The Economy

For many years, pundits have been warning us that the U.S. dollar would collapse.  In 2025, it is actually starting to happen.  The U.S. dollar hit a three year low against other global currencies last week, and on Wednesday the crash of the dollar resumed.  Overall, the U.S. dollar is now down about 9 percent over the past 3 months.  The currency that has benefitted the most is the Swiss franc.  The USD/CHF recently hit the lowest level that we have seen in 14 years.  What we are witnessing is literally a bloodbath, and many experts are suggesting that our reserve currency status is now in serious jeopardy.

Many were hoping that the dollar would bounce back this week, but there was more carnage on Wednesday…

The dollar resumed its fall on Wednesday with both safe havens and risk sensitive currencies outperforming the greenback as traders waited to see if U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration reaches new trading agreements with partners.

The dollar tumbled last week on concerns over the economic impact new tariffs will have, and as investors shifted allocations overseas due to uncertainty over the erratic implementation of the trade levies.

To me, one of the best ways to evaluate the strength of the U.S. dollar is to look at the price of gold.

Needless to say, the price of gold in U.S. dollars has been absolutely soaring lately, and on Wednesday it went up another 3.1 percent…

Gold prices extended their record run on Wednesday, to breach $3,300 per ounce, as a weaker dollar and escalating U.S.-China trade tensions pushed investors towards the safe-haven asset.

Spot gold climbed 3.1% to $3,327.78 an ounce.

During times of financial chaos, investors tend to flock to gold.

And times are definitely very chaotic right now.

If the dollar continues to become more unstable, other global currencies will inevitably become a lot more attractive.

At this point, we are being warned that the dollar’s role as the primary reserve currency of the planet is “looking increasingly uncertain”…

Specifically, the dollar’s status as a reliable “safe haven” has been tarnished, and its role as the de facto global reserve currency has been looking increasingly uncertain.

Signs of growing dissatisfaction with the dollar can be seen in the breakdown of its longstanding correlation with other markets.

Having the primary reserve currency of the world has been a major advantage for us, but there are other currencies that are widely used in global trade.

In recent weeks, the euro, the Swiss franc and the Japanese yen have all done extremely well…

For decades, the dollar, the Swiss franc and Japanese yen were among the most popular options for investors seeking calmer ports in volatile markets.

But while the yen, franc and euro have shot higher over the past few weeks, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index, a popular gauge of the dollar’s value against its main currency rivals, sank to its lowest level in three years. By comparison, the Swiss franc recently climbed to its strongest level in 14 years.

Could the euro or one of the major currencies in Asia eventually take the place of the U.S. dollar?

It is entirely possible.

The truth is that the status of the U.S. dollar has already been slipping.

According to MarketWatch, “the dollar’s share of global central-bank reserves has been shrinking since the late 1990s”…

By some measures, the world has been shifting away from its dependence on the dollar for decades. Data from the International Monetary Fund show the dollar’s share of global central-bank reserves has been shrinking since the late 1990s.

When the dollar is strong, U.S. government bonds are attractive to foreign investors.

This keeps our borrowing costs down.

But in recent weeks we have witnessed a “major sell-off” in bonds at the same time that stocks have been going down…

During the financial crisis of 2008, investors around the world bought more Treasury bonds, confident that despite the crash, this was the safest place in the world for their money. That is how things usually go: The bond market moves in the opposite direction as stocks.

This time, as the stock market took a nosedive, an alarming trend emerged. Investors were dumping their U.S. government bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped from 4% to 4.5% in a week, a huge jump for the bond market that indicates a major sell-off. Investors were putting their money into euros, yen, pounds, and gold instead of into dollars.

We haven’t seen a financial crisis like this in a long time.

And we only have a limited amount of time to turn this around before things start getting really messy.

If this new crisis begins to spiral out of control, there will be an immense amount of pain, and we could witness a collapse of confidence in the U.S. dollar.

One expert is warning that the U.S. dollar has now been put on a “watch list”…

“It is too early to call if we are seeing the demise of the dollar, but the dollar has certainly been put on a ‘watch list,’” says Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University. For the rest of the world, “The U.S. is no longer innocent until proven guilty, but the opposite.”

Sadly, most Americans simply do not understand how important the strength of the dollar is.

Our primary export is currency.

For decades, we have been exchanging the world’s dominant currency for goods manufactured in poorer nations all over the planet.

If the U.S. dollar becomes much weaker, our standard of living will go way down.

Unfortunately, it appears that there are those in positions of power that want to see the value of the U.S. dollar drop.

The chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Stephen Miran, believes that devaluing the dollar is the best way to reduce our trade deficit…

For Miran, tariffs and moving away from a strong dollar could have “the broadest ramifications of any policies in decades, fundamentally reshaping the global trade and financial systems”.

Miran’s essay argues that a strong dollar makes US exports less competitive and imports cheaper, while handicapping American manufacturers as it discourages investing in building factories in the United States.

“The deep unhappiness with the prevailing economic order is rooted in persistent overvaluation of the dollar and asymmetric trade conditions,” Miran wrote.

It is true that if the dollar is substantially devalued our trade deficit will be reduced.

But in the process our standard of living will be greatly diminished.

This would particularly be true for those on the bottom levels of the economic food chain.

And if another global reserve currency ultimately takes the place of the U.S. dollar, that would be absolutely catastrophic for our standard of living.

At this stage in our history, the strength of the United States is dependent upon the strength of our currency to a very large degree.

If the dollar crashes and burns, so will our society as a whole.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Our current way of life could not continue without rare earth minerals.  Every single day of our lives, all of us depend on technology that was built using rare earth minerals.  In fact, the device that you are reading this article on right now probably contains rare earth minerals.  Ultimately, rare earth minerals aren’t actually that rare, but processing those minerals is extremely complex, and at this point the vast majority of that processing is done in China.  Efforts are already underway to create complete rare earth supply chains here in the United States, but new processing facilities will not start coming online until 2027 at the earliest.  So what will happen to our economy between now and then?

