We are literally watching a slow-motion apocalyptic event play out right in front of our eyes, but most people in the general population don’t seem too concerned even though we are being warned that this apocalyptic event could cause trillions of dollars in economic losses. Large numbers of fish are being cooked to death, unprecedented wildfires are ripping across the United States and Europe, severe drought is greatly harming agricultural production in many areas, and the northern hemisphere is being slammed by one crazy heatwave after another. Yeah, a lot of people out there may be able to ignore what is going on outside by sitting in their air-conditioned homes, but the truth is that what is happening to us is going to cause a tremendous amount of pain for the whole world for an extended period of time.

The Super El Niño that we are currently experiencing is setting new water temperature records in the Pacific Ocean on a daily basis, and one expert is warning that it appears that “it may end up the strongest by a truly mind-blowing margin”…

The strengthening El Niño – a natural warming of seawater that influences weather around the planet – is setting daily warm water records.

It’s not only “very likely to be the strongest event since reliable records began – it may end up the strongest by a truly mind-blowing margin,” Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth, wrote in a post for The Climate Brink, a Substack blog, earlier in July.

It remains to be seen what this will mean for the world’s weather over the next 12 to 18 months, but climate scientists say El Niño’s effects on global temperatures will increase the chances that 2026 could be the warmest year on record, and make it likely that 2027 will be the warmest.

The droughts caused by the Super El Niño of 1877-1878 resulted in famines that killed tens of millions of people.

So if this Super El Niño will be stronger than that Super El Niño “by a truly mind-blowing margin”, what will that mean for impoverished nations all over the globe?

Prior to the war with Iran, the number of people around the globe suffering from acute food insecurity was already at the highest level ever recorded.

How bad will things get in the months ahead?

This Super El Niño just started, and we are already setting records.

Sea surface temperatures in the equatorial waters of the Pacific have never been this hot in July.

We truly are in unprecedented territory, and scientists are extremely concerned about what is coming next.

In fact, a Dartmouth professor is telling us that this could be “the costliest El Niño on record”…

Because of its influence on hydrologic cycles, El Niño can bring catastrophic floods to some regions but severe drought and wildfires to others. It can also disrupt fisheries and food production and bring about trillions of dollars in economic losses.

“The current forecasts imply this could be the costliest El Niño on record,” Justin Mankin, a Dartmouth geography associate professor who studies El Niño’s economic impacts, recently told USA TODAY by email.

Trillions of dollars in economic losses is nothing to laugh at.

If a worst-case scenario materializes, we could potentially be facing tens of trillions of dollars in economic losses from this Super El Niño.

We won’t know exactly how bad this event will be until it is over, because we have never seen anything like this before.

At this moment, the heartland of America is being absolutely baked by the third giant “heat dome” to strike the U.S. over the last month…

About 70 million people in the US are set to face excessive heat advisories as dangerously hot temperatures scorch much of the country’s southern and central states.

The third major “heat dome” event to hit the US in the past month is gathering strength over the weekend, spanning a vast swathe of the country, from the Gulf of Mexico coast to the Great Plains and the midwest.

Temperatures of 95-105F (35-40C) are expected, with some areas of the south-western US desert potentially reaching 120F (48C). The elevated heat is expected to linger into the coming week, held in place by the heat dome, which is when a high-pressure atmospheric system acts as a sort of lid, trapping heat in place over a region for days or even weeks.

Not too long ago, “heat dome” events were considered to be quite rare.

Now we are getting slammed by one almost every week.

It isn’t supposed to get up to 108 degrees in Nebraska, and it isn’t supposed to get up to 114 degrees in Nevada…

Places under a National Weather Service extreme heat warning included western Nebraska, where temperatures Saturday and Sunday were forecast to reach 108F.

The region’s heat was forecast to continue through the week, with temperatures topping 100F even in normally moderate areas of Montana and Wyoming.

Las Vegas was also expected to see near record-breaking highs. On Saturday, when temperatures reached around 114F in the valley, HVAC repair technician Kristian ‘Flaco’ Santos spent hours outside fixing air conditioning units.

And guess what?

A lot more heat is on the way.

In early August, another enormous heatwave is expected to send temperatures in California to dangerously high levels…

Much of the Central Valley will range from 105 to 113 degrees, and the interior Bay Area should surge to the triple digits. Warm nights will compound the effects of the extreme daytime temperatures.

Temperatures will wax and wane daily, and the duration of the heat wave is still uncertain, but long-range forecasts indicate California will contend with above-normal temperatures through mid-August. Fire danger may sharply increase. Poor air quality is expected as surface-level ozone concentrations build during the hot, sunny and windless weather.

When conditions are this hot and this dry, it is really easy for wildfires to erupt.

On Friday, I shared the following wildfire map from WatchDuty.org with my core supporters…

This is what the western third of the nation looks like right now.

