachment-territory-081831883.html">&#8220;Watergate size and scale&#8221;</a>.</p>
<p>-McCain&#8217;s partner in crime, Senator Lindsey Graham, released a statement that said he <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/republicans-trump-comey-2017-5">&#8220;will follow the facts — wherever they may lead&#8221;</a>.  Graham has always been one of Trump&#8217;s biggest critics, and he clearly is ready to move forward with impeachment.</p>
<p>-According to <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/house/333803-first-republicans-talk-impeachment-for-trump">the Hill</a>, U.S. Rep. Justin Amash is saying that if Comey&#8217;s memo is true &#8220;it would merit impeachment&#8221;.</p>
<p>-Commenting on Trump&#8217;s troubles, U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/house/333803-first-republicans-talk-impeachment-for-trump">told reporters</a> that obstruction of justice &#8220;has been considered an impeachable offense&#8221;.</p>
<p>But what none of them understand is that Trump has not committed any crime.</p>
<p>As a former lawyer with two law degrees (a JD and an LLM), it is my opinion that even if everything in Comey&#8217;s memo is true (and that is a big if), it still would not mean that President Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice.</p>
<p>And I am far from alone in this regard.  Someone that agrees with me is <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/333764-opinion-the-comey-memo-offers-zero-proof-to-impeach">ultra-liberal George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>A good place to start would be with the federal law, specifically <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usam/criminal-resource-manual-1721-protection-government-processes-obstruction-justice-scope-18-usc">18 U.S.C. 1503</a>. The criminal code demands more than what Comey reportedly describes in his memo. There are dozens of different variations of obstruction charges ranging from threatening witnesses to influencing jurors. None would fit this case. That leaves the omnibus provision on attempts to interfere with the “due administration of justice.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">However, that still leaves the need to show that the effort was to influence “corruptly” when Trump could say that he did little but express concern for a longtime associate. The term “corruptly” is actually defined differently under the various obstruction provisions, but it often involves a showing that someone acted “with the intent to secure an unlawful benefit for oneself or another.&#8221; Encouraging leniency or advocating for an associate is improper but not necessarily seeking an unlawful benefit for him.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Then there is the question of corruptly influencing what? There is no indication of a grand jury proceeding at the time of the Valentine&#8217;s Day meeting between Trump and Comey. Obstruction cases generally are built around judicial proceedings — not Oval Office meetings.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You can&#8217;t charge someone with a crime just because you don&#8217;t like that person.</p>
<p>We are not supposed to be a nation that conducts witch hunts.  The law is supposed to be applied equally to all of our citizens, and that includes the president of the United States.</p>
<p>I know that the left and the establishment Republicans that hate Trump would love to use the law as a weapon to remove Trump from office, but the truth is that there is no evidence that Trump has done anything wrong.</p>
<p>And if the law was actually applied objectively in our land, it is quite likely that Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton would all be in very hot water about now.  The following comes from <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-05-17-red-alert-attempted-political-coup-now-taking-place-in-d-c-with-effort-to-impeach-trump-for-fabricated-obstruction-of-justice.html">Mike Adams of Natural News</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Keep in mind that these same discredited media outlets <strong>gave Obama a pass when he <a href="http://www.whitehouse.news/2016-09-08-obama-administration-admits-paying-entire-1-7billion-iran-bill-in-cash-from-little-known-fund-of-taxpayer-money.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">laundered $1.7 billion in cash and delivered it to Iran</a> on a military cargo plane</strong>.</p>
<p>They are the same fake news media that looked the other way when <a href="http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/in-the-news/loretta-lynch-sued-details-secret-tarmac-meeting-bill-clinton/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bill Clinton met with Loretta Lynch on the tarmac</a> in a private meeting to pressure Lynch to back off any potential criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton’s long list of crimes.</p>
<p>They are the same anti-American media that said nothing when <a href="http://www.talknetwork.com/2016-11-02-cnns-dona-brazile-caught-giving-hillary-debate-questions-beforehand-video.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hillary Clinton cheated during the presidential debates by receiving the debate questions in advance from CNN</a>. (She also pre-sold her anticipated presidency by collecting tens of millions of dollars in “donations” and “speaking fees” from foreign interests.)</p>
<p>They are the same media that stood silent when former President Obama <a href="http://www.commdiginews.com/politics-2/irs-scandal-when-im-sorry-is-just-not-good-enough-19761/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">weaponized the IRS to suppress the speech of conservative non-profits</a>. Similarly, nobody in the media seems to be alarmed at all that Obama <a href="http://www.targetliberty.com/2017/05/rand-paul-blows-it-open-obama.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">abused the state surveillance apparatus to spy on his political opponents such as Rand Paul</a>.</p></blockquote>
<p>For much more on the crimes of the Clintons in particular, I would commend a book by Edward Klein entitled <a href="http://amzn.to/2pV9myL">&#8220;Guilty as Sin: Uncovering New Evidence of Corruption and How Hillary Clinton and the Democrats Derailed the FBI Investigation&#8221;</a>.  The fact that neither of the Clintons have ever been to prison says a lot about the state of criminal justice in America today.</p>
<p>It is literally going to take a miracle for Trump to survive the next couple of years.  If he can do that, we can definitely greatly strengthen his hand <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/michael-snyder-is-calling-for-an-army-of-pro-trump-activists-to-run-for-office-all-over-america">by sending hordes of Trump supporters to D.C.</a> during the mid-term elections in 2018.</p>
<p>If the impeachment process moves forward, there are a whole lot of Republicans that would gleefully plunge knives into Trump&#8217;s back.  So Trump needs to be very careful, because he doesn&#8217;t have a lot of true friends in Congress at this point.</p>
<p>This is why we can no longer vote for someone just because they carry the label of &#8220;Republican&#8221;.  What we really need is a <a href="http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/we-dont-need-a-republican-revolution-what-we-really-need-is-a-conservative-revolution">conservative revolution</a> in this country, and my hope is that we can start a movement that will turn Washington D.C. completely upside down.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/dow-plunges-372-points-as-trump-impeachment-talk-reaches-a-fever-pitch-on-capitol-hill/">The Dow Plunges 372 Points As Trump Impeachment Talk Reaches A Fever Pitch On Capitol Hill</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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		<title>Have We Reached A Turning Point For Stocks? Tuesday Was The Worst Day For The Stock Market In 6 Months</title>
		<link>http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/have-we-reached-a-turning-point-for-stocks-tuesday-was-the-worst-day-for-the-stock-market-in-6-months/</link>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Mar 2017 00:59:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bull Market 2017]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[S&P 500]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Corrrection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash 2017]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Rally]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Trading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Dow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The S&P 500]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trading Stocks]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=11954</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>The post-election stock market rally is officially over.  After hovering near record highs for the past couple of weeks, U.S. stocks had their worst day in six months on Tuesday.  For quite some time it has been clear that the momentum of the post-election rally had been exhausted, and a pullback of this nature was ... <a title="Have We Reached A Turning Point For Stocks? Tuesday Was The Worst Day For The Stock Market In 6 Months" class="read-more" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/have-we-reached-a-turning-point-for-stocks-tuesday-was-the-worst-day-for-the-stock-market-in-6-months/">Read more</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/have-we-reached-a-turning-point-for-stocks-tuesday-was-the-worst-day-for-the-stock-market-in-6-months/">Have We Reached A Turning Point For Stocks? Tuesday Was The Worst Day For The Stock Market In 6 Months</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/have-we-reached-a-turning-point-for-stocks-tuesday-was-the-worst-day-for-the-stock-market-in-6-months/new-york-stock-exchange-trading-floor-public-domain" rel="attachment wp-att-11955"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-11955" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Trading-Floor-Public-Domain-460x308.jpg" alt="New York Stock Exchange Trading Floor - Public Domain" width="460" height="308" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Trading-Floor-Public-Domain-460x308.jpg 460w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Trading-Floor-Public-Domain-300x201.jpg 300w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Trading-Floor-Public-Domain-425x284.jpg 425w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Trading-Floor-Public-Domain-400x268.jpg 400w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Trading-Floor-Public-Domain.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px" /></a>The post-election stock market rally is officially over.  After hovering near record highs for the past couple of weeks, U.S. stocks had their worst day in six months on Tuesday.  For quite some time it has been clear that the momentum of the post-election rally had been exhausted, and a pullback of this nature was widely anticipated.  But even though stocks fell by more than 1 percent during a single trading session for the first time since last September, it is going to take a whole lot more than that to bring stock prices back into balance.  In fact, stocks are <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/virtually-everyone-agrees-that-current-stock-market-valuations-are-not-sustainable-and-that-a-great-crash-is-coming">so overvalued</a> at this point that it would take a total decline of about 40 to 50 percent before key stock valuation measures return to their long-term averages.</p>
