Money

The U.S. government is $40,068,807,991,924.84 in debt, and all of a sudden the rest of the world has become a lot more hesitant to lend us money. Bond prices are crashing and rates are spiking. For years, I warned that our politicians were borrowing and spending way too much money. But those politicians just kept voting for budgets with bigger and bigger deficits. Now we find ourselves in the middle of a financial nightmare with no way out. The same thing could be said about Japan and most nations in Europe. Globally, bond prices have been steadily plummeting as bond yields have skyrocketed. Unfortunately for all of us, financial institutions all over the planet are holding gigantic mountains of government bonds that have collapsed in value. The unrealized losses that they are potentially facing will be off the charts. Meanwhile, rapidly rising interest rates could set off an unprecedented derivatives implosion. At this point, the total notional amount outstanding for global over-the-counter interest rate derivatives is well over 600 trillion dollars.

As long as investors still had faith in the game, everything was going to be fine.

But now investors are losing faith in the U.S. government, the Japanese government and governments all over Europe, because they have been borrowing money at insanely reckless levels.

So now we have a massive crisis on our hands, and last week things really started to get out of hand.

In fact, last week was definitely “a week of pain” for financially irresponsible governments throughout the world…

This has been a week of pain for anyone who borrows money.

All over the world, lenders are demanding higher interest rates. The global bond market is extracting higher yields from every borrower, starting with the biggest borrowers of all: national governments. But not every government is paying equally.

Trustworthy borrowers with solid finances and honest leadership pay less. Distrusted borrowers with disordered finances and corrupt leaders pay more. In times past, the United States would have headed that first list.

In a previous article, I explained that historically when the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries hits 5.25 percent things start to get really crazy.

Well, late last week the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries was hovering around 5.2 percent…

In trading yesterday, the yield on a U.S. 10-year Treasury bond hovered near 5.2 percent. Germany pays less than the United States. France pays less than the United States. Canada pays less than the United States. Even Greece pays less than the United States. Estonia—a country under constant threat of a Russian invasion and the annihilation of its sovereignty—pays much less than the United States: only 3.6 percent.

We were only going to be able to play this game for so long.

I don’t know why this was so difficult for so many of the “experts” to understand.

At one point on Friday, the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries reached 5.23 percent, which was the highest that we have seen since just before the last global financial crisis…

Investors were rattled this week as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield soared to its highest level since 2007, but sticky inflation is just one of the factors behind this latest surge.

The key 10-year Treasury yield, which influences mortgages, leapt to 5.23% on Friday for its highest level since 2007. It was the latest leg higher for the benchmark yield, which earlier this month was trading just below 4.8%. Bond yields and prices move inversely to one another.

This is what a bond market collapse looks like, and we are still only in the early stages.

On X, one popular account warned that most people have “no idea what is about to happen”…

The era of easy money is over, and that is really bad news for all of us.

John Roque has pointed out that there have been 16 times throughout history when bond yields have spiked like this. Every single time, it has resulted in some sort of a financial crisis…

“Something always breaks,” proclaimed a recent note from John Roque, head of technical analysis at 22V Research.

Roque pointed out on a chart of the 10-year Treasury yield going back the last five decades 16 instances where it experienced a rapid advance like it is now. During each and every move, some sort of financial calamity resulted. While the scale of the crises varied in their market impact (from the jarring-but-short-lived Silicon Valley Bank failure of 2023 to the 1987 stock market crash), the jump in yields almost always led to some sort of disruption to financial markets that weighed on risk assets.

“As sure as day follows night, when the 10-year Treasury yield rises, something gets knocked out,” Roque remarked to CNBC. “It just pays to be cautious.”

Personally, I am very concerned about what all of this is going to mean for the stock market.

Stock prices are currently at a level that we have only witnessed “three times over the last 156 years”…

Currently, we’re witnessing the stock market do something that’s only been accomplished three times over the last 156 years. When this signal appears, it has consistently foreshadowed significant declines to come for Wall Street.

What goes up must come down.

Every time the CAPE Ratio has been this high, a bear market has followed…

Economists introduced the CAPE Ratio in the late 1980s and have backtested it as far back as January 1871. Over this roughly 156-year stretch, the average multiple is 17.42. As of the closing bell on Sept. 21, the S&P 500’s CAPE Ratio clocked in at 41.60.

Including the present, there have only been three times, spanning 156 years, in which the S&P 500’s Shiller P/E Ratio has topped 40 — and the previous two occurrences were followed by notable bear markets

The bottom line is that we are perfectly primed for a stock market crash, and signs of trouble are already apparent.

The performance of just a handful of tech stocks has been masking some very alarming developments that have been happening under the surface. At this point, 52 percent of all stocks in the S&P 500 are already trading beneath their 200 day moving averages…

The S&P 500’s latest trip back to near-record territory has been powered by a surprisingly small number of stocks.

As of Tuesday’s close, the S&P 500 was only 0.44% shy of a record closing high, and yet 52% of individual member stocks were trading below their long-term 200-day moving averages. This is a reflection of the fact that a handful of stocks, chiefly hyperscalers like Meta and semiconductor stocks like Micron Technology, have been doing much of the heavy lifting lately.

That is a major red flag.

In fact, there are major red flags all around us.

And now we are entering the pivotal month of October when some of the largest stock market crashes throughout history have occurred.

Historically, bonds normally start crashing before stocks do.

That exact same pattern is playing out right in front of our eyes in the fall of 2026.

If it was just the U.S. that was in trouble, that would be bad enough.

But what we are looking at is a truly global debt crisis.

This moment has been coming for a very long time, and the entire world is going to be stunned by what happens next.

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.

If you think that things are bad now, just wait until food shortages really start to kick in next year. Even the UN is admitting that there isn’t going to be enough food for everyone in 2027. As you will see below, they are preparing for a huge spike in global hunger in 2027. The war in the Middle East has caused a global fertilizer crisis which will produce “thinner harvests” both this fall and next year. At the same time, the soaring price of diesel is putting extreme financial pressure on farmers all over the world. Needless to say, soaring fuel costs will get passed on to the rest of us. On top of everything else, the Super El Niño that I have been writing so much about is causing chaotic weather that is literally wiping out crops in Central America and other parts of the planet. The food that is being harvested now is what is supposed to feed us in 2027, and there simply is not going to be enough of it.

What a disaster 2026 has been.

Coming into this year, there was no war with Iran.

Coming into this year, the Strait of Hormuz was still open.

Coming into this year, there was no Super El Niño.

Coming into this year, the price of diesel was actually quite low.

And coming into this year, we didn’t have a global fertilizer crisis which appears to be having a “catastrophic impact” on global food production…

Six months after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the global fertiliser supply chain has collapsed in key regions, creating a dual crisis of physical shortages and soaring costs. Since March, commodity intelligence platform CropGPT has directly surveyed thousands of farmers every month, across eight countries to measure the impacts of the crisis. The data shows a potentially catastrophic impact on global food and beverage – coffee included – supplies and prices in 2027.