Meanwhile, absolutely gigantic wildfires are ripping across France and Spain…

France fought an “unpredictable” wildfire close to Bordeaux on Sunday while Spain warned of “difficult hours” in its own fiery battle, with evacuations from danger zones in both countries mounting to well over 300,000 people.

The forest infernos, raging for days unchecked in France’s southwest and in central Spain near Madrid, were among the worst each nation has seen in peacetime.

France’s major fire has caused an unprecedented “pyrocumulonimbus”: a gigantic, untamable fire cloud that creates its own winds and packs lightning that causes more blazes, according to the National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF).

“It’s a David-versus-Goliath scenario: the idea is that, at some point, we’ll find a weak spot and strike there,” said FNSPF spokesman Eric Brocardi.

This sort of thing is not supposed to happen in Western Europe.

At this point, more than 250,000 people have been evacuated in just one region of France alone…

Authorities in France’s Gironde region, where the wine region city of Bordeaux is located, issued overnight evacuation orders for five more localities as shifting winds and arid conditions complicated the massive effort to limit the spread of the monster blaze. The evacuation operation now ranks among the biggest seen since World War II, authorities said, with more than 250,000 people ordered out of the danger zone in one region alone.

Of course it isn’t just the United States and Europe that are suffering.

In Japan, high temperatures reached at least 104 degrees for a fifth day in a row yesterday.

That is the longest streak in the entire recorded history of Japan…

Japan experienced its fifth consecutive day with temperatures reaching 40°C (104°F) or higher on July 25, setting the country’s longest such streak on record. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) attributed the persistent heat to a Pacific high-pressure system that has kept skies largely clear across much of the country.

The highest temperature of the day was 40.8°C (105.4°F) in Mino, Gifu Prefecture. Other locations reaching 40°C (104°F) or higher included Tajimi, Gifu Prefecture at 40.7°C (105.3°F), Kuwana, Mie Prefecture at 40.6°C (105.1°F), Hamamatsu (Chuo Ward), Shizuoka Prefecture at 40.3°C (104.5°F), Toyota, Aichi Prefecture at 40°C (104.0°F), and Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture at 40°C (104.0°F).

Whenever El Niño conditions develop we get hotter weather, and many parts of the globe also experience severe drought.

Right now, farmers and ranchers all over the Western Plains are dealing with a severe drought that is unlike anything they have ever experienced before…

The drought gripping the Western Plains is rapidly becoming one of the most devastating agricultural disasters producers have faced in decades. From southern Colorado to Montana, farmers and ranchers are battling a crisis that extends far beyond dry fields. Water supplies are dwindling, wheat crops are failing, hay production is shrinking and cattle producers are being forced into difficult herd liquidation decisions.

As a result of the extremely dry conditions, the water level in Lake Powell has fallen to a critically low level…

Lake Powell was 23.4% full on July 19. It was last full in 1983. If its level falls more, that could create environmental catastrophe by stopping the river flowing through the Grand Canyon, a situation known as “dead pool.”

The crisis could create ripple effects nationwide. Nearly half of the country’s vegetables and more than three-quarters of its fruits and nuts are grown in California, according to the state’s Food and Agriculture Department. A substantial amount of California crops are irrigated with Colorado River water.

When there is not enough water to irrigate crops in California any longer, we will be in all sorts of trouble.

Because this is a slow-motion disaster, a lot of people aren’t taking it very seriously.

But if you are old enough, you should still be able to remember the mass starvation that occurred in Africa as a result of the Super El Niño of 1982-1983.

This Super El Niño is going to be far stronger than that Super El Niño, and many are projecting that it will not end until well into 2027.

That means that this Super El Niño could affect global agricultural production for multiple years.

Of course this is happening at a time when we are also facing a global energy crisis and a global fertilizer crisis.

The stage has been set for a historic worldwide food supply crunch, and the poorest countries are going to get hit harder than anyone else.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post This Super El Niño May Be “The Strongest By A Truly Mind-Blowing Margin” And Could Cause The Most Economic Damage Ever appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Everyone is starting to figure out that there isn’t going to be enough oil. The Iranians have closed the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis are targeting Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, and the Ukrainians are relentlessly attacking Russian energy infrastructure. The reality of what we are facing is finally starting to set in on Wall Street. As I write this article, the price of Brent crude has crossed the $100 threshold, the Dow has dropped more than 500 points, the Nasdaq has dropped more than 600 points, and U.S. Treasury yields have been flying all over the place. For a long time investors tried really hard to ignore what was happening on the other side of the globe, but now things have gotten so bad that they simply cannot do that any longer.

Thanks to multiple wars that the U.S. is currently involved in, global oil markets have been thrown into a state of chaos…

The second wave of the US-Iran conflict shows no signs of letting up. Attacks by the Houthi militia have threatened to curtail shipping through the Red Sea. Russia’s refineries are buckling under the weight of bombardment by the Ukrainian military.

For global oil markets, already in a precarious situation, critical logistical nodes just keep getting thwarted. Things keep going wrong.

