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(The Economic Collapse Blog)—When you are creeping out on a very high tree limb, everything may seem fine until suddenly the limb snaps and disaster strikes. I think that is a perfect metaphor for what we are facing as a country. Our politicians in Washington have artificially propped up our economy for years by piling up 34 trillion dollars in debt, and the “experts” at the Federal Reserve have artificially propped up the financial markets for years by pumping trillions upon trillions of dollars that they created out of thin air into the system. But now we are so far out on a limb that there is no way back, and there is no safety net below. Ultimately, our fate will be the same as this guy…
Heart-stopping video footage shows the moment a Florida man plummets 60 feet into a creek after a branch he was standing on broke beneath him.
Christopher James Sikes Smalley was enjoying a day at Crystal Springs, a popular swimming spot in Vernon, when a branch he was climbing on snapped.
A clip shows Smalley hanging on to a branch above him with one hand and balancing on top of another.
Suddenly, the branch below Smalley gave way, causing him to fall and hitting other branches before landing in the water.
Fortunately, Smalley was not killed.
But this was a fall that he will never forget for the rest of his life.
I had to write about this, because it reminded me of what so many people out there are going through right now.
Millions of Americans are currently experiencing their own individual “economic collapses”, and that includes a lifelong Democratic in Pennsylvania named Stacey Ellis that was recently interviewed by the BBC…
She has switched stores, cut out brand-name items like Dove soap and Stroehmann bread, and all but said goodbye to her favourite Chick-fil-A sandwich.
Still, Ms Ellis has sometimes turned to risky payday loans (short-term borrowing with high interest rates) as she grapples with grocery prices that have surged 25% since Mr Biden entered office in January 2021.
“Prior to inflation,” she says, “I didn’t have any debt, I didn’t have any credit cards, never applied for like a payday loan or any of those things. But since inflation, I needed to do all those things….I’ve had to downgrade my life completely.”
Have you had to “downgrade” your life too?
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If so, you are far from alone.
For example, a 26-year-old security guard in Brooklyn named Dylan Garcia now only eats two times a day because that is all that he can afford…
Dylan Garcia, a 26-year-old security guard from Brooklyn, says he’s never struggled to buy groceries as much as he has now.
Instead of the fresh food and brand-name items he used to enjoy, he now stocks up on ramen noodles and frozen vegetables – and only eats twice a day because he can’t afford more.
At checkout, he routinely uses “buy now, pay later” schemes, which allow him to pay the bill in installments, but have led to mounting debt.
If you can still eat three meals a day, you should be very thankful for what you still have.
Of course it isn’t just food prices that have been soaring.
Housing has become ridiculously unaffordable, and this week we learned that home prices are now higher than ever…
Findings from Redfin show the median U.S. home sale price soared to $397,954 in June – a nearly 5% increase from a year earlier. That marks the highest level on record and the biggest annual increase since March.
The monthly mortgage payment at that price, when accounting for the 6.86% median interest rate for a 30-year mortgage, is now $2,749. That is roughly $88 shy of April’s record, thanks to a slight drop in mortgage rates.
In a desperate attempt to make ends meet, many Americans have been going very deep into debt.
That worked for a while, but now delinquency rates are spiking.
In fact, the percentage of credit card balances that are considered to be in serious delinquency has risen to the highest level in more than a decade…
The flow of credit card debt moving into delinquency hit 8.9% in the first quarter at an annualized rate, above pre-pandemic levels. In fact, the percentage of credit card balances in serious delinquency – payments are at least 90 days late – climbed to its highest level since 2012.
This is an especially dangerous time to be piling up credit card debt, because credit card interest rates have moved into uncharted territory…
Finally, a vivid reminder that once credit card rates go up they almost never go down, in Q2 the average interest rate on credit card accounts rose again, up to 22.76% from 22.63% in Q1 and 1 basis point below the all time high.
While so far consumers have pretended they can afford to pay this interest upon interest, there will come a day when the brick wall will finally be reached and the US consumer’s Wile E Coyote moment will finally come meet its gravitational implosion.
Most people don’t realize this, but there is no federally mandated limit on credit card interest rates.
So these days many credit card companies are just going hog wild.
Some cards now come with a rate of more than 30 percent on unpaid balances, and that is deeply immoral.
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Don’t fall into their trap, because the goal of these predators is to bleed you dry.
Many businesses all over America are also reaching a breaking point here in 2024. For instance, one of the largest flooring suppliers in the entire country is on the verge of bankruptcy…
One of America’s biggest flooring suppliers is considering bankruptcy – the latest retailer to face financial problems.
LL Flooring, with 442 stores across 47 states, has seen its sales falling over the past year as Americans cut back on renovating their homes.
And I was deeply saddened to learn that the company that makes Tonka Trucks and Lincoln Logs has now officially filed for bankruptcy…
A toy company behind favorite brands including Tonka, K’nex, and Care Bears has filed for bankruptcy.
Basic Fun also owns Playhut, Fisher Price Classics, Lite Brite and Lincoln Logs, and makes toys for Walmart, Target and amusement parks.
Tonka – famous for its rugged toy trucks – was founded in 1946 and celebrated its 75th birthday two years ago with Shaquille O’Neal.
