Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
The cost of living has become absolutely suffocating for millions of Americans. For years, the bureaucrats in Washington have been feeding us numbers that show that the rate of inflation is low, but it is obvious to everyone that what they are telling us is simply not true. Many of the items that I regularly purchase at the grocery store have more than doubled in price over the past decade. Some have more than tripled in price. When I get to the register to check out, I feel like asking the cashier which organ I should donate to pay for my groceries.
We have reached a stage where grocery prices are causing extreme financial stress for families all over America. One man recently caused quite a stir on social media when he revealed that a grocery order from Target that cost $64.50 in 2020 is now $158.30 in 2026…
This post has already been viewed a million times.
The reason why it is so popular is because it instantly resonates with people.
Everyone knows that grocery prices have risen to absurd levels, and yet the statisticians in Washington keep assuring us that everything is fine.
I don’t believe them.
Do you?
The Washington Post just conducted a poll that found that 66 percent of Americans consider the cost of groceries to be unaffordable.
That figure has risen by 21 percent just since February…
Americans are feeling worse about the price of groceries than they were before the war with Iran began, a Washington Post-Ipsos poll finds.
About two-thirds, or 66 percent, of Americans say they would describe the cost of groceries as unaffordable, up sharply from the 45 percent who said the same thing in February before the conflict started.
Partisanship continues to play a big role in perceptions, with half of Republicans saying groceries are affordable in the latest poll, compared with about one-quarter of independents and Democrats.
Housing is even worse.
The median price of an existing home in the United States has now surpassed the $440,000 mark…
With a landmark housing affordability bill in political limbo, U.S. home prices have hit an all-time high.
The median price of existing homes in June was $440,660, up 1.8% from $432,700 a year ago, according to new data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Home prices have risen for 36 straight months.
“Housing affordability remains low under slowing wage growth and stronger home price growth,” Ershang Liang, an economist with PNC Economics Research, said in a report.
Who can afford to pay that much for a house?
Rental prices have also gone through the roof.
If you can believe it, the average rent on a one bedroom apartment in Manhattan is now a whopping $5,408 a month…
The city’s housing crisis has hit “DefCon 1” — with average rents for a one-bedroom in Manhattan hitting an all-time high of nearly $5,500 last month, and Brooklyn following suit, according to new data and critics.
“We need bold action. This is a crisis,’’ New York City Comptroller Mark Levine posted on X over the weekend, along with a link to the latest figures from the inhabit blog by real-estate giant Corcoran Group.
The dismal June stats reveal that renters paid an average of $5,408 for a one-bedroom in Manhattan, with studio prices not far behind at $4,014.
It isn’t a mystery why most Americans are struggling in this sort of an environment.
Many are turning to debt in a desperate attempt to make ends meet…
Many American families are struggling to make ends meet on their incomes alone and have resorted to credit cards, payday loans, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) options for groceries, according to nonprofit research center Urban Institute.
The findings are based on a survey of 18-to 64-year-old working-age adults conducted in December 2025. About 8.7 percent of adults said they used a credit card for groceries and were unable to make the minimum payment, up from 7.1 percent in 2023, the Urban Institute said in a July 13 report. This suggests “worsening financial distress” among families.
Almost one in 10 used BNPL to pay for groceries, out of which more than a third missed a timely repayment last year.
Unfortunately, when you keep piling up debt a day of reckoning eventually arrives.
Coming into this year, alarmingly large numbers of Americans were getting behind on their credit cards…
And the number of foreclosures in the U.S. is way above the highly elevated pace that we witnessed last year…
Foreclosures across the U.S. ballooned in the first half of the year, a sign of the increasing financial strain facing the nation’s homeowners.
Foreclosure filings reached nearly 228,000 from January to June, up 21% from a year ago and 28% from two years ago, according to data released Thursday from real estate data company ATTOM.
Rising foreclosure rates indicate that more homeowners are in financial distress, Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM, said in a statement. Homes go into foreclosure when the owner falls behind on mortgage payments, often due to extenuating life circumstances such as a job loss. ATTOM defines foreclosures as default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions.
This reminds me so much of the conditions that we experienced just before the financial crisis of 2008.
Unfortunately, the cost of living is only going to go higher.
The cost of energy directly affects the cost of everything else, and it appears that the Strait of Hormuz is going to be closed for an extended period of time.
