Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
Will we someday look back on October 2018 as the turning point?
As the month began, people were generally feeling pretty good about things, and the U.S. stock market quickly set a new all-time high.
But from that point on, the wheels fell off for Wall Street.
We just witnessed the worst October for U.S. stocks since the financial crisis of 2008, and at this point more than 8 trillion dollars of global wealth has been completely wiped out. But it isn’t just the stock market that is being shaken.
The horrific violence in Pittsburgh is just the latest in a string of events that have rattled the entire nation. Sometimes I feel like I am literally watching the fabric of our society come apart right in front of my eyes. It is almost as if there is a tangible presence of evil in the air, and it seems to be getting stronger over time. For quite a while I have been warning that levels of anger and frustration are rising to unprecedented levels, and all of that anger and frustration is leading people to do things that are absolutely unthinkable.
And if people are this crazed now, how bad are things going to get once the economy really starts unraveling?
Let there be no doubt – if U.S. stocks crash really hard, it will cause a massive credit crunch, and that would absolutely strangle economic activity.
Yes, October was bad, but we can recover from what happened in October.
But if November and December are equally as bad or worse, we could have a nightmarish crisis on our hands very rapidly. And many experts believe that this market is ultimately going to decline much, much further.
For example, just consider what Wolf Richter is saying…
So it boils down to this: Some stocks have gotten crushed, but the market overall has barely been dented – though the fundamentals are rotten, shares are still ludicrously overpriced, enthusiasm is still exuberant except on bad days, and blind faith in annually rising stock prices still reigns. And the fact that stocks like Tesla [TSLA] or Netflix continue to levitate beyond all reality shows that this downturn has a long way, and years, to go.
And Chris Martenson expressed similar sentiments in his most recent article…
The recent market weakness seen over the past two weeks is nothing compared to what’s in store. As we’ve been carefully chronicling, bubbles burst from ‘the outside in’, starting at the weaker places at the periphery before progressing to the center.
Emerging market equities are now down -26% from their January highs and -18% year-to-date. China’s stock market is down -32%, even with substantial intervention by the government to prop things up.
The periphery has been weakening all year, and the contagion has now spead worldwide.
But when I talk about a “perfect storm”, I am not just talking about money.
For years, I have been warning that the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted on a daily basis is rapidly disappearing, and the events of this past week made this exceedingly clear…
Wednesday, a white man with a history of violence shot and killed two African-Americans, seemingly at random, at a Kentucky Kroger store following a failed attempt to barge into a black church.
After mail bombs were being sent to people who’d been criticized by the President, a suspect was arrested Friday — a man who had railed against Democrats and minorities with hate-filled messages online.
And Saturday morning, a man shouting anti-Semitic slurs opened fire at a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11 people attending Jewish services.
I will not ever be able to understand the kind of hate that we have been witnessing. I have always preached against racism, and I even included an entire chapter against racism in my latest book. There is absolutely no room for racism in America, but it just seems to keep growing.
We are facing overwhelming challenges as a society, and if we do not learn how to love one another there is no way that we are going to make it.
This is a time of great governmental shaking as well. On November 6th, some candidates will win and some candidates will lose, but the hatred being expressed on both sides will not go away. Sadly, the truth is that there are corrupt politicians all around us, and the American people have been rapidly losing faith in our system. If the corruption is not cleaned up and some way is found to restore faith in our system of government, it is only a matter of time before it collapses.
On top of everything else, we also live at a time of impending global conflict. A major regional war could erupt in the Middle East at any time, and Russia and China are openly warning that they are “preparing for war” with the United States. World War 3 is a lot closer than people realize, and the fact that our relationships with both Russia and China are rapidly going downhill is a major concern.
And of course the planet itself is increasingly becoming unstable. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions appear to be growing in both size and intensity, and massive storms have been hammering communities all over the globe in recent months.
The giant rock that we all live on is rapidly changing, and many believe that the Earth changes that we are currently witnessing are going to escalate dramatically in the years ahead.
Many ordinary Americans seem unconcerned about everything that is going on, and perhaps that is because they are unaware of the bigger picture. But the elite are definitely freaking out. In fact, the New York Times just published an article about how demand for private security services is higher than ever…
At Pinkerton, a private security and detective agency founded in 1850, requests for executive security have increased 20 to 30 percent annually over the last five years, said its vice chairman, Tim Williams. And people are looking for safeguards in all areas of their lives that pose risks, experts say, including information technology and social media.
“People are scared right now,” Mr. Williams said.
And some among the elite even have plans to hop on private jets and leave the country completely when everything starts hitting the fan. For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled “Bankers And Tech Executives Know The Collapse Of Society Is Coming And Are Feverishly Prepping For It”.
We are entering a time that will cause many to have great fear, but now is not a time to be scared.
It is when times are the darkest that light is needed the most, and I believe that this coming “perfect storm” will be an absolutely thrilling time to be alive.
Yes, life is going to become a lot more uncomfortable for all of us, but it is during times of great challenge that we find out what is truly inside of us. This will be a time when some will show that they are great villains, but many will also emerge as great heroes.
We have reached a critical juncture in human history, and everything is about to change. I would encourage you to be a light in the darkness, because that is going to be greatly needed in the days ahead.
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