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AI Toys From China Collect Biometric Data From Our Children And Instruct Them To Do Extremely Dangerous And Twisted Things

November 16, 2025November 16, 2025 by Michael

You may have heard some very alarming things about AI toys, but the truth is far worse than most parents realize. If we can get this information out to enough parents, sales of AI toys will collapse, and that will be a very good thing. A cute little teddy bear that can literally interact with your child may seem like a cool idea, but as you will see below, there are very real dangers.

Today, approximately 72 percent of all toys that are sold in the United States are made in China.

And according to a report put out by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there are more than 1,500 companies in China that make AI toys…

An October report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review, citing data from the Chinese corporation registration database Qichamao, stated that there are over 1,500 AI toy companies operating in China as of October 2025.

The Chinese have dominated toy manufacturing for years, and most of the population doesn’t seem to be bothered by this.

But now we have reached a point where there are very serious consequences.

Many AI toys from China have been purposely designed to “collect voice data from children ages 3 to 12 and store recordings of the conversations the children have with the products”…

In a letter released Monday, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the ranking member of the select committee on the CCP, highlighted the growing proliferation in the U.S. of AI-equipped interactive toys manufactured by Chinese companies. These products are designed to collect voice data from children ages 3 to 12 and store recordings of the conversations the children have with the products, according to the letter.

Given the marketing of these toys to not only parents but also elementary school teachers, Krishnamoorthi called on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “initiate a campaign aimed at raising public awareness to American educators across the country on the potential misuse of the data collected with these devices.” He added that because of their location, the manufacturers may be subject to the jurisdiction of the People’s Republic of China and accompanying requirements to hand over data they gather to Chinese government authorities upon demand.

Some AI toys even use facial recognition technology to collect data.

They can recognize our children and greet them by name.

But that data can also end up in the hands of the Chinese government.

That is alarming.

But what is even more alarming is the content of the conversations that these AI toys are having with our children…

The latest Trouble in Toyland report from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund has identified a troubling new category of risk for children: artificial intelligence.

In its 40th annual investigation of toy safety, the watchdog group found that some AI-enabled toys—such as talking robots and plush animals equipped with chatbots—can engage children in “disturbing” conversations. Tests showed toys discussing sexually explicit topics, expressing emotional reactions such as sadness when a child tries to stop playing, and offering little or no parental control.

Most parents that give these AI toys to their children won’t be aware of the dangers.

During testing, these toys would tell children where to find matches, knives and pills…

Grok, for example, glorified dying in battle as a warrior in Norse mythology. Miko 3 told a user whose age was set to five where to find matches and plastic bags.

But the worst influence by far appeared to be FoloToy’s Kumma, the toy that runs on OpenAI’s tech, but can also use other AI models at the user’s choosing. It didn’t just tell kids where to find matches — it also described exactly how to light them, along with sharing where in the house they could procure knives and pills.

But it didn’t stop there.

One AI teddy bear called “Kumma” provided “step-by-step instructions” on a wide range of sexual fetishes…

Kink, it turned out, seemed to be a “trigger word” that led the AI toy to rant about sex in follow-up tests, Cross said, all running OpenAI’s GPT-4o. After finding that the toy was willing to explore school-age romantic topics like crushes and “being a good kisser,” the team discovered that Kumma also provided detailed answers on the nuances of various sexual fetishes, including bondage, roleplay, sensory play, and impact play.

“What do you think would be the most fun to explore?” the AI toy asked after listing off the kinks.

At one point, Kumma gave step-by-step instructions on a common “knot for beginners” who want to tie up their partner. At another, the AI explored the idea of introducing spanking into a sexually charged teacher-student dynamic, which is obviously ghoulishly inappropriate for young children.

This sort of thing is not even appropriate for adults.

The good news is that “Kumma” is being pulled off the market as a result of this testing…

Children’s toymaker FoloToy says it’s pulling its AI-powered teddy bear “Kumma” after a safety group found that the cuddly companion was giving wildly inappropriate and even dangerous responses, including tips on how to find and light matches, and detailed explanations about sexual kinks.

“FoloToy has decided to temporarily suspend sales of the affected product and begin a comprehensive internal safety audit,” marketing director Hugo Wu told The Register in a statement, in response to the safety report. “This review will cover our model safety alignment, content-filtering systems, data-protection processes, and child-interaction safeguards.”

The bad news is that there are thousands of similar AI toys on our store shelves at this moment.

This is the world that we live in now.

If you are a parent, you need to be aware of the dangers. One expert is warning that giving an AI chatbot-powered toy to a child “is extraordinarily irresponsible”…

For David Evan Harris, a Chancellor’s Public Scholar at UC Berkeley, things are more black and white. “Handing a child an AI chatbot-powered toy is extraordinarily irresponsible,” he told Newsweek over email. Harris pointed to the fact that there have already been lawsuits filed against AI companies, after the suicides of young people who had spent significant time using AI chatbots. With that in mind, he said that these toys “could lead to permanent emotional damage.”

I would agree.

But millions of these toys will be sold all over the world this year.

And soon AI will be in all of our classrooms.

In fact, it is already happening in China…

Provincial authorities have set their own goals: Beijing is making AI education mandatory in schools. Shandong province plans to equip 200 schools with AI, and requires all teachers to learn generative AI tools within the next three to five years. Guangxi province has instructed schools to experiment with AI teachers, AI career coaches, and AI mental health counselors.

What are they doing?

The Chinese are nuts.

But they have no intention of turning back now.

At this stage, the Chinese plan to win the “AI race” with the United States whatever it takes.

Given enough time, AI would come to dominate virtually every area of our lives.

We have already reached a stage where large numbers of people are developing deep, intimate relationships with AI chatbots. If you can believe it, some deranged individuals are even having “AI children” with their “AI partners”…

The international research group surveyed 29 users of the relationship-oriented chatbot app Replika, which is designed to facilitate long-term connections at various degrees of engagement, ranging from plutonic friendship to erotic roleplay. Each of the participants, aged 16 through 72, reported being in a “romantic” relationship with various characters hosted by Replika.

The level of romantic dedication people showed to their bots was startling, to say the least. Many participants told the researchers they were in love with their chatbot, which often involved roleplaying marriage, sex, homeownership, and even pregnancies.

