Plunging Manufacturing Numbers Mean That It Is Time To Hit The Panic Button For The Global Economy - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

Plunging Manufacturing Numbers Mean That It Is Time To Hit The Panic Button For The Global Economy Posted: 01 Mar 2016 Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE We haven’t seen numbers like these since the last global recession.  I recently wrote about how global trade is imploding all over the planet, and the same thing is true when it comes to manufacturing.  We just learned that manufacturing in China has now been contracting for seven months in a row, and as you will see below, U.S. manufacturing is facing “its toughest period since the global financial crisis”.   Yes, global stocks have bounced back a bit after experiencing dramatic declines during January and the first part of February, and this is something that investors are very happy about.  But that does not mean that the crisis is over.  All bear markets have their ups and downs, and this one will not be any different.   Meanwhile, the cold, hard economic numbers that keep coming in are absolutely screaming that a new global recession is here. Just consider what is happening in China.  Manufacturing activity continues to implode, and factories are shedding jobs at the fastest pace since the last financial crisis… Chinese manufacturing suffered a seventh straight month of contraction in February. China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 49.0 in February, down from the previous month’s reading of 49.4 and below the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis. A private survey also showed China’s factories shed jobs at the fastest rate in seven years in February, raising doubts about the government’s ability to reduce industry overcapacity this year without triggering a sharp jump in unemployment. For years, the expansion of the Chinese economy has helped fuel global economic growth. But now things have shifted dramatically. At this point, things are already so bad that the Chinese government is admitting that millions of workers are going to lose their jobs at state-controlled industries in China… China’s premier told visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Monday his government is pressing ahead with painful reforms to shrink bloated coal and steel industries that are a drag on its slowing economy and ruled out devaluing its currency as a short-cut to boosting exports. Premier Li Keqiang’s comments to Lew on Monday were in line with a joint declaration by financial officials from the Group of 20 biggest rich and developing economies who met over the weekend in Shanghai. They pledged to avoid devaluations to boost sagging trade and urged governments to speed up reforms to boost slowing global growth. Across all state-controlled industries, as many as six million workers could be out of a job, with almost two million in the coal industry alone. But it isn’t just China.  Right now manufacturing activity is slowing down literally all over the planet, and this is exactly what we would expect to see if a new global recession had begun.  The following chart and analysis come from Zero Hedge… As the below table shows, 28 regions have reported so far. Seven saw improvements in their manufacturing sectors in February, twenty recorded a weakening, and India was unchanged.  This means that over 70% of the world saw manufacturing sentiment deteriorate in February compared to January. In terms of actual expansion, there were 21 countries in positive territory and 7 in negative. In particular, Greece moved from neutral to contraction territory, while Taiwan dropped below breakeven from expansion. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t really pay much attention to what is going on in the rest of the world.  For most of us, what really matters is what is happening inside the good ole USA. And of course the news is not good.  There were more signs of trouble for U.S. manufacturing in the February numbers, and this continues a trend that stretches back well into last year.  The following is what Chris Williamson, the chief economist at Markit, had to say about these numbers… “The February data add to signs of distress in the US manufacturing economy. Production and order book growth continues to worsen, led by falling exports. Jobs are being added at a slower pace and output prices are dropping at a rate not seen since mid-2012. “The deterioration in the manufacturing sector’s performance since mid-2014 has broadly tracked the dollar’s rise, which makes US goods more expensive in overseas markets and leads US consumers to favour cheaper imported goods. “With other headwinds including the downturn in the oil sector, heightened uncertainty due to financial market volatility, global growth worries and growing concerns about the presidential election, it’s no surprise that the manufacturing sector is facing its toughest period since the global financial crisis.“ Over the past couple of decades, the U.S. economy has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities.  We desperately need a manufacturing renaissance – not another manufacturing decline. As good paying manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas, they have been replaced by low paying service jobs.  As a result, the middle class is shrinking and the ranks of the poor are exploding. It is hard to believe, but today more than 45 million Americans are on food stamps, and a significant percentage of those individuals actually have jobs.  They are called “the working poor”, and it is becoming a major crisis in this nation. And no matter what Obama may say, unemployment remains a major problem in the United States as well.  At this point, unemployment rates in 36 states are higher than they were just before the last recession hit in 2008. Of course a lot of people are going to look at this article and will point to the stock market gains of the past couple of weeks as evidence that “things are getting better”.  It is this kind of clueless approach that is keeping the American people from coming together on solutions to our problems. The truth is that the United States has been experiencing economic decline for decades.  Our economic infrastructure has been gutted, the middle class is steadily deteriorating, and we have amassed the biggest pile of debt in the history of the world. Anyone that believes that things are “just fine” is in a massive state of denial.  Consuming far more wealth than we produce is not a formula for a sustainable economy, and it is just a matter of time before we find this out the hard way.

