Optimism About The Future Plunges To An All-Time Record Low And Credit Card Debt Soars To An All-Time Record High | The Economic Collapse

As long as you have hope, you can face whatever challenges are ahead.  Sadly, Americans have been losing hope at a rate that is absolutely unprecedented.  As you will see below, optimism about the future has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded.  One of the biggest reasons why people are losing hope is because we have been in a historic cost of living crisis for almost this entire decade.  It is getting harder and harder just to pay the bills.  Nobody can deny this.  For most of the country, just surviving from month to month is a real struggle.

When there just isn’t enough money coming in, it can be very tempting to bridge the gap with debt.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, credit card debt has risen to the highest level in the entire history of the United States…

Americans ended 2025 more in debt than ever before.

Credit card balances hit a fresh high in the fourth quarter, rising by $44 billion to $1.28 trillion, according to a new report on household debt by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released Tuesday. That’s a 5.5% jump from a year earlier.

The central bank’s monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations, released Monday, also found that fewer consumers expect their households’ financial situations to be better off a year from now — and a larger share expect to be worse off.

Once you start piling up credit card debt, it can be exceedingly difficult to ever get it paid off.

Credit card rates are higher than ever, and this is allowing large financial institutions to rake in enormous profits.

But many on the other end of the equation feel like they are suffocating.

Needless to say, credit card debt is not the only type of debt that is becoming a major national problem.

Delinquency rates are rising for all types of debt, and this is particularly true for low income Americans…

That’s not just apparent in the number of auto loan, credit card and home equity lines of credit delinquencies, the New York Fed researchers said. “You also see that in rising mortgage delinquency rates,” the researchers said, referring to the growing number of homeowners who are falling behind on their mortgage payments.

Across the board, “elevated delinquency rates are more pronounced in the lowest-income areas,” the Fed researchers also found.

Everyone should be able to see that this crisis is not going to end well.

It is just a matter of time.

Americans have traditionally been very optimistic about the future, but a recent Gallup survey discovered that optimism about the future has now fallen to the lowest level ever recorded…

The percentage of U.S. adults who anticipate high-quality lives in five years declined to 59.2% in 2025, the lowest level since measurement began nearly two decades ago. Since 2020, future life ratings have fallen a total of 9.1 percentage points, projecting to an estimated 24.5 million fewer people who are optimistic about the future now versus then. Most of that decline occurred between 2021 and 2023, but the ratings dropped 3.5 points between 2024 and 2025.

Of course Americans are less optimistic about the present as well.

In fact, U.S. consumer confidence just dropped to a level that we have not seen since 2014…

The most dangerous economic divergence isn’t in wealth. It’s in confidence.

U.S. consumer confidence collapsed to 84.5—its lowest level since 2014, below even pandemic-era lows, the Conference Board recently reported. The Expectations Index fell to 65.1, well under the 80 threshold that historically signals recession. Across income levels, Americans earning under $15,000 remain the least optimistic of any group.

I am not surprised that Americans that are earning the least money are the most pessimistic.

For those with very limited resources, just going to the grocery store can be a traumatic experience.

From March 2025 to December 2025, the average price of beef rose nearly 20 percent…

That demand is also reflected in the meat case, where beef accounts for more than half of all fresh meat dollars, far outpacing other protein options like chicken, pork and seafood.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, the average price of beef in grocery stores climbed from about $8.40 per pound in March to $10.10 per pound by December 2025, a roughly 20% increase over that period.

We aren’t in the 1990s anymore.

The economic environment that we are living in today is completely different from what we experienced a few decades ago.

The middle class is being systematically eviscerated, and every day more Americans on the bottom half of the economic spectrum are simply giving up…

Today, the bottom half of the K-shaped economy is entering a new era. Call it the Quiet Riot.

This is the threshold where financial strain becomes behavioral exit—when people stop optimizing and start opting out. It is not through public unrest, but through millions of small, rational decisions that add up to something destabilizing: staying stuck instead of moving up, abandoning long-term planning, choosing short-term survival over long-term compounding.

It follows a simple framework. Fuel: affordability strain, debt stress, declining job quality. The oxygen is missing; a lack of agency, when people can’t see a credible path to mobility. The spark here is the shock that pushes households from “stressed but functioning” into opt-out mode. That can be job loss, medical bills, rent jump, or simply one more month where the math doesn’t work.

Most of the population is just one accident way from financial disaster.

If you can avoid going to the hospital or getting laid off, you get the opportunity to try to scrape by for another month.

But if the unexpected strikes, you can suddenly lose your spot in the middle class.

Our society has been transformed into a very twisted game of musical chairs, and for those that get bumped out of the game each round it can be absolutely soul crushing.

Alarmingly, it appears that some near the top of the economic spectrum are also becoming very alarmed about what is coming, because last week we witnessed “a notable wave of insider selling across multiple sectors”…

This week is shaping up to be an important one for rotation trades, particularly as insider activity continues to lean heavily toward selling.

On Friday, February 6, we saw a notable wave of insider selling across multiple sectors.

Two transactions stood out. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares each of GOOG and GOOGL, while CoreWeave’s Chief Strategy Officer sold over USD 23 million worth of shares, reducing his position to zero.

Signs of trouble are erupting all around us.

And if a major conflict with Iran begins during the weeks ahead, that will greatly accelerate our economic problems.

It has taken decades of very bad decisions for us to reach this point, and now our society is peering down into the abyss.

U.S. households are 18.8 trillion dollars in debt, the federal government is 38.5 trillion dollars in debt, and the U.S. dollar has been rapidly losing value.

We have accumulated the greatest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and there is no easy way out.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post Optimism About The Future Plunges To An All-Time Record Low And Credit Card Debt Soars To An All-Time Record High appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

2 Of The Most Prominent Buzzwords For The U.S. Economy In 2025 Were “Affordability” And “Layoffs” | The Economic Collapse

If you are having a really difficult time keeping up with the rapidly rising cost of living, you are certainly not alone.  This year, “affordability” was a buzzword that was constantly on the lips of politicians, economists and talking heads on television.  As you will see below, Americans are being slammed by rising prices from a multitude of directions.  Meanwhile, “layoffs” has been another buzzword that has been widely used in 2025.  Thanks to the rise of AI and our steadily deteriorating economy, we have seen far more mass layoffs this year than we did last year.  Unfortunately, one survey has found that executives are gearing up for an even larger round in 2026.

This is what happens when you flood the system with money and you go into unprecedented amounts of debt.

Eventually a day of reckoning arrives.

Ever since the Great Recession, our leaders have been pursuing highly inflationary policies, and now the American people “are yelling about affordability”…

Affordability has been a source of household frustration and a key focus of political discourse in recent months, as prices for everyday goods and services continue to rise.

“People are yelling about affordability,” said Martha Gimbel, executive director and co-founder of the Budget Lab at Yale University. “I think it’s very obviously become a political flash point,” she said.

It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that things would turn out this way.

If we had made different choices, we would have gotten different results.

But we can’t go back and change the past now.  At this point, things are so bad that “affordability” has become the number one concern for U.S. voters…

A University of Michigan poll published in December shows that high prices remain a pain point for consumers. About 46% blame high prices for poor personal finances — among the highest shares since the series started in the late 1970s.

Consumers’ views of their current financial situation in December “collapsed” into negative territory for the first time since July 2022, the month after pandemic-era inflation had peaked, according to a poll published Tuesday by the Conference Board.

Overall, 65% of U.S. households say the cost of living has gotten worse or much worse in the past year, according to a recent Politico poll.

Healthcare costs have risen particularly rapidly.

One 62-year-old man that was recently interviewed by Business Insider openly admitted that he cannot afford to get sick, but he can’t afford to be healthy either…

David Deal’s 2026 outlook is what he describes as a “whack-a-mole of worry.” While he’s 62 and presumably approaching retirement, 65 is “just a number” for him, not a milestone marker for throwing in the towel on his career like his parents’ generation. The thing that really has him wound up, though, is healthcare, which he calls a “DEFCON 1” situation. Deal, a marketing consultant who lives in the Chicago suburbs, and his wife pay for their own insurance, and their premiums are going up by 25% next year. He’s worried one slip on the ice this winter could mean financial disaster. A family member’s recent two-hour trip to the ER cost them thousands of dollars, even with insurance, and the episode has him spooked.

“For me, it’s the double-whammy of skyrocketing premiums and also the skyrocketing costs of actually getting care,” he says. “We are literally at a point where we can’t afford to be sick, and we can’t afford to be healthy.”

He emphasizes that he means a collective “we” — he knows he’s far from alone in his predicament.

Health insurance premiums are set to rise even higher in 2026, and many Americans are cancelling their policies as a result.

When you don’t have health insurance, you just pray that you don’t get sick.

If you do get sick, it can be a financial disaster.

Meanwhile, one recent survey discovered that 75 percent of Americans have “reduced spending in other areas” just so that they can afford to pay for their groceries…

But whatever their preferences, many shoppers still fretted about how to pay for their groceries. More than 2 in 3 respondents (67.6%) said that they’re struggling to pay grocery bills because of inflation and rising food prices, according to a survey by Swiftly, which provides digital and media solutions for brick-and-mortar supermarkets.

More than 3 out of 4 (75.2%) responded that they’ve reduced spending in other areas to afford groceries, and in a follow-up question selected what areas they’ve cut spending in the most to pay grocery bills, with entertainment spending the most likely to be cut, followed by spending on travel, clothing, and going out to eat or drink.

Government bureaucrats keep telling us that food prices are not going up very quickly.

But everyone can see that they are wrong.

And going out to eat has become a luxury that most of the population simply cannot afford on a regular basis.  As a result, restaurants are closing down at a staggering pace…

New data shows that 2025 was a record year for restaurant closures in the District.

The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) reports 92 restaurants closed their doors this year, compared to 73 closures in 2024 and 48 in 2022.

Purchasing a new vehicle has also become a luxury that most of the population simply cannot afford any longer.

Since the early days of the pandemic, the average price of a new vehicle has gone from less than $38,000 to more than $50,000…

Americans are shelling out record car payments — and now some are signing up for loans stretching nearly a decade to get a new set of wheels.

The average monthly payment for a new car hit about $760 in November, according to industry-research firm J.D. Power, after the typical new-vehicle price surged past the $50,000 mark this fall — up from less than $38,000 in early 2020.

With sticker shock everywhere, buyers are leaning hard on longer financing to keep payments from exploding — even if that means paying far more interest over time.

Some dealers are now stretching out vehicle payments for 100 months so that people can actually afford them.

To me, that is absolutely insane.

But this is the economic system that we live in now.

It is designed to get us into as much debt as possible, and at this stage U.S. households are a whopping 18.6 trillion dollars in debt…

The Federal Reserve signaled a higher bar for 2026 interest rate cuts at its December meeting, potentially snatching away a much-needed reprieve for millions of Americans saddled with debt.

Household debt ballooned to a record $18.6 trillion during the third quarter of 2025, and the central bank is expected to lower its benchmark rate just once or twice next year to soften borrowing costs.

Americans have never been more overextended than they are right now.

It was another record year for credit card debt during the holiday season, but vast numbers of our fellow citizens are still paying off credit card debt from Christmas 2024.