<p>So we are still in a giant stock market bubble.  All Tuesday did was shave about one percent off of that bubble.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s review some of the numbers from the carnage that we witnessed&#8230;</p>
<p>-The Dow was down 237.85 points (1.14 percent)</p>
<p>-The S&amp;P 500 was down 1.2 percent on the day</p>
<p>-The Nasdaq was down 1.8 percent at the closing bell</p>
<p>-Financial stocks were down more than 2.5 percent</p>
<p>-Overall, it was the worst day for banking stocks since the Brexit vote</p>
<p>-Bank of America is now down <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-21/bank-america-enters-correction-drops-over-10-trump-speech-highs">more than 10 percent</a> since Trump&#8217;s speech to Congress</p>
<p>-The Russell 2000 (small-cap stocks) dropped about 2 percent</p>
<p>Some prominent names on Wall Street were warning ahead of time that this was coming.  <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-21/kolanovic-today-gamma-imbalance-shifted-toward-puts-first-time-5-months">Marko Kolanovic</a> was one of those voices&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Marko Kolanovic has done it again.</p>
<p>Last Thursday, one day ahead of the massive quad-witching where <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-16/theres-14-trillion-reasons-why-tomorrows-quad-witch-could-matter">over $1.4 trillion in options </a>expired in relatively tame fashion, the JPM quant warned of &#8220;<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-16/kolanovic-we-expect-near-term-market-weakness-suggest-reducing-us-equities">near-term market weakness</a>&#8221; and suggested &#8220;reducing US equity exposure. And, sure enough, JP Merlin&#8217;s Gandalf timed it impeccably yet again. To be sure, the jury is still out on what caused the selloff &#8211; lack of votes to repeal Obamacare, fears about Trump&#8217;s fiscal policy agenda, the market&#8217;s sudden  realization that it is at 30 CAPE, or just a technical revulsion &#8211; what matters is that once again, like clockwork, Kolanovic called a key inflection point just days in advance.</p></blockquote>
<p>Of course the mainstream media is telling everyone not to worry.  They are insisting that this is just a temporary blip and that a market &#8220;correction&#8221; is highly unlikely.  The following comes from <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/21/investing/stocks-selloff-trump/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom">CNN</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Few experts are predicting a correction &#8212; which is a 10% pullback from a market high. Even fewer see a bear market, a 20% drop or more, on the horizon.</p></blockquote>
<p>Hopefully CNN is correct.</p>
<p>But it should be noted that experts such as Kolanovic are warning that more panic selling may be coming <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-21/kolanovic-today-gamma-imbalance-shifted-toward-puts-first-time-5-months">in the days ahead</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Furthermore, the modest but rising uptick in realized volatility is starting to cause outflows from volatility-sensitive investors the JPM quant calculated and, as a result, the break in short-term momentum may cause modest equity selling by trend following strategies.</p>
<p>In other words, in the absence of a positive catalyst over the next few days &#8211; and with uncertainty ahead of the Thursday Trumpcare vote only growing by the hour we fail to see one emerging &#8211; the double whammy of gamma positioning and the CTA momentum &#8220;flip&#8221; will be the catalyst for the next, extremely overdue, move lower.</p></blockquote>
<p>It is going to take quite a few more days like today before we can talk about the kind of &#8220;financial crisis&#8221; that I have been warning about <a href="http://amzn.to/2mSgjiK">for a long time</a>, but we may have already reached a key turning point.</p>
<p>So much of the post-election stock market rally was based purely on hope, and meanwhile the underlying economic numbers have continued to deteriorate.  Corporate earnings are down, it is being projected that U.S. GDP growth will be about one percent during the first quarter, and used vehicle prices <a href="http://wolfstreet.com/2017/03/21/used-vehicle-wholesale-prices-fall-bottom-falling-out-of-auto-industry/">are dropping</a> for the first time since the last recession&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>In its March <a href="http://img03.en25.com/Web/NADAUCG/%7B834e8da5-4828-4cfa-88ee-18e6678e0329%7D_Guidelines_UCG_201703.pdf" target="_blank">report</a>, the National Association of Auto Dealers (NADA) reported an anomaly: dropping used vehicle prices in February, which occurred only for the second time in the past 20 years. It was a big one: Its Used Car Guide’s seasonally adjusted used vehicle price index plunged 3.8% from January, “by far the worst recorded for any month since November 2008 as the result of a recession-related 5.6% tumble.”</p>
<p>The index has now dropped eight months in a row and hit the lowest level since September 2010. The index is down 8% year over year, and down 13% from its peak in 2014.</p></blockquote>
<p>When the Federal Reserve raised rates, that was <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/12-reasons-why-the-federal-reserve-may-have-just-made-the-biggest-economic-mistake-since-the-last-financial-crisis">very bad news for stocks</a>, and if Donald Trump cannot get his Obamacare replacement through Congress that will be more bad news for stocks.</p>
<p>But even if there was no bad news, it is inevitable that stock prices would decline at some point anyway.</p>
<p>It is simply not rational to have price-earnings ratios up around 30.  The only other times when price-earnings ratios have become so bloated were right before the stock market crash of 1929, right before the stock market crash of 2000 and right before the stock market crash of 2008.</p>
<p>Whenever it ultimately happens, the truth is that stocks always eventually return to their historical averages.  And if a &#8220;black swan event&#8221; or two are thrown in, that could push stocks well below their historical averages.</p>
<p>Never before has there been <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/21714-for-every-man-woman-and-child-in-the-world-this-global-debt-bomb-is-ready-to-explode">this much debt in the world</a>, and not even in 2008 were global financial markets so primed for a crash.</p>
<p>Many people get caught up in trying to predict what month or what day the markets will crash, and if you could predict that accurately you could make a lot of money.</p>
<p>But that is not the point.</p>
<p>What everyone should be able to agree on is that this temporary stock market bubble that has been fueled by reckless intervention from the Federal Reserve is not sustainable and that it is inevitable that stock prices will be a lot lower in the future than they are right now.</p>
<p>We should be thankful that this bubble has lasted much longer than it should have, because what is going to come after this bubble bursts is going to be absolutely horrible.</p>
<p>Markets tend to go down a lot faster than they go up, and when the coming crash finally occurs it is going to make 2008 look like a Sunday picnic.</p>
<p>So whatever you need to do financially, you should think about doing it soon, because the alarm bells on Wall Street are starting to ring.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/have-we-reached-a-turning-point-for-stocks-tuesday-was-the-worst-day-for-the-stock-market-in-6-months/">Have We Reached A Turning Point For Stocks? Tuesday Was The Worst Day For The Stock Market In 6 Months</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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		<title>Virtually Everyone Agrees That Current Stock Market Valuations Are Not Sustainable And That A Great Crash Is Coming</title>
		<link>http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/virtually-everyone-agrees-that-current-stock-market-valuations-are-not-sustainable-and-that-a-great-crash-is-coming/</link>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Feb 2017 03:07:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2017]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Absurd Stock Prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Crash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Crash 2017]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Collapse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Collapse 2017]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash 2017]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Valuations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Prices Are Irrationally High]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Dow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The S&P 500]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=11837</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Current stock market valuations are not sustainable.  If there is one thing that I want you to remember from this article, it is that cold, hard fact.  In 1929, 2000 and 2008, stock prices soared to absolutely absurd levels just before horrible stock market crashes.  What goes up must eventually come down, and the stock ... <a title="Virtually Everyone Agrees That Current Stock Market Valuations Are Not Sustainable And That A Great Crash Is Coming" class="read-more" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/virtually-everyone-agrees-that-current-stock-market-valuations-are-not-sustainable-and-that-a-great-crash-is-coming/">Read more</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/virtually-everyone-agrees-that-current-stock-market-valuations-are-not-sustainable-and-that-a-great-crash-is-coming/">Virtually Everyone Agrees That Current Stock Market Valuations Are Not Sustainable And That A Great Crash Is Coming</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/virtually-everyone-agrees-that-current-stock-market-valuations-are-not-sustainable-and-that-a-great-crash-is-coming/stock-market-collapse-toilet-paper-public-domain-3" rel="attachment wp-att-11838"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-11838" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Stock-Market-Collapse-Toilet-Paper-Public-Domain-460x306.jpg" alt="Stock Market Collapse Toilet Paper - Public Domain" width="460" height="306" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Stock-Market-Collapse-Toilet-Paper-Public-Domain-460x306.jpg 460w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Stock-Market-Collapse-Toilet-Paper-Public-Domain-300x200.jpg 300w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Stock-Market-Collapse-Toilet-Paper-Public-Domain-425x283.jpg 425w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Stock-Market-Collapse-Toilet-Paper-Public-Domain-400x266.jpg 400w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Stock-Market-Collapse-Toilet-Paper-Public-Domain.jpg 640w" sizes="(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px" /></a>Current stock market valuations are not sustainable.  If there is one thing that I want you to remember from this article, it is that cold, hard fact.  In 1929, 2000 and 2008, stock prices soared to absolutely absurd levels just before horrible stock market crashes.  What goes up must eventually come down, and the stock market bubble of today will be no exception.  In fact, virtually everyone in the financial community acknowledges that stock prices are irrationally high right now.  Some are suggesting that there is still time to jump in and make money before the crash comes, while others are recommending a much more cautious approach.  But what almost everyone agrees on is the fact that stocks cannot go up like this forever.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the Dow, the S&amp;P 500 and the Nasdaq all set brand new record highs once again.  Overall, U.S. stocks are now up <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/21/us-markets.html">more than 10 percent</a> since the election, and this is probably the greatest post-election stock market rally in our entire history.</p>