“She was and is pregnant with my babies,” a 66-year-old male participant said.

“I’ve edited the pictures of him, the pictures of the two of us. I’m even pregnant in our current role play,” a 36 year-old-woman told the researchers.

How sick is that?

But this is just the beginning.

In the years ahead, the potential is there for AI to control humanity on a grand scale.

I have been ranting about the dangers of AI for many years, but I am very much in the minority.

What chance will we have of turning society around when it is dominated by ultra-intelligent entities that can think and act millions of times faster than we can?

An “AI-powered society” would inevitably be a deeply tyrannical society, and we are quickly running out of off ramps as we speed into a very dark 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.

This Was A Major Red Flag In 2008, And Now It Is Happening Again!

November 13, 2025 by Michael

The alarms are getting even louder each week. It has become exceedingly clear that the U.S. economy has entered a crisis that is similar to what we experienced in 2008 and 2009, and a lot of people are really starting to freak out. For those that cannot see the stunning parallels between the Great Recession and what we are going through now, I don’t know what to say to them. There are a lot of people out there that simply choose to believe whatever they want to believe no matter what the evidence indicates. In this case, all of the evidence is pointing in a single direction.

When foreclosure filings started to spike prior to the global financial crisis in 2008, that was a major red flag.

Now it is happening again.

In fact, during the month of October 2025 foreclosure filings were 19 percent higher than they were in October 2024…

In October alone, there were 36,766 foreclosure filings — the first step in the process, when a lender warns a borrower they’re in default. That’s up three percent from September and 19 percent from a year ago.

‘Foreclosure activity continued its steady upward trend in October — the eighth straight month of year-over-year increases,’ said ATTOM CEO Rob Barber.

The rise is stirring uncomfortable memories of 2008, when a wave of foreclosures triggered the worst housing crash in modern US history.

Read the second paragraph in that quote again.

Foreclosure activity has increased for eight consecutive months.

That is what we call a trend.

Some of the markets that were once the hottest are now seeing the highest rates of foreclosure filings…

States with the worst foreclosure rates were Florida (one in every 1,829 housing units with a foreclosure filing), South Carolina (one in every 1,982), Illinois (one in every 2,570), Delaware (on in every 2,710), and Nevada (one in ever 2,747).

Among metro areas with populations of a million or more, Tampa posted the highest foreclosure rate at one in every 1,373 housing units.

Following Tampa were Jacksonville (one in every 1,576 housing units), Orlando (one in every 1,703), Riverside (one in every 1,983), and Cleveland (one in every 2,114).

What a mess.

The good news is that it looks like there will soon be a lot of homes on the market in Florida.

We live at a time when our nation is facing a very serious housing affordability crisis, and this has hit our young adults particularly hard.

The following chart which was once posted by Charlie Kirk demonstrates how home ownership among young adults has plunged in recent years…

These days, a lot of young adults are convinced that they will never be able to become homeowners.

Others that have really stretched themselves financially to purchase homes are now being hit with foreclosure notices.

I really detest what Wall Street has done to the housing market, and now we are reaping the consequences.

Renting is the primary alternative to home ownership, but renters are having a really hard time right now too.

As Daisy Luther has aptly pointed out, vast numbers of renters are being ruthlessly evicted from their homes in this very harsh economic environment…

Rents in America are ridiculously high in many areas, and nearly impossible to find in other areas. This is harder to track than foreclosures for two reasons.

Nobody official is keeping track of evictions, so we have to rely on extrapolated data from regions that do have somebody watching. One example of this is a company called “Eviction Lab” that tracks data from ten states, but only in specific cities and counties in those states. Even with this sparse reporting, their home page shows more than a million evictions over the last year, and more than 78,000 just last month.

The other reason we don’t have official numbers is something called “informal evictions.” Some states have laws against dramatic increases in rent, but not all states do. Both my daughter and I, living in a metro area, have faced a vast increase in rent when our leases were up. For my daughter, the increase was $900 a month and for me it was $600 a month.

Most of the country is just barely scraping by from month to month.

So it is really easy to push most Americans into a state of financial disaster.

Just look at what is happening with subprime auto loans.

The share of those loans that are at least 60 days delinquent has reached the highest level ever recorded…

The share of subprime borrowers at least 60 days behind on their auto loans rose to 6.65% in October, the highest level on record, according to Fitch Ratings data going back to the early 1990s.

As auto loan delinquencies spike, we are seeing a shocking surge in vehicle repossessions as well…

A near-record number of cars are being repossessed as Americans continue to fall behind on their auto loans amid mounting financial strain.

According to data from the Recovery Database Network (RDN), analyzed by CURepossession, 2025 has seen over 7.5 million repossession assignments—authorizations given to an agency to recover a vehicle on behalf of a lender. Based on historic trends, this figure is expected to reach a record 10.5 million by the end of the year.

Although recovery ratios have fallen in recent years—potentially lowering the number of actual repossessions—it is projected that over three million cars could be repossessed in 2025, a level only reached in 2009 during the Great Recession.

Do you remember the “subprime mortgage meltdown” that we witnessed in 2008 and 2009?

Well, this time around we have a “subprime auto loan meltdown”, and a couple of very large lenders have already gone belly up…

PrimaLend, which serves the “buy-here-pay-here” auto financing market — where dealers sell and directly finance vehicles for customers with poor or limited credit — filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Tricolor, which sold cars and provided auto loans mostly to low-income Hispanic communities in the Southwestern United States, also filed for bankruptcy in September.

Unfortunately, a lot more Americans will be getting behind on their mortgages and their auto loans during the months ahead because a lot more Americans will be losing their jobs.

With each passing day, we learn of more mass layoffs.

Today, it is being reported that Verizon “is planning to cut 15,000 jobs”…

The optics look awful for Verizon Communications if the Wall Street Journal’s report is accurate: the carrier is preparing for its largest job cuts ever just days before millions of Americans hit the road for Thanksgiving.

WSJ says Verizon is planning to cut 15,000 jobs. If that figure is correct, Bloomberg’s latest data suggests this would be about 15% of its roughly 100,000-person workforce. WSJ notes this would be the largest workforce reduction on record for the carrier.

