Posted: 26 Apr 2016 Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG
Corporate revenues in the United States have been falling for quite some time, but now some of the biggest companies in the entire nation are reporting extremely disappointing results. On Tuesday, Apple shocked the financial world by reporting that revenue for the first quarter had fallen 7.4 billion dollars compared to the same quarter last year. That is an astounding plunge, and it represents the very first year-over-year quarterly sales decline that Apple has experienced since 2003.
Analysts were anticipating some sort of drop, but nothing like this. And of course last week we learned that Google and Microsoft also missed revenue and earnings projections for the first quarter of 2016. The economic crisis that began during the second half of 2015 is really starting to take hold, and even our largest tech companies are now feeling the pain. This wasn’t supposed to happen to Apple. No matter what else has been going on with the U.S. economy, Apple has always been unshakeable. Even during the last recession we never saw a year-over-year decline like this… Apple today announced financial results for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2016. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $50.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $10.5 billion, or $1.90 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $58 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.6 billion, or $2.33 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. As expected, the year-over-year decline in quarterly revenue was the first for Apple since 2003.I think that this announcement by Apple is waking a lot of people up. The global economic slowdown is real, and we can see this in iPhone sales. During the first quarter, Apple sold 16 percent fewer iPhones than it did during the same quarter in 2015. This is the very first year-over-year quarterly sales decline for the iPhone ever. Here are some of the specific sales figures from the Apple announcement… Apple sold 51.1 million iPhones during the quarter, down from 61.2 million a year earlier, while Mac sales were 4.03 million units, down from from 4.56 million units in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales were also down once again, falling to 10.25 million from 12.6 million.Once these numbers hit the wires, shares of Apple immediately began to plummet during after-hours trading. In fact, USA Today is reporting that Apple has already lost 43 billion dollars in market value since the annoucement… Shares of Apple are getting hit roughly 8% in after-hours trading, tumbling to $96.67. They closed in regular trading at $104.35, or down 0.7%, putting them down 0.9% for the year. The downward move in after-hours trading means the company shed $43 billion in market value based on after-hours trading.Wow. Meanwhile, shares of Twitter are crashing in after-hours trading after the social media giant also announced very disappointing results. The stock has now dripped below 16 dollars a share, and the company continues to lose tremendous amounts of money… For all its other travails, Twitter is unprofitable. It narrowed its loss but still recorded a loss of $79.7 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with a loss of $162.4 million, or 25 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.Of course it isn’t just the tech giants that are troubled these days. On Tuesday we learned that same-store sales for Chipotle declined by a whopping 29.7 percent during the first quarter, and appliance manufacturer Whirlpool has seen sales fall all over the planet… Whirlpool, the world’s biggest appliance manufacturer, has become the poster child for the deep challenges facing multinational companies these days.When is it finally going to sink in for most people? The global economy is slowing down significantly, and the next global economic crisis is already here. Of course the oil companies are feeling more pain than anyone else. According to CNN, the crash in the price of oil has cost the 40 largest publicly-traded U.S. oil producers 67 billion dollars… American oil companies are drowning in a sea of red ink.That is an astounding amount of money. These days we throw around terms like “millions” and “billions” so much that they almost lose their meaning. But this is real money that we are talking about here. In recent days, Barack Obama has been running around boasting that he saved the world economy from another Great Depression. But that isn’t true at all. Instead, our “leaders” have simply set the stage for a larger and more painful crisis. I like the way that Doug Casey recently put it… You’ve got to remember that all of these governments and central banks all around the world have driven interest rates not just to zero, but to negative levels in some cases… and they are simultaneously printing up trillions of currency units. And even while they are desperately doing that the economy is falling apart in lots of different ways.Whether you want to call it a “Great Depression”, a “Greater Depression” or “The Greatest Depression”, the truth is that we are heading into a period of time that will be unlike anything any of us have ever experienced before. The greatest debt bubble in the history of the planet is starting to implode, and this time the central bankers and the politicians are not going to be able to put the pieces back together again. But just like in 2008, the vast majority of the population will not recognize the warning signs until it is way too late. *About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.* |
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Economy In Decline: Apple Reports Massive Revenue Decline As iPhone Sales Plummet Dramatically - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG
Obama's Ignorance: Fortunate to be Living in “Most Peaceful Era in History By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS
US President Barack Obama speaks in Hannover, Germany. (Photo: UpTake Video / Youtube Screenshot)
Obama's Ignorance: Fortunate to be Living in “Most Peaceful Era in History
“And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.” Isaiah 3:4 (The Israel Bible™)
Addressing world leaders at a trade fair in Hannover, Germany on Monday, US President Barack Obama acknowledged the good fortune of living in what he considers to be the “most peaceful” era in human history. He noted major advances in education, longevity of life, health care, and the spread of democracy as some of the many benefits of living today.
