Money

Red Alert: Tap-To-Pay Terminals Can Reach Into Your Wallet Or Purse And Charge You For Things You Haven’t Even Purchased

December 31, 2023December 31, 2023 by Michael

Have you noticed a charge on one of your cards that you can’t explain? If so, you may be a victim of one of the “tap-to-pay” terminals that are being installed all over the nation. The television commercials that promote RFID technology that allows us to pay just by tapping a card are designed to make us feel warm and fuzzy about this new method of conducting transactions, but it turns out that this technology is not nearly as secure as most of us thought. The industry insists that cards with these new chips can only be detected four inches away from the terminal, but there have been numerous cases where cards are literally being charged “from across the room”…

Panicked shoppers claim they have been charged for purchases while their credit cards were still in their pockets after in-store tap-to-pay systems read them from across the room.

Several customers have raised the alarm about the glitch which is said to have occurred across stores, restaurants and even a doctor’s office.

One woman said she was at least ‘two feet away’ from the reader when it managed to scan her card information and process a payment.

The local ABC News affiliate in San Francisco interviewed one victim named Edgar Mathews who says that he was billed for his groceries without ever pulling a card out of his wallet…

Mathews was trying to use his debit card to pay for groceries at Safeway — but that never happened.

“I hadn’t tapped it, I hadn’t inserted it, I hadn’t swiped it… and then all of a sudden, out comes a receipt. And I said, ‘How did this get paid for?'” said Mathews.

The cashier couldn’t explain it.

According to the industry, this should never happen.

When Mathews checked his accounts, he discovered that the terminal at Safeway had actually charged a Bank of America credit card that was in his back pocket…

Mathews checked his bank accounts. Turns out, the “tap-to-pay” card reader at Safeway had ignored the debit card in his hand. Instead, it reached into Mathews’s back pocket, through his wallet and charged his Bank of America credit card tucked inside!

The news outlet also interviewed another local resident named Sonya Cesari.

According to her, a tap-to-pay terminal at one store actually read three credit cards that were “tucked in a wallet inside her purse”…

“Three days later at a boutique in Yountville,” said Cesari. She got an even bigger surprise at a little shop.

“The woman said, ‘Oh my, it’s just read three cards,'” said Cesari.

The store’s “tap-to-pay” system charged not only one, but three credit cards tucked in a wallet inside her purse.

Unfortunately, this is a problem that is not going to go away any time soon.

More tap-to-pay terminals are being put in with each passing day, and more tap-to-pay cards are constantly being issued.

So people are going to continue to be charged by mistake.

In some cases victims are actually being charged for goods that someone else is trying to purchase. Just check out the following example which was recently posted on Facebook…

Of course this sort of technology is going to make it even easier for hackers and scammers to steal from the general population.

Credit cards and debit cards are both extremely vulnerable, and criminals have a variety of methods that they can use to extract the information that they need…

Have you ever thought about how woefully insecure credit and debit cards are? Try this experiment: Plug a USB magnetic strip reader into a computer, open a word processor, swipe a credit card, and boom—you just stole your own card information. It’s that easy.

Now consider that the same technology comes in faster and smaller forms. Tiny “skimmers” can be attached to ATMs and payment terminals to pilfer your data from the card’s magnetic strip (called a “magstripe”). Even smaller “shimmers” are shimmed into card readers to attack the chips on newer cards. There’s now also a digital version called e-skimming, pilfering data from payment websites.

So what can we do to protect ourselves?

There are sleeves that you can get to protect your cards, and there are entire wallets that are designed to block RFID signals.

And it is imperative to always be diligent.

It has been said that “complacency is a killer”, and that is so true.

Try to avoid using ATM machines as much as possible, and if you are making payment at a gas station or some other highly vulnerable location always look for signs that something is out of place.

But no matter how hard you try, the truth is that credit cards and debit cards are never going to be 100 percent safe.

In 2022, credit card fraud surpassed the 34 billion dollar mark…

Credit and debit card fraud losses reached a record $34.36 billion in 2022 after increasing roughly 5% from the previous year.

The final number for 2023 will inevitably be even higher.

We live at a time when theft of all types is on the rise, and it will be even worse during the period of great societal chaos that is directly ahead of us.

2024 is going to be such a crazy year, and as conditions deteriorate people around us are going to become even more desperate.

So always watch your back, and always be diligent.

Predators are constantly on the prowl, and you do not want to be the next victim.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible. I have also started a brand new Substack newsletter, and I encourage you to subscribe so that you won’t miss any of my articles. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help. 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, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Banks Are Closing Thousands Of Branches And Retailers Are Shutting Down Thousands Of Stores

December 27, 2023December 27, 2023 by Michael

If the U.S. economy really is in “good shape”, then why are so many prominent businesses rushing to permanently shut down locations that were once profitable? As you will see below, U.S. banks are closing thousands of branches and U.S. retailers are closing thousands of stores. If a new golden age of prosperity is dead ahead, that wouldn’t make any sense at all. Of course the truth is that most Americans are really struggling in our current economic environment, and conditions are going to get even worse in 2024.

