Money

Never Go Full Weimar: America’s Monetary Base Has Grown 6 Times Larger Since 2008

March 3, 2024March 3, 2024 by Michael

A lot of people have been waiting for a meltdown of America’s financial system, but the truth is that it is already in the process of melting down. As you will see below, the size of the monetary base in the United States has gotten more than six times larger since 2008. If we continue down this road, it won’t be too long before we start looking like Germany during the Weimar Republic. But if we stop creating money at a feverish rate, we won’t be able to service our debts and we will plunge into a very deep economic depression. Those that run things desperately want to avoid short-term economic pain, and so they just continue to take the easy way out. Unfortunately, taking the easy way out time after time will only lead to heartache.

Instead of examining M1 or M2 as many others tend to do, in this article I am going to look at our monetary base. If you are not familiar with that term, the following is how Investopedia defines it…

The monetary base is the total amount of a currency in circulation or held in reserves. Money in circulation is anything that is held and used by the general public while reserves refer to commercial bank deposits and any money held in reserves by these institutions at the central bank.

For most of our history, the growth of our monetary base was very stable.

But then the financial crisis of 2008 arrived, and it started growing at an exponential rate.

As you can see from the chart below, the size of the monetary base went from less than a trillion dollars in 2008 to nearly six trillion dollars today…

There tends to be a lag between when the monetary base rises and when we see prices increase throughout the economy.

For example, the dramatic spike in the monetary base that we witnessed in 2020 did not immediately cause prices to soar.

But in 2021 and 2022 we certainly felt the pain.

Throughout 2022, the size of the monetary base was actually falling as the Federal Reserve attempted to battle inflation, and that resulted in prices moderating to a certain extent in 2023.

Unfortunately, the size of the monetary base started to go back up in early 2023, and now it is rising very sharply once again.

That is definitely not good news for U.S. consumers in 2024 and beyond.

We certainly don’t need more inflation, because just about everything has become painfully expensive these days. The following comes from CNN…

From the historically unaffordable housing market and budget-breaking day care rates to high car prices, the United States has a cost of living problem many years in the making.

Parents of young children are making difficult choices to afford child care — or they’re opting to evade it by dropping out of the workforce altogether.

Parents are also struggling to buy bigger cars to haul around their growing families while simultaneously socking away some money in college savings plans.

For too many, the American Dream feels like an illusion.

So why don’t those in charge stop creating so much money?

Well, the truth is that if they stop we won’t be able to service our rapidly growing debts.

Today, U.S. consumers are 17 trillion dollars in debt, corporate debt is at the highest level ever, state and local governments are drowning in debt, and the federal government is 34 trillion dollars in debt.

At this point, many prominent voices are issuing ominous warnings about what will happen if we do not get our debt spiral under control…

Since the beginning of the year an increasing cacophony of alarm bells has been ringing out: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says there will be a market “rebellion” over the issue while Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan says it’s time to stop “admiring” the problem and instead do something about it.

This fear is echoing outside of Wall Street, too. The Black Swan author Nassim Taleb says the economy is in a “death spiral,” while Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says it’s past time to have an “adult conversation” about fiscal responsibility.

They are right.

We are in a vehicle that seemingly has no brakes, and we are headed for disaster.

Of course our politicians will never stop borrowing and spending. They are completely and utterly addicted to debt, and they realize that the economy will collapse if they stop propping it up with trillions of borrowed dollars.

As Jim Quinn has aptly observed, it now “requires $1 trillion of new debt every 100 days to achieve nothing but remaining static economically”…

Now it requires $1 trillion of new debt every 100 days to achieve nothing but remaining static economically. The regime media pundits and the cabal on Wall Street tell us the economy is doing great. No recession in sight. All is well. The dumbed down and distracted ignorant masses don’t realize all the reported “economic growth” is “created” by the government, enabled by The Fed, spending billions on their wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, funneling the money into the Military Industrial Complex corporations; paying for the transportation, feeding, and housing of the illegal invading hordes; hiring more government drones to harass the citizenry, and desperately trying to prop up a corrupt tottering empire in its final death throes.

Anyone with even the slightest mathematical acumen knows increasing the national debt at a rate of $1 trillion every 100 days is a death wish. Why would those pulling the strings behind the scenes of this acceleration towards the cliff of national suicide be doing so at this point in time?

From the founding of our nation, it took more than 200 years before the U.S. was a trillion dollars in debt.

Now we are adding a trillion dollars to the national debt approximately every 100 days.

What we are witnessing is nothing short of insanity, and what our leaders are doing to future generations of Americans is also extremely immoral. In early America, Thomas Jefferson warned that government debt was a way that one generation could steal money from future generations on a massive scale…

The system of banking we have both equally and ever reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens. Funding I consider as limited, rightfully, to a redemption of the debt within the lives of a majority of the generation contracting it; every generation coming equally, by the laws of the Creator of the world, to the free possession of the earth he made for their subsistence, unincumbered by their predecessors, who, like them, were but tenants for life… And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

Our politicians have stolen tens of trillions of dollars from our children and our grandchildren.

What they have done to future generations of Americans is beyond criminal.

And now they have brought us to the brink of national financial suicide.

So enjoy the brief period of relative stability that we still have left, because the endgame is now upon us.

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

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of 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. You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

“We Will Have A Hard Landing At Some Point. I Guarantee You That.”

February 29, 2024 by Michael

Can you guess who the quote in the article title is from? I will give you a hint. It wasn’t me. I know that it sounds like it could have come from me, but it actually comes from a very big name on Wall Street. Ellen Zentner is Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. economist, and she is the one that said it. During an interview with CNBC she warned that “the tightening impacts from monetary policy” will have enormous consequences for the U.S. economy in the months ahead…

“We will have a hard landing at some point. I guarantee you that. We’re all wondering: When does that come?” she said. “The point that Dimon makes is that there are these cumulative impacts that build over time, and we are in the camp that we haven’t yet seen all of the tightening impacts from monetary policy,” she added, referring to the impact of Fed rate hikes.

She makes a really great point.

The consequences of interest rate hikes are felt over time.

Higher interest rates have certainly started to cause a lot of problems, but if rates are not brought down soon the level of pain that we are experiencing will begin to go up dramatically.

