The Economic Collapse

The U.S. Is Sending A Third Aircraft Carrier And A Second Marine Division To The Middle East As The Global Energy Crisis And The Global Food Crisis Both Intensify

Michael — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:34:34 +0000

The months ahead are shaping up to be a time of war, economic problems, food shortages and global chaos. There is no end in sight for the war in the Middle East or the war with Russia. Meanwhile, global energy supplies and global food supplies both continue to get even tighter. We desperately need some sort of a diplomatic miracle, but talks with the Iranians have totally broken down and tensions between the Russians and our allies in Europe are higher than ever. Our deteriorating economy is the number one political issue in the U.S. during this election season, but the economic pain that we have experienced so far will be absolutely dwarfed by what is ahead.

On Thursday, it was being reported that the U.S. has decided to deploy a third aircraft carrier and a second Marine division to the Middle East…

The Trump administration has decided to deploy a third aircraft carrier to the Middle East, along with a second Marine division, a US official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt and an additional division of US Marines will deploy to US Central Command’s area of operations.

The move means that, until the US midterm elections, US President Donald Trump will have significantly greater military capabilities and a wider range of options for potential action against Iran.

Many were hoping that an end to the war was near.

These moves are an indication that a major escalation could be coming.

The Iranians have not backed down and they are not going to back down.

On Tuesday, they attacked three more commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz…

Three vessels reported being struck on Tuesday, September 29, in the area around the Strait of Hormuz as Iran appears to be lashing out to demonstrate that it is still threatening vessels. While it brings the total number of vessels struck to four so far this week, observers point to increasing oil flows and vessel traffic in the region.

UK Maritime Trade Operations reported the incidents, although few details were provided. It said that the information had come from verified sources but was delayed in being transmitted. It was unclear when the strikes took place. It identified all three incidents as involving tankers without details on the extent of the damage, while an unconfirmed report said one of the vessels was an LNG carrier.

Two of the vessels were identified in the tracking by the International Maritime Organization, with both being crude oil tankers flying the Liberian flag and sustaining damage. One VLCC, the Mersin Prosperity (299,319 dwt), is operated by ADNOC. The other tanker appeared to be a smaller vessel, possibly involved in the shuttle operations that have arisen to get oil from the Gulf states to tankers waiting south of the Strait in the Arabian Sea. This tanker was identified as Sinbad (115,949 dwt), and it was last reported at Fujairah. Both tankers appeared to be making the transit dark.

We have been able to get some oil through the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks.

But not nearly enough.

It would be wonderful if the Iranians were willing to make a reasonable deal, but they just aren’t budging.

In fact, talks with the Iranians went so poorly when Iranian officials came to New York that Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered them to leave early…

After little progress was made in weekend meetings between Iranian and Qatari mediators, Rubio lost patience and told the Iranians on Monday that Araghchi and his delegation had to leave New York immediately, according to the two officials, who were familiar with the decision and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an internal administration process.

Rubio, according to one official, determined that the Iranians had “overstayed their welcome” and that since the high-level meetings at the U.N. were over, they should leave.

Ararghchi and his team departed New York very early Tuesday.

What this means is that the global energy crisis is going to continue to get worse.

Earlier today, we learned that the Chinese “have suspended exports of oil products to ‌regions beyond Hong Kong and Macau until further notice”…

Chinese refiners have suspended exports of oil products to ‌regions beyond Hong Kong and Macau until further notice from ‌Beijing, four people briefed on the matter said on Thursday.

As China looks to safeguard domestic supplies, state oil major PetroChina cancelled on Wednesday a handful of its gasoline and jet fuel shipments that were planned for October, three of the sources said.

This pushed the price of Brent crude above 101 dollars a barrel and the price of U.S. crude above 92 dollars a barrel.

Meanwhile, Trump administration officials have announced that the U.S. will be releasing more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and they are strongly pressuring our allies in Europe to follow suit…

The Trump ⁠administration ⁠has told Germany and France to draw down ⁠emergency diesel inventories to help ease soaring global fuel prices or face a potential US diesel export ban, according to three people close to the discussions.

The warning marks an escalation in pressure on Europe as US President Donald Trump considers a potential ‌ban to help bring down US fuel prices ‌ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Even though fuel prices in Europe have risen to absolutely insane levels, European leaders have been hesitant to authorize the release of more strategic reserves.

One anonymous U.S. official told Reuters that it is “in ⁠Europe’s best interest to work with the United States”…

The International Energy Agency, the West’s energy watchdog, has not yet asked Germany to release stocks, Germany’s economy ministry said. It was not clear when the ⁠IEA ⁠might meet next.

The US administration has ⁠been particularly frustrated with France and Germany, which US officials believe have not fully followed through on earlier commitments to release emergency oil and petroleum product stocks, Reuters has reported previously.

“It is in ⁠Europe’s best interest to work with the United States as we pursue multiple pathways to boost the supply of refined products and lower costs for consumers,” one of the sources, a US official, told Reuters.

As global supplies of fuel get extremely tight, we are seeing things happen that are absolutely unprecedented.

This week, the crack spread for diesel was hovering in a range of $108 to $122 per barrel.

The soaring cost of diesel is hitting farmers all over the planet extremely hard, and it is one of the factors that is driving up global food prices.

Zero Hedge is reporting that the Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index increased by a whopping 13 percent during the third quarter of this year…

The Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index (BCOMAGSP) posted its largest quarterly gain since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, as Black Sea disruptions, a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, and mounting El Niño risks have formed what could be considered a perfect storm poised to drive food prices higher.

BCOMAGSP, which tracks 10 major crops including corn, soybeans, wheat, coffee, sugar, cotton, cocoa, and others, jumped 13% in the third quarter.

When food prices rise in the United States, that is painful, but most of us still have enough food to eat.

In nations where poverty is widespread, higher food prices can mean the difference between eating and not eating for millions of people.

Ominously, the foreign minister of India is now warning that a “major food crisis” is coming in the months ahead…

India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar has warned that the world faces a “major food crisis” in the coming months, as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East compound the effects of a super El Nino.

Speaking at an event organised by the Asia Society in New York, Mr Jaishankar said the two conflicts had “a devastating impact” on the economies of the Global South, and that energy, food, fertiliser and finance were all under strain at once.

“If you have energy as a big crunch and then food and fertilisers on top of it, and finance, because every time there’s a conflict, money moves towards safe harbours and away from the Global South, the net result of it has been really very, very stressful,” he said.

We are experiencing a global fertilizer crisis, soaring diesel prices, extreme droughts in Central America and other key agricultural regions, the most powerful Super El Niño ever recorded and World War III all at the same time.

The food shortages that are coming will shock everyone.

The wealthy nations will hoard whatever food happens to be available just like they are starting to hoard fuel right now.

But many impoverished nations will not have that option.

The number of acutely hungry people in the world was already at an all-time high coming into 2026, and now global hunger is going to go to an entirely new level.

What we are facing is extremely serious, and there are no easy solutions on the horizon.

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.

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This Is What A Catastrophic Bond Crisis Looks Like – All Of A Sudden, U.S. Treasury Bonds Are Starting To Trade Like Memecoins

Michael — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 19:00:59 +0000

U.S. Treasury bonds are supposed to be among the most stable financial instruments in the entire global financial system. When they begin to trade like memecoins, that is a very clear indication that the next major financial crisis has arrived. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted that he would be able to keep bond yields under control. Obviously that did not happen. Now we have a gigantic mess on our hands, and it is going to affect every man, woman and child in this country.

When bond yields soar, so do mortgage rates.

The national average for a 30 year fixed mortgage has risen to a whopping 7.54 percent.

Do you understand what this is going to do to the housing market?

Good luck if you want to buy a home.

Good luck if you want to sell a home.

And if you have an adjustable rate mortgage, you should be bracing for a lot of pain.

Credit card rates and auto loan rates are going to go up too.

The era of “easy borrow, easy spend” is coming to a crashing halt.

This will directly impact all of us.

Needless to say, it is going to be a lot more expensive for the federal government to borrow money too.

We are already spending way over a trillions dollars a year just on interest on the national debt, and so there is no way that we can afford for bond yields to spike.

But it is happening anyway.

Banks and financial institutions all over the nation are holding gobs and gobs of U.S. Treasuries.

They were supposed to be extremely safe investments.

But when bond yields soar to crazy levels, bond prices crash.

As a result, banks and financial institutions from coast to coast now have balance sheets that look like horror movies.

Is your bank at risk of failing?

You might want to look into that.