CropGPT’s findings reveal that only 43% of farmers surveyed got everything they needed, with farmers in India – which feeds more people than any other country in the world – reporting they have been short of fertiliser for six months. In the Ivory Coast only 6% of coffee farmers were fully supplied in August, while 40% could not get any fertiliser at all. El Nino is forecast to peak just as the effects of fertiliser shortages and thinner harvests come in, multiplying the threat to global agriculture.

CropGPT’s data also unveils a stark economic divide. Where crop prices are strong, such as coffee, farmers have paid more and carried on. Where they are weak, farmers have cut back or stopped buying fertiliser. Farmers who cannot obtain fertiliser face yield loses of up to 50%.

Most people out there have absolutely no idea that this is happening.

They can see that food prices are rising, but they simply do not understand what is ahead of us.

The founder and CEO of CropGPT is ominously warning that the world “cannot absorb a shock of this magnitude without supermarket prices exploding and people starving”…

Commenting on the findings, Rob Weston, founder and CEO of CropGPT, said, “The market is fundamentally mispricing the sheer scale of this crisis. Traders are understandably watching the forecasts to understand the impact of El Niño, but the real catastrophe is already happening on the ground.” He explained that when 57% of farmers across key agricultural regions are reporting they cannot access or afford the fertiliser they need, “we are not just looking at thinner margins, we are facing a global food crisis. Global food systems cannot absorb a shock of this magnitude without supermarket prices exploding and people starving.”

The skeptics can stick their heads in the sand if they wish, but this isn’t going to go away.

Meanwhile, the Super El Niño is expected to reach peak intensity later this year.

The UN’s World Food Program is gearing up for a worst case scenario, because they believe that the Super El Niño will “significantly worsen food insecurity in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries into 2027″…

Analysis from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) shows that the strengthening El Niño weather pattern is set to significantly worsen food insecurity in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries into 2027. The agency is ramping up its preparedness and response efforts as impacts from El Niño are already hitting the most vulnerable on the frontlines of hunger.

“El Niño is a massive threat to the food security of millions who are already vulnerable,” said Carl Skau, WFP’s Acting Executive Director. “The sooner we help families to prepare for these climate shocks, the greater our ability to save lives and protect livelihoods. Severe floods and droughts can quickly push communities from coping to crisis. WFP is already ramping-up early response efforts in eight countries, and we stand ready to do even more.”

El Niño is expected to peak between September and December 2026, but in many locations the effects will be felt throughout 2027, due to impacts on future harvest cycles. Drought, flooding and extreme temperatures are already putting communities at risk.

Unless you are really a news hound, you probably aren’t even aware of the nightmare that is currently unfolding in Central America.

Extreme drought has caused “widespread crop failures” in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras…

Further north, drought is already taking a heavy toll on Central America’s dry corridor, which stretches across Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Around 10 million people live in the region, many of them dependent on subsistence farming.

An assessment by Oxfam and humanitarian organisation Action Against Hunger found widespread crop failures across Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, with tens of thousands of farming families affected.

Of 73,000 farms that planted maize for the first growing cycle of 2026, around 70,000 reported devastating harvests. Bean crops have also been badly hit and more than 23,000 households reported reduced access to water.

“We are seeing widespread crop losses caused by the drought triggered by El Nino,” said Oxfam’s humanitarian manager for Central America, Ivan Aguilar.

Millions of people in Central America are potentially facing extreme food shortages during the months ahead.

Russian and Ukrainian farmers are facing a different sort of a crisis.

They have been able to produce enough wheat, but it has been exceedingly difficult to get it out of the Black Sea since July.

As a result, Egypt has not “received any Black Sea grain in about a month”…

Connecting Europe and Asia, the Black Sea is a critical conduit for global crop shipments to some of the world’s most populous nations. Russia and Ukraine make up more than a quarter of the global wheat trade, a share similar to the seaborne oil trade passing through Hormuz in the Gulf.

Supplies have been choked off since July when the countries stepped up attacks on each other’s ports, pummeling grain terminals, silos and vessels. The escalation also hit Russia’s energy infrastructure, sending diesel prices to records. A key input into farming, the cost of the fuel is another inflationary risk for food.

Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat buyer, hasn’t received any Black Sea grain in about a month. Russia’s exports are throttled by Ukrainian drones, while Ukraine, with its ports blocked, is struggling to get its grain out by land or river. As harvests pile up, the country is also struggling to find enough storage.

Egypt imports approximately 50 percent of the wheat that it consumes.

Other nations in the Middle East are similarly dependent on wheat from Russia and Ukraine.

If something doesn’t change, there will soon be an enormous number of very hungry people.

In wealthy western countries, crippling summer droughts have resulted in “shriveling harvests”…

Droughts across the US and Europe have been shriveling harvests, and weather forecasts for a “super” El Niño this year means “there are some alarming signals” about the impact of weather on wheat crops, said Joao Lampreia, a market strategist at the Lisbon-based Freedom24.

What we are witnessing is far more serious than most people realize.

Here in the U.S., the latest wheat production numbers are downright gloomy…

The smallest U.S. wheat crop in decades continues to shrink.

The USDA now has combined production at 1.531 billion bushels, 5 million less than July, due to cuts in winter wheat acreage and non-durum spring wheat yield projections. Winter and spring wheat production numbers were both down from a month ago, at 989.89 million and 474.3 million bushels, respectively. If realized, this would be the smallest combined U.S. winter wheat crop since 1963. Combined production for all types of wheat in 2025 was 1.985 billion bushels.

We aren’t producing enough wheat.

We aren’t producing enough rice either.

In fact, Zero Hedge is reporting that “America’s rice harvest is forecast to fall to its lowest level in 33 years”…

America’s rice harvest is forecast to fall to its lowest level in 33 years. CBOT rough rice futures, the benchmark for US long-grain rice before milling, are surging higher at the end of summer after rising 69% so far this year.

USDA forecasts total production at 158.2 million hundredweight, roughly 23% below last year’s 206.7 million. Harvested acreage is projected at just 2.057 million acres, the lowest since the 1972/73 season.

“While beginning stocks are raised 4.6 million cwt to a 40-year high of 58.4 million cwt, production is reduced 0.2 million cwt to 158.2 million, a 33-year low, as a reduced forecast for harvested area more than offsets a higher yield,” USDA wrote in a report.

Oh, by the way the size of the U.S. cattle herd has fallen to its smallest size in 75 years.

Everywhere you look, there is more bad news, and now the price of diesel is skyrocketing.

CBS News recently interviewed 52-year-old North Carolina farmer Matt Bell, and he explained how the rising price of diesel is financially crushing his farm…

Prices have been so volatile that Bell said the price he’s quoted from his distributor in the morning is only valid until the afternoon — when it rises again. He can’t avoid the expense — his farm equipment runs on diesel. Bell showed CBS News his combine, which he says now requires about $600 worth of diesel fuel per day. That’s more than twice what he paid last year.

Bell said he blew through his yearly fuel budget of $35,000 in August. Now, he expects his total for the year to be closer to $50,000 to $60,000.

“Every piece of equipment on this farm runs on diesel,” he said. Without it, his farm wouldn’t be able to function.

Without our farmers, we do not eat.