Bank executives can see what is happening, and so they are feverishly trimming costs.

During the first 10 months of this year, banks in the United States closed a total of 2,118 branches…

U.S. banks closed 2,118 branch locations between January and the end of October, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Sadly, branches continue to get shut down at a staggering rate.

For example, it is being reported that Bank of America has decided to permanently shut down “nearly two dozen Bay Area branches or ATMs”…

Bank of America has shuttered or plans to shutter nearly two dozen Bay Area branches or ATMs, according to recent filings.

Banks are legally required to report closures to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency at least 90 days before their scheduled shuttering, so customers will know if they’ll be impacted.

Another way that banks are cutting costs is by laying off workers.

According to Zero Hedge, twenty of the largest banks have combined to eliminate 61,905 jobs so far this year…

A new report from the Financial Times shows twenty of the world’s largest banks slashed 61,905 jobs in 2023, a move to protect profit margins in a period of high interest rates amid a slump in dealmaking and equity and debt sales. This compared with the 140,000 lost during the GFC of 2007-08.

“There is no stability, no investment, no growth in most banks — and there are likely to be more job cuts,” said Lee Thacker, owner of financial services headhunting firm Silvermine Partners.

FT noted that corporate disclosure data and its independent reporting did not include smaller regional bank cuts, indicating total job loss could be much higher.

The banks are not okay.

In fact, I expect the big banks to make lots of headlines in 2024.

Meanwhile, problems continue to pile up for the retail industry.

CNN says that Nike is “a bellwether for the global economy”, and so the fact that the company is planning to cut costs by about 2 billion dollars is not a good sign at all…

Nike, a bellwether for the global economy, sounded a warning sign Thursday as the sneaker giant sees consumers becoming more cautious.

Nike slashed its revenue outlook for the year and announced cost cuts amid growing concerns that consumers are slowing their spending around the world. The company said it’s looking for as much as $2 billion in cost savings in the next three years, which includes laying off employees.

But at least Nike is still in business.

2023 was a year when U.S. retailers closed thousands of stores, and a number of well known chains actually had to file for bankruptcy…

Twenty major retailers axed 2,847 locations between them in 2023, according to Business Insider – as more and more shoppers buy their products online

The issue has been exacerbated by rampant spates of crime which have forced many companies to lock up their products. Earlier this year, Target alone said it was losing as much as $500 million a year to theft.

It is little wonder then that retailers are struggling to cope. Bed Bath & Beyond, Rite Aid and Party City are among the major chains to have filed for bankruptcy in the last 12 months.

Some of you may be thinking that those retailers are hurting because of the growth of the online retail industry.

But online retailers are going belly up too. For example, Zulily just announced that it will be permanently going out of business…

Online retailer Zulily is shutting down.

The company announced on its website it has made the “difficult but necessary decision to conduct an orderly wind-down of the business.”

Zulily said it will “strive to continue to provide everyone with the best service possible during the holiday season” and it will try to fulfill all pending orders and ensure that orders that could not be filled are canceled and refunded.

Of course the mainstream media will continue to insist that these are just isolated incidents and that the overall economy is doing just fine.

One of the primary reasons why they try to slant economic news in such a positive direction is because most of them are Democrats…

A new study from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications found that just 3.4% of American journalists are Republicans.

The study is based “on an online survey with 1,600 U.S. journalists conducted in early 2022” and is the latest in a series of studies stretching back to 1971 that take the temperature of the fourth estate’s partisan lean, job satisfaction, and professional attitudes.

When the first iteration of the study came out over 50 years ago, 35.5% of respondents said they were Democrats, 25.7% said they were Republicans, and 32.5% said they were Independents.

Since a Democrat is currently in the White House, they want you to feel good about the economy so that you will vote for Democrats in 2024.

But everyone can see that the economy is coming apart at the seams all around us, and most Americans do not have a good feeling about what is coming during the year ahead.

I am entirely convinced that the economic trends that we have witnessed in 2023 will greatly accelerate in 2024.