The stage is also being set for a derivatives meltdown of epic proportions.

If bond yields continue to skyrocket, we are going to see things happen in the derivatives marketplace that we have never seen before.

I am talking about the type of scenario where analysts are using words like “nuclear” and “apocalypse” to describe what is occurring.

Are you starting to understand what is at stake?

We desperately, desperately need bond yields to stop rising.

But that isn’t likely to happen, is it?

According to the Wall Street Journal, 10 year U.S. Treasures and 30 year U.S. Treasuries both rose to “their highest levels since 2002” yesterday…

Today is the final day of a quarter that’s been marked by a relentless selloff in government bonds.

The rout has driven U.S. Treasury yields—which move inversely to prices—to multidecade highs. Both the 10- and 30-year Treasury yields settled yesterday at their highest levels since 2002.

In 2002, the federal government was 6 trillion dollars in debt.

Today, the federal government is 40 trillion dollars in debt.

Big difference.

Today, things got even worse.

Just a little while ago, the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries hit 5.302 percent…

To most Americans, this means absolutely nothing, because they don’t understand all of the stuff that I just shared with you above.

Of course it isn’t just 10 year U.S. Treasuries that have begun to trade like memecoins.

The charts for 20 year U.S. Treasuries and 30 year U.S. Treasuries look like they were pulled out of a video game…

This is not supposed to happen.

Ever.

The really bad news is that bond yields have been spiking all over the world.

Today was no different…

Many people see green and they think that must be a good sign.

But as those bond yields go up, bond prices are collapsing.

In France, the yield on 10 year bonds just rose to the highest level since 2008…

France’s messy politics are spooking the bond markets. On September 29th yields on ten-year bonds rose to 4.8%, their highest level since 2008. The surge in borrowing costs has pushed the spread between French ten-year bonds and German Bunds up by 44 basis points in September, to 122 points—the highest level for 14 years. France now pays more to borrow than Greece and Italy, once the euro zone’s most worrisome members. It is increasingly looking like the currency area’s biggest problem, and things could get worse.

Italy is also becoming an absolutely enormous problem.

Simultaneously, Europe is on the verge of a major financial meltdown, Japan is on the verge of a major financial meltdown, and the U.S. is on the verge of a major financial meltdown.

Which area of the world will spiral out of control first?

As borrowing costs rise and the global energy crisis intensifies, we are going to want to watch for signs that economic activity is slowing down.

For example, a lot of trucking companies in the U.S. are starting to file for bankruptcy…

More than a dozen American trucking companies have filed for bankruptcy in the past month, according to an industry news report.

Some 16 firms, accounting for more than 250 jobs, have filed for Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 proceedings, FreightWaves reported earlier this month.

Diesel prices, the lifeblood of the trucking industry, hit a record average of $6.53 a gallon on September 22 amid the impact of President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. Diesel has increased $2.76 over the past year, according to motor club AAA.

The performance of the trucking industry often tells us where the economy as a whole is headed.

Without a doubt, the outlook for the months ahead is not promising at all.

We are facing a global energy crisis, a global fertilizer crisis, a global food crisis, a Super El Niño and World War III all at the same time.

Meanwhile, we continue to get hammered by one major natural disaster after another.

There are so many elements of “the perfect storm” that we are currently experiencing, and this storm is only going to get more intense as we move forward.

The post This Is What A Catastrophic Bond Crisis Looks Like – All Of A Sudden, U.S. Treasury Bonds Are Starting To Trade Like Memecoins appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

The Steady Erosion Of The Middle Class In America Resembles A Very Twisted Game Of Musical Chairs

Michael — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 16:20:45 +0000

Have you lost your spot in the middle class yet? Most Americans do not aspire to become rich and they certainly do not want to be poor. Most of the U.S. population just wants to live a comfortable middle class lifestyle just like their parents did. Unfortunately, there is a huge problem. Since the beginning of this decade, virtually everything has been getting a lot more expensive. So even if your income has been going up, if it hasn’t been going up as fast as the cost of living has you are still falling behind. Chasing “the American Dream” has essentially become like playing a really twisted game of musical chairs. Every single month most Americans are just barely scraping by, and every single month more chairs are being removed from the game. If you still have your seat, you should be very thankful, but I wouldn’t get too comfortable because another major economic downturn is rapidly approaching.

If you are going to live a middle class lifestyle, you have got to have a home.

But homes are now more unaffordable than they have ever been before.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average sales price for a new home in the U.S. was $502,700 as of the second quarter of 2026.

And the national average for a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage is now way over 7 percent.

Who can afford that?

The top 10 percent of all income earners can still afford that, but that is about it.

If you purchased a home prior to the beginning of this current decade, you are in good shape.

But if you are a young adult that is just starting out, you are out of luck.

That is one of the reasons why more than 25 million U.S. adults under the age of 35 are still living with their parents…

A record number of adult children under 35 in the U.S. are moving back in with their parents, either because they can’t afford homes of their own or because they want to save money amid the rising cost of living, according to a recent study.

In 2025, 25.2 million adults under 35 lived at home, according to Realtor.com, which found that the share of adults living with their moms and dads was higher than it was during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of these adults moving back in with their parents are employed, but their wages aren’t keeping up with inflation. Among the 25- to 34-year-olds living at home, roughly 7 in 10 have jobs, the online real estate firm found.

A lot of those young adults have no hope of buying a home for the foreseeable future.

This is life in America in 2026.

As our standard of living has eroded, more Americans than ever are living in an RV.

In fact, the number of Americans that are living in an RV has more than doubled since 2021…

About 486,000 people live full time in an RV, which appears to be more than twice as many as in 2021, according to survey data from the RV Industry Association. About a third have children, and a vast majority earn less than $75,000 a year.

Of course a lot of Americans can’t even afford an RV.

I asked Google to give me the total number of Americans that are sleeping in their vehicles, and this is what I was told…

An estimated 1 million to 3 million Americans regularly sleep in a car, van, or RV due to housing affordability and the ongoing housing crisis.

The truth is that it is quite difficult to get a really accurate number because a lot of people that are sleeping in their vehicles don’t like to be counted.

But we can all see that the numbers have been growing.

In fact, some major cities now have vast parking lots where people that sleep in their vehicles can rest safely at night.

We never had such a thing when I was growing up.

Overall, the number of homeless in this country has reached a truly frightening level.

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a total of 1,456,923 Americans “were either homeless or living in taxpayer subsidized/funded housing for the homeless” as of the beginning of last year…

745,652 individuals were homeless on a single night in January 2025
266,320 individuals were living unsheltered on a single night in January 2025
1,456,923 individuals were either homeless or living in taxpayer subsidized/funded housing for the homeless

I am sure that when the final numbers for 2026 are released they will be even higher.

Meanwhile, food just continues to become even more expensive and the number of Americans that are going hungry just continues to grow.

According to the Alliance to End Hunger, 47.9 million Americans live in food insecure households…

47.9 million people lived in food insecure households.
This number reflects that 14.4 % of the population, or roughly 1 in 7 people in the U.S. lived in food insecure households.
14.1 million children lived in food insecure households.

Those numbers are a bit old, and so I am sure that they are even higher today.

Every time I go to the grocery store, it seems like more prices have been changed.

I know that all of you are noticing the same thing.

Our ability to feed our families is being eviscerated right in front of our eyes.

One recent study found that it now takes a single person in New York City $158,954 a year just to “afford the basics”…

For example, the median household income across New York City in 2025 was $86,900. However, a SmartAsset study found that single New Yorkers needed to make at least $158,954 that year to afford the basics (such as housing, groceries, utilities, and transportation) and cover the costs of a couple of hobbies.

This is one of the reasons why our young adults are so hesitant to get married and have children.

It just costs so much money.

And now the economy is moving in the wrong direction again.

This month, the Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence “fell sharply”…

Consumer sentiment fell sharply in September as an inflation-weary public took a dimmer view on the labor market and the impact higher prices would have on their finances, the Conference Board reported Tuesday.

The board’s Consumer Confidence Index tumbled to 81.9, a decline of 6.7 points and a reading well below the Dow Jones consensus forecast for 89.

Of course this reading is perfectly consistent with other surveys.

Earlier this month, the University of Michigan’s index of consumer confidence fell to the second lowest level ever recorded…

The Conference Board’s reading is in keeping with similar surveys. The University of Michigan’s consumer survey showed sentiment fell 7% in September to its second-lowest reading on record.

The American people hate what is happening to the economy.