I asked Google AI about the importance of rare earth minerals, and this is what I was told…

Rare earth minerals are highly important due to their diverse and crucial applications in modern technology, energy, and defense. They are essential for manufacturing a wide range of products, from electronic devices and electric vehicles to wind turbines and military equipment. Their unique properties, including magnetic and luminous qualities, make them indispensable for many modern technologies.

All of that is accurate.

We simply do not have anything else that can replace these exceedingly crucial minerals.

According to Google AI, rare earth minerals are particularly important in the production of smartphones and computers…

Rare earth elements are used in various components of modern technology, including screens for smartphones and computers, motors for computer drives, and batteries for hybrid and electric cars.

The Chinese government thinks that it is lowering the boom on us by banning the export of 7 “heavy” rare earth minerals that are “processed exclusively in the Asian power”…

China has stopped shipping some heavy rare earth metals and magnets critical to US production of everything from cellphones to fighter jets as Beijing’s trade war with Washington simmers, leaving American industry in a bind.

Effective April 3, China is no longer exporting seven heavy rare earth metals processed exclusively in the Asian power, as well as heavy rare earth magnets — of which about 90% of the world’s supply are also synthesized on Beijing’s territory.

The good news is that the export of all 17 rare earth minerals is not banned.  It is just 7 “heavy” rare earth minerals that have been restricted, and China “has a virtual monopoly on supplying all seven of them”…

The supply and demand curves for all 17 of the rare earths are not equal. China’s new trade restrictions focus on seven of them: samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.

These are mostly “heavy” rare earth elements (HREEs), which means they are useful in high-temperature magnets — the type of magnet used extensively in electric vehicle (EV) motors, wind turbines, and military electronic systems.

China has a virtual monopoly on supplying all seven of them.

For the moment, most manufacturers still have existing inventories of rare earth minerals that they can use.

But it is just a matter of time before those existing inventories start running out.

An official that worked in President Trump’s first administration is warning that we could be facing a lot of economic pain…

The export halt applies to all countries, but access to elements like dysprosium and yttrium is critical to US industry — especially in the tech, electric vehicle, aircraft and defense sectors, according to Drew Horn, who served as the top US official on strategic minerals and energy supply chain development in President Trump’s first administration

“Rare earths are in everything,” he told The Post Monday, singling out “the EV and auto space … [and] everything from cellphones, defense key components, [and] space travel.”

“China,” Horn added, “has essentially created an all-powerful monopoly with them.”

Needless to say, we should be processing rare earth minerals here in the United States.

A plan to do that was finally developed in 2024, but we are being told that new processing facilities “will not be online until 2027 at the earliest”…

DOD devised a plan in 2024 for building a domestic “mine to magnet” supply chain for rare earths, and has committed nearly half a billion dollars in funding to that project, but it will not be online until 2027 at the earliest.

In order to avoid a nightmare scenario, we need the trade war with China to end.

Unfortunately, that is not likely to happen any time soon.

Neither side intends to back down, and a top Chinese official has publicly stated that China should let “those peasants in the United States wail in front of 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation”…

Beijing has fired an extraordinary new broadside at America amid growing trade war anger – with a senior Chinese official declaring ‘Let those peasants in the United States wail in front of 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation’.

Xia Baolong, a top Chinese official who oversees Hong Kong affairs, branded the US tariffs as ‘extremely shameless’ and warned that bullying has never worked on Chinese people in a televised speech today.

The extremely aggressive comments that Chinese officials have been making lately are very unusual.

Normally, the Chinese are much more diplomatic.

In another move, China has also decided to no longer buy any jets from Boeing…

China has ordered its airlines not to take further deliveries of Boeing jets in response to the US decision to impose 145 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday (Apr 15), citing people familiar with the matter.

Shares of Boeing – which considers China one of its biggest growth markets and where rival Airbus holds a dominant position – were down 0.5 per cent in midday trading.

Over the next few years, Chinese airlines were supposed to take delivery of dozens of new Boeing jets…

China’s top three airlines – Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines – had planned to take delivery of 45, 53 and 81 Boeing planes, respectively, between 2025 and 2027.

This isn’t going to have too much of an impact on Boeing, but it just shows that the Chinese are starting to dig in for the long haul.

My concern is that this trade war could eventually become a shooting war.

We know that both sides have already been conducting cyberattacks on one another.  In fact, the Chinese are now publicly accusing the NSA of conducting cyberattacks inside China just two months ago…

China accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) on Tuesday of launching “advanced” cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February, targeting essential industries.

Police in the northeastern city of Harbin said three alleged NSA agents to a wanted list and also accused the University of California and Virginia Tech of being involved in the attacks after carrying out investigations, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.

The NSA agents were identified by Xinhua as Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson. The three were also found to have “repeatedly carried out cyber attacks on China’s critical information infrastructure and participated in cyber attacks on Huawei and other enterprises.”

Of course the Chinese have been conducting cyberattacks against U.S. targets over and over again.

I want to be very clear about something.

A cyberattack is an act of war.

So the fact that both sides are already conducting cyberattacks should deeply concern all of us.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, because if we stay on the path that we are currently on this story is not going to end well.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Do you remember the panic buying that we witnessed during the early days of the pandemic?  It’s back, and I have a feeling that it is only going to intensify in the days ahead.  As more Americans begin to realize that products made in China will soon more than double in price and that some may no longer be available at all, there will be a feverish rush to purchase Chinese-made goods.  Ironically, this may actually give a short-term boost to the U.S. economy, and the economic numbers for the first half of this year may end up looking better than they otherwise would have.

Before I get too deep into this article, there are a couple of things that I want to clarify.

