Empty Shelves, Severe Shortages And Widespread Crop Failures Are Ahead In The Fall Of 2021

August 24, 2021 by Michael Snyder


The overall mood of the nation is becoming increasingly sour with each passing day. The pandemic seems like it is never going to end, the drama unfolding in Afghanistan is one of the greatest embarrassments in modern American history, and Joe Biden’s approval rating is sinking like a rock as it becomes clear that he is completely and utterly incompetent. Unfortunately, average Americans will soon have even more to be stressed out about. As we head into the fall months, our store shelves are going to be getting emptier, shortages of products will become more widespread, and it looks like we could potentially have a very bad harvest season.

I realize that I packed a lot of really bad news into that paragraph, and some of you may be tempted to think that I am exaggerating.

So let me take this one step at a time. First, I would like to talk about crop failures. According to the Department of Agriculture, 63 percent of all U.S. spring wheat is in “poor or very poor condition”. Last year at this time, that number was sitting at just 6 percent…

Extreme heat is baking most of the U.S. North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska all contain areas of extreme drought, according to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. North Dakota and Minnesota, in particular, are experiencing near-record lows in soil moisture, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As a result, many crops planted this spring are wilting. Some 63% of the U.S. spring wheat crop is in poor or very poor condition, versus 6% at this time last year, according to Agriculture Department data.

So does this mean that agricultural production will be below expectations?

Yes.

In fact, the USDA is now projecting that levels of corn, wheat and soybeans will all be “at their lowest level since 2013”…

The poor weather has caused the USDA to scale back its expectations for U.S. crop production in 2021—which, in turn, is causing domestic inventories to dwindle. In the USDA’s latest monthly supply and demand report, the agency pegged ending stocks for corn, wheat, and soybeans all at their lowest level since 2013.

Of course this comes at a time when we are also seeing crop failures in other key areas all over the globe.

For example, we are currently witnessing one of the worst droughts that South America has ever experienced. Agricultural production has been absolutely devastated in Brazil, Argentina, and elsewhere, and this is going to have a huge impact all over the planet.

What this means is that global hunger is going to continue to grow rapidly, and this is extremely bad news because global hunger has already been rising at an extremely aggressive rate…

Earlier this month, the humanitarian organization Oxfam released alarming statistics that measured the state of the food crisis after one year of the pandemic. Every minute, eleven people on the planet die of hunger. The number of people experiencing famine-like conditions globally has increased by six times in the past year.

Many Americans may not care about starving people on the other side of the globe, but they are going to care very much when their Christmas celebrations “are ruined” because of severe shortages in the stores.

While she was in Singapore this week, Kamala Harris specifically warned us about what is coming…

“The stories that we are now hearing about the caution that if you want to have Christmas toys for your children, it might now be might be the time to start buying them, because the delay may be many, many months,” she said.

“So across the board, people are experiencing the issue. And, of course, the climate crisis is fueling a lot of this. When we look at the stronger typhoons that have disrupted shipping lanes and sea-level rise, which threatens port infrastructure as an example. So these are the many issues that are causing these disruptions,” Harris said.

Wow.

When Kamala Harris starts sounding just like The Economic Collapse Blog, then you know that it is really late in the game.

Even now, empty shelves and widespread shortages are being reported all over the nation. Susan Duclos over at ANP has done an excellent job of documenting what is going on out there. People from around the country have been sending photos to her, and this has helped her readers to understand that this is not a phenomenon that is just limited to a few areas.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

The holiday season is expected to greatly exacerbate the shortages, and it is being reported that “new problems are arising weekly”…

Grocery-store chains are still battling supply challenges that some executives said are as bad as what they saw in spring 2020, when hoarding left holes in stocks of some staples.

Industry executives say new problems are arising weekly, driven by shortages of labor and raw materials. Groceries including frozen waffles and beverages remain scarce as some food companies anticipate disruptions lasting into 2022. A wider range of products is running short and logistical challenges are compounding for many retailers.

Grocery stores are ordering more food like crazy, but we have gotten to a point where the largest U.S. food distributors simply cannot fulfill all of the orders…

According to Bloomberg, some of the largest U.S. food distributors are “reporting difficulties in fulfilling orders as a lack of workers weighs on the supply chain.” Take distribution giant Sysco, North America’s largest wholesale food distributor, which is turning away customers in some areas where demand is exceeding capacity.