Getting deep into debt in this very challenging economic environment is very foolish, because most people do not have jobs that are secure.

In fact, job security is now the number two concern for U.S. voters…

Job security rose to workers’ second-most pressing concern this year, after covering their monthly expenses, according to a new survey by Mercer.

While “covering monthly expenses” had been the leading concern for the past three annual surveys, fears around job loss jumped from seventh place in 2023 to second place in 2025, where it was tied with being able to retire and work-life balance. Mercer did not conduct this survey in 2024.

Throughout this year, I have documented so many of the mass layoffs that have been occurring all over the nation.

For example, Tyson Foods has announced that a beef processing facility in Lexington, Nebraska will be shut down permanently next month, and that means that approximately 3,200 workers will be losing their jobs.

A reporter that visited Lexington discovered that fear of what those layoffs would mean had gripped the entire area…

On a frigid day after Mass at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in rural Nebraska, worshipers shuffled into the basement and sat on folding chairs, their faces barely masking the fear gripping their town.

There are only about 11,000 people living in Lexington, and so these layoffs have the potential to turn it into a ghost town…

“Suddenly they tell us that there’s no more work. Your world closes in on you,” Alejandra Gutierrez said

She and the others work at Tyson Foods’ beef plant and are among the 3,200 people who will lose their jobs when Lexington’s biggest employer closes the plant next month after more than two decades of operation.

Hundreds of families may be forced to pack up and leave the town of 11,000, heading east to Omaha or Iowa, or south to the meatpacking towns of Kansas or beyond, causing spinoff layoffs in Lexington’s restaurants, barbershops, grocers, convenience stores and taco trucks.

There are so many other examples that I could share with you.

In Michigan, the closure of a facility in Detroit will mean that more than a thousand General Motors employees will be out of work starting on January 5th…

According to WARN Act notices filed in November, 1,140 General Motors employees will be let go from the company’s Factory Zero site in Detroit, Michigan on January 5.

In a filing with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, General Motors said the cuts would be permanent, affect several roles, and stemmed from adjustments related to the slower-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

According to one recent survey, over one-third of all large companies intend to slash their payrolls during the months ahead…

In November, executive search firm Spencer Stuart asked 90 chief marketing officers how aggressively they plan to use AI to shrink payrolls, the Wall Street Journal reported.

More than one in three executives said that they expect to hand out pink slips in the next 12 to 24 months as they deploy more computer agents.

The trend is even worse among bigger companies.

Nearly half the executives at firms worth more than $20 billion said they’re planning significant job cuts.

If this survey is accurate, we could see millions of layoffs over the next couple of years.

Just think about that.

We were warned that this was going to happen.

Now it is playing out right in front of our eyes.

And survey after survey is indicating that the American people are quite gloomy about where economic conditions are heading next…

Americans are ending 2025 significantly more pessimistic about the direction of their financial situations than they were at the start of the year, according to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment gauge from early December. Its reading on personal finance expectations is 12% below where it was at the beginning of the year. A November consumer survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York similarly found that people are increasingly gloomy about their current and future finances, and their expectations for increased medical care costs are at their highest levels since January 2014.

If you understand what is happening, that will help you to make better decisions.

When conditions get tough, those that are wise tighten things up.

Sadly, most of the population continues to party as if tomorrow will never come, but no matter how hard one may try it is impossible to stop the inexorable march of time.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post 2 Of The Most Prominent Buzzwords For The U.S. Economy In 2025 Were “Affordability” And “Layoffs” appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

“Six Figures Is Survival” – Even High Earners Are Drowning Financially As The U.S. Dollar Is Transformed Into Toilet Paper | The Economic Collapse

Inflation is a tax that nobody can escape.  No matter how hard you may try, the rising cost of living is going to catch up with you eventually, and we live at a time when the cost of living has become exceedingly painful.  The reason why the cost of living has become such an important issue is because those that are running the system have been treating our currency like toilet paper.  Many of us warned what would happen when the Federal Reserve started printing money out of thin air and monetizing the debt.  But instead of learning their lesson, they are beginning to do it again.  And Congress is spending so much money that the monthly budget deficit for the month of October just set an all-time record.  What they are doing to us is literally insane, and the middle class is dying right in front of our eyes.

In so many ways, the U.S. economy is starting to resemble the economy of the Weimar Republic just before hyperinflation kicked in.

As the U.S. dollar rapidly loses value, even high earners are now struggling to stay afloat financially.

If you doubt this, just consider the shocking results of a brand new Harris poll…

• Six figures is survival, not success: 64% of six-figure earners say six figures is no longer a sign of wealth but survival mode — a paycheck that covers costs, not comfort. The benchmark of success has become the bare minimum to keep up.
• The American Dream feels out of reach: More than half of six-figure earners say the Dream no longer feels attainable, revealing a generation of professionals who have achieved everything on paper but feel they’re standing on financial quicksand.
• Where luxury used to live, the basics now move in: Groceries, housing, and healthcare are the top expenses draining even the top 10%. Vacations, savings, and wellness — once staples of comfort — have quietly slipped into the “nice-to-have” category.
• The illusion of wealth is exhausting: Many top earners say people assume they can afford it all, yet behind the image of success are quiet sacrifices: skipped purchases, delayed plans, and a fragile sense of security.
• Credit cards as life rafts: Three-quarters of six-figure earners have used a credit card in the past three months because they ran out of cash, not to collect points. For many, plastic has become the bridge between paychecks.
• Affluence, paid in installments: BNPL use is highest among $200k+ households — the top 10% now financing everyday life, from groceries to gas, in ways once reserved for those just getting by.
• The new middle class begins where old wealth used to end: Six-figure earners now define financial comfort at $200k+, and more than half say they’d need double their current income to finally feel secure. The top 10% are quietly struggling — so what happens to the other 90%?

If nearly two-thirds of six figure earners feel like what they are bringing in is only enough for “survival mode”, what does that say about our economy as a whole?

The truth is that our leaders are systematically murdering the American Dream.

I have been ranting about this for years, and now people all over the country are finally waking up to what they have done to us.

According to a new AP-NORC poll, 87 percent of Americans have noticed “higher than usual prices for groceries in the past few months”…

The survey indicates that it’s the level of prices — and not just the rate of inflation — that is the point of pain for many families. About 9 in 10 U.S. adults, 87%, say they noticed higher than usual prices for groceries in the past few months, while about two-thirds say they’ve experienced higher prices than usual for electricity and holiday gifts. About half say they’ve seen higher than normal prices for gas recently.

It is virtually impossible to get 87 percent of Americans to agree on anything.

But somehow we are all convinced that grocery prices have been going up.

When I go to the grocery store, I can hardly believe how high prices have become.

Some things are now three or four times as much as they once were.

Over the past 10 to 15 years, we have witnessed such a dramatic shift.

But this is only just the beginning.

According to Fox Business, the proportion of U.S. small businesses that are raising their selling prices “jumped by an all-time high in November”…

The share of small businesses raising their selling prices jumped by an all-time high in November as inflationary pressure continued to impact businesses and consumers, according to a new report by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB).

NFIB’s monthly report on small business economic trends for November found a 13-point jump in the net percent of owners who reported raising their average selling prices, which was the largest monthly jump in the history of the survey.

That pushed the percent of owners saying they’re raising average selling prices to a net of 34%, which is the highest reading in the survey since March 2023. That’s also well above the monthly average of a net 13%.

What this means is that our cost of living crisis is accelerating.

If your paycheck is not keeping up, you are losing ground.

Meanwhile, mass layoffs continue to occur all over the United States.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S. employers have announced a grand total of almost 1.2 million job cuts so far this year…

Americans are growing increasingly terrified about layoffs – and with good reason. Cuts are accelerating, and no industry feels safe. All told, employers have announced roughly 1.2 million cuts so far this year, according to layoff tracker Challenger, Gray & Christmas – that’s 54 percent more than during the first 11 months of 2024. Perhaps the most unsettling is that industries once seen as safe harbors for employees – tech, manufacturing and even small business – are now among the hardest hit. That’s left millions of workers asking the same pressing question: How do I avoid getting the chop?

Retail is one of the industries that has been hit particularly hard.

So far in 2025, retailers have announced almost 140 percent more job cuts than they did during the same period in 2024…

For the year so far, the industry has announced 91,954 job cuts, up nearly 140% from the same period in 2024. The cuts are primarily attributable to softening demand, tariff uncertainty and changing consumer preferences, per the report.

As I discussed last week, the tourism industry has also fallen on extremely hard times.

In New Orleans, a lack of tourists is causing the streets to be quieter than they have been in a long, long time…

But in the quieter areas, things are, well, quieter. On a cool December evening as raindrops polka-dotted the pavement, longtime street performer Onunze Ubaka, 72, crooned Motown classics to a virtually empty corner off the usually busy Jackson Square in the French Quarter. Few tourists passed by. Even fewer stopped to drop dollar bills into his white tip bucket.

“You can feel the change,” Ubaka said in between songs from Lou Rawls and The Temptations. Inside his tip bucket, a small pile of greenbacks barely covered the 15-pound dumbbell he started putting in after a young man tried to run off with it.

Ubaka said there’s been a general economic slowdown, in particular a loss of international tourists.

Just look around.

Everything is changing.

You would have to be blind not to see it.

Sadly, a whole lot more pain is on the way.

Printing more money won’t solve our problems.

It will only make things even worse.

Borrowing and spending more money won’t solve our problems either.

Our leaders kicked the can down the road for many years, but now the entire road is coming to an end.

They kept trying to outrun the laws of economics, and for a while they actually thought that they were getting away with it.

But now a time of reckoning has arrived, and it is not going to be fun.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post “Six Figures Is Survival” – Even High Earners Are Drowning Financially As The U.S. Dollar Is Transformed Into Toilet Paper appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Gold Hits $4,000 For The First Time Ever And Silver Is Closing In On $50 As The U.S. Dollar Collapses | The Economic Collapse

It is exciting to see the price of gold soar to unprecedented levels, but we should also be horrified by what is happening to the U.S. dollar.  For years, many of us warned that debasing our currency was a really bad idea.  There are two primary ways that our leaders have done this.  Firstly, we have added more than 27 trillion dollars to the national debt since 2009.  Borrowing money that we do not have and pumping it into the economy temporarily raises our standard of living, but it also debases our currency.  Secondly, the Federal Reserve created trillions of dollars out of thin air and used it to buy bonds.  A lot of pundits hailed “quantitative easing” as a wonderful thing when it was introduced, but it has had very serious consequences.  Now the wealthy are swimming in cash, but the value of our currency has plummeted and our standard of living has crashed.  The first half of 2025 was the worst first half of a year for the U.S. dollar in more than 50 years.  In other words, the purchasing power of your money has gone way down.

The reason why the price of gold is skyrocketing is not because everyone has suddenly discovered how great gold is.

The reason why the price of gold is skyrocketing is because the U.S. dollar is in the process of collapsing.

On Wednesday, the price of gold crossed the $4,000 threshold for the first time ever…

Gold surged past the $4,000 an ounce level for the first time on Wednesday, building on a record-breaking rally as broader geopolitical and economic uncertainty, as well as expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts sent investors flocking to the safe-haven asset.