And without diesel, our farmers cannot operate.

At this stage, Bell admits that he is more stressed out than he has ever been before…

“I’ve done this 34 years. I have never worried and stressed like I have the last year,” Bell told CBS News in an interview on Wednesday at his farm in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.

Bell has been forced to make significant changes to his operation as a result of the high costs. He’s shifting some of his acreage, trying to stretch out the lifespan of his equipment and producing his own fertilizer. His children have also opened up a storefront where visitors can pick pumpkins and take hayrides in the fall. But Bell is still feeling the pinch.

“We’ve cut everything we can cut,” he said. “The last several years in agriculture have been terrible, and we have, you know, just cut the fat anywhere we could. But we’re just getting to the point now there’s nothing left to cut. You cannot run without fuel. You cannot run without fertilizer. You have to have that.”

Sadly, if World War 3 continues to intensify it is likely that diesel prices will go a lot higher.

What will we do then?

In the Midwest, fuel surcharges are already going through the roof…

The fuel shock is especially significant across the Midwest, where corn and soybean harvest generates intense demand for combines, tractors, grain trucks and commercial transportation. Midwest diesel averaged $6.250 per gallon on September 14, up from $5.946 just one week earlier, while the national average increased 31.8 cents over the same period. Compared with a year earlier, U.S. diesel was $2.546 per gallon more expensive. That increase affects far more than the fuel line in a farm budget: it raises the cost of operating equipment and moving fertilizer, seed and other inputs while increasing the expense of transporting harvested grain.

Rail freight shows how rapidly those higher energy costs are moving through the agricultural supply chain. Union Pacific’s standard mileage-based fuel surcharge stood at 28 cents per mile in July 2025 but reached 71 cents in July 2026. For October, the railroad has set the surcharge at 68 cents per mile, compared with 33 cents in October 2025 – an increase of roughly 106% year over year. The October charge is based on an August 2026 highway diesel average of $5.462 per gallon. For grain shippers, elevators and co-ops that depend heavily on rail, the surcharge becomes another expense that must ultimately be absorbed somewhere between the farm gate and the final customer.

Diesel prices are also having an enormous impact on the trucking industry.

Earlier today, I was stunned to learn that 16 trucking companies have filed for bankruptcy in less than a month…

A new round of trucking bankruptcies has swept across the U.S. in recent weeks, with carriers ranging from small owner-operators to fleets operating dozens of trucks seeking Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 protection.

At least 16 trucking, delivery and transportation companies entered bankruptcy proceedings between late August and Sept. 21, according to federal court filings and carrier records reviewed by FreightWaves.

The filings include Chapter 11 cases involving Globemaster Incorporated, Xoco Transport, Jett Transport & Materials, CLJ Transporting, Mill Creek Logistics-Illinois, RP Hay Hauling, Truckload LLC and Pacer Transport. Several smaller carriers filed Chapter 7 cases, which typically involve liquidation rather than reorganization.

This is what a “perfect storm” looks like, and we are still only in the early stages.

There will be food shortages in impoverished countries all over the globe in 2027.

In wealthy countries, food prices are already ridiculously high, but they will soon go even higher.

We have got an unprecedented global food crisis on our hands, and there is no relief in sight for the foreseeable future.

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.

Those at the top of the economic food chain just don’t get it. They are mystified by surveys that show that most Americans are deeply upset about the state of the U.S. economy. Since their stock portfolios are doing really well and the official numbers that the government has been giving us look fine they just assume that the general public’s perception of the economy must not be accurate. But the truth is that it is their perception of the economy that is not accurate.

They should try to live the way that the rest of us have been living.

Homes are more unaffordable than ever.

Our insurance bills have become extremely bloated.

Millions of Americans avoid going to the hospital because a single visit could financially ruin them.

Power bills have soared to absurd heights in many parts of the country.

Purchasing a new automobile is way out of reach for most of us.

Many of the items that I commonly purchase at the grocery store have doubled or even tripled in price since the beginning of this decade.

When I get up to the checkout counter, I feel like asking the clerk which organ I should donate in order to pay for my groceries.

We want it to stop.

What part of that is so difficult for the elite to understand?

Pew Research has discovered that American voters are more concerned about prices and affordability than anything else by “a wide margin”…

By a wide margin, voters most want candidates running for Congress to talk about economic issues – with many specifically mentioning prices and affordability.

One of the primary reasons why Republicans did so well in 2024 is because voters were sick and tired of inflation.

But now the 2026 election is coming up, and the shoe is on the other foot.

This month, consumer confidence fell once again…

Consumer sentiment falls in September for two consecutive months. The preliminary September reading for the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index came in at 47.8. This marks a 7.5% (3.9 points) decrease from August. Consumer sentiment sits 13.2% below where it was a year ago and is currently below the 1st percentile in the series’ history.

How low does it have to go before the talking heads on television start taking this seriously?

At this point, it is already at the second lowest level ever recorded…

Consumer confidence fell to its second-lowest level on record in September, and Goldman Sachs says the economy is only part of the reason. Americans, the bank told its clients, have grown unhappier with the state of the world in general.

No, it isn’t because we are unhappy “with the state of the world in general”.

Consumer confidence is so low because stuff costs too much money.

If that isn’t simple enough for the analysts at Goldman Sachs to understand, I can put it in even baser terms.

Unfortunately, more inflation is on the way.

Mortgage rates are rising, and this is going to make homes even more unaffordable than they are now…

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped 15 basis points to 7.12% in the week ended September 18, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday. It was last higher in May 2024.

Mortgage rates have risen more than a full percentage point since joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran began pushing up the global price of oil in late February, putting the squeeze on prospective homebuyers and a chill into the US housing market.

Mortgage rates track US Treasury yields, which are sensitive to oil prices and the threat they pose to inflation, which has been running above the Fed’s 2% goal for 5-1/2 years.

Meanwhile, gasoline and diesel have become much more expensive this month…

The average retail price of on-highway diesel spiked by 24 cents in the latest week, and by 88 cents in four weeks, to a record $6.529 a gallon at gas stations on Monday, and that’s for the US overall, according to the EIA this morning. Year-over-year, the price of diesel has spiked by 74%.

California diesel prices spiked to $8.246 a gallon. While driving by gas stations, we’ve seen over $8 a gallon for weeks.

These are sobering sights, setting off the inflation alarm bells.

Higher fuel prices will mean that it will cost a lot more to transport stuff to the stores.

So you better brace yourself for significantly higher prices.

Ominously, Bank of America is warning that the price of oil could hit $150 a barrel if the war in the Middle East continues to drag on…

Oil prices could reach upward of $150 a barrel if inventories continue to deplete as the war in Iran rages on, according to Bank of America, and the bank has raised its year-end forecast for Brent crude from $83 a barrel to a new target of $95 a barrel.

“Although alternative routes and escorted Hormuz shipments have mitigated some of the shortfall, damaged infrastructure and rising geopolitical tensions make rapid normalization unlikely,” strategists led by Francisco Blanch, head of global commodities, equity derivatives and cross-asset quantitative investment strategies, wrote in a note released to the media on Tuesday.