Why is that so difficult for “the experts” to comprehend?

Sadly, dissatisfaction with the economy has pushed some Americans toward socialism.

In fact, a recent Gallup poll found that the percentage of Americans that have a positive view of socialism has reached an all-time high…

Forty-three percent of Americans now have a positive view of socialism, marking the first time this figure has exceeded 39% in Gallup’s trend since 2010. Socialism still trails capitalism and free enterprise in public favorability but now ranks ahead of big business. Small business remains the clear leader among the five economic concepts tested, with 95% viewing it positively.

Needless to say, socialism is not the answer to anything.

But most Americans perceive that our current system is deeply broken, and that is because it is deeply broken.

We need to return to the basics.

We need to return to the economic values that were embraced by our founders.

Will that ever happen?

We better hope so, because right now the middle class in this country is steadily shrinking.

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Next Stop 6 Percent – The Treasury Bond Crisis Is Officially Out Of Control, And It Is Starting To Look A Lot Like 2008 All Over Again

Michael — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 18:17:07 +0000

A historic Treasury bond crisis has erupted and hardly anyone that doesn’t work in the financial world has any idea what is actually going on. We are literally witnessing the most dramatic financial crisis since 2008, and it isn’t even on the radar of most people in the general population. But it soon will be, because it is going to have tremendous implications for all of us. Economic conditions were very painful for several years after the financial chaos of the fall of 2008, and it appears that we are headed for a similar scenario now.

When average people on the street hear that bond yields are going up, most of them think that must be a good thing.

But bond yields and bond prices move inversely to one another, and so when bond yields are spiking that means that bond prices are crashing.

And when bond prices crash, that is not good at all.

Investors were waiting to see whether or not the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasury bonds would smash through the 5 percent barrier, and that is precisely what happened.

Subsequently, investors have been closely watching the 5.25 percent barrier, because historically that is when market conditions really begin to go haywire…

When the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond rises well above 5.25%, the market landscape undergoes a marked shift. Subsequently, bond‑market volatility—and by extension, equity volatility and credit spreads—tend to increase substantially.

That means bonds are no longer a hedge against equities. The transmission chain unfolds in a tightly linked sequence: as U.S. Treasuries lose their appeal as portfolio‑hedging instruments, marginal buyers become more price‑sensitive, and the market’s responsiveness to capital flows intensifies; investors then turn to options to hedge U.S. Treasuries, driving up implied volatility—leading Treasury yields to rise first, which was precisely the official rationale the U.S. Treasury cited last month when it announced an expansion of its repurchase program (to safeguard Treasury liquidity).

Next, equity‑index volatility cannot remain unaffected: the mutual amplification of gains and losses between stocks and bonds will further destabilize rebalancing flows and push the VIX higher; rising demand for stock‑option hedging will also support implied volatility. The third channel is particularly critical today—bond‑market volatility has heightened uncertainty around discount rates for cash flows, while historically low cross‑stock correlations suggest that the market has scarcely priced in “long‑term interest rates,” the single most dominant source of factor risk.

I realize that all of that sounds quite complicated.

The bottom line is that when the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries climbs above 5.25 percent, stocks and bonds often start dropping together.

In other words, that level acts as a “line in the sand” beyond which everyone tends to panic.

Well, on Monday the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries hit 5.25 percent for the very first time since 2007…

Of course it isn’t just 10 year U.S. Treasuries that are the problem.

At this stage, yields on all long-term U.S. Treasuries are spiking…

Bond charts are never supposed to look like that.

U.S. Treasuries are supposed to be among the most stable financial instruments in the entire world.

As I discussed above, when the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries reaches 5.25 percent, stocks and bonds often start dropping simultaneously.

At one point on Monday, U.S. stocks had lost a whopping $720,000,000,000 in value…

Thankfully, the markets have settled down a bit in the last couple of hours.

That is probably because there is some intervention going on behind the scenes.

But without a doubt, things are moving in a very troubling direction, and the consequences could be extremely severe during the weeks ahead.

Right now, our banks are holding vast amounts of U.S. Treasuries.

So when bond yields spike, the value of the U.S. Treasuries that they are carrying plummets.

There are a lot of banks that now have balance sheets that resemble a horror show, and that means that more bank failures are on the way.

In 2025, only two U.S. banks failed.

On Friday, we witnessed the sixth bank failure of 2026 so far…

ANOTHER BANK JUST FAILED…

California’s Nano Banc just failed. Shut down Friday. FDIC appointed receiver.

That makes SIX U.S. bank failures this year, versus two in all of 2025.

California cited years of mismanagement at Nano. Beyond this bank, I’m watching lenders heavily exposed to commercial property.

The FDIC itself has flagged high interest costs and vacant buildings making property debt harder to refinance and repay.

If borrowers can’t pay, losses eat through bank capital. That’s how more failures could follow, one balance sheet at a time.

They like to quietly announce these bank failures on Fridays so that they get as little attention as possible.

Unfortunately, if bond yields continue to soar they won’t be able to contain the panic for long as one bank after another comes apart like a 20 dollar suit.

In addition, rising bond yields could potentially set the stage for a nightmarish derivatives crisis.

Interest rate derivatives are the biggest segment of the derivatives marketplace by a a very wide margin, and if interest rates move up fast enough it could cause a cascading wave of defaults.

Let me put it another way.

If interest rates rise with sufficient velocity, rapid mark-to-market shifts can outpace liquidity buffers, threatening a systemic chain reaction of counterparty failures.

And that would be a massive disaster.

Rising interest rates will also have an enormous impact on U.S. consumers.

The national average for a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage has already jumped above 7 percent.

That is considered to be an extremely important psychological level.

Very few potential homeowners want to pay 7 percent, and home sales are likely to be depressed even more than they have been.

Meanwhile, credit card rates are going to go up, and auto loans are going to become a lot more expensive.

Collectively, all of this is going to slow down economic activity.

Economic activity was already starting to slow down thanks to the global energy crisis, and rising rates will just intensify that slowdown.

This is going to be such a catastrophe.

We are potentially facing a financial crisis and a major economic slowdown at the same time.

If that sounds a lot like 2008, that is because it is a lot like 2008.

Meanwhile, we are forced to deal with a global energy crisis, a global fertilizer crisis and a Super El Niño.

On top of everything else, World War III is raging on the other side of the planet.

Decades of bad decisions have brought us to this point, and now we all get to pay the price.

The post Next Stop 6 Percent – The Treasury Bond Crisis Is Officially Out Of Control, And It Is Starting To Look A Lot Like 2008 All Over Again appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

The Global Debt Crisis Of 2026 Has Begun, And We Are Being Warned That Most People Have “No Idea What Is About To Happen”

Michael — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 18:07:59 +0000

The U.S. government is $40,068,807,991,924.84 in debt, and all of a sudden the rest of the world has become a lot more hesitant to lend us money. Bond prices are crashing and rates are spiking. For years, I warned that our politicians were borrowing and spending way too much money. But those politicians just kept voting for budgets with bigger and bigger deficits. Now we find ourselves in the middle of a financial nightmare with no way out. The same thing could be said about Japan and most nations in Europe. Globally, bond prices have been steadily plummeting as bond yields have skyrocketed. Unfortunately for all of us, financial institutions all over the planet are holding gigantic mountains of government bonds that have collapsed in value. The unrealized losses that they are potentially facing will be off the charts. Meanwhile, rapidly rising interest rates could set off an unprecedented derivatives implosion. At this point, the total notional amount outstanding for global over-the-counter interest rate derivatives is well over 600 trillion dollars.

As long as investors still had faith in the game, everything was going to be fine.

But now investors are losing faith in the U.S. government, the Japanese government and governments all over Europe, because they have been borrowing money at insanely reckless levels.

So now we have a massive crisis on our hands, and last week things really started to get out of hand.

In fact, last week was definitely “a week of pain” for financially irresponsible governments throughout the world…

This has been a week of pain for anyone who borrows money.

All over the world, lenders are demanding higher interest rates. The global bond market is extracting higher yields from every borrower, starting with the biggest borrowers of all: national governments. But not every government is paying equally.

Trustworthy borrowers with solid finances and honest leadership pay less. Distrusted borrowers with disordered finances and corrupt leaders pay more. In times past, the United States would have headed that first list.

In a previous article, I explained that historically when the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries hits 5.25 percent things start to get really crazy.