Worse, food inflation is about to soar: the company said prices for key goods such as chicken, pork and paper products for takeout packaging are climbing amid tight supplies. In particular, production has slowed for high-demand, labor-intensive cuts like bacon, ribs, wings and tenders, Sysco said. And if intermediate and final wholesale prices are “rising”, just wait until they emerge on the consumer side.

Needless to say, my regular readers are not surprised by any of this, because they were warned in advance that all of this was coming.

But for most of the U.S. population, the new reality that we are entering into will come as a major shock.

They had been promised a new golden era of prosperity, but instead what they are going to get is a nightmare.

The Shortages Are Global, And We Are Being Warned That They Will Intensify

August 25, 2021 by Michael Snyder


The global economy was supposed to be getting back to “normal” by now, but instead more problems are erupting with each passing day. As I write this article, supply chains all over the planet are in a state of chaos. The worldwide computer chip shortage is making things very difficult for thousands upon thousands of manufacturers, the process of moving products across our oceans has become insanely expensive and is often plagued by horrendous delays, and a lack of truck drivers is causing enormous headaches when it comes to transporting goods to retailers and consumers in a timely manner. We have never seen anything like this before, and at this point even CNN is admitting that “the disruption to global supply chains is getting worse”…

The vast network of ports, container vessels and trucking companies that moves goods around the world is badly tangled, and the cost of shipping is skyrocketing. That’s troubling news for retailers and holiday shoppers.

More than 18 months into the pandemic, the disruption to global supply chains is getting worse, spurring shortages of consumer products and making it more expensive for companies to ship goods where they’re needed.

Earlier this year, some of the economic optimists were projecting that we would experience a tremendous “economic boom” during the second half of 2021.

But now we are facing empty shelves, shortages and major headaches in the months ahead.

One shipping executive that was interviewed by CNN says that things won’t get any better until “the first quarter of 2022 at the earliest”…

Shipping companies expect the global crunch to continue. That’s massively increasing the cost of moving cargo and could add to the upward pressure on consumer prices.

“We currently expect the market situation only to ease in the first quarter of 2022 at the earliest,” Hapag-Lloyd chief executive Rolf Habben Jansen said in a recent statement.

Here in the U.S., quite a few experts are now making very bleak predictions about the upcoming holiday season.

But we are definitely not alone. Over in the UK, it is being reported that the “worst supply-chain crisis since the 1970s” could potentially “ruin Christmas”.

One of the big problems that the British are facing is an unprecedented shortage of truck drivers and warehouse workers. Business leaders are begging for more EU workers to be allowed into the country, because they believe that will help to alleviate the crisis.

Empty shelves and shortages are now a daily reality in the UK, and some large fast food chains are now being forced to completely drop certain items from their menus…

Gaps on supermarket shelves have been spotted across the country due to a combination of factors, including lorry driver shortages and Covid.

Supplier issues have also led to shortages at fast food chains like McDonald’s, Nandos and KFC, with some items missing from menus and branches closed.

Greggs is the latest to say that it’s short on food faves and Costa Coffee has reduced its menu due to the supply chain chaos.

Could you imagine going into a McDonald’s and not being able to order a milkshake?

Sadly, that has now become a reality at every single location in the United Kingdom…

McDonald’s says it has pulled milkshakes from the menu in all 1,250 of its British restaurants because of supply problems stemming from a shortage of truck drivers.

The fast-food chain says it is also experiencing shortages of bottled drinks.

Here in the United States, we are dealing with similar issues.

At this point, it is being reported that finding new truck drivers to hire in this country is “next to impossible”…

Finding truck drivers is “next to impossible,” he said, while freight costs are rising daily. The company’s orders are arriving late and consequently facing delays in being sent to customers. On the outbound side, on-time deliveries are still above 50% but have fallen from the usual rate of more than 90%.

“We all thought it would be over by now. It’s just one thing after another,” he said. “This is going to be the norm for a while.”

For decades, we have been taking our truck drivers for granted. We pay them poorly, we treat them like dirt, and we make them work ridiculously long hours.

But without truck drivers, our country simply cannot function.

These days, most young people don’t want jobs that require a lot of hard, physical work and that don’t pay very well. Instead, they would rather make money producing Tik Tok videos or becoming Instagram influencers.

Traditionally, truck drivers have been strong, physical men with traditional values. Of course our society likes to demonize such individuals these days, but maybe this crisis will get everyone to understand that we actually need them.