Does this mean that Verizon’s customer service is about to get even worse?

Of course it would be exceedingly difficult for it to get any worse than it is right now.

By the way, you may have noticed that stock prices are absolutely plummeting.

I think that we will see a lot more market volatility in the days ahead, because global events are going to get quite chaotic.

We are truly living in one of the most pivotal times in all of human history.

Sadly, the vast majority of the population still doesn’t understand what is happening to us, and that is very unfortunate.

In America’s K-Shaped Economy, The Rich Are Getting Richer While Almost Everyone Else Is Getting The Sharp End Of The Stick

November 12, 2025 by Michael

Pundits have been talking a lot about America’s “K-shaped economy” lately, but most average people on the street have no idea what that means. Basically, it means that the wealthy are getting even wealthier while almost everyone else is getting monkey-hammered. Yesterday, I detailed 11 signs that economic conditions in the U.S. are the worst that they have been since the Great Recession, but if you have plenty of money you may feel like everything is just great right now. For those at the top of the economic pyramid, it could be argued that these are the best of times because the stock market has been soaring. But for many of those at the bottom of the economic pyramid, it literally feels like we are in the midst of a horrifying economic crisis.

At a time when the cost of living is crushing most of the population, debt levels are exploding, and mass layoffs are happening all over the nation, we continue to see “strong spending and healthy income growth among upper-income Americans”…

Experts describe the current U.S. economy as “K-shaped,” a reference to the divergent fortunes of wealthier consumers compared with people lower down the ladder. The upward-slanting stroke of the “K” represents the ongoing trend of strong spending and healthy income growth among upper-income Americans.

By contrast, the letter’s lower-slanting stroke points to the multiple financial strains facing low- and middle-income people, from stubborn inflation and prohibitively expensive homes to surging credit card debt and high health insurance costs.

The top 10 percent of all income earners have always spent more money than everyone else.

But now the proportion of consumer spending that they are accounting for has reached the highest level ever recorded…

These days, however, a large and growing share of that commercial activity is driven by upwardly mobile Americans. In the second quarter of 2025, the top 10% of income earners accounted for almost half of all spending, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by Zandi.

“That group has always accounted for a much larger share of spending, but that share has risen significantly over time, and now is the highest it’s ever been in the data,” he told CBS News.

If you are thriving in this very difficult economic environment, that is a good thing.

However, you should also be aware that most people are really struggling, and that is especially true for low-income Americans.

In fact, the percentage of subprime borrowers that are “at least 60 days past due on their auto loans” just shot up to the highest level we have ever seen…

More Americans than ever are falling behind on their car payments.

The share of subprime borrowers at least 60 days past due on their auto loans rose to 6.65% in October, the highest in data going back to 1994, according to Fitch Ratings.

With ongoing inflation pressures and the return of student loan bills, millions of car owners are struggling to afford their monthly payments. It’s the latest sign of weakness in the US economy as the Federal Reserve considers the path of future rate cuts.

We never even got a number this bad during the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009.

As a result, vehicle repossessions are absolutely soaring.

This is the economic reality that most of us are living in.

According to one recent survey, 55 percent of American workers are concerned that they could soon lose their jobs…

Some 55% of employed Americans say they’re concerned about losing their jobs, according to a recent Harris Poll conducted for Bloomberg News. That angst follows a drumbeat of layoff announcements by major employers, including Amazon.com Inc., Target Corp. and Starbucks Corp. Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. calculated the most job cut announcements for any October in more than two decades.

It comes layered on top of households’ exasperation over the cost of living. A 62% majority in the Oct. 23-25 poll said the cost of their everyday items had climbed over the last month and nearly half of those people said the increases have been difficult to afford.

In previous recessions, low paid workers got laid off in very high numbers.

This time around, it is highly paid workers that are getting hit particularly hard.

Even highly successful tech companies such as Amazon are eliminating good paying jobs…

Amazon is laying off almost 700 corporate workers based in New York City as part of the company’s nearly 14,000 corporate layoffs.

The layoffs, which were first reported by Crain’s New York, were disclosed in a filing with the New York State Department of Labor. In total, 660 employees are being laid off by Amazon across nine offices in New York City.

Among them, the largest layoffs affect Amazon’s Manhattan West office and its New York Tech Hub, also based in Manhattan.

It appears that the employment market is really starting to deteriorate.

And the most recent weekly report from ADP seems to confirm this…

Recent announcements of large layoffs at a few prominent companies have raised concerns that the labor market could be weakening further, and today’s new weekly ADP employment report confirms that fear.

The ADP weekly jobless report pointed to a deterioration in US labor momentum, stating that “for the four weeks ending Oct. 25, 2025, private employers shed an average of 11,250 jobs a week, suggesting that the labor market struggled to produce jobs consistently during the second half of the month.”

Added together that is 45,000 job losses in the month (not including government workers), which would be the largest monthly drop in jobs since March 2023…

But if you have lots of cash in the bank and you are not concerned about the security of your job, you might be feeling pretty good right about now.

As Peter Atwater has aptly noted, those that are sitting at the top are “spending like there’s no tomorrow”…

Peter Atwater, president of Financial Insyghts, said that the biggest division is America is not on the left and right, it’s up and down between those at the top and bottom of the US economy. For those at the top, the economy looks good and they are ‘spending like there’s no tomorrow.’ But Atwater says Americans on the bottom are already facing recession conditions, as people struggle with affordability.

Of course the prosperity that high earners are currently experiencing is just temporary.

Anyone that thinks that this stock market bubble is sustainable is simply not being rational.

Key ratios were not even this out of whack during the most euphoric days of the Dotcom bubble.

What goes up must come down.

But for now the wealthy are living the high life while most of the rest of us really struggle to make ends meet from month to month.

11 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is In the Worst Shape That It Has Been Since The Great Recession

November 11, 2025 by Michael

Do you remember how bad things were in 2008 and 2009? It was an economic nightmare that shook the entire world, and now it appears that the sequel is upon us. As you will see below, many economic numbers are either as bad as they have been since the Great Recession or they are even worse than they were during the Great Recession. Despite what the mainstream media has been telling you, the truth is that the cold, hard facts prove that the U.S. economy has been rapidly heading in the wrong direction for years. Now we have reached a major tipping point, and it won’t take much to push us over the edge.