Needless to say, that will not be good news at all.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

Even The Mainstream Media Is Starting To Admit That The World Is Teetering On “The Brink” Of Complete And Utter Chaos

December 26, 2023December 26, 2023 by Michael

A “perfect storm” is raging all around us, and our world is so close to plunging into a complete and utter state of chaos that even the mainstream media is talking about it. The past several years have been a time when multiple major wars have begun, pestilences have paralyzed the entire planet, the worst global food crisis in modern history has erupted, and we have been hit by a seemingly endless series of natural disasters. But there is a growing consensus that even more difficult times are ahead of us. During a roundtable discussion on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, CBS News correspondent Catherine Herridge actually confessed that she is concerned that “2024 may be the year of a black swan event”…

CBS News’ “Face the Nation” held a roundtable on Christmas Eve, affording various talking heads an opportunity to make predictions for 2024. While most of the predictions were relatively banal, one among them stood out, prompting critics to puzzle over its possible significance.

Network correspondent Catherine Herridge, the wife of a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, suggested that “2024 may be the year of a black swan event. This is a national security event with high impact that’s very hard to predict.”

I agree with her, but I don’t think that it will be just one “black swan event” that we will be facing.

Specifically, Herridge gave several reasons for why she felt the need to issue such a “dark” prediction…

Herridge told the other CBS News panelists Sunday there were a number of concerns that factored into her “dark” prediction, including that “this sort of enduring heightened threat level that we’re facing, the wars in Israel, also Ukraine, and we’re so divided in this country in ways that we haven’t seen before. And I think that just creates fertile ground for our adversaries like North Korea and China and Iran.”

Hmmm…

It seems like I have heard all of this somewhere before.

I just can’t seem to put my finger on it…

Of course she is right on target.

So much is going to happen during the new year that is about to start.

CNN is getting in on the act too. The following comes from an article that they just posted entitled “How 2023 has been the ‘year of the brink’ and 2024 could be worse”…

It could have been immeasurably worse. But holding back from the brink in 2023 has simply deferred vast crises to 2024. The post-Covid world is exhausted, cash-strapped, but ultimately more fraught than for decades.

Overshadowing it all will be a flagging hyperpower, at best distracted with presidential elections, at worst tearing itself apart in voting disputes and political extremism.

The likelihood the United States will be occupied by its own traumas amplifies each risk. The geopolitical given of a US response will be absent, fuelling authoritarian ambition, or a radical upending of the global order. 2024 could make 2023 seem rational and sober.

Very well said.

When CNN starts publishing articles that sound like they could have been written by me, that is clearly a sign that time is very short.

Just like Herridge, the author of the CNN article is also deeply concerned about the current state of the conflict in Ukraine…

Having spent two weeks around the frontlines, it is clear Kyiv faces an existential crisis in the coming winter. It will not survive without Western help. It cannot admit to the scale of challenges it faces without being dubbed by some US Republicans a loser, unworthy of US funding.

It is true.

Ukraine will not survive without western assistance.

And even if funding is restored to previous levels, the Russians will continue to gain ground.

At some point the government in Ukraine is going to become extremely desperate, and that is when things will start to get very “interesting” over there.

Meanwhile, the war in the Middle East just continues to heat up.

On Tuesday, the U.S. military conducted a series of strikes on Iranian-backed forces in Iraq…

At President Joe Biden’s direction, the U.S. military carried out the strikes in Iraq at 1:45 GMT, likely killing “a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants” and destroying multiple facilities used by the group, the U.S. military said.

“These strikes are intended to hold accountable those elements directly responsible for attacks on coalition forces in Iraq and Syria and degrade their ability to continue attacks. We will always protect our forces,” said General Michael Erik Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, in a statement.

A U.S. base in Iraq’s Erbil that houses U.S. forces came under attack from a one-way drone earlier on Monday, leading to the latest U.S. casualties.

Iranian-backed forces have already attacked U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria more than 100 times.

Whether the Biden administration is willing to publicly admit it or not, the truth is that the U.S. is already at war in the Middle East.

Could we soon be at war with China as well?

Chinese President Xi Jinping just issued quite an ominous statement about Taiwan…

President Xi Jinping vowed on Tuesday to resolutely prevent anyone from “splitting Taiwan from China in any way”, the official Xinhua news agency reported, a little more than two weeks before Taiwan elects a new leader.

China views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, despite the strong objections of the government in Taipei, and has ramped up military and political pressure to assert its sovereignty claims.

The Chinese will not invade before the upcoming election in Taiwan.

And I don’t think that the Chinese will invade during the early months of 2024.

But an invasion is most definitely coming.

For years, I have been urging my readers to watch Russia, China and Israel.

Now a time of global conflict is upon us, and many believe that 2024 will be the year when we finally pass the point of no return.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

This Year, Americans Have Become Hungrier, Lonelier And More Desperate

December 25, 2023December 25, 2023 by Michael

The ominous trends that we see all around us are taking us somewhere. Needless to say, 2023 was not a good year for our country. Hunger and homelessness have been absolutely exploding, the suicide rate just continues to go even higher, and there is chaos in the streets on an almost nightly basis. It is in this environment that the election of 2024 will happen. I expect election season to add an additional level of strain to our society, and I don’t think that our society will be able to handle it. We are headed for a nightmare, and at this point everyone should be able to see that.