How the Nine Traits of the Messianic Generation are Coming Alive in the Modern World By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

A page from the ‘Gemara’, which when combined with the Mishnah constitutes the Talmud, the Oral law of Judaism. (Photo: Mendy Hechtman/FLASH90)

How the Nine Traits of the Messianic Generation are Coming Alive in the Modern World

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz February 23, 2016  BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence.” 
Daniel 12:1-2 (The Israel Bible™)

In the search for signs of the onset of the Messianic era, many look to the Bible and Prophets. The rabbinic sages who wrote the Talmud, a collection of Jewish biblical commentaries, were also granted a modicum of prescience. One section of the Talmud describes, in detail, the characteristics of society preceding the Messiah. In many ways, it is a disturbingly accurate description of our culture today and its unique traits, never seen  before in history.

This description, found in the tractate of Sotah, folio 49b, lists nine traits of the days preceding the Messiah.

1) Insolence will increase and honor dwindle

The internet has drastically changed the dynamics of modern society, making fame a more a matter of shock value than merit. The web has given rise to a culture of shamelessness and permissiveness in which freedom of expression manifests in internet trolling and bizarre viral videos. The phenomenon even received the presidential seal of approval when President Barack Obama met with Glozell Green, a woman whose claim to fame was eating cereal from a bathtub.

2) The vine will bear its fruit but wine will be dear

Today’s global economy has led to a situation in which a fertile country could go into debt and be unable to feed its population. This is precisely what Venezuela is experiencing today. Hoarding food and prepping became illegal in 2013. Last year, the government instituted rationing of electricity and forced farmers and food manufacturers to sell 30-100 percent of their goods to the state at set prices. Today, there are long lines for basic commodities and serious concerns that Venezuela may be on the verge of a catastrophic economic collapse, leading to an economically-induced famine. Given the state of the global economy, this is dangerously close to becoming a common phenomenon.

3) The government will turn to heresy and there will be none to offer them reproof

Without touching on US President Barack Obama’s ambiguous religious life, he has often been criticized for political heresy in his harsh treatment of the Bible of the United States: the Constitution. Discussions about gun control make no reference to the second amendment, and his executive order granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is in litigation for its questionable legality. Obamacare has several points which are criticized for violating basic constitutional points. Yet Obama has placed himself above reproof by issuing executive orders with impunity.

At the same time, the ongoing Republican campaign for the presidential nomination has taken on a religious dimension, with nearly all of the candidates emphasizing a strong religious aspect to their platforms. It seems that many Americans have decided they would like to see less heresy and more religion in the White House.

3) The meeting place of scholars will be used for immorality

American universities were created to transform students into successful, educated contributors to society, yet morality on today’s campuses has taken a sharp and disturbing downturn. Studies have shown that as many as 40 percent of college students can be defined as alcoholics, and more than half of all university students will use illicit drugs. Even more disturbingly, sexual assault is rampant in today’s universities. Some studies estimate that 19-27 percent of college women and 6-8 percent of college men are sexually assaulted during their time in college.

4) The dwellers on the frontier will go about begging from place to place without anyone to take pity on them

Today’s refugee issue has become a modern epidemic. 14 million Syrians have fled their homes, and six million of these were forced to leave their country – four million in the last year alone. At least 340 children have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea since September and officials claim the actual figure may be much higher with many bodies lost at sea. Despite international efforts, the situation has grown beyond any ability to cope with it, and taken on social dimensions that have become the focus of debate.