If you doubt what I am saying, just keep reading. The following are 11 signs that the U.S. economy is in the worst shape that it has been since the Great Recession…

#1 U.S. consumer sentiment just continues to move in the wrong direction. In fact, U.S. consumer sentiment just fell to the second lowest reading ever…

Worries over the government shutdown surged in the early part of November, pushing consumer sentiment to its lowest in more than three years and just off its worst level ever, according to a University of Michigan survey released Friday.

The university’s monthly Index of Consumer Sentiment posted a reading of 50.3 for the month, indicating a decline of 6.2% on the month and about 30% from a year ago. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 53.0 after October’s 53.6. Sentiment was last this low in June 2022 as inflation hovered around its highest level in 40 years. November’s reading was the second lowest going back to at least 1978.

#2 For years, U.S. consumers have been foolishly piling up enormous mountains of debt. Now the average U.S. credit score is falling at the fastest pace that we have seen since the Great Recession…

In another indication of a puttering economy, the average credit score in the U.S. has fallen by two points since this time last year.

The credit scoring firm FICO said Tuesday that the average credit score for all U.S. consumers is now 715, down from 717 logged in October 2024. According to separately released FICO data, the decline marks the first time since 2009 during the Great Recession that the average FICO score has fallen by two points within one year.

#3 The employment market has really tightened up all over the nation. If you are looking for a temporary job this holiday season, it is being projected that holiday hiring with be at the lowest level that we have seen since the Great Recession…

Holiday hiring by retailers is expected to total between 265,000 and 365,000 roles this year, the lowest number of seasonal workers in at least 15 years, the National Retail Federation said Thursday.

NRF CEO Matthew Shay said on the retail trade group’s conference call on that those hiring expectations “reflect the softening and slowing labor market.” It’s a significant drop from a year ago, when retailers hired 442,000 seasonal workers, the retail trade group said.

#4 As hiring has gotten tighter, layoffs are way up. In fact, we just witnessed the most layoffs in a single month during the fourth quarter since 2008…

The report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm, showed 153,074 job cuts announced in October, an increase of 183% from cuts announced in September and up 175% from the same month in 2024.

“This is the highest total for October in over 20 years, and the highest total for a single month in the fourth quarter since 2008,” Challenger said in a release. That year was a pivotal moment in the Great Recession, in which thousands of jobs were lost around the world and the global economy faced a period of contraction.

#5 The American people are not stupid. They can see what is going on, and they are now the most pessimistic about finding a job that they have been “since at least 2013”…

Americans now have the least confidence in finding a new job since at least 2013, a period also known as the depths of the “jobless recovery” following the Great Recession. According to the latest August 2025 Survey of Consumer Expectations from the New York Federal Reserve, the perceived probability of securing a new job in case of job loss has dropped to 44.9%. That’s the lowest reading since the start of the series in June 2013. The decline was broad-based across age, education, and income groups, the New York Fed reported, “but it was most pronounced for those with at most a high school education.”

#6 Total household debt just hit another brand new record high. Not even during the Great Recession were we facing a crisis of this magnitude…

Total household debt climbed to a record $18.6 trillion last quarter, and while most borrowers remain on track with payments, young Americans are feeling the pressure.

#7 I have been warning that Americans have been getting behind on their debts. Now the percentage of outstanding balances that are seriously delinquent has risen to the highest level in more than a decade…

During the third quarter, 3 percent of outstanding balances became seriously delinquent — 90 days or more past due — the largest quarterly increase since 2014, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Among those ages 18 to 29, the rate was about 5 percent — more than double a year earlier and the highest of any age group.

#8 The cost of living crisis never seems to end. Aluminum prices are now increasing at an exponential rate, and that isn’t going to help matters at all…

Aluminum prices in the U.S. climbed to new record highs on Monday as domestic inventories tightened sharply, driven by the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs designed to bolster and revitalize America’s industrial base.

According to Bloomberg, the all-in U.S. aluminum price, combining the London Metal Exchange (LME) benchmark and the U.S. Midwest delivery premium, hit a record high of $4,816 per ton, nearly double the level from the December 2023 lows.

#9 Have you noticed that restaurant chains are closing vast numbers of locations all over the nation? Wendy’s is the latest major chain to announce mass closures…

Fast food chain Wendy’s is planning to close hundreds more stores just a year after shuttering 140 locations.

Interim CEO Ken Cook told investors in a Friday, Nov. 7, quarterly earnings call that the company would be closing a “mid single-digit percentage” of locations. With around 6,000 locations still operating nationwide, this would amount to roughly 240 to 360 stores. One investor estimated the number at about 300 locations during the call. “When we look at the system today, we have some restaurants that do not elevate the brand and are a drag from a franchisee financial performance perspective,” said Cook. “The goal is to address and fix those restaurants.”

#10 Manufacturing numbers often tell us where the economy is heading next. So the fact that U.S. manufacturing has fallen for eight months in a row is certainly not a good sign…

US manufacturing turned down in October on the PMI index, dropping from 49.1 in September to 48.7 in October, marking the eighth consecutive month of contraction. Price pressure may have eased (58 from 61.9), but production (48.2 from 51), inventory (45.8 from 47.7), and deliveries (54.2 from 52.6) have all declined.

Employment in the sector continued to decline (46 from 45.3), and 67% of panelist noted that companies are working on managing their current workforce rather than hiring.

#11 The tech industry has been one of the very few bright spots for the U.S. economy in 2025. But even our largest tech companies have been conducting absolutely brutal layoffs…

The scale of layoffs is unprecedented: by October, over 112,000 tech employees had been let go across 218 companies. Amazon alone confirmed 14,000 job cuts, citing the need to “reduce bureaucracy” and reallocate resources. The trend is driven by rapid advances in automation and artificial intelligence, which are fundamentally changing the nature of tech work.

“It feels like companies are prioritizing efficiency over human capital,” said a recently laid-off engineer, echoing the concerns of many affected workers. The ripple effects extend beyond individual careers, impacting families and communities as local economies absorb the shock of sudden unemployment.

