26 Incredible Facts About The Economy That Every American Should Know For The Trump-Clinton Debate - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

26 Incredible Facts About The Economy That Every American Should Know For The Trump-Clinton Debate Posted: 25 Sep 2016   Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG Are you ready for the most anticipated presidential debate in decades?  It is being projected that Monday’s debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton could potentially break the all-time record of 80 million viewers that watched Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter debate back in 1980.  Many Americans probably hope to see some personal fireworks between the two nominees, but the two candidates have both expressed a desire to focus on substantive issues.   There will likely be quite a few questions about the economy, and without a doubt this is an area where Trump and Clinton have some very sharp differences.  The mainstream media would have us believe that the U.S. economy is in pretty good shape, and if that was true that would seem to favor Clinton.  But is it actually true?   The following are 26 incredible facts about the economy that every American should know for the Trump-Clinton debate… #1 When Barack Obama entered the White House, the U.S. government was 10.6 trillion dollars in debt.  Today, the U.S. government is 19.5 trillion dollars in debt, and Obama still has several months to go until the end of his second term.  That means that an average of more than 1.1 trillion dollars will be added to the national debt during his presidency.  We are stealing a tremendous amount of consumption from the future to make the economy look much, much better than it otherwise would be, and we are systematically destroying the future in the process. #2 As Obama prepares to leave office, the rate at which we are adding to the national debt is actually increasing.  During the fiscal year that is just ending, the U.S. government has added another 1.36 trillion dollars to the national debt. #3 It isn’t just the federal government that is on a massive debt binge.  Total U.S. corporate debt has nearly doubled since the end of 2007. #4 Default rates on U.S. corporate debt are the highest that they have been since the last financial crisis. #5 Corporate profits have fallen for five quarters in a row, and it is being projected that it will be six in a row once the final numbers for the third quarter come in. #6 During the month of August, commercial bankruptcy filings were up 29 percent compared to the same period a year ago. #7 The rate of new business formation in the United States dropped dramatically during the last recession and has hovered at that new lower level ever since. #8 The Wall Street Journal says that this is the weakest “economic recovery” since 1949. #9 Barack Obama is on track to be the only president in all of U.S. history to never have a single year when the U.S. economy grew by at least 3 percent. #10 In August, the Cass Freight Index dipped to the lowest level that we have seen for that month since 2010.  What this means is that the total amount of stuff being shipped around the country by air, by rail and by truck is really dropping, and this is a clear sign that real economic activity is slowing down in a major way. #11 Capital expenditure growth has turned negative, and history has shown that this is almost always followed by a new recession. #12 The percentage of Americans with a full-time job has been sitting at about 48 percent since 2010.  You have to go back to 1983 to find a time when full-time employment in this country was so low. #13 The labor force participation rate peaked back in 1997 and has been steadily falling ever since. #14 The “inactivity rate” for men in their prime working years is actually higher today than it was during the last recession. #15 The United States has lost more than five million manufacturing jobs since the year 2000 even though our population has become much larger over that time frame. #16 If you can believe it, the total number of government employees now outnumbers the total number of manufacturing employees in the United States by almost 10 million. #17 One study found that median incomes have fallen in more than 80 percent of the major metropolitan areas in this country since the year 2000. #18 According to the Social Security Administration, 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year. #19 The rate of homeownership in the U.S. has fallen every single year while Barack Obama has been in the White House. #20 Approximately one out of every five young adults are currently living with their parents. #21 The auto loan debt bubble recently surpassed the one trillion dollar mark for the first time ever. #22 Auto loan delinquencies are at the highest level that we have seen since the last recession. #23 In 1971, 61 percent of all Americans were considered to be “middle class”, but now middle class Americans have actually become a minority in this nation. #24 One recent survey discovered that 62 percent of all Americans have less than $1,000 in savings. #25 According to the Federal Reserve, 47 percent of all Americans could not even pay an unexpected $400 emergency room bill without borrowing the money from somewhere or selling something. #26 The number of New Yorkers sleeping in homeless shelters just set a brand new record high, and the number of families permanently living in homeless shelters is up a whopping 60 percent over the past five years. Despite all of the facts that you just read, the truth is that there is one particular group of people that have been doing quite well during the Obama years.  I really like how Charles Hugh Smith made this point in one of his recent articles… The top 5% of households that dominate government, Corporate America, finance, the Deep State and the media have been doing extraordinarily well during the past eight years of stock market bubble (oops, I mean boom) and “recovery,” and so they report that the economy is doing splendidly because they’ve done splendidly. By recklessly creating money out of thin air and pumping it into the financial markets, the Federal Reserve has greatly enriched the elite, but they have also dramatically increased the gap between the very wealthy and the rest of us.  Since he has been in the White House during this time, Barack Obama has gotten the credit for this temporary stock market bubble, and most of the elite love Obama anyway. But in the process the stage has been set for the greatest economic and financial implosion in U.S. history, and the pain that is coming is going to affect every man, woman and child in this country. During the debate, Trump and Clinton will talk a lot about tinkering with tax rates and regulations, but those measures are essentially going to be meaningless when compared to the massive economic tsunami that is coming.  The next president is going to inherit the biggest economic problems that this nation has ever faced, and it is going to take a miracle of Biblical proportions to turn the U.S. economy in the right direction.