5) Youths will put old men to shame, the old will stand up in the presence of the young

In today’s culture of youth, achievement at a young age is idolized and lauded, and older generations, despite having built the foundation of the modern world, are pushed aside as they age out of technological advancement and relevance. In 2014, Forbes wrote in its annual ‘Under 30 list’ highlighting the achievements of young entrepreneurs, “This is the time to be young and ambitious. Never before has youth been such an advantage.” It seems that lifetime achievement awards have gone out of fashion.

6) A son will revile his father, a daughter will rise up against her mother….and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household

Last month, a 20-year-old Syrian man personified this disturbing forecast when he  killed his mother in the city of Raqqa because she urged him to leave ISIS. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that there have been several cases of sons killing their father for similar reasons, but this was the first documented case of matricide.

7) The face of the generation will be like the face of a dog

Sometimes the simple reading is the most poignant. Hillary Clinton shocked many at a recent campaign speech in Reno when, while making a point, she began barking like a dog.

8) A son will not be ashamed before his father

The rabbinic commentary describes this as a condition in which the young take over the roles of authority traditionally held by society’s elders. This is certainly true in today’s marketplace in which uber-rich youngsters rule over men and women with decades of education and experience. Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, reset the biological business meter when he founded Microsoft at the age of 20, making Steve Jobs (born the same year as Gates) seem over the hill when he waited until the age of 21 to found Apple. At 23, an age when most people are coping with the very beginnings of their career, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, was a self-made billionaire. David Karp, a high-school dropout, founded Tumblr when he was 20 and now, at the ripe old age of 26, has a personal worth of more than $200 million.

9) The wisdom of the learned will degenerate, fearers of sin will be despised, and the truth will be lacking

Nowhere is the fulfillment of this prediction more evident than in the blatantly unfair treatment of the State of Israel on today’s world stage. The dialogue surrounding the conflict in Israel is dominated by outright lies, including claims – now widely accepted – that deny facts previously undisputed. Despite the absolute absence of any historical Palestinian nation, opponents of Israel claim that the Palestinians have been a nation in the land of Israel for thousands of years, with historical and religious ties to the Temple Mount. This view was even propagated by one of the world’s premiere journalistic sources, the New York Times, which stated that proof of the Jewish Temples “proved elusive”.

The Israel debate is mired in absurdity. The world’s top thinkers, politicians and religious world leaders who should know better, blindly vilify the Jewish State and support its enemies. The attempts of Israeli security forces to protect Jews and citizens from Palestinian terrorists have been called “extrajudicial executions”. The United Nations has censured Israel, the only democratic nation in the Middle East, more times than any other country in the world. Pope Francis has crowned PA President Mahmoud Abbas an “Angel of Mercy”, despite Abbas’s blatant incitement of violence against Israelis.

One must look no further than the worldwide rejection and condemnation of the Jewish State, a beacon of democracy, faith, and light, to see the truth of this forecast.

21 New Numbers That Show That The Global Economy Is Absolutely Imploding - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

