You can call everyone for dinner, because our goose is cooked. We are so deep in debt that the only way we can keep the entire system from collapsing is to keep borrowing even more money. Perhaps you have been through a similar scenario with your own personal finances. When you simply do not have enough money to pay your bills, borrowing more money can seem like a really easy short-term solution. Unfortunately, the U.S. government has been doing this for decades, and now our national debt spiral has reached a terminal stage.
Even if we gathered up all of the money that exists in every bank account in America, we could not pay off the national debt. The debt level is exploding upwards at an exponential rate, and the only way that the federal government can continue to pay the bills is to keep borrowing and spending colossal mountains of money that we must borrow from someone else.
As I write this article, the U.S. national debt is sitting at 31.4 trillion dollars.
But the total value of all goods and services produced in the United States last year was only about 25 trillion dollars.
Our leaders in Washington could try to reverse course by balancing the budget, but that would lead to a short-term economic disaster.
Just think about it. What do you think would happen if a couple trillion dollars of government spending was suddenly sucked out of the economy?
We would immediately plunge into a horrifying economic depression. Sadly, the truth is that we have been borrowing from the future to make the present a lot more pleasant. We are enjoying an artificially-inflated standard of living that we do not deserve, and we have been using debt to fund that artificially-inflated standard of living.
But now a day of reckoning is here. Of course it isn’t just the federal government that has gone completely insane. Our state and local governments are collectively more than 3 trillion dollars in debt. Corporate debt in the United States has now surpassed the 12 trillion dollar mark.
And total U.S. household debt is now over 18 trillion dollars.
As the U.S. economy has slowed down in recent months, an increasing number of Americans have turned to credit card debt. So now credit card debt is rising at an exponential rate while the savings rate has dropped to a historic low. And at this point the average rate of interest on credit card balances is the highest ever.
I don’t even have the words to describe how self-destructive we are being. On every level of society, debt levels are absolutely skyrocketing.
We are literally committing national financial suicide, but many people don’t seem to care. And many people don’t seem to care because they don’t even understand what is happening.
At this point, our “system of education” has produced hordes of completely clueless individuals that can barely even function in a modern society.
If we had a population that was properly educated and properly informed, they would be absolutely horrified by what our leaders have been doing to us.
But instead, our leaders have been free to systematically destroy our financial future for a very long time, and very few of us have even cared enough to object.
Unfortunately, we have reached a point where there is no turning back. We have already destroyed the reserve currency of the planet. We have already created rampant inflation.
The Federal Reserve has been feverishly hiking interest rates, but that is dramatically raising debt service costs at every level of our society, and it is also causing economic activity to slow down all around us.
Companies all over America are now laying off workers, and that even includes Google…
On Friday, Alphabet-owned Google announced it was cutting 12,000 employees, roughly 6% of the full-time workforce. While employees had been bracing for a potential layoff, they are questioning leadership about the criteria for layoffs which surprised some employees, who woke up to find their access to company properties cut off. Some of the laid-off employees had been long-tenured or recently promoted, raising questions about the criteria used to decide whose jobs were cut.
Shortly after CEO Sundar Pichai’s initial email to employees Friday morning, Google’s search boss Prabhakar Raghavan sent an email to employees saying he “also feels the responsibility to reach out” and asking for them to save questions for next week’s town hall. There will be “bumps in the road” as the organization moves forward with the layoffs, Raghavan noted.
Why is Google doing this?
No corporation in the entire country is stronger than they are.
If there is one company in America that should not be laying off workers, it is Google.
Of course just about every large tech company is laying off workers these days.
Microsoft is laying off workers. Amazon is laying off workers. Facebook is laying off workers. Twitter is laying off workers.
We haven’t seen anything like this since 2008, and that is because we haven’t had an economic crisis like this since 2008.
So many people are going to lose their jobs in the months ahead.
And the economic pain that we will experience in 2023 will be just the beginning, because the entire system is starting to come down all around us.
Did you actually think that we could go on the greatest debt binge in all of human history and that everything would work out just fine somehow?
That is not how the real world works.