If the price of oil does reach $150 a barrel and it stays there for an extended period of time, I believe that we will see rioting in the streets.

I really do.

It seems like just about everyone is raising prices these days.

And in some cases where prices aren’t actually being raised, package sizes are getting smaller.

For example, it appears that packages of Sam’s Club toilet paper don’t contain as much toilet paper as they once did…

When comparing the old package to the new package they look almost identical, but when you put them up against a wall you can see the size of the rolls seem to be visibly smaller

The package is labeled the same as the old package, same weight and ply. However when you line them up there is very clearly a large difference in size

This is very strange. Maybe it’s just a manufacturing thing where the rolls are being rolled more tightly. Or maybe we’re being shorted

This needs to be investigated. Costco did the exact same thing back in May, they shrunk the size of their toilet paper rolls

I really detest shrinkflation.

Companies that engage in that practice should be shamed.

Needless to say, everything becomes unaffordable if you don’t have any income coming in at all.

All over the nation, we are witnessing layoffs.

For instance, it is being reported that CSX could soon be laying off as many as 1,100 railroad workers…

Hundreds of railroad workers could be losing their jobs in the coming weeks across West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky as 1,100 workers – mostly engineers who deal with safety inspections, maintenance and construction – could lose their jobs across the U.S., a union representing those workers said.

Transportation giant CSX called the The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division on Sept. 14 and told them they’d be furloughing the 1,100 workers by mid-November, according to general chairman Brian Thompson. Those positions range from $80,000 jobs to management positions in duties that involve safety inspections, rail maintenance and construction.

The direction of the transportation industry is often an early indicator of where the U.S. economy is heading as a whole.

So this is a very troubling sign.

Thanks to rapidly rising beef prices, a company that operates “314 Wendy’s locations across 15 states” has been forced to file for bankruptcy…

Meritage Hospitality Group, one of the largest Wendy’s franchisees in the U.S., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a high-stakes dispute with the fast-food chain’s corporate parent.

The bankruptcy filing comes amid severe financial pressures at the franchisee, which has struggled with soaring beef costs and weak customer traffic, while Meritage has also blamed aggressive promotional discounting for squeezing margins.

The Michigan-based operator runs 314 Wendy’s locations across 15 states. The company filed its voluntary petition Thursday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Michigan, according to court documents.

Many years ago, I used to eat at Wendy’s a lot when I worked in the D.C. area.

But who can afford to eat at Wendy’s on a regular basis now?

It turns out that even CNN is bracing for mass layoffs.

One executive is claiming that it will be a “bloodbath”…

“Bloodbath coming, including at CNN,” a TV exec said. “That’s the next big step — slashing and burning.”

Paramount has said it sees at least $6 billion in cost savings, which would translate to several thousand jobs lost in the months ahead.

Inside CNN, staffers have been more or less kept in the dark by top brass, who are themselves unsure who will be running the network once Ellison takes over.

For years, I pleaded with our politicians not to spend trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have.

But they didn’t listen.

And I warned that the trillions of dollars that the Federal Reserve was pumping into the system would cause tremendous inflation.

Now we have tremendous inflation.

The government continues to feed us numbers that show that the rate of inflation is in the low single digits, but we all know that is not true.

If it was true, many of our recurring expenses would not have doubled or tripled since the beginning of this decade.

Let’s get real.

The American people are telling us loud and clear that they care far more about the cost of living than they do about anything else.

But those at the top of the economic food chain insist on pretending that everything is just fine, and that is extremely unfortunate.

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.

It has begun. Hundreds of gas stations all over France are reporting that they are out of at least one type of fuel, and there are quite a few nations in Asia that are now imposing very strict measures in order to conserve energy. I have no idea why this isn’t making more news here in the United States. Maybe the big news outlets don’t think that there is any way that this could ever happen here. Or maybe there is a coordinated effort to keep the public calm. I don’t know. But without a doubt, this is a very big deal.

I knew that Europe was facing a severe energy crunch, but I didn’t realize that things had gotten so bad already.

It is being reported that 16 percent of all gas stations in France are out of at least one type of fuel…

Official French pump data on Monday showed that 16 percent of stations are short of at least one main fuel, diesel or petrol.

That was slightly better than Sunday evening (17 percent) but worse than Friday (13 percent). About 9,900 stations are in the count, according to prix-carburants.gouv.fr.

Shortages were worst this morning in Pays de la Loire (20 percent); Grand Est (19 percent); Île-de-France, Centre-Val de Loire, and Normandy (18 percent); Nouvelle-Aquitaine (17 percent); and Brittany, Hauts-de-France, and Occitanie (16 percent).

We aren’t just talking about a few isolated cases.

We are talking about hundreds upon hundreds of French gas stations that are experiencing outages.

This is serious.

If you can actually find fuel in France, prices are absolutely outrageous.

The average price of a liter of diesel in France is up to €2.406, which is approximately $10.45 a gallon.

Europe is facing its worst energy crisis in history, and there is no end in sight.

In fact, Saudi Arabia has told Europe that there will be no shipments of oil for them for the entire month of October…

The trigger this week was a drone strike on Sept. 10 that closed Saudi Arabia’s East West pipeline, the line carrying crude from the eastern oil fields to Yanbu on the Red Sea without touching Hormuz.

Aramco has now told European refining customers they will receive no crude at all in October under long-term contracts, reported Bloomberg. The decision applies to every European buyer.

What this means is that the shortages that we are witnessing in Europe right now are likely to get even worse.

Meanwhile, several countries in Asia have been forced to institute fuel rationing.

In Pakistan, many types of businesses are being forced to close early in order to save energy…

From September 17, shops and malls across Pakistan must close by 09:00 PM, wedding halls by 10:00 PM, and restaurants by 11:00 PM. This Cabinet Division order runs for the next three months.

Moreover, government vehicles lose 50% of their fuel allocation, with security fleets exempt.

The government banned new vehicle purchases and official foreign travel, and ordered a 5% cut to non-employee spending for fiscal 2026-27.

In Bangladesh, almost all businesses must now shut down by 8 o’clock at the latest…

Shops, markets, and shopping centres must shut by 8 PM, an hour earlier than before, and lit billboards go dark from 7 PM. Only hospitals, pharmacies, food shops, and emergency services are exempt.

Industry is taking the same hit. Garment factories, the country’s main source of foreign currency, face rationing and temporary closures, and one Gazipur plant reported four or five power cuts a day.

In Indonesia, there are now extremely strict rules about when citizens are allowed to fill up their vehicles…

By September 11, queues at Makassar pumps ran as long as one kilometer. Ride-hailing drivers described three-hour waits and called it the worst shortage they had ever seen.

South Sulawesi’s answer was rationing by decree on September 12. Cars can only refuel on days matching their plate number, private vehicles must show a fuel gauge below one bar, and trucks and buses may fill up only between 06:00 PM and 04:00 AM.

I always felt like Asia was going to get hit harder than anyone else because they are so dependent on oil from the Middle East.