Well, late last week the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries was hovering around 5.2 percent…

In trading yesterday, the yield on a U.S. 10-year Treasury bond hovered near 5.2 percent. Germany pays less than the United States. France pays less than the United States. Canada pays less than the United States. Even Greece pays less than the United States. Estonia—a country under constant threat of a Russian invasion and the annihilation of its sovereignty—pays much less than the United States: only 3.6 percent.

We were only going to be able to play this game for so long.

I don’t know why this was so difficult for so many of the “experts” to understand.

At one point on Friday, the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries reached 5.23 percent, which was the highest that we have seen since just before the last global financial crisis…

Investors were rattled this week as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield soared to its highest level since 2007, but sticky inflation is just one of the factors behind this latest surge.

The key 10-year Treasury yield, which influences mortgages, leapt to 5.23% on Friday for its highest level since 2007. It was the latest leg higher for the benchmark yield, which earlier this month was trading just below 4.8%. Bond yields and prices move inversely to one another.

This is what a bond market collapse looks like, and we are still only in the early stages.

On X, one popular account warned that most people have “no idea what is about to happen”…

The era of easy money is over, and that is really bad news for all of us.

John Roque has pointed out that there have been 16 times throughout history when bond yields have spiked like this. Every single time, it has resulted in some sort of a financial crisis…

“Something always breaks,” proclaimed a recent note from John Roque, head of technical analysis at 22V Research.

Roque pointed out on a chart of the 10-year Treasury yield going back the last five decades 16 instances where it experienced a rapid advance like it is now. During each and every move, some sort of financial calamity resulted. While the scale of the crises varied in their market impact (from the jarring-but-short-lived Silicon Valley Bank failure of 2023 to the 1987 stock market crash), the jump in yields almost always led to some sort of disruption to financial markets that weighed on risk assets.

“As sure as day follows night, when the 10-year Treasury yield rises, something gets knocked out,” Roque remarked to CNBC. “It just pays to be cautious.”

Personally, I am very concerned about what all of this is going to mean for the stock market.

Stock prices are currently at a level that we have only witnessed “three times over the last 156 years”…

Currently, we’re witnessing the stock market do something that’s only been accomplished three times over the last 156 years. When this signal appears, it has consistently foreshadowed significant declines to come for Wall Street.

What goes up must come down.

Every time the CAPE Ratio has been this high, a bear market has followed…

Economists introduced the CAPE Ratio in the late 1980s and have backtested it as far back as January 1871. Over this roughly 156-year stretch, the average multiple is 17.42. As of the closing bell on Sept. 21, the S&P 500’s CAPE Ratio clocked in at 41.60.

Including the present, there have only been three times, spanning 156 years, in which the S&P 500’s Shiller P/E Ratio has topped 40 — and the previous two occurrences were followed by notable bear markets

The bottom line is that we are perfectly primed for a stock market crash, and signs of trouble are already apparent.

The performance of just a handful of tech stocks has been masking some very alarming developments that have been happening under the surface. At this point, 52 percent of all stocks in the S&P 500 are already trading beneath their 200 day moving averages…

The S&P 500’s latest trip back to near-record territory has been powered by a surprisingly small number of stocks.

As of Tuesday’s close, the S&P 500 was only 0.44% shy of a record closing high, and yet 52% of individual member stocks were trading below their long-term 200-day moving averages. This is a reflection of the fact that a handful of stocks, chiefly hyperscalers like Meta and semiconductor stocks like Micron Technology, have been doing much of the heavy lifting lately.

That is a major red flag.

In fact, there are major red flags all around us.

And now we are entering the pivotal month of October when some of the largest stock market crashes throughout history have occurred.

Historically, bonds normally start crashing before stocks do.

That exact same pattern is playing out right in front of our eyes in the fall of 2026.

If it was just the U.S. that was in trouble, that would be bad enough.

But what we are looking at is a truly global debt crisis.

This moment has been coming for a very long time, and the entire world is going to be stunned by what happens next.

The post The Global Debt Crisis Of 2026 Has Begun, And We Are Being Warned That Most People Have “No Idea What Is About To Happen” appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

This Is What A “Perfect Storm” Looks Like: A Global Fertilizer Crisis, A Global Fuel Crisis, A Super El Niño And World War 3 All At The Same Time

Michael — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 17:55:30 +0000

If you think that things are bad now, just wait until food shortages really start to kick in next year. Even the UN is admitting that there isn’t going to be enough food for everyone in 2027. As you will see below, they are preparing for a huge spike in global hunger in 2027. The war in the Middle East has caused a global fertilizer crisis which will produce “thinner harvests” both this fall and next year. At the same time, the soaring price of diesel is putting extreme financial pressure on farmers all over the world. Needless to say, soaring fuel costs will get passed on to the rest of us. On top of everything else, the Super El Niño that I have been writing so much about is causing chaotic weather that is literally wiping out crops in Central America and other parts of the planet. The food that is being harvested now is what is supposed to feed us in 2027, and there simply is not going to be enough of it.

What a disaster 2026 has been.

Coming into this year, there was no war with Iran.

Coming into this year, the Strait of Hormuz was still open.

Coming into this year, there was no Super El Niño.

Coming into this year, the price of diesel was actually quite low.

And coming into this year, we didn’t have a global fertilizer crisis which appears to be having a “catastrophic impact” on global food production…

Six months after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the global fertiliser supply chain has collapsed in key regions, creating a dual crisis of physical shortages and soaring costs. Since March, commodity intelligence platform CropGPT has directly surveyed thousands of farmers every month, across eight countries to measure the impacts of the crisis. The data shows a potentially catastrophic impact on global food and beverage – coffee included – supplies and prices in 2027.

CropGPT’s findings reveal that only 43% of farmers surveyed got everything they needed, with farmers in India – which feeds more people than any other country in the world – reporting they have been short of fertiliser for six months. In the Ivory Coast only 6% of coffee farmers were fully supplied in August, while 40% could not get any fertiliser at all. El Nino is forecast to peak just as the effects of fertiliser shortages and thinner harvests come in, multiplying the threat to global agriculture.

CropGPT’s data also unveils a stark economic divide. Where crop prices are strong, such as coffee, farmers have paid more and carried on. Where they are weak, farmers have cut back or stopped buying fertiliser. Farmers who cannot obtain fertiliser face yield loses of up to 50%.

Most people out there have absolutely no idea that this is happening.

They can see that food prices are rising, but they simply do not understand what is ahead of us.

The founder and CEO of CropGPT is ominously warning that the world “cannot absorb a shock of this magnitude without supermarket prices exploding and people starving”…

Commenting on the findings, Rob Weston, founder and CEO of CropGPT, said, “The market is fundamentally mispricing the sheer scale of this crisis. Traders are understandably watching the forecasts to understand the impact of El Niño, but the real catastrophe is already happening on the ground.” He explained that when 57% of farmers across key agricultural regions are reporting they cannot access or afford the fertiliser they need, “we are not just looking at thinner margins, we are facing a global food crisis. Global food systems cannot absorb a shock of this magnitude without supermarket prices exploding and people starving.”

The skeptics can stick their heads in the sand if they wish, but this isn’t going to go away.

Meanwhile, the Super El Niño is expected to reach peak intensity later this year.

The UN’s World Food Program is gearing up for a worst case scenario, because they believe that the Super El Niño will “significantly worsen food insecurity in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries into 2027″…

Analysis from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) shows that the strengthening El Niño weather pattern is set to significantly worsen food insecurity in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries into 2027. The agency is ramping up its preparedness and response efforts as impacts from El Niño are already hitting the most vulnerable on the frontlines of hunger.

“El Niño is a massive threat to the food security of millions who are already vulnerable,” said Carl Skau, WFP’s Acting Executive Director. “The sooner we help families to prepare for these climate shocks, the greater our ability to save lives and protect livelihoods. Severe floods and droughts can quickly push communities from coping to crisis. WFP is already ramping-up early response efforts in eight countries, and we stand ready to do even more.”

El Niño is expected to peak between September and December 2026, but in many locations the effects will be felt throughout 2027, due to impacts on future harvest cycles. Drought, flooding and extreme temperatures are already putting communities at risk.

Unless you are really a news hound, you probably aren’t even aware of the nightmare that is currently unfolding in Central America.

Extreme drought has caused “widespread crop failures” in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras…

Further north, drought is already taking a heavy toll on Central America’s dry corridor, which stretches across Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Around 10 million people live in the region, many of them dependent on subsistence farming.

An assessment by Oxfam and humanitarian organisation Action Against Hunger found widespread crop failures across Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, with tens of thousands of farming families affected.

