The Economic Collapse

It would be so easy to avoid war, but Biden and his minions refuse to compromise.  Instead, they just keep provoking the Russians, and they keep insisting that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent.

In fact, it is being reported that the U.S. has “credible information” that the Russians could launch an invasion of Ukraine as soon as Wednesday…

Russia could launch an attack on Ukraine as early as next Wednesday, February 16 according to respected German publication, Der Spiegel.

American intelligence services briefed NATO allies of a possible impending Russian invasion against its western neighbor in a series of secret briefings.

The Secret Service, CIA and the Pentagon are said to have received credible information that was passed along to the federal government, reports the German newspaper.

While it is certainly true that both sides continue to move toward the brink of war, I do not believe that the Russians will invade Ukraine this week.

In fact, based on the information that I am getting I do not believe that it will happen during the month of February at all.

But Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan seems to be convinced otherwise.  In fact, he continues to insist that an invasion is likely to take place “very soon”…

President Joe Biden’s top national security aide warned again Sunday that the Russian military has the capacity to invade Ukraine “this week” under the pretext of a “false flag” operation portraying Ukrainians as the aggressors.

“The way they have built up their forces, the way they have maneuvered things in place, makes it a distinct possibility there will be major military action very soon,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Sullivan also told CNN what he thinks a Russian invasion of Ukraine would look like…

“If there is a military invasion of Ukraine by Russia, it’s likely to begin with a significant barrage of missiles and bomb attacks,” Sullivan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

“It would then be followed by an onslaught of a ground force moving across the Ukrainian frontier,” he said, adding that there would be a substantial number of civilians caught in the crossfire.

He is envisioning a conventional ground invasion, but if the Russians actually pulled the trigger I think that they would conduct a more surgical operation designed to take control of Kiev as rapidly as possible.

But of course I could be wrong about that.

In any event, I believe that it is so important for everyone to become very familiar with Jake Sullivan.  Since Joe Biden is not exactly all there mentally at this point, Sullivan has more influence than a national security adviser would normally have, and that is not a good thing.

Sullivan is a “triple threat”.  He is a warmonger, he is horribly incompetent, and he is deeply corrupt.

And that is a very dangerous combination.

His partner in incompetence, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, is warning the Russians that there will be a “resolute, massive, and united transatlantic response” if the Russians decide to move in…

With the U.S. and other countries withdrawing embassy staff from Kyiv amid fears a war could erupt at any time, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned his Russian counterpart Saturday that an invasion of Ukraine “would result in a resolute, massive, and united transatlantic response.”

Blinken appears to be referring to sanctions, but at this stage the Russians are telling us that they don’t really care about more sanctions…

Vladimir Putin ‘doesn’t give a s**t’ about the risk of Western sanctions if his country were to invade Ukraine, Russia’s ambassador to Sweden said as US staff began withdrawing from eastern Ukraine amid warnings of an ‘imminent’ invasion.

In an outspoken interview yesterday, Viktor Tatarintsev told the country’s Aftonbladet newspaper that ‘the more the West pushes Russia, the stronger the Russian response will be’.

What the Russians really want is for Ukraine not to join NATO.

And considering the fact that having Ukraine in NATO is not in the best interests of U.S. national security, we shouldn’t want Ukraine in NATO either.

As Tulsi Gabbard just told Tucker Carlson, Russia would agree not to invade Ukraine if the U.S. would assure Russia that Ukraine is not going to be given NATO membership…

Just like we wouldn’t want Russians forces and Russian missiles in Mexico and Canada.

But the Biden administration has made it quite clear that there will be no compromises.

Of course the Russians shouldn’t invade Ukraine over this, but after being lied to so many times by U.S. officials, I can understand that they would be quite alarmed to have western missiles just minutes from Moscow.

And it would be really silly for us to go to war with Russia over the status of Ukraine when some really basic negotiations could settle this whole crisis in about 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, a war is becoming more likely with each passing day.

In fact, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Russians have already begun “hybrid war” operations inside Ukraine…

Ukrainian officials say that Russia, which has positioned more than 100,000 troops around three sides of Ukraine, is stepping up a destabilization campaign involving cyberattacks, economic disruption and a new tactic: hundreds of fake bomb threats.

Russian forces and their proxies already control portions of Ukraine and frequent skirmish with government forces. The aim of Moscow’s intensifying hybrid campaign, Ukrainian officials say, is to weaken their country and sow panic, potentially provoking discontent and protests of the kind Russia fomented in eastern Ukraine in 2014 to justify its interventions there. U.S. and U.K. officials said last month they uncovered coup plots intended to install a puppet pro-Russian government.

The U.S. continues to escalate matters as well.  On Saturday, it was being reported that the Russians had to chase a U.S. nuclear submarine out of their territorial waters…

A Russian naval vessel chased away a US submarine in Russian waters in the Pacific after the submarine ignored a Russian order to surface, Interfax news agency cited the defense ministry as saying on Saturday.