In Nepal, an extremely serious shortage of cooking gas has created a major national crisis…

Bottling plants in the Kathmandu Valley were delivering just 5% of the 35,000 to 40,000 cylinders the capital needs each day, the Federation of Nepal Gas Distributors told the Kathmandu Post. Some households have gone a month without a refill.

Restaurants say they are close to shutting down, and the Kathmandu Post now describes residents cutting back on food. Nepal imports every litre of fuel through India, so it sits at the end of a supply chain that is itself under strain.

We desperately need the war in the Middle East to end.

But instead, fighting could escalate at any moment.

On Sunday, I discussed many of the signs that a major escalation could soon happen.

Well, it turns out that President Trump actually ordered a huge wave of airstrikes but they were called off at the last minute…

Trump had ordered strikes against the Houthis to begin around 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, but the military was notified shortly after 2 p.m. on Sunday that the order was canceled, the two U.S. officials said.

Sometimes I feel like I am riding a roller coaster.

You just never know when there is going to be another change of heart.

We are being told that fighter jets had been loaded up with munitions and were all ready to depart when the attack was suddenly canceled…

After days of shifting positions in the office of U.S. President Donald Trump, and despite his latest conversation with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the president called off a series of planned airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen at the last minute. According to The New York Times, citing senior U.S. officials, munitions had already been loaded onto fighter jets that were ready for takeoff when Trump announced the change in plans.

Of course the pendulum could swing back in the direction of more conflict tomorrow.

In an address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, President Trump warned that he could “annihilate the Islamic Republic” by driving them “into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations”…

President Donald Trump told the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday that he has a “big decision” to make when it comes to the war against Iran.

“Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before? Maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world. Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?” Trump said.

“Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations? But I believe we’ll make a deal right after the election, because it doesn’t make sense for them not to,” Trump continued. “They’re waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don’t realize is that I’m not running. I did that already and won in a landslide.”

That is extremely strong language.

On the other side, the Iranians are warning that they are prepared to use “new weapons with new capabilities” if the U.S. attacks again…

Iran warned Monday it would use “new weapons with new capabilities” if the U.S. launched a fresh assault after President Donald Trump ramped up the rhetoric against Tehran over the weekend.

“If a new aggression takes place, we will definitely change the weapons and geography of the war,” Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.

Mohebbi did not provide details on what the new weapons were or which new locations could be hit.

Is Iran bluffing, or do they actually have some “new weapons” that they are prepared to unleash?

I suppose that time will tell.

For now, the flow of oil out of the Middle East continues to be way below normal levels, and the global energy crisis just continues to intensify.

On Tuesday, the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States hit another new record high…

It is hard to believe that the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States is now up to $6.52.

A year ago, it was just $3.68.

Most of our trucks, most of our trains and most of our tractors run on diesel.

So just about everything you buy at the store is about to get significantly more expensive.

The global energy crisis has entered a very painful chapter.

I don’t see any way that we are going to avoid a major economic downturn.

Our entire standard of living depends on cheap energy, but energy is no longer cheap.

The changes that are ahead are going to be excruciating, and the world is simply not ready for what is about to happen next.

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.

The Great Middle East War is poised to escalate to an entirely new level, and that could have huge implications for the entire planet. Diesel prices are already spiraling out of control, and strict energy rationing measures are already being implemented in impoverished nations such as Pakistan. Unfortunately, it appears that another round of fighting could be about to erupt in the Middle East. Within the past 24 hours, there have been a lot of rumors that the alert level for the Iranian military has been raised to the highest level possible. According to a major Iranian news agency, these rumors are accurate…

An Iranian official said Iran has raised its military readiness to the highest level, with response plans prepared at air, ground and naval levels to deliver a heavy, wide and surprising response to U.S. and Israeli forces and interests.

Russia al-Youm network, citing an unnamed Iranian official, reported that Iranian forces have raised their operational alert to the highest level to be ready for any possible military development or adventure.

The official said response plans have been prepared at the air, ground and naval levels, enabling a heavy, wide and surprising response to U.S. and Israeli military forces and interests.

Why is this happening now?

Well, things have gotten quite crazy in the region over the past several days.

On Saturday, the Houthis crossed a very clear red line by firing missiles at the capital city of Saudi Arabia…

Saudi Arabia confirmed Saturday that the Yemen-based Houthi rebel group attempted to attack its capital with a ballistic missile, The Associated Press reported.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the group attacked with a “large number of ballistic and cruise missiles” and drones to target the kingdom’s capital city, Riyadh, and the facilities of Saudi oil company Aramco in Yanbu.

The Saudis are absolutely furious, and they are asking the U.S. to intervene.

On Sunday, both President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unexpectedly made sudden returns to Washington…

US President Donald Trump cut short his stay at Camp David on Sunday and returned to the White House. Simultaneously, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth departed a sports event in Texas to make a swift return to the capital, as the US prepared for potential wide-ranging military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

Hegseth left a college football game at Texas A&M University, while an official delegation in Copenhagen was recalled directly to the capital. According to a report on CNN by Alex Plitsas, the US was weighing extensive operations against Ansar Allah (the Houthis), in retaliation for rebel strikes inside Saudi Arabia. The kingdom has struggled to counter the Iranian-backed Yemeni rebels, to the point that it has approached Israel to enhance its defensive capabilites.

CNN National Security Analyst Alex Plitsas confirmed on X that the presidential session focused on reviewing strike options following a missile assault directed at Riyadh. “As I said last night, was told that the POTUS meeting at Camp David was to deliberate and review Yemen strike options. Today, U.S. embassies in Middle Eastern countries that are likely to be targets of retaliatory strikes issued warnings. Now POTUS head to the White House early,” he wrote on X.

Also on Sunday, U.S. embassies all over the Middle East simultaneously released new security alerts warning of “unforeseen escalation” in the region…

U.S. embassies across the Middle East early Sunday morning local time issued security alerts for American citizens in the region.

“Due to tensions in the Middle East, the security environment remains complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation,” the State Department said in its alerts.

The alerts did not state a specific threat, but called for Americans to “exercise heightened vigilance and be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions.”

On top of everything else, we have learned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to the U.S. will be “significantly shortened”…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has significantly shortened his already brief visit to the United States.

He will now fly directly to New York on the day of his address to the United Nations General Assembly and depart immediately after delivering the speech, i24NEWS learns.

Netanyahu had originally been expected to begin his diplomatic visit in Texas before traveling to New York for his address on Thursday.

I think that far more is going on behind the scenes than we are being told.

Just a little while ago, President Trump may have given us some hints about what is going on when he told Fox News that “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future”…

Mr Trump, who left the presidential retreat at Camp David earlier than expected on Saturday to return to the White House, told Fox News on Sunday he was in a “deciding mode” and that “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future”.

His options were “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal”, he said, adding: “My question is if and when do I blow the entire nation up?”

That sounds rather ominous.

What would blowing up the entire nation of Iran look like?

On the other side, the Iranians are reportedly considering a new law that would withdraw their nation from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty…

An Iranian lawmaker said a bill proposing Iran’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has been submitted to parliament’s presiding board and is awaiting the speaker’s approval to be put to an open session.