Of 73,000 farms that planted maize for the first growing cycle of 2026, around 70,000 reported devastating harvests. Bean crops have also been badly hit and more than 23,000 households reported reduced access to water.

“We are seeing widespread crop losses caused by the drought triggered by El Nino,” said Oxfam’s humanitarian manager for Central America, Ivan Aguilar.

Millions of people in Central America are potentially facing extreme food shortages during the months ahead.

Russian and Ukrainian farmers are facing a different sort of a crisis.

They have been able to produce enough wheat, but it has been exceedingly difficult to get it out of the Black Sea since July.

As a result, Egypt has not “received any Black Sea grain in about a month”…

Connecting Europe and Asia, the Black Sea is a critical conduit for global crop shipments to some of the world’s most populous nations. Russia and Ukraine make up more than a quarter of the global wheat trade, a share similar to the seaborne oil trade passing through Hormuz in the Gulf.

Supplies have been choked off since July when the countries stepped up attacks on each other’s ports, pummeling grain terminals, silos and vessels. The escalation also hit Russia’s energy infrastructure, sending diesel prices to records. A key input into farming, the cost of the fuel is another inflationary risk for food.

Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat buyer, hasn’t received any Black Sea grain in about a month. Russia’s exports are throttled by Ukrainian drones, while Ukraine, with its ports blocked, is struggling to get its grain out by land or river. As harvests pile up, the country is also struggling to find enough storage.

Egypt imports approximately 50 percent of the wheat that it consumes.

Other nations in the Middle East are similarly dependent on wheat from Russia and Ukraine.

If something doesn’t change, there will soon be an enormous number of very hungry people.

In wealthy western countries, crippling summer droughts have resulted in “shriveling harvests”…

Droughts across the US and Europe have been shriveling harvests, and weather forecasts for a “super” El Niño this year means “there are some alarming signals” about the impact of weather on wheat crops, said Joao Lampreia, a market strategist at the Lisbon-based Freedom24.

What we are witnessing is far more serious than most people realize.

Here in the U.S., the latest wheat production numbers are downright gloomy…

The smallest U.S. wheat crop in decades continues to shrink.

The USDA now has combined production at 1.531 billion bushels, 5 million less than July, due to cuts in winter wheat acreage and non-durum spring wheat yield projections. Winter and spring wheat production numbers were both down from a month ago, at 989.89 million and 474.3 million bushels, respectively. If realized, this would be the smallest combined U.S. winter wheat crop since 1963. Combined production for all types of wheat in 2025 was 1.985 billion bushels.

We aren’t producing enough wheat.

We aren’t producing enough rice either.

In fact, Zero Hedge is reporting that “America’s rice harvest is forecast to fall to its lowest level in 33 years”…

America’s rice harvest is forecast to fall to its lowest level in 33 years. CBOT rough rice futures, the benchmark for US long-grain rice before milling, are surging higher at the end of summer after rising 69% so far this year.

USDA forecasts total production at 158.2 million hundredweight, roughly 23% below last year’s 206.7 million. Harvested acreage is projected at just 2.057 million acres, the lowest since the 1972/73 season.

“While beginning stocks are raised 4.6 million cwt to a 40-year high of 58.4 million cwt, production is reduced 0.2 million cwt to 158.2 million, a 33-year low, as a reduced forecast for harvested area more than offsets a higher yield,” USDA wrote in a report.

Oh, by the way the size of the U.S. cattle herd has fallen to its smallest size in 75 years.

Everywhere you look, there is more bad news, and now the price of diesel is skyrocketing.

CBS News recently interviewed 52-year-old North Carolina farmer Matt Bell, and he explained how the rising price of diesel is financially crushing his farm…

Prices have been so volatile that Bell said the price he’s quoted from his distributor in the morning is only valid until the afternoon — when it rises again. He can’t avoid the expense — his farm equipment runs on diesel. Bell showed CBS News his combine, which he says now requires about $600 worth of diesel fuel per day. That’s more than twice what he paid last year.

Bell said he blew through his yearly fuel budget of $35,000 in August. Now, he expects his total for the year to be closer to $50,000 to $60,000.

“Every piece of equipment on this farm runs on diesel,” he said. Without it, his farm wouldn’t be able to function.

Without our farmers, we do not eat.

And without diesel, our farmers cannot operate.

At this stage, Bell admits that he is more stressed out than he has ever been before…

“I’ve done this 34 years. I have never worried and stressed like I have the last year,” Bell told CBS News in an interview on Wednesday at his farm in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.

Bell has been forced to make significant changes to his operation as a result of the high costs. He’s shifting some of his acreage, trying to stretch out the lifespan of his equipment and producing his own fertilizer. His children have also opened up a storefront where visitors can pick pumpkins and take hayrides in the fall. But Bell is still feeling the pinch.

“We’ve cut everything we can cut,” he said. “The last several years in agriculture have been terrible, and we have, you know, just cut the fat anywhere we could. But we’re just getting to the point now there’s nothing left to cut. You cannot run without fuel. You cannot run without fertilizer. You have to have that.”

Sadly, if World War 3 continues to intensify it is likely that diesel prices will go a lot higher.

What will we do then?

In the Midwest, fuel surcharges are already going through the roof…

The fuel shock is especially significant across the Midwest, where corn and soybean harvest generates intense demand for combines, tractors, grain trucks and commercial transportation. Midwest diesel averaged $6.250 per gallon on September 14, up from $5.946 just one week earlier, while the national average increased 31.8 cents over the same period. Compared with a year earlier, U.S. diesel was $2.546 per gallon more expensive. That increase affects far more than the fuel line in a farm budget: it raises the cost of operating equipment and moving fertilizer, seed and other inputs while increasing the expense of transporting harvested grain.

Rail freight shows how rapidly those higher energy costs are moving through the agricultural supply chain. Union Pacific’s standard mileage-based fuel surcharge stood at 28 cents per mile in July 2025 but reached 71 cents in July 2026. For October, the railroad has set the surcharge at 68 cents per mile, compared with 33 cents in October 2025 – an increase of roughly 106% year over year. The October charge is based on an August 2026 highway diesel average of $5.462 per gallon. For grain shippers, elevators and co-ops that depend heavily on rail, the surcharge becomes another expense that must ultimately be absorbed somewhere between the farm gate and the final customer.

Diesel prices are also having an enormous impact on the trucking industry.

Earlier today, I was stunned to learn that 16 trucking companies have filed for bankruptcy in less than a month…

A new round of trucking bankruptcies has swept across the U.S. in recent weeks, with carriers ranging from small owner-operators to fleets operating dozens of trucks seeking Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 protection.

At least 16 trucking, delivery and transportation companies entered bankruptcy proceedings between late August and Sept. 21, according to federal court filings and carrier records reviewed by FreightWaves.

The filings include Chapter 11 cases involving Globemaster Incorporated, Xoco Transport, Jett Transport & Materials, CLJ Transporting, Mill Creek Logistics-Illinois, RP Hay Hauling, Truckload LLC and Pacer Transport. Several smaller carriers filed Chapter 7 cases, which typically involve liquidation rather than reorganization.

This is what a “perfect storm” looks like, and we are still only in the early stages.

There will be food shortages in impoverished countries all over the globe in 2027.

In wealthy countries, food prices are already ridiculously high, but they will soon go even higher.

We have got an unprecedented global food crisis on our hands, and there is no relief in sight for the foreseeable future.

The post This Is What A “Perfect Storm” Looks Like: A Global Fertilizer Crisis, A Global Fuel Crisis, A Super El Niño And World War 3 All At The Same Time appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Another Huge Burst Of Inflation Is Ahead, And That Is Really Bad News For An Economy That Is Already Coming Apart At The Seams

Michael — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 17:55:04 +0000

Those at the top of the economic food chain just don’t get it. They are mystified by surveys that show that most Americans are deeply upset about the state of the U.S. economy. Since their stock portfolios are doing really well and the official numbers that the government has been giving us look fine they just assume that the general public’s perception of the economy must not be accurate. But the truth is that it is their perception of the economy that is not accurate.

They should try to live the way that the rest of us have been living.

Homes are more unaffordable than ever.

Our insurance bills have become extremely bloated.

Millions of Americans avoid going to the hospital because a single visit could financially ruin them.

Power bills have soared to absurd heights in many parts of the country.

Purchasing a new automobile is way out of reach for most of us.

Many of the items that I commonly purchase at the grocery store have doubled or even tripled in price since the beginning of this decade.