First of all, I do not think that the U.S. should have ever begun trading with communist China at all, because communist China has always been an incredibly evil regime.

Secondly, it was a catastrophic error for the U.S. to become so deeply dependent on imports from China.  This is something that I have been writing about for years.  Our stores are now teeming with products that were made in China, and thousands of our supply chains simply cannot function without equipment, parts or products that come from China.

But our leaders refused to listen to those of us that were sounding the alarm, and now we have a real mess on our hands.

Because we have become so deeply dependent on China, the trade war that has now begun is really going to hurt, and everyone should be able to see that.

On Thursday, the White House confirmed that the total tariff rate on Chinese imports has now risen to 145 percent…

The U.S. tariff rate on Chinese imports now effectively totals 145%, a White House official confirmed to CNBC.

Trump’s latest executive order hikes tariffs on Beijing to 125% from 84%.

But that comes on top of a 20% fentanyl-related tariff that Trump previously imposed on China.

One economist is warning that high tariff rates on both sides will lead to “a hard decoupling”, and he says that it would be “really hard to overstate the expected shocks this is going to have”…

“This is probably the strongest indication we’ve seen pushing towards a hard decoupling,” said Nick Marro, principal economist for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit, referring to an outcome where the two economies have virtually no trade or mutual investment.

“It’s really hard to overstate the expected shocks this is going to have, not just to the Chinese economy itself, but also to the entire global trading landscape,” as well as on the US, he said.

I fully agree with his assessment.

What we are witnessing is going to cause a tremendous amount of disruption.

Apparently lots of other people see things the same way, because a wave of panic buying has now started…

Across the country, people have been rushing to stores or going online to buy everything from iPhones to coffee to designer bags and jewelry in anticipation of the toll the tariffs will take on their wallets.

If there is something that is made in China that you really need, I would get it now while you still can.

One woman that just visited her local Costco said that she has “never seen it so busy”…

Costco was a total nightmare yesterday. I’ve never seen it so busy. I walked out after seeing the lines going down each aisle with no end in sight.

Another woman that lives in New York City admitted to a reporter that her mother is literally “panicking”…

“Actually, I already have. I’ve already started stocking up. My mother has a whole stockpile, and she’s panicking. But I told her we’re going to be okay, as we live in New York City,” said Amelia Guilford, a retail worker who was visiting her mother in the city.

The price hikes that we will soon see will be quite a shock to the system, and this will particularly be true for big ticket items.

For example, it is being projected that the cost to manufacture an iPhone could go up by hundreds of dollars…

Trump’s new tariffs on Chinese goods mean the cost for Apple to manufacture an iPhone could jump from $580 to $850, according to a report from TechInsights.

In anticipation of the coming price hikes, there was a “full-blown buying spree” at Apple stores over the weekend…

Apple just faced a weekend retail frenzy more typical of iPhone launch day than early April. With the Trump administration floating a 54% tariff on Chinese-made goods including Apple’s flagship devices U.S. consumers rushed into stores, fearing sharp price hikes were imminent. According to reports from multiple locations, sales surged as worried buyers sought to lock in current prices, turning what’s usually a quiet season into a full-blown buying spree.

Many of the parts that go into our new vehicles also come from China, and it is being reported that U.S. auto sales were quite a bit higher than expected last month as people rushed to purchase new vehicles before the tariffs were implemented…

US auto sales for March came in higher than Deutsche Bank analysts expected, the bank said in a Friday report, rising from February levels. That might indicate “panic buying” as Americans sought to get ahead of the tariffs on foreign-made vehicles that took effect last week.

The analysts said they had expected higher numbers due to a pre-tariff pull-forward. But “this impact appears far greater than we anticipated,” the report read. Deutsche Bank expected auto sales to be strong through June, then weaken in the back half of the year.

Unless the U.S. and China can reach some sort of an agreement, and that appears very unlikely at this stage, our standard of living is about to change dramatically.

According to CNBC, approximately 70 percent of the goods sold on Amazon come from China…

Many sellers on Amazon count on China for manufacturing and assembly due to lower costs and established infrastructure – up to 70% of goods on Amazon come from China, according to Wedbush Securities. With nearly all imports from China being taxed a staggering 145% under the latest tariffs, Amazon sellers are having to decide whether to raise prices or absorb the vastly increased cost of importing their goods.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Thursday told CNBC that its vast network of third-party sellers will likely “pass the cost on” to consumers. He added that Amazon has done some “strategic forward inventory buys” and looked to renegotiate terms on some purchase orders to keep prices low.

Reuters spoke to five Amazon sellers in China.  Three of them said that they would be raising prices, and two of them said that they would be leaving the U.S. market completely…

Of the five sellers who spoke to Reuters, three said they would look to raise prices for their exports to the U.S., while two planned to leave the market entirely.

Dave Fong, whose products range from schoolbags to Bluetooth speakers, said on Thursday he has raised prices in the U.S. by up to 30% and would let inventory levels fall and lower spending on Amazon advertising fees, which once took up 40% of his U.S. revenue.

“For us and anyone else, you can’t rely on the U.S. market, that’s quite clear,” Fong said. “We have to reduce investment, and put more resources into regions like Europe, Canada, Mexico and the rest of the world.”

If this trade war persists, it will be an even bigger economic shock than the pandemic was.

But to me, there is potentially an even bigger concern.

The threat of economic sanctions has always been one of the barriers that has made China think twice about invading Taiwan.

But now that our two economies are rapidly decoupling anyway, the Chinese may come to the conclusion that this is actually a perfect time to make a move on Taiwan.