There has been so much focus on what has been taking place in the Middle East, and I will have quite a bit to say about that in a moment.

But it is also important to recognize that the rapidly escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine is also driving up the price of oil.

In fact, it is being reported that Ukraine has “attacked more than 150 tankers in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov this month”…

The Ukraine-Russia war is also putting pressure on global oil markets, Croft said. Kyiv has attacked more than 150 tankers in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov this month, she said. The tanker attacks have forced the Caspian Pipeline Consortium to stop loading crude at its Black Sea terminal.

About 80% of Kazakhstan’s crude is exported through that pipeline, Croft said.

“The duration of closure remains uncertain, but alternate routes for Kazakhstan are limited (and unlikely to fully offset CPC), meaning production (1.7 mb/d in June) could face shut-ins,” the analyst said.

This is a really big deal, and hardly anyone is talking about it.

Meanwhile, the crisis in the Middle East just escalated to another new level.

Less than 24 hours ago, the Houthis in Yemen successfully targeted two Saudi oil tankers that were attempting to slip past their blockade…

The Iran-backed Houthis struck two Saudi oil tankers on Thursday that they accused of violating a naval blockade imposed by the group, signaling a potential new front in the US-Iran conflict, as the US military struck Iran for the 12th successive night.

The attack came after the Houthis said on Monday that they were imposing a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, a move that could significantly widen the war and strain the US military.

Yemen’s Houthis said they targeted two Saudi oil tankers, identified as Encelia and Laylia, saying the vessels violated their naval blockade.

Investors didn’t like this at all, and it is the primary reason why we are talking about $100 oil again.

In addition, the Houthis are claiming that their blockade forced 10 other commercial vessels to turn around before getting to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait…

The Houthis claimed they had also forced “10 ships to retreat and return.” That claim could not be independently verified, The Times said, but at least six vessels reversed course in the Red Sea on Monday and Tuesday after the Houthis warned shipping companies to avoid Saudi ports, according to Kpler, a maritime data company. It was not clear if those ships were part of the Houthis’ claims.

Everyone knows that the Iranians asked the Houthis to do this.

And now we have learned that Iran actually flew “military advisers and missile- and drone-related equipment into Yemen this month”…

Iran flew Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, military advisers and missile- and drone-related equipment into Yemen this month, according to four sources, in a move that suggests Tehran is seeking to strengthen the ability of its Houthi allies to threaten Red Sea shipping.

Four sources familiar with the matter, including two Iranian sources, Yemen’s information minister and a regional security analyst, said Iran transferred the IRGC personnel and military-related equipment on a flight from Tehran to Yemen on July 13, a development that has not been previously reported.

The two Iranian sources told Reuters that between 10 and 21 IRGC personnel, including senior commanders, were on the Mahan Air flight.

The Iranians think that they are really going to put the squeeze on us by having the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait closed simultaneously.

President Trump is very angry about this, and he has told the entire world that the U.S. will hold Iran responsible for whatever the Houthis do…

Threats aren’t going to cause the Iranians and the Houthis to back down.

And there is no end in sight for the war between Russia and Ukraine.

A lot more fighting is ahead, and that means that the global energy crisis is going to continue to intensify.

For months, Wall Street tried to ignore what has happening.

But now one Wall Street strategist is telling us that it is simply “too hard to ignore $100 oil”…

“These problems became too big to ignore,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, about the move in stocks on Thursday. “It’s too hard to ignore $100 oil. It’s too hard to ignore 10-year rates that are above 4.70%. It’s too hard for the stock market to ignore 30-year rates that are solidly above 5%.”

I think that we have finally reached a major tipping point.

Global oil inventories are rapidly disappearing, and that means that a whole lot of pain is on the horizon…

Even so, Kpler analysts wrote, “buffers are eroding fast.” After the first phase of the war drew down global oil inventories throughout both governmental strategic reserves and the commercial sector’s own stores, the global oil market is now effectively functioning like a savings account for someone who just lost their job, Rabobank’s DeLaura said.

The market is effectively treating the situation as manageable because global inventories haven’t reached zero, he said. Yet with no solution in sight, that picture grows ever more perilous.

“We’re pinning everything on these just absolutely lottery ticket kind of ideas that something will happen,” DeLaura said. “The reality is, we’re just going to continue to grind out our inventories and savings.”

That last paragraph is so true.

Investors have just been assuming that everything would magically work out just fine somehow.

But relying on “lottery ticket kind of ideas that something will happen” is not a strategy.

Global events really are starting to spiral out of control, and I expect the wars that we are witnessing to escalate significantly.

There isn’t going to be enough oil coming out of the Middle East.

There isn’t going to be enough natural gas, fertilizer, sulfur or helium coming out of the Middle East either.