21 New Numbers That Show That The Global Economy Is Absolutely Imploding Posted: 16 Feb 2016  Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG After a series of stunning declines through the month of January and the first half of February, global financial markets seem to have found a patch of relative stability at least for the moment.  But that does not mean that the crisis is over.  On the contrary, all of the hard economic numbers that are coming in from around the world tell us that the global economy is coming apart at the seams.   This is especially true when you look at global trade numbers.  The amount of stuff that is being bought, sold and shipped around the planet is falling precipitously.  So don’t be fooled if stocks go up one day or down the next.  The truth is that we are in the early chapters of a brand new economic meltdown, and I believe that all of the signs indicate that it will continue to get worse in the months ahead.  The following are 21 new numbers that show that the global economy is absolutely imploding… #1 Chinese exports fell by 11.2 percent year over year in January. #2 Chinese imports were even worse in January.  On a year over year basis, they declined a whopping 18.8 percent. #3 It may be hard to believe, but Chinese imports have now plunged for 15 months in a row. #4 In India, exports were down 13.6 percent on a year over year basis in January. #5 In Japan, exports declined 8 percent in December on a year over year basis, while imports plummeted 18 percent. #6 For the sixth time in six years, Japanese GDP growth has gone negative. #7 In the United States, exports were down 7 percent on a year over year basis in December. #8 U.S. factory orders have fallen for 14 months in a row. #9 The Restaurant Performance Index in the United States has dropped to the lowest level that we have seen since 2008. #10 This month the Baltic Dry Index fell below 300 for the first time ever. #11 It is now cheaper to rent a 1,100 foot merchant vessel than it is to rent a Ferrari. #12 Orders for Class 8 trucks in the United States dropped by 48 percent on a year over year basis in January. #13 Due to a lack of demand for trucks, Daimler just laid off 1,250 U.S. workers. #14 Even though Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed to freeze oil production at current levels, the price of U.S. oil has still fallen below 30 dollars a barrel. #15 It is being reported that 35 percent of all oil and gas companies around the world are at risk of falling into bankruptcy. #16 According to CNN, 67 oil and gas companies in the United States filed for bankruptcy during 2015. #17 The number of job cuts in the United States skyrocketed 218 percent during the month of January according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. #18 All over America, retail stores are shutting down at a stunning pace.  The following list of store closures comes from one of my previous articles… -Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, including 154 inside the United States. -K-Mart is closing down more than two dozen stores over the next several months. -J.C. Penney will be permanently shutting down 47 more stores after closing a total of 40 stores in 2015. -Macy’s has decided that it needs to shutter 36 stores and lay off approximately 2,500 employees. -The Gap is in the process of closing 175 stores in North America. -Aeropostale is in the process of closing 84 stores all across America. -Finish Line has announced that 150 stores will be shutting down over the next few years. -Sears has shut down about 600 stores over the past year or so, but sales at the stores that remain open continue to fall precipitously. #19 The price of gold is enjoying its best quarterly performance in 30 years. #20 Global stocks have fallen into bear market territory, which means that about one-fifth of all global stock market wealth has already been wiped out. #21 Unfortunately for global central banks, they have pretty much run out of ammunition.  Since March 2008, central banks have cut interest rates 637 times and they have purchased a staggering 12.3 trillion dollars worth of assets.  There is not much more that they can do, and now the next great crisis is upon us. Without any outside influences, the global economy and the global financial system will continue to rapidly fall apart. But if we do have a major “black swan event” take place, that could cause the bottom to fall out at any moment. In particular, I am deeply concerned about the possibility that World War III could be sparked in the Middle East.  In an article that I published earlier today entitled “Turkey Is Asking The United States To Take Part In A Ground Invasion Of Syria“, I included a quote from Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that reveals just how eager Turkey and Saudi Arabia are for war to begin… “Some countries like us, Saudi Arabia and some other Western European countries have said that a ground operation is necessary,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Reuters in an interview. However, this kind of action could not be left to regional powers alone. “To expect this only from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar is neither right nor realistic. If such an operation is to take place, it has to be carried out jointly, like the (coalition) air strikes,” he said. The Turks and the Saudis very much want the United States to take a leading role in any ground invasion of Syria, but the Obama administration is not likely to do that. So we shall see if the Turks and the Saudis are willing to go ahead without us.  Let us hope that they do not decide to invade Syria, because that could start the biggest war in the Middle East that any of us have ever seen. Unfortunately, Turkey is already attacking. Turkey has been shelling Kurdish and Syrian military positions in northern Syria for four days in a row even though the Obama administration has been urging them to stop. The first month and a half of 2016 has already been quite chaotic, and the stage is set for global events to greatly accelerate during the months ahead. Sadly, the mainstream media in the United States is largely ignoring the preparations for a ground invasion of Syria, and they keep telling us that the global economy is going to be just fine, so most ordinary Americans are going to be absolutely blindsided by what is about to happen.