When conditions deteriorate, it is often those at the bottom of the economic food chain that feel it first.

And right now food banks all over the nation are dealing with a tsunami of hunger…

Food bank leaders from all corners of the country tell USA TODAY their neighborhood pantries are serving more people while using less resources, as economic pressures continue to ravage the budgets of low-income Americans and service providers alike.

Since pandemic-era boosts to government food aid ended earlier this year in many states, families are turning to food banks to close a gap in need that feels like it has no end in sight.

Susannah Morgan, the president of Oregon Food Bank, says that she is literally witnessing “the worst rate of hunger in my career”…

“This is the worst rate of hunger in my career,” said Morgan, who has worked at food banks in Boston, San Francisco and Anchorage, Alaska. “It’s so large, it’s hard to wrap your head around.”

I don’t know what I have to do to convince some people that things really are this bad.

I keep sharing fact after fact in my articles, but some people out there are just not convinced.

One out of every five children in the U.S. does not have enough food to eat, but the reality of the suffering that is now taking place just isn’t sinking in for many of those that are still living the high life.

Meanwhile, homelessness in the U.S. is increasing at the fastest rate ever recorded…

The United States experienced a dramatic 12 percent increase in homelessness as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans, federal officials said Friday.

About 653,000 people were experiencing homelessness during the January snapshot. That’s the highest number since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007 to count the homeless population.

There are many out there that feel that such people need to “get a job” or “work harder”, but the truth is that most Americans are living on the verge of economic disaster because most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

At the same time, Americans continue to get even lonelier.

According to USA Today, “Americans are lonely and it’s killing them”, and at this point things are so bad that this crisis is being called “a new epidemic”…

America has a new epidemic. It can’t be treated using traditional therapies even though it has debilitating and even deadly consequences.

The problem seeping in at the corners of our communities is loneliness and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is hoping to generate awareness and offer remedies before it claims more lives.

“Most of us probably think of loneliness as just a bad feeling,” he told USA TODAY. “It turns out that loneliness has far greater implications for our health when we struggle with a sense of social disconnection, being lonely or isolated.”

It is especially bad during this time of the year.

There are so many people out there that are deeply, deeply hurting because they are so lonely.

They are trying their best to face a world that has gone completely mad, but that can be really difficult to do when you don’t have anyone to lean on for support.

Speaking of a world gone mad, retail theft has absolutely skyrocketed in many of our largest cities since 2019…

Crime-ridden New York City has seen the biggest impact with a 64 percent increase in retail theft, followed by Los Angeles with a 61 percent jump and Virginia Beach, Virginia, which has seen a 44 percent rise.

Each month, more Americans are descending into poverty and more Americans are turning to crime.

And it certainly doesn’t help that vast hordes of illegal immigrants are constantly being added to the mix.

Chaos in the streets has become an almost constant state of affairs in this country, and this year in Oakland there was even rioting on Christmas Eve.

Of course our leaders continue to exist in a bubble where none of these problems constitutes a serious crisis.

To them, everything must be just fine because they are doing such a wonderful job.

When he was recently confronted about the reality of the economic crisis that we are now facing, Joe Biden bluntly told the press to “start reporting it the right way”…

President Biden criticized news coverage of the U.S. economy as he faces growing backlash from voters over his handling of inflation.

In brief remarks Saturday before boarding the presidential helicopter, Biden expressed confidence in the economy and ripped the reporters for the way it has been portrayed.

“All good. Take a look. Start reporting it the right way,” Biden said when asked about his economic outlook for 2024, according to a transcript released Sunday by the White House.

He wants the press to continue to spin things in a way that will make him look good as they always have done in the past.

But we have reached a stage where all of the charades are finally crumbling.

Conditions are bad now, and they are going to get even worse in 2024.

So brace yourself for what is ahead, because we are going to experience so much chaos during the year that is in front of us.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

This is Why A War Between The United States And China Is Inevitable

December 21, 2023December 21, 2023 by Michael

One of the biggest bombshells of the entire year just dropped, but now it has almost entirely disappeared from the news cycle. NBC News is reporting that during their recent summit meeting in San Francisco, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Joe Biden to his face that a decision has been made to “reunify Taiwan with China” one way or the other. Normally the Chinese keep their cards very close to the vest, and so this was a very unusual move. My guess is that the Chinese wanted to see how Biden would respond to such a direct statement. Xi Jinping expressed his desire to take over Taiwan peacefully if possible, but we all know that isn’t going to happen. So war is coming, and the only thing that needs to be decided now is the timing…

Chinese President Xi Jinping bluntly told President Joe Biden during their recent summit in San Francisco that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided, according to three current and former U.S. officials.