Even if we had enough truck drivers, we would still be facing a wide range of shortages because of the global shortage of computer chips…

A global shortage of computer chips is causing major headaches for American manufacturers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the disruption of supply chains and manufacturing the world over. Manufacturers of computer chips in Asia have been especially hard hit. And that means companies that make products that rely on such chips are feeling the pinch.

As I have warned previously, the computer chip shortage is causing massive headaches for thousands of other industries.

We should have never become so dependent on chip production from Asia, and now we are paying a great price.

Yesterday, I discussed the fact that Kamala Harris is warning parents to buy their Christmas presents now because of the severe shortages that are looming on the horizon.

On Fox News, contributor Leo Terrell said that this “sounds like a very dangerous warning sign”…

Fox News contributor Leo Terrell expressed concern on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday that Democrats are aiming to shut down the U.S. economy again after Vice President Kamala Harris advised shoppers to consider buying Christmas presents now due to global supply chain issues.

LEO TERRELL: That scares me because that sounds like shutdown, that sounds like we’re going to expect that the economy is going to basically be locked down again. And that’s frightening. Again, the Democrats have used the pandemic to control Americans. And basically that sounds like a very dangerous warning sign.

Yes, I would definitely categorize her statement as a “warning sign”.

This is not going to be a “normal” holiday season.

And 2022 will definitely not be “normal” either.

We have moved into crazy times, and they are only going to get crazier.

A lot of people didn’t want to listen to warnings from people like me at first, but now seeing empty shelves and shortages is starting to wake some of them up.

Our economic infrastructure is being shaken, and many are starting to realize that the “invincible” U.S. economy is not actually so invincible after all.

This Is Definitely Going To Be “Not A Normal September” For The Rapidly Imploding U.S. Economy

September 2, 2021 by Michael Snyder

The “good times” were supposed to be rolling by now, but instead the wheels are starting to come off, and the economic outlook for the rest of the year is not good at all. Just yesterday, I warned my readers that things were about to get worse, and it only took exactly a single day for that to actually happen. As you will see below, major factory shutdowns were just announced, and that is going to make shortages even worse. Fear of COVID is restricting production all over the globe, and meanwhile national governments and central banks have been absolutely flooding their systems with fresh cash. As a result, we now have way too much money chasing way too few goods and services, and anyone that has taken ECON 101 will tell you that will inevitably result in higher prices and shortages.

As I discussed yesterday, if there is something that you need to buy, run out and get it now because the shortages are only going to get worse in the coming months.

On Thursday, General Motors shocked the entire nation when it announced that it is going to be closing down almost all of its manufacturing facilities due to our ongoing shortage of computer chips…

General Motors will idle nearly all its assembly plants in North America starting Monday as the COVID-19 pandemic affects production of semiconductor chips overseas.

GM said its Arlington Assembly in Texas, where it makes its highly profitable full-size SUVs, will run regular production next week, along with Flint Assembly in Michigan, where it makes its heavy-duty pickups, Bowling Green Assembly in Kentucky, where it makes its Corvette, and a portion of Lansing Grand River Assembly in Michigan, where it will make some Chevrolet Camaro and Cadillac Blackwing cars.

I knew that things were bad, but I didn’t know that they had gotten this bad.

Ford also announced that it will be slashing production due to a lack of chips…

Ford Motor is once again cutting production of its F-150 pickup truck and other highly profitable vehicles due to the ongoing global shortage of semiconductor chips.

The automaker informed employees Wednesday of the cuts, which also impact production of its larger Super Duty pickups and Expedition SUV.

This was supposed to be a time when vehicle sales were soaring to all-time highs, but thanks to a lack of chips the number of new Ford vehicles that were sold last month was down by a whopping 33 percent compared to a year ago…

U.S. sales of Ford Motor’s new vehicles last month declined by 33.1% from a year earlier due to an ongoing global shortage of semiconductor chips that’s wreaking havoc on the automotive industry, the company said Thursday.

The Detroit automaker’s sales capped off a dismal month of U.S. auto sales in August, which plummeted to an adjusted selling rate of 13.09 million vehicles. That’s the worst pace since June 2020 and down from this year’s peak of 18.5 million in April, according to auto data firm Motor Intelligence.

Demand is not the problem.

There is simply not enough Ford vehicles to go around right now, and this has pushed dealer inventories to frighteningly low levels…

Dealers only have about 942,000 vehicles in inventory for retail sale, compared with roughly 3 million before the coronavirus pandemic two years ago, according to Thomas King, president of the data and analytics division at J.D. Power.