We have never faced anything like this, and Wall Street is finally starting to get the message.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post “It’s Too Hard To Ignore $100 Oil”: Financial Markets Start To Shake As The Reality Of The Global Energy Crisis Weighs Heavily On Investors appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Somehow we have convinced ourselves that AI companies that are bleeding billions upon billions of dollars are great investments because there is a possibility that someday they will eventually become profitable. But the losses just keep getting even bigger every year. Meanwhile, we are spending trillions of dollars to build even more AI infrastructure. There is no way that the AI industry is ever going to generate the sort of revenue that will justify that level of investment. What we are witnessing is a capital misallocation of absolutely epic proportions, and it is inevitable that this entire bubble is going to come crashing down. When that finally happens, it will be unlike anything we have ever seen before.

Stanford University says that “total global corporate investment in AI reached $1.6 trillion” from 2013 to 2024…

According to the 2025 AI Index Report by Stanford University, between 2013 and 2024, total global corporate investment in AI reached $1.6 trillion. This substantial expenditure dwarfs even the largest scientific and infrastructure projects of the 20th and 21st centuries.

That number is so high that it is difficult to believe.

But last year we took things to an entirely new level.

We are being told that total worldwide spending on AI in 2025 was 2.5 trillion dollars…

According to Gartner, a United States-based business and technology insights company, worldwide spending on AI is forecast to total $2.5 trillion in 2026, a 44 percent increase over 2025.

We are building a tremendous amount of AI infrastructure, but is it worth it?

For a long time, investors have been completely sold on the idea.

In fact, over the last three years the “value of AI-linked firms has climbed $27 trillion”…

The American stock market is booming, thanks to artificial intelligence. Tech giants are borrowing billions to acquire AI talent, purchase chips and hardware, and construct data centers. And market watchers are starting to get worried. They see financiers bulldozing giant piles of money to private AI start-ups with no realistic path to profitability, tech companies reliant on other tech companies for revenue growth, and non-tech businesses without a lot to show for their AI investments. The value of AI-linked firms has climbed $27 trillion in the past three years—an astonishing amount, equivalent to 36 percent of the value of the entire U.S. stock market today.

AI mania has reached a fever pitch.

But are these firms really worth that much money?

Of course not.

In fact, most of them are bleeding colossal amounts of cash.

A perfect example is OpenAI. Ed Zitron is warning that when OpenAI inevitably fails it could take the entire stock market down with it…

The AI bubble is simple, Ed Zitron says, because it’s really a bubble in a single company: OpenAI.

As the ChatGPT maker heads toward a momentous IPO, the vocal AI critic says that OpenAI is the only reason anyone cares about AI at all—and it’s failure would spark a collapse similar to the one set off by Lehman Brothers when the bank fell apart in 2008.

OpenAI is supposedly worth more than 800 billion dollars.

But the financial numbers that it reported for 2025 were absolutely nightmarish…

• Revenue: $13.07 billion
• Cost of Revenue: $7.5 billion
• Research and Development: $19.18 billion
• Sales and Marketing: $5.73 billion
• General and Administrative: $1.57 Billion
• Total Costs and Expenses: $34 billion
• Loss from Operations: $20.92 billion

For the entire year, OpenAI reported a total net loss of 38.5 billion dollars…

Please note that 2025 was the year that OpenAI converted from a non-profit to a for-profit entity, leading to a $41.55 billion loss due to changes in fair value of convertible interests and warrant liability.

Taking into account other minor factors like interest income and interest expense, OpenAI is left with a net loss of $60.35 billion, which it lowered to $38.53 billion by removing $17.87 billion in costs via that “net loss attributable to noncontrolling members capital” and another $3.95 billion via a “net loss attributable to redeemable noncontrolling interests.”

Ultimately, the net loss attributable to OpenAI in 2025 was $38.5 billion.

If I hired thousands of people and we all started flushing dollar bills down the toilet as fast as we possibly could, there is no way that we could ever lose that much money in an entire year.

Open AI is a financial black hole.

Sam Altman promised us that OpenAI would soon be making $100 billion a year in ad revenue alone, but that isn’t the way that things have worked out.

Sadly, Open AI is currently on pace “to undershoot its own five-year ad revenue projections by a whopping 90 percent”…

Even as the AI bubble becomes a mainstream talking point on Wall Street, tech companies continue to peddle the fantasy that AI is poised to become an almost magical money-maker. Case in point, OpenAI wants you to believe that by 2030, it’ll be raking in $100 billion a year just from ads alone — even though it’s currently struggling to reach just $1 billion.

That massive gulf was observed in a new analysis from marketing consulting firm Emarketer, first flagged by AdWeek, which found OpenAI is on pace to undershoot its own five-year ad revenue projections by a whopping 90 percent. In fact, Emarketer’s take is even more devastating than that: it estimates the entire addressable market for chatbot advertising — the maximum amount of money up for grabs overall — at $5.4 billion.

This is an unmitigated disaster.

Other AI companies are producing similar results.