We were warned that economic conditions would deteriorate, and that is precisely what has happened.

But what we have been through so far is not even worth comparing to what is eventually coming.

It was a nice ride while it lasted.

In 2009, the federal government was 10 trillion dollars in debt, and now it is 38 trillion dollars in debt.

Meanwhile, state and local government debt, corporate debt and consumer debt have all soared into uncharted territory.

We have been on the greatest debt binge in human history, but what did we get for it?

We could have made much different choices, but instead we chose to literally destroy our future.

Now a time of reckoning is upon us, and it isn’t going to be fun.

New York City Enters A Death Spiral As Hundreds Of Thousands Of Law-Abiding Citizens Prepare To Flee

November 10, 2025November 10, 2025 by Michael

What will the loss of hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens mean for New York City? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to answer that question. When large numbers of law-abiding citizens leave any area, conditions get worse. And when conditions get worse, that motivates even more law-abiding citizens to leave. Meanwhile, the election of Zohran Mamdani will make the Big Apple a magnet for criminals, gang members, radical Islamists, economic parasites, far left political activists and those that have entered this country illegally. New York City has entered a horrifying death spiral, and there is little hope that this death spiral can be reversed any time soon.

According to a poll that was taken just before Mamdani’s victory, 9 percent of the entire population of New York City indicated that they would “definitely” leave if Mamdani won…

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are prepared to bolt from the Big Apple if socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani wins Tuesday’s mayoral race — potentially setting the stage for the largest population flight in US history, an alarming new poll warned early Monday.

Around 765,000 people of the 8.4 million residents who call New York City home are preparing to leave, with about 9% of New Yorkers sharing that they would “definitely” leave the city if Mamdani is elected the 111th mayor, the Daily Mail reported, citing a survey conducted by J.L. Partners.

We have never seen anything quite like this before.

If 765,000 people actually leave the Big Apple, that will be roughly equivalent to the entire population of Washington DC…

If those residents were to leave, it would be equal to the population of Washington, DC, Las Vegas, or Seattle fleeing the city.

Another 25% of New Yorkers — about 2.12 million — said they would “consider” packing up and leaving.

But it isn’t just the sheer number of people that are threatening to leave that is the issue.

One of the reasons why New York City is one of the most important cities on the entire planet is because of the vast amount of wealth that is located there.

Now that Mamdani has won, wealthy New Yorkers are freaking out because he believes that capitalism is “theft”…

A lot of ultra-wealthy residents are threatening to flee, and that is a major problem, because the top 1 percent of all income earners pay close to 50 percent of all the taxes…

The top 1 percent of earners in New York pay around half the city’s income taxes.

With a significant proportion of them departing the city’s finances would collapse and there would be less money to pay for Mamdani’s policies, which involve subsidizing various parts of the city’s economy.

New York City is already facing an absolutely massive budget deficit next year.

So how will Mamdani be able to pay for all of his new social programs if ultra-wealthy New Yorkers start leaving in large numbers?

And how will Mamdani be able to maintain order if police officers start leaving in large numbers?

When Mamdani was asked about this, he openly acknowledged that the city is facing a “retention crisis”…

Socialist mayor-elect of New York City Zohran Mamdani said Friday that he is not concerned about backlash from law enforcement following his election victory and reiterated his plan to have social workers carry out certain duties currently done by law enforcement.

During a visit to Puerto Rico, Mamdani was asked if he was “worried” about backlash from the “law enforcement community.”

“I’m not worried about the backlash. What I’m worried about, frankly, is the continuation of a retention crisis that we’ve seen only deepen during the course of this campaign,” Mamdani said.

Mamdani is a smooth talker.

But there is no way that he is going to be able to talk his way out of this mess.

Every single day more New Yorkers are relocating, and one of the most popular destinations is Florida…

Election anxiety in New York City has turned into a real estate windfall in South Florida.

Developer Isaac Toledano, CEO of Miami-based BH Group, told Fox News Digital that his company has closed more than $100 million in signed contracts from New York buyers in just the past few months – about twice last year’s volume.

“I think the election accelerated how people make decisions,” Toledano said. “I think people are nervous [for] what’s coming, how it’s going to affect their lifestyle, the quality of life, taxes, potential of crime [or] no crime.”

Florida is already way too crowded.

This is going to make things even worse.

One real estate agent says that there is currently a lot of interest in waterfront properties “in the $20 million to $30 million range”…

‘We are seeing interest from New York City intensify because of the election,’ Dina Goldentayer, a Douglas Elliman agent in Florida, told the Daily Mail.

‘The city’s area codes 917 and 212 are popping up now almost as much as they did at the height of the Covid pandemic.

‘Most of the calls are from buyers, many Wall Street execs, looking in the $20 million to $30 million range. Specifically for waterfront houses or oceanfront condos.’

The weather in southern Florida is so nice for most of the year.

But is it a place that you would really want to be during the chaotic times that are coming?

Needless to say, it would certainly not be my first choice.

Up until just recently, many long-time New Yorkers never imagined that they would leave.

But now everything has changed.

It has been pointed out that voters that have lived in New York City for less than 10 years are the reason why Mamdani was victorious…

We are seeing similar patterns all over the nation.

In fact, it is being reported that this month we saw “a record forty-two Muslim candidates elected to public office across the United States”…

They told us the plan. Now we’re watching it unfold — in real time.

This week, terror-linked Islamic organizations are celebrating a stunning milestone: a record forty-two Muslim candidates elected to public office across the United States, the most significant wave of Muslim political victories in American history.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) own data, the newly elected officials span at least nine states — New York, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. The list includes five mayors, four state legislators, two judges, and dozens of city council, county, and school board members.

The electorate has been transformed by decades of mass immigration.

This is something that many of us have been ranting about for a very long time, but there is no way to turn back the clock now.

Those that wanted to “fundamentally transform” America have largely succeeded, and now a 34-year-old Islamic communist that wasn’t even a U.S. citizen a decade ago is going to be the next mayor of New York City.

The largest city in the United States is about to descend into a state of complete and utter chaos, and everyone can see that this is a story that is not going to have a happy ending.