Of course it isn’t just the auto industry that is dealing with these sorts of problems.

Supply chains all over the globe are in a state of complete and utter chaos, and it just seems to keep getting worse with each passing day. I really like how Wolf Richter has described the current state of affairs…

Yesterday, just outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, a record 44 container ships were anchored, waiting. And there are hundreds of these ships hung up somewhere globally, trying to get into a port, or they’re being rerouted to different ports. And all this takes time.

And containers are stuck in ports because railroads are backlogged, trucking companies are troubled by driver shortages, and containers are hung up in railyards and clog them up to where some railroads have stopped routing trains to those particular railyards until the backlog is cleared, thereby further contributing to the pileup of containers at ports.

And each extra day that a loaded container doesn’t get to its destination is a day that it cannot be unloaded and returned to the flow of containers, and cannot be sent to a manufacturer that has goods ready to ship but cannot ship them because they cannot get empty containers.

In my last article, I discussed the fact that experts are already warning that Christmas has been ruined because of all the mayhem.

And now fear of Delta and other variants threatens to gum up the works even more. Most Americans had assumed that we would be “returning to normal” by now, but instead we seem to be going in reverse in a lot of ways…

The delta variant of the coronavirus is preventing a return to normal and pumping the brakes on the economic recovery. Major corporations such as Apple, Facebook and Ford have pushed back their return-to-office dates from September to January. Schools are reinstating mask mandates and, in some cases, dealing with virus outbreaks, sending students home to quarantine. Restaurants and retailers are scaling back hours, as workers remain hesitant to return to lower-paying service jobs in which they are also more exposed to the virus. Meanwhile, brands including Nike and Gap are warning that factories in Vietnam and elsewhere aren’t operating at full capacity and that some items may not be available as the coronavirus surges around the world.

Authorities thought that they would be able to have the pandemic under control by now, but they have dramatically failed.

As long as these variants are sweeping across the globe like wildfire, there definitely will not be a return to “normal” any time soon.

The machinery of our economy is being shaken at a very basic level, and many believe that this is just the beginning.

For many years there have been warning signs, but our leaders have somehow been able to hold the U.S. economy together.

But now inflation is out of control, shortages are becoming exceedingly painful and confidence in our national leaders has plummeted to extremely low levels.

We haven’t even reached the official end of summer yet, and things are already starting to become very, very interesting.

That's all expected when greedy punks run the corporations and idiots run the government. They reap what they sow. They should have never bought the computer chips from the gooks and never imported manufactured goods from the Chi-Com gooks. I would rather drive a vehicle with ignition points and a carburetor without any damn computer chips at all in it.

All manufacturing should be done in the USA before the Chi-Coms defeat us in economic warfare. If we would have never shut down for the Chi-Com Bio-Weapon Corona Virus, if doctors would have given ivermectin at the onset of symptoms instead of listening to the lying damn CDC, and if we never had the damn mRNA injections there would have been 90% less deaths and those that lived would have natural immunity to corona virus and the epidemic would be over by now.

The damn so-called economic stimulus checks only caused inflation and we have to pay interest on it. Yuppies need to fix it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without, and quit crying about it.

People have forgotten the lessons from the great depression; so they're about to learn the hard way what our grandparents knew.

Yes, Sir ConSigCor, my grandfather lived through the first great depression and taught me to stay ready for the next depression. He taught me to never buy anything on credit.

My daddy was in World War 2 and taught me to stay ready for World War 3. If you want peace prepare for war.

During the first great depression the USA was 90% rural and 90% Christian. Now few are rural and few are Christian so the next depression will be like hell on Earth. Evil doers will be willing to murder you over a can of pork&beans and a bottle of water.

Improvise, Adapt & Overcome

Americans Are Going To Be Absolutely Shocked By The Empty Shelves That They See

October 12, 2021 by Michael Snyder


If you believe that America is headed into a new golden age of prosperity, you are getting lonelier with each passing day, because many others that were wildly optimistic about the economy earlier this year have been jumping ship. In fact, even the White House is now openly admitting that there will be significant shortages this holiday season. To many Americans, these shortages have come as a complete shock. Most of us have never experienced such shortages, and most of us never even dreamed that they were possible. But those that have been following my work for an extended period of time were not surprised by any of this. We were warned over and over again that shortages and rampant inflation were ahead of us, and now they are here with a vengeance. Unfortunately, the truth is that what we have gone through so far is just the beginning.