Xi told Biden in a group meeting attended by a dozen American and Chinese officials that China’s preference is to take Taiwan peacefully, not by force, the officials said.

The Chinese leader also referenced public predictions by U.S. military leaders who say that Xi plans to take Taiwan in 2025 or 2027, telling Biden that they were wrong because he has not set a time frame, according to the two current and one former official briefed on the meeting.

I kind of expected the White House to deny that this exchange took place, but that did not happen…

The White House didn’t deny the exchange, which occurred during a Nov. 15 summit outside San Francisco that was attended by a dozen US and Chinese officials.

“I’m not gonna get into the specifics of the discussion between the two leaders,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Air Force One en route to Milwaukee.

Wow.

So why isn’t everyone in America talking about this?

Why has this almost entirely disappeared from the news cycle already?

This is one of the biggest stories of the year.

War with China is coming, and the Chinese have been feverishly preparing for it.

For example, the Chinese just imposed export controls on rare earth processing technology…

Following the meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation event in San Francisco last month, the hopes for de-escalation in Sino-US relations seem to have fallen apart after China announced export controls on rare-earths technologies.

China is the world’s top processor of rare earths and has placed an export ban on technology to extract and separate rare-earth metals, according to Bloomberg, citing a document from the Ministry of Commerce.

The move comes as Washington and its allies try to reduce reliance on China’s stranglehold of the global rare earths market. There are 17 rare earth metals, and Beijing controls about 85% of the global refining capacity. These metals are found in everything from electric vehicles to wind turbines to military hardware.

Expect to see more dramatic economic moves by the Chinese in the months ahead.

China has also been working on a whole host of new weapons systems.

Reportedly, this also includes weapons that employ “advanced brain warfare technology”…

China is working on advanced brain warfare technology which is said to include devices that can send enemies to sleep and control their thoughts, according to an uncovered report.

Researchers have found two recent studies by China’s People’s Liberation Army that show the military is increasing its ‘hard power’ weapons with new technology to win wars without conventional weapons.

The biological weapons are designed to induce sleep, impair cognition and alertness as well as impact decision making, The Washington Times reports.

In addition, Chinese hackers have been feverishly hacking into “critical U.S. infrastructure” in anticipation of the coming conflict…

President Joe Biden’s administration warned that Chinese hackers have been positioning themselves inside critical U.S. infrastructure to cause “societal chaos” from within should war break out.

According to reports, the Communist Party of China’s military has burrowed into more than 20 major utilities suppliers in the last year including a water utility in Hawaii, a major West Coast port and at least one oil and gas pipeline. They reportedly also bypassed elaborate cyber security systems by intercepting passwords and log-ins unguarded by junior employees.

This project they are conducting amid growing tension over Taiwan was codenamed Volt Typhoon. Analysts commented this could unplug U.S. efforts to protect its interests in the South China Sea. “It is very clear that Chinese attempts to compromise critical infrastructure are in part to pre-position themselves to be able to disrupt or destroy that critical infrastructure in the event of a conflict,” said Brandon Wales of the Department of Homeland Security‘s (DHS’) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Meanwhile, it appears that the war in the Middle East could soon go to the next level.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the “buffer zone has moved south of the border, and the IDF faces daily mortar attacks from Hezbollah.”

And Newsweek is telling us that “Israel has edged closer to an all-out war with the Lebanese Hezbollah movement”…

Israel has edged closer to an all-out war with the Lebanese Hezbollah movement amid a worsening round of hostilities playing out as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is already engaged in its most intensive conflict to date in the Gaza Strip, an IDF official has said.

IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters Monday that Hezbollah has fired “more than 1,000 different types of ammunition, rockets, missiles, drones, mortars and others toward Israel” since October 8, the day after the Palestinian Hamas movement led an unprecedented surprise attack against Israel from Gaza.

Conricus warned that “Hezbollah, who as everybody knows is a proxy of Iran, is dangerously dragging Lebanon into an unnecessary war that could have potential devastating consequences for the state of Lebanon and for the people of Lebanon.

Even though I have not been writing about the war in the Middle East much recently, it is just a matter of time before it absolutely explodes.

The Israeli government has decided to push Hezbollah beyond the Litani River, and Hezbollah will not ever allow that to happen willingly…

Israel is planning to invade Lebanon to push Hezbollah back from its northern border, according to reports, amid a barrage of rocket attacks since the war in Gaza broke out and fears that the terror group is ‘worse than Hamas’.

After weeks of exchanging cross-border fire, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are said to be keen to launch a ground offensive into southern Lebanon which would aim to push the terror group north past the Litani River.