We sat by and did nothing while our leaders made disastrous decisions for decades, and now we will be forced to watch in horror as the consequences of those decisions play out right in front of our eyes.
***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***
About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.
I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.
I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
Article cross-posted from The Economic Collapse Blog.
Don’t just survive — THRIVE! Prepper All-Naturals has freeze-dried steaks for long-term storage. Don’t wait for food shortages to get worse. Stock up today. Use promo code “jdr” at checkout for 25% off!
Five Things New “Preppers” Forget When Getting Ready for Bad Times Ahead
The preparedness community is growing faster than it has in decades. Even during peak times such as Y2K, the economic downturn of 2008, and Covid, the vast majority of Americans made sure they had plenty of toilet paper but didn’t really stockpile anything else.
Things have changed. There’s a growing anxiety in this presidential election year that has prompted more Americans to get prepared for crazy events in the future. Some of it is being driven by fearmongers, but there are valid concerns with the economy, food supply, pharmaceuticals, the energy grid, and mass rioting that have pushed average Americans into “prepper” mode.
There are degrees of preparedness. One does not have to be a full-blown “doomsday prepper” living off-grid in a secure Montana bunker in order to be ahead of the curve. In many ways, preparedness isn’t about being able to perfectly handle every conceivable situation. It’s about being less dependent on government for as long as possible. Those who have proper “preps” will not be waiting for FEMA to distribute emergency supplies to the desperate masses.
Below are five things people new to preparedness (and sometimes even those with experience) often forget as they get ready. All five are common sense notions that do not rely on doomsday in order to be useful. It may be nice to own a tank during the apocalypse but there’s not much you can do with it until things get really crazy. The recommendations below can have places in the lives of average Americans whether doomsday comes or not.
Note: The information provided by this publication or any related communications is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. We do not provide personalized investment, financial, or legal advice.
Secured Wealth
Whether in the bank or held in a retirement account, most Americans feel that their life’s savings is relatively secure. At least they did until the last couple of years when de-banking, geopolitical turmoil, and the threat of Central Bank Digital Currencies reared their ugly heads.
It behooves Americans to diversify their holdings. If there’s a triggering event or series of events that cripple the financial systems or devalue the U.S. Dollar, wealth can evaporate quickly. To hedge against potential turmoil, many Americans are looking in two directions: Crypto and physical precious metals.
There are huge advantages to cryptocurrencies, but there are also inherent risks because “virtual” money can become challenging to spend. Add in the push by central banks and governments to regulate or even replace cryptocurrencies with their own versions they control and the risks amplify. There’s nothing wrong with cryptocurrencies today but things can change rapidly.
As for physical precious metals, many Americans pay cash to keep plenty on hand in their safe. Rolling over or transferring retirement accounts into self-directed IRAs is also a popular option, but there are caveats. It can often take weeks or even months to get the gold and silver shipped if the owner chooses to close their account. This is why Genesis Gold Group stands out. Their relationship with the depositories allows for rapid closure and shipping, often in less than 10 days from the time the account holder makes their move. This can come in handy if things appear to be heading south.
Lots of Potable Water
One of the biggest shocks that hit new preppers is understanding how much potable water they need in order to survive. Experts claim one gallon of water per person per day is necessary. Even the most conservative estimates put it at over half-a-gallon. That means that for a family of four, they’ll need around 120 gallons of water to survive for a month if the taps turn off and the stores empty out.
Being near a fresh water source, whether it’s a river, lake, or well, is a best practice among experienced preppers. It’s necessary to have a water filter as well, even if the taps are still working. Many refuse to drink tap water even when there is no emergency. Berkey was our previous favorite but they’re under attack from regulators so the Alexapure systems are solid replacements.
For those in the city or away from fresh water sources, storage is the best option. This can be challenging because proper water storage containers take up a lot of room and are difficult to move if the need arises. For “bug in” situations, having a larger container that stores hundreds or even thousands of gallons is better than stacking 1-5 gallon containers. Unfortunately, they won’t be easily transportable and they can cost a lot to install.
