(OPINION) Economic conditions just keep getting worse. As we prepare to enter 2023, we find ourselves in a high inflation environment at the same time that economic activity is really slowing down.
And just like we witnessed in 2008, employers are conducting mass layoffs as a horrifying housing crash sweeps across the nation. Those that have been waiting for the U.S. economy to implode can stop waiting, because an economic implosion has officially arrived. The following are 15 facts that prove that a massive economic meltdown is already happening right now…
#1 Existing home sales have now fallen for 10 consecutive months.
#2 Existing home sales are down 35.4 percent over the last 12 months. That is the largest year-over-year decline in existing home sales since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
#3 Homebuilder sentiment has now dropped for 12 consecutive months.
#4 Home construction costs have risen more than 30 percent since the beginning of 2022.
#5 The number of single-family housing unit permits has fallen for nine months in a row.
#6 The Empire State Manufacturing Index has plunged “to a reading of negative 11.2 in December”. That figure was way, way below expectations.
#7 In November, we witnessed the largest decline in retail sales that we have seen all year long.
#8 Even the biggest names on Wall Street are starting to let workers go. In fact, it is being reported that Goldman Sachs will soon lay off approximately 4,000 employees.
#9 The Federal Reserve is admitting that the number of actual jobs in the United States has been overstated by over a million.
#10 U.S. job cuts were 417 percent higher in November than they were during the same month a year ago.
#11 A recent Wall Street Journal survey found that approximately two-thirds of all Americans expect the economy to get even worse next year.
#12 A newly released Bloomberg survey has discovered that 70 percent of U.S. economists believe that a recession is coming in 2023.
#13 Inflation continues to spiral wildly out of control. At this point, a head of lettuce now costs 11 dollars at one grocery store in California.
#14 Overall, vegetable prices in the United States are more than 80 percent higher than they were at this same time last year. (CONTINUE)