Hossein Ali Haji Deligani raised the issue during Sunday’s parliamentary session, saying the triple-urgency bill has been ready for some time.

He said that given the country’s current circumstances and recent attacks against it, remaining in the NPT offers Iran nothing but harm.

Once they have withdrawn from that treaty, they would be free to start testing nuclear weapons.

At this stage, there is no end in sight for the crisis in the Middle East.

Instead, it appears likely that it will just continue to intensify.

What this means is that the global energy crisis is about to get really painful.

As I discussed on Friday, the Saudis have already told Europe that they won’t be getting any shipments of oil until November at the earliest.

Needless to say, European leaders are scrambling to come up with an alternate plan.

Here in the United States, the average price of diesel set another record high on Sunday…

A year ago, the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States was just $3.70.

Now it is $6.50.

We have never seen anything like this before.

And some gas station signs are showing a price of $9.99 as a way to indicate that they are entirely out of diesel…

Amid reports of gas stations in California showing maxing out at $9.99 for diesel, Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, told the news outlet Straight Arrow that this was also due to the displays’ three-digit limit.

“I had a few moments and made contact with a couple stations,” said De Haan. “The stations did say their sign said $9.99, but they had done that because they had run out of diesel.”

Unfortunately, it isn’t just supplies of diesel that are running low.

According to Newsweek, one gas station in Ohio temporarily ran out of gasoline last week…

A social media post showing gas being sold for $9.99 per gallon in Ohio was in fact due to the station running low on fuel, Newsweek has learned, rather than the Buckeye State suffering particularly acute effects of the Iran war.

If the war in the Middle East escalates even more, things could get a lot worse.

Most Americans assume that our homeland will never be touched by any of the wars that are raging on the other side of the planet, but that is not a safe assumption at all.

In fact, the FBI is claiming that the Iranians actually “aspired to conduct a surprise attack using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” on targets in California…

The FBI warned police departments in California in recent days that Iran could retaliate for American attacks by launching drones at the West Coast, according to an alert reviewed by ABC News.

“We recently acquired unverified information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran,” according to the alert distributed at the end of February. “We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”

In my opinion, the Iranians still have a lot of surprises up their sleeves.

So do the Israelis.

We are literally watching World War 3 play out right in front of our eyes, but most people still do not seem to understand this.

Once the first weapons of mass destruction are used in the Middle East, perhaps that will be enough to get people to wake up.

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.

The European Union has a population that is larger than the United States, it has the second largest economy in the entire world, and now it wants Canada. Of course any form of membership in the EU will involve giving up at least some sovereignty to the bureaucrats in Brussels. Is Canada really this stupid? The EU likes to dangle the carrot of economic prosperity to tempt prospective members to agree to entangle themselves in their tyrannical web. Of course once you are locked in, it will be exceedingly difficult to ever get out.

The EU has always been an expansionist entity from the very beginning.

There have been several ways of EU expansion, and once the Cold War finally ended the floodgates opened.

Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia all joined the EU in 2004.

Bulgaria and Romania followed suit in 2007.

In 2013, it was Croatia’s turn.

Currently, there are nine other nations that are officially recognized “candidate countries”: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

In order to be accepted as full members, they must fully comply with EU membership criteria and they must be unanimously voted in.

So all nine of those “candidate countries” are working to conform to the tyrannical will of the EU.

Needless to say, all of the nations discussed above are located in Europe.

But EU bureaucrats have always had bigger ambitions.

They dream of transforming their political empire into a “global union”, and now Canada has handed them their first opportunity to expand outside of the borders of Europe on a silver platter.

Officials from the EU and Canada have been quietly negotiating behind the scenes for quite some time, and now we have learned what they have decided to do.

During her State of the Union address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen invited Canada to become “the first associate member of the European Union”…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday she wants Canada to join the European Union as an associate member, as the North American nation is embroiled in a trade war with the U.S.

“I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to being the first associate member of the European Union,” von der Leyen told Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was in attendance for her annual State of the Union address.

This is enormous news.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was present at the State of the Union address, and that was no coincidence.

There is no way that Canada will become a full member of the EU right now, but during her speech Ursula von der Leyen boldly declared that she wants “to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible”…

Carney was a guest at von der Leyen’s state of the union address in Strasbourg, France, where she remarked that “in this new world we must urgently reimagine our partnerships and build global coalitions for our resilience and democracies.”

“In short, we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible,” she said.

The highest level possible would be full membership.

That will take time, but that is the goal.

The EU and Canada are scheduled to hold a summit in late October to discuss the details of associate membership.

A number of potential measures are on the table, including “redirecting pipelines to grant Europe access to Canadian gas” and “granting Canadians the right to live and work in Europe visa-free”…

According to a Wall Street Journal report at the weekend, among the things European and Canadian officials have discussed: reducing trade barriers; laying underwater cables linking Europe and Canada; redirecting pipelines to grant Europe access to Canadian gas; building new AI and tech infrastructure; and even granting Canadians the right to live and work in Europe visa-free.

Under these terms, Canada would have a relationship with the EU that is unprecedented for a country outside Europe. The EU’s ambassador to Canada told the Canadian Press last week that the partnership would be unlike anything that currently exists, without giving specifics.

Wow.

I never imagined that something like this might happen.

But it is happening.

We all knew that Carney is a hardcore globalist, and from the very start of his term he has been looking for ways to turn Canada away from the United States and toward the EU…

Earlier this month, the prime minister said the era of Canada relying on Washington was “over,” indicating his country was seeking out new trade partners.

“Our plan, since I came into office, has been development and diversification,” the Canadian prime minister said in a video his office posted on YouTube. “Not denial, waiting to go back to some good old days, and not continued dependence.”

In the old days, there was no way that Canadians would have gone along with this.

But public opinion has changed.

At this stage, approximately 80 percent of Canadians want deeper cooperation with Europe, and nearly half of the population would support full membership in the EU…

Canadians are largely in favor of strengthening relations with the EU, though support for full membership remains split, according to recent data.

A survey conducted earlier this month by Canadian polling firm Abacus Data found about 80% of Canadians said Canada should deepen cooperation with the EU on foreign policy, defense and economic priorities — a six-point increase from when the question was last asked in February.

A further 56% of those surveyed said Canada has more in common with EU countries than with the US, according to the survey. Nearly half (49%) said they would support Canada joining the EU, with support higher among centrist and left-leaning voters.

Those numbers are chilling

Meanwhile, relations with the U.S. continue to deteriorate and a trade war has erupted.

According to Fox News, Ohio could be hit harder by our trade war with Canada than any other state…

“American manufacturers or American businesses who rely on Canadian inputs are going to start to feel the pain right in the lead up to going to the ballot box,” David Clement, policy director of the free market nonprofit Consumer Choice Center, told Fox News Digital.

Clement identified Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as among the states most exposed to negative fallout, based on their current trade with Canada and the goods targeted by the tariffs.

“Ohio is by far the most vulnerable state in terms of exposure from the Canadian retaliatory tariffs,” Clement said, estimating roughly $2.3 billion in exports to Canada are exposed.

This is so unfortunate.

The United States needs Canada, and Canada needs the United States.