Elsewhere, the Russians are attacking on “six fronts” in Ukraine, and Kim Jong Un just threatened the United States with nuclear war…

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Pyongyang will not hesitate to launch a nuclear attack on the US if ‘provoked with nukes’, state media said Thursday.

Kim’s warning follows a meeting between South Korea and the United States last week in Washington, where they discussed nuclear deterrence in the event of conflict with the North.

Without a doubt, we are living at a time of wars and rumors of wars, and I fully expect 2024 to be a year of war.

So I would encourage all of you to get prepared for the chaos that is ahead, because global events will soon spiral completely out of control.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

Has A “Silent Depression” Already Started In The United States?

December 20, 2023 by Michael

The Biden administration and the corporate media are telling us over and over that the economy is just fine, but the term “silent depression” has been going viral on TikTok. Housing, vehicles, food and just about everything else that we spend money on is far more unaffordable today than it was during the Great Depression of the 1930s. A realtor in Florida named Freddie Smith posted a video on TikTok with some absolutely startling numbers about the cost of living in the United States today, and that is what started the “silent depression” trend…

TikTok user Freddie Smith, a realtor based in Orlando, posted a video in September claiming that the U.S. economy is in what he calls a “Silent Depression.” In the video, which has amassed nearly 800,000 likes, Smith compares the average 2023 salary and basic costs to those of the Great Depression to highlight the growing cost-of-living crisis in the country.

“If you look back to the Great Depression, the house was only three times the average salary. Now, it is eight times the average salary,” Smith said. “The car was 46% of the salary, the car today is 85% of the salary. And here’s the craziest part, the rent was 16% of the average salary, it is now 42% of the average salary.”

Of course he is right on target.

There is a reason why 62 percent of the country is currently living paycheck to paycheck.

The cost of living has become incredibly oppressive for most Americans, and nobody can deny that reality.

@fmsmith319Great depression vs silent depression♬ original sound – Freddie Smith

When Whoopi Goldberg declared that “Millennials just need to work harder” during one of her crazed rants, Smith followed up with another video about the rising cost of living…

@fmsmith319Boomers: “Millennials just need to work harder.”♬ original sound – Freddie Smith

Many Americans are working as hard as they can, but they just keep falling farther and farther behind.

But we aren’t supposed to talk about what is happening.

We are just supposed to pretend that everything is just wonderful.

And now the corporate media has been putting out lots of articles attempting to debunk Smith’s videos. Here is just one example…

But economists strongly disagree.

“Any notion from TikTok that life was better in 1923 than it is now is divorced from reality,” said Columbia Business School economics professor Brett House.

So what is the truth?

Are we in a “silent depression” or not?

Let’s take a look at three key areas.

If honest numbers were being used, they would show that GDP growth has been negative for almost the entire time that Joe Biden has been in the White House.

That would indicate that we are at least experiencing a recession.

And if honest numbers were being used, they would show that the unemployment rate in this country is sitting at about 25 percent right now.

Needless to say, that is absolutely horrible.

And if the rate of inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, it would still be in double digit territory even though it has come down a bit.

The official numbers that the government gives us are designed to make us feel good about things.

But at this point things are so bad that the charade is falling apart.

It certainly feels like a “silent depression” if you just got laid off from your job.

And it certainly feels like a “silent depression” if you cannot pay your bills…

Millions of Americans strapped with student loan debt are still not paying their bills after a three-year payment hiatus ended this fall.

Federal student loan payments restarted at the beginning of October after President Biden declined to extend the pandemic-era pause that first began in March 2020 under his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.

However, 40% of the 22 million borrowers who had bills due failed to make a payment as of mid-November, according to a new report published by the Department of Education. That means about 9 million Americans who have payments due are not making them.

And it certainly feels like a “silent depression” if you cannot sell your home…

Home sales in California plunged to the lowest level in 15 years in November, according to the latest data shared by the California Association of Realtors (CAR).

According to a report released on Tuesday, existing single-family home sales were down 7.4 percent last month compared to October and down 5.8 percent from November 2022, totaling 223,940. It was the biggest monthly decline in the past year, which plunged existing home sales in California to the lowest level since the Great Recession of 2008-2009.

And it certainly feels like a “silent depression” if you are living in the streets…

Homelessness shot up by more than 12% this year, reaching 653,104 people. The numbers represent the sharpest increase and largest unhoused population since the federal government began tallying totals in 2007, the U.S. Department of Urban Planning and Development said Friday.

If the economy is in “good shape” why are Americans becoming homeless at the fastest pace ever recorded?

That doesn’t make any sense at all.

But those at the top of the economic food chain simply do not understand what all the fuss is about. Today, Americans age 70 and older now hold more than 30 percent of the nation’s wealth. For the moment, life is good for the elite, and they think that the rest of us just need to work harder.