With pride, Obama added extreme strides in social equality to the list. “Around the world we’re more tolerant, with more opportunity for women and gays and lesbians as we push back on bigotry and prejudice,” he said.
Discouraging any incredulity, he explained that the negative images portrayed in the media showing rampant global violence were misleading.
“I want to begin with an observation that, given the challenges that we face in the world and the headlines we see every day, it may seem improbable but it’s true. We are fortunate to be living in the most peaceful, most prosperous, most progressive era in human history,” he said.
The president clarified his position, noting that it had been several decades since the major world powers had faced each other in war. “[Though] it seems like only bad news comes through every day, it’s been decades since the last war between major powers,” he said.
Ironically, amid reassurances of the current (relatively) peaceful era, Obama added that he plans to call on European leaders, encouraging them to step up their efforts to fight the radical Islamic group known as ISIS. Upon this declaration, the president revealed that the US will be sending an additional 250 Special Forces troops into Syria to join in the fight.
Obama also called for more airstrikes and training, suggesting that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries contribute two percent of their economic output to defense spending.
“Europe and NATO can still do more,” he said. “We need to do everything in our power to stop [ISIS],” adding, “Europe has sometimes been complacent about its own defense.”
While Obama’s statement regarding the length in time since World Wars One and Two is factually true, current data does not support his overall claim about this era being peaceful. In fact, it’s completely the opposite; the security situation in the world has worsened significantly since he took office in 2009.
A recent study by Mida, a liberal Israeli current affairs and opinion online magazine, based their conclusions on the database of the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, which includes a comprehensive list of wars and conflicts worldwide using data collected since 1989. In an article titled, No Global Cop: The Victims of Obama’s Appeasment, Bigman notes that 80 percent more people were killed in wars around the globe under Obama’s isolationist policies than under Bush’s wartime, interventionist presidency. The areas hardest hit by the two terms of Obama’s policies were in the Mideast.
Choosing to put his focus elsewhere, Obama’s latest statements tend to emphasize the threat of global warming as the bigger danger. In a December interview on CBS This Morning, the president stated that climate change leads to terrorism and “dangerous ideologies”. He expressed this most clearly by taking a pass on the massively attended rally in Paris in January 2015 against terror, while calling the Paris summit in November dealing with climate change a “powerful rebuke” to terrorism and ISIS.
Though war is a tragic reality, the Bible does not always forbid it. Under certain conditions, it is the preferable alternative and sometimes even required by God. Maimonides wrote regarding the responsibilities a king in the Messianic era faces at the time closely preceding the war of Gog and Magog, that he must wage a final war against the root of all evil. Were a king or leader of any sort to neglect this obligation and instead capitulate to the forces of evil even in the name of peace, as Obama’s statements indicate, it would only bring more pain and suffering into the world.
Christian Priest to Light Independence Day Torch - Aviel Schneider ISRAEL TODAY
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Understanding the Jihadi Generation (Day 4) with John Guandolo on The Jim Bakker Show
Jim & Lori Bakker
John Guandolo
Jim Bakker Show 2016 | Show# 2982 | Aired on April 23, 2016
Genesis, Luke, Matthew
Jim Bakker Show © 2016 • Morningside Studios
"Let My People Go!" ✡ Israel Photo Trivia - ISRAEL365
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Understanding the Jihadi Generation (Day 3) with John Guandolo - The Jim Bakker Show
Jim Bakker & John Guandolo
John Guandolo
Jim Bakker Show 2016 | Show# 2981 | Aired on April 22, 2016
I Corinthians, II Timothy, John, Luke, Matthew
Jim Bakker Show © 2016 • Morningside Studios
Earth Changes In 2016? How To Get Prepared For The Coming Earthquakes And Volcanic Eruptions - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG
Posted: 25 Apr 2016 Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG
All over the world seismic activity is increasing. In recent weeks we have seen a dramatic earthquake in Ecuador, more than 600 earthquakes have experts extremely alarmed about what is happening to Japan’s southern Island, and 37 volcanoes around the planet are erupting right now. Most of the large earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that we have witnessed lately have come along the Ring of Fire, which is an area of seismic instability which roughly encircles the Pacific Ocean.