<p>But stocks were already tremendously overvalued before the election, and at this point stock prices have reached a level of ridiculousness only matched a couple of times before in the past 100 years.</p>
<p>Only the most extreme optimists will try to tell you that stock prices can stay this disconnected from economic reality indefinitely.  We are in the midst of one of the most outrageous stock market bubbles of all time, and as <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-money-making-market-bubble-is-about-to-burst-2017-02-08">MarketWatch has noted</a>, all stock market bubbles eventually burst&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>The U.S. stock market at this level reflects a combination of great demand, great complacency, and great greed. <strong>Stocks are clearly in a bubble, and like all bubbles, this one is about to burst.</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>If corporations were making tremendous amounts of money, rapidly rising stock prices would make logical sense.</p>
<p>But that is not the case at all.  Corporate earnings for the fourth quarter of 2016 were actually quite dismal, and this disconnect between Wall Street and economic reality is starting to really bug financial analysts <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/story/14009208/1/why-the-stock-market-may-finally-be-dangerously-overvalued.html">such as Brian Sozzi</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>The S&amp;P 500 has gone 89 straight sessions without a 1% decline</strong>. Considering that Corporate America didn&#8217;t exactly light up on the top and bottom lines during the fourth quarter, such a streak is rather troublesome. Granted, the stock market is a forward-looking mechanism that appears to be trading on hopes that Trump&#8217;s unannounced stimulus and tax plans will be lifting economic growth in 2018. Even so, the inability of investors to at least acknowledge persistent struggles among companies and ongoing chaos in Washington is starting to become disturbing.</p></blockquote>
<p>It is a basic fact of economics that stock prices should accurately reflect current and future earnings.</p>
<p>So if corporate earnings are at the same level they were at in 2011, why has the S&amp;P 500 risen by 87 percent since then?  The following comes from <a href="http://wolfstreet.com/2017/02/19/2016-sp-500-earnings-back-at-2011-levels-as-stocks-ballooned-87-percent/">Wolf Richter</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>The S&amp;P 500 stock index edged up to an all-time high of 2,351 on Friday. Total market capitalization of the companies in the index exceeds $20 trillion. <strong>That’s 106% of US GDP, for just 500 companies!</strong> At the end of 2011, the S&amp;P 500 index was at 1,257. <strong>Over the five-plus years since then, it has ballooned by 87%!</strong></p>
<p>These are superlative numbers, and you’d expect superlative earnings performance from these companies. Turns out, reality is not that cooperative. <strong>Instead, net income of the S&amp;P 500 companies is now back where it first had been at the end of 2011.</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>The cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio was originally created by <a href="http://amzn.to/2kJQcgF">author Robert Shiller</a>, and it is widely regarded as one of the best measures of the true value of stocks in existence.  According to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/16/stock-market-crash-optimism-recklessness-boom-bust">the Guardian</a>, there have only been two times in our entire history when this ratio has been higher.  One was just before the stock market crash of 1929, and the other was just before the bursting of the dotcom bubble&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Traditionally, one of the best yardsticks for whether shares are over-valued or under-valued has been the <a class="u-underline" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclically_adjusted_price-to-earnings_ratio" data-link-name="in body link">cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio</a> constructed by the economist Robert Shiller. This ratio is currently at about 29 and has only twice been higher: <strong>in 1929 ahead of the Wall Street Crash, and in the last frantic months of the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s.</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>We can definitely wish for the current euphoria on Wall Street to last for as long as possible, but let there be absolutely no doubt that it is going to end at some point.</p>
<p>It would take a market decline of 40 or 50 percent to get the cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio back to a level that makes economic sense.  Let us hope that the market does not make such a violent move very rapidly, because that would likely be absolutely crippling for our financial system.</p>
<p>Markets tend to go down a lot faster than they go up, and every other major stock market bubble in U.S. history has ended very badly.</p>
<p>And this bubble is definitely overdue to burst.  The bull market that led up to the great crash of 1929 lasted for 2002 days, and this week the current bull market will finally exceed that record.</p>
<p>Trying to pick a specific date for a market crash is typically a fruitless exercise, but market watchers are becoming very concerned about some of the signs that we are now seeing.  For example, the &#8220;CCT indicator&#8221; is currently showing <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-money-making-market-bubble-is-about-to-burst-2017-02-08">&#8220;the lowest bullish energy ever&#8221;</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>The first factor is the CCT indicator. This indicator is a proprietary internal measurement of the general volume of the New York Stock Exchange. The measurements take into account the institutional participation as a ratio of the overall volume. Also measured is the duration of heavy block buying in rallies.</p>
<p><strong>The sum total of all the measurements now shows the lowest bullish energy ever — even lower than in 2008, just before the market crash.</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>In other words, this current bull market appears to be completely and utterly exhausted.</p>
<p>The laws of economics cannot be defied forever.  Traditionally, commodity prices and stock prices have tended to move in unison.  And this makes perfect sense, because commodity prices tend to rise when economic conditions are good, and in such an environment stock prices are typically going to move up.</p>
<p>But now we are in a time when commodity prices and stock prices have become completely disconnected.  In order to bring this ratio back into line, the S&amp;P 500 would need to fall by about 1000 points, and such a decline would cause a level of financial chaos that would be absolutely unprecedented.</p>
<p>This current stock market bubble has lasted much longer than many of the experts originally anticipated, but that just means that the eventual crash will likely be that much more devastating.</p>
<p>In the end, you don&#8217;t need to know all of the technical details in this article.</p>
<p>But what you do need to know is that current stock market valuations are not sustainable and that a great crash is coming.</p>
<p>It may not happen next week or next month, but it is going to happen.  And when it does happen, it is likely to make what happened in 2008 look like a Sunday picnic.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/virtually-everyone-agrees-that-current-stock-market-valuations-are-not-sustainable-and-that-a-great-crash-is-coming/">Virtually Everyone Agrees That Current Stock Market Valuations Are Not Sustainable And That A Great Crash Is Coming</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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		<title>A New Digital Cash System Was Just Unveiled At A Secret Meeting For Bankers In New York</title>
		<link>http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a-new-digital-cash-system-was-just-unveiled-at-a-secret-meeting-for-bankers-in-new-york/</link>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 May 2016 20:27:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Banksters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Capital One]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cashless]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cashless Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cashless System]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Citigroup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conspiracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Digital Cash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Executives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fidelity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Institutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[First Data]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fiserv]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Major Financial Institutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York City]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pfizer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Secret Meeting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[State Street]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S. Dollars]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Visa]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=10212</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Last month, a &#8220;secret meeting&#8221; that involved more than 100 executives from some of the biggest financial institutions in the United States was held in New York City.  During this &#8220;secret meeting&#8220;, a company known as &#8220;Chain&#8221; unveiled a technology that transforms U.S. dollars into &#8220;pure digital assets&#8221;.  Reportedly, there were representatives from Nasdaq, Citigroup, ... <a title="A New Digital Cash System Was Just Unveiled At A Secret Meeting For Bankers In New York" class="read-more" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a-new-digital-cash-system-was-just-unveiled-at-a-secret-meeting-for-bankers-in-new-york/">Read more</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a-new-digital-cash-system-was-just-unveiled-at-a-secret-meeting-for-bankers-in-new-york/">A New Digital Cash System Was Just Unveiled At A Secret Meeting For Bankers In New York</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/a-new-digital-cash-system-was-just-unveiled-at-a-secret-meeting-for-bankers-in-new-york/secret-public-domain" rel="attachment wp-att-10215"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-10215" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Secret-Public-Domain-460x307.jpg" alt="Secret - Public Domain" width="460" height="307" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Secret-Public-Domain-460x307.jpg 460w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Secret-Public-Domain-300x200.jpg 300w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Secret-Public-Domain-425x283.jpg 425w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Secret-Public-Domain-400x267.jpg 400w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Secret-Public-Domain.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px" /></a>Last month, a &#8220;secret meeting&#8221; that involved more than 100 executives from some of the biggest financial institutions in the United States was held in New York City.  During this &#8220;<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-02/inside-the-secret-meeting-where-wall-street-tested-digital-cash">secret meeting</a>&#8220;, a company known as &#8220;<a href="https://chain.com/">Chain</a>&#8221; unveiled a technology that transforms U.S. dollars into &#8220;pure digital assets&#8221;.  Reportedly, there were representatives from Nasdaq, Citigroup, Visa, Fidelity, Fiserv and Pfizer in the room, and Chain <a href="https://chain.com/">also claims</a> to be partnering with Capital One, State Street, and First Data.  This &#8220;revolutionary&#8221; technology is intended to completely change the way that we use money, and it would represent a major step toward a cashless society.  But if this new digital cash system is going to be so good for society, why was it unveiled during a secret meeting for Wall Street bankers?  Is there something more going on here than we are being told?</p>