The Russian ministry called in the US defense attache after complaining that the submarine had entered its waters, the RIA news agency reported. Tensions between Moscow and Washington are already high over a Russian military buildup near Ukraine.

For years, I have been warning that a conflict between the United States and Russia was coming.

But I don’t want it to happen.

Nobody should want it to happen.

Because the Russians have more than 1,000 different ways that they could hurt us, and a war with Russia would very likely go nuclear at some point.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending digital copies as gifts through Amazon to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is 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, I strongly urge you to ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post World War 3 This Week? Now We Are Being Told That Russia Could Invade Ukraine “On Wednesday” appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Fortunately, there is someone out there that takes care of the math for us.  According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1990, the official rate of inflation would be above 10 percent right now.  And if inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation would be above 15 percent right now.

In other words, using the same methodology that the government used in 1980 would give us an official rate of inflation that is more than double the official number that we have just been given.

Wow.

Many have compared the current crisis to the Jimmy Carter era, but the truth is that we are now surpassing anything that we witnessed back then.

On her Twitter account, Washington Post columnist Heather Long shared some specific numbers from the inflation report which show where American consumers are being hit the hardest…

Used cars 40.5% y/y
Gas 40%
Rental cars 29%
Utility gas 24%
Hotels 21%
Furniture 20%
Bacon 18%
Steak 17%
Peanut Butter 15.5%
Pork 14.5%
Fish 13%
Eggs 13%
New cars 12%
Electric 11%
Chicken 10%
Oranges 10%

I am particularly concerned about the rise in energy prices.

According to the Labor Department, energy prices overall are up a whopping 27 percent over the past year…

The Labor Department reported that gasoline prices have skyrocketed 40% over the past year, while natural gas has surged 22.6% and electricity is up 10.7%. A gallon of gas, on average, cost $3.47 nationwide Thursday, according to AAA, up from $2.47 a year ago. In California, gas prices are well over $4 per gallon.

In all, energy prices have climbed more than 27% over the course of the past 12 months.

A lot of people expect that this new energy crisis will just be “temporary” just like the energy crisis of the 1970s was.

But this time is very different.

As I have discussed previously, easily accessible energy reserves are steadily being depleted, and that means that we are going to become increasingly dependent on energy reserves that are more costly to extract.

In addition, major financial institutions have become extremely hesitant to fund projects that have anything to do with traditional forms of energy.  They don’t want to be seen as “contributing to global warming”, and so they are focusing on funding alternative energy projects instead.

But alternative energy sources are not producing enough to keep up with global demand.

So we are now facing a major crunch, and it isn’t going to go away.

In fact, it is only going to get worse.

On Thursday, Joe Biden promised to “work like the devil to bring gas prices down”.

Really?

Exactly how does he plan to do that?

He already ordered a very large release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve back in November, and that didn’t work.

And that was actually a very stupid thing to do, because we are going to need those reserves someday.

The cost of food continues to rise very aggressively as well.  According to CNBC, one way that Americans can cope with this is by eating less meat and less dairy…

Meat and dairy tend to be the more expensive items at the supermarket, and especially of late. In response, aim to make more meals that don’t rely on them as the central ingredient, Brown said.

“Using meat sparingly as flavor, like adding a bit of bacon to a mushroom risotto, is more economical,” she said. Consuming less meat also helps you to lower your environmental footprint, she added.

The elite really don’t want us to eat much meat anyway, and so this would work out very well for them.

Of course Biden realizes that ordinary Americans are becoming increasingly frustrated, but he is assuring us that “we will make it through this challenge”…

“On higher prices, we have been using every tool at our disposal, and while today is a reminder that Americans’ budgets are being stretched in ways that create real stress at the kitchen table, there are also signs that we will make it through this challenge,” Biden said in a statement responding to the report.

Unfortunately for Biden, the American people are increasingly losing faith in his leadership.

In fact, CNN just reported on some new approval numbers that are absolutely dismal…

“Nearly 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of how Joe Biden is handling his presidency, with most of that group saying there’s literally nothing Biden has done since taking office that they approve of,” CNN detailed.

The latest survey, taken January 10-February 6, 2022, shows 58 percent disapproving of Biden’s job performance, compared to 41 percent who approve. That reflects a seven-point increase in the number who disapproved from the last survey, taken in December 2021.

So where do we go from here?

Well, many are expecting that the Federal Reserve will soon be substantially raising interest rates…

The chances of a 0.5 percentage point Fed rate increase in March rose to 44.3% following the data release, compared with 25% just before, according to CME data. Chances of a sixth quarter-percentage point hike this year rose to about 63%, compared with about 53% before the release.

“With another surprise jump in inflation in January, markets continue to be concerned about an aggressive Fed,” said Barry Gilbert, asset allocation strategist at LPL Financial. “While things may start getting better from here, market anxiety about potential Fed overtightening won’t go away until there are clear signs inflation is coming under control.”

When I saw the term “overtightening”, I just had to chuckle.