When I get up to the checkout counter, I feel like asking the clerk which organ I should donate in order to pay for my groceries.

We want it to stop.

What part of that is so difficult for the elite to understand?

Pew Research has discovered that American voters are more concerned about prices and affordability than anything else by “a wide margin”…

By a wide margin, voters most want candidates running for Congress to talk about economic issues – with many specifically mentioning prices and affordability.

One of the primary reasons why Republicans did so well in 2024 is because voters were sick and tired of inflation.

But now the 2026 election is coming up, and the shoe is on the other foot.

This month, consumer confidence fell once again…

Consumer sentiment falls in September for two consecutive months. The preliminary September reading for the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index came in at 47.8. This marks a 7.5% (3.9 points) decrease from August. Consumer sentiment sits 13.2% below where it was a year ago and is currently below the 1st percentile in the series’ history.

How low does it have to go before the talking heads on television start taking this seriously?

At this point, it is already at the second lowest level ever recorded…

Consumer confidence fell to its second-lowest level on record in September, and Goldman Sachs says the economy is only part of the reason. Americans, the bank told its clients, have grown unhappier with the state of the world in general.

No, it isn’t because we are unhappy “with the state of the world in general”.

Consumer confidence is so low because stuff costs too much money.

If that isn’t simple enough for the analysts at Goldman Sachs to understand, I can put it in even baser terms.

Unfortunately, more inflation is on the way.

Mortgage rates are rising, and this is going to make homes even more unaffordable than they are now…

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped 15 basis points to 7.12% in the week ended September 18, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday. It was last higher in May 2024.

Mortgage rates have risen more than a full percentage point since joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran began pushing up the global price of oil in late February, putting the squeeze on prospective homebuyers and a chill into the US housing market.

Mortgage rates track US Treasury yields, which are sensitive to oil prices and the threat they pose to inflation, which has been running above the Fed’s 2% goal for 5-1/2 years.

Meanwhile, gasoline and diesel have become much more expensive this month…

The average retail price of on-highway diesel spiked by 24 cents in the latest week, and by 88 cents in four weeks, to a record $6.529 a gallon at gas stations on Monday, and that’s for the US overall, according to the EIA this morning. Year-over-year, the price of diesel has spiked by 74%.

California diesel prices spiked to $8.246 a gallon. While driving by gas stations, we’ve seen over $8 a gallon for weeks.

These are sobering sights, setting off the inflation alarm bells.

Higher fuel prices will mean that it will cost a lot more to transport stuff to the stores.

So you better brace yourself for significantly higher prices.

Ominously, Bank of America is warning that the price of oil could hit $150 a barrel if the war in the Middle East continues to drag on…

Oil prices could reach upward of $150 a barrel if inventories continue to deplete as the war in Iran rages on, according to Bank of America, and the bank has raised its year-end forecast for Brent crude from $83 a barrel to a new target of $95 a barrel.

“Although alternative routes and escorted Hormuz shipments have mitigated some of the shortfall, damaged infrastructure and rising geopolitical tensions make rapid normalization unlikely,” strategists led by Francisco Blanch, head of global commodities, equity derivatives and cross-asset quantitative investment strategies, wrote in a note released to the media on Tuesday.

If the price of oil does reach $150 a barrel and it stays there for an extended period of time, I believe that we will see rioting in the streets.

I really do.

It seems like just about everyone is raising prices these days.

And in some cases where prices aren’t actually being raised, package sizes are getting smaller.

For example, it appears that packages of Sam’s Club toilet paper don’t contain as much toilet paper as they once did…

When comparing the old package to the new package they look almost identical, but when you put them up against a wall you can see the size of the rolls seem to be visibly smaller

The package is labeled the same as the old package, same weight and ply. However when you line them up there is very clearly a large difference in size

This is very strange. Maybe it’s just a manufacturing thing where the rolls are being rolled more tightly. Or maybe we’re being shorted

This needs to be investigated. Costco did the exact same thing back in May, they shrunk the size of their toilet paper rolls

I really detest shrinkflation.

Companies that engage in that practice should be shamed.

Needless to say, everything becomes unaffordable if you don’t have any income coming in at all.

All over the nation, we are witnessing layoffs.

For instance, it is being reported that CSX could soon be laying off as many as 1,100 railroad workers…

Hundreds of railroad workers could be losing their jobs in the coming weeks across West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky as 1,100 workers – mostly engineers who deal with safety inspections, maintenance and construction – could lose their jobs across the U.S., a union representing those workers said.

Transportation giant CSX called the The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division on Sept. 14 and told them they’d be furloughing the 1,100 workers by mid-November, according to general chairman Brian Thompson. Those positions range from $80,000 jobs to management positions in duties that involve safety inspections, rail maintenance and construction.

The direction of the transportation industry is often an early indicator of where the U.S. economy is heading as a whole.

So this is a very troubling sign.

Thanks to rapidly rising beef prices, a company that operates “314 Wendy’s locations across 15 states” has been forced to file for bankruptcy…

Meritage Hospitality Group, one of the largest Wendy’s franchisees in the U.S., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a high-stakes dispute with the fast-food chain’s corporate parent.

The bankruptcy filing comes amid severe financial pressures at the franchisee, which has struggled with soaring beef costs and weak customer traffic, while Meritage has also blamed aggressive promotional discounting for squeezing margins.

The Michigan-based operator runs 314 Wendy’s locations across 15 states. The company filed its voluntary petition Thursday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Michigan, according to court documents.

Many years ago, I used to eat at Wendy’s a lot when I worked in the D.C. area.

But who can afford to eat at Wendy’s on a regular basis now?

It turns out that even CNN is bracing for mass layoffs.

One executive is claiming that it will be a “bloodbath”…

“Bloodbath coming, including at CNN,” a TV exec said. “That’s the next big step — slashing and burning.”

Paramount has said it sees at least $6 billion in cost savings, which would translate to several thousand jobs lost in the months ahead.

Inside CNN, staffers have been more or less kept in the dark by top brass, who are themselves unsure who will be running the network once Ellison takes over.

For years, I pleaded with our politicians not to spend trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have.

But they didn’t listen.

And I warned that the trillions of dollars that the Federal Reserve was pumping into the system would cause tremendous inflation.

Now we have tremendous inflation.

The government continues to feed us numbers that show that the rate of inflation is in the low single digits, but we all know that is not true.

If it was true, many of our recurring expenses would not have doubled or tripled since the beginning of this decade.

Let’s get real.

The American people are telling us loud and clear that they care far more about the cost of living than they do about anything else.

But those at the top of the economic food chain insist on pretending that everything is just fine, and that is extremely unfortunate.

The post Another Huge Burst Of Inflation Is Ahead, And That Is Really Bad News For An Economy That Is Already Coming Apart At The Seams appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

France Is Running Out Of Fuel: 16% Of French Gas Stations Are Reporting Outages And Rationing Has Started In Several Other Countries

Michael — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 17:26:08 +0000

It has begun. Hundreds of gas stations all over France are reporting that they are out of at least one type of fuel, and there are quite a few nations in Asia that are now imposing very strict measures in order to conserve energy. I have no idea why this isn’t making more news here in the United States. Maybe the big news outlets don’t think that there is any way that this could ever happen here. Or maybe there is a coordinated effort to keep the public calm. I don’t know. But without a doubt, this is a very big deal.

I knew that Europe was facing a severe energy crunch, but I didn’t realize that things had gotten so bad already.

It is being reported that 16 percent of all gas stations in France are out of at least one type of fuel…

Official French pump data on Monday showed that 16 percent of stations are short of at least one main fuel, diesel or petrol.

That was slightly better than Sunday evening (17 percent) but worse than Friday (13 percent). About 9,900 stations are in the count, according to prix-carburants.gouv.fr.

Shortages were worst this morning in Pays de la Loire (20 percent); Grand Est (19 percent); Île-de-France, Centre-Val de Loire, and Normandy (18 percent); Nouvelle-Aquitaine (17 percent); and Brittany, Hauts-de-France, and Occitanie (16 percent).

We aren’t just talking about a few isolated cases.

We are talking about hundreds upon hundreds of French gas stations that are experiencing outages.

This is serious.

If you can actually find fuel in France, prices are absolutely outrageous.

The average price of a liter of diesel in France is up to €2.406, which is approximately $10.45 a gallon.

Europe is facing its worst energy crisis in history, and there is no end in sight.