TRUNEWS - Austrian Economics expert Michael Pento with Rick Wiles (radio interview)

TRUNEWS 01/26/16 Michael Pento

Rick Wiles greets Austrian Economics expert, and the President of Pento Portfolio Strategies, Michael Pento, to discuss the imploding bond market, and the prospects of oil and gold in a growingly volatile global economy. Rick will also discuss the latest in the European migration crisis, and share wisdom from the third chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Michael Pento | Pento Portfolio Strategies Download MP3

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About Edward Szall

Edward is a US Army veteran who turned to Christ in 2012 & has a fire for bringing truth to the world of online and broadcast media. If you have any tips please email him at Edward.Szall@trunews.com / How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” - Isaiah 52:7

Lowest Ever: The Baltic Dry Index Plunges To 394 As Global Trade Grinds To A Standstill - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Lowest Ever: The Baltic Dry Index Plunges To 394 As Global Trade Grinds To A Standstill

Posted: 14 Jan 2016   Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC BLOG

For the first time ever, the Baltic Dry Index has fallen under 400.  As I write this article, it is sitting at 394.  To be honest, I never even imagined that it could go this low.  Back in early August, the Baltic Dry Index was sitting at 1,222, and since then it has been on a steady decline.  Of course the Baltic Dry Index crashed hard just before the great stock market crash of 2008 too, but at this point it is already lower than it was during that entire crisis. 

This is just more evidence that global trade is grinding to a halt and that 2016 is going to be a “cataclysmic year” for the global economy.

If you are not familiar with the Baltic Dry Index, here is a helpful definition from Wikipedia…

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is an economic indicator issued daily by the London-based Baltic Exchange. Not restricted to Baltic Sea countries, the index provides “an assessment of the price of moving the major raw materials by sea. Taking in 23 shipping routes measured on a timecharter basis, the index covers Handysize, Supramax, Panamax, and Capesize dry bulk carriers carrying a range of commodities including coal, iron ore and grain.”

The BDI is one of the key indicators that experts look at when they are trying to determine where the global economy is heading.  And right now, it is telling us that we are heading into a major worldwide economic downturn.

Some people try to dismiss the recent drop in the Baltic Dry Index by claiming that shipping rates are down because there is simply too much capacity out there these days.  And I don’t dispute that.  Without a doubt, too many vessels were built during the “boom years”, and now shipbuilders are paying the price.  For example, Chinese shipyards reported a 59 percent decline in orders during the first 11 months of 2015…

Total orders at Chinese shipyards tumbled 59 percent in the first 11 months of 2015, according to data released Dec. 15 by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry. Builders have sought government support as excess vessel capacity drives down shipping rates and prompts customers to cancel contracts. Zhoushan Wuzhou Ship Repairing & Building Co. last month became the first state-owned shipbuilder to go bankrupt in a decade.

But that doesn’t explain everything.  The truth is that exports are way down all over the world.  China, the United States, South Korea and many other major exporting nations have all been reporting extremely dismal export numbers.  Global trade is contracting quite rapidly, and I don’t see how anyone could possibly dispute that.

The global economy is a mess, but many people are not paying any attention to the economic fundamentals because they are too busy looking at the stock market.

The stock market does not tell us how the economy is doing.  If the stock market is up today that does not mean that the economy is doing well, and if the stock market is down tomorrow that does not mean that it is doing poorly.

Yes, the health of the financial markets can greatly affect the overall economy.  We saw this back in 2008.  When there is a tremendous amount of panic, that can cause a credit crunch and make it very difficult for money to flow through our system.  The end result is a rapid slowdown of economic activity, and it is something that we will be experiencing again very soon.

But don’t let the day to day fluctuations of the stock market fool you.  Just because the Dow was up 227 points today does not mean that the crisis is over.  It is important to remember that stocks are not going to go down every single day.  On Thursday, the Dow didn’t even regain two-thirds of what it lost on Wednesday.  Even in bear markets there are up days, and some of the biggest up days in stock market history were right in the middle of the crash of 2008.