This crisis with China is a far bigger deal than most people realize, and it could have some very serious unintended consequences.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Well, isn’t this fun?  News that President Trump had decided to pause some of the tariffs that he recently unveiled for 90 days sent stock prices soaring.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 2,900 points on Wednesday, and that is very good news.  But not that much has actually changed, and the global trade war is still officially on.  In fact, President Trump just hiked the tariff rate on Chinese imports to 125 percent…

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was authorizing a 90-day pause in reciprocal tariffs to all countries except China, on which he was raising the levy to 125% in the latest twist of a saga that has roiled financial markets for a week. The universal 10% tariffs remain in place.

So let’s summarize what just happened.

-The universal baseline 10 percent tariffs are still in effect.

-The additional reciprocal tariffs that were recently announced have only been delayed for 3 months to allow for negotiations to take place.

-The tariff rate on products that we import from China has now been raised to a whopping 125 percent.

-Other previously announced tariffs remain in place.

As you can see, the reality of what we are facing hasn’t really changed much at all.

But headlines that boldly proclaimed that “the tariffs have been paused” sent stock prices screaming higher.

The extraordinary rally that we just witnessed really didn’t make much sense at all, but we’ll take it.

These days, any victory that we can get is a reason to celebrate.

Of course there shouldn’t have been any confusion about what Trump just announced, because what he posted on his Truth Social account was very clear.  I have put the most critical parts of his post in bold so that you won’t be able to miss them…

Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable. Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Virtually everybody is still being hit with a 10 percent universal tariff.

And our economic war with China has just gone nuclear.

The reason why Trump raised the tariff rate on Chinese goods to 125 percent is because the Chinese just dramatically hiked the tariff rate on U.S. imports…

China said it is raising its tariffs on U.S. products to 84%, up from its previously announced 34%, after President Trump’s import duties on Chinese good went into effect today at a rate of 104%.

In addition to hitting the Chinese with a tariff rate of 125 percent, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is warning that President Trump is also considering removing Chinese companies from our stock exchanges…

He also said that all policy options remain open, including the possibility of removing Chinese companies from U.S. stock exchanges. “Everything’s on the table,” before adding that it will be the President Trump who will decide on this matter.

Can you imagine what would happen if Trump actually did this and then the Chinese retaliated by doing the same thing to U.S. companies?

It would be a bloodbath.

Our economy has been so deeply entangled with the Chinese economy for so many years, but now an economic death match between our two nations has begun.

If there are products from China that you wish to purchase, I would get them now while you still can.

It is being reported that Amazon has already been canceling orders for products that are imported from China…

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) has canceled orders for multiple products made in China and other Asian countries, according to a document reviewed by Bloomberg and people familiar with the matter, suggesting the company is reducing its exposure to tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.

The orders for beach chairs, scooters, air conditioners and other merchandise from multiple Amazon vendors were halted after Trump’s April 2 announcement that he planned to levy tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories, including China, Vietnam and Thailand, the people said. The timing of the cancellations, which had no warning, led the vendors to suspect it was a response to tariffs.

In a few months, there will be shortages of certain products that we have become dependent on China to produce for us.

In addition, we are being warned to brace ourselves for “significant price shocks”…

Americans will be hit by significant price shocks on a huge array of everyday items under sweeping tariffs imposed by President Trump.

Clothes, shoes, electronics and cars will be impacted, alongside food, alcohol, and many other essentials.

A lot of people are telling me that the short-term pain will be worth it because everything will work out in the end.

So let’s see how things play out.

President Trump has also announced that new tariffs will be coming on imported pharmaceuticals…

US President Donald Trump says he will soon announce “major” tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals, a move that could end decades of low-cost global trade in medicines.

For years, most countries, including the US, have imposed few or no tariffs on finished drugs, thanks in part to a 1995 World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement aimed at keeping medicines affordable.

This is going to be interesting.

We are very heavily dependent on pharmaceutical production from China.

Needless to say, the drug shortages that we have been witnessing in recent years are only going to intensify, and prices are likely to go haywire.

Meanwhile, our farmers are going to suffer because the Chinese aren’t going to be buying their output.  At this stage, it is being reported that Trump administration officials are considering a new round of bailouts for U.S. farmers…

The Trump administration is exploring options to shield American farmers from deepening fallout as its trade conflict with China intensifies, including a possible revival of bailout programs once used during earlier skirmishes with Beijing.

According to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, officials are “looking at that again,” referencing a $28 billion aid package deployed during President Trump’s first term through the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), a government-owned entity designed to support farm incomes and prices.

“Obviously everything is on the table, but we’re in such a period of uncertainty in terms of what this looks like,” Rollins told Bloomberg Wednesday at the White House, adding that no final decisions had been made, emphasizing the administration’s hope that aid wouldn’t be necessary.

What about the rest of us?

Can we get bailouts too?

This economic war between the U.S. and China is going to cause pain on both sides of the Pacific.

Those that assume that this is going to be a one-sided match simply do not understand how much the Chinese economy has grown in recent years.  For example, one Chinese electronics giant is doing things that nobody else in the world is doing…

I’d never seen anything like this Huawei campus. Built in just over three years, it consists of 104 individually designed buildings, with manicured lawns, connected by a Disney-like monorail, housing labs for up to 35,000 scientists, engineers and other workers, offering 100 cafes, plus fitness centers and other perks designed to attract the best Chinese and foreign technologists.

The Lianqiu Lake R&D campus is basically Huawei’s response to the U.S. attempt to choke it to death beginning in 2019 by restricting the export of U.S. technology, including semiconductors, to Huawei amid national security concerns. The ban inflicted massive losses on Huawei, but with the Chinese government’s help, the company sought to innovate its way around us. As South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper reported last year, it’s been doing just that: “Huawei surprised the world by introducing the ‘Mate 60’ series, a smartphone equipped with advanced semiconductors, last year despite U.S. sanctions.” Huawei followed with the world’s first triple-folding smartphone and unveiled its own mobile operating system, Hongmeng (Harmony), to compete with Apple’s and Google’s.

President Trump is going to do his best to crush China, and the Chinese are going to do their best to crush us.

