But even though the outlook for the months ahead doesn’t look promising at all, I was still quite stunned by the results of a brand new ABC News/Ipsos survey that was just released…

Americans’ perception of the economy hit the lowest point since the 2008 crash in a new poll showing the Republican Party is more trusted to handle these kitchen table issues.

In an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday, 69 percent of Americans claim that the country’s economy is ‘getting worse’, while just 12 percent say it is ‘getting better’ under President Joe Biden’s leadership.

The last time that particular survey produced results like that was right in the middle of the last financial crisis.

Most of you still remember the “Great Recession” very well, and there are many that believe that what we are heading into will be even worse.

That same ABC News/Ipsos poll also discovered that Biden’s economic approval rating has fallen even lower…

Biden specifically has a 37 percent overall approval on his handling of the economy – the lowest point in the polling since he took office last year.

It shouldn’t surprise us that the vast majority of the American people don’t trust Biden and his minions to handle the economy.

What should surprise us is that after everything that has already happened 37 percent of U.S. adults still have faith in the administration.

What are those people thinking?

One of the primary reasons we have so much inflation right now is because our leaders have borrowed and spent way too much money, and now the Biden administration wants even more.

On Sunday, the United States Senate gave Biden a huge victory by passing a 700 billion dollar spending bill known as “the Inflation Reduction Act”…

The Senate on Sunday passed the $700 billion Inflation Reduction Act, a scaled-down version of the Build Back Better Act.

The Senate voted to pass H.R. 5376, otherwise known as the Inflation Reduction Act, 51-50. The legislation passed on a party-line vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.

Of course this bill isn’t going to do anything to reduce inflation.

Instead, it will just make it even worse.

So most Americans should get ready for their standard of living to go down even more.

As the cost of almost everything has gone up much faster than paychecks have, many Americans have been dealing with financial stress in a couple of different ways.

First of all, a lot of us are racking up credit card debt like never before…

Americans piled on $40.1 billion worth of debt in June, the Federal Reserve said Friday afternoon. The figure was considerably higher than economists’ forecasts, after May’s revised total of $23.8 billion.

Americans’ borrowing grew by 10.5% in June, compared to 6.3% in May, according to the Fed’s G.19 consumer credit report. Revolving debt — roughly a proxy for outstanding credit card balances — rose by 16% after an 7.8% increase in May.

That was the second largest monthly increase in consumer credit in the history of our country.

Ouch.

Of course piling up lots of credit card debt is a really, really bad idea, and that is especially true when we are plunging into a major economic downturn.

But many people can’t seem to help themselves.  If you can believe it, Americans have opened a whopping 42 million new credit card accounts just since the beginning of the pandemic…

Since the pandemic started, about 42 million new credit card accounts have been opened, and consumers now hold more than 750 million auto-loan, credit-card, mortgage, and home-equity lines of credit. Overall, consumers ages 30 to 59 have record levels of debt.

Another way that Americans are dealing with financial stress is by taking on extra jobs…

From June to July, the labor force saw full-time jobs drop by 71,000, while part-time jobs and multiple jobholders increased by 384,000 and 92,000, respectively, according to the latest seasonally adjusted Labor Department data.

This trend of the economy dropping full-time jobs while adding second and part-time jobs has been accelerating since March.

Working an extra job is a great way to wear yourself down physically, mentally and emotionally.

It should only be done as a temporary solution, but at this point nearly half of all workers “are working at least one extra job”…

Some 44% of Americans are working at least one extra job to make ends meet each month, according to a survey by Insuraranks, while 28% of respondents said they took on a secondary gig due to inflation.

I am looking at those numbers and I am still having a really difficult time believing that they are real.

Has it really come to this?

What we do know is that survey after survey has shown that close to two-thirds of the nation is currently living paycheck to paycheck.

And as the cost of living continues to rise faster than paychecks do, that figure will almost certainly go even higher.

There are millions upon millions of people that are working as hard as they possibly can, but it still isn’t enough.

Many of those hard working people trusted the con artists in Washington when they were told that everything was under control and that the future looked bright.

Now many of those hard working Americans are realizing that they were lied to over and over again.

The truth is that the future is not bright for the U.S. economy.  In fact, the times that we are moving into will be far more horrible than most people would dare to imagine.

The most epic economic bubble that the world has ever seen is starting to burst, and the nightmare that has now started to unfold is going to be spectacularly painful.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***