Spot gold was up 1.58% at $4,047.28 per ounce. U.S. gold futures for December delivery gained 1.58% to $4,067.70. Silver also latched on to gold’s rally, gaining 3.24% to $49.37 per ounce, and hovering just below its all-time high of $49.51.

A lot of people are celebrating this milestone, and there is nothing wrong with that.

But let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture.

So far this year, the price of gold has increased by 54 percent…

Gold, traditionally seen as a store of value during times of instability, is up 54% year-to-date, after gaining 27% in 2024. It is one of the best-performing assets of 2025, outpacing advances in global equity markets and bitcoin and losses for the U.S. dollar and crude oil.

Its rally has been propelled by a combination of factors, including expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts, mounting political and economic uncertainty, strong central bank buying, hefty inflows into gold-backed ETFs and a weakening dollar.

It has been an amazing rally, and most of the experts expect the price of gold to continue to rise during the months ahead.

In fact, Goldman Sachs is now projecting that the price of gold will reach $4,900 by the end of next year…

Last quarter marked the strongest quarter on record for inflows into gold-backed exchange-traded funds. Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs analysts lifted their gold forecast for December 2026 from $4,300 to $4,900 per troy ounce.

Needless to say, the price of silver has been going up even faster.

So far this year, the price of silver has gone up nearly 70 percent.

That is crazy.

I never imagined that silver would be closing in on the $50 mark in October 2025.

But here we are, and it just shows how late in the game it really is.

As the U.S. dollar collapses, investors are pouring into “the so-called debasement trade”…

The moves reflect a continuation of the so-called debasement trade, in which investors pour into hard assets and crypto to hedge against what they see as the erosion of fiat currency value driven by inflation, heavy government spending, and mounting debt financed by money creation.

I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

Governments all over the world have been recklessly debasing their currencies, and so investors are looking for assets that will retain their value in a world gone mad.

The U.S. government has been a particularly egregious offender.  As Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has aptly observed, stockpiling gold and silver is a way “to effectively de-dollarize”…

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has expressed concern as investors increasingly view gold as a safer asset than the US dollar. Speaking to Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua on Monday, Griffin noted that substantial capital is moving away from the dollar as investors seek to de-dollarize or reduce exposure to US sovereign risk. He added:

“We’re seeing substantial asset inflation away from the dollar as people are looking for ways to effectively de-dollarize, or de-risk their portfolios vis-a-vis US sovereign risk.”

Many of us have been warning about the death of the U.S. dollar for many years.

Now it is in the process of happening right in front of our eyes.

Right now, a lot of “gold bugs” are gleefully celebrating the fact that they have been proven right.

There is nothing wrong with celebrating, but we also need to view things from a longer term perspective.

When global events really hit the fan, you will want to have physical assets that you actually have in your possession.

So please don’t put your faith in paper.

The entire system that so many of us are completely and utterly dependent upon is failing.

Yes, the price of gold is likely to continue to go up during the months ahead.

Yes, the price of silver is likely to continue to go up during the months ahead.

But whatever you choose to do, I highly recommend that you invest in things that you can physically touch.

I am entirely convinced that really big things are about to start happening.

As our world is shaken by catastrophic events, there is going to be a tremendous amount of panic.

My recommendation is to become as independent of the system as possible, because a lot of people out there are going to get absolutely crushed as the system fails all around them.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post Gold Hits $4,000 For The First Time Ever And Silver Is Closing In On $50 As The U.S. Dollar Collapses appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Large Companies In The U.S. Are Going Bankrupt At The Fastest Pace That We Have Seen Since The Global Financial Crisis | The Economic Collapse

Is the fact that large companies are filing for bankruptcy at the fastest pace in 15 years a good sign for the economy or a bad sign for the economy? I don’t even have to answer that question because all of you already know the answer. And as you will see below, other types of bankruptcies are soaring as well. We are a nation that is absolutely drowning in debt, and now bubbles are bursting all around us. I hope that you have positioned yourself for what is about to happen, because the months ahead are going to be rough.

According to Newsweek, 446 large companies filed for bankruptcy during the first seven months of this year.  That is the highest total that we have seen since 2010…

The U.S. saw a sharp increase in corporate bankruptcy filings in July, according to a recent report, reaching a post-COVID peak and placing 2025 on track to surpass last year’s total.

S&P Global Market Intelligence, the research and data arm of the credit-rating agency, found that filings by large public and private companies rose to 71 last month from 66 in June, marking the highest monthly tally since July 2020. So far in 2025, meanwhile, the total of 446 bankruptcy filings is the highest for this seven-month stretch since 2010.

In 2010, we were experiencing the tail end of the global financial crisis.

So there was a very good reason for why so many large companies were going bankrupt at that time.

What reason do we have for what we are witnessing right now?

Of course it isn’t just large companies that are going bankrupt in staggering numbers…

Personal and business bankruptcy filings rose 11.5 percent in the twelve-month period ending June 30, 2025, compared with the previous year.

According to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, annual bankruptcy filings totaled 542,529 in the year ending June 2025, compared with 486,613 cases in the previous year.

Business filings rose 4.5 percent, from 22,060 to 23,043 in the year ending June 30, 2025. Non-business bankruptcy filings rose 11.8 percent to 519,486, compared with 464,553 in the previous year.

Wow.

I had no idea that the bankruptcy numbers were that bad.

An 11.5 percent increase in bankruptcy filings in just one year is a really troubling sign.

And it turns out that the number of farm bankruptcies in the United States has been spiking as well…

Hit with high interest rates and labor shortages, more American farmers are filing for bankruptcy, according to new data from the University of Arkansas.

Researchers found that more than 250 farms filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy between April 2024 and March of this year, marking a sharp increase in financial distress across the agricultural sector.

“We’ve already beat last year in terms of Q1 national filings,” said Ryan Loy, an economist at the university. “Once you see this on a national level, it’s a clear sign that financial pressures that we saw before in the 2018 and ‘19 are kind of reemerging.”

A lot of people out there are in denial about what is really happening to the economy.

We have been on an unprecedented debt binge for many years, and now we are beginning to experience the consequences.

Millions upon millions of Americans are in way over their heads, and there is no easy way out.

At this point, approximately two-thirds of Americans that are carrying debt admit “to minimizing or hiding it from others”…

The study of 1,078 adults by Self Financial exposes a nation drowning not just in debt, but in the shame that comes with it. Of those carrying debt, 66.3% admitted to minimizing or hiding it from others. This breaks down to 28.1% outright lying about their situation, 20.8% downplaying how bad things really are, and 17.4% avoiding the topic entirely.

We may want to hide our financial distress from others, but there is no way to hide it from ourselves.

Americans have become so obsessed with financial troubles that they are thinking about it constantly…

Between bills to pay, tariff news and inflation worries, money is living rent-free in Americans’ minds.

They’re spending nearly four hours a day on average thinking about it, according to new research from Empower, a financial services company.

Needless to say, that isn’t healthy.

Continually worrying about your finances can eat you alive.

But this is what daily life is like for so many people these days.  One recent survey discovered that 53 percent of Americans are feeling financial stress “more acutely than ever”…

At 54%, a little more than half of the 2,206 adults surveyed said they’re thinking about it more than they did last year. In fact, the June survey found 53% of Americans said they’re feeling financial stress “more acutely than ever,” including 62% of Gen Xers and 41% of baby boomers.

One of the biggest reasons why Americans are feeling so much financial stress is because we are spending an average of 42 percent of our incomes on housing costs…

More than half of Americans say they’re paying too much for housing, with the average person spending 42% of their income on housing costs.

Meanwhile, just about everything else that we regularly spend money on has been getting increasingly more expensive.

For example, beef prices just keep hitting brand new record high after brand new record high…

Grocery prices have been climbing and one area where prices have hit a record high is beef, a staple for many households.

Ground beef, usually the inexpensive choice for shoppers, has hit a record high. Shoppers can expect to pay $6.25 per pound, up from $5.49 a year ago and $4.26 five years ago, in July of 2020.

The average price for beef steaks has hit $11.87 a pound as of July. That’s up from $10.85 in July of 2024 and $8.69 in July of 2020.

And coffee prices have jumped more than 30 percent over the past year…

A more than 30% year-over-year rise in retail prices for coffee is staggering — and consumers are not likely to see relief anytime soon, even as a merger between two beverage giants looks to create an entity that can better manage rising costs.

If we stick our heads in the sand and keep repeating “everything is going to be okay”, will that make things better?

Of course not.

We need to realize what is happening and adjust our plans accordingly if we are going to navigate through this very harsh economic environment.

For one thing, if you have a good job right now please do not give it up unless you absolutely must do so.

Mass layoffs are being conducted all over the nation, and yet another example of this was just in the news…

Nearly 1,000 corporate Kroger employees are losing their jobs after the company previously announced its intentions not to lay off employees.

The layoffs come after the grocer decided to shutter more than 60 underperforming stores by the end of 2026.

Kroger initiated the closures as a way to cut costs following its failed $25 billion merger with Albertsons.

Sadly, I think that a lot more Americans will lose their jobs in the months ahead.

And since most of the population is living paycheck to paycheck these days, those that lose their jobs are at risk of losing everything.

There was no way that we were going to be able to pile up debt indefinitely.

We have now reached the “bubbles are bursting” chapter of our story, and it certainly isn’t going to be pleasant.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post Large Companies In The U.S. Are Going Bankrupt At The Fastest Pace That We Have Seen Since The Global Financial Crisis appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

What It Costs A Family Of 4 To Live 1 Month In America: $996 For Groceries, $1,437 For Health Insurance, A $745 Car Payment And A $2,259 Mortgage Payment | The Economic Collapse

You may be quite shocked by the numbers that I am going to reveal in this article. So many people are bitterly complaining about the rising cost of living, and so I decided to do some investigating. What does it really cost for a family of four to live the “American Dream” today? As I was doing my research, what I discovered deeply alarmed me.

Obviously a family of four is going to need to eat, and grocery prices have been going through the roof.

According to the USDA, a realistic food budget for a family of four for one month ranges between $996 and $1,603…

The USDA estimates $297–558 for a monthly food budget for one person, $614–963 for a couple, and $996–1,603 for a family of four.

For the purposes of this article, let’s assume that we are being frugal and so we will go with the lowest number in that spectrum.

Health insurance is another major expense that U.S. households face on a monthly basis.

In 2023, an unsubsidized plan for a family of four through the ACA marketplace averaged $1,437 a month…

Family plan premium rates will vary based on family size. But, a family of four paid an average of $1,437 a month for an unsubsidized plan.

That figure is two years old, and premiums have continued to rise since that time, but for the purposes of this article we will go with it.

In order to pay the monthly bills, parents must go to work, and in order to go to work they will need at least one vehicle.

According to Experian, the average monthly payment for a new vehicle during the first quarter of 2025 was $745…

In Q1 2025, the average car payment for a new car was $745, and the average payment for a used car was $521. However, monthly payments can vary significantly based on many factors, including the loan amount, loan term, borrower credit history and more.