Unfortunately, the Fed is not likely to reduce interest rates any time soon because inflation continues to run hotter than expected…

Inflation increased by the largest amount in almost a year, according to the Fed’s preferred measure – confirming expectations interest rates will not be cut until around June.

The so-called core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index – which excludes volatile food and energy prices – increased 0.4 percent between December and January.

Marko Kolanovic, the chief market strategist for JPMorgan Chase, believes that the U.S. economy could be headed into “something like 1970s stagflation”…

In an analyst note to clients, the bank’s chief market strategist Marko Kolanovic warned that the economy may turn away from a “Goldilocks” scenario – in which it is not expanding or contracting by too much – and enter a period of stagflation similar to that experienced in the 1970s.

“Going back to the question of market macro regime, we believe that there is a risk of the narrative turning back from Goldilocks towards something like 1970s stagflation, with significant implications for asset allocation,” Kolanovic wrote.

I would argue that we have already been in a period of stagflation.

The economy has certainly been stagnating, and inflation has been unacceptably high.

But now conditions have taken a dramatic turn for the worse in early 2024, and we are seeing some very troubling signs.

For example, I was stunned to learn that a Canadian pension fund has just sold a stake in a Manhattan office tower for just one dollar…

Canadian pension funds have been among the world’s most prolific buyers of real estate, starting a revolution that inspired retirement plans around the globe to emulate them. Now the largest of them is taking steps to limit its exposure to the most-beleaguered property type — office buildings.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has done three deals at discounted prices, selling its interests in a pair of Vancouver towers, a business park in Southern California and a redevelopment project in Manhattan, with the New York stake offloaded for the eyebrow-raising price of just $1. The worry is those deals may set an example for other major investors seeking a way out of the turmoil too.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board had a 29 percent stake in Manhattan’s 360 Park Avenue South.

The plan was to redevelop that property, but at this point the outlook for office buildings is so bad that the pension fund just wanted out.

And so the entire 29 percent stake was sold off for just one dollar.

Do you remember when I warned that we were heading into the worst commercial real estate crash in history?

Well, this is what a crash looks like.

Meanwhile, large employers all over America continue to conduct mass layoffs.

Today, I was saddened to learn that Electronic Arts is laying off approximately 700 workers…

Another day, another round of mass layoffs in the games industry. Electronic Arts (EA) has announced it will cut around five percent of its employees, putting almost 700 people out of a job. It’s also cancelling games and shutting down at least one development studio.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson announced the layoffs in an email to employees, which was subsequently posted to the company’s blog on Wednesday.

And we just learned more details about the layoffs that Citigroup is conducting…

Citigroup is cutting nearly 300 workers in New York as it continues its massive layoff spree in an effort to rein in expenses, according to filings with the State Labor Department.

About 239 workers in the primary banking subsidiary, 44 from its broker-dealer unit and three from its technology arm are getting cut, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices filed this week.

In early January, the company announced that it was cutting 20,000 roles “over the medium-term,” as part of a reorganization effort. The cuts are slated to save the company between $2 billion and 2.5 billion.

We have not seen anything like this since the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009.

On Thursday, Zero Hedge published a list of 50 different mass layoffs that we have seen recently…

1. Everybuddy: 100% of workforce
2. Wisense: 100% of workforce
3. CodeSee: 100% of workforce
4. Twig: 100% of workforce
5. Twitch: 35% of workforce
6. Roomba: 31% of workforce
7. Bumble: 30% of workforce
8. Farfetch: 25% of workforce
9. Away: 25% of workforce
10. Hasbro: 20% of workforce
11. LA Times: 20% of workforce
12. Wint Wealth: 20% of workforce
13. Finder: 17% of workforce
14. Spotify: 17% of workforce
15. Buzzfeed: 16% of workforce
16. Levi’s: 15% of workforce
17. Xerox: 15% of workforce
18. Qualtrics: 14% of workforce
19. Wayfair: 13% of workforce
20. Duolingo: 10% of workforce
21. Rivian: 10% of workforce
22. Washington Post: 10% of workforce
23. Snap: 10% of workforce
24. eBay: 9% of workforce
25. Sony Interactive: 8% of workforce
26. Expedia: 8% of workforce
27. Business Insider: 8% of workforce
28. Instacart: 7% of workforce
29. Paypal: 7% of workforce
30. Okta: 7% of workforce
31. Charles Schwab: 6% of workforce
32. Docusign: 6% of workforce
33. Riskified: 6% of workforce
34. EA: 5% of workforce
35. Motional: 5% of workforce
36. Mozilla: 5% of workforce
37. Vacasa: 5% of workforce
38. CISCO: 5% of workforce
39. UPS: 2% of workforce
40. Nike: 2% of workforce
41. Blackrock: 3% of workforce
42. Paramount: 3% of workforce
43. Citigroup: 20,000 employees
44. ThyssenKrupp: 5,000 employees
45. Best Buy: 3,500 employees
46. Barry Callebaut: 2,500 employees
47. Outback Steakhouse: 1,000
48. Northrop Grumman: 1,000 employees
49. Pixar: 1,300 employees
50. Perrigo: 500 employees

Just look at that list.

That is nuts!

Anyone that thinks that the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction is simply being delusional.

Greg Hunter just interviewed economic analyst David Morgan, and he is warning that we are actually “entering into a global depression the likes of which the world has never seen”…

Economic analyst and financial writer David Morgan has gone against the majority in the past with predictions that seemed unbelievable at the time. One prediction last year is the Fed not cutting interest rates in 2023. The Fed didn’t, and Morgan is still predicting there will be no Fed interest rate cut anytime soon. Now, with a record high stock market, Morgan is predicting “We are entering into a global depression the likes of which the world has never seen.”

Global central banks were able to delay the inevitable by flooding the system with colossal mountains of money.

But that just created a tremendous amount of inflation and now a horrifying economic crisis is coming anyway.

So I would encourage everyone to brace themselves for the “hard landing” that is rapidly approaching, because it is going to be exceedingly painful for the unprepared.