My concern is that this economic war could ultimately lead to a shooting war.

Our relations with China are going downhill really fast, and the Chinese have been engaged in a “staggering” military buildup…

NATO must not be ‘naive’ about China in light of Beijing’s ‘staggering’ expansion of its armed forces, the alliance’s chief has warned.

Mark Rutte said the country’s substantial investments in its defence capabilities must act as a wake-up call for Western nations who have not taken the threat seriously so far.

For years, I have been warning over and over again that the U.S. and China are headed for an inevitable military showdown.

Many criticized me for this for a long time, but now we can literally see how we are going to get there.

History is being made right in front of our eyes, and the Chinese are pledging to fight this economic war to the end.

But if this economic war ultimately evolves into something else, we will all be wishing that we could turn back the clock.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The Chinese have no intention of giving in to President Trump and are vowing to “fight to the end”.  So that means that an economic war between the number one economy on the entire planet and the number two economy on the entire planet is officially on.  Yesterday, I warned my readers that imports from China were about to be hit with a 104 percent tariff, but because this number had not been reported by the mainstream media yet a lot of people didn’t believe me.  Of course this morning major news outlets all over the globe were using that number.  Here is just one example…

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that because China declined to lift its retaliatory tariff, the president’s additional 50% tariff levied on top of previously imposed tariffs of 20% and 34% took effect, bringing the total tariff on Chinese goods to 104%.

She added that the tariffs took effect at noon Eastern Time on Tuesday, with tariff collection set to begin on Wednesday. Leavitt said that U.S. trading partners should be coming to the administration with deals to improve trade terms.

“The president’s message has been simple and consistent from the beginning to countries around the world – bring us your best offers and he will listen,” Leavitt said during a White House press briefing Tuesday. “Deals will only be made if they benefit American workers and address our nation’s crippling trade deficits.”

Many were expecting the Chinese to back down, but that isn’t happening.

In fact, China’s Commerce Ministry has released a statement that ominously declares that they are ready to “fight to the end”…

China’s Commerce Ministry said it “resolutely opposes” U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of escalating tariffs, and vowed to take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests.

The comments came after Trump said he would impose an additional 50% duty on U.S. imports from China on Wednesday, if Beijing does not withdraw the 34% tariff it imposed on American products last week.

“The U.S. threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake,” the statement said, according to a CNBC translation. “China will never accept it. If the U.S. insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.”

I have a feeling that phrase comes from the very top, because a different Chinese spokesperson used almost the exact same language…

At a regular news conference on Tuesday, Lin Jian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said Beijing would take “necessary measures” against U.S. tariff threats, according to a CNBC translation of reports in Chinese state media.

He reiterated the Commerce Ministry’s statement, “If U.S. insists on waging a tariff war, a trade war, China will fight till the end.”

What we are witnessing is a real life game of economic chicken.

So what happens if neither side blinks?

The truth is that we could soon have a real nightmare on our hands.

According to Bloomberg, “two influential state-linked Chinese bloggers” have published identical lists of “countermeasures” that the Chinese government is prepared to implement…

While China hasn’t said how it would respond if Trump follows through on his threat, two influential state-linked Chinese bloggers posted an identical set of countermeasures that they said authorities are considering. They include raising tariffs on US farm products, a ban on Hollywood movies and investigating American firms’ intellectual property gains in the country.

Without a doubt, some of these “countermeasures” would definitely cause quite a bit of pain for our economy…

• Suspending cooperation with the U.S. on fentanyl (which Beijing itself helped flood into American communities),

• Jacking up tariffs on American farm goods like soybeans and sorghum,

• Blocking U.S. poultry,

• Clamping down on American service industries,

• Investigating U.S. intellectual property in China,

• And, of course, reducing/banning U.S. films.

In addition, the Chinese have already placed new restrictions on rare earth elements and have added more U.S. companies to the “unreliable entities list”.

On top of everything else, it appears that a major currency devaluation could be right around the corner…

The People’s Bank of China on Tuesday set the midpoint rate for onshore yuan at 7.2038 per dollar, the weakest level since September 2023, according to data provider Wind Information. The yuan is allowed to trade within a 2% band of this midpoint rate.

The yuan’s weakening is a “big signal,” Robin Brooks, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia,” “this is Beijing politely saying this is getting a little too much, we are putting you on notice, we can devalue if we want and bigger things may come if you keep this up.”

“This is a clear shot across the bow of Washington,” Brooks added.

Anyone that suggests that the Chinese are not able to hurt us does not know what they are talking about.

Yes, we can really hurt China, but they can really hurt us too.

Wouldn’t it be better if we could all just find a way to get along?

Because the reality of the matter is that history has shown us over and over again that trade wars have a way of evolving into shooting wars.

Interestingly, two Chinese soldiers that were apparently fighting for the Russian military have just been captured by Ukraine…

The Ukrainian military has captured two Chinese men fighting with the Russian army in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday.

Ukraine has information that there are “significantly more” Chinese nationals fighting alongside the Russians in the more than three-year war, Zelenskyy said, adding that he has asked his top diplomat “to immediately contact Beijing and find out how China is going to react to this.”

It appears that the two men that were just captured were part of a group of six Chinese soldiers that got into a firefight with Ukrainian forces…

Zelenskyy said a clash with Chinese soldiers occurred near the villages of Tarasivka and Bilohorivka in the Donetsk region, where six Chinese military personnel engaged Ukrainian troops. Two Chinese were taken prisoner, Zelenskyy said at a news conference in Kyiv alongside visiting Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever.

At this point, there is no indication that these soldiers were from the Chinese military.

Instead, it appears that they were actually part of the Russian military.

Just like Ukraine does, Russia hires soldiers from all over the world…

However, this is not evidence of a state-sanctioned deployment by China.

Russia is known to have recruited mercenaries from around the world to fuel its fight to seize control of Ukraine.