Most households have more than one vehicle, but for the purposes of this article we will include just one vehicle payment in the monthly budget.

Needless to say, a family of four also needs a place to live, and the median monthly mortgage payment in the United States has now risen to $2,259…

The median monthly mortgage payment for U.S. homebuyers is currently $2,259. This assumes a buyer making a 20 percent down payment on a $435,300 home — the median sale price for an existing home in June, according to the National Association of Realtors — at 6.75 percent interest, the current average for a 30-year loan based on Bankrate data.

Okay, now that we have our raw data let’s do some math.

If you add all four of our monthly expenses together, you get a grand total of $5,437 a month.

That is only for food, health insurance, one vehicle payment and a mortgage payment.

Of course there are many other things that a family of four must pay for as well.

Are you starting to understand why it seems like most people are just barely scraping by these days?

Most of us are stressed out about our bills, and the cost of living just keeps going up and up.

Many Americans are trying to cut corners any way that they can.

For example, it is being reported that 44 percent of U.S. adults admit that they have ordered a kiddie meal…

Apparently, grown-ups love a good kiddie meal, too.

That’s one of the takeaways from a new survey conducted by Lightspeed Commerce, a company that provides payment systems to the hospitality industry. The survey found that 44% of U.S. diners say they’ve ordered children’s meals for themselves at restaurants.

I suppose that is one way to save a little bit of money.

We are being told that the number of kiddie meals being ordered by adults is up 28 percent compared to 2019…

According to industry research firm Circana, the number of children’s meals placed by adults was up 28% in 2024 compared with 2019. Another data point, as the Wall Street Journal reports, is that Yelp reviews for kids’ meals were higher in December 2024 than any month since 2019.

“It’s satisfying, cheaper, less calories, and sometimes there’s a little prize or treat,” C.J. Person, a retired teacher in North Carolina, told the Journal.

Are adults technically allowed to order kids’ meals? Probably not. Most restaurants have an age limit policy, but they are rarely enforced.

This isn’t what “prosperity” looks like.

In fact, this is the opposite of “prosperity”.

And now mass layoffs are happening day after day.

Earlier today, I was saddened to learn that John Deere has decided to conduct mass layoffs at three facilities in the Midwest…

Legacy tractor maker John Deere has announced layoffs at three Midwestern facilities as the company grapples with declining sales and the effects of tariffs on its bottom line.

“The struggling ag economy continues to impact orders for John Deere equipment,” the company said in a media statement regarding the layoffs. “This is a challenging time for many farmers, growers and producers, and directly impacts our business in the near term.”

Farming is normally fairly recession-proof, and so the fact that demand for John Deere equipment is faltering is not a good sign at all.

The housing market is really struggling right now too.

According to Redfin, the average time that a house is spending on the market has now reached the highest level in 10 years…

The typical home that went under contract in July spent 43 days on the market — up from 35 days a year earlier and the longest span for any July since 2015, according to new Redfin data.

It’s another sign that buyers are gaining leverage after years of tight inventory, though the extent of that advantage varies by region.

In Florida, homes are taking much longer to sell, over 90 days in some cities. West Palm Beach (95 days), Fort Lauderdale (92 days) and Miami (86 days) were the slowest major markets in the country last month.

This feels so much like 2008 all over again.

And just like in 2008, the economy of Las Vegas is an early indicator of what is coming for the economy as a whole…

A retail expert has warned Las Vegas is in freefall with consumer spending slumping, with one recent visitor raising concerns over an outrageous tip demand.

The Nevada city, known for its lavish shows and around-the-clock gambling, has recorded a large drop in tourism and spending in recent months.

According to the Nevada Department of Taxation, sales at food and beverage outlets, clothing, shoes and jewelry retailers have all fallen in the last 11 months.

A lot of people out there still don’t seem to get it.

We really are moving into extremely difficult times.

The vast majority of the population is living paycheck to paycheck right now.

And so when a sudden job loss or some sort of an emergency happens, they have nothing to fall back on.

We are far more vulnerable than most people realize, and the months ahead will demonstrate that fact very clearly.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post What It Costs A Family Of 4 To Live 1 Month In America: $996 For Groceries, $1,437 For Health Insurance, A $745 Car Payment And A $2,259 Mortgage Payment appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

86 Percent Of Americans Feel Stressed About The Cost Of Groceries, And Many People Are Starting To Really Flip Out Emotionally | The Economic Collapse

Why are social media platforms filled with videos of Americans complaining about grocery prices right now? Needless to say, those videos must be striking a chord, because some of them are receiving millions of views. Government bureaucrats are telling us that the cost of food is only going up a few percentage points per year, but we can all see that is a load of nonsense. A trip to the grocery store has become an enormous expense, and this is especially true if you have kids to feed. As I wrote about earlier this month, one survey found that in 25 percent of U.S. households at least one person is skipping meals so that there will be enough money to pay the bills. Sadly, we are being warned that the cost of groceries will go even higher in the months ahead.

Several years ago, I kept warning my readers over and over again that soon the cost of groceries would become very painful.

Without a doubt, that time has arrived.

According to a recent AP poll, the cost of groceries is a “source of stress” for 86 percent of U.S. adults…

Does your run to the supermarket cause a spike in your blood pressure? You’re in good company.

The overwhelming majority of Americans – 86% – say the cost of groceries is at least a minor source of stress. The number includes 53% who say it’s a major source of anxiety in their lives right now. That’s according to a new Associated Press/NORC poll.

Those are very alarming numbers.

But this is the world that we live in now.

And this is why we are seeing so many videos on social media about grocery prices.

Someone put together a compilation of some of the best videos where people are really flipping out emotionally…

In my entire lifetime, I have never seen it so bad.

At one grocery store in Chicago, one woman admitted that it feels like “you’re spending your soul on groceries”…

At a South Loop grocery store, customers experience sticker shock and frustration.

“No matter if it’s organic or if it’s regular, it’s still going to be an arm and a leg for it. It’s like you’re spending your soul on groceries,” said shopper Tria Hutson.

This is one of the reasons why I get so frustrated with the talking heads on television that are telling us that everything is fine.

Just look around you.

People are hurting.

Some companies are trying to hide their price hikes by keeping the prices the same but putting less stuff in each package.

This is known as “shinkflation”, and Jim Quinn recently shared a personal anecdote from his own life…

I think a personal anecdote I’ve experienced will show you the devious methods corporations will use to pass these tariffs along. I have been buying a pack of coated paper plates at Wal-Mart for years. The pack contained 70 paper plates. Within the last four months, the pack was reduced to 50 plates, for the same price. They know the average dolt, after years of government schooling, is deficient in math skills, so they would not realize they just experienced a 40% increase in price per plate. This will show up nowhere in the fake BLS numbers. Shrinkflation is just as bad as inflation, but they can hide it and pretend all is well, while maintaining their profits.

I am sure that you are running into the same thing.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

How can I be so confident in saying that?

Let me give you just one example.

Approximately two-thirds of U.S. adults drink coffee, and approximately one-third of all the coffee we drink comes from Brazil.

Thanks to the 50 percent tariff that was just placed on imports from Brazil, coffee is about to become a lot more expensive…

The U.S. relies heavily on Brazil to import coffee for the 165 million people who need their daily caffeine fix, but Trump’s 50 percent tariff threatens the long-term availability and price of the drink.

“When people go to their local coffee shop, whether it’s Starbucks or something else, by and large they will likely be buying some form of Brazilian coffee,” Monica de Bolle, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told NPR.

“A 50 percent tariff will kill that market.”

I still remember the days when you could get a cup of coffee for 10 cents.

What did your latest cup of coffee cost you?

Of course everything else is becoming more expensive too, and our cost of living crisis never seems to end.

As a result, 62 percent of Gen Z Americans have no emergency savings at all…

• 62% of Gen Z have no emergency savings, nearly double the rate of baby boomers.
• 51% of Americans would use a credit card for a $500 emergency, with usage jumping to 70% among students.
• Two-thirds of consumers have six months or less in savings, with Gen X the least prepared.
• 76% lack a credit card set aside for emergencies, relying instead on everyday-use cards.

Most of the country is living on the edge financially.

The middle class is steadily shrinking, and those that remain in the middle class have much less discretionary income than they once did.

So restaurants all over the nation find themselves torn between rapidly rising costs and customers that now have a lot less money to spend…

Ike’s Chili in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been around for 117 years, surviving a myriad of challenges like the Great Depression, the Covid-19 pandemic and a once-in-a-generation burst of inflation. But 2025 already holds an even more complicated challenge.

“The cost of everything’s just going up, and we’ve got to figure out how to manage it right,” Len Wade, a managing partner at the restaurant, told CNN.

He pointed to surging beef prices as an example, specifically hamburger meat on the wholesale level. In July, those prices were up nearly 21% compared to the same month 10 years ago, federal data shows. And passing the buck to customers might not be the best solution, Wade said.

Tourist destinations from coast to coast are experiencing the same thing.

Las Vegas is getting far less tourist traffic than it once did, and those that do arrive are tipping a lot less…

Las Vegas servers say they’re feeling the heat as high prices and declining tourism hammer their tip earnings across the Strip.

Tipping in Sin City is reportedly down by as much as 50% among servers, as some of them blame the economy and policy while others point to high prices, a tipping backlash and poor service.

On Reddit’s r/VegasLocals forum, one cocktail waitress wrote, “I used to average about 80 cents a drink. Now I’m averaging about 10 cents.”

Nobody can deny what is happening.

We really are experiencing a very serious economic crisis.

Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that everything is okay is not going to fix anything.

Our standard of living really is collapsing, and a lot more pain is ahead as our economic bubbles continue to burst.

We were warned that this storm was coming for a long time, and now it is here.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post 86 Percent Of Americans Feel Stressed About The Cost Of Groceries, And Many People Are Starting To Really Flip Out Emotionally appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

The Bubble Is Bursting: Delinquency Rates Have Doubled And Credit Card Defaults Are Soaring | The Economic Collapse

Did you know that U.S. households are carrying $1.18 trillion in credit card debt? Considering the fact that the average rate of interest on credit card balances is now over 20 percent, that is not good news at all. Sadly, most of the country is just barely scraping by from month to month in this very harsh economic environment, and turning to credit cards for some relief can be extremely tempting. A thousand dollar credit card balance can turn into four or five thousand dollars in the blink of an eye, and once you get that deep into the hole it can be very difficult to ever dig yourself out. Of course if you end up losing your job or having a major medical emergency, that can be enough to push you completely over the edge financially. Today, that is happening to an alarming number of Americans.

For some perspective, let’s go back to the end of 2024.  At that time, it was being reported that “credit card loan defaults soared this year”…

Experts are sounding the alarm over a new report indicating credit card loan defaults soared this year, warning the dam is about to break on Americans’ record-high consumer debt.

During the first nine months of 2024, lenders wrote off more than $46 billion in seriously delinquent credit card loans, according to a report from the Financial Times citing data analyzed by BankRegData. That’s an increase of 50% from the first three quarters of 2023, and the highest since 2010.

Unfortunately, this crisis has continued to intensify in recent months.