Water is critical. If chaos erupts and water infrastructure is compromised, having a large backup supply can be lifesaving.
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies
There are multiple threats specific to the medical supply chain. With Chinese and Indian imports accounting for over 90% of pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States, deteriorating relations could make it impossible to get the medicines and antibiotics many of us need.
Stocking up many prescription medications can be hard. Doctors generally do not like to prescribe large batches of drugs even if they are shelf-stable for extended periods of time. It is a best practice to ask your doctor if they can prescribe a larger amount. Today, some are sympathetic to concerns about pharmacies running out or becoming inaccessible. Tell them your concerns. It’s worth a shot. The worst they can do is say no.
If your doctor is unwilling to help you stock up on medicines, then Jase Medical is a good alternative. Through telehealth, they can prescribe daily meds or antibiotics that are shipped to your door. As proponents of medical freedom, they empathize with those who want to have enough medical supplies on hand in case things go wrong.
Energy Sources
The vast majority of Americans are locked into the grid. This has proven to be a massive liability when the grid goes down. Unfortunately, there are no inexpensive remedies.
Those living off-grid had to either spend a lot of money or effort (or both) to get their alternative energy sources like solar set up. For those who do not want to go so far, it’s still a best practice to have backup power sources. Diesel generators and portable solar panels are the two most popular, and while they’re not inexpensive they are not out of reach of most Americans who are concerned about being without power for extended periods of time.
Natural gas is another necessity for many, but that’s far more challenging to replace. Having alternatives for heating and cooking that can be powered if gas and electric grids go down is important. Have a backup for items that require power such as manual can openers. If you’re stuck eating canned foods for a while and all you have is an electric opener, you’ll have problems.
Don’t Forget the Protein
When most think about “prepping,” they think about their food supply. More Americans are turning to gardening and homesteading as ways to produce their own food. Others are working with local farmers and ranchers to purchase directly from the sources. This is a good idea whether doomsday comes or not, but it’s particularly important if the food supply chain is broken.
Most grocery stores have about one to two weeks worth of food, as do most American households. Grocers rely heavily on truckers to receive their ongoing shipments. In a crisis, the current process can fail. It behooves Americans for multiple reasons to localize their food purchases as much as possible.
Long-term storage is another popular option. Canned foods, MREs, and freeze dried meals are selling out quickly even as prices rise. But one component that is conspicuously absent in shelf-stable food is high-quality protein. Most survival food companies offer low quality “protein buckets” or cans of meat, but they are often barely edible.
Prepper All-Naturals offers premium cuts of steak that have been cooked sous vide and freeze dried to give them a 25-year shelf life. They offer Ribeye, NY Strip, and Tenderloin among others.
Having buckets of beans and rice is a good start, but keeping a solid supply of high-quality protein isn’t just healthier. It can help a family maintain normalcy through crises.
Prepare Without Fear
With all the challenges we face as Americans today, it can be emotionally draining. Citizens are scared and there’s nothing irrational about their concerns. Being prepared and making lifestyle changes to secure necessities can go a long way toward overcoming the fears that plague us. We should hope and pray for the best but prepare for the worst. And if the worst does come, then knowing we did what we could to be ready for it will help us face those challenges with confidence.
The united states has been BANKRUPT since 1933!?! Where have you all been?
And talking about the “national debt”, lmao! Are you guys kiddin? The “national debt” COMES FROM OUR MONEY. This is what you get when you have a foreign-owned private bank that issues your money to your “govt” at interest. Notice that your money says “NOTE” on it. WHAT IS A NOTE? A NOTE is a PROMISE TO PAY A DEBT!
So your “money” isn’t really “money” AT ALL. Those are little IOU’S you’re carrying around in your pocket.
And the one and ONLY thing we can do to put things right is to ABOLISH the Federal Reserve and OUTLAW CHARGING INTERST. And then, go back to METAL-BACKED CURRENCY.
GOLD AND SILVER STANARDS!!! It’s called SOUND MONEY.