In fact, Saudi Arabia has told Europe that there will be no shipments of oil for them for the entire month of October…

The trigger this week was a drone strike on Sept. 10 that closed Saudi Arabia’s East West pipeline, the line carrying crude from the eastern oil fields to Yanbu on the Red Sea without touching Hormuz.

Aramco has now told European refining customers they will receive no crude at all in October under long-term contracts, reported Bloomberg. The decision applies to every European buyer.

What this means is that the shortages that we are witnessing in Europe right now are likely to get even worse.

Meanwhile, several countries in Asia have been forced to institute fuel rationing.

In Pakistan, many types of businesses are being forced to close early in order to save energy…

From September 17, shops and malls across Pakistan must close by 09:00 PM, wedding halls by 10:00 PM, and restaurants by 11:00 PM. This Cabinet Division order runs for the next three months.

Moreover, government vehicles lose 50% of their fuel allocation, with security fleets exempt.

The government banned new vehicle purchases and official foreign travel, and ordered a 5% cut to non-employee spending for fiscal 2026-27.

In Bangladesh, almost all businesses must now shut down by 8 o’clock at the latest…

Shops, markets, and shopping centres must shut by 8 PM, an hour earlier than before, and lit billboards go dark from 7 PM. Only hospitals, pharmacies, food shops, and emergency services are exempt.

Industry is taking the same hit. Garment factories, the country’s main source of foreign currency, face rationing and temporary closures, and one Gazipur plant reported four or five power cuts a day.

In Indonesia, there are now extremely strict rules about when citizens are allowed to fill up their vehicles…

By September 11, queues at Makassar pumps ran as long as one kilometer. Ride-hailing drivers described three-hour waits and called it the worst shortage they had ever seen.

South Sulawesi’s answer was rationing by decree on September 12. Cars can only refuel on days matching their plate number, private vehicles must show a fuel gauge below one bar, and trucks and buses may fill up only between 06:00 PM and 04:00 AM.

I always felt like Asia was going to get hit harder than anyone else because they are so dependent on oil from the Middle East.

In Nepal, an extremely serious shortage of cooking gas has created a major national crisis…

Bottling plants in the Kathmandu Valley were delivering just 5% of the 35,000 to 40,000 cylinders the capital needs each day, the Federation of Nepal Gas Distributors told the Kathmandu Post. Some households have gone a month without a refill.

Restaurants say they are close to shutting down, and the Kathmandu Post now describes residents cutting back on food. Nepal imports every litre of fuel through India, so it sits at the end of a supply chain that is itself under strain.

We desperately need the war in the Middle East to end.

But instead, fighting could escalate at any moment.

On Sunday, I discussed many of the signs that a major escalation could soon happen.

Well, it turns out that President Trump actually ordered a huge wave of airstrikes but they were called off at the last minute…

Trump had ordered strikes against the Houthis to begin around 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, but the military was notified shortly after 2 p.m. on Sunday that the order was canceled, the two U.S. officials said.

Sometimes I feel like I am riding a roller coaster.

You just never know when there is going to be another change of heart.

We are being told that fighter jets had been loaded up with munitions and were all ready to depart when the attack was suddenly canceled…

After days of shifting positions in the office of U.S. President Donald Trump, and despite his latest conversation with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the president called off a series of planned airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen at the last minute. According to The New York Times, citing senior U.S. officials, munitions had already been loaded onto fighter jets that were ready for takeoff when Trump announced the change in plans.

Of course the pendulum could swing back in the direction of more conflict tomorrow.

In an address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, President Trump warned that he could “annihilate the Islamic Republic” by driving them “into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations”…

President Donald Trump told the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday that he has a “big decision” to make when it comes to the war against Iran.

“Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before? Maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world. Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?” Trump said.

“Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations? But I believe we’ll make a deal right after the election, because it doesn’t make sense for them not to,” Trump continued. “They’re waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don’t realize is that I’m not running. I did that already and won in a landslide.”

That is extremely strong language.

On the other side, the Iranians are warning that they are prepared to use “new weapons with new capabilities” if the U.S. attacks again…

Iran warned Monday it would use “new weapons with new capabilities” if the U.S. launched a fresh assault after President Donald Trump ramped up the rhetoric against Tehran over the weekend.

“If a new aggression takes place, we will definitely change the weapons and geography of the war,” Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.

Mohebbi did not provide details on what the new weapons were or which new locations could be hit.

Is Iran bluffing, or do they actually have some “new weapons” that they are prepared to unleash?

I suppose that time will tell.

For now, the flow of oil out of the Middle East continues to be way below normal levels, and the global energy crisis just continues to intensify.

On Tuesday, the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States hit another new record high…

It is hard to believe that the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States is now up to $6.52.

A year ago, it was just $3.68.

Most of our trucks, most of our trains and most of our tractors run on diesel.

So just about everything you buy at the store is about to get significantly more expensive.

The global energy crisis has entered a very painful chapter.

I don’t see any way that we are going to avoid a major economic downturn.

Our entire standard of living depends on cheap energy, but energy is no longer cheap.

The changes that are ahead are going to be excruciating, and the world is simply not ready for what is about to happen next.

The post France Is Running Out Of Fuel: 16% Of French Gas Stations Are Reporting Outages And Rationing Has Started In Several Other Countries appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

The Alert Level For The Iranian Military Has Been Raised To The Highest Possible Level As A Massive Escalation Appears To Be Imminent

Michael — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 20:31:17 +0000

The Great Middle East War is poised to escalate to an entirely new level, and that could have huge implications for the entire planet. Diesel prices are already spiraling out of control, and strict energy rationing measures are already being implemented in impoverished nations such as Pakistan. Unfortunately, it appears that another round of fighting could be about to erupt in the Middle East. Within the past 24 hours, there have been a lot of rumors that the alert level for the Iranian military has been raised to the highest level possible. According to a major Iranian news agency, these rumors are accurate…

An Iranian official said Iran has raised its military readiness to the highest level, with response plans prepared at air, ground and naval levels to deliver a heavy, wide and surprising response to U.S. and Israeli forces and interests.

Russia al-Youm network, citing an unnamed Iranian official, reported that Iranian forces have raised their operational alert to the highest level to be ready for any possible military development or adventure.

The official said response plans have been prepared at the air, ground and naval levels, enabling a heavy, wide and surprising response to U.S. and Israeli military forces and interests.

Why is this happening now?

Well, things have gotten quite crazy in the region over the past several days.

On Saturday, the Houthis crossed a very clear red line by firing missiles at the capital city of Saudi Arabia…

Saudi Arabia confirmed Saturday that the Yemen-based Houthi rebel group attempted to attack its capital with a ballistic missile, The Associated Press reported.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the group attacked with a “large number of ballistic and cruise missiles” and drones to target the kingdom’s capital city, Riyadh, and the facilities of Saudi oil company Aramco in Yanbu.

The Saudis are absolutely furious, and they are asking the U.S. to intervene.

On Sunday, both President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unexpectedly made sudden returns to Washington…

US President Donald Trump cut short his stay at Camp David on Sunday and returned to the White House. Simultaneously, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth departed a sports event in Texas to make a swift return to the capital, as the US prepared for potential wide-ranging military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

Hegseth left a college football game at Texas A&M University, while an official delegation in Copenhagen was recalled directly to the capital. According to a report on CNN by Alex Plitsas, the US was weighing extensive operations against Ansar Allah (the Houthis), in retaliation for rebel strikes inside Saudi Arabia. The kingdom has struggled to counter the Iranian-backed Yemeni rebels, to the point that it has approached Israel to enhance its defensive capabilites.

CNN National Security Analyst Alex Plitsas confirmed on X that the presidential session focused on reviewing strike options following a missile assault directed at Riyadh. “As I said last night, was told that the POTUS meeting at Camp David was to deliberate and review Yemen strike options. Today, U.S. embassies in Middle Eastern countries that are likely to be targets of retaliatory strikes issued warnings. Now POTUS head to the White House early,” he wrote on X.

Also on Sunday, U.S. embassies all over the Middle East simultaneously released new security alerts warning of “unforeseen escalation” in the region…

U.S. embassies across the Middle East early Sunday morning local time issued security alerts for American citizens in the region.

“Due to tensions in the Middle East, the security environment remains complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation,” the State Department said in its alerts.

The alerts did not state a specific threat, but called for Americans to “exercise heightened vigilance and be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions.”

On top of everything else, we have learned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to the U.S. will be “significantly shortened”…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has significantly shortened his already brief visit to the United States.

He will now fly directly to New York on the day of his address to the United Nations General Assembly and depart immediately after delivering the speech, i24NEWS learns.