Delinquency rates have “hit the highest levels in more than a decade”, and this is especially true for younger borrowers…

Delinquency rates have doubled since the record lows of 2021. On one hand, this makes sense: Consumer credit has grown 20% since 2021. Stimulus-fueled excess savings drove down credit card balances during the pandemic, then, as the economy opened up, consumers depleted those savings. This has also reignited delinquencies.

But delinquency rates haven’t just rebounded — they’ve hit the highest levels in more than a decade. Even more concerning, the rate of credit card borrowers who transitioned to serious delinquency (90-plus days) is now at 2008 levels. Borrowers age 18-29 make up the biggest portion of this group.

This is starting to become a big problem for our banks.

In particular, small banks have been getting absolutely hammered by very high delinquency rates.

Let’s hope that we can get this turned around.

Our seemingly endless cost of living crisis is putting a tremendous amount of strain on our society, and even delinquency rates for high income households have been soaring…

Upper-income Americans are increasingly falling behind on credit card and auto loan payments, signaling an underlying vulnerability in the US economy as the labor market slows.

Delinquencies on such debts from those making at least $150,000 annually have jumped almost 20% over the last two years, faster than for middle- and lower-income borrowers, according to the credit-scoring firm VantageScore. A recent Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis study found the share of people making late card payments in the highest-income zip codes has risen twice as much over the last year as in the lowest-income ones.

Are the facts that I just shared with you a sign that the economy is healthy or that the economy is unhealthy?

Needless to say, the answer is self-evident.

Despite what the talking heads on CNBC are telling you, the truth is that most of the nation is really struggling right now.

But no matter how much you are struggling, you should avoid going into credit card debt, because credit card debt is financial poison.

Unfortunately, today the average U.S. household is carrying more than $6,000 in credit card debt…

• The average U.S. household has $6,120 in credit card debt.
• Total U.S. household credit card debt is currently at $1.18 trillion, making up 6% of all household debt.
• Washington, D.C., carries the highest level of credit card debt per capita at $5,360 on average, while Mississippi carries the lowest at $2,940 on average.
• Americans aged 65 to 74 have more credit card debt than any other age range, coming in at an average of $7,720 in debt.

Can you guess what the average rate of interest on all of that credit card debt is?

I just asked Google AI, and I was told that the “average APR for all credit card accounts in Q2 2025 was 21.16%”.

Wow.

If you are paying more than 20 percent interest on a credit card balance, you are getting absolutely killed financially.

And “buy now, pay later” plans can be even worse.

At this point, those plans have become so lucrative that even Costco is getting in on the game…

Costco is now offering a buy-now, pay-later option for online shoppers through a new multi-year partnership with Affirm.

The installment plans will allow customers to select the payment option at checkout for purchases ranging from $500 to $17,500.

Customers will be checked for eligibility in real time and can choose a monthly payment plan that fits their budget.

I know that it can be so tempting to reach for a short-term solution.

But don’t do it.

You will always regret it later.

But I certainly understand why so many Americans are looking for an easy way out.

I shared this yesterday, but I felt that I should share it again today.  A recent survey discovered that 83 percent of U.S. adults are experiencing “stressflation”…

A LifeStance Health survey released today reveals “stressflation” is affecting most Americans, with 83% reporting financial stress driven by inflation, mass layoffs, the rising cost of living and recession fears. Millennials and Gen Z report the most significant mental health impacts.

If you are stressed about your finances, you have lots of company.

Economic conditions are very painful, and more Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing day.

Unfortunately, even more trouble is potentially on the horizon.

The U.S. and China still have not been able to reach a permanent trade agreement, and if that does not happen by the deadline both nations “are set to once again place historic tariffs on each other’s imports starting August 12″…

Chinese and American trade negotiators concluded their two-day meeting in Stockholm without a resolution to avert tariffs from skyrocketing back to ultra-high levels that formed an effective blockade on trade between the world’s two largest economies. But President Donald Trump’s trade advisers and their Chinese counterparts sounded a hopeful note.

Without an agreement, the United States and China are set to once again place historic tariffs on each other’s imports starting August 12.

We have about two weeks.

Hopefully negotiators will be able to work something out.

But even if an agreement is reached, so many other long-term trends are taking us in the wrong direction very rapidly.

Now is a time to get “lean and mean” financially, because I have a feeling that the economic news is going to get very “interesting” during the second half of this year.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post The Bubble Is Bursting: Delinquency Rates Have Doubled And Credit Card Defaults Are Soaring appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

12 Signs That U.S. Consumers Are Experiencing Far More Financial Stress Than Most People Realize | The Economic Collapse

Consumer sentiment is plummeting, delinquency rates are rising, and nearly three-quarters of all U.S. consumers admit that they are “financially stressed”.  If U.S. consumers are experiencing this much pain now, what will things look like six months from today if there are empty shelves and widespread shortages?  We witnessed a brief period of severe financial stress during the early days of the last pandemic, but we would have to go all the way back to the Great Recession to find a time that is truly comparable to what we are enduring now.  U.S consumers have been getting hammered for years, and now it appears that our problems are about to go to an entirely new level.  The following are 12 signs that U.S. consumers are experiencing far more financial stress than most people realize…

#1 According to the University of Michigan, consumer sentiment in the United States has fallen to the second-lowest reading ever recorded…

Americans are rarely this pessimistic about the economy.

Consumer sentiment plunged 11% this month to a preliminary reading of 50.8, the University of Michigan said in its latest survey released Friday, the second-lowest reading on records going back to 1952.

#2 According to a new CNBC/SurveyMonkey poll, a whopping 73 percent of U.S. consumers admit that they are “financially stressed”…

Americans are growing increasingly uneasy about the state of the U.S. economy and their own personal financial situation in the face of stubborn inflation and tariff wars.

To that point, 73% of respondents said they are “financially stressed,” with 66% of that group pointing to the tariff wars as a main source, according to a new CNBC/SurveyMonkey online poll.

The survey of 4,200 U.S. adults was conducted April 3 to 7.

#3 Approximately two-thirds of U.S. adults feel like they are “behind on their savings goals”, and half of U.S. adults believe that they will never reach their savings goals at all…

67% of Americans feel behind on their savings goals, with nearly half (47%) believing they’ll never reach their targets

#4 More than 60 percent of U.S. adults that currently have savings accounts have taken money out of them since the start of this year…

63% of people with savings accounts have withdrawn money since the beginning of 2025, primarily for unexpected expenses (48%) and everyday necessities (36%)

#5 The percentage of U.S. credit card accounts that are at least 90 days past due has reached the highest level in 12 years…

The percentage of credit card accounts that were at least 90 days past due hit a 12-year high in the fourth quarter of 2024.

According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, 0.90% of accounts were delinquent, the most since the Fed bank began its report.

#6 5 million student loan borrowers in the United States have not made a single payment in the last year, and 4 million other student loan borrowers will soon reach that status…

Of the more than 42.7 million student loan borrowers in the U.S., who owe a collective $1.6 trillion, the department says that more than 5 million have not made a payment in the past year. That number is expected to grow as an additional 4 million borrowers are approaching default status.

#7 For the first time in about 5 years, the Department of Eduction “will resume collections of its defaulted federal student loan portfolio”.  This is going to put additional financial stress on millions of U.S. households…

The U.S. Department of Education today announced its Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) will resume collections of its defaulted federal student loan portfolio on Monday, May 5th. The Department has not collected on defaulted loans since March 2020. Resuming collections protects taxpayers from shouldering the cost of federal student loans that borrowers willingly undertook to finance their postsecondary education. This initiative will be paired with a comprehensive communications and outreach campaign to ensure borrowers understand how to return to repayment or get out of default.

#8 The average credit score in the United States just dropped at the fastest pace since the Great Recession…

America’s credit score just took its biggest hit since the 2008 crash.

The average FICO score in the US has dropped to 715 from 717 — the largest one-year drop since the Great Recession, according to new data from the credit-rating giant FICO.

#9 U.S. consumers are eating out less, and as a result restaurant chains all over the country are in financial distress…

Once rapidly growing commercial marvels, casual dining chains — sit-down restaurants where middle-class families can walk in without a reservation, order from another human and share a meal — have been in decline for most of the 21st century. Last year, TGI Fridays and Red Lobster both filed for bankruptcy. Outback and Applebee’s have closed dozens of locations. Pizza Hut locations with actual dining rooms are vanishingly rare, with hundreds closing since 2019.

According to a February survey by the market research firm Datassential, 24 percent of Americans say they are having dinner at casual restaurants less often, and 29 percent are dining out less with groups of friends and family.

#10 U.S. consumers are visiting shopping malls a lot less than they once did, and as a result many mall retailers are going belly up…

Merry Go Round, Bon-Ton, Lord & Taylor, The Limited, Loehmann’s, Bonwit Teller, Chess King, and Anchor Blue are just a few once-successful clothing retailers that no longer exist.

Now, a once-trendy fashion/clothing retailer finds itself having to make massive cuts and shut down 100s of stores in a fight to avoid bankruptcy.

#11 U.S. consumers are not spending as much money at hair salons, and Bloomberg is telling us that this is an indicator that a recession is coming…

Stylists from Manhattan to rural New Hampshire are seeing regular clients start to skip cuts and blowouts. In from the Maine town of Brewer, hairstylist Alyssa Dow said customers are choosing cheaper, “more low-maintenance” looks—and tipping less. In affluent Longmeadow, Massachusetts, where “people don’t like to walk around with roots” showing, clients who previously got color every two or three weeks are stretching it to four or five, citing the “political situation” and implying they’ve lost money in the stock market, said Michelle LaValley. “They’re cutting back in other areas as well, so it’s not just us,” said the salon owner, who has 28 years in the business. The wider pullback in spending seems to go beyond the general grumpiness that accompanied the so-called vibecession that started years ago when inflation rose, interest rates spiked and yet the US kept growing.

#12 According to the Fed, U.S. consumers are becoming more concerned about inflation and unemployment…

The central bank’s monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations showed that respondents saw inflation a year from now at 3.6%, an increase of half a percentage point from February and the highest reading since October 2023.

Along with concerns over a higher cost of living came a surge in worries over the labor market: The probability that the unemployment rate would be higher a year from now surged to 44%, a move up of 4.6 percentage points and the highest level going back to the early Covid pandemic days of April 2020.

Right now, economists all over the country are arguing about whether a recession is ahead of us or not.

But to millions of hard working Americans, it feels like a recession has already begun.

If you are currently experiencing financial stress, I want you to know that you aren’t alone.

Countless others are in the exact same boat, and the outlook for the months ahead is not promising at all.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post 12 Signs That U.S. Consumers Are Experiencing Far More Financial Stress Than Most People Realize appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

The U.S. Dollar Is Crashing, And Our Reserve Currency Status Is In Serious Jeopardy – Is This Being Done By Design? | The Economic Collapse

For many years, pundits have been warning us that the U.S. dollar would collapse.  In 2025, it is actually starting to happen.  The U.S. dollar hit a three year low against other global currencies last week, and on Wednesday the crash of the dollar resumed.  Overall, the U.S. dollar is now down about 9 percent over the past 3 months.  The currency that has benefitted the most is the Swiss franc.  The USD/CHF recently hit the lowest level that we have seen in 14 years.  What we are witnessing is literally a bloodbath, and many experts are suggesting that our reserve currency status is now in serious jeopardy.