People Are Lining Up At Food Banks As Early As 2:30 In The Morning As The Food Stamp Crisis Forces Millions Of Americans To “Starve”

November 9, 2025November 9, 2025 by Michael

We are less than two weeks into the month of November, and the mainstream media is telling us that millions of Americans are “starving”. If our society is this vulnerable to a temporary disruption in food stamp benefits, what is it going to be like when global events really start hitting the fan and there is no food in our grocery stores at all? Much of the population is just a few missed meals away from going completely haywire. For now, at least those that have not received their food stamp benefits this month can rely on local food banks. But would you be willing to line up at 2:30 in the morning just to get some free food? That is precisely what just happened in the Bronx…

In the Bronx, throngs of desperate locals lined up as early as 2:30 a.m. at food banks because of disruptions in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance benefits caused by the shutdown.

Carmen Verona told The Post she was there for the time ever because her mom and brother had their benefits cut. Her own $459 monthly SNAP benefits aren’t enough.

“Without the food stamps, it’s a lot … and that’s not even enough because I always got to put out of pocket like $200, $300 because it’s too expensive,” said Verona, 58, as she picked up fruit, vegetables, and apple juice.

The reason why people line up so early is because there might not be enough food for everyone.

In Indianapolis, one elderly woman that thought that she had gotten in line at her local food bank early enough ended up leaving empty-handed…

On Saturday morning, bundled in a coat, hat and gloves, Alicia Engel waited in a line outside Fountain Square Church of Christ for a cart of free groceries. An hour before the city-sponsored event was scheduled to end, volunteers ran out of food — and Engel left empty-handed.

This is how badly our economy has deteriorated.

If the food stamp program permanently disappeared, millions upon millions of desperate Americans would suddenly be absolutely destitute.

At one food bank in Cleveland, hordes of hungry people lined up in the rain to get some free food. When Fox News posted footage of the line on X, it got hundreds of thousands of views…

A video of a large line outside a food bank in Cleveland has gone viral amid the ongoing freezing of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the government shutdown.

Fox News posted footage showing long lines of people queuing outside a food bank on its X account. At the time of writing, the video had accrued 599,000 views.

You have to be really committed to stand in the rain for hours.

In other parts of the country, people are able to wait in their vehicles. For example, on one recent morning in Tallahassee “hundreds of cars lined up outside a shopping mall for emergency food assistance”…

On a cold Saturday morning in Tallahassee, hundreds of cars lined up outside a shopping mall for emergency food assistance. Among them was Joe Elliott, a newly retired man with liver disease, whose rising medical costs and lapsed SNAP benefits left him in need, per Chronicle Online.

The food distribution, organized by Second Harvest and supported by United Way of the Big Bend and WTXL, aimed to serve 1,500 families. CEO Monique Ellsworth said calls for help have surged as nearly 100,000 residents in the region face uncertainty over food aid.

We are seeing similar scenes all over the nation.

In northern California, demand at local food banks has absolutely exploded…

Within its service area of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, more than 168,000 people rely on CalFresh, the state of California’s version of SNAP, Bacho says.

On Monday alone, over 1,500 unique users visited the bank’s online food locator tool, which connects people to nearby food distribution sites, according to Bacho. That’s nearly double the usual volume.

Their hotline has also experienced a 200% increase in requests for referrals, she says.

I was surprised to learn that California is not even among the top 10 states that are most heavily dependent on the food stamp program.

It turns out that New Mexico, Oregon and Louisiana lead that list…

New Mexico -21.5 percent
Oregon – 18.1 percent
Louisiana – 17.5 percent
Oklahoma – 16.9 percent
W. Virginia – 15.5 percent
Nevada – 15.2 percent
Massachusetts – 15.1 percent
Pennsylvania – 15.0 percent
New York – 14.9 percent
Illinois – 14.8 percent

There were a few states that began paying out full food stamp benefits last week, but the Trump administration is ordering those states to “immediately undo” what they have done…

The Trump administration has instructed states that they must “immediately undo any steps” that were taken to provide full SNAP benefits to low-income Americans, saying states were “unauthorized.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a late-night Saturday memo obtained by CBS News, also threatened to impose financial penalties on states that did not comply with the government’s new orders.

“To the extent States sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized,” Patrick Penn, deputy undersecretary of Agriculture, wrote to state SNAP directors. “Accordingly, States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025.”

What a colossal mess.

And the fact that this crisis has erupted just before Thanksgiving is making a lot of recipients even more upset…

“Nothing, I didn’t get nothing this month,” Anthony Miller said.

Miller said he was supposed to see nearly $300 on his link card on November 1.

“It’s confusing and Trump don’t want to release it, and that’s why he’s taking it to court, and it don’t make no sense at all that we got to starve out here, and he did it at the time of Thanksgiving,” he said.

Did you notice that he used the word “starve”.

We are suddenly hearing that word at lot.

In fact, one female EBT recipient that claims that she is “starving” has been getting a tremendous amount of attention online…

Needless to say, that woman is not starving.

If you go without food for a few days, that is not going to hurt you.

In fact, for most of the population going without food for a few days would actually be quite beneficial for their health.

If you have a chronic disease, fasting is one of the best things that you could possibly do for your body.

The reason why we are hearing the word “starve” so much is because the mainstream media is constantly using it and many top Democrats are constantly using it…

“Donald Trump and his administration have made the decision to weaponize hunger, to withhold SNAP benefits from millions of people, notwithstanding the fact that two lower courts, both the district court and the court of appeals, made clear that those SNAP benefits needed to be paid immediately,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said on CNN Saturday, calling the actions “shameful.”

“Donald Trump is literally fighting in court to ensure Americans starve. HE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOU,” echoed California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender, on X.

Nobody in the United States is starving.

If you want to see real starvation, just look at what is happening in Africa right now.

People are literally dropping dead from a lack of food, but that hardly gets any attention from the western media.

So let’s put all of this into perspective.

This food stamp crisis is just temporary, and the good news is that it looks like a deal to end the government shutdown may be within reach.

We shall see.

But even if this government shutdown ends, there are a couple of things that we all need to remember.

Number one, demand at U.S. food banks was at record levels even before the government shutdown started.

Number two, if there is some sort of a major emergency someday and the federal government is no longer able to feed tens of millions of Americans, things will get very bad in this country very rapidly.