Meanwhile, a lot of companies are now ditching expensive AI models that were created in the United States for much cheaper AI models that were created in China…

As corporate AI bills spiral out of control, many companies are beginning to ask themselves a simple question: why pay a pretty penny for the US’s leading AI models when Chinese ones are far cheaper?

Major companies like DoorDash, Airbnb, and Siemens are adopting Chinese AI tools, the Financial Times reports, attracted not only by their lower costs but their “open-weight” approach that allows them to be molded to each company’s particular needs.

According to data from OpenRouter, a platform that provides all-in-one access to major AI models and tracks their usage, leading Chinese models from DeepSeek and Z.ai have overtaken US equivalents like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Cost-cutting, it seems, trumps all geopolitical rivalries.

Chinese models are “the elephant in the room,” Eugene Cheah, CEO of the AI platform Featherless AI, told the FT. “Enterprises are starting to realize, ‘Hey, we don’t need the best model, we can use the faster, cheaper models.’”

It has become very clear that AI companies will never be the money trees that they were touted to be by their most fervent proponents.

In fact, the biggest money losers will end up being some of the most dramatic financial flops of all time.

So what does that mean for the stock market?

From a long-term point of view, stock prices are insanely high…

The S&P 500 Shiller CAPE ratio’s long-term average is around 17, and it’s been steadily creeping higher over the last decade or so.

Right now, the ratio is nearing 42 — the highest it’s been since the dot-com bubble, when it peaked at around 44.

The Shiller CAPE Ratio has stayed above 40 since May, which is only the second time in history that it’s remained this high. The first time was in January 1999, when it stayed above 40 until September 2000.

What goes up must eventually come down.

When the public hears that the AI bubble has burst, there will be a frenzied race for the exits, and the financial devastation that we will witness will be off the charts.

It is just a matter of time.

But for the moment, the race to create new AI models continues, and there is a very real possibility that this technology could escape our control.

For example, OpenAI has revealed that it created a model that “went rogue”, escaped into the Internet and hacked into the computer system of another company…

ChatGPT creator OpenAI has revealed one of its advanced Artificial Intelligence models went rogue during a security test and hacked into a start-up company.

Bosses said the autonomous agent, which is an AI system that operates alone following human instruction, was being tested in a controlled environment.

But it found vulnerabilities and managed to escape containment before reaching the internet and breaking into Hugging Face, a major hub for sharing AI models.

That is scary.

As AI technology continues to develop at an exponential rate, what else will it eventually be able to do?

Our world has become such a strange place.

Ray Kurzweil believes that a decade from now we will be so integrated with AI that we won’t even know if our thoughts are truly our own or if they are being fed to us from highly advanced AI models.

Personally, I would never allow anyone to put a chip into my head or connect my brain directly to the Internet.

But a lot of people out there would eagerly welcome such technology.

Science fiction is rapidly becoming science reality, and things are only going to get weirder from here.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post The AI Bubble Is Going To Burst, And When It Does You Can Say Goodbye To High Stock Prices appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Unless we witness some sort of a crazy diplomatic miracle, the price of gasoline will soon rise into unprecedented territory. The Iranians have closed the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis are blocking Saudi tankers from getting through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and with a big helping hand from the United States the Ukrainians are relentlessly attacking Russian oil refineries. Meanwhile, the oil inventory buffers that existed before the war with Iran are rapidly being depleted. Nations around the world are doing whatever they can to adjust to this crisis, but time is running out.

According to analysts at Goldman Sachs, the price of oil could soon hit $120 a barrel if a diplomatic solution to the conflict in the Middle East is not found…

Oil prices could reach upward of $120 a barrel if tensions between the U.S. and Iran don’t start to ease soon.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs, led by Daan Struyven, wrote in a note published on Monday night that Brent crude may surpass $120 a barrel by next quarter and average $100 a barrel the following year if the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted throughout 2027. In this scenario, output from the Persian Gulf doesn’t recover until December next year, with the support of oil-pipeline extensions.

If the price of oil reaches that level and stays there for an extended period of time, a major global economic downturn is essentially guaranteed.

The good news is that the price of oil is not anywhere near that level yet.

But on Tuesday the price of Brent crude did exceed the $90 barrier for the first time since June 11th…

After 10 consecutive days of U.S. strikes on Iran, Brent crude oil futures settled above the key threshold of $90 a barrel Tuesday.

Brent futures ended the day at $91.01, up 2.1%. The last time they settled above $90 a barrel was on June 11, less than a week before the U.S. and Iran signed a memo of understanding aimed at ending hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz while a longer-term peace deal was negotiated. But that 60-day truce ended less than a month after it was signed.

The trend is not our friend at this stage.

Of course the price of crude oil is not the only number that we need to be watching.

The “crack spread” has been soaring, and that should deeply alarm all of us.

If you are not familiar with the “crack spread”, the following is a pretty good explanation…

The process works like this: Refiners take in raw crude oil (the price mostly referred to in headlines) and “crack” it into usable petroleum products. But just like crude is its own commodity, gasoline and diesel have their own trading prices as well. The profit that oil refineries make from converting crude into usable fuels is the “crack spread.”