The Economy, Foreign Affairs The Presidential Campaign - Rick Joyner Prophetic Perspective

Watch here: The Economy, Foreign Affairs The Presidential Campaign - Rick Joyner Prophetic Perspective

The Economy, Foreign Affairs, The Presidential Campaign

Rick Joyner

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Rick talks about the rise in unemployment and the government's attempt to distort the perception of it. He comments on Obama's relationship with other nations, how ISIS was born, and the presidential election.

What's Next For America and The Economy? (Day 3) - Michael Snyder on The Jim Bakker Show

Watch here: What's Next For America and The Economy? (Day 3) - Michael Snyder on The Jim Bakker Show

Michael Snyder
Jim Bakker Show 2016 | Show# 3002 | Aired on May 26, 2016


Jim Bakker Show © 2016 • Morningside Studios

What's Next For America and the Economy? (Day 1) - Michael Snyder on The Jim Bakker Show

Watch here: What's Next For America and the Economy? (Day 1) - Michael Snyder on The Jim Bakker Show

Jim & Lori Bakker with Michael Snyder

Michael Snyder
Jim Bakker Show 2016 | Show# 3001 | Aired on May 25, 2016


Jim Bakker Show © 2016 • Morningside Studios

Undeniable Evidence That The Real Economy Is Already In Recession Mode - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Undeniable Evidence That The Real Economy Is Already In Recession Mode

Posted: 16 May  Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

You are about to see a chart that is undeniable evidence that we have already entered a major economic slowdown.  In the “real economy”, stuff is bought and sold and shipped around the country by trucks, railroads and planes.  When more stuff is being bought and sold and shipped around the country, the “real economy” is growing, and when less stuff is being bought and sold and shipped around the country, the “real economy” is shrinking.  

I know that might sound really basic, but I want everyone to be on the same page as we proceed in this article.  Just because stock prices are artificially high right now does not mean that the U.S. economy is in good shape.  In fact, there was a stock rally at this exact time of the year in 2008 even though the underlying economic fundamentals were rapidly deteriorating.  We all remember what happened later that year, so we should not exactly be rejoicing that precisely the same pattern that we witnessed in 2008 is happening again right in front of our eyes.

During the month of April, the Cass Transportation Index was down 4.9 percent on a year over year basis.  What this means is that a lot less stuff was bought and sold and shipped around the country in April 2016 when compared to April 2015.  The following comes from Wolf Richter…

Freight shipments by truck and rail in the US fell 4.9% in April from the beaten-down levels of April 2015, according to the Cass Transportation Index, released on Friday. It was the worst April since 2010, which followed the worst March since 2010. In fact, shipment volume over the four months this year was the worst since 2010.
This is no longer statistical “noise” that can easily be brushed off.