Of course they shouldn’t be looking down their noses at the rest of us, because hard times are coming for them as well.

The “silent depression” that has already started is hitting those at the bottom of the economic food chain the hardest, but those at the very top will soon be feeling it too.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

62 Percent Of Americans Live Paycheck To Paycheck And The Bottom Of The Economic Food Chain Is Already Collapsing

December 19, 2023December 19, 2023 by Michael

Thanks to a soaring stock market, the wealthy are feeling very good about things right now, but the rest of the country is really hurting. Homelessness is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded, the number of children that are suffering from hunger is rapidly growing, and more than 60 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. The mainstream media continues to insist that the economy is in good shape, but how can that possibly be true if nearly two-thirds of the entire nation is just barely scraping by? According to brand new numbers that were just released, the percentage of U.S. adults that live paycheck to paycheck has actually increased by 4 percent just since the month of March…

Sixty-two percent of adults in December said they live paycheck to paycheck, up from 58 percent in March.
Forty percent of consumers living paycheck to paycheck have super-prime credit scores.
Fifty-seven percent of consumers who own credit cards are living paycheck to paycheck.

Yikes!

But even though most of the country is living on the edge financially, 96 percent of shoppers say that they plan to “overspend” this holiday season…

This year, holiday spending from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 is expected to increase between 3% and 4% over last year to a record total of $957.3 billion to $966.6 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.

Even as credit card debt tops $1 trillion, almost all — or 96% — of shoppers said they expect to overspend this season, a separate TD Bank survey found.

Half of consumers plan to take on more debt to cover those holiday expenses, according to another report by Ally Bank. Only 23% have a plan to pay it off within one to two months.

Are you kidding me?

Needless to say, those numbers are yet another confirmation of what I wrote about yesterday.

We just can’t help ourselves.

No matter how much we already have, we always feel the need to have more.

But even though we continue to spend more money, we certainly aren’t better off than in past years. Just check out these new poll numbers…

Almost half of voters say the Biden administration’s economic policies have hurt them and only 14 percent say they are better off, according to yet another poll that suggests President Joe Biden is struggling to get his message across ahead of next year’s election.

Even he realizes it, quietly benching the term ‘Bidenomics’ in speeches during the past month.

Overall, his economic policies have a 32-point disapproval rating in a new survey for Fox News, with far more voters feeling they have been hurt than helped.

The people that are doing better off are those at the very top of the economic food chain.

The stock market has been doing really well in recent weeks, but some experts are warning that this is just a temporary phenomenon.

In fact, Harry Dent is warning that “2024 is going to be the biggest single crash year we’ll see in our lifetimes”…

As the clock ticks closer to 2024, one outspoken economist is making a dire predication about the markets in the new year.

“Since 2009, this has been 100% artificial, unprecedented money printing and deficits; $27 trillion over 15 years, to be exact. This is off the charts, 100% artificial, which means we’re in a dangerous state,” Harry Dent told Fox News Digital. “I think 2024 is going to be the biggest single crash year we’ll see in our lifetimes.”

For some reason, he is pointing to the month of May as a time when things will get really bad…

“If I’m right, it is going to be the biggest crash of our lifetime, most of it happening in 2024. You’re going to see it start and be more obvious by May,” the analyst stressed. “So if you just get out for six to 12 months and stuff stays at the highest valuation history, maybe you miss a little more gains if I’m wrong. If I’m right, you’re going to save massive losses and be able to reinvest a year or year-and-a-half from now at unbelievably low prices and magnify your gains beyond compare.”

Of course predicting a stock market crash in 2024 isn’t exactly going out on a limb.

It is kind of like predicting that the sky will be blue or the Jets will stink.

At this stage, everyone can see that the stock market bubble is on borrowed time.

Meanwhile, the bottom of the economic food chain is already collapsing…

–1 out of 5 U.S. children already do not have enough food to eat.

-U.S. food banks are dealing with unprecedented demand.

-Homelessness in the United States is growing at the fastest pace ever recorded.

The homelessness crisis is particularly dire in the state of California.

If you can believe it, California accounts for almost half of all people living in the streets in the entire country…

California counted 181,399 people experiencing homelessness in January. Of those, 123,423 people (68%) were “unsheltered”, meaning living outside in tents, cars or other makeshift shelters, as opposed to indoor shelters or temporary setups. At 68%, the state has a greater share of its homeless population living outdoors than any other state and accounts for 49% of all people living on the streets in the US.

In most states, a majority of the homeless population is indoors. New York, for example, has one of the largest overall homeless populations, but only 4.9% were on the streets.

In my new book, I encourage those that are living in the state of California to consider relocating.