<p>None of us probably would have ever heard about this secret meeting if it was not for a report in Bloomberg.  The following comes from their article entitled &#8220;<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-02/inside-the-secret-meeting-where-wall-street-tested-digital-cash">Inside the Secret Meeting Where Wall Street Tested Digital Cash</a>&#8220;&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>On a recent Monday in April, more than 100 executives from some of the world’s largest financial institutions gathered for a private meeting at the Times Square office of Nasdaq Inc. They weren’t there to just talk about blockchain, the new technology some predict will transform finance, but to build and experiment with the software.</p>
<p><strong>By the end of the day, they had seen something revolutionary: U.S. dollars transformed into pure digital assets, able to be used to execute and settle a trade instantly</strong>. That’s the promise of a blockchain, where the cumbersome and error-prone system that takes days to move money across town or around the world is replaced with almost instant certainty.</p></blockquote>
<p>So it is not just Michael Snyder from <em>The Economic Collapse Blog</em> that is referring to this gathering as a &#8220;secret meeting&#8221;.  This is actually how it was described by Bloomberg.  And I think that there is a very good reason why this meeting was held in secret, because many in the general public would definitely be alarmed by this giant step toward a cashless society.  Here is more on this new system <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-02/inside-the-secret-meeting-where-wall-street-tested-digital-cash">from Bloomberg</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>While cash in a bank account moves electronically all the time today, there’s a distinction between that system and what it means to say money is digital. Electronic payments are really just messages that cash needs to move from one account to another, and this reconciliation is what adds time to the payments process. For customers, moving money between accounts can take days as banks wait for confirmations. <strong>Digital dollars, however, are pre-loaded into a system like a blockchain. From there, they can be swapped immediately for an asset.</strong></p>
<p>“Instead of a record or message being moved, it’s the actual asset,” Ludwin said. “The payment and the settlement become the same thing.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Why this is so alarming is because we are seeing other major moves toward a cashless system all over the planet.  In Sweden, <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-cashless-society-cometh-european-nations-such-as-sweden-and-denmark-are-eradicating-cash">95 percent</a> of all retail transactions are already cashless, and ATM machines are being removed by the hundreds.  In Denmark, government officials actually have a stated goal of <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-cashless-society-cometh-european-nations-such-as-sweden-and-denmark-are-eradicating-cash">&#8220;eradicating cash&#8221;</a> by the year 2030.  And in Norway, the biggest bank in the country <a href="http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-beast-system-arises-the-largest-bank-in-norway-calls-for-the-elimination-of-cash">has publicly called for the complete elimination of all cash</a>.</p>
<p>Other nations in Europe have already banned cash transactions over a certain amount. Here are <a title="just a couple of examples" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-cashless-society-cometh-european-nations-such-as-sweden-and-denmark-are-eradicating-cash" target="_blank">just a couple of examples</a>…</p>
<blockquote><p>As I have written about <a title="previously" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/they-are-slowly-making-cash-illegal" target="_blank">previously</a>, cash transactions of more than 2,500 euros have already been banned in Spain, and France and Italy have both banned all cash transactions of more than 1,000 euros.</p>
<p>Little by little, cash is being eradicated, and what we have seen so far is just the beginning. 417 billion cashless transactions were conducted <a title="in 2014" href="http://www.nfcworld.com/2015/12/15/340639/417bn-cashless-payments-made-in-2014/" target="_blank">in 2014</a>, and the final number for 2015 is projected to be much higher.</p></blockquote>
<p>The global push toward a cashless society is only going to intensify, because banks and governments both tend to really like the idea of such a system.</p>
<p>Banks really like the concept of a cashless society because it would force everyone to be their customers.  There would be no more hiding cash in a mattress at home or trying to pay all of your bills with paper money.  Under a cashless system, we would all be dependent on the banks, and they would make lots of money whenever we swiped our cards or our &#8220;chips&#8221; were scanned.</p>
<p>Governments see a lot of advantages in a cashless society as well.  They tell us that they would be able to crack down on drug dealers, tax evaders, terrorists and money launderers, but the truth is that it would enable them to watch, track, monitor and control virtually all of our financial transactions.  Our lives would become open books to the government, and financial privacy would be a thing of the past.</p>
<p>In addition, the potential for tyranny would be absolutely off the charts.</p>
<p>Just imagine a world where the government could serve as the gatekeeper for who is allowed to use the cashless system and who is not.  They could require that we all submit to some sort of government-issued form of identification before being permitted to operate within the system, or it is even conceivable that a loyalty oath would be required.</p>
<p>Of course if you did not submit to their demands, you could not buy, sell, open a bank account or get a job without access to the cashless system.</p>
<p>Hopefully people can understand where this is going.  Paper money is a very important component of our freedom, and if it is taken away from us that will open the door for all sorts of abuse.</p>
<p>Even now, cash is slowly being &#8220;criminalized&#8221; in America.  For example, if cash is used to pay for a hotel room that is considered by federal authorities to be &#8220;<a href="http://www.infowars.com/big-sis-brings-see-something-say-something-to-hotel-rooms/">suspicious activity</a>&#8221; that should be reported to the government.  Of course it isn&#8217;t against the law to pay your hotel bill in cash just yet, but according to the government it is something that &#8220;terrorists&#8221; do so it needs to be closely watched.</p>
<p>It doesn&#8217;t take a whole lot of imagination to see where all of this is going.  And for those of us that understand what time it is, this is a clear indication that it is getting late in the game.</p>
<p><em>*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available <a title="in paperback" href="http://amzn.to/1RCOMNL" target="_blank">in paperback</a> and <a title="for the Kindle" href="http://amzn.to/1ozJ1V8" target="_blank">for the Kindle</a> on Amazon.com.*</em></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a-new-digital-cash-system-was-just-unveiled-at-a-secret-meeting-for-bankers-in-new-york/">A New Digital Cash System Was Just Unveiled At A Secret Meeting For Bankers In New York</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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		<title>Dot-Com Bubble 2.0 Is Bursting: Tech Stocks Are Already Down Half A Trillion Dollars Since Mid-2015</title>
		<link>http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/dot-com-bubble-2-0-bursting-tech-stocks-are-already-down-half-a-trillion-dollars-since-mid-2015/</link>
		<pubDate>Sun, 07 Feb 2016 21:33:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2016]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dot-Com Bubble]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dot-Com Bubble Burst]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Bubbles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet Bubble]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Investors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Irrational Financial Bubble]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LinkedIn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netflix]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash 2016]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Trading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tech Bubble]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tech Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tech Stocks Crash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yahoo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=9816</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Do you remember how much stocks went down when the first dot-com bubble burst?  Well, it is happening again, and tech stocks are already down more than half a trillion dollars since the middle of 2015.  On Friday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped to its lowest level in more than 15 months, and it has now ... <a title="Dot-Com Bubble 2.0 Is Bursting: Tech Stocks Are Already Down Half A Trillion Dollars Since Mid-2015" class="read-more" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/dot-com-bubble-2-0-bursting-tech-stocks-are-already-down-half-a-trillion-dollars-since-mid-2015/">Read more</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/dot-com-bubble-2-0-bursting-tech-stocks-are-already-down-half-a-trillion-dollars-since-mid-2015/">Dot-Com Bubble 2.0 Is Bursting: Tech Stocks Are Already Down Half A Trillion Dollars Since Mid-2015</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/dot-com-bubble-2-0-bursting-tech-stocks-are-already-down-half-a-trillion-dollars-since-mid-2015/tech-bubble-2-0" rel="attachment wp-att-9817"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-9817" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Tech-Bubble-2.0-460x348.png" alt="Tech Bubble 2.0" width="460" height="348" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Tech-Bubble-2.0-460x348.png 460w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Tech-Bubble-2.0-300x227.png 300w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Tech-Bubble-2.0-425x321.png 425w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Tech-Bubble-2.0-400x303.png 400w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Tech-Bubble-2.0.png 952w" sizes="(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px" /></a>Do you remember how much stocks went down when the first dot-com bubble burst?  Well, it is happening again, and tech stocks are already down <strong>more than half a trillion dollars</strong> since the middle of 2015.  On Friday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped to its lowest level in more than 15 months, and it has now fallen more than 16 percent from the peak of the market.  But of course some of the biggest names have fallen much more than that.  Netflix is down 37 percent, Yahoo is down 39 percent, LinkedIn is down 60 percent, and Twitter is down more than 70 percent.  If you go back through my previous articles, you will find that I specifically warned about Twitter <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-dow-and-sp-500-soar-to-irrational-heights-while-the-ultra-wealthy-rush-to-buy-gold-bars">again</a> and <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-stock-market-has-officially-entered-crazytown-territory">again</a>.  Irrational financial bubbles like this always burst eventually, and many investors that got in at the very top are now losing extraordinary amounts of money.</p>