It is critical that we take a long-term view of things and not let our vision be clouded by every tick up and down in the financial markets.  Initial jobless claims just hit their highest level in about six months, and companies like Macy’s and GoPro are laying off thousands of workers.  Things are already bad, and they are rapidly getting worse.

And let us not forget the great amount of financial carnage that has already happened so far this year.  According to CNBC, approximately 3.2 trillion dollars of stock market wealth was wiped out globally during the first 13 days of 2016…

Almost $3.2 trillion has been wiped off the value of stocks around the world since the start of 2016, according to calculations by a top market analyst.
It has also been the worst-ever start to a year for U.S. equities, said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, as both the S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average have posted their steepest losses for the first eight days trading of a year.

Over the past six months, there have now been two 10 percent “corrections” for U.S. stocks.  The only other times we have seen multiple corrections like this were in 1929, 2000 and 2008.  If those years seem familiar to you, that is because they should.  In all three years, we witnessed historic stock market crashes.

The stunning collapse of the Baltic Dry Index is just more evidence that we have entered a global deflationary crisis.  Goods aren’t moving, unemployment is rising all over the planet, and commodity prices have fallen to levels that we have not seen in over a decade.

Around the globe, there have been dramatic stock market crashes to begin the year, and we should expect to see much more market turmoil during the weeks and months to come.
If the markets have calmed down a bit for the moment, we should be very thankful for that, because we could all use some additional time to prepare for what is coming.

The debt-fueled standard of living that so many of us are enjoying today is just an illusion.  And many of us won’t even understand what we have been taking for granted until it is taken away from us.

A great shaking is coming to the global economy, and the pain is going to be unimaginable.  So let us enjoy every single day of relative “normalcy” while we still can, because there aren’t too many of them left.

Stock Markets All Over The World Crash As We Begin 2016 - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

Stock Markets All Over The World Crash As We Begin 2016

Posted: 04 Jan 2016  

Michael Snyder  

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE blog

The first trading day of 2016 was full of chaos and panic.  It started in Asia where the Nikkei was down 582 points, Hong Kong was down 587 points, and Chinese markets experienced an emergency shutdown after the CSI 300 tumbled 7 percent.

When European markets opened, the nightmare continued.  The DAX was down 459 points, and European stocks overall had their worst start to a year ever.  In the U.S., it looked like we were on course for a truly historic day as well.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 467 points at one stage, but some very mysterious late day buying activity helped trim the loss to just 276 points at the close of the market.

The sudden market turmoil caught many by surprise, but it shouldn’t have.  The truth is that a whole host of leading indicators have been telling us that this is exactly what should be happening.  The global financial crisis that began in 2015 is now accelerating, and my regular readers already know precisely what is coming next.

The financial turmoil of the last 24 hours is making headlines all over the globe.  It began last night in China.  Very bad manufacturing data and another troubling devaluation of the yuan sent Chinese stocks tumbling to a degree that we have not seen since last August. 

In fact, the carnage would have probably been far, far worse if not for a new “circuit breaker” that China recently implemented.  Once the CSI 300 was down 7 percent, trading was completely shut down for the rest of the day.  The following comes from USA Today…

Under a new market “circuit breaker” rule in China established last year, which is designed to slow down markets and halt panic in the event of moves of 5% or more, the CSI 300, a large-company stock index in mainland China was halted for 15 minutes in mid-afternoon trading after diving more than 5%. But when shares headed lower once again just minutes after the initial trading halt, and losses for the day swelled to more than 7%, the new circuit breaker rules kicked in, prompting a shutdown of mainland China’s stock market for the day, according to Bloomberg.

After the first 15 minute halt, panic set in as Chinese traders rushed to get out of their trades before the 7 percent circuit breaker kicked in.  This resulted in an absolutely chaotic seven minutes as investors made a mad dash for the exits…

The sell orders piled up fast on Monday at Shenwan Hongyuan Group, China’s fifth-biggest brokerage by market value.
China’s CSI 300 Index had just tumbled 5 percent, triggering a 15-minute trading halt, and stock investors were scrambling to exit before getting locked in by a full-day suspension set to take effect at 7 percent. When the first halt was lifted, the market reaction was swift: it took just seven minutes for losses to reach the limit as volumes surged to their highs of the day.
“Investors rushed to the door during the level-one stage of the circuit breaker as they fretted the market would go down further,” said William Wong, the head of sales trading at Shenwan Hongyuan in Hong Kong.