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

Shoplifting In America Is Wildly Out Of Control

February 28, 2024February 28, 2024 by Michael

Shoplifters are going hog wild all over America, and our politicians seem powerless to stop this crisis. When I was growing up, shoplifting was something that was pretty rare. Once in a while some irresponsible idiot would slip a candy bar into his pocket, but it wasn’t something that retailers were too stressed out about. But now everything has changed. Retail “shrink” broke the 100 billion dollar barrier in 2022, and the final number for 2023 is expected to be even higher. Stuff is being stolen from our major retailers on an industrial scale, and this is having very serious consequences.

From coast to coast, retail locations are being permanently shut down because there is no end in sight to this madness.

This is particularly true in our largest urban areas. In San Francisco, a Macy’s store that had been open for 77 years is being closed down, and employees are telling the press that shoplifting was the primary factor behind the decision…

Employees at Macy’s flagship San Francisco store in Union Square have blamed its planned closure on shoplifting – despite mayor London Breed claiming crime was not a factor.

The Union Square store announced earlier this week it will be closing its doors after 77 years as part of a plan to close 150 locations across the nation over the next three years.

It isn’t just a few things that are going missing at that Macy’s store.

According to one employee, the men’s department is being systematically looted on a daily basis…

“It happens every day,” employee Steve Dalisay said.

Hanging up blazers in the Macy’s sixth-floor men’s department, Dalisay said blazers, wallets and boxer briefs are the items most frequently stolen from his department. He said thieves take at least four blazers every day, adding that he typically sees about 10 wallets and 20 briefs stolen daily.

Another employee says that most of the shoplifting is being done by drug users and groups of teens…

Shoplifters, he said, tend to be in two categories: drug users going after specific items for fences or teens entering the store in teams on brazen shoplifting blitzes.

“I’m not in charge of making the estimates of how much we lose in a day, but last year we were told the losses were in the millions,” the employee said.

“It’s a big thing,” he added. “What we have learned is a lot of drug users have deals with the fencers. They’ll give the drug users a list of stuff from the store, and they’ll go try to execute the list.”

Our national shoplifting crisis and our national drug crisis are very closely related.

Drug users need money to fund their habits, and shoplifting is one of the easiest ways to obtain things to sell.

At this point, it would be difficult to overstate the severity of the drug crisis in the state of California. According to Governor Gavin Newsom, authorities in his state seized enough fentanyl last year “to potentially kill the global population nearly twice over”…

Roughly 62,000 pounds of fentanyl smuggled into California was confiscated by authorities in 2023. The total amount of the potent synthetic opioid seized last year “is enough to potentially kill the global population nearly twice over,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Tuesday.

In 2023, the California National Guard supported other law enforcement agencies in counter-drug operations across the state, seizing a record 62,000 pounds of fentanyl at ports of entry, according to a news release from Newsom’s office.

That is certainly a lot of fentanyl.

If you can believe it, the amount of fentanyl that was seized in the state in 2023 was more than 10 times greater than the amount that was seized in 2021…

Compared with just a few years ago, the amount of fentanyl seized by authorities has dramatically surged. In 2021, California authorities seized more than 5,300 pounds of the drug, with a street value of $64 million. In 2022 that rose to 28,000 pounds, with a street value of $230 million, based on the U.S. Department of Justice evaluation of illegal-drug values in the Los Angeles region.

We have never seen anything like this before.

A lot of that fentanyl comes from Mexico, but a lot of it also comes from China.

The streets of California cities are flooded with addicts, and they are going to do whatever they have to do to feed their addictions.

So this shoplifting crisis is not going away.

At one hardware store in San Francisco, employees are now escorting customers around the store in a desperate attempt to reduce the level of shoplifting…

A longtime San Francisco business is trying something new to curb what it says has been “rampant shoplifting.”

Fredericksen’s Hardware and Paint in Cow Hollow is now offering a one-on-one shopping experience. The idea is to separate actual customers from those looking to steal from the store.

During certain hours, Fredericksen’s blocks off part of the store’s entrance and has people wait for an employee to help them instead of allowing people to just roam the store. The store’s longtime manager says it’s a move that was worth trying for the sake of the business, their employees, and their customers.

I think that we will soon see many more retailers offer “one-on-one shopping experiences” to their customers.

UNREAL. This store in San Francisco now has a barrier when you walk in and shoppers need to be accompanied by staff as they shop through the store because crime has got so bad.

Welcome to @GavinNewsom’s California pic.twitter.com/c2bixYEUbO

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 25, 2024

Major retailers just can’t keep losing inventory like they have been.

The amount of retail “shrink” in the United States has more than doubled in recent years, and it just continues to explode higher…

Shrink is the industry term for inventory loss often attributed to theft, damage, or errors. Once simply considered a cost of doing business, shrink resulted in retail profit losses exceeding a staggering $100 billion in 2022.

What’s more problematic, the trend of shrink appears to be far from reversing course, with losses more than doubling over the past five years. In an industry where margins and profitability are already under significant pressure, the rise in retail shrink is capturing the attention of all levels within retail organizations.

Sadly, there are some parts of the country where the looting of retailers has essentially become a way of life.

In fact, this has even been happening in our nation’s capital…

A Washington D.C. CVS store is shutting its doors after being repeatedly ransacked by thieves, the chain has confirmed.

The pharmacy, located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, went viral last October when videos emerged of it totally stripped of all its products after being targeted by a teen gang.

Staff claim more than 45 schoolkids would go into the store and steal chips and drinks in the morning, after their classes and late at night. It will close on February 29, according to WTTG-TV.

Those kids wouldn’t have been able to loot that store multiple times per day if they had been put in prison the first time they did it.

But our politicians don’t want such harsh laws.

They want to coddle the criminals, and as a result much of the rest of the population is living in fear.

This is just another example of how upside down our society has become.

The solutions to our national shoplifting crisis are simple enough, but I doubt that we will see things turn around any time soon.