The Fed has had interest rates pushed to the floor for more than a decade, and someone actually has the gall to suggest that the Fed could soon be engaged in “overtightening”?

When the Fed pushed interest rates into the stratosphere in the early 1980s, that was overtightening.

Any rate hikes that we see in 2022 will be extremely modest by comparison.

But without a doubt, any rate hikes at all will be painful for the financial markets.  Low interest rates helped to fuel the absurd bubble that we are in right now, and many investors could interpret higher rates as a sign that the party is finally about to come to an end.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending digital copies as gifts through Amazon to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is 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, I strongly urge you to ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post Is The Real Rate Of Inflation More Than Twice As High As The Number We Were Just Given? appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

But is that pessimism warranted?

CNN just interviewed the CEO of Maersk about the horrific supply chain crisis that is gumming up the entire global economy, and the news wasn’t good.

In fact, we are being told that “more trouble is ahead”…

Maersk has a front-row seat to global supply chains. It says more trouble is ahead.

Needless to say, the CEO of Maersk is in a position to understand the current state of global supply chains far better than you or I do.

This is a world that he is immersed in every single day, and right now he sees “nothing in the numbers” that indicates that things are going to turn around any time soon…

The supply chain issues that have walloped the global economy and spurred inflation during the coronavirus pandemic are not getting much better, Maersk CEO Søren Skou told CNN Business on Wednesday.

“Right now the situation does not appear to be getting significantly better,” Skou told Alison Kosik on First Move. “I wish I could say that things are getting better, but right now there’s nothing in the numbers to suggest so.”

Meanwhile, CNN is also reporting that inflation at fast food restaurants continues to hit consumers really hard…

Buying a burrito bowl or a burger will hit your wallet a lot harder these days.

What’s happening: An order at Chipotle (CMG) costs about 10% more than it did one year ago, the restaurant chain said when reporting earnings on Tuesday. That means that if a steak burrito cost $8 this time in 2021, it’s now $8.80.

Of course it isn’t just the price of fast food that is going up dramatically.

According to a brand new survey that was just released, the percentage of small business owners in America that is raising prices is the highest that it has been since 1974…

The National Federation of Independent Businesses, a Tennessee-based association of small business owners, found that the net percent of owners raising average selling prices rose to 61% in January, a four-point increase from the previous month and the highest reading since the fourth quarter of 1974.

1974 was not a good year for our country.

And 2022 will not be a good year for us either.

I must admit that the economy in 2022 is the weirdest economy that I have ever seen in my entire lifetime.  For example, even though we are facing a severe labor shortage, the number of homeless people continues to explode higher as well.

In the San Francisco area, the number of homeless is growing so rapidly that many private homeowners are now being encouraged “to give their spare rooms over to the homeless” to help fight the problem…

Homelessness in the Bay Area has become such a problem people are being urged to give their spare rooms over to the homeless.

Some charities have urged local families – who are sick of seeing the homeless crisis on their doorsteps – to do something about it personally by taking unhoused people into their own homes and spare rooms – and some schemes have little to no compensation.

Sadly, most of the homeless in California are drug addicts, so it isn’t exactly safe to have them bunking with your children.

Of course most Americans are addicts of one form or another at this point.  Instead of focusing on what we can contribute to society, most of us have been trained to consume, consume and then consume some more.  I really like how Charles Hugh Smith made this point in his most recent article…

One aspect nobody seems to notice is the transformation from a society that once drew its identity from producing quality goods and services to a society that draws its identity from consuming crapified goods and services. Now that Americans define themselves by consuming, they are enslaved to consumption: to limit consumption is to disappear–and ‘spending time” on social media is a form of consumption, even if no goods or services are purchased directly, as one’s attention / time are valuable commodities.

In other words, Americans have been trained like Pavlov’s dogs to consume, no matter how poor the quality and service. We just buy it anyway, and grumble over the decaying quality and service–but we won’t take the only action that would impact corporations and the government: stop buying the products and services. Opt out, drop out, make it at home, cancel the service, just stop buying abysmally made junk and pathetically poor services.

Most of us don’t even realize that we are just cogs in the machine.

When we aren’t working or shopping, many of us are plugged in to some form of entertainment that is filled with ads encouraging us to “consume” even more.

The more we consume, the deeper we go into debt.

And once we get really deep into debt they know that they have got us trapped in the system indefinitely.

The only people that win in this twisted game are those at the very top of the pyramid.  They milk us for everything that we have got, and then they laugh all the way to the bank.

Just consider how much cash Pfizer is raking in.  This year, it is expected that Pfizer will have a whopping 54 billion dollars in revenue from selling COVID vaccines and pills…

Pfizer projects it will generate record-high revenue in 2022, saying Tuesday it expects to sell $32 billion of its Covid-19 shots and $22 billion of its antiviral coronavirus treatment pill Paxlovid this year.

That is one big pile of money.

And needless to say, they will continue to fund the campaigns of politicians that will make sure that they will continue to be able to make that sort of money for many years to come.