Netanyahu had originally been expected to begin his diplomatic visit in Texas before traveling to New York for his address on Thursday.

I think that far more is going on behind the scenes than we are being told.

Just a little while ago, President Trump may have given us some hints about what is going on when he told Fox News that “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future”…

Mr Trump, who left the presidential retreat at Camp David earlier than expected on Saturday to return to the White House, told Fox News on Sunday he was in a “deciding mode” and that “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future”.

His options were “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal”, he said, adding: “My question is if and when do I blow the entire nation up?”

That sounds rather ominous.

What would blowing up the entire nation of Iran look like?

On the other side, the Iranians are reportedly considering a new law that would withdraw their nation from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty…

An Iranian lawmaker said a bill proposing Iran’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has been submitted to parliament’s presiding board and is awaiting the speaker’s approval to be put to an open session.

Hossein Ali Haji Deligani raised the issue during Sunday’s parliamentary session, saying the triple-urgency bill has been ready for some time.

He said that given the country’s current circumstances and recent attacks against it, remaining in the NPT offers Iran nothing but harm.

Once they have withdrawn from that treaty, they would be free to start testing nuclear weapons.

At this stage, there is no end in sight for the crisis in the Middle East.

Instead, it appears likely that it will just continue to intensify.

What this means is that the global energy crisis is about to get really painful.

As I discussed on Friday, the Saudis have already told Europe that they won’t be getting any shipments of oil until November at the earliest.

Needless to say, European leaders are scrambling to come up with an alternate plan.

Here in the United States, the average price of diesel set another record high on Sunday…

A year ago, the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States was just $3.70.

Now it is $6.50.

We have never seen anything like this before.

And some gas station signs are showing a price of $9.99 as a way to indicate that they are entirely out of diesel…

Amid reports of gas stations in California showing maxing out at $9.99 for diesel, Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, told the news outlet Straight Arrow that this was also due to the displays’ three-digit limit.

“I had a few moments and made contact with a couple stations,” said De Haan. “The stations did say their sign said $9.99, but they had done that because they had run out of diesel.”

Unfortunately, it isn’t just supplies of diesel that are running low.

According to Newsweek, one gas station in Ohio temporarily ran out of gasoline last week…

A social media post showing gas being sold for $9.99 per gallon in Ohio was in fact due to the station running low on fuel, Newsweek has learned, rather than the Buckeye State suffering particularly acute effects of the Iran war.

If the war in the Middle East escalates even more, things could get a lot worse.

Most Americans assume that our homeland will never be touched by any of the wars that are raging on the other side of the planet, but that is not a safe assumption at all.

In fact, the FBI is claiming that the Iranians actually “aspired to conduct a surprise attack using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” on targets in California…

The FBI warned police departments in California in recent days that Iran could retaliate for American attacks by launching drones at the West Coast, according to an alert reviewed by ABC News.

“We recently acquired unverified information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran,” according to the alert distributed at the end of February. “We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”

In my opinion, the Iranians still have a lot of surprises up their sleeves.

So do the Israelis.

We are literally watching World War 3 play out right in front of our eyes, but most people still do not seem to understand this.

Once the first weapons of mass destruction are used in the Middle East, perhaps that will be enough to get people to wake up.

The post The Alert Level For The Iranian Military Has Been Raised To The Highest Possible Level As A Massive Escalation Appears To Be Imminent appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

By Inviting Canada To Join, The EU Has Revealed Their Plan To Transform The European Union Into A “Global Union”

Michael — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:51:03 +0000

The European Union has a population that is larger than the United States, it has the second largest economy in the entire world, and now it wants Canada. Of course any form of membership in the EU will involve giving up at least some sovereignty to the bureaucrats in Brussels. Is Canada really this stupid? The EU likes to dangle the carrot of economic prosperity to tempt prospective members to agree to entangle themselves in their tyrannical web. Of course once you are locked in, it will be exceedingly difficult to ever get out.

The EU has always been an expansionist entity from the very beginning.

There have been several ways of EU expansion, and once the Cold War finally ended the floodgates opened.

Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia all joined the EU in 2004.

Bulgaria and Romania followed suit in 2007.

In 2013, it was Croatia’s turn.

Currently, there are nine other nations that are officially recognized “candidate countries”: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

In order to be accepted as full members, they must fully comply with EU membership criteria and they must be unanimously voted in.

So all nine of those “candidate countries” are working to conform to the tyrannical will of the EU.

Needless to say, all of the nations discussed above are located in Europe.

But EU bureaucrats have always had bigger ambitions.

They dream of transforming their political empire into a “global union”, and now Canada has handed them their first opportunity to expand outside of the borders of Europe on a silver platter.

Officials from the EU and Canada have been quietly negotiating behind the scenes for quite some time, and now we have learned what they have decided to do.

During her State of the Union address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen invited Canada to become “the first associate member of the European Union”…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday she wants Canada to join the European Union as an associate member, as the North American nation is embroiled in a trade war with the U.S.

“I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to being the first associate member of the European Union,” von der Leyen told Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was in attendance for her annual State of the Union address.

This is enormous news.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was present at the State of the Union address, and that was no coincidence.

There is no way that Canada will become a full member of the EU right now, but during her speech Ursula von der Leyen boldly declared that she wants “to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible”…

Carney was a guest at von der Leyen’s state of the union address in Strasbourg, France, where she remarked that “in this new world we must urgently reimagine our partnerships and build global coalitions for our resilience and democracies.”

“In short, we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible,” she said.

The highest level possible would be full membership.

That will take time, but that is the goal.

The EU and Canada are scheduled to hold a summit in late October to discuss the details of associate membership.

A number of potential measures are on the table, including “redirecting pipelines to grant Europe access to Canadian gas” and “granting Canadians the right to live and work in Europe visa-free”…

According to a Wall Street Journal report at the weekend, among the things European and Canadian officials have discussed: reducing trade barriers; laying underwater cables linking Europe and Canada; redirecting pipelines to grant Europe access to Canadian gas; building new AI and tech infrastructure; and even granting Canadians the right to live and work in Europe visa-free.

Under these terms, Canada would have a relationship with the EU that is unprecedented for a country outside Europe. The EU’s ambassador to Canada told the Canadian Press last week that the partnership would be unlike anything that currently exists, without giving specifics.

Wow.

I never imagined that something like this might happen.

But it is happening.

We all knew that Carney is a hardcore globalist, and from the very start of his term he has been looking for ways to turn Canada away from the United States and toward the EU…

Earlier this month, the prime minister said the era of Canada relying on Washington was “over,” indicating his country was seeking out new trade partners.

“Our plan, since I came into office, has been development and diversification,” the Canadian prime minister said in a video his office posted on YouTube. “Not denial, waiting to go back to some good old days, and not continued dependence.”

In the old days, there was no way that Canadians would have gone along with this.

But public opinion has changed.

At this stage, approximately 80 percent of Canadians want deeper cooperation with Europe, and nearly half of the population would support full membership in the EU…

Canadians are largely in favor of strengthening relations with the EU, though support for full membership remains split, according to recent data.

A survey conducted earlier this month by Canadian polling firm Abacus Data found about 80% of Canadians said Canada should deepen cooperation with the EU on foreign policy, defense and economic priorities — a six-point increase from when the question was last asked in February.

A further 56% of those surveyed said Canada has more in common with EU countries than with the US, according to the survey. Nearly half (49%) said they would support Canada joining the EU, with support higher among centrist and left-leaning voters.

Those numbers are chilling

Meanwhile, relations with the U.S. continue to deteriorate and a trade war has erupted.

According to Fox News, Ohio could be hit harder by our trade war with Canada than any other state…

“American manufacturers or American businesses who rely on Canadian inputs are going to start to feel the pain right in the lead up to going to the ballot box,” David Clement, policy director of the free market nonprofit Consumer Choice Center, told Fox News Digital.

Clement identified Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as among the states most exposed to negative fallout, based on their current trade with Canada and the goods targeted by the tariffs.

“Ohio is by far the most vulnerable state in terms of exposure from the Canadian retaliatory tariffs,” Clement said, estimating roughly $2.3 billion in exports to Canada are exposed.

This is so unfortunate.

The United States needs Canada, and Canada needs the United States.

We should be deepening ties with one another, but now Canada intends to get married to the European Union.

Getting sucked into the EU’s tyrannical web is a horrible mistake, but it appears that there will be no turning back.

Now that EU bureaucrats have secured Canada, who will they set their sights on next?

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