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

Cereal For Dinner: As The Economy Implodes, The CEO Of Kellogg Is Trying To Convince Americans That Frosted Flakes And Froot Loops Are A Cheaper Alternative

February 27, 2024February 27, 2024 by Michael

Would you eat Cheerios for dinner? What about Lucky Charms? Many years ago when I was a college student, I would often eat cereal instead of a normal meal in the evening. Needless to say, that wasn’t good for my health at all. But now “cereal for dinner” has become quite trendy. Food prices have soared in recent years and millions of Americans are trying to cut costs anywhere that they can. As the economy continues to implode and more consumers find themselves “under pressure”, the CEO of Kellogg thinks that he will be able to convince even more of us that choosing cereal for dinner is a great way to save money…

Gary Pilnick, CEO of WK Kellogg Co., told CNBC, “When we think about our consumer under pressure, … cereal … has always been quite affordable and it tends to be a great destination when consumers are under pressure.”

He said his company has been focusing on messaging “to reach the consumer where they are, so we’re advertising about cereal for dinner. If you think about the cost of cereal for a family versus what they might otherwise do that’s going to be much more affordable.

“The price of a bowl of cereal with milk and with fruit is less than a dollar so you can imagine where a consumer under pressure might find that to be a good place to go.”

Pilnick said when looking at company data, “breakfast cereal is the number one choice for in home consumption” with over 25% of cereal consumption being outside of breakfast. “Cereal for dinner is something that is probably more on trend now and we would expect to continue as that consumer is under pressure.”

Hey, I have an even better idea.

Instead of eating cereal, all of us could make our dollars stretch even farther by eating pet food for dinner.

Doesn’t that sound great?

At this stage in my life, the idea of eating processed cereals for dinner is just disgusting.

But as food becomes less and less affordable, many Americans will be looking to survive from month to month any way that they can…

The interview followed news from the Wall Street Journal that showed Americans spending 10% or more of their income on food, the most they have in 30 years. Previous reporting from USA TODAY highlights that the average family is spending more than $1,000 on groceries each month.

“The cereal category has always been quite affordable,” Pilnick said. Kellogg, which owns cereals like Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Corn Flakes and Raisin Bran, “tends to be a great destination when consumers are under pressure,” Pilnick said, adding that the price of cereal with milk and fruit “is less than a dollar.”

This is the real state of our economy.

Most Americans are living right on the edge, and hunger has been rapidly growing all over the nation…

17 million households were not able to get enough food in 2022, according to the administration. In about 6.8 million of those households, a member had to skip meals or make other changes at times because there was not enough money and resources for food.

Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come.

It appears that the economy has taken a sharp negative turn in early 2024. For example, we just learned that consumer confidence declined much more than expected this month…

The survey’s index fell in February to 106.7, down from a reading of 110.9 in January. Americans became less worried about rising food and gas prices, but more concerned about the job market, the survey showed.

“The drop in confidence was broad-based, affecting all income groups except households earning less than $15,000 and those earning more than $125,000,” Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, said in a release. “Confidence deteriorated for consumers under the age of 35 and those 55 and over, whereas it improved slightly for those aged 35 to 54.”

Americans’ outlook for the economy in the following months, including their expectations for income and business conditions, declined this month, slipping below a threshold that “often signals recession ahead,” according to the report.

Concerns about the job market are definitely warranted, because large employers are conducting mass layoffs from coast to coast.

Earlier today, we learned that Sony will be laying off 900 employees in its PlayStation division…

Sony becomes the latest company to announce layoffs stating that it will make cuts to its PlayStation division. In the announcement, sent out on Tuesday Feb. 27, the gaming company said that it will lay off 900 employees, about 8% of its workforce, across several of the company’s locations.

And Expedia just announced that 1,500 workers will be hitting the bricks…

Expedia, the online travel agency, is eliminating about 1,500 employees as part of an “organizational and technological transformation.”

The cuts, which amount to nearly 9% of its 17,100-strong global workforce, come amid slowing travel demand following a post-pandemic boom and a broader shakeup at the company, including a new CEO.

Everywhere we look, we see weakness.

Personally, I was greatly saddened to hear that Macy’s has decided to shut down approximately 150 stores…

Macy’s plans to close roughly 150 of its locations over the next three years in a strategy shift that leans more heavily on its luxury Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury chains.

The company announced the shift publicly Tuesday morning, saying it was entering a “bold new chapter” with a new CEO, Tony Spring. Macy’s will be down to 350 stores once all of the planned closures occur.

When will the legacy media finally admit what is happening?

The U.S. economy is rapidly moving in the wrong direction, but they don’t want to admit that because it would make Joe Biden look bad.

In January, orders for durable goods were depressingly low…

The last few months have been volatile – to say the least – for US durable goods orders, with preliminary January data showing an enormous 6.1% MoM plunge in the headline (worse than the already bad 5% decline expected). That is the weakest MoM print since the middle of the COVID lockdowns in April 2020, dragging year-over-year orders growth down to -0.8% – the lowest and first annual contraction since August 2020…

That is a very clear sign that a major economic shift has begun.

Why can’t more people see this?

And major banks continue to shut down branches at a feverish pace…

American banks filed to close 31 branches in a single week this month, with Wells Fargo and PNC accounting for more than half.

Each of the two banks said they would shut eight branches, across Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, California, Connecticut, North Dakota and New Jersey.

Texas was worse hit, with closures set for Houston, Laredo and Cypress.

Other banks to have announced they would shutter locations between February 11 and 17 include Bank of America, Santander, Chase, Citizens, KeyBank and Legacy.

So much bad economic news is coming in that I can’t possibly keep up with it all.

But the Biden administration insists that everything is just fine.

They would like you to believe that the future is going to be filled with sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.

But that isn’t the truth.

The truth is that the U.S. economy has started to implode, and a lot more Americans are going to be eating cereal for dinner by the end of this calendar year.

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

They Are Creating Incredibly Bizarre New Technologies For The Dystopian World Of The Future

February 26, 2024February 26, 2024 by Michael

Many would argue that we are already living in a dystopian society, but if those that are currently running things get their way our world will soon look far more dystopian than it does now. Over the past few years, we have seen an unprecedented explosion of new technologies. Some of these technologies appear to have the potential to make life better, but others would give those in positions of power the ability to watch us, track us, monitor us and control us like never before. If you are not concerned about what we are now witnessing, that is probably because you haven’t been paying attention.

I have a number of examples that I want to share with you in this article, but I really struggled with how to organize them.

Ultimately, I decided to order them from the least creepy to the most creepy.

So let’s start with palm scanning.