Our system is so corrupt, but most Americans don’t seem to care.

Most Americans are just going to keep “consuming” and “consuming” until the whole system finally collapses all around them.

Unfortunately, the U.S. economy has already started to implode, and many believe that 2022 is going to greatly accelerate that process.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  During this season, I would like to encourage you to send digital copies of my new book to your family and friends as gifts.  That will help to support the work that I am doing, and it will help to multiply the impact of the book.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post Now The Mainstream Media Is Telling Us That “More Trouble Is Ahead” For the U.S. Economy appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Let me try to explain this one step at a time.

The FDA regularly keeps a list of pharmaceutical drug shortages.  According to that list, there were 112 drug shortages in the U.S. in November, and there were 114 drug shortages in the U.S. as of January 11th…

Nationwide, more than 100 drugs are in short supply, including antibiotics, diuretics, opioids and heart failure medications, FDA data shows.

As of Jan. 11, 114 drugs were in shortage, according to the FDA’s database of current and resolved drug shortages, which is updated daily. The current tally is a continuation of shortage levels seen last year. In November 2021, the FDA reported 112 drug shortages.

I wanted information that was more up to date than that, so I went over and checked out the latest FDA drug shortage list for myself.

There are 165 entries on the list right now, but 49 of them have been resolved.

Subtracting 49 from 165 gives us a total of 116 pharmaceutical drug shortages in the United States at this moment.

That is shocking.

What are people supposed to do if they can’t get the drugs that they need?

Unfortunately, this is another area where we have outsourced a tremendous amount of production to China.

Today, a whopping 97 percent of all antibiotics purchased in the United States come from China.

Just think about that.

If our supplies of antibiotics were suddenly cut off, a whole lot of Americans would die.

And it isn’t just antibiotics that we are talking about.  According to one expert, if China suddenly cut off the flow of pharmaceutical drugs many of our hospitals “would cease to function within months, if not days”…

As the U.S. defense establishment grows increasingly concerned about China’s potentially hostile ambitions, the pharmaceutical supply chain is receiving new scrutiny.

“If China shut the door on exports of medicines and their key ingredients and raw material, U.S. hospitals and military hospitals and clinics would cease to function within months, if not days,” said Rosemary Gibson, author of a book on the subject, “China Rx.”

Wow.

This is another example that shows why it was so foolish to become so dependent on manufacturing in China.

For years, I railed against all of the outsourcing that was going on.

But our politicians in Washington didn’t want to listen to voices such as mine.

And so now we are in a very precarious position.  If China invades Taiwan, either we have to stand aside and let it happen or we give up most of our medicine.

At this point, things are so bad that we don’t even have a single penicillin plant in the United States anymore…

Other generic drugs whose key ingredients are manufactured in China include medicines for blood pressure medicine, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy and depression, Gibson says.

“We can’t make penicillin anymore,” said Gibson. “The last penicillin plant in the United States closed in 2004.”

Isn’t that crazy?

The Chinese have the ability to bring us to our knees without firing a single shot.

For a very long time I have been warning my readers that the U.S. has been playing checkers while China has been playing chess.

They have outmaneuvered our clueless leaders every step of the way, and most Americans didn’t even realize what was happening.

Of course it isn’t just pharmaceutical drugs that are the problem.  Western nations have outsourced the production of nearly everything, and now we are facing widespread global shortages that are unlike anything we have ever seen before.  I included the following quote in an article that I posted yesterday, but I think that it is so important that I am going to share it again…

In a time when social networks have been swamped with photos of empty shelves from across the nation, Goldman’s head commodity strategist and one of the closest-followed analysts on Wall Street, said he’s never seen commodity markets pricing in the shortages they are right now.

“I’ve been doing this 30 years and I’ve never seen markets like this,” Currie told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Monday. “This is a molecule crisis. We’re out of everything, I don’t care if it’s oil, gas, coal, copper, aluminum, you name it we’re out of it.”

I don’t know if I have sufficient words to express the seriousness of what we are now facing.

A horrifying global meltdown has already begun, and it is only going to get worse.

Earlier today, I came across a video clip in which former BlackRock executive Edward Dowd warned that “we are at the end days here”.

“We are at end days here” Former Executive of BlackRock Edward Dowd

Sound ON

pic.twitter.com/gCUnxdJcFU

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) February 6, 2022

Needless to say, he was specifically addressing the state of the financial markets, but his statement could definitely be applied on a much broader basis.

We have entered a period of great crisis, but many people still don’t understand this.

A lot of times, people don’t grasp what is taking place until it affects them personally.  In recent weeks, I have gotten emails from numerous readers about the issues that they are encountering at their local pharmacies.  In the old days, getting drugs that were prescribed was a snap, but now there are times when people have had to wait weeks or even months to get their drugs.

If you still believe that this is “temporary”, you haven’t been paying attention.