Many were hoping that the dollar would bounce back this week, but there was more carnage on Wednesday…

The dollar resumed its fall on Wednesday with both safe havens and risk sensitive currencies outperforming the greenback as traders waited to see if U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration reaches new trading agreements with partners.

The dollar tumbled last week on concerns over the economic impact new tariffs will have, and as investors shifted allocations overseas due to uncertainty over the erratic implementation of the trade levies.

To me, one of the best ways to evaluate the strength of the U.S. dollar is to look at the price of gold.

Needless to say, the price of gold in U.S. dollars has been absolutely soaring lately, and on Wednesday it went up another 3.1 percent…

Gold prices extended their record run on Wednesday, to breach $3,300 per ounce, as a weaker dollar and escalating U.S.-China trade tensions pushed investors towards the safe-haven asset.

Spot gold climbed 3.1% to $3,327.78 an ounce.

During times of financial chaos, investors tend to flock to gold.

And times are definitely very chaotic right now.

If the dollar continues to become more unstable, other global currencies will inevitably become a lot more attractive.

At this point, we are being warned that the dollar’s role as the primary reserve currency of the planet is “looking increasingly uncertain”…

Specifically, the dollar’s status as a reliable “safe haven” has been tarnished, and its role as the de facto global reserve currency has been looking increasingly uncertain.

Signs of growing dissatisfaction with the dollar can be seen in the breakdown of its longstanding correlation with other markets.

Having the primary reserve currency of the world has been a major advantage for us, but there are other currencies that are widely used in global trade.

In recent weeks, the euro, the Swiss franc and the Japanese yen have all done extremely well…

For decades, the dollar, the Swiss franc and Japanese yen were among the most popular options for investors seeking calmer ports in volatile markets.

But while the yen, franc and euro have shot higher over the past few weeks, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index, a popular gauge of the dollar’s value against its main currency rivals, sank to its lowest level in three years. By comparison, the Swiss franc recently climbed to its strongest level in 14 years.

Could the euro or one of the major currencies in Asia eventually take the place of the U.S. dollar?

It is entirely possible.

The truth is that the status of the U.S. dollar has already been slipping.

According to MarketWatch, “the dollar’s share of global central-bank reserves has been shrinking since the late 1990s”…

By some measures, the world has been shifting away from its dependence on the dollar for decades. Data from the International Monetary Fund show the dollar’s share of global central-bank reserves has been shrinking since the late 1990s.

When the dollar is strong, U.S. government bonds are attractive to foreign investors.

This keeps our borrowing costs down.

But in recent weeks we have witnessed a “major sell-off” in bonds at the same time that stocks have been going down…

During the financial crisis of 2008, investors around the world bought more Treasury bonds, confident that despite the crash, this was the safest place in the world for their money. That is how things usually go: The bond market moves in the opposite direction as stocks.

This time, as the stock market took a nosedive, an alarming trend emerged. Investors were dumping their U.S. government bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped from 4% to 4.5% in a week, a huge jump for the bond market that indicates a major sell-off. Investors were putting their money into euros, yen, pounds, and gold instead of into dollars.

We haven’t seen a financial crisis like this in a long time.

And we only have a limited amount of time to turn this around before things start getting really messy.

If this new crisis begins to spiral out of control, there will be an immense amount of pain, and we could witness a collapse of confidence in the U.S. dollar.

One expert is warning that the U.S. dollar has now been put on a “watch list”…

“It is too early to call if we are seeing the demise of the dollar, but the dollar has certainly been put on a ‘watch list,’” says Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University. For the rest of the world, “The U.S. is no longer innocent until proven guilty, but the opposite.”

Sadly, most Americans simply do not understand how important the strength of the dollar is.

Our primary export is currency.

For decades, we have been exchanging the world’s dominant currency for goods manufactured in poorer nations all over the planet.

If the U.S. dollar becomes much weaker, our standard of living will go way down.

Unfortunately, it appears that there are those in positions of power that want to see the value of the U.S. dollar drop.

The chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Stephen Miran, believes that devaluing the dollar is the best way to reduce our trade deficit…

For Miran, tariffs and moving away from a strong dollar could have “the broadest ramifications of any policies in decades, fundamentally reshaping the global trade and financial systems”.

Miran’s essay argues that a strong dollar makes US exports less competitive and imports cheaper, while handicapping American manufacturers as it discourages investing in building factories in the United States.

“The deep unhappiness with the prevailing economic order is rooted in persistent overvaluation of the dollar and asymmetric trade conditions,” Miran wrote.

It is true that if the dollar is substantially devalued our trade deficit will be reduced.

But in the process our standard of living will be greatly diminished.

This would particularly be true for those on the bottom levels of the economic food chain.

And if another global reserve currency ultimately takes the place of the U.S. dollar, that would be absolutely catastrophic for our standard of living.

At this stage in our history, the strength of the United States is dependent upon the strength of our currency to a very large degree.

If the dollar crashes and burns, so will our society as a whole.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post The U.S. Dollar Is Crashing, And Our Reserve Currency Status Is In Serious Jeopardy – Is This Being Done By Design? appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

55 Ways That Everything That You Think That You Own Is Being Systematically Taken Away From You | The Economic Collapse

The entire system has been designed to generate as much revenue from your activity as possible until someday you eventually drop dead.  It is tax season, and that means that it is time to feed the largest and most bloated government in the history of the entire planet once again.  Of course the federal income tax is just one of the ways that they are systematically draining your wealth.  As you will see below, there are literally dozens of taxes that Americans must pay each year.  Many of our politicians seem to revel in inventing ways to extract money out of us, and that needs to stop.

Most Americans are working extremely hard, and yet money seems to keep going out the other end faster than it is coming in.

The truth is that the entire system has been designed to take what you have away from you.

There are many ways that this is accomplished – taxation, inflation, debt, interest, fines, fees, tickets, government seizures and good old-fashioned corporate greed.

If you decided to just sit back and do nothing but hold on to the wealth that you already have, you would find out that it would disappear quite rapidly.

It is not an accident that most Americans are experiencing a declining standard of living.  The system is rigged, and the rigging has not been in our favor.

The following are 55 ways that everything that you think that you own is being systematically taken away from you…

#1 Do you think that you own your home?  You might want to think again.  Most Americans that “own a home” are paying a mortgage.  If you stop paying that mortgage you will lose that home.  The number of foreclosures in the United States last year was up 174 percent from 2021, and mortgage delinquencies have been rising in recent months.

When homeowners get booted out of their homes, they don’t get their down payments back.

They also don’t get all of the mortgage payments that they have made back.

The banks get to keep the money and the homes.

Perhaps you have paid off your mortgage.  Does that mean that you now “own your home”?

No, not really.  Just refuse to pay your property taxes and see what happens.  At best, you can say that you have the right to rent your home from the government.

In any event, the reality is that the banks now own more of “our homes” than we do.

Just check out your most recent mortgage statement and see how much “home equity” you actually have.

If you recently purchased your home, it probably isn’t much at all.

Things used to be far different in this country.  Once upon a time, ordinary Americans owned most of the homes and most of the land in this nation.

But now the banks own most of it.  Sadly, most American families that believe that they “own homes” are actually enslaved to 20 or 30 year debt contracts.

And if something happens and you are unable to keep making payments, you could lose everything.

#2 Do you think that you own your vehicle?  You don’t own it if you are still making payments on it.  Of course if you stop making payments you will rapidly lose that vehicle.

But even if it is paid off, you can only operate that vehicle if you do the following…

*You must pay the license fee.

*You must pay the car registration fee.

*You must pay the emissions inspection fee.

*You must pay the property taxes on that vehicle if that applies in your area.

*You must pay the tire taxes.

*You must pay the gas taxes.

If you have paid all of those taxes, then you are permitted to drive only where the government allows you to drive and only under the rules that the government sets for you.

But at least you “own” your vehicle, right?

#3 What about your possessions?  Do you own them?

Well, yes, you probably own some possessions.

But that doesn’t mean that they are not enslaving you.

After all, did you use a credit card to pay for any of them?

If so, you could end up paying far more for your possessions than you originally thought that they cost.

#4 Do you own your education?  Well, it is undeniable that nobody can ever take it away from you.  But if you took out student loans to get your education, that debt may end up enslaving you for decades.

The borrower is the servant of the lender and student loan debt is more of a financial drain on Americans than ever before.  Americans now owe more on their student loans than they do on their credit cards.

Today, Americans owe more than 1.7 trillion dollars on their student loans, which is a new all-time record.

#5 Will you protect your wealth if you put your money in the bank?

No, in fact your wealth will be systematically destroyed in the bank.

Inflation is a hidden tax on every single dollar that you own, because it destroys the value of all dollars in existence.

There are some Americans that have been saving money for decades, but those savings are being taxed into oblivion by inflation.

Just compare the price of a carton of 12 eggs five years ago to the price of a carton of eggs today.

When the cost of living goes up, the value of the money that we have put in the bank goes down.

#6 Insurance costs continue to soar.  After insuring virtually everything in our lives, many of us barely have any money left over to actually live our lives with.

#7 State and local governments all over the nation have turned to ticket writing as a primary revenue source.  They know that most people do not carefully follow the speed limit, and so they have turned that behavior into a revenue-generating tool.

#8 Some states have decided to simply confiscate wealth even if nothing has been done wrong.  For example, some states are now aggressively seizing “unclaimed” safe deposit boxes.  If you have a safe deposit box that you have not checked on in a while, you might want to make sure that it is still there.

#9 You might end up losing your valuables when you cross the border.  U.S. border agents regularly seize laptops and other electronic devices as people cross the border.  In many cases those items are never returned.

#10 If you don’t pay your property taxes, you will lose your home and it will likely be a big Wall Street bank that will end up owning it.  The big Wall Street banks have been buying up thousands of tax liens and are making a killing by socking distressed homeowners with predatory interest, outrageous penalties and almost unbelievable legal fees.

#11 Of course the federal income tax is one of the biggest ways that our wealth is being drained.  One of the primary reasons why the Federal Reserve and the IRS were established back in 1913 was to redistribute wealth.  Wealth is transferred from hard working Americans to the U.S. government, and then it is redistributed to those that aren’t working or spent on some of the most wasteful programs imaginable.

Needless to say, federal taxes are just one of the taxes that we pay.  The truth is that the average American pays dozens of different taxes each year.   The following are just a few examples of the insidious forms of taxation that drain our wealth…

#12 Building Permit Tax

#13 Capital Gains Tax

#14 CDL License Tax

#15 Cigarette Tax

#16 Corporate Income Tax

#17 Court Fines (an indirect tax)

#18 Dog License Tax

#19 Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

#20 Fishing License Tax

#21 Food License Tax

#22 Fuel Permit Tax

#23 Gasoline Tax

#24 Gift Tax

#25 Hunting License Tax

#26 Inheritance Tax

#27 IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

#28 Liquor Tax

#29 Local Income Tax

#30 Luxury Taxes

#31 Marriage License Tax

#32 Medicare Tax

#33 Payroll Taxes

#34 Phone Taxes

#35 Property Taxes

#36 Real Estate Tax

#37 Recreational Vehicle Tax

#38 Road Toll Booth Taxes

#39 Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)

#40 Sales Taxes

#41 School Tax

#42 Septic Permit Tax

#43 Social Security Tax

#44 State Income Tax

#45 State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

#46 Toll Bridge Taxes

#47 Toll Tunnel Taxes

#48 Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)

#49 Trailer Registration Tax

#50 Utility Taxes

#51 Vehicle License Registration Tax

#52 Vehicle Sales Tax

#53 Watercraft Registration Tax

#54 Well Permit Tax

#55 Workers Compensation Tax

When you take all forms of taxation into account, there are some people that hand over more than 50 percent of their incomes to various levels of government each year.