Of course this was not just a one month fluke.  The reality is that we have now seen the Cass Shipping Index decline on a year over year basis for 14 consecutive months.  Here is more commentary and a chart from Wolf Richter…

The Cass Freight Index is not seasonally adjusted. Hence the strong seasonal patterns in the chart. Note the beaten-down first four months of 2016 (red line):

This is undeniable evidence that the “real economy” has been slowing down for more than a year.  In 2007-2008 we saw a similar thing happen, but the Federal Reserve and most of the “experts” boldly assured us that there was not going to be a recession.

Of course then we immediately proceeded to plunge into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Traditionally, railroad activity has been a key indicator of where the U.S. economy is heading next.  Just a few days ago, I wrote about how U.S. rail traffic was down more than 11 percent from a year ago during the month of April, and I included a photo that showed 292 Union Pacific engines sitting in the middle of the Arizona desert doing absolutely nothing.
Well, just yesterday one of my readers sent me a photograph of a news article from North Dakota about how a similar thing is happening up there.  Hundreds of rail workers are being laid off, and engines are just sitting idle on the tracks because there is literally nothing for them to do…

Intuitively, does it seem like this should be happening in a “healthy” economy?
Of course not.

The reason why this is happening is because businesses have been selling less stuff.  Total business sales have now been declining for almost two years, and they are now close to 15 percent lower than they were in late 2014.

Because sales are way down, unsold inventories are really starting to pile up.  The inventory to sales ratio is now close to the level it was at during the worst moments of the last recession, and many analysts expect it to continue to keep going up.

Why can’t people understand what is happening?  So far this year, job cut announcements are up 24 percent and the number of commercial bankruptcies is shooting through the roof.  Signs that we are in the early chapters of a new economic downturn are all around us, and yet denial is everywhere.

For instance, just consider this excerpt from a CNBC article entitled “This key recession signal is broken“…

Treasury yields are behaving as if they are signaling a recession, but strategists say this time it’s more likely a sign of something else.
The market has been buzzing about the flattening yield curve, or the fact that yields on longer duration Treasurys are getting closer to yields on shorter duration securities.
In the case of 10-year notes and two-year notes, that spread was the flattest Friday than it has been on a closing basis since late 2007. The yield curve had turned negative in 2006 and stayed there for months in 2007 before turning higher ahead of the Great Recession. The spread was at 95 at Friday’s curve but widened Monday to more than 96.

Treasury yields are very, very clearly telling us that a new recession is here, but because the “experts” don’t want to believe it they are telling us that the signal is “broken”.

For many Americans, all that seems to matter is that the stock market has recovered from the horrible crashes last August and earlier this year.  But in the end, I am convinced that those crashes will simply be regarded as “foreshocks” of a much greater crash in our not too distant future.

But if you don’t want to believe me, perhaps you will listen to Goldman Sachs.  They just came out with six reasons why stocks are about to tumble.

Or perhaps you will believe Bank of America.  They just came out with nine reasons why a big stock market decline is on the horizon.

To me, one of the big developments has been the fact that stock buybacks are really starting to dry up.  In fact, announced stock buybacks have declined 38 percent so far this year…

After snapping up trillions of dollars of their own stock in a five-year shopping binge that dwarfed every other buyer, U.S. companies from Apple Inc. to IBM Corp. just put on the brakes. Announced repurchases dropped 38 percent to $244 billion in the last four months, the biggest decline since 2009, data compiled by Birinyi Associates and Bloomberg show. “If the only meaningful source of demand in the market is companies buying their own shares back, then what happens if that goes away?” asked Brad McMillan, CIO of Commonwealth “We should be concerned.”

Stock buybacks have been one of the key factors keeping stock prices at artificially inflated levels even though underlying economic conditions have been deteriorating.  Now that stock buybacks are drying up, it is going to be difficult for stocks to stay disconnected from economic reality.

A lot of people have been asking me recently when the next crisis is going to arrive.
I always tell them that it is already here.

Just like in early 2008, economic conditions are rapidly deteriorating, but the stock market has not gotten the memo quite yet.

And just like in 2008, when the financial markets do finally start catching up with reality it will likely happen very quickly.

So don’t take your eyes off of the deteriorating economic fundamentals, because it is inevitable that the financial markets will follow eventually.