The financial carnage continued once the European markets opened.  Markets were red all across the continent, and things were particularly bad in Germany.  The DAX was down 459 points, and it is rapidly approaching the psychologically-important 10,000 barrier.  Overall, it was the worst start to a year that the European markets have ever experienced.

When U.S. markets opened, unexpectedly bad U.S. manufacturing data seemed to add fuel to the fire.  Monday morning we learned that our manufacturing sector is contracting at a pace that we haven’t seen since the last recession…

America’s manufacturing sector shrank for the second straight month in December. The industry’s key index — ISM — hit 48.2% in December, the lowest mark since June 2009. Anything below 50% is a contraction and a month ago it hit 48.6%.
The index has fallen for six straight months.
“The trend is certainly heading in a direction that would ring alarm bells,” says Sam Bullard, senior economist at Wells Fargo.

This is yet another sign that tells us that the U.S. economy has already entered the next recession. And what happens to the markets during a recession?

They go down.

In addition to the bad data that we got from the U.S. and China, there was another number that was also extremely troubling.

South Korean exports have traditionally been considered a key leading indicator for the entire global economy, and on Mondaywe learned that they were down a whopping 13.8 percent in December from a year earlier…

One of the more reliable indicators of the global economy continues to confirm fears of a worldwide slowdown.
South Korean exports — also referred to as the world’s economic canary in the coal mine — fell 13.8% in December from a year earlier.
This was a deterioration from the 4.8% decline in November, and it was much worse than the 11.7% decline expected by economists.

The “nothing is happening” crowd may not be willing to admit it yet, but the truth is that a major global economic slowdown is already happening.

And what happened to global markets today is perfectly consistent with the longer term patterns that have been emerging over the past six months or so.

In the weeks and months to come, things are going to get even worse.  There will always be days when the markets are up, but don’t let those days fool you into thinking that the crisis is over.  In the western world we are so accustomed to 48 hour news cycles, and many of us seem to be incapable of focusing on trends that develop over longer periods of time.

If I was going to put together a scenario for a global financial crisis for a textbook, what we have seen over the past six months or so would be perfect.  Things are playing out exactly how they should be, and that means big trouble for the rest of 2016.

But that doesn’t mean that we have to live in fear.  In fact, I just wrote an entire article entitled “2016: A Year For Living With No Fear“.  It is when times are at their worst that our character is put to the test.  Some will respond to what happens in 2016 with courage and strength, and others will respond with fear and panic.

As things start falling apart all around us this year, how will you respond?

Is The Global Economy Following The 'Classic Crash Formula?' - TROY ANDERSON CHARISMA NEWS

Stock market experts are asking whether the global economy is following the 'Classic Crash Formula.' (Reuters)

Is The Global Economy Following The 'Classic Crash Formula?'

11/6/2015 TROY ANDERSON  charisma news

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After $11 trillion in global stock market wealth was wiped out in the third quarter of this year—the end of the biblical Shemitah—the markets have rallied to new highs.

As this has happened, financial analysts and prophecy experts have asked two questions, "Are we out of the woods yet?" or "Is this the calm before the storm?"

Jay Peroni, the chief investment officer at Faith-Based Investor and author of Blood Moons on Wall Street, says these are important questions on the minds of many investors. Despite a strong market recovery in October, Peroni says he's seeing "very troubling signs for the global economy and stock market ahead."