Our entire system is melting down, and what we have experienced so far is just the beginning.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  During this season, I would like to encourage you to send digital copies of my new book to your family and friends as gifts.  That will help to support the work that I am doing, and it will help to multiply the impact of the book.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post Rampant Drug Shortages! Right Now There Are Shortages Of 116 Different Pharmaceutical Drugs In The United States appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Even in the United States, a shockingly high percentage of the population literally lives on the brink of financial disaster.  According to a brand new survey that was just released, seven out of every ten Americans are currently living paycheck to paycheck…

In these tough financial times, a new study finds it’s getting harder and harder for people to save any of their money. In fact, seven in 10 Americans say they’re living paycheck to paycheck.

A recent survey of 2,007 adults found that 63 percent don’t see themselves reaching a level of financial security that will allow them to live the lifestyle they want.

Most people do not have a sizable financial cushion to fall back on.

And even though our leaders in Washington have absolutely flooded the system with new money over the past two years, more than two-thirds of the country is living paycheck to paycheck.

As bad as things have been, it is only a matter of time before another major crisis of some sort comes along.

So what is going to happen when the other shoe finally drops?

During this pandemic we have also seen global supplies of just about everything get tighter and tighter and tighter.

In fact, the head commodity strategist for Goldman Sachs just publicly admitted that the world is now facing shortages of virtually all major commodities…

In a time when social networks have been swamped with photos of empty shelves from across the nation, Goldman’s head commodity strategist and one of the closest-followed analysts on Wall Street, said he’s never seen commodity markets pricing in the shortages they are right now.

“I’ve been doing this 30 years and I’ve never seen markets like this,” Currie told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Monday. “This is a molecule crisis. We’re out of everything, I don’t care if it’s oil, gas, coal, copper, aluminum, you name it we’re out of it.”

Read that last paragraph again.

This is a really big deal.

You may not realize it yet, but this isn’t just a temporary global supply chain crisis.

This is the beginning of a global supply chain collapse.

So what is going to happen when the other shoe finally drops?

All over the planet, way too much money is chasing way too few goods and services.

This is driving up prices at a staggering pace, and we continue to get more troubling news with each passing day.

For example, even though meat prices have already gone up very aggressively, Tyson Foods just announced that it will be raising prices yet again…

Stock of Tyson Foods, the world’s second largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork after Brazil’s JBS S.A., is soaring 9%, hitting an all time high and is one of the S&P’s best companies this morning…

… after the company reported blowout earnings (thanks to passing on surging food prices) and announced that it is raising prices even more as it grapples with a tight labor market and smaller livestock herds. According to the report, beef prices jumped by 32% in the quarter, with chicken up ~20% and pork 13%.

Of course similar things are happening in other industrialized nations all over the globe.

One British news sources is telling us that the economy in Germany “is in freefall” and that “devastating” price hikes are causing a tremendous amount of pain for consumers over there.

So what is going to happen when the other shoe finally drops?

Needless to say, a lot of people can see what is coming and they are taking steps to get prepared.

Earlier today, I came across a Wall Street Journal article that lamented the fact that so many Americans are engaged in “hoarding”…

Alexis Abell recently walked out of a BJ’s Wholesale Club outside Buffalo, N.Y., with 24 boxes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, a box of 50 frozen mozzarella sticks, a 40-pound bag of basmati rice and a 12-can pack of garbanzo beans.

“I don’t want to be in a position again where I can’t get something,” says Ms. Abell, a 41-year-old mother of five, who was laid off from her retail job at a quilt shop in 2020 and decided not to return to work.

I don’t call this “hoarding” at all.

I call it being smart.

The stupid people are those that expect the government to bail them out when everything starts hitting the fan.

As I have discussed previously, the federal government has a very limited amount of food, water and generators at eight widely scattered FEMA distribution centers around the country.

Other than that, the federal government purchases a very small amount of food that it distributes through foreign aid programs.

In the event of a major national emergency, the government’s meager supplies will be totally gone almost immediately.

Then you will be on your own.

The elite realize that global food supplies are only going to get tighter, and so they have been preparing for a time when bug protein will make up a significant chunk of our diets.

We are rapidly moving into a time when normal people won’t be able to afford to eat meat on a regular basis.

Once that day arrives, where will you get your protein?

Our world is changing at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking, but most people still want to believe that everything will go back to “normal” eventually.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  During this season, I would like to encourage you to send digital copies of my new book to your family and friends as gifts.  That will help to support the work that I am doing, and it will help to multiply the impact of the book.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post We Have Never Been More Vulnerable, And The Stage Has Now Been Set For A Complete And Total Economic Collapse appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

There is so much misinformation that I could discuss, but in this article I am going to focus on some of the recent economic lies that we have been told.

On Friday, NPR was thrilled to report that the U.S. economy “added 467,000 jobs last month”…

The U.S. job market came through January in much better shape than expected despite a winter wave of coronavirus infections.

Employers added 467,000 jobs last month, according to a new tally from the Labor Department, far outpacing even the most optimistic forecasts. The gains came despite a surge in COVID-19 cases tied to the omicron variant.