Man, how little they think we know of finance…
Letmepicyou, your post is exactly correct, but you are an exception. Most Americans have no flippin idea how economics work in America, let alone the world. I also keep telling people this adage: “If you don’t have it in your possession, you don’t own it”, as some believe they do with Gold and/or Silver IRAs.
YOU MUST HAVE IT IN YOUR POSSESSION OTHERWISE YOUR VALUE-SAVING ATTEMPT WILL BE DRIVEN BY THE VICISSITUDES OF THE FED AND THE CAPRICIOUS CONGRESSIONAL SPENDING !!!
People say the US is bankrupt. If this is what bankrupt looks like… everyone having phones, eating well, nice cars, vacations, designer clothes, great welfare, free stuff for millions coming across the border, etc. then we definitely need more of the same. What’s 30 trillion but a big number? This is America, we can handle 10 times that and then some. Life is good but gloom and doom sells.
“At this point, our “system of education” has produced hordes of completely clueless individuals that can barely even function in a modern society.”
Sounds like he was describing you to a T.
You’re kidding I’m sure. But, you have identified the problems. Your “everyone” includes people who didn’t earn the things that you list. This is why the United States is insolvent.
It’s going exactly as planned
To bad this generation of America is to feeble and weak to do anything about it..
Great column. Do you consider the value of all the Federal land and property in the asset column?
Definitely agree with the delayed adulthood in the younger generations. I’d throw in marriage and birth rates as evidence of delayed adulthood too.
Let’s not blame this entirely on politicians. You and I and everyone else are to blame. BUY LOW. SELL HIGH. This is the mantra of our entire perverted and unethical economic system that even Adam Smith would be ashamed of.
We buy a house for $250,000 and we flip that exact same house for $500,000. If you want to blame someone for the value of the dollar declining and the American people going broke — LOOK IN THE MIRROR!.
You have no idea what you’re talking about.
Civil war or start cutting out waste like department of education, cut back any raises to pre-covid time. Stop illegal immigration, put out a notice any illegals found after 60 days will be considered criminal. Any country that does not take their citizens back will loose all financial aide. All elected officials will submit their own and their families financials. ALL federal employees pensions will be rolled over to social security. Social security will no longer have it’s funds used for anything else. That is just off of the top of my head. It is the federal government that put us here, and I hope war can be avoided. We can’t sustain the current direction.
To go into debt on credit cards in an inflationary environment is a completely sensible thing to do, since the money you pay back in the future is worth less than today’s money.
The United Sates Government owns 1/2 of the land in the USA. That is an asset worth hundreds of Trillions of dollars, so they are not bankrupt.
Are the policies of the Democrats dangerous and ignorant to economic growth and the long term worth of the average family? Yes. absolutely. But this simplistic rant is nonsense
The United States Government owns nothing. It belongs to US citizens.
Are you serious? Do you really think you own anything they cannot take away from you?
Whoever has the greatest firepower owns everything.
Think you own your house? Don’t pay the municipal real estate tax for two years and see what happens. You just rent property from the government.
Not my problem. Washington DC’s problem. Natinal debt repudiation will happen. It always does. The Student Loan thing is a warmup. Life goes on. Unfortunately most of the criminals who perpetrated this monstrous crime will already be dead.
You have essentially a bunch of political whore in washington dc who are blowing everybody else’s money and they could care less.
So what will be the singularity? Will it be when the annual interest payment on the national debt exceeds GDP? That would mean we can’t make the payment on the interest we owe, much less reduce the debt. Can you borrow more when unable to fund the interest on what you have? Is it Weimar time, then?
Michael, I’d love the opportunity to sit down and live stream a debate on the contents of this “article”.
You speak on several things. You speak on education, stating “At this point, our “system of education” has produced hordes of completely clueless individuals that can barely even function in a modern society.” Well, no schitt, Sherlock. That’s nice to say. But what you for SOME REASON don’t even touch upon, is how in 1979-1980, the “Department Of Education” was turned into a CABINET-APPOINTED POSITION. And how in 1980, a JEW named Shirley Hufstedler was appointed the Secretary of the D.O.E..