Many have come from Cuba, India, Yemen and several African countries, attracted by promises of significant cash incentives.

The conflict in Ukraine definitely has a global flavor to it, because there are literally soldiers from dozens of different countries involved in the fighting.

Of course the same thing could be said about the war in the Middle East as well.

Now we have added a worldwide economic war to our troubles, and I have a feeling that a lot more surprises are coming in the months ahead.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

How many products do you have in your home right now that were made in China?  If you are like most Americans, that number is very high.  We should have never allowed ourselves to become so dependent on cheap Chinese goods, but we did.  Walmart, Target and our dollar stores are absolutely teeming with products that were manufactured in China, and now those products are about to get much more expensive.  The 34 percent “retaliatory tariff” that the Trump administration recently imposed on the Chinese was on top of a 20 percent tariff that the Trump administration had already imposed on them.  The White House has confirmed this.  Unfortunately, the 54 percent tariff that we were potentially facing will now rise to 104 percent thanks to an additional 50 percent tariff that will go into effect on April 9th.  Earlier today, President Trump posted the following on his Truth Social account…

Yesterday, China issued Retaliatory Tariffs of 34%, on top of their already record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidization of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation, despite my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set. Therefore, if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

The math is very clear: 20 percent plus 34 percent plus 50 percent equals 104 percent.

No matter how the pundits try to spin this, the truth is that we will be paying this tariff if we continue to purchase Chinese products.

It is easy to say that we should just switch to products made in the U.S., but in thousands of cases there simply are not any similar products manufactured here.

And in thousands of other cases, products that are ultimately assembled in the U.S. depend on components that come from China.

Once again, we should have never allowed ourselves to get into this situation.

Trying to reverse course now is going to be a major league headache.  I asked Google AI to tell me some of the products that we get from China, and it produced quite an extensive list…

Consumer Electronics: China is a major source for smartphones, computers, video game consoles, and other electronic devices.

Toys and Games: A significant portion of the toys, games, and sporting goods imported into the U.S. come from China.

Furniture and Bedding: China is a major source for furniture, bedding, and other home goods.

Textiles and Clothing: China is a major source for textile products and clothing.

Machinery and Electrical Equipment: China is a major source for machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers, and electrical equipment

Other Products: China also supplies the U.S. with items like lithium-ion batteries, plastics, and miscellaneous manufactured goods.

Food: While a small percentage of the U.S. food supply comes from China, it is a major supplier for specific items like apple juice, garlic, canned mandarin oranges, fish, and shrimp.

At this point, a list of things that we don’t get from China might be shorter.

I am particularly concerned about what these tariffs will do to the pharmaceutical industry, because Google AI says that the vast majority of the active ingredients in our pharmaceutical drugs are imported from China…

While it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact percentage, a significant portion of raw materials for pharmaceutical drugs in the U.S. come from China, with estimates suggesting that around 80% of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are sourced from China and other countries like India.

We are in so much trouble.

Bill Ackman is warning that unless these tariffs are rolled back we are headed into a “self-induced economic nuclear winter”…

Billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, a staunch President Trump ally, has warned that the world is on the brink of “self-induced economic nuclear winter” as he begged the commander-in-chief to pause his sweeping tariffs.

“The President has an opportunity on Monday to call a time out and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system. Alternatively, we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down,” Ackman wrote in a lengthy X post Sunday night.

“May cooler heads prevail.”

Bill Ackman wouldn’t have become a billionaire if he wasn’t extremely sharp, and I agree with his assessment.

The outlook for the months ahead is extremely dismal.

In fact, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is admitting that most CEOs that he talks to “would say we are probably in a recession right now”…

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said that the stock market could see declines deepen by another 20% amid uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariffs and that CEOs are telling him they think the U.S. economy is likely already in a recession.

“Most CEOs I talk to would say we are probably in a recession right now,” Fink told the Economic Club of New York on Monday. Tariffs are expected to make a wide variety of products more expensive, exacerbating inflationary pressures that have been persistent in recent months.

As I discussed on Friday, our economic momentum has been taking us in the wrong direction for a long time.

And now these tariffs are going to introduce a tremendous amount of chaos into the equation.

As a result of the tariffs that were just imposed, Volkswagen is actually “holding 37,000 cars at US ports”…

Volkswagen is holding 37,000 cars at US ports amid tariff turmoil.

Audi, the luxury arm of the world’s second largest global automaker, has confirmed it’s in a high-stakes holding pattern triggered by President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles.

The affected cars arrived in the U.S. the same day Trump announced the sweeping levies. Now, they sit idle as VW considers its next move. Executives are thought to be hoping for either a presidential U-turn or a chance to negotiate a lower rate.

How long can they possibly hold these vehicles at our ports?

Of course the U.S. auto industry is going to be hit really hard as well…

If President Trump’s trade war has a physical battleground, it is Michigan, where companies and workers are already feeling the beginning of an onslaught that could blow a hole in the state’s economy.

Nearly 20% of the economy is tied to the auto industry, which has become increasingly dependent on parts and vehicles from Canada, Mexico and China—imports Trump hit with steep tariffs in recent weeks. This trade has grown so large that Michigan ranks fifth in the nation by the size of its imports and exports, even though its total economy ranks 14th.

Even before the tariffs were announced, it was clear that a major slowdown was now upon us.

For example, the number of commercial bankruptcies in March 2025 was much higher than the number of commercial bankruptcies in March 2024…

More companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March than a year ago, indicating economic stress among U.S. businesses, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI).

“Commercial Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings increased 20 percent in March 2025, with filings climbing to 733 from the 611 filings registered in March 2024,” ABI said in an April 3 statement.

And during the first three months of this year, U.S. banks filed to close hundreds of local branches…

Banks filed nearly 400 notices for the planned closures of some of their locations across the U.S. in the first three months of the year, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) records.