But the U.S. economy did not add 467,000 jobs last month.

It actually lost 2.8 million jobs.

So how does a loss of 2.8 million jobs become a gain of 467,000 jobs?

That is where “seasonal adjustments” come in, and as one expert quoted by Zero Hedge noted, “there has never been a January Seasonal Adjustment of this magnitude”…

At this point the answer what is behind the massive January beat should be becoming clear: how did a -2.8 million actual drop in jobs translate into an adjusted 467K? If you said seasonal, covid and population control adjustments, you are right. And to be sure, this is something both we and others flagged, when we lamented that month after month, the BLS appeared to be using stale seasonal adjustments.

But digging deeper shows that this was not just an ordinary seasonal adjustment.

As SouthBay Research notes in his NFP postmortem, “there has never been a January Seasonal Adjustment of this magnitude”

In other words, what we just witnessed was “the mother of all seasonal adjustments”, and the end result was definitely welcomed by the Biden administration.

But anyone that actually believes that the U.S. economy magically added 467,000 jobs last month is not dealing with reality.

Meanwhile, we are getting a cold, hard reality check when it comes to our ongoing supply chain crisis.

The Biden administration assured us that 2022 would be different.  We were told that they were on top of this crisis and that they were taking emergency measures to make things better.  Theoretically, once we got past the challenging period of the holiday season economic demand would drop and congestion throughout our supply chains would ease.

But that hasn’t happened.

Instead, we continue to get indications that things are getting even worse.

On Friday, Ford announced that it would “temporarily halt or scale back” production at eight facilities in North America because of a lack of computer chips…

Difficulties in obtaining semiconductor chips will prompt Ford Motor to temporarily halt or scale back auto production at eight plants in North America, the company said Friday, according to reports.

The announcement by the major U.S. automaker – set to take effect next week — continued a series of supply-chain setbacks that have affected the nation’s economy in recent months.

That is really bad news.

Does this mean that we are facing yet another year of insanely high vehicle prices?

During a call with reporters on Friday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo actually admitted that there isn’t going to be any quick fix for the chip shortage…

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warned during a call with reporters on Friday that there will be no quick fix to resolve the semiconductor shortage contributing to supply chain disruptions causing a ripple effect across the economy.

“We didn’t get in this mess overnight, and we’re not going to get out overnight. This has been a problem decades in the making,” she explained. “There has been a slow deterioration of our manufacturing base in America over decades, and we need to start now to rebuild.”

For once, someone in the Biden administration has made a good point.

We never should have allowed ourselves to become so dependent on chip production from Asia.

Today, the majority of the chips that we use are made in Taiwan.

So what happens to our economy if China invades Taiwan?

You might want to think about that.

Other shortages continue to intensify as well.  For example, the following comes from an article about our nationwide baby formula shortage…

Claire Salter, an Operation Give Back volunteer in Blue Ash, says she’s very worried because there’s not much baby formula left on the nonprofit organization’s pantry shelves.

“It terrifies me,” said Salter.

“These six or seven, eight cans we have — that’s all we have right now,” she added.

If I discussed all of the major shortages that we are facing right now, it would take me weeks to finish this article.

In fact, the CEO of a chain of convenience stores in Texas recently admitted that his company is “probably averaging 6,500 to 8,000 outs a week from manufacturers”…

Kevin Smartt, CEO of Texas-based convenience store chain TXB (which stands for Texas Born) has been closely monitoring weekly product availability reports from his distributors.

The company operates 50 stores across Texas and Oklahoma. Each location is an average of 4,500 square feet, serving a mix of freshly-prepared foods like tacos, salads and sandwiches plus a variety of grab-and-go packaged goods. Some locations also sell fruits and vegetables.

“Here’s the magnitude of the problem right now,” Smartt said. “As a chain, we’re probably averaging 6,500 to 8,000 outs a week from manufacturers,” he said. ‘Outs’ refers to a specific branded product that is out of stock and can’t be delivered that week.

In other words, his chain is having to navigate an environment in which thousands upon thousands of products that they regularly order are in short supply.

This is really happening.

So many of the trends that you have been warned about for years are coming to a crescendo in 2022.

Of course the Biden administration would like you to believe that a wonderful new era of peace and prosperity is just around the corner.

You can believe them if you want.

But I would recommend examining all of the evidence and coming to your own conclusions.  Things just keep getting worse, and at this point it is hard to imagine how anyone can be optimistic about the months ahead.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  During this season, I would like to encourage you to send digital copies of my new book to your family and friends as gifts.  That will help to support the work that I am doing, and it will help to multiply the impact of the book.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post The Truth Behind The Economic Lies appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

The 26.4% wipeout in Meta Platforms, as Facebook’s owner is now known, erased more than $230 billion in market value, easily the biggest one-day loss in history for a U.S. company. The stocks of other social media companies including Twitter and Snap also fell.