Normally, the White House will relentlessly “spin” any negative story in an attempt to make it a positive for Joe Biden.

But it is really hard to spin the fact that there are widespread shortages all over the country, and earlier today the mainstream news was full of reports about how the White House is now conceding that “higher prices” and “empty shelves” are coming…

White House officials, scrambling to relieve global supply bottlenecks choking U.S. ports, highways and railways, warn that Americans may face higher prices and some empty shelves this Christmas season.

Of course it is important to keep in mind that things always seem to turn out worse than the Biden administration projects.

And at this moment we are being promised that these shortages will just be for “a relatively short period of time”…

“There will be things that people can’t get,” a senior White House official told Reuters, when asked about holiday shopping.

“At the same time, a lot of these goods are hopefully substitutable by other things. … I don’t think there’s any real reason to be panicked, but we all feel the frustration and there’s a certain need for patience to help get through a relatively short period of time.”

You can believe all that if you want.

What made me chuckle was the line about how the missing products will be “substitutable by other things”.

Yes, just go find a giant rock outside and put it in front of your television and pretend that it is a Playstation.

At this point, even CNN is starting to sound like a bunch of hardcore preppers. Just check out this line that they recently tweeted out…

If you hoped grocery stores this fall and winter would look like they did in the Before Times, with limitless options stretching out before you in the snack, drink, candy and frozen foods aisles, get ready for some disappointing news.

The “Before Times”?

I kind of like that. Without a doubt, life was so much better before Biden’s tyranny took us down a horrifying dystopian rabbit hole.

If there aren’t enough toys for everyone this holiday season, we will certainly survive. To me, the fact that so many food products are now in very short supply is a much greater concern…

Many of the country’s biggest food makers are telling grocers that they will have limited quantities of a number of their products, including items such as Rice Krispies Treats, Sour Patch Kids, some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavors, McCormick gourmet spices and Marie Callender’s pot pies because of labor, commodity and transportation constraints throttling supply chains, according to emails viewed by CNN and interviews with grocers. Some suppliers are also telling grocers to cancel their promotions of these items and more over the holidays so products won’t disappear from store shelves as quickly.

Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that these shortages are not that big of a deal. They have been going on for quite some time, and they are getting worse.

And now we have some hard numbers that give us a picture of what is really happening at supermarkets nationwide…

Around 18% of beverages, 15% of frozen foods, 16% of snacks, 15% of candy and 18% of bakery items were out of stock at stores during the week ending on October 3, according to the latest data from IRI, which tracks in-stock levels at leading US grocery chains, big box stores, pharmacies and wholesale clubs.

I was stunned when I first read those figures.

I knew that things were bad, but I didn’t know that they were that bad.

And what is our country going to look like if those numbers start shooting up to 30 or 40 percent?

Our supermarkets should actually have less shortages than just about anyone else, because the vast majority of our food is produced right here in the United States. The most serious supply chain problems involve products that need to be shipped into this country, because right now we are seeing major issues “at almost every link in the chain” for imported goods…

At almost every link in the chain, there is a shortage; there aren’t enough yard workers to unpack the cargo on the ships quickly enough, nor are there enough drivers able to ferry them around on the ground. In stores, retailers don’t have enough workers to unpack them once they arrive.

Over and over again, we are being told that we simply do not have enough workers.

But at this moment the number of Americans that are currently employed is about five million less than it was just before the pandemic.

And other nations all over the globe are experiencing epic worker shortages as well.

So where did all the people go?

In case you were wondering, I am going to keep asking that question. Millions and millions of people have seemingly evaporated from the system, and we deserve some honest answers.

These are such troubled times, and much more trouble is on the way.

If there is something that you are planning on buying before the end of the year, I would recommend buying it now.

Inventories are going to get tighter and tighter between now and the end of 2021. We are being told that things may start to ease early next year, but I certainly wouldn’t count on that.

This is already the worst supply chain “collapse” in modern history, and I have a feeling that more “surprises” are just around the corner.

I don't know, but I'm sure they'll vote in 2022, 2024, and beyond, HAHAHAHA! :P

Now A U.S. Government Official Is Telling Us That The Supply Chain Nightmares Could Potentially Last For “Years”

October 11, 2021 by Michael Snyder


The truth is starting to come out, and a lot of people aren’t going to like it. When the supply chain problems and the shortages began, government officials repeatedly assured us that they would just be temporary, and most of us believed them. But now it has become clear that they aren’t going to be temporary at all. In fact, during a recent interview with Bloomberg, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg admitted that some of the supply chain problems that we are currently facing could last for “years and years”. I don’t know about you, but to me “years and years” sounds like a really long time.