Even the future is being taken away from us.  The future is literally being stolen from our children and our grandchildren.  They will be inheriting the 36 trillion dollar national debt that we have accumulated.

What we have done to future generations is unthinkable, and yet we continue to borrow colossal mountains of money.

When you base an entire economy on debt, eventually you end up with money problems that never seem to end.  As a nation, we are now enslaved to a vicious spiral of debt that threatens to destroy everything that our forefathers worked so hard to build.

As the debt loads of our federal, state and local governments become even more burdensome, they are going to want even more money from us.  For decades we gave in to new tax after new tax thinking that it would finally satisfy them.

But it never seems to be enough.  They always want more.

Unfortunately, most Americans are so caught up in the “rat race” that they never take much time to think about who designed the race or why they are running it.

It is time to wake up.

We are being systematically abused by the control freaks that are running things, and it is time to say that enough is enough.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other  books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post 55 Ways That Everything That You Think That You Own Is Being Systematically Taken Away From You appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Burrito Now, Pay Later: DoorDash – Klarna Deal Feeds US Debt Addiction | ZeroHedge

We’ve reported on many indications of a faltering US economy being propped up by debt, but our latest entry is particularly emphatic: DoorDash has inked a deal with Klarna that will let cash-strapped consumers pay for restaurant food, groceries and other delivery orders in four equal, interest-free installments, or “at a more convenient time, such as a date that aligns with their paycheck schedules.”

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) arrangements have surged in recent years. However, what began as a reasonable accommodation for large purchases like appliances and furniture has now metastasized to a point where Americans can finance Friday-night-pizza impulse-buys.

Klarna derives more than 60% of its revenue from fees paid by merchants who offer the financing option to their customers, with those fees potentially ranging from 1.5% to 7% of the purchase price. With some merchants, Klarna and other BNPL-facilitators also earn interest on long-term credit plans stretching out to upwards of 36 months.

However, Klarna also has a chance to earn money from consumers who take the interest-free, four-equal-installments plan — in the form of late fees of up to $7 per missed payment, up to 25% of the purchase price. For the financially disorganized or imminently insolvent, the interest-free option could prove to be a siren song that leaves their cash flow dashed against the metaphoric rocks of unexpectedly expensive burritos and Kung Pao chicken.

what do you mean you have $11k in “doordash debt” pic.twitter.com/pu1h8GqdZg

— adam 🇺🇸 (@personofswag) March 20, 2025

Even for those who make timely payments, the interest-free option can have a destructive effect over time, by encouraging consumers to commit to spending more money than they would in the absence of the appealing, “interest-free” enticement. Indeed, that’s one of the essential attractions for DoorDash and other merchants who choose to partner with the likes of Klarna:

According to research from RBC Capital Markets…online BNPL offerings boosted average ticket sales by 30% to 50% and increase the share of customers who ultimately made a purchase. — CNN

“The problem is these things start having a very pervasive and very negative influence on people who can’t afford it,” Anish Nagpal, an University of Melbourne marketing professor who studies behavioral decision-making, told the Washington Post. “They just want something now, and they go into this spiral of debt and always trying to chase up and meet the payment requirement.”

In 20 years democrats will be campaigning on DoorDash loan forgiveness

— Dr. Richard Harambe (@Richard_Harambe) March 21, 2025

Naturally, Klarna Chief Commercial Officer David Sykes tried putting a different spin on things:

“Our partnership with DoorDash marks an important milestone in Klarna’s expansion into everyday spending categories. By offering smarter, more flexible payment solutions for groceries, takeout, and retail essentials, we’re making convenience even more accessible for millions of Americans.”

We must ask: Is it ever “smarter” to finance a sandwich? 

News of the DealDash BNPL arrangement comes against a backdrop of steadily rising consumer debt and signs that Americans are increasingly unable to keep up with their obligations. The New York Fed’s latest quarterly report found that total household debt increased by $93 billion in 2024’s fourth quarter, pushing the total over $18 trillion. Warning lights are flashing:

• The share of subprime auto borrowers at least 60 days past due hit 6.56% in January, the highest percentage since Fitch Ratings began collecting data in 1994.
• The percentage of credit card holders making only the minimum payment hit 10.75% in Q4 2024, the highest-ever reading in a Philly Fed data series that goes back to 2012.

• The share of 30-day-delinquent credit-card balances hit 3.52%, more than double the pandemic-era low reached in Q2 2021.

After the Doordash-Klarna news broke, social media memesters had an absolute field day:

So then they securitized all the DoorDash loans and sliced them into tranches to sell off to the banks

Rating agencies were slapping AAA on Chick-fil-A orders for credit scores under 500 who didn’t leave a tip pic.twitter.com/sa3YKIqLhw

— Max Gagliardi (@max_gagliardi) March 21, 2025

John, the name of the company is DoorDash. Through a partnership with Klarna, they’ve just unlocked interest-free structured liquidity for high-frequency sustenance transactions. You can finance a carne asada burrito over 4 easy payments, or even defer the charge until payday. https://t.co/VUFounWDTq pic.twitter.com/fzS2iV0RzX

— Adam Singer (@AdamSinger) March 20, 2025

how i walk up to my doordash driver after tipping $0 on the 18 McGriddles i just financed https://t.co/u4ZyZSN0gZ pic.twitter.com/SJiyxZAOEt

— Frosty ❄ (@I_Frosty_) March 21, 2025

“so you financed a $5.29 McChicken on DoorDash but still remain bullish on the economy?” pic.twitter.com/c57aVqbVC0

— Boring_Business (@BoringBiz_) March 21, 2025

“They’re called DoorDash Default Swaps.” pic.twitter.com/rX5ZDGfIEa

— Multifamily Madness (@MultifamilyMad) March 21, 2025

“So we take these DoorDash loans, combine them, and create a whole new instrument where investors can bet on whether borrowers will pay off their Taco Bell Crunch Wrap Supreme within 12 months” https://t.co/cwU484agrg pic.twitter.com/0JBwy8FAfd

— Dr. Parik Patel, BA, CFA, ACCA Esq. (@ParikPatelCFA) March 20, 2025

DoorDash debt collection outside your door because you missed a Chipotle payment https://t.co/pJdr2frU5u pic.twitter.com/LvGS99fdz9

— Archer, Leader of the Gorgonites (@RollxTidexTee) March 20, 2025

the year is 2038 and you owe $50,000 of burrito debt to doordash but you can pay it all off by living in mr beasts minivan for 80 days

— Zack Voell (@zackvoell) March 21, 2025

You are telling me these loans are backed by consumers who ordered burritos on DoorDash? pic.twitter.com/hU76On8Y5N

— Boring_Business (@BoringBiz_) March 21, 2025

Me tipping the DoorDash driver $150 cuz it’s on Klarna’s tab pic.twitter.com/oo05X2sHWM

— Phella (@iamphella) March 20, 2025

The delivery guy watching me sign a 6-year financing deal for my double cheeseburger pic.twitter.com/03KtqAylj0

— piet (@piet_dev) March 21, 2025

“What do you mean your orders? We’re talking about one DoorDash order, aren’t we?”

“I had three. A burger from Five Guys, fries from McDonalds, and a 20 ounce Slurpee from 7/11.” pic.twitter.com/kuDJj6NazJ

— the prince with a thousand enemies ♂️ (@jaketropolis) March 20, 2025

“Alright, so DoorDash makes money whenever any of you orders food instead of cooking. But the problem is, some of you are so broke, you can’t even afford that. You don’t have $15 for a burrito. Which, obviously, means you should just not get the burrito, right?” https://t.co/PCUfJVSJuZ pic.twitter.com/jQG9l0gOBW

— Poe’s Law, Esq: Poe’s Lawyer (@dyingscribe) March 21, 2025

Excited to announce that I closed on a $31.38 transaction to secure a burrito and side of chips

20-year senior fixed rate financing was provided by Klarna

DoorDash provided delivery of the asset

Congratulations to all involved pic.twitter.com/u0DPMHlS8K

— Chase Passive Income (@chasedownleads) March 20, 2025

Source: Burrito Now, Pay Later: DoorDash – Klarna Deal Feeds US Debt Addiction

Californians Falling Behind On Bill Payments Amid Soaring Debt Levels

03-01-2025 • https://www.zerohedge.com, by Kimberly Hayek

In the first quarter of 2024, household debt per capita in California peaked at $86,940 before decreasing slightly in the fourth quarter to $86,130. The average U.S. per capita debt was only $50,540 in the fourth quarter.

Furthermore, a rising number of Californians were falling behind on said debt. New York Fed numbers show that 3.25 percent of Californians fell 30 days late on debt repayment in the fourth quarter—a nine-year high. That’s the highest level since 2016’s first quarter. The U.S. average for this metric was even higher, at 4.14 percent.

Joel Kotkin, executive director at Chapman University Center for Demographics and Policy, said that while households in other states also struggle with bills, California’s debt numbers may be high due to the cost of living.

“The pressures may be greater due to high costs,” he told The Epoch Times.

Bad habits plus a mediocre economy, he said, could mean more Californians will opt to rent instead of buy, or go into further debt to buy a home.

“They won’t be buying houses as much as elsewhere, but if they do, their debts will be enormous,” Kotkin said.

A December 2024 report by Upgraded Points, a financial information website, found that the California metropolitan area with the most severe credit card delinquencies—defined as 90 days or more past due—is the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario region with a 15.2 percent delinquency rate, the eighth worst in the nation. Meanwhile, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan area had the lowest in the nation at 6.3 percent.

According to data compiled by personal finance company WalletHub in January, California ranks 11th in overall credit card delinquency with 21.58 percent. Another WalletHub report, released in July 2024, found that the city of Chula Vista in San Diego County leads the nation in the largest increase in credit card delinquencies, nearly 85 percent during the first quarter of 2024.

Read Full Story

The Answer To 1913 Is 2025: 3 Charts That Show Why The Income Tax, The IRS And The Federal Reserve Should All Be Abolished | The Economic Collapse

Most Americans don’t know that for much of U.S. history there was no federal income tax and there was no central bank.  But now everyone assumes that we must have a federal income tax and a central bank in order to have a functioning society.  Today, there are just a handful of nations that do not have an income tax, and more than 99 percent of the entire population of the globe lives in a country that has a central bank.  Of course the two work hand in hand.  A central bank creates a spiral of borrowing that is meant to be unbreakable, and an income tax is necessary to service payments on that debt spiral.  It is not a coincidence that a federal income tax and the Federal Reserve were both established in 1913.  Since that time, we have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and that is precisely the outcome that the system was designed to produce.