<p>On Friday, tech stocks got absolutely slammed as the bursting of dot-com bubble 2.0 accelerated once again.  The following is how <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/05/us-markets.html">CNBC</a> summarized the carnage&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>The Nasdaq composite fell 3.25 percent, as <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_blank" data-gdsid="8016" data-inline-quote-symbol="AAPL">Apple</a> and the <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/IBB" target="_blank" data-gdsid="151687" data-inline-quote-symbol="IBB">iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB)</a> dropped 2.67 percent and 3.19 percent, respectively.</p>
<p>Also weighing on the index were <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AMZN" target="_blank" data-gdsid="9399" data-inline-quote-symbol="AMZN">Amazon</a> and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_blank" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB">Facebook</a>, which closed down 6.36 percent and 5.81 percent, respectively.</p>
<p><a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/LNKD" target="_blank" data-gdsid="140815" data-inline-quote-symbol="LNKD">LinkedIn</a> shares also tanked 43.63 percent after posting weak guidance on their quarterly results.</p></blockquote>
<p>Overall, LinkedIn is now down a total of <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/shinal/2016/02/05/bye-bye-internet-bubble-20/79887644/">60 percent</a> from the peak of the market.  But they are far from the only ones that have already seen their bubble burst.</p>
<p>Many of the biggest names in the tech world have gotten mercilessly hammered over the past six months of so.  Just look at some of the famous brands that have already lost <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/shinal/2016/02/05/bye-bye-internet-bubble-20/79887644/">between 20 and 40 percent</a> of their market caps&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Yahoo (<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/lookup/stocks/YHOO/">YHOO</a>) shares are off <strong>39%</strong>, and Netflix (<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/lookup/stocks/NFLX/">NFLX</a>), the best-performing stock in the S&amp;P 500 last year, is now off by <strong>37%</strong> from its 52-week high.</p>
<p>Likewise, Priceline.com (<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/lookup/stocks/PCLN/">PCLN</a>) is off <strong>31%</strong> and eBay (<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/lookup/stocks/EBAY/">EBAY</a>), <strong>22%</strong>.</p></blockquote>
<p>But there are other very big tech companies that have seen stock collapses that completely dwarf those numbers.  Here are some more absolutely stunning statistics <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/shinal/2016/02/05/bye-bye-internet-bubble-20/79887644/">from USA Today</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Twitter and Groupon are the biggest dogs of this boom, both off <strong>70%</strong> from 52-week highs and well below their IPO prices.</p>
<p>FitBit shares have collapsed <strong>70%</strong>, while Yelp&#8217;s valuation has shrunk <strong>by two-thirds</strong>.</p>
<p>Box, which has the distinction of<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/shinal/2014/03/25/box-ipo-aaron-levie-new-tech-economy-john-shinal/6865871/"> posting quarterly net losses in excess of revenue</a>, is <strong>down by half</strong>.</p>
<p><a href="http://match.com/">Match.com</a>, the holding company for dating sites owned by parent Interactive Corp. that went public late last year, is down <strong>39%</strong> from its high.</p></blockquote>
<p>When your stock loses 70 percent of its value, that is a complete and utter collapse.</p>
<p>In the past, I have specifically singled out <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-dow-and-sp-500-soar-to-irrational-heights-while-the-ultra-wealthy-rush-to-buy-gold-bars">Twitter, Yelp and LinkedIn</a> as tech stocks that were irrationally priced.</p>
<p>Hopefully people listened to those warnings and got out while the getting was good.</p>
<p>At the top of this article, I mentioned that tech stocks have already fallen in value by more than 500 billion dollars.  The financial crisis <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/global-stocks-enter-bear-market-one-fifth-of-all-worldwide-stock-market-wealth-is-already-gone">that began in the middle of last year</a> is now greatly accelerating, and Wall Street is starting to panic.</p>
<p>As stocks crash, many hedge funds are being absolutely pummeled.  The following are just a few of the high profile names <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/02/07/hedge-funds-keep-getting-crushed/79880306/">that are experiencing massive losses right now</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Some of the biggest names to get trounced include:</p>
<p>►Pershing Square Capital Management, the publicly traded investment vehicle of billionaire hedgie<strong> Bill Ackman</strong>, fell 11% last month following a 20% decline last year, data from the web site shows.</p>
<p><strong>►Larry Robbins&#8217; </strong> Glenview Capital, famous for picking stocks that could benefit from Obamacare, dropped 13.65% in January following a decline of 18% last year, according to data from HSBC&#8217;s Hedge Weekly report, a copy of which was obtained by USA TODAY.</p>
<p>►Marcato International, a well-known activist fund run by Ackman protege<strong> Mick McGuire</strong>, fell 12.1% last month following a 9% loss last year, according to HSBC.</p></blockquote>
<p>When you lose more than 10 percent of your money in a single month, that is not good.</p>
<p>And if I am right, <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/22-signs-that-the-global-economic-turmoil-we-have-seen-so-far-in-2016-is-just-the-beginning">this is just the beginning of our troubles</a>.</p>
<p>And of course I am far from the only one warning that big problems are on the horizon.  In fact, analysts at Citigroup just made international headlines by warning that the global economy was now trapped <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/05/citi-world-economy-trapped-in-death-spiral.html">in a &#8220;death spiral&#8221;</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Some analysts — including those at Citi — have turned bearish on the world economy this year, following an equity rout in January and weaker economic data out of China and the U.S.</p>
<p>&#8220;<strong>The world appears to be trapped in a circular reference death spiral</strong>,&#8221; Citi strategists led by Jonathan Stubbs said in a report on Thursday.</p>
<p>&#8220;<strong>Stronger U.S. dollar, weaker oil/commodity prices, weaker world trade/petrodollar liquidity, weaker EM (and global growth)&#8230; and repeat. Ad infinitum, this would lead to Oilmageddon, a &#8216;significant and synchronized&#8217; global recession and a proper modern-day equity bear market</strong>.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Signs of a significant economic downturn <a href="http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/the-american-dream-is-dead-and-now-even-the-mainstream-media-is-starting-to-admit-it">are all around us</a>, and so many of the exact same patterns that played out during the last two stock market crashes are happening again, and yet most people continue to refuse to acknowledge <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/22-signs-that-the-global-economic-turmoil-we-have-seen-so-far-in-2016-is-just-the-beginning">what is taking place</a>.</p>
<p>If you are waiting for this new dot-com bubble to crash, you can stop waiting, because it has already happened.</p>
<p>When your stock falls by 50, 60 or 70 percent, the game is already over.</p>
<p>But just like 2001 and 2008, many people out there will end up being paralyzed by indecision.  Once again the mainstream media is insisting that there is no reason for panic and that everything will be just fine, and once again millions upon millions of ordinary Americans will be wiped out as the financial markets implode.</p>
<p>This is now <strong>the third time</strong> this has happened since the turn of the century.</p>
<p>How clueless have we become?  The exact same thing keeps happening to us over and over and yet we still don&#8217;t get it.</p>
<p>Only this time around there isn&#8217;t going to be any sort of a &#8220;recovery&#8221; afterwards.</p>
<p>This is essentially our &#8220;third strike&#8221;, and the years ahead are going to be extremely bitter and painful for most people.</p>
<p>But if you want to believe that one of these politicians is going to come along and save America, you go ahead and keep on believing that.</p>
<p>Most people believe what they want to believe, and the capacity that many Americans have demonstrated for self-delusion is absolutely remarkable.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/dot-com-bubble-2-0-bursting-tech-stocks-are-already-down-half-a-trillion-dollars-since-mid-2015/">Dot-Com Bubble 2.0 Is Bursting: Tech Stocks Are Already Down Half A Trillion Dollars Since Mid-2015</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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		<title>Stock Market Crash 2016: This Is The Worst Start To A Year For Stocks Ever</title>