Only some of these branches have already shut their doors. The closure of others has received approval from the OCC but has not yet been carried through by the bank, which may ultimately decide against it. Many are pending approval from the OCC, an independent federal agency which safeguards the U.S. banking system, making sure it remains accessible to underserved consumers and communities.

I have been warning that it was not going to take much to push the U.S. economy over the edge.

Unfortunately, we just got a really big shove.

We have been through so much economic pain over the past four years, and I know that a lot of people out there were quite eager for better times to arrive.

Sadly, what we are about to experience is not going to be pleasant at all.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

We have never seen so much stock market wealth get wiped out in such a short period of time.  Unfortunately, many major players on Wall Street that made a ton of money on the way up were not prepared for a rapid reversal of this magnitude.  In an article that I posted on Friday, I wrote that “a lot of financial institutions that are deeply overextended” could quickly “find themselves in a tremendous amount of trouble”, and that is definitely turning out to be quite accurate.  All of a sudden, hedge funds are being hit with absolutely enormous margin calls, and this threatens to create a “doom loop” which could potentially push stock prices a whole lot lower.

The panic that we are witnessing on Wall Street right now is very real.

Since January 17th, more than 11 trillion dollars in stock market wealth has been wiped out.

In fact, a total of 6.6 trillion dollars in stock market wealth was wiped out on just Thursday and Friday…

Roughly $11.1 trillion has been wiped away from the U.S. stock market since Jan. 17, the Friday before President Donald Trump took the oath of office and began his second term, according to data from Dow Jones Market Data.

Some $6.6 trillion of that figure was lost on Thursday and Friday alone — the largest two-day wipeout of shareholder value on record, Dow Jones data showed.

We have seen larger percentage drops over the course of two days, but in dollar terms we have never seen stock prices drop as much as they did during that two day period…

Markets have seen bigger percentage drops, such as in 1929 when they tumbled 25 percent over October 28 and 29 that year, but never as much in dollar terms.

This was truly historic.

And now a lot of people are concerned that we could potentially see a “Black Monday” and a “Black Tuesday”…

The selloff that followed President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement was large by any measure, a Black Thursday and a Black Friday. If they are followed by a Black Monday and Tuesday, then everyone is in trouble.

Hopefully global financial markets will start to stabilize soon.

But it certainly hasn’t happened yet.

During an interview with CNN, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins openly admitted that the White House knew that there would be “uncertainty”…

“The idea that we didn’t know that there would be some uncertainty just isn’t true,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We knew there would uncertainty.”

But Rollins urged Americans not to look at Thursday and Friday’s trading and say, “the world is ending; the markets are crashing.” Instead, she argued, “the markets are adjusting.”

I wouldn’t call this an “adjustment”.

The Nasdaq is already in bear market territory.

I would call this a crash.

But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is insisting that most Americans “don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations” of the financial markets…

In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Bessent called it a “false narrative” that people who are close to retiring may be reluctant after their retirement savings may have dropped last week because of the stock market downturn.

“I think that’s a false narrative,” he told moderator Kristen Welker. “Americans who want to retire right now, the Americans who put away for years in their savings accounts, I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations.

I understand that they are trying to keep everyone calm.

But it isn’t working.

At this point, even the largest Wall Street banks are officially freaking out.  They are hitting hedge funds with “Lehman-style margin calls”…

Hedge funds are facing Lehman-style margin calls as a market crash triggered by President Donald Trump’s tariffs raises fears of a looming ‘Black Monday.’

The market’s sharp downturn has forced hedge funds to sell off assets, with major Wall Street banks demanding collateral after the value of holdings sharply declined, according to sources familiar with the situation.

There is now fear that these margin calls could create cycles of forced selling that could drive stock prices down to extremely painful levels.

The sheer panic that we witnessed in New York on Friday was unlike anything that we have seen since the darkest days of 2008…

‘Rates, equities, and oil were all down significantly… it was the broad market movements that caused the scale of the margin calls,’ one prime brokerage executive told the Financial Times.

While, another prime brokerage executive noted: ‘We are proactively reaching out to clients to assess [risk] across their entire portfolios.’

Prime brokerage teams on Wall Street, which lend money to hedge funds, held ‘all hands on deck’ meetings on Friday to prepare for the increasing volume of margin calls, sources told the Financial Times.

Wow.

This is all happening so fast.

A lot of major players that were way out on a limb are going to end up getting their clocks cleaned.

Leverage can be so seductive.  On the way up, it can help you make tremendous amount of money, but on the way down it can feel like the world is ending.

As I have always warned my readers, you only make money in the stock market if you get out in time.

Wall Street loves stability, because stability leads to predictability.

Unfortunately for Wall Street, we have now entered times that are going to be extremely unstable.

A number of my readers have pointed out to me that the stock market was way overdue for a correction, and I agree with that assessment very much.

But what we are witnessing at the moment is not just another run of the mill correction.

What we are witnessing is a full-fledged panic.

Will the White House be able to settle the markets down?

I don’t know, but I will definitely be watching.

Without a doubt, it appears that a very “interesting” week is ahead of us.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

I am trying to find the words to describe the economic carnage that we are witnessing right now.  Even before President Trump unveiled his new tariffs, the U.S. economy was rapidly heading in the wrong direction, layoffs were soaring, and stock prices were steadily falling.  But now it is as if enormous amounts of gasoline have been suddenly poured on the fire.  Trump’s tariffs have caused a massive wave of panic on Wall Street, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,679 points on Thursday.  That was the biggest decline that we have seen since the early days of the pandemic in 2020.  The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also experienced the largest declines that we have seen since 2020.  Everywhere you look there is carnage.  The small-cap Russell 2000 index has now fallen more than 20 percent from the peak, and that officially puts it in bear market territory.  What we are witnessing is absolutely horrifying.