The state possesses immense natural beauty, but the left has turned it into a nightmare.

When an economic crisis arrives, it is those that are at the bottom of the food chain that often feel it first.

The bottom of the economic food chain in the United States is already collapsing, and it won’t be too long before those at the very top feel a tremendous amount of pain as well.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

We Have Become An Extremely Gluttonous Society That Consumes Far More Than It Produces

December 18, 2023December 18, 2023 by Michael

The United States has become an extremely gluttonous society. When I say that, I am not just talking about food. According to Gallup, obesity and diabetes “have both reached record highs”, but that is just a very small portion of the overall picture. As a society, we have an absolutely voracious appetite for just about anything that is not good for us. No matter how much we have already consumed, we feel compelled to consume even more. But of course our level of production is not keeping up with our level of consumption. So in order to maintain our ridiculously inflated standard of living we must endlessly go even deeper into debt, and all of the debt that we have accumulated is literally destroying the bright future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have.

As a nation, we should be mourning for what we have lost.

Earlier today, I was greatly distressed to learn that U.S. Steel is being sold to the Japanese…

US Steel has agreed to be bought by Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest steelmaker, in a $14.1 billion deal.

The deal marks the latest step in a gradual decline for the iconic 122-year old company, which was once the largest company on the planet. It was one of the first major conglomerates and a symbol of American industrial might.

But it is no longer even the largest US steelmaker, having been surpassed by Nucor Steel years ago.

U.S. Steel was one of the last remaining symbols of American industrial might.

It was literally founded by J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie, and without U.S. Steel the football team in Pittsburgh never would have been named “the Steelers”.

Thankfully, some lawmakers are pledging to oppose this deal. U.S. Senator JD Vance is one of them…

Some lawmakers from rust belt states joined the union in voicing opposition to a foreign buyer Monday.

“Today, a critical piece of America’s defense industrial base was auctioned off to foreigners for cash,” said Ohio’s Republican Senator JD Vance, in a statement. “I warned of this outcome months ago and will oppose it in the months ahead.”

He is right.

We can’t allow our industrial base to be auctioned off to foreigners.

If we want to have a great economy, we have got to be great at making stuff.

It really is that simple.

Meanwhile, our level of consumption continues to go up, and this is driving U.S. households into staggering amounts of debt…

A growing number of Americans are falling behind on their monthly credit card and car loan payments, a trend that may be a harbinger of economic troubles ahead, according to a new report from Moody’s Analytics.

Findings published by Moody’s indicate that household debt balances jumped to $17.29 trillion in the three-month period from July to September, up 1.3% from the previous quarter. That also marks an increase of $3.1 trillion since the last quarter of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Delinquency rates spiked just prior to the Great Recession, and it is starting to happen again.

In fact, Zero Hedge is reporting that “40% of student loan borrowers skipped their payment in October”…

In October, the number of Americans delinquent on subprime auto loans hit the highest rate on record, amid a rise in Google searches for “give car back” – while the number of people who are upside-down on auto loans is at the highest level since April 2020.

Now, according to data released Friday by the Biden administration, 40% of student loan borrowers skipped their payment in October, the first since the pandemic-era freeze on student debt expired.

Of course when it comes to debt, the federal government is the biggest offender of all.

Right now we are 33.8 trillion dollars in debt, and we will almost certainly hit the 34 trillion dollar mark before the end of the year.

We have stolen all of this money from future generations of Americans, and it is a crime that is so great that I don’t even have the words to describe it.

But we just can’t help ourselves.

If we think that something is going to make us feel good, we have just got to have it.

So we just keep spending and consuming with no end in sight.

Once upon a time, Christmas was considered to be a religious holiday by many Americans, but now it has just become a giant orgy of greed and consumption.

For most people, getting more stuff is the real “reason for the season”.

What in the world has happened to us?

At this point, we have become a society where literally anything goes…

A Democrat congressional aide who was fired for filming a gay sex tape in the Senate is facing possible criminal charges after his X-rated clip swept the internet.

Aidan Maese-Czeropski, 24, was fired by Maryland Senator Ben Cardin Saturday afternoon, less than a day after a lewd video showing two men having sex in a Senate hearing room was exposed.

The Capitol Police are reportedly now investigating the explicit incident, which occurred in the same room where Supreme Court justice nominees are grilled by senators.

What happens in Washington D.C. is truly a reflection of what is going on in our society as a whole.

Our leaders have been making horrendous decisions for decades, but the American people keep sending the same people back to D.C. over and over again.

But this game cannot go on indefinitely.

If we do not find a way to turn things around, time will soon run out for our nation.

So let us hope for a national awakening.

Unfortunately, our gluttony appears to be reaching a crescendo, and it appears that most Americans are unlikely to be shaken out of their stupor any time soon.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

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