Palm scanners are being deployed at Whole Foods stores all over the country, and once you are enrolled in the system you can literally pay for your groceries by just using your hand…

The palm-recognition system works by linking a user’s payment information with their unique palm print. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can also link it with your Prime account — no need to fumble in the Amazon app looking for your in-store code any longer. At Whole Foods, you just hover your palm over the reader once you’re ready to pay and the system will find your Prime account, apply any discounts, and charge the credit card you enrolled with.

A Business Insider journalist decided to give the system a try, and she described what she had to do in order to enroll…

I followed the instructions on the device, first scanning my right palm, then my left, which was optional.

The scanner then prompted me to enter my phone number. Amazon sent me a text with a link to a page asking me to verify my card details with the last four digits of my credit card number and the card’s expiry date. And that was it — it took me to my Amazon One home page, where I can see my linked phone number, Amazon account, and payment method.

That is definitely creepy, but the facial recognition systems that are now being deployed all over the globe are even creepier.

During the G20 meetings that just took place in Brazil, everyone that attended was forced “to pass a biometric validation process by scanning their faces using Serpro’s stand devices”…

Serpro, a Brazilian government data processing agency, is providing a facial recognition system that was used to facilitate the accreditation and validation of delegates to a ministerial meeting of the G20 last week.

During the meeting, which took place on February 21 and 22, attendees were made to pass a biometric validation process by scanning their faces using Serpro’s stand devices, according to a post on the G20 website. Brazil currently holds the G20 presidency, which runs till the end of this year.

Serpro’s system meets the same standard as the biometric authentication equipment deployed in some of Brazil’s airports to enable secure and seamless passenger checks without the need for the physical presentation of documents, according to the G20 announcement.

You may be thinking that since you aren’t a high ranking government official you don’t have anything to worry about.

But it is important to understand that they are setting a precedent.

If they can start getting this technology in place, it will inevitably be adopted by more and more institutions.

And then someday you may wake up and find that you can’t get a job, open a bank account or buy groceries without having your face scanned.

What will you do then?

We are also reaching a point where many people will soon be running around with technology strapped to their faces virtually all the time.

The Apple Vision Pro has been making lots of headlines this month, and Apple is openly telling us that the goal is to “augment reality” on a continual basis…

There’s a lot of pressure on the new Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s long-awaited entry into the world of computers you wear on your face. Apple claims that the Vision Pro, which starts at $3,499, is the beginning of something called “spatial computing,” which basically boils down to running apps all around you. And the company’s ads for it do not hedge that pressure even a little: they show people wearing the Vision Pro all the time. At work! Doing laundry! Playing with their kids! The ambition is enormous: to layer apps and information over the real world — to augment reality.

To me, having a computer strapped to my face doesn’t seem very appealing.

So I am not sure how much this will catch on.

But in the future people may actually have computer chips or even entire computers inside their heads…

Elon Musk says Neuralink’s first human trial participant can control a computer mouse with their brain, nearly one month after having the company’s chip implanted. But details remain sparse, and other companies working on brain-computer interfaces appear to have so far cleared more technological hurdles than Neuralink.

“Progress is good, patient seems to have made a full recovery … and is able to control the mouse, move the mouse around the screen just by thinking,” Musk, who owns the controversial brain chip startup, said in a conversation in an X Spaces event Monday night.

“We’re trying to get as many button presses as possible from thinking, so that’s what we’re currently working on is — can we get left mouse, right mouse, mouse down, mouse up,” he said, “which is kind of needed if you want to click and drag something, you need mouse down and to hold on mouse down.”

As that CNN article states, many companies out there are working on brain chips.

These are the early days, and they will inevitably become a lot more sophisticated.

But no matter how they try to spin this new technology, I am never allowing anyone to put a chip in my head, and you shouldn’t either.

Of course the elite may not even need to put a chip into your head to control you, because mind reading technology is becoming extremely advanced.

For example, just check out what a student at MIT has just come up with…

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student has created a device that allows humans to communicate with machines using our minds – and it truly is incredible.

Arnav Kapur created a device called AlterEgo, which is a wearable type of headset that allows users to communicate with technology without even speaking a word.

This technology is apparently extremely accurate, and it has enabled this student to search the Internet by only using the thoughts in his own head…

The device records signals when the user hears or thinks of a particular word. This information is then sent to machines which use the internet to find the answer.

It’s kind of like having Google in your head, which is pretty damn incredible.

Without speaking, typing or doing anything at all, the device is able to search the internet for the correct answer before feeding back the information via skull vibrations into the inner ear.

Apparently, the answer presents itself in a similar way to a person’s internal voice, but without interfering with their ‘usual auditory perception’.

I am extremely impressed with what he has been able to accomplish.

But this sort of technology is also incredibly dangerous.

Just imagine what a global tyrant could do with this sort of power.

The last example that I want to share with you may not be the most dangerous, but to me it is definitely the most creepy…

A Spanish-Dutch artist is set to marry an AI hologram this summer, with the groundbreaking union ushering in a weird new era of human-robot relationships.

Alicia Framis will marry her holographic partner, AILex, who was trained from the profile information of her previous romantic partners, according to a press release from the artist’s publicity team.

The press release said that the unconventional ceremony will take place at the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The ceremony will feature a “unique ritual for the union between a human and an avatar,” and guests will be served “molecular food that can be enjoyed by both humans and humanoid entities,” it said.

This woman really does intend to “marry” an AI hologram.

Sadly, as technology and reality continue to merge, the distinction between what is “real” and what is “digital” will get fuzzier and fuzzier.

As I have discussed previously, we have reached a time in our history when artificial intelligence is progressing at an exponential rate.

If left unchecked, AI will completely turn our world upside down in less than a decade.

Many will eagerly welcome the changes that are happening, but I am entirely convinced that all of this technology is opening a door for horrors that most of us cannot even imagine right now.

