How in the world can anybody possibly claim that the U.S. economy is in good shape? Honestly, I don’t see how anyone can make a rational argument that this is the case. Actually, the only people that seem to be trying to claim that the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction are those in the upper tiers of the economic food chain. At this stage, those in the lower tiers of the economic food chain are very well aware of how much they are suffering. Poverty, homelessness and hunger are rapidly growing all over America right now. But if you still have plenty of money and those around you still have plenty of money, you may be wondering what all of the fuss is about. If you are one of those people, hopefully this article will be a wake up call for you.
Let’s start with the housing market. On Friday, we learned that sales of previously owned homes in December 2023 were 6.2 percent lower than they were in December 2022…
Sales of previously owned homes fell 1% in December compared with November to 3.78 million units on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were 6.2% lower than in December 2022, marking the lowest level since August 2010.
For 2023 as a whole, sales of previously owned homes were the lowest that we have seen in 28 years…
Home sales fell to their lowest level in 28 years in 2023 as soaring mortgage rates and red-hot prices dampened buyer demand.
Figures from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) show sales of existing properties slid 19 percent last year to 4.09 million – their lowest level since 1995.
Can anyone out there come up with a way to put a positive spin on those numbers?
I certainly can’t.
Meanwhile, 2023 was a year when Americans got further behind on their credit card bills “in 49 of the 50 states”…
The number of people falling behind on their credit card bills increased in 49 of the 50 states last year, a sobering new report reveals.
As inflation took its toll on household budgets, Americans in their millions became delinquent on credit card debt – with some states much more badly affected than others.
According to analysis by WalletHub, the number of borrowers struggling to keep on track of their credit card bills has risen the fastest in Oregon. Between September 2022 and September 2023, delinquencies in the state soared by 51 percent.
Delinquency rates on all forms of credit have been steadily rising from coast to coast.
This will be an important trend to watch in 2024.
Meanwhile, large layoff announcements continue to pile up at a very frightening pace.
For example, Macy’s just announced that it will be laying off a total of 2,350 workers…
Department store chain Macy’s is planning to lay off about 13% of its corporate staff and close five stores in an effort to trim costs and redirect spending to improve the customer experience.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the news on Thursday, adding that the job cuts will total about 2,350 positions, or about 3.5% of Macy’s overall workforce excluding seasonal hires.
And Wayfair is telling us that somewhere around 1,650 of their workers will soon be hitting the bricks…
Wayfair is cutting 13% of its global workforce as the digital home goods retailer continues its efforts to trim down its structure, cut out layers of management and reduce costs after going “overboard” with corporate hiring during the Covid pandemic, it announced Friday.
The company plans to lay off around 1,650 employees, including 19% of its corporate team, with a focus on people in management and leadership positions, Wayfair said.
I apologize in advance if there are some major layoff announcements that I miss in the days ahead.
We are witnessing such a large tsunami of layoffs now that it is virtually impossible to keep up with them all.
On the west coast, employees of the Los Angeles Times are extremely upset about the “massive” layoffs that are reportedly coming…
With “massive” and “significant” layoffs coming soon, “the L.A. Times Guild announced a one-day walkout from both its L.A. and Washington D.C. offices this Friday,” reports TheWrap.
Staffers are “abstaining from work for the entire day while also staging a rally. It’s the first union work stoppage in the newsroom’s history, according to the union, dating back to when it started printing in 1881.”
This act of suicide is called the “Rally to Save Local Journalism” and will take place Friday at noon.
And earlier today I was stunned to learn that the entire staff of Sports Illustrated is being terminated…
Following through on a warning earlier this month, Authentic Brands Group has revoked Sports Illustrated‘s license to publish due to a missed payment.
As a result of the move, the entire staff of the 70-year-old print and online publication was notified on Friday that their jobs were being eliminated.
“We appreciate the work and efforts of everyone who has contributed to the SI brand and business,” SI operator The Arena Group wrote in a memo to employees that set off outrage on social media.
Once upon a time, Sports Illustrated was a truly great magazine.
Sadly, those days are long gone.
There is so much bad news these days.
At this point the economic outlook is so troubling that even Google is getting ready to conduct yet another round of layoffs…
Google has laid off over a thousand employees across various departments since January 10th. CEO Sundar Pichai’s message is to brace for more cuts.
“We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year,” Pichai told all Google employees on Wednesday in an internal memo that was shared with me. “The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices.”
So far, those “tough choices” have included layoffs and reorganizations in Google’s hardware, ad sales, search, shopping, maps, policy, core engineering, and YouTube teams.
Of course what I have shared with you above is just a small sampling of what is really going on out there. For many more recent layoff announcements, please see my previous article entitled “Alert! Here Is A List Of 20 Large Companies That Have Just Decided To Conduct Mass Layoffs”.
Before I end this article, I wanted to update all of you on the horrifying stock market crash in China.
Zero Hedge is reporting that Chinese stocks just experienced their “worst weekly loss since March 2023″…
Amid ‘snowball derivative liquidations‘, China’s stock market is falling faster than its population.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index crashed 6.5% this week – its worst weekly loss since March 2023 with Wednesday seeing the biggest daily loss since Oct 2022 as the index plummeted to key support levels around the Oct 2022 lows…
The phrase “snowball derivative liquidations” really got my attention, and a lot of you know why.