Fortunately the west coast of the United States has been spared so far, but scientists tell us that tension has been building up along the San Andreas fault and the Cascadia Subduction Zone for decades, and they assure us that it is only a matter of time before we see a major event. What that day arrives, will you be prepared? There were a couple of notable seismic events which took place on Monday. First of all, the largest volcano in Russia’s Far East known as Klyuchevskaya Sopka violently erupted. Steaming hot ash was shot more than three miles up into the air, but fortunately it is not a heavily populated area. This represents yet another major volcanic eruption along the Ring of Fire, and this has some scientists extremely concerned about what may be coming next. Here in the United States, an unusual swarm of 21 earthquakes along the Arizona-Nevada border is also raising eyebrows… More small earthquakes shook northwest Arizona Sunday adding to the list of temblors that have struck the area since March 29.The good news is that we have not had a truly historic earthquake in the U.S. for decades, and there have been no major volcanic eruptions since Mount St. Helens exploded back in 1980. But scientists assure us that we are living on borrowed time, and there are three extremely dangerous volcanoes in North America that I am keeping a close watch on right now… #1 Mt. Popocatepetl Popocatepetl is an Aztec word that can be translated as “smoking mountain”, and more than 25 million people live within range of this extraordinarily dangerous mountain. Experts tell us that during the time of the Aztecs, entire cities were completely buried in super-heated mud from this volcano. In fact, the super-heated mud was so deep that it buried entire pyramids. In the event of a full-blown eruption, Mexico City’s 18 million residents probably wouldn’t be buried in super-heated mud, but it would still be absolutely devastating for Mexico’s largest city. #2 Mt. Rainier Mt. Rainier has been dubbed a “time bomb“, “the most dangerous mountain in the United States” and “one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world” because it sits so close to Seattle, Tacoma and other major cities along the coast of Washington state. In the event of a full-blown eruption, countless numbers of people would literally be buried alive in a tsunami of super-heated mud. These tsunamis of super-heated mud are known as “lahars”, and scientists believe that Mt. Rainier is capable of producing lahars that could move at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour. I am so convinced that an eruption of Mt. Rainier is in our future that I even put one in my novel. #3 The Yellowstone Supervolcano Many of us that are a bit older still remember the eruption of Mount St. Helens back in 1980. Well, scientists tell us that a full-blown eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano would have up to 2,000 times the power of that eruption. Salt Lake City would be toast, anything caught outside in Denver would probably be dead in pretty short order, and a layer of volcanic ash at least 10 feet deep would be dumped on everything even up to 1,000 miles away. Food production in America would be virtually wiped out, and a “volcanic winter” would cool global temperatures by up to 20 degrees for an extended period of time. In other words, life as we know it would come to an end. That is why the extremely unusual activity going on at Yellowstone right now is such a concern. If it decides to blow, world history will make a dramatic turn in a single moment. So what should we do? As always, we should never give in to fear. There are definitely going to be major earthquakes and historic volcanic eruptions in North America, and we are going to have to deal with them. Doing some common sense things in advance will give you and your family the best chance of calmly and smoothly making it through such a crisis. Below, I have shared some tips that come directly from the CDC. This first set of tips suggests things that you and your family can do to get prepared for a major earthquake…
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Gather Emergency SuppliesStock up now on emergency supplies that can be used after an earthquake. These supplies should include a first aid kit, survival kits for the home, automobile, and workplace, and emergency water and food. Store enough supplies to last at least 3 days.Evacuation PlansIf an earthquake occurs, you may need to evacuate a damaged area afterward. By planning and practicing for evacuation, you will be better prepared to respond appropriately and efficiently to signs of danger or to directions by civil authorities.
Establish PrioritiesTake time before an earthquake strikes to write an emergency priority list, including:
Write Down Important InformationMake a list of important information and put it in a secure location. Include on your list:
Gather and Store Important Documents in a Fire-Proof Safe
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Preparing for a volcanic eruption requires a strategy that is a little bit different. Here are more tips from the CDC…
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If you are told to evacuateFollow authorities’ instructions if they tell you to leave the area. Though it may seem safe to stay at home and wait out an eruption, doing so could be very dangerous. Volcanoes spew hot, dangerous gases, ash, lava, and rock that are powerfully destructive.Preparing to evacuate
As you evacuate
If you are told to take shelter where you are
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In the end, you have got to do what you feel is best for you and your family.Personally, I would be extremely hesitant to live in very high risk areas along the west coast or near the Yellowstone supervolcano. This is especially true considering how dramatically global seismic activity is increasing. But others point to the fact that these “danger areas” have not seen any major events in decades, so they wonder what all of the fuss is about. So what do you think? Please feel free to join the discussion by posting a comment below… *About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.* |
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