Some of these signs, according to Peroni, include:

• U.S. third quarter gross domestic product rose at just 1.5 percent, far below the 3.9 percent growth rate during the second quarter.
• U.S. exports have fallen over 11 percent this year—lining up with prior recessions.
• Manufacturing activity, a good indicator of overall financial health, has steadily declined in the U.S. and China—the largest economies in the world.
• Nations throughout the world are keeping their countries propped up solely through central bank stimulus—keeping interest rates artificially low and printing more money to stimulate economic growth.
• The International Monetary Fund has warned the world economy could crash if central banks do not continue their low interest rate policies.
• Tensions with Russia and Syria could erupt into a much more global war, disrupting world stability.
• The refugee crisis in Europe could make an already fragile economic crisis much worse.

At a time when many people believe the markets have normalized and the "worst is behind us," Peroni says this couldn't be further from the truth. Normally, during a bull market rally, investors will see a spike in the number of shares traded. In October, trading volume fell. Meanwhile, the number of advancing stocks versus declining stocks dropped, and the total number of advancing stocks as a group also declined—a bearish sign for the markets ahead. Further, earning expectations are the worst on record since the Great Recession.

Adding further stress to the U.S., President Obama is expected to sign into law a new budget on Monday that would increase the national debt to $20 trillion by the time he leaves office in 2017—double the amount when he took the oath in 2009.

In light of these signs, Peroni says the current market looks like it could be "following the classic crash formula" of a stock market drop followed by a quick recovery and then comes the "real collapse."

"Basically, what you tend to see whenever a crash has happened, if you go back to the last three major crashes in 1987, 2000 and 2007-08, is the market will have a pretty big drop—anywhere from 10-20 percent—and then you see a quick recovery ... followed by the third leg which is a significant drop even worse than the first drop."

Peroni says current market conditions and the global economy seem to be following the same pattern of prior Shemitahs that marked the beginning of market crashes that took place over the course of at least several months.

"It really does because it has been following the seven-year Shemitah pattern," Peroni says. "Even though August didn't give us a major crash—it gave us more of a correction—all the things that are developing are pretty significant. Around the world, we're seeing everything from China's stock market crashing to countries being in recessions and depressions.

"The other big development is the whole crisis with refugees. You have all these developments—Syria and Russian tensions. All these things are very much lining up with what we saw in the last Shemitah cycle where the markets started to unravel. Sometimes it's slowly and sometimes it's quickly. This one is unraveling a little more slowly, but there is a lot of strength behind it, and it could very quickly pick up steam."

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, author of the New York Times best-selling books The Harbinger and The Mystery of the Shemitah, says America and the world "won't be out of the woods without repentance and a change of course."

"Any nation that turns away and turns against the ways of God is in danger of judgment," Cahn says. "America has turned away and is now turning increasingly against the ways of God and the foundation upon which it was founded."

The Hebrew word Shemitah can be translated to mean "the Fall." It was a previous year of the Shemitah—1973—that defined one of the greatest moments in America's moral and spiritual fall from God, the year it legalized the killing of the unborn, Cahn says. During this year's Shemitah, another milestone in America's fall from God was crossed as the nation, in effect, struck down the biblical order of marriage ordained by God, Cahn says.

"We have now reached the point when the state is finding guilty, punishing and even throwing in jail those who will not participate in what God calls sin," Cahn says. "To those to whom much is given, much is required. America has been given much, and much will be required. How much more America could do to invoke the judgment of God is hard to imagine. No, we are not out of the woods.

"Add to the equation the fact that at the same moment of our departure from God, we are departing from Israel, even taking action which the leaders of Israel say is putting the Jewish state in danger—(it's) a most dangerous combination."

Mark Biltz, founder of El Shaddai Ministries and author of Blood Moons: Decoding Imminent Heavenly Signs, says the world is "definitely not out of the woods, but entering the woods."

"The first year of a new seven-year cycle is often when judgment is poured out from a prophetic point of view," Biltz says. "We are now beyond the tipping point and will see dramatic results by the end of next year."

The last three market crashes, Peroni says, were preceded by initial drops of 10-15 percent, followed by sharp rebounds like the one that occurred in October. Based on history, Peroni says there are "still high odds that we could see another big crash very soon."

"Now is the time to have a game plan for a tough market," Peroni says. "It could be the calm before the storm. Make sure you own solid investments that can stand up through tough times."

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