Prophetic Poem (Matt Smith) Reveals the Future of America in 2016 and Beyond, as revealed on TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles. Jan. 6, 2016

Matt Smith’s Prophetic Poem Jan. 6, 2016

TRUNEWS, host Rick Wiles greets Lakeland Church Musician, Minister and husband, Matt Smith, to share the prophetic poem he received before Christmas 2015, depicting a vastly fractured America, one shackled by martial law, foreign military invasion, and rampant jihadi terror.

Read more at https://www.trunews.com/trunews-010616-matt-smith-vision-of-a-fractured-nation/#b5R01YLpavtuM7Vb.99

Prophetic Poem Reveals the Future of America in 2016 
and Beyond, as revealed on TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles. 

At the very end of 2015,
And the year of ten plus six,
That wicked old Satan,
Will be up to evil tricks.

December through February,
Winter finds itself here,
A sudden event will strike,
And many will be in fear.

Know then My judgment,
Has come upon this land,
God reigns supreme,
And deals with a heavy hand.

From March until June,
The spring season shall arrive,
There will be many people,
Found not to be alive.

During this same season,
Another checkpoint will originate,
Then another crushing blow,
Will seal this nation’s fate.

During these two seasons,
The economy will decline,
Look to Me My people,
I say, ‘Your souls are mine.’

For war will be inevitable,
It will not go away,
I implore My holy people,
Stay on your knees and pray.

The dog days of summer,
Will follow and draw nigh,
Protests will fill the streets,
With a far more violent cry.

At the end of the summer,
As the season reaches a climax,
JADE HELM will come to life again,
Surely it will be brought back.

The fall season will bring,
another election year,
But by this time our nation,
Will be firmly gripped in fear.

Barack Hussein Obama,
Will stay seated in his chair,
No Democrat nor Republican,
will find themselves his heir.

Martial law is coming,
It will soon grip our land,
I plead with all the saints of God,
To take a righteous stand.

2017 will follow next,
When it comes rolling around,
The changes will be different,
They will surely be profound.

America will have seen,
Destruction and devastation,
I will hold nothing back,
I will show no hesitation.

Disease and pestilence,
Will surely grip this land,
But My people do not worry,
It’s all part of My plan.

Watch the hand of Islam,
They will shout a battle cry,
A day of terror is coming,
And many will surely die.

Now look upon the map,
And look upon it well,
You will see trouble landed,
Where American cities fell.

Now woe unto you cities,
And you states shown below,
You have angered God in Heaven,
And made yourself His foe.

Woe unto the city,
Of the Bears, Cubs, and Bulls.
Woe to San Fransisco,
You dare mock me, you fools!

I will destroy both of you,
In the hour of My fury,
You have been found guilty,
Yes, by my Heavenly Jury.

Woe unto Las Vegas,
Seattle, and the Big D,
Plagues, famine, and destruction
Are coming soon, you’ll see.

Woe unto New Orleans,
And even Florida too,
When I shoot arrows of destruction,
You shall surely be through.

Woe unto the city,
Known for the Liberty Bell,
I will take away your freedoms,
And you will see much hell.

Woe unto Baltimore,
Woe to Washington DC,
Woe to you wicked leaders,
For you must answer to Me.

I will destroy these cities,
With one single attack,
I will shoot arrows of destruction,
And I will hold nothing back.

Woe unto Boston, New York City,
And even California too,
You do not worship Me,
You say, “I answer to who?”

You say you only answer,
To gold, silver, and sex,
But I will put something on you,
Far worse than any vex.

Half of California,
Shall be thrown into the sea,
And New York City,
The same fate it will be.

Oh Boston, Oh Boston,
Your arrogance will be no more,
I shall wipe you off the map,
You big arrogant whore.

Get prepared for slavery,
It is coming to this nation,
Like Egypt in the days of Moses,
It will not be a good sensation.

An asteroid will strike,
In the Caribbean sea,
All around the world,
Tsunamis must be.

Earthquakes will come,
And will divide this land,
That we might not forget,
God deals with a heavy hand.

You shall look to the east,
And see Russians coming here,
You shall look to the west,
And see China causing fear.