I have been warning about the derivatives bubble in my books for over a decade.
Derivatives are going to become a very hot topic the closer we get to a full-blown implosion of the global financial system.
We are in far more trouble than most people realize.
2024 is going to be such a tumultuous year, but many of the “experts” will continue to insist that everything is “just fine” for as long as they can.
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 highly 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 social media 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.
I don't get it, the world as we know it is coming to and end and we are worried about my bank accounts and my stock's value like there is a safe place for your money and worry about AI taking our jobs?
All of this is nothing compared to what is coming? Are we too much like the rich young man or Lot's wife? Should we know we need to be like Paul in dealing with His Christian life?
1 Cor 4:11-13
To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now. (and all of them except John were killed).
What happened to the apostles is going to happen to us. We are going to be blamed for all that is coming soon and very soon. Are we really willing to lose everything for Christ? yea even our own life?
This is the sifting that is coming at the end of the age, are we really ready to be sifted?
How Can Anyone Possibly Claim That The U.S. Economy Is Doing Well With All Of This Going On?
The Biblical answer to that is easy; that God is blinding there eyes numbing their ears to the truth. People are freely choosing to believe what makes them feel good and secure. And "the world cries Peace and Safety but sudden destruction comes upon them." This is the pattern to set up the world for the last days. It called deception and Jesus is behind it, no Jesus is doing it.
Matt 13:1-16
John sees that "The whole world runs after the Beast" why would they do that?
The two big questions are, 1. What are they fleeing from and what does that look like? And, 2. What makes the beast appear to be a safe tower to run to and what does that look like ?
1.Daniel 7:15-28 and Rev 8:8-13
2. Matt 24:21-28 and Rev 10
If there is no security in Christ and His coming kingdom, we get our security (peace and safety) from ourselves and our world around us. But my own inner fears and the world around me is falling apart, I have no peace and safety so the world cries out for it because they don't want judgement but to be rescued not in faith in Christ, but in my own deceptions (beliefs contaminated with lies).
So if someone comes along as Jesus said he would before Christ returns, is a man who will promise the kingdom of God but what he brings, is not judgement by fire but and a new Kingdom, but an offer to fix this current broken sin stained world to save it (change this current world culture-this cosmos/world) not destroy it, kind of like cancelling Armageddon. He will fix it not destroy it. But how can God build a house on a foundation of sand?
Jesus said My Kingdom is not of this world (cosmos), why? His kingdom is of ultimate truth and reality but until the Lord returns to bring perfection (ultimate truth & reality), we see in part and know in part, we prophesies in part, we see in the mirror darkly (an enigma). Even The church today is still a child tainted with the immaturity of Sin, (that's why we need the armor of God daily) but when the perfection comes (resurrection) I become a man fully mature ready to reign with Christ for we will be like HIM. 1 Cor 13:8-13. That battle with sin and the flesh ends Romans 8 (this is our great hope).
So the imitation messiah will feed that tainted belief systems. We are all too loved by God to allow judgement to happen to this age, no matter what your doctrine (truth) is. After all, does not God love us so much, he loves us more than Himself and His will, His Truth? That he puts us first in our wants and needs, because is not the end of real love in my life is to be happy and for God just give us what make us happy? Is this not what love is all about?
I just watched a 4 part series on Prime video called Johnathon and Jesus a story of Johnathan Roumie playing Jesus in the chosen. It's a 4 part series.
For me the big themes are, the church (protestant) is too divided over doctrine with all the different denominations and we need to embrace Catholics as within the real of orthodoxy i.e. Luther's rebellion is over, lets make peace . "About half of Protestants worldwide belong to one of six major traditions—Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, or Pentecostals—with the remainder belonging to smaller traditions, including nondenominational groups."
The actor Roumie is Catholic and nothing is said about the Catholic Church being an issue in division but the protestants. (there is a move in the Roman church to unite all Christianity under their umbrella authority). You don't have to be Roman Catholic to be Roman Catholic.
The Chosen admits may followers of the show see Roumie as Jesus, they want to touch him, like he has divine power, have him pray for them, when they mediate or pray they are seeing the face of Roumie. Most don't realize Roumie is only a poorly paid part time actor who's real job as an apartment building manager. The guy is not a theologian in any way, he is just an every day catholic. This issue of idolatry is real (Matt 18:5-6, Ex 20:4-6) but they don't deal with it.
Roumie does struggle with the idea of playing God he is having real issues and struggles, but seeks help from non christian sources, like eastern mysticism meditation.
Overall it does appear to be very Christian but the overall theme is the church is here to change the wold culture and make it christian and we do it with love not judgement. We are meant to change the world (cosmos).
But Jesus said the world (cosmos) will hate you and kill you because of me and that the road to eternal life is narrow and only a few go down it. This series is very clear that is not the goal of the Chosen but to save this world, by uniting all Christians together not under ultimate truth, but under the idea of unity in diversity (wok-ism). Because in the end it's all about us loving one another period..
When Dallas and Roumie met the Pope even the Pope said You the one playing the "imitation" Christ and then he tells Roumie he prays he finds God through this.
So what's the answer to the question? Deception on all levels.
This is the theology of the man of Sin the anti-imitation/substitute Christ.
I'm not saying Roumie is the Anti-Christ, but the chosen series is setting the church up for just that.