So what is the solution to this colossal mess?

The answer to 1913 is 2025.

This year, we are seeing things get proposed in Washington D.C. that once would have been unthinkable.

For example, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick just told Fox News that President Trump wants to “abolish the Internal Revenue Service”…

More details have emerged from the Trump administration about alleged plans to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and utilize tariffs so the “whole economy explodes.”

“His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

“As the president said, reciprocal tariffs, either you bring yours down or we’re going to bring ours up. If we go to their level, it will earn us $700 billion a year to be equal to everybody else,” he expanded Thursday on “America’s Newsroom.”

And it appears that the Trump administration is already taking concrete steps toward that goal.

In fact, it is being reported that “approximately 7,000 probationary workers” at the IRS are about to be hitting the bricks…

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is planning to slash approximately 7,000 probationary workers in Washington, D.C., and across the U.S. starting Thursday, according to reports.

The layoffs will affect probationary workers who have been employed for one year or less and have not been able to secure full civil service protection, The Associated Press reported, citing a person familiar with the plans.

Wow.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is also being targeted by the new administration.

In fact, Elon Musk has suggested that the Federal Reserve could soon get visited by the Department of Government Efficiency…

Musk wrote on X in response to a user’s post about the billionaire’s support for an audit of the Fed that the central bank isn’t above scrutiny from DOGE.

“All aspects of the government must be fully transparent and accountable to the people. No exceptions, including, if not especially, the Federal Reserve,” Musk wrote.

Musk is a longtime critic of the central bank and has called out its decisions on monetary policy as well as claiming the Fed’s workforce is bloated.

This is wonderful news.

Because what we have been doing for decades is clearly not working.

The Federal Reserve system is designed to create debt, and the income tax is designed to service that debt.

We find ourselves on an endless hamster wheel that becomes more painful with each passing year.

The charts that I am about to share with you tell a very clear story.

The primary reason why we have had an almost unbelievably high standard of living over the past three decades is because we have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.  Once upon a time the United States was the wealthiest country on the entire planet, but all of that prosperity was not good enough for us.  So we started borrowing and borrowing and borrowing and we have now been living beyond our means for so long that we consider it to be completely normal.

When President Woodrow Wilson entered the White House in 1913, the U.S. was less than 3 billion dollars in debt.

Now we are 36 trillion dollars in debt…

This is what a central bank is designed to do.

Most people simply do not understand this.

We have been robbing future generations blind for so long that it doesn’t even seem to bother most people anymore.

It is time for a change.

Sadly, Americans have also accumulated the largest mountain of household debt in the history of the world.  The following chart which comes directly from the Federal Reserve shows the growth of household and non-profit organization debt over the years…

Of that amount, more than 18 trillion dollars of it is household debt…

Americans’ household debt levels, including credit card debt, rose to new all-time highs in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The report showed that overall household debt increased by $93 billion to $18.04 trillion at the end of 2024, an all-time high. Credit card balances rose by $45 billion from the prior quarter to reach $1.21 trillion at the end of December, which is also a record high.

We have become accustomed to living in debt.  We go into massive amounts of debt to get an education, we go into massive amounts of debt to buy a home, we go into massive amounts of debt to purchase our vehicles, and we even pile up debt to buy holiday gifts and to purchase groceries.

The American people want to hear that better times are ahead.

But under the current system the only way to give the American people “better times” is to crank up the debt spiral to an even higher level.

That is the approach that our leaders have been taking for a long time, and it is madness.

When you add up all forms of debt in our society, it comes to a grand total of more than 100 trillion dollars…

We are literally committing national suicide.

I wish that I could get more people to understand this.

30 years ago, the total amount of debt in the system was less than 20 trillion dollars.

Now we have surpassed the 100 trillion dollar mark.

We are talking about a financial bubble that is unlike anything that the world has ever seen before.

If we continue down this road, our children and our grandchildren would have no future.

When people hear words like “billion” or “trillion” they tend to tune out.

But that is a mistake.

There is an enormous difference between a billion dollars and a trillion dollars.

Just how big is one trillion dollars?

To answer that question, I would like to use an illustration that I have used in my books.  If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.

Yet somehow we have piled up more than 100 trillion dollars of debt, and our financial status just keeps getting worse month after month after month.

If we want to get free from all this debt, we have to abandon the system that created all of this debt in the first place.

We need to abolish the Federal Reserve, the IRS and the income tax.

We have been living far, far beyond our means for decades, and it has been the greatest party in the history of the world.

But it is time to turn out the lights because the party is over.

The good news is that change is in the air.

The answer to 1913 is 2025, and those that are attempting to dismantle the current system should be applauded.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post The Answer To 1913 Is 2025: 3 Charts That Show Why The Income Tax, The IRS And The Federal Reserve Should All Be Abolished appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

They Really Do Want Us To Be Weak Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, Financially And Spiritually So That We Will Become Dependent On Them | End Of The American Dream

It takes strength to be free.  That is why they want us to be weak.  When we are weak, we are much more likely to become dependent upon the system to survive, and that makes us much easier to control.  So they give us junk to eat, they put poisons into our air and water, they “dumb us down” from a very early age, they feed us a steady stream of “programming” that makes us depressed and afraid, they get us hooked on legal and illegal drugs, and they constantly try to get us into as much debt as possible. Something that a rapper known as Zuby posted on Twitter sums this up perfectly…

He really nailed it.

We were created to be independent beings, but the elite are constantly attempting to make us as dependent as possible.

Here in the United States, we are supposed to be the most prosperous nation on the entire planet.

And yet most of us are living like servants.

When I was growing up, $80,000 sounded like an enormous mountain of money.  And it actually was a very significant amount of money in those days.  But in 2025 it just doesn’t go that far.  Today, the median household income in the U.S. is approximately $80,000 a year.  Approximately half of all U.S. households make more than that, and approximately half of all U.S. households make less than that.  So if your family earns $80,000 in 2025 that would put you about right in the middle.

So can a typical family of four survive on $80,000 in America today?

The answer might surprise you.

Over the past four years, the cost of living has been rising much faster than our paychecks have.

As a result, our standard of living has been steadily going down.

$80,000 breaks down to about $6,666 a month.  So how far will $6,666 a month stretch for a family of four in today’s economy?….

First of all, our hypothetical family of four needs a place to live.  As I discussed the other day, the household income required to purchase a typical home in the U.S. has more than tripled since January 2012.  At this point, the average mortgage payment in the U.S. is about $2,200.

So after paying the mortgage, we only have $4,466 left.

Next, our family of four has to pay for utilities for their home.  According to Google AI, the average U.S. household spends $600 a month on their utilities bills.

So now we only have $3,866 left.

Our family is also going to need phone and Internet service.  Cell phone bills for a family of four can balloon to ridiculous proportions, but let’s assume that our family of four is extremely budget conscious and has found a package where they can get basic phone service for 50 dollars a month and Internet service for 50 dollars a month.

Now we are down to $3,766.

In our hypothetical household, both parents are also going to need vehicles to get to work.  Let’s assume that both vehicles were purchased used, so the payments will only total about $600 a month.  If the vehicles were purchased new this number could potentially be much higher.

Suddenly we only have $3,166 remaining.

If our family has two vehicles that means that they will also be paying for automobile insurance.  Let’s assume that they both have exemplary driving records and so they are only spending about $100 a month.

Now our total is just $3,066.

Our hypothetical family of four is also going to need health insurance.  According to Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, a typical family of four will spend $1,437 a month on health insurance.

Ouch.

Now we only have $1,629 left.

Our hypothetical family is also going to have to eat.  Let’s assume that our family clips coupons and cuts corners any way that it can and only spends about $50 for each member of the family on food and toiletries each week.  That works out to a total of $800 a month for the entire family.

I know that number may seem way too low to many of you, but let’s go with it.

That brings our remaining cash down to just $829.

Needless to say, our hypothetical family will also need to buy gasoline to get to and from work each week.  Let’s assume that they don’t live too far from work and only need to fill up both vehicles about once per week.  That would give them a gasoline bill of about $50 a week or $200 a month.  Of course if either of them has a long commute to work or if a lot of extra driving is required for other reasons this expense could be far, far higher.

After everything that we have gone through so far, we actually have $629 left.

That is a reason to celebrate, right?

Wrong.

We haven’t taken federal, state and local taxes out of the paycheck yet.

Federal, state and local taxes will reduce your paycheck by about one-fourth.

So after taxes, we are now $1,371 in the hole.

Up to this point we have assumed that our family does not have any credit card debt or student loan debt at all.  If they do, those payments will have to be made as well.

In addition, the budget above includes no money for clothing, no money for dining out, no money for additional entertainment, no money for medications, no money for pets, no money for hobbies, no money for life insurance, no money for vacations, no money for vehicle repairs and maintenance, no money for child care, no money for birthday or holiday gifts, and no money for retirement.

On top of everything else, if our family of four has a catastrophic health expense that health insurance will not pay for, then our hypothetical family of four is suddenly facing a complete and utter financial catastrophe.

Are you starting to get the picture?

Most of us are just desperately trying to find a way to scrape by from month to month, and that is the way that the elite like it.

Do you feel like you are a hamster on a wheel that is never really getting anywhere?

Well, the truth is that what you are feeling is very real, because the entire system has been designed to keep us all trapped for as long as possible.

It is time to wake up, get strong, and realize what life is really all about.

You were not designed to be a cog in their machine.

If you don’t take control of your life, someone else will.

I promise you that.

If you don’t want to be a hamster on a wheel, stop listening to their lies and start living the way that you were designed to live.

We were meant to be free, but the elite will happily keep you enslaved if you allow them to do so.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  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.  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.

The post They Really Do Want Us To Be Weak Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, Financially And Spiritually So That We Will Become Dependent On Them appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

Kamala Harris Calls Dave Ramsey Show For Advice After Blowing $1 Billion In Three Months | Babylon Bee

U.S. — After winding up in debt from blowing through $1.2 billion in just three months, Vice President Kamala Harris called in to the Dave Ramsey Show to ask for some financial guidance.

“One point two… billion dollars,” repeated Ramsey slowly, attempting to wrap his mind around the story. “And you say you did this in just three months? Meaning, you spent half a million dollars every hour, even while sleeping, for three straight months? Oh… my… gracious. Where do I begin?”

Always the professional, Ramsey began by gathering more background information about Harris’s financial situation. “So, you’re saying you also just got fired?” asked Ramsey, incredulous. “No job prospects, except fast food? Okay, well let’s talk about those expenditures, to see if there are any assets you purchased during your spree that you could sell to pay off debt. You paid a rapper to twerk?? No, I don’t believe you can sell twerks back, I don’t think it works like that.”

At publishing time, Ramsey had reiterated to listeners that the envelope system could have easily prevented this tragic billion-dollar spending spree.

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BIG NEWS: We made a movie, and you can watch the trailer NOW:

Click here to find out how you can watch the movie when it releases on October 11

https://babylonbee.com/news/kamala-harris-calls-dave-ramsey-show-for-financial-advice-after-blowing-1-billion-in-three-months/