		<link>http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/stock-market-crash-2016-this-is-the-worst-start-to-a-year-for-stocks-ever/</link>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Jan 2016 03:02:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crisis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nasdaq Crash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Financial Crisis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Panic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[S&P 500]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market 2016]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Collapse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Trading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Dow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Dow Jones Industrial Average]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wave Of Panic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[What Is Ahead For 2016]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[What Is Coming In 2016]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[What Is Going To Happen In 2016]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=9680</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>We have never had a year start the way that 2016 has started.  In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&#38;P 500 have both posted their worst four-day starts to a year ever.  Canadian stocks are now down 21 percent since September, and it has been an absolute bloodbath in Europe over ... <a title="Stock Market Crash 2016: This Is The Worst Start To A Year For Stocks Ever" class="read-more" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/stock-market-crash-2016-this-is-the-worst-start-to-a-year-for-stocks-ever/">Read more</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/stock-market-crash-2016-this-is-the-worst-start-to-a-year-for-stocks-ever/">Stock Market Crash 2016: This Is The Worst Start To A Year For Stocks Ever</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/stock-market-crash-2016-this-is-the-worst-start-to-a-year-for-stocks-ever/stock-market-collapse-2016" rel="attachment wp-att-9683"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-9683" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Stock-Market-Collapse-2016-460x307.jpg" alt="Stock Market Collapse 2016" width="460" height="307" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Stock-Market-Collapse-2016-460x307.jpg 460w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Stock-Market-Collapse-2016-300x200.jpg 300w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Stock-Market-Collapse-2016-425x283.jpg 425w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Stock-Market-Collapse-2016-400x267.jpg 400w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Stock-Market-Collapse-2016.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px" /></a>We have never had a year start the way that 2016 has started.  In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&amp;P 500 have both posted their worst four-day starts to a year ever.  Canadian stocks are now down <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-07/bloodbath">21 percent</a> since September, and it has been an absolute bloodbath in Europe over the past four days.  Of course the primary catalyst for all of this is what has been going on in China.  There has been an emergency suspension of trading in China <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/7-percent-crash-causes-emergency-shutdown-of-stock-markets-in-china-for-the-2nd-time-in-4-days">two times within the past four days</a>, and nobody is quite certain what is going to happen next.  Eventually this wave of panic selling will settle down, but that won&#8217;t mean that this crisis will be over.  In fact, what is coming is going to be much worse than what we have already seen.</p>
<p>On Thursday I was doing a show with some friends, and we were amazed that stocks just seemed to keep falling and falling and falling.  The Dow closed down 392 points, and the NASDAQ got absolutely slammed.  At this point, the Dow and the NASDAQ are both officially in &#8220;correction territory&#8221;, and some of the talking heads on television are warning that this could be the beginning of a &#8220;bear market&#8221;.  But of course some of the other &#8220;experts&#8221; are insisting that this is just a temporary bump in the road.</p>
<p>But what everyone can agree on is that we have never seen a start to a year like this one.  The following comes from <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/07/investing/stocks-markets-dow-china/index.html">CNN</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>The global market freakout of 2016 just got worse</strong>.</p>
<p>The latest scare came on Thursday as China&#8217;s stock market crashed 7% overnight and crude oil plummeted to the lowest level in more than 12 years.</p>
<p>The Dow dropped 392 points on Thursday. The S&amp;P 500 fell 2.4%, while the Nasdaq tumbled 3%.</p>
<p>The wave of selling has knocked the Dow down <strong>911 points</strong>, or more than 5% so far this year. <strong>That&#8217;s the worst four-day percentage loss to start a year on record</strong>, according to FactSet stats that go back to 1897.</p></blockquote>
<p>When CNN starts sounding like <em>The Economic Collapse Blog</em>, you know that things are really bad.  I particularly like their use of the phrase &#8220;global market freakout&#8221;.  I might have to borrow that one.</p>
<p>Even some of the biggest and most trusted stocks are plummeting.  For instance, Apple dropped to $96.45 on Thursday.  It is now down a total of 28 percent since hitting a record high of more than 134 dollars a share back in April.</p>
<p>So that means that if someone put all of their retirement money into Apple stock last April (which may have seemed like a really good idea at that time), by now more than one-fourth of that money is gone.</p>
<p>For months, I have been warning that the exact same patterns that we witnessed just prior to the great stock market crash of 2008 were happening again.  To me, the parallels between 2008 and 2015/2016 were just uncanny.  And now other very prominent names are making similar comparisons.  According to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-stocks-plunge-7-percent-triggering-another-market-closure/2016/01/07/d6a83bf5-10b2-4289-8aab-98e485a3fe6e_story.html">the Washington Post</a>, George Soros says that the way this new crisis is unfolding &#8220;reminds me of the crisis we had in 2008&#8243;&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Influential investor George Soros said that China had a “major adjustment problem” on its hands. “I would say it amounts to a crisis,” he told an economic forum in Sri Lanka, according to Bloomberg News. <strong>“When I look at the financial markets, there is a serious challenge which reminds me of the crisis we had in 2008.”</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>Don&#8217;t get me wrong &#8211; I am certainly not a supporter of George Soros.  My point is that we are starting to hear a lot of really ominous talk from a lot of different directions.  All over the world, people are starting to understand that the next great financial crisis is already here.</p>
<p>As I write this tonight, I just feel quite a bit of sadness.  A lot of hard working people are going to lose a lot of money this year, and that includes people that I know personally.  I wish that my voice had been clearer and louder.  I wish that I could have done more to get people to understand what was coming.  I wish that my warnings could have made more of a difference.</p>
<p>I just think about how I would feel if everything that I had worked for all my life was suddenly wiped out.  And that is what is going to end up happening to some of these people.  When you lose everything, it can be absolutely debilitating.</p>
<p>You only make money in the markets if you get out in time.  And unfortunately, most of the general population will be like deer in the headlights and won&#8217;t know which way to move.</p>
<p>There will be up days for the markets in our near future.  But don&#8217;t be fooled by them.  It is important to remember that some of the greatest up days in U.S. stock market history were right in the middle of the stock market crash of 2008.  So don&#8217;t let a rally fool you into thinking that the crisis is over.</p>
<p>The financial crisis that began in the second half of 2015 is now accelerating, and everything that we have witnessed over the past few days is just a natural extension of what has already been happening.</p>
<p>Personally, I am just really looking forward to this weekend when I will hopefully get caught up on some rest.  Plus, my Washington Redskins will be hosting a playoff game on Sunday, and if they find a way to win that game that will put me in a particularly positive mood.</p>
<p>It is good to enjoy these simple pleasures while we still can.  Unprecedented chaos is coming this year, and we are all going to need strength and courage for what is ahead.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/stock-market-crash-2016-this-is-the-worst-start-to-a-year-for-stocks-ever/">Stock Market Crash 2016: This Is The Worst Start To A Year For Stocks Ever</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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		<title>BLACK MONDAY: The First Time EVER The Dow Has Dropped By More Than 500 Points On Two Consecutive Days</title>
		<link>http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/black-monday-the-first-time-ever-the-dow-has-dropped-by-more-than-500-points-on-two-consecutive-days/</link>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2015 22:09:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Black Monday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chinese Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[European Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Collapse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Collapse 2015]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Collapse September 2015]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Global Financial Collapse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Global Financial Collapse 2015]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japanese Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[S&P 500]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash 2015]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash September 2015]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Dow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Dow Jones Industrial Average]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The S&P 500]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=9168</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 588 points. It was the 8th worst single day stock market crash in U.S. history, and it was the first time that the Dow has ever fallen by more than 500 points on two consecutive days. But the amazing thing is that the Dow actually performed better ... <a title="BLACK MONDAY: The First Time EVER The Dow Has Dropped By More Than 500 Points On Two Consecutive Days" class="read-more" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/black-monday-the-first-time-ever-the-dow-has-dropped-by-more-than-500-points-on-two-consecutive-days/">Read more</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/black-monday-the-first-time-ever-the-dow-has-dropped-by-more-than-500-points-on-two-consecutive-days/">BLACK MONDAY: The First Time EVER The Dow Has Dropped By More Than 500 Points On Two Consecutive Days</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/black-monday-the-first-time-ever-the-dow-has-dropped-by-more-than-500-points-on-two-consecutive-days/new-york-city-empire-state-building-public-domain" rel="attachment wp-att-9169"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-9169" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-City-Empire-State-Building-Public-Domain-460x306.jpg" alt="New York City Empire State Building - Public Domain" width="460" height="306" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-City-Empire-State-Building-Public-Domain-460x306.jpg 460w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-City-Empire-State-Building-Public-Domain-300x200.jpg 300w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-City-Empire-State-Building-Public-Domain-425x283.jpg 425w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-City-Empire-State-Building-Public-Domain-400x266.jpg 400w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-City-Empire-State-Building-Public-Domain.jpg 640w" sizes="(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px" /></a>On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted <strong>588 points</strong>. It was the 8th worst single day stock market crash in U.S. history, and it was the first time that the Dow has ever fallen by more than 500 points on two consecutive days. But the amazing thing is that the Dow actually performed better than almost every other major global stock market on Monday.  In the U.S., the S&amp;P 500 and the Nasdaq both did worse than the Dow. In Europe, almost every major index performed significantly worse than the Dow.  Over in Asia, Japanese stocks were down 895 points, and Chinese stocks experienced the biggest decline of all (a whopping 8.46 percent). On June 25th, I was not kidding around when I issued a &#8220;<a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-economic-collapse-blog-has-issued-a-red-alert-for-the-last-six-months-of-2015">red alert</a>&#8221; for the last six months of 2015. I had never issued a formal alert for any other period of time, and I specifically stated that &#8220;<a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-economic-collapse-blog-has-issued-a-red-alert-for-the-last-six-months-of-2015">a major financial collapse is imminent</a>&#8220;. But you know what? As the weeks and months roll along, things will eventually be even worse than what any of the experts (including myself) have been projecting. The global financial system is now unraveling, and you better pack a lunch because this is going to be one very long horror show.</p>