Of course that is not the only time that Buttigieg has made such a claim. During another recent interview, he used the words “long term” to describe what we are facing…

Buttigieg has said in recent interviews that “it’s an incredibly complicated situation,” but the government is holding virtual “roundtables” with port operators, labor unions and private companies. Nevertheless, he told MSNBC last Thursday, the “challenges” will continue, not only “going into the next year or two, but going into the long term.”

Isn’t it remarkable how the outlook for our economic future has changed so dramatically in just a matter of a few months?

Earlier this year, we were told that we would soon be entering a new golden era of prosperity.

But now inflation and shortages are causing chaos everywhere we look.

Earlier today, I came across a Daily Mail article that boldly declared that “stores across America have empty shelves” right now…

Stores across America have empty shelves thanks to a series in supply chain problems that are prolonging inflation and could stretch into the new year, with some retailers like Costco and Walmart limiting the amount of toilet paper in some stores.

More than 60 cargo ships are waiting to dock in California, carrying hundreds of thousands of containers, and may be stuck for months in a traffic jam after arriving from China and Asia. Millions of dollars of American goods are still sitting in warehouses in China, awaiting shipment.

In addition to the unprecedented backlogs that we are witnessing at our major ports, it has also become far, far more expensive to send products across the Pacific Ocean.

Just check out these numbers…

The Washington Post reported the median cost of shipping a standard container from China to the U.S. West Coast hit a record $20,586. That’s nearly twice what it cost in July, which was twice what it cost in January, according to the Freightos index.

“Consumers are confronting higher prices and shortages of cars, children’s shoes and exercise gear, as the holiday shopping season looms,” the Post said.

That is crazy.

And now the emerging global energy crisis is going to make it even more expensive to move stuff around the planet. On Monday, the price of gasoline in the United States hit a new seven-year high…

The national average price for gasoline hit a fresh seven-year high of $3.27 a gallon on Monday, up by 7 cents in the past week alone, according to AAA. Gas has nearly doubled since bottoming at $1.77 in April 2020.

High gas prices will only exacerbate elevated inflation, squeeze the budgets of American families and hurt President Joe Biden’s political fortunes.

In addition, we just learned that U.S. stockpiles of heating oil have hit a 20 year low…

The U.S. may be heading into winter with the lowest stockpiles of heating oil to meet surging demand in more than two decades.

Inventories of distillates — used as diesel for both transportation and heating oil — are enough to meet 31.2 days of demand, according to the Energy Information Administration. That’s the tightest it has been for this time of the year since 2000.

Unfortunately, global energy supplies are going to get even tighter and prices are going to go even higher in the months ahead.

Needless to say, the big corporations are going to feel forced to pass on rising costs to consumers. In fact, the head of Kraft Heinz says that his company is already doing this…

Miguel Patricio said the international food giant, which makes tomato sauce and baked beans, was putting up prices in several countries.

Unlike in previous years, he said, inflation was “across the board”.

The cost of ingredients such as cereals and oils has pushed global food prices to a 10-year high, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

If you are reading this article and you are thinking that this is perfectly setting the stage for many of the scenarios that I have described in my books, you would be 100 percent correct.

We are entering a period of inflation that is going to absolutely shock most people.

In fact, the UN says that the global price of food has already risen more than 32 percent over the past year…

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s September food price index – a measure of monthly changes in global food prices – reached 130 points, a level not seen since 2011.

It represents a 32.8 percent increase from September 2020.

I realize that I have thrown a lot of information at you very quickly in this article.

Things are starting to move quite rapidly now, and we are being warned that conditions are going to continue to deteriorate in the months ahead.

And as conditions deteriorate, the American people are going to becoming increasingly restless. Already, polls are showing that Americans are quite dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. Here is one example…

Just 37% of Americans rate the economy as very or fairly good – the lowest percentage since March, and for the second straight month, more than half feel the economy is in bad shape. And most Americans are not convinced that the Biden administration’s domestic agenda would improve the economy.

As I discussed yesterday, our economy is starting to break down on a very basic level.

We have become so dependent on an efficient flow of goods and services, but these days there are breakdowns all over the system.

I would like to tell you that things will get better soon, but I can’t do that.

More supply chain problems are ahead, and some of them are going to be exceptionally painful.