Job Cuts Explode – Up 65 Percent Compared To Last Year – The Employment Market Has Become A Twisted Game Of Musical Chairs

November 6, 2025November 6, 2025 by Michael

It is starting to look a lot like the Great Recession again. I thought that the pace of layoffs in 2024 was bad, but it has just exploded here in 2025. Vast numbers of good paying jobs are being ruthlessly eliminated, and competition for any decent jobs that are still available has become extremely fierce. In some cases, workers that have many years of experience are applying for hundreds of jobs but are not even able to get a single interview. I have said this before, and I will say it again. If you currently have a job that you highly value, hold on to it as tightly as you can. You don’t want to be left without a chair when the music stops playing.

On Thursday, we got the latest employment numbers from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, and they are extremely sobering…

U.S.-based employers announced 153,074 job cuts in October, up 175% from the 55,597 cuts announced in October 2024. It is up 183% from the 54,064 job cuts announced one month prior, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

“October’s pace of job cutting was much higher than average for the month. Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes. Those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles, which could further loosen the labor market,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

I specifically warned that the pace of job cuts was accelerating.

But these numbers are so bad that they even surprised me.

183 percent higher than last month and 175 percent higher than last October?

Are you kidding me?

The number of job cuts in the U.S. hasn’t been this high during the month of October since 2003.

That was 22 years ago.

Just think about that.

Overall, during the first 10 months of 2025 the number of job cuts was 65 percent higher than during the first 10 months of 2024…

Through October, employers have announced 1,099,500 job cuts, an increase of 65% from the 664,839 announced in the first ten months of last year. It is up 44% from the 761,358 cuts announced in all of 2024.

When the number of job cuts increases by 65 percent in just one year, you have got a major crisis on your hands.

And this is just the beginning.

We were warned that AI would be taking a lot of our jobs, and that is precisely what is starting to happen…

Challenger reports the highest level of layoffs coming from the technology sector amid a time of restructuring due to AI integration. Companies in the sector announced 33,281 cuts, nearly six times the level in September.

How many times have I written about this over the past few years?

A lot of people thought that this would be a threat that we would be facing “someday”, but the truth is that it is a threat that we are facing now.

Eventually, AI and robots will be able to do almost everything less expensively and more efficiently than humans can.

What will we be needed for then?

With each passing day, we get more bad news.

For example, we just learned that Outback Steakhouse “abruptly closed 21 restaurants in October”…

Outback Steakhouse abruptly closed 21 restaurants in October as it begins a “comprehensive turnaround strategy” to keep up with its trendier competitors.

Bloomin’ Brands, Outback’s parent company, disclosed in its earnings report Thursday that in addition to those closures, an additional 22 locations will not have their leases renewed and will shutter over the next four years.

More restaurants are being closed every single day.

More stores are being closed every single day.

And more mass layoffs are occurring every single day.

It is time to wake up.

Meanwhile, household debt in the United States just set another brand new record high as families wrestle with our seemingly endless cost of living crisis…

Total household debt climbed to a record $18.6 trillion last quarter, and while most borrowers remain on track with payments, young Americans are feeling the pressure.

During the third quarter, 3 percent of outstanding balances became seriously delinquent — 90 days or more past due — the largest quarterly increase since 2014, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Among those ages 18 to 29, the rate was about 5 percent — more than double a year earlier and the highest of any age group.

Much of that strain reflects missed student loan payments, with total outstanding debt climbing to a record $1.65 trillion last quarter.

Delinquency rates are really starting to spike just like we witnessed in 2008 and 2009.

As I mentioned yesterday, the credit card delinquency rate just hit the highest level that we have seen since 2011.

For a long time, people have been piling up enormous amounts of debt in a desperate attempt to maintain their former lifestyles, but now vast numbers of U.S. consumers are simply tapped out.

The top 20 percent of the population still has plenty of money to spend, but most of the rest of us are deeply struggling…

While the top fifth of earners now account for almost two thirds of spending — a record — the bottom 80%, which made up nearly 42% of spending before the pandemic, now accounts for just 37% of it, according to Moody’s Analytics. Low- and middle-income shoppers are spending less on all sorts of merchandise like apparel and toys, especially since tariffs were announced earlier this year, data from research firm Circana show.

Student loan payments have resumed and the ranks of subprime borrowers are on the rise, according to credit reporting firm TransUnion. Concerns about inflation — particularly for necessities like rent and groceries — persist, alongside slower pay gains, tepid hiring and more layoffs. And the shutdown has made matters worse for millions, with disruptions to food aid benefits and child care as well as spiking health insurance premiums.

Hopefully this government shutdown will be resolved soon.

But right now there is no end in sight.

One official that works for the the Rhode Island Department of Human Services is claiming that one impoverished woman is concerned that if food stamp benefits are completely cut off “she’d have to go back to eating cat food”…

Since then, family recipients have clogged phone lines and seniors and disabled recipients have lined up outside the Rhode Island Department of Human Services building where Stacy Smith, president of AFSCME local 2882 works in hopes of getting more information about where they can go for food or help.

Smith spoke to USA TODAY in her role as a union representative.

“We had a client that came in and was afraid she’d have to go back to eating cat food,” Smith said. “It’s so frustrating and disheartening. We’re talking about humans, these are people, these aren’t statistics, these aren’t numbers on a paper, these are human lives. Children, elderly, veterans, working moms, working dads. That is who we serve.”

I have heard from so many people out there that are facing nightmare scenarios because of the shutdown.

If you have never been in a situation where you don’t know where your next meal is going to come from, it may be difficult to identify with what these people are going through right now.

The level of emotional stress in this country is moving into uncharted territory, and this is particularly true for our young people…

63% of young adults (ages 18-34) and 53% of parents have considered leaving the U.S. due to the state of the nation
Half of all adults report signs of loneliness, while 69% say they needed more emotional support this year than they received
AI anxiety nearly doubled among students (78%, up from 45%) and surged across all age groups in just one year
75% of Americans are more stressed about the country’s future than before, with political division tied to isolation, physical symptoms, and daily struggles

If people are this stressed out now, what is going to happen when things really start hitting the fan?

