After many years of steady economic deterioration, a very dark cloud of economic pessimism hangs over our country. The cost of just about everything has been rising faster than paychecks have been, thousands of stores are closing all over the nation, and large corporations are conducting mass layoffs on a scale that we haven’t seen since the Great Recession. Most of the population is just barely scraping by in this very harsh economic environment, and I have been hearing from so many people that are quite frightened about what is going to happen next.
Unfortunately, it isn’t just a small segment of the population is that is scared about the future.
According to a survey that was recently conducted by Deloitte, a whopping 57 percent of U.S. adults expect the U.S. economy to get even weaker during the year ahead…
As the peak holiday shopping season approaches, most U.S. consumers have a downbeat outlook on the economy, according to an annual Deloitte survey published Wednesday.
Most consumers surveyed — 57% — said they expect the economy to weaken in the year ahead, the consulting firm found in a poll of roughly 4,000 respondents. That compares with 30% who expected a weaker economy ahead of the year-ago holiday season and 54% in 2008, one of the years of the Great Recession.
It marks the most negative economic outlook since Deloitte began tracking that in 1997.
Read that last sentence again.
Americans were not even this pessimistic during the dark days of 2008 and 2009.
That is stunning.
As we move into the month of November, there was a tremendous amount of concern that food stamp benefits were about to be cut off.
But two federal judges just ruled that the federal government must use an emergency fund to keep food stamp payments going…
Two federal judges said Friday that the Trump administration must tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds to at least partially cover food stamp benefits for tens of millions of Americans in November.
The rulings from judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island reject a controversial US Department of Agriculture claim that it could not use a contingency fund, which the agency says has $5.3 billion remaining in it, to help cover the benefits amid the month-long government shutdown.
The SNAP program costs roughly $9 billion a month, so the orders will not cover all of the needed payments for November.
The emergency fund does not have enough money to pay full benefits for the month of November, but at least those that are relying on food stamps should be able to get some money this month.
Meanwhile, those that purchase health insurance through the ACA exchanges are about to be hit with absolutely massive premium hikes…
Congress has yet to extend the enhanced subsidies that make insurance premiums cheaper for about 22 million of the 24 million Americans who buy insurance over the ACA exchanges.
Recipients’ health premiums are set to increase by 114% in 2026, on average, without the enhanced subsidies, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.
Of course those that don’t get their health insurance through the ACA exchanges are being hit by dramatically higher health insurance premiums too.
Our system is deeply broken and that isn’t going to change any time soon.
For those that simply cannot afford health insurance at this point, my advice is very simple.
Try not to get sick.
Because if you do get sick, they will try to squeeze every single penny out of you that they possibly can.
In fact, just about every industry is trying to squeeze as much out of us as they possibly can, and we are just about squeezed out at this point.
And now here come more layoffs.
On Wednesday, General Motors announced that it will be laying off a large number of workers as we head into the holiday season…
General Motors (GM) said Wednesday it is laying off 1,750 workers indefinitely in the coming months and temporarily cutting 1,670 others as it scales back electric vehicle production.
The Detroit-based automaker said it is scaling back production plans and realigning electric vehicle capacity at Factory Zero, its flagship electric vehicle assembly plant in Michigan, in response to the slower near-term electic vehicle adoption and an evolving regulatory environment.
In a regulatory filing from earlier this month, the automaker indicated it would incur a $1.6 billion loss for the third quarter of 2025 that is connected to a plan to scale back or adjust its electric vehicle production and factories.
A few days ago, I listed a bunch of other major corporations that are also conducting mass layoffs.
We haven’t seen anything like this since the Great Recession.
Of course some areas of the country are already experiencing recession conditions.
According to Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics, the list of states that have fallen on hard times is rapidly growing…
According to Zandi, the following states are in a recession:
Wyoming, Montana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Kansas, Massachusetts, Washington, Georgia, New Hampshire, Maryland, Rhode Island, Illinois, Delaware, Virginia, Oregon, Connecticut, South Dakota, New Jersey, Maine, Iowa, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.
It’s more sobering news for the economy, as last week U.S. hiring plans fell to their lowest level since 2009.
And just like we witnessed during the Great Recession, home values are taking a very alarming turn…
Of the 20 major metros tracked by Case-Shiller, nine recorded outright price declines, while 13 rose more slowly than the national average.
‘August’s data shows US home prices continuing to slow,’ Nicholas Godec, head of fixed income tradables and commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices, told Realtor.com.
‘For the fourth straight month, home values have lost ground to inflation, meaning homeowners are seeing their real wealth decline even as nominal prices inch higher.’
Florida and Texas were hit hardest. Tampa saw the steepest drop — down 3.3 percent year-on-year — and has now notched ten straight months of falling prices.
I believe that we have reached a very significant turning point.
In some areas of the nation, I expect that home prices will fall substantially during the months ahead.
I also expect foreclosures to surge like they did in 2008 and 2009 as many more Americans lose their jobs.
The U.S. economy eventually recovered from the horrifying days of 2008 and 2009, but the truth is that we are moving into a much different scenario this time around.
All of the elements of “the Perfect Storm” are coming together, and I am convinced that the months ahead will be extremely chaotic.
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.