They shall invade this land,
And take over this place,
America once a golden cup,
Has become an utter disgrace.

Many think they can still sin,
And waltz right into Heaven,
But that’s like foolishly believing,
Two plus three equals seven.

There are many who come to Me,
On spiritual section eight,
They are in moral poverty,
And will not enter My pearly gate.

Moral bankruptcy,
They have truly filed,
They do not know Me,
For they are not My child.

You who refuse to teach,
My people the ways of the Lord,
Soon you will find,
You can not escape my sword.

Promising My people,
Nothing but houses and cars,
But these will not get you,
Not get you very far.

Tell the people to stop,
To halt all of their sins,
Tell them to live holy,
So they can enter in.

It is time for the saints,
To be truly tried,
Stand firm upon My word,
And in Me truly abide.

If you deny my son Jesus,
In front of any man,
You will sink faster,
Than standing in quick sand.

So know these things,
They surely will take place,
Come live your life for Jesus,
And receive My mercy and grace.

About Kelly Sloan
Kelly Sloan is a reporter and anchor for TRUNEWS Headlines on radio stations across the U.S. She was previously an anchor and reporter for USA Headline News and USA Radio News, where she also served as Assistant Religion Editor.

Listen here: Matt Smith Poem

If The Economy Is Fine, Why Are So Many Hedge Funds, Energy Companies And Large Retailers Imploding? - MICHAEL SYNDER THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