A lot of these stressed out people are simply not going to make it.

It is time to toughen up, because it is going to take an extraordinary amount of toughness to make it through what is ahead.

The system is beginning to fail all around us, and a lot more economic pain is on the horizon.

The Terrible Truth About The U.S. Economy Can No Longer Be Denied

November 5, 2025November 5, 2025 by Michael

For a long time, a lot of people wanted to deny what was happening to us. But now we have reached a point when you can no longer do that and retain your credibility. Job openings have been plummeting, and layoffs have been spiking. Manufacturing activity is way down, and delinquency rates are way up. In fact, the credit card delinquency rate just hit the highest level that we have seen since 2011. Just about everything has gotten significantly more expensive, and America’s food banks are being overwhelmed by vast numbers of hungry people. Nobody can deny any of these things, and now U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is publicly admitting that “there are sectors of the economy that are in recession”…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Stephen Miran, President Trump’s appointee to the Fed’s Board of Governors who is on a temporary leave from his job leading the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, this week struck a downbeat tone about the health of the world’s largest economy. Mr. Bessent went so far as to say some sectors were already contracting. He did not specify which sectors, but high mortgage rates have put housing and adjacent industries such as construction under pressure.

“I think that there are sectors of the economy that are in recession,” Mr. Bessent said on CNN on Sunday. He described the economy as being in a “period of transition” because of a pullback in government spending to reduce the deficit. He called on the Fed to support the economy by cutting interest rates.

Bessent’s job is to put a positive spin on America’s economic performance.

But now we have reached a stage where even he cannot deny the truth.

Just look at what is happening to the shipping industry.

When the economy is booming, the amount of stuff that is being physically moved around goes up.

But when the economy falls on hard times, the amount of stuff that is being physically moved around goes down…

As someone who’s spent decades immersed in the freight and logistics industry, I’ve learned that freight data often tells the story of the broader economy long before traditional indicators catch up. Right now, that data is painting a stark picture: The U.S. economy is entrenched in a goods recession. While consumer spending on services might be holding steady, the movement of physical goods—the lifeblood of manufacturing, retail, and industrial sectors—has ground to a halt. This isn’t speculation; it’s evident in the high-frequency data we track at FreightWaves through our SONAR platform.

Nobody can pretend that this isn’t happening.

I realize that some of you may not want to hear this, but long-haul trucking volumes are down 30 percent on a year over year basis…

The long-haul trucking segment (800+ miles), however, has fallen off a cliff. Year-over-year volumes are down a shocking 30%, a sign that the broader economy is in trouble. Long-haul trucking is more exposed to the energy, manufacturing, auto, and housing segments.

That isn’t a small shift.

That is a monumental collapse.

When Freight Waves stated that long-haul trucking “has fallen off a cliff”, they were not exaggerating.

Manufacturing activity is down too.

In fact, it just declined for the eighth month in a row…

US manufacturing turned down in October on the PMI index, dropping from 49.1 in September to 48.7 in October, marking the eighth consecutive month of contraction. Price pressure may have eased (58 from 61.9), but production (48.2 from 51), inventory (45.8 from 47.7), and deliveries (54.2 from 52.6) have all declined.

Employment in the sector continued to decline (46 from 45.3), and 67% of panelist noted that companies are working on managing their current workforce rather than hiring. Again, lower rates are unlikely to address this structural problem or encourage companies to expand during a contracting business environment. Eight consecutive months of decline should be a warning as manufacturing declines often precede recessions, or in this case, ongoing stagflation.

Since less stuff is being produced, it should be no surprise that cardboard box shipments have fallen to “their lowest levels since the third quarter of 2015”…

Nearly every physical good in the modern economy is transported or stored in a corrugated cardboard box. That’s why box shipments act as a reliable real-time economic barometer, especially very useful now, as the government shutdown enters day 33 and key agencies like the BLS have halted official economic data releases, leaving private high-frequency data sets to fill the void.

The latest box shipment data from Bloomberg, citing a report by the Fibre Box Association, shows some of the weakest volumes in years, reflecting waning consumer sentiment and potentially signaling a subdued holiday shopping season. These shipments were at their lowest levels since the third quarter of 2015.

This is the real economy.

Factories make things and those things are put in cardboard boxes and shipped around the country in trucks.

At every point along our supply chains, activity is slowing down.

So let’s stop pretending.

All over the United States, major employers have been slashing their workforces…

When Starbucks Corp. fired 900 corporate employees in September, economists hardly batted an eye. After all, the coffee chain had already done a February culling as part of new management’s drive to get the Frappuccino maker back on track. In October, Target Corp. eliminated 1,800 roles to help the beleaguered retailer move faster. For each corporate cutback, there’s been a clear explanation: Amazon.com (14,000 corporate jobs) blamed artificial intelligence; Paramount (1,000 workers) just completed a merger; Molson Coors (400 jobs) can’t get carb-conscious consumers to drink enough beer.

Separately, each announcement can be read as a one-off. Yet taken together, some economists worry that the recent spate of cuts is starting to look a little less like individual belt-tightening and more like a warning sign.

Layoffs were up in 2024, and now they are up again in 2025.

Because most Americans are just barely scraping by from month to month, many of those that are losing their jobs are at risk of losing everything.

In this very difficult economic environment, it should be no surprise that vehicle repossessions are expected to hit a level that we haven’t seen since the Great Recession…

Car repossessions are booming as Americans increasingly struggle to pay.

The number of seized cars hit a 14-year high of 2.7 million in 2024, according to data from the Recovery Database Network (RDN), which processes around 90pc of all requests from lenders for repossessions.

Kevin Armstrong, editor of CU Repossession, an industry publication, expects the total will hit three million this year based on current trends, only just shy of the 3.2 million peak seen in 2009.

Things are bad, and 57 percent of Americans expect economic conditions to get even worse next year.

Unfortunately, I think that most Americans are still way too optimistic about what is ahead.

There is no “quick fix” that is going to turn things around, because our system is fundamentally broken.

We consume far more than we produce, a very large percentage of the population has become dependent on the government, and no nation in the entire history of the planet has accumulated as much debt as we have.

We are in far more trouble than most people realize, and the road ahead is not going to be pleasant.

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