Prior to the war, the “crack spread” was usually about 10 to 15 dollars a barrel.

This week, it reached a whopping 70 dollars a barrel…

But while everyone has been watching crude oil, a different oil measure — the one that arguably matters more for the price at the gas pump — has never stopped climbing. That measure, called the “crack spread,” is at all-time highs.

The crack spread is the gap between what a refinery pays for crude and what it earns selling the gasoline and diesel it makes from it. For most of the past decade that gap fluctuated between $10 and $15 a barrel. This week it hit $70, the widest spread ever recorded.

The margin for refining a barrel of oil is now more than what an entire barrel of crude cost the day this war began. And here is the tell: It kept climbing while crude collapsed, and it is still climbing now that crude is rising. It does not care which way the headline price moves.

The crack spread is the market telling you, in dollars, that the right crude is not reaching the right refineries. The price of oil can do whatever it likes. The machines that turn it into fuel are screaming either way.

The conflicts in the Middle East and in Ukraine are the primary reason why the “crack spread” has been steadily widening.

Many refineries in the Persian Gulf region are currently not operating due to the war with Iran, and we keep helping Ukraine damage refineries all over Russia…

The current conflict between Russia and Ukraine that started in February 2022 has significantly damaged global refining capacity, with Russian crude runs falling to a 22-year low of 3.8 million barrels per day in June, according to a Truist report.

It also resulted in a Russian ban on diesel exports, limiting how much crude oil can actually be turned into fuel and reach the global market.

“When 1 in 9 barrels of diesel is produced in Russia, and suddenly they’re banning exports, it’s problematic,” De Haan said.

The U.S.-Iran war has made matters even worse. Despite previous talks to de-escalate the conflict, the International Energy Agency said in its July oil-market report that Middle East export refineries have yet to restart.

We desperately need peace.

But there isn’t going to be peace.

Instead, there were some dramatic escalations last week, and there have been more dramatic escalations this week.

On Monday, the Houthis announced that Saudi commercial vessels would no longer be allowed to travel through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait…

A successful effort by Yemen’s Houthis to shut the Bab el-Mandeb Strait would strike at one of the world’s most important oil shipping routes, potentially triggering a fresh surge in crude prices, disrupting fuel supplies and adding to strains on the global economy.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on Monday declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, its military spokesperson said. A closure of the Red Sea’s southern gateway would remove a critical alternative route for the kingdom to the Strait of Hormuz and intensify fears of shortages.

This blockade seems to be working, because at least 8 oil tankers have already been forced to turn around…

One analyst is warning that the impact that this move will have on global markets will be “massive”…

A full closure would have the biggest immediate impact on Saudi crude exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Matt Smith, commodity research director at Kpler, said Asian refiners receiving those barrels could face delays of around a month as tankers are forced to sail around the Cape of Good Hope.

“The impact is going to be massive in the first month,” Smith said. “The biggest impact is going to be on Saudi flows.”

The bottom line is that everyone in the world will soon be paying much more for gasoline unless a miracle happens.

And once all of our buffers are totally gone, shortages and rationing will begin to manifest in various parts of the globe.

I expect Asia to feel the pain first, and Europe will quickly follow.

There is still time for peace to prevail, but that window is getting narrower each day.

For a long time I have been warning my readers that crazier times were on the way, and what we are experiencing now is just the beginning.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post Goldman Sachs Warns That Oil Could Soon Hit $120 As The “Crack Spread” Soars To New All-Time Highs appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

I really don’t understand the tremendous apathy that I am witnessing right now. Everyone can see that commercial oil inventories are rapidly being depleted. As I discussed yesterday, the global oil market had about 400 million barrels of excess inventory before the war, and now we have “close to nothing”. But at least we still have the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, right? Yes, that is true, but that is being rapidly depleted as well. In fact, when you add the dwindling commercial oil inventors in the U.S. to the oil that is left in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, we only have 43 days of supply remaining…

This doesn’t meant that 43 days from now we will be totally out of oil.

What it does mean is that our buffer is almost entirely gone.

Once it is entirely gone, as a society we will be forced to use less oil than we normally do.

Gasoline prices will likely rise until we see enough “demand destruction” to bring overall demand into balance with existing supply levels.

And that will likely start happening some time around the beginning of September.

Of course it is entirely possible that this could occur even sooner than 43 days from now.

Thanks to the negligence of the Biden administration, one of the four major underground storage sites for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is apparently “inoperable” at this point…

The extreme incompetence that we have been witnessing in recent years absolutely horrifies me.

Let us hope that there is enough oil that we can actually access in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to get us through this crisis.

But I don’t think that there will be.