If The Economy Is Fine, Why Are So Many Hedge Funds, Energy Companies And Large Retailers Imploding?  MICHAEL SYNDER  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG Posted: 18 Nov 2015 04:06 PM PST If the U.S. economy really is in “great shape”, then why do all of the numbers keep telling us that we are in a recession?  The manufacturing numbers say that we are in a recession, the trade numbers say that we are in a recession, and as you will see below the retail numbers say that we are in a recession.  But just like in 2008, the Federal Reserve and our top politicians will continue to deny that a major economic downturn is happening for as long as they possibly can.  In this article, I want to look at more signs that a dramatic shift is happening in our economy right now. First of all, let’s consider what is happening to hedge funds.  For many years, hedge funds had been doing extremely well, but now they are closing up shop at a pace that we haven’t seen since the last financial crisis.  The following is an excerpt from a Business Insider article entitled “Hedge funds keep on imploding” that was posted on Wednesday… BlackRock is winding down its Global Ascent Fund, a global macro hedge fund that once contained $4.6 billion in assets, according to Bloomberg’s Sabrina Willmer. “We believe that redeeming the Global Ascent Fund was the right thing to do for our clients, given the headwinds that macro funds have faced,” a BlackRock spokeswoman told Business Insider. The winding down of the Ascent fund is the second high-profile hedge fund closing in 24 hours. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Achievement Asset Management, a Chicago-based hedge fund, was closing. And those are just two examples.  Quite a few other prominent hedge funds have shut down recently, and many are wondering if this is just the beginning of a major “bloodbath” on Wall Street. Another troubling sign is the implosion of so many energy companies.  Just like in 2008, a major crash in the price of oil is hitting the energy sector really hard.  Just check out these stock price declines… -Cabot Oil & Gas down 37.27 percent over the past 12 months -Southwestern Energy down 68.11 percent over the past 12 months -Chesapeake Energy down 73.98 percent over the past 12 months A number of smaller energy companies have already gone out of business, and several of the big players are teetering on the brink.  If the price of oil does not rebound significantly very soon, it is just a matter of time before the dominoes begin to fall. We are also seeing tremendous turmoil in the retail industry.  The following comes from Investment Research Dynamics… The retail sales report for October was much worse than expected.  Not only that, but the Government’s original estimates for retail sales in August and September were revised lower.  A colleague of mine said he was chatting with his brother, who is a tax advisor, this past weekend who said he doesn’t understand how the Government can say the economy is growing (Hillary Clinton recently gave the economy an “A”) because his clients are lowering their estimated tax payments.  Businesses lower their estimated tax payments when their business activity slows down. The holiday season is always the best time of the year for retailers, but in 2015 there is a lot of talk of gloom and doom.  Most large retailers will not start announcing mass store closings until January or February, but without a doubt many analysts are anticipating that once we get past the Christmas shopping season we will see stores shut down at a pace that we haven’t seen since at least 2009.  Here is more from the article that I just quoted above… Retail sales this holiday season are setting up to be a disaster.  Already most retailers are advertising “pre-Black Friday” sales events.  Remember when holiday shopping didn’t begin, period, until the day after Thanksgiving?  Now retailers are going to cannibalize each other with massive discounting beforeThanksgiving.  Anybody notice over the weekend that BMW is now offering $6500 price rebates?   The collapsing economy is affecting everyone, across all income demographics. Last week we saw the stocks of Macy’s, Nordstrom and Advance Auto Parts do cliff-dives after they announced their earnings.  I mentioned to a colleague that the Nordstrom’s report should be the most troubling for analysts.  Nordstrom in their investor conference call said that they began seeing an “unexplainable slowdown in sales in August in transactions across all formats, across all catagories and across all geographies that has yet to recover.”   I think that a chart would be helpful to give you an idea of how bad things have already gotten.  Jim Quinn shared this in an article that he just posted, and it shows the change in retail sales once you remove the numbers for the auto industry.  As you can see, the numbers have never been this dreadful outside of a recession… But stocks went up 247 points on Wednesday so everything must be great, right? Wrong. The stock market has never been a good barometer for the overall economy, and this is especially true these days. In 2008, stocks didn’t crash until well after the U.S. economy as a whole started crashing, and the same thing is apparently happening this time around as well. One of the things that is keeping stocks afloat for the moment is stock buybacks.  In recent years, big corporations have spent hundreds of billions of dollars buying back their own stocks.  The following comes from Wolf Richter… IBM has blown $125 billion on buybacks since 2005, more than the $111 billion it invested in capital expenditures and R&D. It’s staggering under its debt, while revenues have been declining for 14 quarters in a row. It cut its workforce by 55,000 people since 2012. And its stock is down 38% since March 2013. Big-pharma icon Pfizer plowed $139 billion into buybacks and dividends in the past decade, compared to $82 billion in R&D and $18 billion in capital spending. 3M spent $48 billion on buybacks and dividends, and $30 billion on R&D and capital expenditures. They’re all doing it. Later in that same article, Richter explains that almost 60 percent of all publicly traded non-financial corporations have engaged in stock buybacks over the past five years… Nearly 60% of the 3,297 publicly traded non-financial US companies Reuters analyzed have engaged in share buybacks since 2010. Last year, the money spent on buybacks and dividends exceeded net income for the first time in a non-recession period. Big corporations like to do this for a couple of reasons.  Number one, it pushes the price of the stock higher, and current investors appreciate that.  Number two, corporate executives are usually in favor of conducting stock buybacks because it increases the value of their stock options and their own stock holdings. But now corporate profits are falling and it is becoming tougher for big corporations to borrow money.  So look for stock buybacks to start to decline significantly. Even though it is taking a bit longer than many would have anticipated, the truth is that we are right on track for a massive financial collapse. All of the indicators that I watch are flashing red, and even though things are moving slowly, they are definitely moving in the same direction that we saw in 2008. But just like in 2008, there will be people that mock the warnings up until the day when it becomes completely and utterly apparent that the mockers were dead wrong.

Wal-Mart's Worst Stock Crash in 27 Years Is Another Sign That the Economy Is Rapidly Falling Apart

Shares of Wal-Mart experienced their largest single day decline in 27 years after an extremely disappointing earnings projection was released. (Flickr/Creative Commons)

Wal-Mart's Worst Stock Crash in 27 Years Is Another Sign That the Economy Is Rapidly Falling Apart

10/19/2015 MICHAEL SNYDER  charisma news

Now that a major global recession has begun, you would expect major retailers like Wal-Mart to run into trouble as consumer spending dries up, and that is precisely what is happening.