We should be deepening ties with one another, but now Canada intends to get married to the European Union.

Getting sucked into the EU’s tyrannical web is a horrible mistake, but it appears that there will be no turning back.

Now that EU bureaucrats have secured Canada, who will they set their sights on next?

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.

For months, we were told that this moment was approaching. At first a lot of people didn’t want to believe it, and those that were sounding the alarm were mocked. But now even the mainstream media is being forced to admit the truth. When the war with Iran began, the world was sitting on vast stockpiles of oil that we could chew through to keep the global economy operating normally. Unfortunately, those stockpiles have rapidly dissipated and the conflicts on the other side of the planet are intensifying. As a result, we now find ourselves in unprecedented territory.

The world is using a lot more oil than it is currently producing.

So something has got to give.

For over six months we have been running through our reserves, and at this stage the mainstream media is openly telling us that a tipping point has arrived. The following comes from a Wall Street Journal article entitled “Oil executives say the great fuel crisis is here”…

American oil executives warned for months that the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz was bound to cause a fuel crisis. Now, they say it is here.

Commercial fuel stocks around the world have been depleting for more than six months, and strategic crude reserves can’t be tapped much further. Attacks last week shut down a crucial crude pipeline in Saudi Arabia that bypassed the Strait, stranding at least 2.5 million barrels a day from an already tight global oil market, analysts estimate.

“All these mechanisms helped to mitigate the price and supply risk,” Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth said Friday at an energy conference in Austin, Texas. “Those have largely now played out, and we don’t have nearly the buffers in the system that we did when it began.”

Those oil executives are right.

It is here.

Thanks to recent developments, energy industry insiders now fear that the conflict in the Middle East “risks spinning out of control”…

Veteran energy advisers say that with no resolution to the Iran war in sight, the situation risks spinning out of control. Diesel prices have soared to a record $6.23 a gallon and gasoline prices, which slipped below $4 a gallon this summer, have rebounded to $4.32. Some energy analysts say they have been fielding investor questions about when consumers pinched by the high prices will start pulling back on new purchases.

For months, we were told that a deal to end the war with Iran was imminent.

That kept markets stable for a long time.

But now reality is catching up with us in a major way.

On Tuesday, average prices for both gas and diesel in the United States increased yet again…

Just look at those numbers.

A year ago, the average price for a gallon of diesel in the United States was just $3.68.

Last month, it was sitting at $5.43.

Now it is up to $6.26.

Of course we should consider ourselves to be fortunate, because Europeans are paying between 9 and 11 dollars per gallon…

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning, because global oil supplies are about to get even tighter.

It is becoming apparent that the damage to Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline is more extensive than we were originally told…

Saudi Arabia’s oil problem just multiplied.

What looked like a single Houthi hit on the East-West pipeline is now looking like a coordinated hammering of the whole system.

Fresh satellite imagery shows Pump Station 9 badly damaged, with Pump Station 8 possibly hit too, both feeding the same artery that carries crude clear across the country to the Red Sea.

Take out one pump station and you have a headache. Take out two on the same line and you have a pipeline that could sit largely dead for 3-5 weeks, maybe longer.

Yes, the Saudis could feverishly work to repair the damage that has been done.

But then the Houthis could just strike the exact same locations again.

On Tuesday, the Houthis hit the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company, and for now all activity at the Yanbu export terminal has been suspended…

Oil loadings seemed to have stopped at Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea port Tuesday as a major refinery there reportedly burned after an attack.

Shipping industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday that loadings at the Yanbu export terminal had been suspended, four days after a drone attack shut the East-West Pipeline that feeds it, the outlet reported. Earlier Tuesday, an attack struck the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company, known as YASREF, according to a post from the Hormuz Letter account on X. The post cited footage it said showed a fire at the site and NASA satellite heat detections inside the refinery.

This is a major economic disaster for Saudi Arabia.

And it is going to turn into a major economic disaster for Europe too, because the Saudis have reportedly told refiners in Europe that they will not be receiving the shipments that they were expecting…

Europe’s energy supply outlook is deteriorating after Reuters reported Tuesday that Saudi Arabia had notified some European refiners that their September-loading crude cargoes would be canceled following the shutdown of its critical East-West pipeline after a drone attack.

Beyond a diesel shortage in the West, Europeans are also dealing with low natural gas stockpiles heading into the Northern Hemisphere winter, with prices reaching their highest level since December 2022.

What will Europe do?

One source is claiming that there will be no more Saudi oil for Europe until at least November…

Saudi Aramco has cancelled all of its September European crude oil allocations and is scrapping every cargo slated for late-September loading onward, with a European lifter saying no Saudi oil cargoes at all until November, per initial reports citing oil trading firm Onyx and market sources.

That takes the world’s largest exporter out of the European market for the rest of September and all of October, a de facto force majeure on Saudi crude to Europe from the 3rd largest energy producer in the world.

If you live in Europe, I would go fill up your vehicles immediately, because nothing quite like this has happened to Europe before.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainians just hit another Russian refinery after President Trump specifically asked them not to do so…

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that Ukrainian forces struck the Syzran refinery in Russia’s Samara region, about 75 miles west of Samara and 466 miles southeast of Moscow. The strike comes days after President Trump urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russian refineries, as average US retail diesel prices jumped above $6 a gallon and alarming disruptions to global refining capacity threaten fuel supplies ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter.

Needless to say, all of this bad news has pushed oil prices even higher…

Crude oil prices rose Tuesday as traders awaited updates on how long Saudi Arabia’s critical East-West pipeline will be closed.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, were up 2.6% to $108.48 per barrel by 11:06 a.m. ET. U.S. West Texas Intermediate traded 3.2% higher to $104.65. Prices have surged around 20% this month as fighting has sharply escalated in the Persian Gulf.

The good news is that we still have oil left in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The bad news is that the SPR has now fallen to the lowest level that we have seen since 1982…

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve held 285.4 million barrels after inventories fell by about 1.2 million barrels in the latest week, according to Department of Energy data. The stockpile reached its lowest level since November 1982 as the government continued a planned release of crude oil from the emergency reserve.

If we drain the salt caverns where that oil is stored too low, we risk causing permanent damage.

There are some experts that are arguing that we have already crossed that threshold.

And federal law places restrictions on non-emergency drawdowns once we get down to 252.4 million barrels.

In other nations, there is simply no buffer left.

The global economy really is facing a nightmare scenario, and investors are starting to get really nervous.

On Tuesday, the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries hit the highest level in 19 years…

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed to its highest levels in 19 years on Tuesday as oil prices surge from the Iran conflict and expectations grow that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates on Wednesday. The rate milestone could ripple through the economy as the 10-year yield is a benchmark for consumers loans and corporate funding.

The 10-year yield was last up more than 3 basis points to 4.996%. Earlier in the session, it scaled to 5.041%, the highest since July 2007. One basis point equals 0.01 percentage point, and yields and prices move in opposite directions.

To me, it appears that extensive efforts are being made to defend the 5 percent level.