Because Meta is valued so highly, a big swing in its stock price can also sink or lift broader market indexes. The S&P 500 fell 2.4%, its biggest drop in nearly a year. The tech-focused Nasdaq composite gave up 3.7%, its biggest loss since September 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which does not include Meta Platforms, fell 1.5%.

And it wasn’t as if Facebook just squeaked past the old record.

If you can believe it, Facebook actually surpassed the old single day record by more than 50 billion dollars…

Facebook parent Meta lost more than $237 billion in value Thursday. That’s the biggest one-day drop in value in the history of the U.S. stock market.

Meta’s plunge, based on a weaker-than-expected revenue forecast, topped the prior record set by Apple, when it lost $182 billion in market value in September 2020.

Let me try to put this into perspective.

The amount of market value that Facebook lost on Thursday is almost equivalent to the entire value of Disney.

Needless to say, it was a very rough day for Mark Zuckerberg as well.  The value of his fortune declined by over $30,000,000,000…

It’s also a tough day for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is by far the company’s largest individual shareholder. Zuckerberg owned more than 398 million Meta shares, or 14.2% of the company’s total outstanding shares, according to an SEC filing from February 2021, the most recent filing available.

As Meta’s share price plummeted Thursday, the value of Zuckerberg’s stake in the company dropped by more than $30 billion.

Could you imagine losing more than 30 billion dollars on a single day?

We are being told that the number of people logging in to Facebook on a daily basis has dropped for the first time ever.

But the truth is that the company has been reporting troubling numbers in North America for a very long time.

Facebook is slowly dying, and now Wall Street is finally starting to wake up to that fact.

Mark Zuckerberg is blaming the decline in users on TikTok and other apps…

‘People have a lot of choices for how they want to spend their time, and apps like TikTok are growing very quickly,’ Zuckerberg said during an earnings call Wednesday, according to the Washington Post.

He actually makes a valid point.

There are millions of things to do on the Internet now.

So why should people spend countless hours on Facebook where they will be banned, shadowbanned, censored or put in “Facebook jail” any time that they dare to utter any opinions that deviate even slightly from the corporate-controlled narratives that we are all being told that we must believe now?

There are tens of millions of people in this country that still remember “freedom of speech”, and those people absolutely hate what Facebook has become.

But instead of learning from their mistakes, Facebook just keeps ramping up the censorship.  In fact, Facebook just banned a group that was organizing a convoy to Washington D.C. that will be similar to the convoy that has made headlines all over the globe up in Canada…

American truckers are following Canada’s lead and organizing a protest against vaccine mandates. The U.S. group’s Facebook page, however, was removed early Wednesday in a move that the organizer called “censorship at its finest.”

The group, titled “Convoy to D.C. 2022,” acted as a place for truckers to plan and coordinate their trek from California to Washington, D.C.

Jeremy Johnson, who set up the Facebook group, said his personal account was also removed, prompting him to contact a civil rights attorney to discuss the next steps.

Why would Facebook do that?

That group was not breaking any laws.

They were not advocating any violence.

There was absolutely no reason to ban that group, but Facebook did it anyway because they don’t like what they represent.

So now even more people will leave Facebook on a permanent basis.

In a desperate attempt to create a positive future for the company, Facebook has been pouring billions of dollars into creating their version of a “metaverse”…

The company’s expenses were skyrocketing as it poured $10 billion in augmented and virtual reality hardware to build its “metaverse.”

Unfortunately for Facebook, so far things in the “metaverse” aren’t going very well…

A woman has said she was virtually ‘gang raped’ in the Metaverse and that new technologies made it feel like real life.

Nina Jane Patel, the vice president of research for a rival metaverse company, claims she was ‘verbally and sexually harassed’ and even ‘virtually gang raped’ by a group of men within 60 seconds of logging into ‘Horizon Venues’, a VR world owned by Meta (formerly Facebook)

As Facebook keeps driving good people away, soon the only customers they will have left are freaks, sickos, perverts, predators and self-entitled political activists that are thrilled that Facebook has gotten rid of all the people that they hate.

Executives at Facebook really are killing the goose that lays the golden egg.  If they would have just left us all alone and would have allowed a reasonable level of free speech on their platforms, they could have raked in giant mountains of cash for ages.

But now they are literally destroying their own company, and it is truly a great tragedy.

In the old days, Facebook was such a wonderful tool for spreading the truth.  But now tools such as Facebook have almost entirely dried up, and so I need your help to spread the truth to as many people as possible.

Prior to the 2016 election, just about every article that I shared would instantly get hundreds of likes and shares on Facebook.  Sadly, those days are long gone.  At this point, Facebook is extremely careful not to let my kind of content go viral.

Facebook thought that they would be able to get away with treating all of us really badly, but now they are reaping what they have sown, and the future of the company appears to be exceedingly bleak.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  During this season, I would like to encourage you to send digital copies of my new book to your family and friends as gifts.  That will help to support the work that I am doing, and it will help to multiply the impact of the book.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post Facebook Is Learning That You Reap What You Sow appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

And now the economy is slowing down again.