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

This Is What The Early Stages Of A Severe Recession Look Like

February 25, 2024February 25, 2024 by Michael

It is definitely starting to look a lot like 2008 and 2009 again. Those years were such a painful time for our country, and in many ways we still haven’t fully recovered from the damage that was inflicted upon us during that era. Unfortunately, so many of the exact same things that we experienced back then are starting to happen in our time. For example, the Great Recession brought us the greatest foreclosure crisis in the history of our nation, and now foreclosures are really starting to spike here in 2024. In fact, the number of new foreclosure filings in the U.S. just jumped 10 percent in a single month…

Home foreclosures are on the up across the US as Americans continue to battle against soaring interest rates and rising costs.

Last month, 37,679 properties had a foreclosure filing, according to fresh figures from real estate data provider ATTOM – up 10 percent from the month prior.

According to the pundits, that wasn’t supposed to happen.

But it did.

Interestingly, Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware actually experienced the fastest increase in foreclosure filings last month.

Nevada was second, and that was due to the large number of foreclosure filings in Las Vegas…

Nevada’s position in the ranking is largely due to foreclosure filings in Las Vegas, where many people lost their jobs when tourism crashed during pandemic lockdowns.

According to ATTOM, Las Vegas had a foreclosure filing on one in every 1,923 housing units in January.

This is a really troubling sign.

When the economy is booming, Las Vegas is booming even more.

But when hard times arrive, times are even harder in Las Vegas.

So let’s watch and see if this trend continues.

Meanwhile, it is also being reported that the number of completed foreclosures in the U.S. was up 13 percent compared to the previous month.

In Michigan, the number of completed foreclosures actually shot up by “a huge 200 percent”…

Michigan saw the fastest rise in completed foreclosures – up a huge 200 percent. This was largely down to high rates of foreclosure filings in Detroit.

I remember writing articles about how some homes in Detroit were literally selling for one dollar when things were at their worst.

Has another housing crash begun?

We are certainly ripe for one. Thanks to painfully high interest rates, buying a home has become out of reach for most of the population.

Unless interest rates go down dramatically, home prices have got to fall, and that is going to cause all sorts of problems.

Of course a horrifying commercial real estate crisis is already here.

Prices have crashed all over the nation, and now many office buildings that were once worth millions of dollars are simply being torn down.

In fact, in Los Angeles there is a plan to tear down a very large office building in order to build just 30 EV charging stations…

This is absolutely crazy…

An owner of an office building in LA is seeking approval to tear down the building and construct 30 EV charging stations

I don’t know what’s crazier…this headline or seeing office properties drop 80-90% in just a few years

The commercial real estate recession (primarily office) has gone from scary to a meltdown in many cities across the US and it seems as though the damage is permanent

If we really are heading into a major economic slowdown, we would also expect retailers to be shutting down stores all over America, and that is precisely what we are witnessing right now.

Incredibly, even Walmart reduced the number of stores that it operates by 102 last year…

Walmart last year closed 23 stores across the US, eight of which were in Illinois, it emerged this week

Overall, its total number of stores fell by 102, from 4,717 in January 2023 to 4,615 a year later.

That’s because in addition to the 23 closures, Walmart sold a combined 79 Moosejaw and Bonobos locations after selling the two retailers.

If even Walmart sees a need to batten down the hatches, that is a really bad sign.

On top of everything else, large employers continue to conduct mass layoffs from coast to coast.

Last week, many were saddened to hear that Vice Media Group is laying off hundreds of workers as it continues to spiral toward oblivion…

Vice Media Group plans to lay off hundreds of employees and stop publishing on its flagship news website, the company’s chief executive said in a memo to employees Thursday — a stunning setback for a digital media pioneer that ascended to cultural prominence more than a decade ago.

“It is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously,” Vice CEO Bruce Dixon said in the memo, which was seen by NBC News. Vice Media did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment on Thursday’s news.

Everyone knew that Vice was in dire straits, and so those layoffs are not exactly a shock.

But why has Google suddenly decided to give the axe to thousands of workers?…

Google has initiated significant layoffs across its various teams, including the Voice Assistant, hardware, engineering and ad sales teams, marking a continuation of the tech industry’s trend towards reducing workforce expenses. The layoffs have affected hundreds of employees within the Voice Assistant unit; hardware teams responsible for Pixel, Nest and Fitbit products; and a considerable portion of the augmented reality (AR) team. This move is part of Google’s broader effort to streamline operations and align resources with its most significant product priorities.

According to The Verge, the total number is in the thousands. This comes at a time when Google parent, Alphabet Inc., reported record profits in late January. The company reported $20.4 billion in net income in Q4.

Google is one of the most successful companies in the entire world, and they are swimming in cash.

If they feel the need to ruthlessly cut workers, what kind of sign is that for the rest of the economy?

Sadly, the truth is that it has become quite apparent that big trouble is ahead.

2024 is going to be such an important turning point for the economy, and it is also going to be such an important turning point for the nation as a whole.

The state of the economy will certainly be a central issue during the upcoming election season, but there are no easy answers for the problems that we are now facing.

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

Was America Just Attacked? We Have Now Been Put On Notice That Our Communication Infrastructure Is Extremely Vulnerable

February 22, 2024 by Michael

What would we do if we suddenly couldn’t use the Internet or our phones any longer? For a lot of people, such a scenario would be unthinkable. In fact, it felt like the “world is ending” for many AT&T customers on Thursday. The disruption to AT&T’s network only lasted for a few hours, but it created quite a frenzy. If we are going to see this much panic for an outage that happens for just a few hours, what would our society look like if Internet and phone communication was down for days, weeks or even months?

Once the outage began, federal authorities moved very rapidly to determine whether it was a cyberattack or not…

Federal agencies are ‘urgently investigating’ whether the massive cellular outage that plagued Americans on Thursday was a cyberattack.

The Federal Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are on the hunt to track down what disrupted service AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and a dozen other cellular providers.

While the agencies have not shared details, a security expert told DailyMail.com that the outage has hallmarks of a hack.

Lee McKnight, associate professor at Syracuse University in New York, said the widespread nature appears to be ‘a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack on core Internet infrastructure.’

I have a feeling that they will assure the general public that it was not a cyberattack no matter what they discover.

In situations such as these, keeping everyone calm is often deemed more important than telling them the truth.

Interestingly, pharmacies all over the U.S. were also having major problems on Thursday due to a cyberattack against “one of the biggest healthcare technology companies in the nation”…

Pharmacies all over the country are experiencing delays in prescription orders due to a cyberattack on one of the biggest healthcare technology companies in the nation, Change Healthcare.