If we ultimately reach 5.25 percent, that could be really bad news, because historically we have witnessed tremendous market disruptions once we cross that mark…

Treasury yields are closing in on an inflection point where, historically, stocks and bonds have reinforced losses in one another. That points to a regime shift of higher bond and stock volatility and wider credit spreads.

Lines in the sand are often a little too neat for reality, but when it comes to Treasuries there has been a stark change in regime when 10-year yields go much above 5.25%. After that point, the risks to bond volatility and hence stock vol and credit spreads markedly increase.

With 10-year yields rising above 5% this week the first question is: will they keep going? Yields may look stretched, rising to levels not seen since 2007 just today, but Treasuries are not yet oversold. Incorporating returns on capital and looking at prices, they are only back to their long-term mean on an annual growth basis.

We are dangerously close to the edge, and it won’t take much to set off a major financial meltdown.

All over social media, people are talking about this now.

They may not understand all of the specifics, but they can feel that something is coming.

We live in such perilous times, and I have a feeling that a tremendous amount of insanity is just around the corner.

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.

We were warned that a diesel shortage would be coming. According to the president of the United States, it is already here. That is really bad news, because so much of our economic infrastructure runs on diesel. Most of our trucks, most of our trains and most of our tractors use diesel. More than 70 percent of all commercial goods are transported by vehicles that are powered by diesel. As the price of diesel surges even deeper into record territory, just about everything else is going to become more expensive too. But the real crisis will come when we start to see widespread shortages and rationing all over the globe.

On Monday, we witnessed something that absolutely stunned me.

President Trump actually asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop attacking refineries in Russia…

U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop targeting Russian oil refineries, saying the attacks are “hurting the world” as fuel supply disruptions from the Ukraine and Iran wars propel U.S. diesel prices to a record high.

Ukraine has stepped up its strikes on Russian oil facilities and logistics infrastructure in recent months, seeking to raise the cost of the war for Moscow after more than 4½ years of conflict.

The attacks have significantly hampered Russia’s refining capacity and prompted widespread fuel shortages, with Moscow recently extending a ban on diesel exports through the end of September as part of a push to stabilize domestic supplies.

The Ukrainians have been attacking these refineries because they are trying to win the war.

But President Trump wants those attacks to come to an end because he believes that they are “causing a shortage of diesel”…

“Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump said during an official visit to Ireland on Sunday.

“Let him go after targets but not diesel fuel because he’s causing a shortage of diesel. This isn’t done by the Middle East; this is done by what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine.”

There you go.

Even President Trump is admitting that “a shortage of diesel” is here.

Of course the war in the Middle East is having a huge impact on the global supply of diesel as well.

Normally, diesel accounts for approximately 30 percent of total oil refinery production in the region, and Joe DeLaura is telling us that we are facing a diesel supply crunch “because none of the Persian Gulf refineries can get product out”…

“We’re in a diesel supply crunch right now because none of the Persian Gulf refineries can get product out,” Rabobank senior energy strategist Joe DeLaura said, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month. “Crude oil is just the input, but diesel is the everything the industrial economy runs on,” he also said. “Everything in agriculture, everything in construction, everything in mining. Also everything on the supply and distribution side runs on diesel.”

Thankfully, the world had large stockpiles of diesel coming into this year, but we have been chewing through that buffer at a staggering rate.

As a result, shortages are starting to appear.

For example, Reuters is reporting that palm oil harvests in Southeast Asia have been disrupted because there isn’t enough diesel fuel…

Palm oil harvests on Southeast Asia’s islands of Borneo and Sumatra are being disrupted ​as rising prices of fuel and supply shortages force smallholders to cut back on fruit collection, threatening yields of the ‌world’s most widely used edible oil.

Longer harvest disruptions could curb output in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia with an El Nino weather pattern expected to cut rain and dent yields after Malaysian benchmark palm futures have risen more than 15% this year.

The impact on harvesting has been worst in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak ​on Borneo, where unsubsidised diesel prices have surged almost 120%, while farmers on Indonesia’s Sumatra have been hit by fuel shortages, ​industry officials say.

The shortages are not widespread yet.

But that could quickly change in the months ahead.

One industry expert is warning that “Europe has a tremendous diesel problem” as we head toward the winter months…

“Europe has a tremendous diesel problem,” Eugene Lindell, head of refined products at consultancy FGE NexantECA, told Bloomberg. “It will get ugly in the sense that you will probably see extremely high flat prices.” These high prices will spread to everything from consumer goods to services and, according to FGE’s Lindell, translate into pressure on political circles.

Here in the United States, there have been a few gas stations that have temporarily run out of diesel, but that isn’t too significant.

For now, the primary way that this crisis is manifesting in this country is through much higher prices.

On Monday, the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States hit an all-time record high of $6.23 a gallon…

The national average price of regular gas has risen more than 45% since the war with Iran started. The price of U.S. crude oil has soared more than 50% since the war started on Feb. 28.

On top of that, the price of diesel fuel continues to set new all-time highs. The national average price of diesel rose to $6.23 per gallon on Monday, AAA also reported.

A month ago, the national average was sitting at $5.42.

A year ago, the national average was just $3.69.

Of course the price of gasoline has been rising as well. Since March 1st, Americans have spent an extra 109 billion dollars on gasoline and diesel compared to the same period in 2025…

That is crazy.

Unfortunately, it appears that prices are going to continue to rise, and that is not good news for any of us.

Even if you do not use it in any of your vehicles, the rising price of diesel will have an impact on the cost of just about everything that you buy…

That commercial fuel, which is used in everything from trucking to boat transportation to trains, has become a particular focus for economists who say it could cause almost “everything” to cost more.

“The cost of diesel gets into just about everything,” KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk said in a recent interview with NBC News.

“From running a farm … [to the] cost of food, but also everything across the economy that’s shipped,” she said. When diesel prices rise, everything “gets that extra fee tacked onto it.”

Swonk predicted that the high cost of diesel will be an “inflationary problem” for months to come.

I am particularly concerned about what this crisis is going to mean for food prices.

Just about all of our farm equipment runs on diesel, and our farmers are getting financially hammered right now…

“Those prices hurt,” said Paul Mitchell, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And it’s not just the harvesting. It’s the hauling of everything, moving the grain or the silage from the field to the farm and then from the farm to wherever they’re selling it.”

Jason Kurtz, a corn and soybean farmer near Forest City, Missouri, said he was paying twice as much for diesel this year. His combine uses 200 gallons (760 liters) of fuel a day; he expected to run it for 30 days. He also needed diesel for a tractor and trucks.

“We have to harvest,” he said in an interview at his farm about 90 miles (145 kilometers) outside Kansas City on Tuesday. “We have to run the machines. We have to use the diesel, so it cuts into our bottom line.”

For those of us that live in the western world, substantially higher food prices will be inconvenient.

For those that live in deeply impoverished nations, substantially higher food prices could result in widespread famines.

We really are facing a “perfect storm” for global food production.

Multiple major wars are raging, farmers are dealing with a global fertilizer crisis, a Super El Niño has arrived in 2026, and now diesel prices are going absolutely nuts.

We have never witnessed anything quite like this, and there are no easy solutions.

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.