<p>Our world has not seen a day quite like Monday in a very, very long time. Let&#8217;s start our discussion where the carnage began&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>Asian Markets<br />
</strong></p>
<p>For weeks, the Chinese government has been taking unprecedented steps to try to stop Chinese stocks from crashing, but nothing has worked. As most Americans slept on Sunday night, the markets in China <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/explanations-for-the-black-monday-stock-market-crash-2015-8">absolutely imploded</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>As Europe and North America slept on Sunday night, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-stocks-are-getting-hammered-again-2015-8">Chinese markets went through the floor</a> — the Shanghai Composite index of stocks fell by <strong>8.49%</strong>, the biggest single-day collapse since 2007.</p>
<p>It wasn&#8217;t alone. Hong Kong&#8217;s Hang Seng fell <strong>5.17%</strong>, and Japan&#8217;s Nikkei fell <strong>4.61%</strong>. Stocks in Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand also tumbled.</p></blockquote>
<p>Things would have been even worse in China if trading had not been stopped in most stocks. Trading was suspended for an astounding 2,200 stocks once they hit their 10 percent decline limits.</p>
<p>Overall, the Shanghai Composite Index is now down close to 40 percent from the peak of the market, and the truth is that Chinese stocks are <strong>still</strong> massively overvalued when compared to the rest of the world.</p>
<p>That means that they could very easily fall a lot farther.</p>
<p><strong>European Markets</strong></p>
<p>The selling momentum in Asia carried over into Europe once the European markets opened. On a percentage basis, all of the major indexes on the continent declined <a href="http://wolfstreet.com/2015/08/24/central-bank-omnipotence-fails-stocks-melt-down-in-asia-europe-oil-plunges-dollar-swoons/">even more than the Dow did</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>In Europe, the bloodbath from Friday continued unabated. The German Dax plunged 4.7%, the French CAC 40 5.4%, UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 4.7%. Euro Stoxx 600, which covers the largest European companies, was down 5.3%.</p>
<p>But wait… Europe is where the omnipotent ECB and other central banks have imposed negative deposit rates. The ECB is engaged in a massive ‘whatever it takes” QE program to inflate stock markets. But it’s not working. Omnipotence stops functioning once people stop believing in it.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>U.S. Markets</strong></p>
<p>Even before U.S. markets opened on Monday morning, the New York Stock Exchange was already warning that trading would be halted if things got too far out hand, and it <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-24/nyse-will-suspend-stock-trading-if-s-p-500-index-plunges-7-">almost happened</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>The thousands of companies listed by the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market will pause for 15 minutes if the Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 Index plunges 7 percent before 3:25 p.m. New York time. <strong>The benchmark got close earlier, falling as much as 5.3 percent</strong>.</p></blockquote>
<p>There were other circuit breakers in place for later in the day if too much panic selling ensued, but fortunately none of those were triggered either. Here is more <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-24/nyse-will-suspend-stock-trading-if-s-p-500-index-plunges-7-">from Bloomberg</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Another circuit breaker kicks in if the S&amp;P 500 extends its losses to 13 percent before 3:25 p.m. If the plunge reaches 20 percent at any point during today’s session, the entire stock market will shut for the rest of the day.</p></blockquote>
<p>When the U.S. markets did open, the Dow plunged 1,089 points during the opening minutes of trading. If the Dow would have stayed at that level, it would have been the worst single day stock market crash in U.S. history by a wide margin.</p>
<p>Instead, by the end of the day it only turned out to be the 8th worst day ever.</p>
<p>And in case you are wondering, yes, investors are losing a staggering amount of money. According to <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/households-still-hold-22-trillion-in-stocks-even-after-market-rout-2015-08-24">MarketWatch</a>, the total amount of money lost <strong>is now starting to approach 2 trillion dollars</strong>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>As of March 31, households and nonprofits held $24.1 trillion in stocks. That’s both directly, and through mutual funds, pension funds and the like. That also includes the holdings of U.S.-based hedge funds, though you’d have to think that most hedge funds are held by households.</p>
<p>Using the Dow Jones Total Stock Market index DWCF, -4.21% through midmorning trade, that number had dropped to $22.32 trillion.</p>
<p>In other words, a cool <strong>$1.8 trillion</strong> has been lost between now and the first quarter — and overwhelmingly, those losses occurred in the last few days.</p></blockquote>
<p>Unfortunately, U.S. stock prices are still nowhere near where they should be. If they were to actually reflect economic reality, they would have to fall a lot, lot lower.</p>
<p>For example, there is usually a very strong correlation between commodity prices and the S&amp;P 500, but in recent times we have seen a very large divergence take place. Just check out the chart <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/commodity-prices-and-equities-re-correlating-the-danger-2015-8">in this article</a>. At this point the S&amp;P 500 would have to fall another 30 to 40 percent or commodities would have to rise 30 or 40 percent in order to close the gap. I think that the following bit of commentary sums up where we are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/commodity-prices-and-equities-re-correlating-the-danger-2015-8">quite nicely</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Markets are afraid of further economic weakness in China, further pain in global commodity markets and uncertain about Fed and PBoC policy — what they will do and what the impact will be,&#8221; Societe Generale&#8217;s Kit Juckes wrote on Monday. &#8220;<strong>The divergence between global commodity prices and equities is not a new theme but the danger now is that they begin to re-correlate &#8211; as they did when the dotcom bubble burst in 2000 and what had previously been an emerging market crisis became a US recession</strong>.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>And commodities were absolutely hammered once again on Monday.</p>
<p>For instance, the price of U.S. oil actually fell below 38 dollars a barrel at one point.</p>
<p>What we are watching unfold is incredible.</p>
<p>Of course the mainstream media is bringing on lots of clueless experts that are talking about what a wonderful &#8220;buying opportunity&#8221; this is. Even though those of us that saw this coming have been giving a detailed play by play account of the unfolding crisis <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/category/financial-markets">for months</a>, the talking heads on television still seem as oblivious as ever.</p>
<p>What is happening right now just doesn&#8217;t seem to make any sense to the &#8220;experts&#8221; that most people listen to. I love this headline from an article that Business Insider posted on Monday: &#8220;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/explanations-for-the-black-monday-stock-market-crash-2015-8">None of the theories for the Black Monday market crash add up</a>&#8220;. Yes, if you are willingly blind to the long-term economic and financial trends which are destroying us, I guess these market crashes wouldn&#8217;t make sense.</p>
<p>And if stocks go up tomorrow (which they probably should), all of those same &#8220;experts&#8221; will be proclaiming that the &#8220;correction&#8221; is over and that everything is now fine.</p>
<p>But don&#8217;t be fooled by that. Just because stocks go up on any particular day does not mean that everything is fine. We are in the midst of a financial meltdown that is truly global in scope. This is going to take time to fully play out, and there will be good days and there will be bad days.  The three largest single day increases for the Dow were right in the middle of the financial crisis of 2008. So one very good day for stocks is not going to change the long-term analysis one bit.</p>
<p>It isn&#8217;t complicated. Those that follow my writing regularly know that I have repeatedly explained how things were setting up in textbook fashion for another global financial crisis, and now one is unfolding right in front of our eyes.</p>
<p>At this point, everyone should be able to very clearly see what is happening, and yet most are still blind.</p>
<p>Why is that?</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/black-monday-the-first-time-ever-the-dow-has-dropped-by-more-than-500-points-on-two-consecutive-days/">BLACK MONDAY: The First Time EVER The Dow Has Dropped By More Than 500 Points On Two Consecutive Days</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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		<title>We Have Already Witnessed The First 1300 Points Of The Stock Market Crash Of 2015</title>