When you speak of the decline of education, how do you not speak of how a Jew was placed in a position to oversee the education of a primarily white Christian nation? How does this happen? Who can justify this? Nobody today understands communism, they don’t know what it IS, they don’t know where it comes from, or from whom. No mention that the beginning of the depreciation of our education system came when it was subverted by Jewry? When the Jew Shirley Hufstedler took NOBEL PRIZE WINNER Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago” out of the schools and replaced it with “The Diary of Anne Frank”, a work of DISCREDITED FICTION!?!
Education declines by the nature of its being when you start to exclude knowledge from the people. This is the ONLY POSSIBLE STATE IT CAN ACHIEVE when you remove knowledge purposefully. Solzhenitsyn’s works make it clear to the reader that the people responsible for COMMUNISM happen to be OVERWHELMINGLY JEWISH.
Because this knowledge has been DENIED to people, NOBODY UNDERSTANDS THAT COMMUNISM COMES FROM JUDAISM. They will ARGUE with you, but when you say “Well, where does communism COME from then?” They’ll make some silly nonsense reply like “Russia! Duh!” Like, as in, the geographical location causes it. Or now many will say “China! Duh!” Without having ANY idea that Mao was controlled by Jews, or that China is controlled by a Rothschild (Ashkenazi Jew) central bank. Jews in fact were directly responsible for the opium epidemic in China and the orient.
But “articles” like this never point the finger at Jewry, do they?
I’d love to go over some things besides just the education system, as well. You also speak on the federal reserve, but never mention that Jew bankers schemed to get the Federal Reserve act passed in SECRET in 1913 at a place called “Jekyll Island”…of course, it wasn’t senators that hashed out the Federal Reserve act, it was the Jew bankers themselves that wrote their OWN RULES.
How convenient.
And you speak of the “national debt”, whilst never mentioning where it ACTUALLY COMES FROM. The national debt COMES FROM OUR MONEY SUPPLY, FOLKS. It’s what you get when JEWS lend your “government” THEIR OWN MONEY AT INTEREST and with NO BACKING. You never mention that every single dollar in print IS DEBT. Never touch on how “silver certificates” DO NOT CONTAIN THE WORD “NOTE” ANYWHERE ON THEM, because they are not “instruments of debt” but rather “CERTIFICATES OF COMMODITY”. Which is why fiat money ALWAYS DEVALUES (Jews call it “inflation” but it’s not “inflation” it’s “DEVALUATION”…they call it “inflation” so you all don’t riot) and why METAL-BACKED MONEY MAINTAINS VALUE.
It’s almost like you’re hoping none of us understands all this. So you can just program them with their little Jew-controlled Frankfurt school education bullet points of things you want them to know. But there’s no REAL understanding here. No REAL revelation of fact or truth to the masses. YOU don’t tell them their economy is schitt because of Jew baker fiduciary manipulation. But I SURE DO.
Why, ahh, don’t you get on board with some real, hard facts?
Our money IS debt.
This debt comes from JEW BANKING.
We can NUKE the federal reserve with the STROKE OF A PEN and congress can issue it’s OWN MONEY.
And we can reclaim our gold from the Rothschilds with MILITARY ACTION.
Our education is in the outhouse because of JEWISH MANIPULATION.
These things are FACTS.
Instead of CENSORING THEM…Lets DISCUSS THEM.
Imagine how many mouths would pop open if americafirstreport put out a headline “Jewish Banking Destroying America”. The ADL’s response would be swift and brutal. But for once in your lives, you would be stating something that the world needs to hear and is absolutely true. And your voice would resound across the land like a great iron bell sounding for the people to get off their knees, to stand up and say NO MORE! No more Jewish influence on our BANKING. No more Jewish influence on our GOVERNMENT. And no more Jewish influence on our EDUCATION SYSTEM.
And by the way, if you think it’s a coincidence that the Federal Reserve act was “passed” in 1913, and the GREAT DEPRESSION started by 1929, YOU ARE DELUSIONAL. It took 20 years for the Federal Reserve to BANKRUPT the united states, and has been so SINCE 1933.
It’s just too bad you don’t know any of this. Or won’t say it.