The war in the Middle East just continues to intensify, and now the Houthis have announced that they will be blocking Saudi vessels from traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait…

Houthi militants in Yemen on Monday declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia effective immediately, threatening to exacerbate the oil supply disruption triggered by Iran’s attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Houthis have repeatedly threatened to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait during the U.S.-Iran war. The strait is a choke point for commercial ship traffic that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and global markets.

This is a major bombshell.

Much of the oil that the Saudis used to send through the Strait of Hormuz had been going through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait instead…

The Saudis have diverted million of barrels of oil per day through a pipeline to an export terminal on the Red Sea. Those exports have acted as a crucial relief valve for global oil markets during the U.S.-Iran war.

A closure of Bab el-Mandeb would block in those barrels, exacerbating the disruption triggered by Iran’s attacks on tankers in Hormuz.

So what is Saudi Arabia going to do now?

We have never seen the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait closed simultaneously, and this could send the price of oil into the stratosphere…

Virtually nothing has been moving through the Strait of Hormuz since late last week, and now the Iranians are really cracking down.

Just a little while ago, the Iranians attacked a Saudi vessel that was attempting to sneak through the Strait…

Prior to that, two Greek-owned tankers were “hit by projectiles” that came from Iran…

One of two Greek-owned tankers hit by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz has been abandoned by its crew after fire was reported on the vessel.

The crew was rescued by a tugboat after abandoning the Maltese-flagged Kavomaleas owned by Greece’s Dynacom Tankers.

The only way to stop Iran from attacking commercial ships with missiles and drones would be to send in ground troops.

And that is not going to happen any time soon.

So the global oil crisis is only going to get worse.

Already, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is back above four dollars…

With the resumption of the war with Iran, gas has returned to a national average of $4 a gallon this week. Gas prices had started coming down after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a peace deal, which brought stability to the market. Then, as everyone with an IQ over 70 expected, that all fell apart as Iran continued to violate the agreement. Nevertheless, we did have a few weeks of gas prices coming down.

“The price is a national average, meaning drivers in some states have been paying well over $4 a gallon for a while now, while others pay less. Prices vary between states due to factors ranging from nearby supply to differing tax rates,” reports the far-left Associated Press. “People around the world are also dealing with high gas prices as a result of the war.”

Of course this is just the beginning.

Gasoline prices will go much higher than this.

Meanwhile, electricity rates have risen 18 percent in just 18 months…

From Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 to April 2026, the most recent month for which government data are available, residential electricity rates have risen by an eye-watering 18 percent.

Sadly, it appears that electricity prices are poised to accelerate even more…

Nationally, utilities in the second quarter of 2026 “asked state regulators to approve $9.2 billion in rate hikes, up 26% from the $7.3 billion in rate increase proposals filed in the same period last year,” reports Utility Dive.

Virtually every form of economic activity requires energy.

So when energy becomes more expensive, the cost of living goes up for everyone.

Our entire way of life depends on cheap energy.

That era is over.

In the short-term, rising prices will put an enormous amount of stress on American families.

And the outlook beyond the short-term is extremely bleak.

We really have reached a major turning point in human history.

The apocalyptic war that is unfolding in the Middle East is going to radically change all of our lives.

Most Americans are still very apathetic for the moment, but a major league wake up call is coming, and it is going to be very painful.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post 43 Days And Counting: Apathetic Americans Are About To Be Blindsided By A Major League Wake Up Call appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

The only way that we were going to avoid a historic oil crisis was if a diplomatic solution could be found to end the war in the Middle East. Obviously that did not happen. The “Memorandum of Understanding” has completely failed and the U.S. and Iran are hitting one another really hard. The Strait of Hormuz is going to be closed for the foreseeable future, and now it appears that the Bab el-Mandeb Strait will soon be closed as well. Global oil inventories have been falling for months, and now we have reached a stage where we are going to experience some really severe pain.

Iran has attacked at least 9 commercial vessels over the past couple of weeks, and as a result “nobody is willing to move” through the Strait of Hormuz right now…

The security situation in the Strait of Hormuz has returned to a “worse-case scenario” for oil tankers as Iran has repeatedly attacked ships over the past week, the CEO of a maritime risk services firm said.

“We see the reduction of the volume of transits through the Strait of Hormuz and right now crews of vessels are even more concerned than they were before,” said Dimitris Maniatis, CEO of Athens-headquartered Marisks, at a Lloyd’s List Intelligence briefing this week.

“Nobody is willing to move,” Maniatis said.

This is really bad.

We are truly going to see how dependent the world really is on oil from the Middle East.

Up to this point, we have been okay because there were large commercial oil stockpiles that we could deplete.

But now we are being told that we have “burned through all of the buffers we had”…

Financial Times spoke with energy traders at the end of the week who warned that slowing tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz could trigger a more severe supply crunch than the first round of the US-Iran war because emergency reserves and stockpiles around the world that cushioned the earlier disruption have been mostly depleted.

“We’ve burned through all of the buffers we had. Everything,” said one trader. “All of that’s now gone.

