The “Unsinkable” Financial Markets Just Slammed Into A Massive “Iceberg” Called The Coronavirus

We just witnessed the third largest single day point drop in U.S. stock market history, and experts are warning that things will only get worse if this coronavirus pandemic continues to escalate.  On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down a whopping 1,031 points, and it looks like there could be more volatility on Tuesday.  In fact, the Nikkei is already down 787 points as I write this article.  Of course this sudden decline is being mostly driven by fear of the coronavirus.  The rapid spread of the virus in South Korea, Italy and Iran over the weekend really rattled investors, and there was a rush to sell stocks when the markets opened on Monday morning.  And the worse this pandemic becomes, the lower stock prices are going to go. (Read More...)

This Coronavirus Outbreak Just Took Some Bizarre New Turns

Many were hoping that this coronavirus outbreak would begin to subside, but instead we witnessed an explosion of newly confirmed cases over the weekend.  In fact, the number of confirmed cases outside of China has doubled over the past five days.  If that number continues to double very rapidly, authorities will be talking about a full-blown “global pandemic” in no time.  When I watched a victim suddenly collapse and start to twitch on a subway in Hong Kong, I thought about the sort of panic that would set off if that happened in New York.  When I saw a video of Chinese authorities using butterfly nets to capture sick people, it made me wonder what U.S. authorities might do to round up those that are ill.  The level of fear that a full-blown pandemic would cause would transform our society overnight.  Even now, Chinese restaurants in Canada are completely empty due to concerns about catching this virus.  But once this virus is being spread in virtually every city in North America, many of us won’t want to go anywhere at all, and that would bring economic activity to a complete and utter standstill. (Read More...)

Most Americans Are Not Taking This Coronavirus Outbreak Seriously, And That Is Potentially Very Dangerous

We still don’t know if this coronavirus outbreak will become a horrific worldwide pandemic or not, but what we have seen so far is definitely very alarming.  People have literally been dropping dead in the streets, the Chinese government has locked down major city after major city, and the virus kept spreading very rapidly on a cruise ship off the coast of Japan even though a strict quarantine was instituted.  Scientists that have studied the virus are telling us that it “could be 20 times more lethal than the flu”, and it binds to human cell receptors much more easily than the SARS virus did.  Unfortunately, because the epicenter of this crisis is on the other side of the globe, most Americans are simply not paying much attention to it.  In fact, most of the people that my wife and I have been talking to and hearing from don’t think that the coronavirus is much of a threat to the United States at all. (Read More...)

Global Crop Failures Continue: In Australia This Is Going To Be The WORST HARVEST Ever Recorded

Global food production is being hit from seemingly every side.  Thanks to absolutely crazy weather patterns, giant locust armies in Africa and the Middle East, and an unprecedented outbreak of African Swine Fever in China, a lot less food is being produced around the world than originally anticipated.  Even during the best of years we really struggle to feed everyone on the planet, and so a lot of people are wondering what is going to happen as global food supplies become tighter and tighter.  The mainstream media in the United States is so obsessed with politics right now that they haven’t been paying much attention to this emerging crisis, but the truth is that this growing nightmare is only going to intensify in the months ahead. (Read More...)

“Greater Idaho”: Conservatives In Oregon Want 22 Rural Counties To Secede And Become Part Of Idaho

Is the state of Idaho going to get a whole lot bigger?  A group known as Greater Idaho is pushing for rural counties in Oregon and northern California to secede and become part of the state of Idaho.  In fact, as you will see below, this effort has actually been endorsed by some of the top Republicans in the Oregon legislature.  Today, the Oregon state government is completely and utterly dominated by the left, and due to the demographics of the state that is not likely to change any time soon.  So conservatives in rural areas that are deeply upset over the direction of the state essentially have just two options.  They can either move to a more conservative state, or they can attempt to redraw state lines. (Read More...)

Shocking New Study Says The Coronavirus “Could Impact More Than 5 Million Businesses Worldwide”

When was the last time that we witnessed a disaster that severely disrupted the supply chains of over 5 million companies around the globe simultaneously?  Looking back over the past couple of decades, I can’t think of one.  In recent days I have written a number of articles about the economic impact of this coronavirus outbreak, and what we have seen so far could be just the beginning.  With each additional week that much of the Chinese economy remains at a virtual standstill, things are going to get even worse.  Today, China accounts for approximately 20 percent of global GDP, but that doesn’t tell the entire story.  At this point the rest of the world has become so dependent on Chinese exports that any sort of an extended shutdown for Chinese manufacturing would be a complete and utter nightmare for global supply chains.  In fact, a brand new study that was just released by Dun & Bradstreet has concluded that the coronavirus outbreak in China “could impact more than 5 million businesses worldwide”(Read More...)

Japan’s GDP Is Collapsing, And Experts Are Warning That China Will Be Next

Global economic conditions are really starting to deteriorate quite rapidly.  Economists were projecting that Japan’s GDP would shrink by 3.8 percent on an annualized basis in the fourth quarter, but instead it greatly surpassed expectations by plunging 6.3 percent.  If Japan’s GDP falls again during the first quarter of 2020, and thanks to the coronavirus outbreak that seems very likely, then the world’s third largest economy will officially be in a recession.  But of course the outlook for China is even worse.  At this point, economic activity in China has come to a standstill, and this has thrown global supply chains into a state of chaos.  It certainly appears that the entire global economy will shrink during the first quarter, and that will be the very first time that has happened in more than a decade.  And if this coronavirus outbreak continues to intensify in the months ahead, the economic consequences are going to be absolutely catastrophic. (Read More...)

World Economy Projected To Shrink For First Time Since 2009 As Coronavirus Plays Havoc With Global Supply Chains

For more than a decade, the global economy has steadily grown quarter after quarter, but it looks like that streak is about to come to a very abrupt ending.  The coronavirus outbreak in China has brought the Chinese economy to a virtual standstill, and as a result critical supply chains are in a state of chaos all over the world.  And since it doesn’t look like the Chinese economy will be able to return to normal for an extended period of time, it appears that a worldwide economic slowdown is imminent.  I warned about this the other day, but now we have even a clearer picture of what is happening.  According to Capital Economics in London, this coronavirus outbreak will cause the global economy to shrink this quarter, and that will be the very first time this has happened since 2009(Read More...)