Of course inflation isn’t going anywhere, and so some pundits are suggesting that we are heading for a period of “stagflation” like we experienced under Jimmy Carter in the 1970s.

If only that were true.

Sadly, what we are eventually heading into will be far, far worse than anything that we went through in the 1970s.

But things weren’t supposed to turn in that direction so soon.

The “sugar high” from all the money that was poured into the economy by our leaders was not supposed to wear off so quickly.  But it apparently has, because Wednesday’s ADP report showed that 301,000 private sector jobs were lost during the month of January…

Omicron threw a wrench into America’s economy at the start of 2022: The US private sector lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in January, according to Wednesday’s ADP Employment Report.

The loss of 301,000 private-sector positions came as a surprise to economists who had predicted businesses had added 207,000 jobs. It was also the first decline in the ADP report since December 2020.

Ouch.

And PNC is projecting that Friday’s job report could show a total loss of 400,000 jobs last month…

PNC is possibly the most pessimistic voice on the Street, with a projection that nonfarm payrolls contracted by 400,000 in January, including a 350,000 decline in the private sector.

The losses, Faucher said, “were likely due to a combination of factors,” most of them related to Covid. They include workers either dealing with their own virus infections, or having to take care of sick family members, parents who managed kids who were not being able to go to school, and weaker demand in pandemic-sensitive industries like bars, restaurants and hotels.

Under normal circumstances, this should not be happening.

But it is.

Right now, we are dealing with the most epic labor shortage in our entire history.

There are “help wanted” signs all over the place, and companies all over America are literally hiring anyone with a pulse.

In fact, we just learned that there were almost 11 million vacant jobs in December…

Reflecting a tightening labor market, vacancies rose to 10.92 million, well above the FactSet estimate for 10.28 million and an increase of 1.4% from November. The rate of job openings as a share of the labor force was unchanged at 6.8%.

So we have nearly 11 million vacant jobs, and the number of Americans that are employed is declining?

That is nuts.

Of course the mainstream media will never tell you the truth.  Millions of workers have seemingly “disappeared” from the system, and at this point we don’t even have enough able-bodied workers to do the basic tasks necessary to keep our economy functioning smoothly.

This lack of able-bodied workers is the number one factor behind our horrifying supply chain crisis, but of course you won’t hear this from CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS or NBC.

Speaking of CNN, how many sickos and perverts did they actually have working there?

For years they have been lecturing the rest of us about how to live our lives, but it turns out that there was an army of skeletons residing in their own closets.

Getting back to the economy, we now have way too much money chasing way too few goods and services.

This has created a raging inflation crisis, and many American families are feeling severe financial pain.

For example, rental prices increased by as much as 40 percent in some U.S. cities last year…

Rental prices across the country have been rising for months, but lately the increases have been sharper and more widespread, forcing millions of Americans to reassess their living situations.

Average rents rose 14% last year, to $1,877 a month, with cities like Austin, New York and Miami notching increases of as much as 40%, according to real estate firm Redfin. And Americans expect rents will continue to rise – by about 10% this year – according to a report released this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Large numbers of people have been forced out of their houses and apartments due to extremely steep rent increases.

And heating costs continue to escalate dramatically as well.  In fact, natural gas futures shot up 16 percent on Wednesday alone…

The latest spike will keep home heating costs for millions of Americans elevated, adding to a long list of inflationary headaches.

Natural gas futures surged 16% Wednesday to close at $5.50 per million British thermal unit (BTU). That’s near the highest level since last November. Natural gas futures have spiked 55% since sinking to $3.56 on December 30.

Of course the price of food continues to rise aggressively as well.

Earlier today my wife went to the store to pick up a few things, and she got into a conversation with the cashier about rising prices.

The cashier told her that it seemed like just about everything was going up in price by about two dollars.  Of course that was a wild exaggeration and not even close to accurate.  But it is certainly true that we are now seeing price increases that can truly be described as “frightening”, and Americans from coast to coast are definitely starting to feel impact.

Meanwhile, the overall economy is really starting to slow down.  At this point, the Atlanta Fed is projecting that the U.S. economy will only grow by 0.1 percent during the first quarter…

The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow gauge is currently tracking a first-quarter GDP gain of just 0.1%.

“The economy is decelerating and downshifting,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief economist for the Americas at Natixis and former chief economist for the National Economic Council under then-President Donald Trump. “It’s not a recession, but it will be if the Fed tries to get too aggressive.”

So it appears that “stagflation” is already here.

But like I said, this is just the beginning.

What we have been through so far is just a preview of coming attractions, and the main event is definitely not going to be suitable for anyone with a weak stomach.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  During this season, I would like to encourage you to send digital copies of my new book to your family and friends as gifts.  That will help to support the work that I am doing, and it will help to multiply the impact of the book.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post The U.S. Economy Just Took A Turn In A Very Ugly Direction appeared first on The Economic Collapse.