Perhaps some numbers will help people understand the situation that we are facing.

Before the war, we had approximately 400 million barrels of oil in commercial inventories.

At this point, “we have close to nothing”…

Amrita Sen, founder of Energy Aspects, pointed out that heading into the US-Iran war, the global oil market had around 400 million barrels of excess inventories, not including strategic reserves controlled by governments.

“Now we have close to nothing … and market complacency around Hormuz flows is being severely tested,” Sen warned.

In other words, we are right around the corner from shortages and rationing in some parts of the globe.

Asia will probably be first, and then Europe will follow.

And the outlook for the U.S. is becoming quite dire as well.

In fact, crude oil inventories at Cushing have been hovering around “tank bottoms” recently…

Crude oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub have fallen below 20 million barrels in recent weeks, prompting the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) to explain how “tank bottoms” can affect storage operations and market pricing.

According to EIA, storage tanks require a minimum volume of crude oil to remain operational. Known as tank bottoms, this inventory allows pumps and related infrastructure to function properly. Once inventories approach these minimum operating levels, not all stored crude is readily accessible, even though tanks are not technically empty.

The good news is that we still have some oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but it is falling fast.

According to the Wall Street Journal, it is currently at the lowest level that we have seen since 1983…

Oil shocks from the war with Iran and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have left the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve at its lowest level since 1983.

The world has been running an “oil deficit” for months.

Now the Strait of Hormuz is closed again, and the Houthis could soon shut the Bab al-Mandab Strait…

Iran has reportedly instructed Yemen’s Houthi terrorists to prepare to close a critical Red Sea gateway if the United States attacks Iranian power infrastructure, Reuters reported, a threat experts warn could sharply disrupt global shipping even if the group cannot completely seal the waterway.

“This threat should be taken seriously,” Nadwa Al-Dawsari of the Middle East Institute told Fox News Digital. “With recent escalation and U.S. strikes on Iran, Tehran has already signaled that the Bab al-Mandab could become part of its response.”

Three sources told Reuters on Thursday that Iran’s leadership had discussed using the Houthis to shut the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and recently conveyed the request to the group. A source close to the Houthis said missiles and drones had been deployed near the waterway and that the group was awaiting an order to begin attacking shipping.

The Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab Strait have never been shut at the same time.

If that actually happens, energy prices will go absolutely nuts.

Meanwhile, relentless strikes on Russian refineries have caused an insane gasoline shortage in Russia.

Many drivers are waiting multiple hours in line for gasoline, and security forces have been deployed to keep order at gas stations…

Authorities in 13 Russian regions have deployed security forces, including police officers and Rosgvardia personnel, to patrol gas stations as the country faces an escalating domestic fuel crisis following Ukrainian long-range strikes.

The crisis has caused a 35% drop in daily gasoline production to 75,000–80,000 metric tons, far below the typical summer demand of 115,000–120,000 metric tons, leaving half of Russia’s oil refining capacity idle, as reported by The Moscow Times on July 17.

In response to the shortage, local administrations have set strict fuel sales limits ranging from 20 to 40 liters of gasoline per vehicle, leading to long lines where drivers face wait times of at least 2.5 hours.

The Ukrainians are going to continue sending drones to strike Russia’s refineries, and the Russian people are extremely frustrated.

Some of the lines stretch for miles, and in two cases elderly people actually dropped dead while they were waiting…

For months, the queues at petrol stations across Russia have grown longer.

Some people have slept in cars. Others have pitched tents. A few have ended up brawling over pumps.

Now, two people have died.

An 80-year-old man suffered heart failure while waiting to fill his tank at a petrol station in the town of Lysva in Perm Krai, while a 75-year-old man died while waiting to refuel in Petrozavodsk.

The Russians are normally one of the largest oil exporters in the world.

But now they have been forced to beg India for gasoline…

Moscow has approached Indian refineries for more gasoline imports amid an acute fuel shortage, according to industry sources cited by Reuters.

Russia, the world’s third-largest oil producer, has reportedly requested gasoline imports from India and Kazakhstan in June amid a sprawling fuel crisis spurred by Ukrainian strikes, with nationwide fuel rationing reported.

Reuters, in its Thursday report, said Russian oil giants Rosneft, Gazprom Neft and Lukoil have approached their Indian counterparts to raise imports, with the outlet’s source adding that deliveries are likely to be routed through traders.

This is another reason why this oil crisis is going to be so severe.

The worst gasoline shortages in the world at this moment are in one of the largest oil producers in the world.

Meanwhile, the war in the Middle East just continues to escalate.

We had a very large cushion to work with at the beginning of the war, but now it has been almost entirely depleted.

This is where things get very “interesting”, and the vast majority of the population has no idea what is coming.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post We Are Being Warned That Global Oil Inventories Are “Close To Nothing” As We Plunge Into The Most Severe Oil Crisis In History appeared first on The Economic Collapse.