Change Healthcare first noticed the “cyber security issue” affecting its networks on Wednesday morning on the East Coast.

According to Change Healthcare, it appears that a “nation-state associated cyber security threat actor” was involved in that attack…

In a statement the firm says it had ‘identified a suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat actor had gained access to some of the Change Healthcare information technology systems.’

Are the issues at AT&T and the issues at Change Healthcare related?

I have a feeling that they are, but I certainly cannot prove that.

In any event, the truth is that we have just been put on notice.

Our communication infrastructure is extremely vulnerable, and it can be attacked at literally any moment.

Today, there are a number of foreign powers that possess very robust cyberattack capabilities.

One of them is China, and the Washington Post is reporting on a trove of leaked documents that show that the Chinese “are attempting large-scale, systematic cyber intrusions against foreign governments, companies and infrastructure”…

A trove of leaked documents from a Chinese state-linked hacking group shows that Beijing’s intelligence and military groups are attempting large-scale, systematic cyber intrusions against foreign governments, companies and infrastructure — with hackers of one company claiming to be able to target users of Microsoft, Apple and Google.

The cache — containing more than 570 files, images and chat logs — offers an unprecedented look inside the operations of one of the firms that Chinese government agencies hire for on-demand, mass data-collecting operations.

Of course I have no idea if China was involved in the incidents that we witnessed today.

But without a doubt the Chinese have some of the most advanced cyberattack capabilities in the entire world.

On Thursday, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio ominously warned about what China could do to us if a full-scale war breaks out…

‘I don’t know the cause of the AT&T outage,’ said Sen. Marco Rubio, Fla., top Republican on the Intelligence Committee.

‘But I do know it will be 100 times worse when #China launches a cyber attack on America on the eve of a #Taiwan invasion. And it won’t be just cell service they hit, it will be your power, your water and your bank,’ he went on.

He is right.

But the Russians have similar capabilities.

So do the North Koreans.

Needless to say, it isn’t just our enemies that we need to be concerned about. An article that USA Today just posted explained that there are many ways that natural disasters could cause communication disruptions “for an extended period of time”…

While cell service in the U.S. is typically fairly dependable and Thursday’s issues were limited in scope, there’s a long list of potential emergency situations when cell phones could become unreliable, according to Alyssa Provencio, professor at the University of Central Oklahoma who oversees the disaster management certificate program.

Communication issues are the norm in a disaster, not an anomaly, Provencio said. Some scenarios like snow storms, strong wind, torrential rain, fire, and tornadoes may affect a small number of people. Others, like major earthquakes, solar flares or cyberattacks, have the potential to disrupt communications for millions of people for an extended period of time.

Let’s talk about solar activity for a moment.

Because it is just a matter of time before a massive solar storm fries our communication infrastructure, and our politicians have not been preparing for such an event.

The Earth experienced a direct hit from an enormous solar storm in 1859, and if such a storm hit us today the consequences would be catastrophic…

AT&T fell victim to a solar flare in 1972 that interrupted landline services.

The storm that hit Earth was compared to the event in 1859 known as the Carrington Event, which saw the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history.

If such a solar storm were to happen in today’s world, the effects would be catastrophic on our communications systems.

A meteorologist shared online that a solar flare had erupted from the sun around midnight on Thursday, noting that the ‘timing is interesting.’

This is one of the reasons why many of us are watching solar activity so closely.

On Thursday, the most powerful flare of Solar Cycle 25 was unleashed, and if scientists determine that it is heading directly toward Earth we could have a major problem on our hands…

Earth-orbiting satellites have just detected an X6.3-class solar flare from sunspot AR3590 (Feb. 22 @ 2234 UT). This is the strongest flare of Solar Cycle 25, and the third X-flare the sunspot has produced in a 24 hour period. Stay tuned for updates about this explosion, especially whether or not it has hurled a CME toward Earth.

Hopefully we will not have to face such a scenario any time soon.

But USA Today says that there are some things that all of us should be doing to prepare for the day when some type of emergency does cause extended disruptions…

Cash: It’s a good idea to have cash on hand in case you can’t use mobile payment options or ATMs are down, said James Kendra, co-director of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware.
Paper copies of important documents: “One of the things that I stress to everybody is to have paper copies of all of your important documents,” he also said. That means a printed out bank statement so you have all your account numbers, a printed insurance statement, phone bill and mortgage or rent documents, so that you have the numbers available you might typically go online to get.
Landline: If you don’t have a landline, you might still be able to use your cell to send SMS text messages or use Wi-Fi to send messages or make calls.
A radio: This is always a good thing to have to receive emergency updates, Provencio said, but if you don’t have one in your home, chances are you do have one in your car.

I think that having a solar-powered radio is so important.

When global events spin wildly out of control, you will want to have access to news and information.

We really are living in unprecedented times.

In all of human history, there has never been a “cyberwar”, and so we don’t know exactly what one would look like.

But it is clear that our communication infrastructure is extremely vulnerable, and what we just witnessed should definitely be a wake up call for all of us.

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

The Average U.S. Household Is Spending $1,019 More A Month Just To Buy The Same Goods And Services It Did 3 Years Ago

February 21, 2024February 21, 2024 by Michael

It seems odd to talk about 2021 as “the good old days”, but the truth is that the cost of living was far lower just three short years ago. Earlier today, I did an interview with Sam Rohrer of Stand In The Gap Today in which we discussed how food prices have gotten wildly out of control. One example that I brought up was the fact that a Big Mac “value meal” can cost up to 18 dollars in some parts of the country. There is no way that I would shell out 18 bucks for a burger, some fries and a drink at McDonald’s. But this is the economic environment that we live in today.

Has your income gone up by more than a thousand dollars a month over the past three years?

If not, you are falling behind.

According to economist Mark Zandi, the average U.S. household is now shelling out an additional $1,019 a month just to purchase the exact same goods and services that it did three years ago…

The typical U.S. household needed to pay $213 more a month in January to purchase the same goods and services it did one year ago because of still-high inflation, according to new calculations from Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi.

Americans are paying on average $605 more each month compared with the same time two years ago and $1,019 more compared with three years ago, before the inflation crisis began.

