The Economic Collapse

This is what the early chapters of an inflationary meltdown look like.  Last week, we were informed that “consumer prices were 7.9% higher in February than a year ago”, and that was being touted as the highest figure “in 40 years”.  Of course those that follow my website on a regular basis already know that the reality is much worse than that.  If the inflation rate was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, it would be over 15 percent right now.  We are already experiencing the sort of painful inflation that Americans were forced to endure during the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s, and now the war in Ukraine is going to completely change the game moving forward. (Read More...)

On top of everything else, now a highly pathogenic avian influenza pandemic is ripping across the United States, and it has already resulted in the deaths of almost 2.8 million birds.  Most of the birds that have died have been chickens or turkeys.  And since this was just in the very first month of the pandemic, there is no telling how bad it could eventually become.  What will the eventual death toll look like?  Will it be in the tens of millions?  That is definitely a possibility.  And what would happen if the bird flu mutates into a version that spreads easily among humans?  We might want to start thinking about that, because that is possible too. (Read More...)

There are some people out there that thought that global financial markets would be largely unaffected by the war in Ukraine.  Those people were wrong.  This week, investors have received a very rude wake up call.  Stock prices are plunging, commodity prices are going completely nuts, and a very thick cloud of fear has descended upon Wall Street.  The fact that this war has permanently changed economic and financial conditions is starting to sink in, and it is likely that the level of panic will continue to rise in the days ahead. (Read More...)

44 million people live in Ukraine, and they are deeply suffering in a war that most of them did not want.  Like most of us, the vast majority of Ukrainians just want to live their lives in peace and quiet, but that isn’t going to be possible now.  So we should pray for the people of Ukraine, because they are going through a type of hell that is beyond what most of us even have the ability to imagine.  And we should be very angry with all of those that caused this war, because it didn’t have to happen. (Read More...)

All of a sudden, there is a lot of talk in the mainstream media about establishing a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine, and that should deeply alarm all of us.  Because establishing a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine would require us to shoot at Russians, and they would inevitably start shooting back.  In other words, we would be at war with Russia.  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thinks that this is a wonderful idea, because he knows that western intervention is the only thing that is going to save his country at this point.  But Vladimir Putin has already warned that he is willing to use nuclear weapons against anyone that intervenes in the conflict.  Should we take that threat seriously? (Read More...)

If you believe that your life will continue on as normal because the war between Russia and Ukraine is on the other side of the globe, you should think again.  We were already facing the worst energy crisis since the 1970s before the war broke out, and Russia is one of the most important energy producers on the entire globe.  As energy markets are thrown into further turmoil, energy prices will go to unprecedented heights.  And as I have documented repeatedly in recent months, the global food crisis has just continued to get worse as global food supplies have continued to get tighter and tighter.  Normally, Russia and Ukraine export vast quantities of food to the rest of the world, but the war is going to change that.  We really are facing a horrifying breakdown of our food and energy systems, and that is going to affect every man, woman and child on the entire planet. (Read More...)

Like many of you, I have been spending a great deal of time keeping up with coverage of Russia’s horrifying invasion of Ukraine.  I am very upset with the Russians for choosing to invade the whole country, because now a line has been crossed that will never, ever be able to be uncrossed.  From here on out, there will be endless wars and rumors of wars, and countless numbers of people are going to die.  In the future, some historians may look back and determine that the coming Chinese invasion of Taiwan was the start of World War III, and others may point to the coming conflict between Israel and Iran.  But to me, February 23rd, 2022 was the start of World War III, and nothing will ever be the same again. (Read More...)

If we are going to have a war with Russia, perhaps we should determine if our military is actually prepared to fight such a war first.  Unfortunately, as I will detail below, the answer is very clear.  At one time, the U.S. possessed the greatest fighting machine ever assembled, but decades of neglect, incompetence and cultural deterioration have taken a devastating toll.  Just look at what happened in Afghanistan.  After nearly two decades of fighting, we couldn’t even defeat a ragged bunch of drug dealers and goat herders known as the Taliban.  In fact, the Taliban appears to be even stronger today than when we first invaded.  And now we think that we can take on the Russian military? (Read More...)