The reason why there is so much fear is because U.S. tariff rates will now be even higher than they were during the early days of the Great Depression…

Trump’s aggressive tariff moves are set to lift the US tariffs rate from just 2.5% last year to 22%, according to Fitch.

That surpasses the roughly 20% tariff rate the United States charged following the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which set off a global trade war that economists say worsened the Great Depression.

Our system is not designed to handle a shock like this.

We needed to address our trade imbalances with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.

The European Union is already telling us that they will retaliate with new tariffs of their own…

The European Union has condemned Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs as ‘a major blow to the world economy’, with world leaders going on the defensive as they digest what the bombshell measures will mean for global trade.

‘There seems to be no order in the disorder. No clear path through the complexity and chaos that is being created as all US trading partners are hit,’ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

Responding to the 20 percent tariffs on EU exports to the United States, she said Brussels was ‘finalising a first package of countermeasures’ and preparing to implement more.

And the Chinese are warning that they will be implementing “countermeasures”…

Nikkei Asia quoted China’s Ministry of Commerce, warning that it “firmly opposes” Trump’s tariffs and “will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests.”

The Commerce Ministry noted that the US “ignored” the benefits of a global trading system, adding, “The so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs,’ which are based on subjective and unilateral assessments by the United States, are not in line with the rules of international trade, seriously jeopardize the legitimate rights and interests of the parties concerned, and are typical of unilateral bullying.”

Our relations with China have been on a downhill trajectory for a long time, and now Chinese officials are absolutely furious.

They know that their economy is going to get hit extremely hard by these tariffs.

In fact, pretty much all major Asian economies will get hit extremely hard by these tariffs…

“Asian economies will be hit harder than most by U.S. reciprocal tariffs,” said Marcel Thieliant, head of Asia-Pacific at Capital Economics. “Not only do Asian economies face higher tariffs than many others, they are also more dependent on U.S. goods demand than most.”

I have written much about how dependent we have become on imports from China.

But the truth is that we have also become highly dependent on imports from other Asian nations as well.

For example, the new 46 percent tariff on goods from Vietnam will be extremely painful for U.S. consumers, because we import vast amounts of clothing, toys, furniture and shoes from that country.

In fact, almost one-third of all footwear imports “came from Vietnam in 2023”…

Nike shares dropped nearly 12% in afternoon trading Thursday. Adidas and other major footwear players also rely heavily on Vietnam.

Adidas said it will evaluate the tariffs and monitor how they will affect its business. Nike did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Nearly a third of footwear imports in the U.S. came from Vietnam in 2023, the most recent full-year data available, according to the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, an industry trade group.

The era of cheap shoes is ending.

Of course the exact same thing could be said about countless other product categories.

Peter Baum, the chief operating officer of Baum Essex, is warning that this “is how you start a global depression”…

Peter Baum is the chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Baum Essex, a New York-based manufacturer with licenses to make products for brands like Nautica, Betsey Johnson and Steve Madden. During the first Trump administration in 2019, Baum moved factories from from China to the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and India.

He told CNBC on Wednesday that the reciprocal tariffs would do massive damage to his company.

“This is how you start a global depression. After 80 years and five generations Trump just put us out of business,” Baum said.

As I discussed yesterday, we haven’t seen an economic event of this magnitude in a long time.

Analysts at JPMorgan are warning that we are facing “a substantial macro economic shock” and that U.S. consumers should brace themselves for substantially higher prices…

JPMorgan noted that the tariffs would hike taxes on Americans by $660 billion a year — the largest tax increase in recent memory by a longshot. It will cause prices to surge, too, adding 2% to the Consumer Price Index, a measure of US inflation that has struggled to come back down to earth in recent years.

“The impact on inflation will be substantial,” the analysts said. “We view the full implementation of these policies as a substantial macro economic shock.”

As this economic shock reverberates throughout the U.S. economy, large numbers of people are going to lose their jobs.

Of course this is already happening.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, layoffs in the U.S. were 205 percent higher in March 2025 than they were in March 2024…

Layoffs across the U.S. surged 205% in March when compared with a year earlier, with last month’s 275,240 job cuts fueled by widespread firings engineered by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

March’s layoffs represent the third-highest monthly total ever recorded, Challenger said. The two previous highest monthly totals were recorded in April 2020 and May 2020, when more than 671,000 and 397,000 job cuts, respectively, were recorded, due to the pandemic shuttering the U.S. economy, according to its data.

Read that last paragraph again.

The only time we have seen worse months was during the early days of the pandemic in 2020.

And now the extreme disruption caused by the new tariffs will inevitably result in even more layoffs.  In fact, Stellantis immediately announced a wave of layoffs following the unveiling of the new tariffs…

Stellantis has “paused production” at some of its Canadian and Mexican auto assembly plants due to the newly announced tariffs — and as a result, some US workers will also be temporarily laid off.

Among those to be laid off are 900 US hourly employees who make powertrains and stampings that supply the affected Canadian and Mexican plants, Stellantis said Thursday. The temporary layoffs are due to reduced production prompted by the tariffs.

We are going to witness such a dramatic shift in the auto industry.

Trump is imposing a 25 percent tariff on all vehicles imported into the United States, and this is going to instantly make imported vehicles much more expensive…

President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported vehicles to the U.S. have taken effect, but the impacts of the new levies on investors and the global automotive industry will play out over the months, if not years, to come.

The 25% tariffs are on any vehicle not assembled in the U.S., which S&P Global Mobility reports accounted for 46% of the roughly 16 million vehicles sold domestically last year. The White House has said it also plans to place tariffs on some auto parts such as engines and transmissions, but those are set to take effect no later than May 3.

The global economy was already slowing down significantly.

A disruption of this magnitude threatens to throw it into a state of complete and utter chaos.

We haven’t seen anything like this since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and that should deeply alarm all of us.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.