In the old days, I actually enjoyed going to the grocery store.

But now it has become such a painful experience.

I am sure that many of you can identify with that statement.

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal published an article that explained that George H.W. Bush was in the White House the last time Americans were spending such a high proportion of their incomes on food…

The last time Americans spent this much of their money on food, George H.W. Bush was in office, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” was in theaters and C+C Music Factory was rocking the Billboard charts.

Do you remember what life was like in 1991?

It was a good year for me, but it was so long ago…

According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans were spending 11.4 percent of their disposable incomes on food in 1991, and in 2022 that figure was sitting at 11.3 percent…

In 1991, U.S. consumers spent 11.4% of their disposable personal income on food, according to data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. At the time, households were still dealing with steep food-price increases following an inflationary period during the 1970s.

More than three decades later, food spending has reattained that level, USDA data shows. In 2022, consumers spent 11.3% of their disposable income on food, according to the most recent USDA data available.

I can already tell what a lot of you will be thinking when you read that.

2022 was two years ago.

Food prices have continued to soar since that time, and so how high would that number be today?

Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Americans are now spending 15 percent of their disposable incomes on food.

But if you think that is bad, just wait until it gets into the 30 or 40 percent range eventually.

Because that is where things are heading.

Of course grocery prices are already at absurd levels. On a very popular Internet forum, one user recently complained that his grocery bill for the week has now hit $250…

$100 used to be the total, when we really stocked up or picked some extras.

Prices started climbing and we trimmed the extras, it hit $120-130.

At $150 we started bitching.

A month ago it hit $180. Hell it may have only been two weeks since we hit $180.

Today it was $250 and we didn’t even get everything.

Actually, if you can get out of the grocery store for just $250, you are doing really well.

For many others, a grocery cart full of food can run a lot higher than that.

And major companies are openly warning us that more price hikes are on the way…

Oreo maker Mondelez said in January it would continue raising prices on some of its products this year, largely because of cocoa prices, which earlier in February surged past a 46-year record. Hershey said this month it expects more expensive cocoa to cut into the company’s profit this year. Kraft Heinz said inflation is moderating but that its costs are still higher, driven in part by pricier tomatoes and sugar.

Let’s talk about the price of cocoa for a moment.

Global supplies of cocoa have gotten very, very tight, and we are being warned that the price of cocoa “could reach as high as $10,000 per ton”…

The commodities analysts said some forecasts suggest the cost of cocoa in New York could reach as high as $10,000 per ton.

What’s imminent is the West African cocoa shortage will be felt across supermarkets worldwide.

If you love chocolate, you should try to hoard as much as you can while prices are still relatively low.

I am quite serious about this.

Because chocolate prices are going to accelerate quite rapidly from this point forward.

Sadly, car insurance rates are going up even faster than food prices are…

If you think your food bill is high, take a look at your car insurance.

The average cost of full coverage car insurance increased by 26% to $2,543 in 2024, up $529 from a year earlier, Medora Lee reports. That’s six times faster than overall inflation and more than any food item at the grocery store, including eggs, over the past three years.

I honestly don’t understand how most people can afford to pay such exorbitant rates.

Just making it from month to month has become such a struggle for tens of millions of Americans.

Needless to say, things are particularly rough for young people that are just starting out in life.

A video in which one young woman complains about how oppressive the cost of living is has already been viewed more than 18 million times…

“Why is it that I have to work 40 hours a week just so I can have a place to live?”

A young woman’s TikTok video, in which she makes a now familiar complaint about young people having to spend most of their time working for just a sliver of free time which they then have barely enough money to enjoy, is now going viral.

“40 hours a week makes me $2,000 a month and my rent is $1,660,” the woman continued in a video that has amassed 18 million views on Twitter. “So I work 40 hours a week so I can have a 2 bedroom apartment and an extra $300 a month that doesn’t cover my phone or my internet or food.”

She doesn’t have the time, energy, or cash to enjoy her life outside of work pic.twitter.com/9hFWMnngho

— wilder😎🇺🇸 (@wilderpatriot) February 1, 2024

She feels trapped, and I can totally get that.

But what she doesn’t understand is that what she is going through right now is the direct result of literally decades of incredibly bad decisions.

Of course many of our politicians want to strangle our economy even more. For example, Barbara Lee actually wants to increase the minimum wage to 50 dollars an hour…

Despite liberal media cheerleading and Biden’s assurances of a strong economy, Americans feel much different. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), a U.S. Senate candidate, complained in a recent debate about the “affordability crisis” in her state. She referred to a survey that showed “$127,000 for a family of four is just barely enough.” While she is right about the “affordability crisis” facing Americans, her solution is ludicrous. Lee proposes a minimum wage of $50 per hour.

Such a minimum wage would create massive unemployment as companies would lay off non-essential workers. It would also lead to higher prices for consumers and an even higher inflation rate, which has been a persistent problem during the Biden administration.

Why don’t we just raise it to 100 dollars an hour?

Then everyone would be swimming in money, right?

Unfortunately, that is not the way the real world works.

More money is not the answer, and more debt is definitely not the answer.

What we need is a productive economy that makes stuff of real value.

Getting people to consume as much as possible will not lead to anywhere good.

But getting people to produce at a high level will lead to lasting wealth.

The historic debt bubble that we have been enjoying has created an illusion of short-term prosperity, but now it has almost reached an end.

Everyone knows that a crash is coming, and that crash is going to create a tremendous amount of chaos throughout our society.

It appears that Jeff Bezos understands that things are about to change, because he has been selling off tens of millions of Amazon shares…

Jeff Bezos has been busy this month selling a massive amount of Amazon stock.

The Amazon founder and executive chairman’s sales have occurred in three separate sales and involved nearly 36 million shares to date, filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed.

The shares in the e-commerce giant were collectively worth $6.15 billion after Bezos sold them at a range of prices across six different days.

Why would he do that if he thought that bright days are ahead for the U.S. economy?

It would not make any sense at all.

Of course the truth is that very challenging economic times are in our immediate future.

I understand that things are not good for many of you right now, but it won’t be too long before economic conditions become much more harsh than they are at this moment.

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

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