On Wednesday, shares of Wal-Mart experienced their largest single day decline in 27 years after an extremely disappointing earnings projection was released. The stock was down about 10 percent, which represented the biggest plunge since January 1988. Over 21 billion dollars in shareholder wealth was wiped out on Wednesday, and this was just the continuation of a very bad year for Wal-Mart stockholders.

Overall, shares had already declined by 22 percent so far in 2015 before we even got to Wednesday. Here is more on this stunning turn of events from Bloomberg:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. suffered its worst stock decline in more than 27 years after predicting a drop in annual profit, underscoring the giant retailer's struggles to reignite growth.

Earnings will decrease 6 percent to 12 percent in fiscal 2017, which ends in January of that year, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said at its investor day on Wednesday. Analysts had estimated a gain of 4 percent on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

If it was just Wal-Mart that was having trouble, that would be bad enough. But the truth is that signs that the U.S. economy has entered another major downturn are popping up all around us. Just consider the following list of economic indicators that Graham Summers recently put out:

The Fed has now kept interest rates at zero for 81 months.

This is the longest period in the history of the Fed's existence, lasting longer than even the 1938-1942 period of ZIRP.

And the U.S. economy is moving back into recession. Consider that:

1. Industrial production fell five months straight in the first half of 2015. This has never happened outside of a recession.

2. Merchant Wholesalers' Sales are in recession territory.

3. The Empire Manufacturing Survey is in recession territory.

4. All four of the Fed's September Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) readings (Philadelphia, New York, Richmond, and Kansas City) came in at readings of sub-zero. This usually happens when you are already 4-5 months into a recession. (H/T Bill Hester)

Another huge red flag is the fact that month after month fewer products are being shipped around the country compared to last year.

If less stuff is being shipped around by truck, rail and air, is it a sign that the economy is getting better or is it a sign that the economy is getting worse?

The answer, of course, is self-evident. With that in mind, please read the following excerpt which comes from a recent article by Wolf Richter:

It has been crummy all year: With the exception of January and February, the shipping volume has been lower year-over-year every month!

The index is broad. It tracks data from shippers, no matter what carrier they choose, whether truck, rail, or air, and includes carriers like FedEx and UPS.

Evidence keeps piling up in the most unpleasant manner that something isn't quite right in the real economy. The world is now in an inexplicable slowdown – "inexplicable" for central bankers who've cut interest rates to zero or below zero years ago, and who're still dousing some economies with QE even as governments are running up big deficits. And yet, despite seven years of this huge monetary and fiscal stimulus, the global economy is deteriorating.

OK, so is there anyone out there that still believes that the U.S. economy is in good shape?

The Obama administration will probably not admit it for a very long time, but the truth is that the numbers very clearly tell us that we are in a recession.

Anybody out there, whether an "expert" or just someone you happen to know, that tells you that everything is just fine is either completely ignorant or they are purposely lying to you.

And just like in 2008, state and local governments are starting to get into tremendous financial trouble as the real economy sputters. For example, the governor of Illinois has told reporters that "we are out of money now" and that pension fund payments will be delayed as a result:

Illinois will delay payments to its pension fund as a prolonged budget impasse causes a cash shortage, Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger said.

The spending standoff between Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democratic legislative leaders has extended into its fourth month with no signs of ending. Munger said her office will postpone a $560 million retirement-fund payment next month, and may make the December contribution late.

"This decision is choosing the least of a number of bad options," Munger told reporters in Chicago on Wednesday. "For all intents and purposes, we are out of money now."

When these sorts of things started happening in 2008, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Bush administration went into full-blown denial mode. They kept telling all of us not to worry and that everything would be OK, and that just made things worse in the end.

The same thing is happening now. The Obama administration and the mainstream media keep talking about an "economic recovery" even in the face of numbers such as I have discussed in this article.

Perhaps things are going well for you personally at the moment, and that is great. But now is not the time to buy lots of new toys. Nor is it the time to accumulate more debt.

Instead, now is a time to position yourself for a period of difficulty that could stretch on for years.

The next recession is here, and it is going to grow progressively worse.

The wise will take heed and make preparations, but the foolish will just keep on doing what they have been doing until it is far too late.

Michael T. Snyder is the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and author of The Beginning of the End.

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