Meanwhile, Care Bears were one of the biggest toys of the 1980s after being launched at the start of that decade.
For years, the U.S. economy has been creeping farther and farther into the danger zone.
The limb that we are standing on is really starting to make some very alarming noises, but our leaders don’t seem to care.
Sadly, it is only a matter of time before disaster strikes.
If we had made much different choices, we could have ended up with much different results.
Ultimately, we shall reap what we have sown, and that is not going to be pleasant at all.
Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
Angel Reese Slammed After Bragging About COVID Vaccinations – ‘Waiting for the Next One to Come Out’
by Western Journal
When young people say dumb things, those who know better tend to err on the side of grace. After all, let them make their mistakes. On the other hand, when those young people emerge as athletic stars and then build a platform from which to spew nonsense in a way…
Sylvester Stallone Survived an Abortion: “I Was Brought Into the World by Accident”
by Life Site News
Sylvester Stallone, known for his roles in Creed and Rocky, opened up about surviving an abortion attempt. His daughters, Sophia and Sistine Stallone, host the Unwaxed Podcast. They interviewed their father about his new Netflix documentary, “Sly.” During the episode, they discussed Stallone’s childhood, something that is addressed in the…
‘What the F***’: Joe Rogan Destroys NYT Headline Warning About Dangers of Constitution
by Daily Wire
Podcaster Joe Rogan absolutely destroyed a recent New York Times headline that warned about the dangers of the U.S. Constitution, suggesting that there’s no amount of “gaslighting” the news organization could do to make him see their side. During “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Rogan and his guest evolutionary biologist,…
What Do They Know? Russia Increases Daily Gold Purchases by 700%
by Sponsored Post
In a significant move, Russia’s Finance Ministry has announced plans to allocate 8.2 billion rubles ($92 million) each day for gold and foreign currency purchases until October 4, the nation’s Finance Minister announced. “The amount of funds allocated for purchases of foreign currency and gold totals 172.9 billion rubles,” the…
CNN Data Guru Says Trump Will Win if He “Outperforms His Current Polls by Just a Single Point”
by Jason Cohen, Daily Caller News Foundation
(DCNF)—CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said on Friday that former President Donald Trump will win the November election if he can slightly surpass his current poll projections. Vice President Kamala Harris is leading Trump by just 0.2% in the top seven battleground states, according to the RealClearPolling average. Enten,…
New Jobs Report Shows Millions of Americans Lost Jobs to ‘Foreign-Born’ Workers, F/T Work Yields to P/T
by Red State
Trying to nail down Joe Biden or Kamala Harris on the number of jobs they’ve “created” — the government does not create jobs; it can create economic conditions that can lead to job creation or job losses — during the last disastrous three-and-a-half years is like trying to nail Jell-O…
Putin Avoids ‘Kursk Trap’ as His Troops Poised to Take Pokrovsk
by SHTF Plan
President Putin has continued to downplay Ukraine’s major Kursk invasion, which has resulted in Russian territory occupied by Kiev forces, and has instead maintained that capturing and holding all the Donbas in eastern Ukraine remains the goal. “We have to deal with these thugs who made it into Russia,” he…
Leaked Army Advisory Warns of Migrant Gang Violence in Major Cities
by The National Pulse
A threat advisory issued by the U.S. Army to Department of Defense (DOD) personnel across the country warns the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) has established a significant foothold in multiple American cities and poses a serious danger to local, state, and federal law enforcement. The document—designated as Controlled…
Are You Ready for the Big Steal … Again?
by Richard Blakley, WND
(WND)—The 2020 election was a mess. Only the gullible and self-deceived believe Joe Biden legally obtained more votes than any presidential candidate in U.S. history. If this were true, Democrats would have beaten their drums concerning this “historic” vote, like the pig in the old Valleydale Sausage commercials, but even…
YouTube Uses DOJ Allegations to Justify Axing Tenet Media’s Channel Without Due Process
by The Federalist
The widely used video platform YouTube removed Tenet Media and related channels from its services on Thursday after the Justice Department accused the company of partaking in a secret Russian influence operation. The revelation comes days after the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the seizure of nearly three dozen…
Has Anyone Noticed That We Know More About Yesterday’s School Shooter Than Crooks?
by Hot Air
The mainstream media has already done a deep dive into the bizarre details of the perpetrator of yesterday’s school shooting, and we have gotten more media availabilities from law enforcement on the events than we have yet gotten from July 13th’s attack on Donald Trump and the three other victims…
Strong Dad Engagement Programs Are Funding the Fight for Fatherhood to Save the Fatherless
by Caldron Pool
“The men the world is raising are not the men the world needs.” No man is born an expert on fatherhood. Good fathers are taught through blunt advice, wise counsel, observation, experience, and their environment. This is why responsible fatherhood programs are saving lives, and why we should be talking…
Ex-CNN Analyst Says Commiela Harris “Has More Riding On” the Debate Than Trump, She’ll Be “More Nervous”
by Jason Cohen, Daily Caller News Foundation
(DCNF)—Former CNN political analyst Chris Cilizza said Friday he believes that the upcoming presidential debate holds more significance for Vice President Kamala Harris than it does for former President Donald Trump. Trump and Harris are slated to compete in their only scheduled presidential debate on ABC News on Tuesday. Cillizza…