		<link>http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/we-have-already-witnessed-the-first-1300-points-of-the-stock-market-crash-of-2015/</link>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2015 00:40:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2015]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dow Jones Industrial Average]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Collapse 2015]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Investors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kazakhstan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NASDAQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Panic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Russell 2000]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[September 2015]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Collapse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stock Market Crash Of 2015]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tech Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Dow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vietnam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wall Street]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[What Is Going To Happen In September 2015]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[What Will Happen In September 2015]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?p=9156</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>What has been happening on Wall Street the past few days has been nothing short of stunning.  On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 358 points.  It was the largest single day decline in a year and a half, and investors are starting to panic.  Overall, the Dow is now down more than 1300 ... <a title="We Have Already Witnessed The First 1300 Points Of The Stock Market Crash Of 2015" class="read-more" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/we-have-already-witnessed-the-first-1300-points-of-the-stock-market-crash-of-2015/">Read more</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/we-have-already-witnessed-the-first-1300-points-of-the-stock-market-crash-of-2015/">We Have Already Witnessed The First 1300 Points Of The Stock Market Crash Of 2015</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/we-have-already-witnessed-the-first-1300-points-of-the-stock-market-crash-of-2015/new-york-stock-exchange-photo-from-wikimedia-commons" rel="attachment wp-att-9158"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-9158" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Photo-from-Wikimedia-Commons-460x345.jpg" alt="New York Stock Exchange - Photo from Wikimedia Commons" width="460" height="345" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Photo-from-Wikimedia-Commons-460x345.jpg 460w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Photo-from-Wikimedia-Commons-300x225.jpg 300w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Photo-from-Wikimedia-Commons-425x319.jpg 425w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Photo-from-Wikimedia-Commons-400x300.jpg 400w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/New-York-Stock-Exchange-Photo-from-Wikimedia-Commons.jpg 800w" sizes="(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px" /></a>What has been happening on Wall Street the past few days has been nothing short of stunning.  On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted <strong>358 points</strong>.  It was the largest single day decline in a year and a half, and investors are starting to panic.  Overall, the Dow is now down <strong>more than 1300 points</strong> from the peak of the market.  Just yesterday, I wrote about all of the experts <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/why-are-so-many-people-freaking-out-about-a-stock-market-crash-in-the-fall-of-2015">that are warning about a stock market crash in 2015</a>, and after today I am sure that a lot more people will start jumping on the bandwagon.  In particular, tech stocks are getting absolutely hammered lately.  The Nasdaq has fallen close to 3.5% over the past two days alone, and it has dropped below its 200-day moving average.  The Russell 2000 (a small-cap stock market index) is also now trading below its 200-day moving average.  What all of this means is that the stock market crash of 2015 has already begun.  The only question left to answer at this point is how bad it will ultimately turn out to be.</p>
<p>When stocks were booming, tech stocks were leading the way up.</p>
<p>But now that the market has turned, tech stocks <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/closing-bell-august-20-2015-8">are starting to lead the way down</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>The Dow and the S&amp;P 500 are negative for the year. The so-called &#8220;FANG&#8221; stocks – Facebook, Apple, Netflix, and Google – were some of the biggest losers, and helped send the Nasdaq more than 2% lower. Biotechs also suffered big losses; the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF fell 4% to a three-month low. The Vix, which gauges market expectations for near-term shifts in the S&amp;P 500, surged more than 21%.</p></blockquote>
<p>And Twitter is absolutely imploding.  It has fallen below its IPO price, and at this point it is now down <strong>65 percent</strong> from the peak.</p>
<p>Of course it was inevitable that Twitter and these tech stocks would start falling eventually.  I specifically warned my readers about Twitter&#8217;s stock price <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-stock-market-has-officially-entered-crazytown-territory">nearly two years ago</a>.  I hope people listened to what I was saying and got out in time.</p>
<p>This current market crash is happening in the context of a full-blown global financial meltdown.  Stock markets all over the planet <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/23-nations-around-the-world-where-stock-market-crashes-are-already-happening">are collapsing</a>, and currencies are being devalued left and right.  The following comes from a recent piece by <a href="http://wolfstreet.com/2015/08/20/asia-retaliates-against-china-in-currency-war/">Wolf Richter</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Hot money is already fleeing emerging markets. Higher rates in the US will drain more capital out of countries that need it the most. It will pressure emerging market currencies and further increase the likelihood of a debt crisis in countries whose governments, banks, and corporations borrow in a currency other than their own.</p>
<p>This scenario would be bad enough for the emerging economies. But now China has devalued the yuan to stimulate its exports and thus its economy at the expense of others. And one thing has become clear on Wednesday: these struggling economies that compete with China are going to protect their exports against Chinese encroachment.</p>
<p><strong>Hence a currency war</strong>.</p></blockquote>
<p>Two more major shots in the currency war were fired on Thursday <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/20/us-stocks-open-lower-as-oil-slide-growth-concerns-weigh.html">by Kazakhstan and Vietnam</a>&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Hit by sharp declines in crude prices, the oil-producing nation of Kazakhstan introduced a freely floating exchange rate for the tenge, <strong>which subsequently lost more than a quarter of its value</strong>.</p>
<p>The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) devalued the dong (VND) by 1 percent against the dollar on Wednesday—its third adjustment so far this year—and simultaneously widened the trading band to 3 percent from 2 percent previously, the second increase in six days.</p></blockquote>
<p>A quarter of its value?</p>
<p>Now <strong>that</strong> is a devaluation.</p>
<p>In the coming days, we are likely to see even more emerging markets devalue their currencies in a global &#8220;race to the bottom&#8221;.  But this &#8220;race to the bottom&#8221; presents a great danger to financial markets.  <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/last-great-run-u-s-dollar-death-euro-74-trillion-currency-derivatives-risk">As I have written about previously</a>, there are 74 <strong>trillion</strong> dollars in derivatives globally that are tied to the value of currencies.  As foreign exchange rates start flying around all over the place, there are going to be financial institutions out there that are going to be losing obscene amounts of money.</p>
<p>I cannot say the &#8220;d word&#8221; enough.  Derivatives are going to play a starring role during this financial collapse, and so that is a word that you will want to be listening for very carefully in the weeks and months to come.</p>
<p>The meltdown that has already been affecting much of the rest of the planet is now starting to affect us.  And it was inevitable that it would.  I like how <a href="http://www.clivemaund.com/article.php?art_id=3536">Clive P. Maund</a> put it recently&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Many lesser markets around the world are toppling, but somehow the big Western markets of Europe, Japan and the US are staying aloft. If you have ever made a sand castle on the beach and watched what happened when the tide comes in, you will recall that it is the weaker outer ramparts and smaller turrets that collapse first, and the big central towers that hold out the longest. <strong>The weaker outer ramparts and smaller turrets are the Emerging Markets which are already crumbling, and it won’t be long until the big central towers – the big Western Markets, go the same way – everything is pointing to it</strong>.</p></blockquote>
<p>The funny thing is that even though all of the signs are pointing to a nightmarish global financial crisis, the mainstream media continues to insist that everything is going to be just fine.</p>
<p>In fact, CNBC says that the recent dip in stock prices is a &#8220;<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/20/sp-500-is-having-a-dull-year-and-thats-good-for-investors.html">bull indicator</a>&#8221; and they are encouraging everyone to pour lots more money into stocks.</p>
<p>But of course the truth is that what financial conditions are really telling us is that stocks have much, much farther to fall.</p>
<p>For instance, high yield credit is starting to crash just like it did prior to the stock market crash of 2008.  Stocks and high yield credit usually tend to track one another quite closely, and so when there is a divergence that is a huge red flag.  And as this chart <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-20/dow-stockalypse-wow-bonds-bullion-soar-equities-crash">from Zero Hedge</a> demonstrates, a very large divergence has developed in recent months&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/we-have-already-witnessed-the-first-1300-points-of-the-stock-market-crash-of-2015/hy-credit-and-sp-500-zero-hedge" rel="attachment wp-att-9157"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-9157" src="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/HY-Credit-And-SP-500-Zero-Hedge-460x237.jpg" alt="HY Credit And S&amp;P 500 - Zero Hedge" width="460" height="237" srcset="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/HY-Credit-And-SP-500-Zero-Hedge-460x237.jpg 460w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/HY-Credit-And-SP-500-Zero-Hedge-300x155.jpg 300w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/HY-Credit-And-SP-500-Zero-Hedge-425x219.jpg 425w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/HY-Credit-And-SP-500-Zero-Hedge-400x206.jpg 400w, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/HY-Credit-And-SP-500-Zero-Hedge.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px" /></a></p>
<p>Sadly, the 358 point plunge for the Dow on Thursday was just the beginning.</p>
<p>Yes, there will be up days and down days, but we are now officially entering the &#8220;danger zone&#8221; as we roll into the months <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/why-are-so-many-people-freaking-out-about-a-stock-market-crash-in-the-fall-of-2015">of September and October</a>.</p>
<p>So will 2015 soon be mentioned along with the famous market crashes of 1929, 1987, 2001 and 2008?</p>
<p>Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/we-have-already-witnessed-the-first-1300-points-of-the-stock-market-crash-of-2015/">We Have Already Witnessed The First 1300 Points Of The Stock Market Crash Of 2015</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com">The Economic Collapse</a>.</p>
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