The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. has nearly reached four dollars again, and the average price of a gallon of diesel has already risen above the five dollar mark…
US gas prices have rocketed higher during the on-again, off-again war with Iran.
After a brief respite, the average price for gas has surged 15 cents in a week to $3.94 a gallon and appears headed north of $4 again. Diesel, which shows up in customers’ shipping costs, topped $5 a gallon again Thursday for the first time in 3 weeks, according to AAA.
It serves as a painful reminder of how the military conflict in the Persian Gulf has a direct effect on your wallet.
Of even greater importance is what the closure of the Strait of Hormuz means for the global fertilizer market.
As Mike Adams has pointed out, without sufficient quantities of nitrogen fertilizer we won’t even come close to producing enough food for everyone…
Admittedly, I have failed to explain the stakes clearly enough. For months, I have written about fertilizer supply chains, the Haber-Bosch process, and the vulnerability of the Strait of Hormuz. But the gravity of this crisis has not sunk in for most people. Let me put it as plainly as I can: The global population of more than 8 billion people depends on a fragile web of natural gas, oil, and downstream chemistry that took 60+ years to build on this planet. If we lose 25 percent of these critical substances, we lose 25 percent of the population. That is 2 billion people. Here is why that math is inescapable.
As I documented in my article “The Haber-Bosch House of Cards,” the single chemical reaction that fixes nitrogen from the air into fertilizer is responsible for feeding roughly half of humanity [1]. That process requires vast quantities of natural gas. The Persian Gulf region, especially Qatar and Iran, supplies much of that gas. When the Trump administration launched its war on Iran in February 2026 and the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed, the global fertilizer supply chain began to collapse. This is not a prediction of future famine. The famine is already baked in. But it could still get a whole lot worse depending on how things go from here.
We could be facing multiple years when global food production is at depressed levels.
That means that food prices will go even higher in wealthy countries, and in poor countries there will be shortages.
Famine is one of the major trends that I am tracking, and what we are already witnessing in some parts of Africa is absolutely heartbreaking.
There is no magic button that we can press that is going to make these problems go away.
A crisis of historic proportions is now upon us, and we are still only in the very early stages of it.
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.
Tyler Durden Mon, 07/20/2026 - 12:20* * *
Greek Tankers Hit, Also as Iran Targets BahrainIran's IRGC continues to insist that it along is in control of the Strait of Hormuz, as it continues firing on foreign vessels seeking to traverse the Strait of Hormuz outside of Iran's 'approved' zone and protocol. According to some of the latest developments on this front, via regional media:
Various locations across Iran meanwhile continued to get pummeled by US aerial attacks. Iran in turn has been heavily targeting Bahrain on Monday.
"The US launched an aerial attack on one of the areas in Shiraz, it resulted in no casualties, and the situation is under control," IRIB reports. Currently, FM Araghchi is said to be en route to Pakistan, as mediators scramble to contain the war.
Air war alone cannot dislodge a large military/regime, hence the dilemma of restraint vs. quagmire and new forever war...
I'm confused.
The USA has the most powerful military on Earth. We've bombed the HELL out of Iran for 4 months. Trump says their Air Force, Navy, and nearly all of their missile capabilities are destroyed.
...so how is Iran still capable of hitting US bases right now???
Bahrain statement: "Bahrain’s Civil Aviation Affairs said Monday that an Iranian drone attack targeted civilian air navigation systems used to manage the country’s Flight Information Region as military escalation continues to rage on between Iran and the US."
Casualties Mount on Both SidesThe US military is bombing Iran for what is now the ninth straight day of renewed fighting, in a campaign which has expanded to include both civic and military infrastructure, also as Iranian retaliatory attacks keep up the pressure on the Gulf states, and have reached into Jordan, which deadly effect on an American base there.
Iranian authorities have said at least 50 people were killed and more than 500 after the return to war in the last three weeks. State media has reported that eight were killed in a single bridge strike on Friday.
American deaths have become evident as well, with US soldiers confirmed killed in a Saturday CENTCOM announcement. The Pentagon said Sunday a third US servicemember was killed in northern Iraq Sunday, in what's being described as an accidental death during a "controlled detonation" of a downed Iranian attack drone.
Smoke rises near the oil facility in Mangaf, Kuwait.The US has identified that Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Private Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, were killed in the Jordan attacks Friday. They were there as part of the ongoing 'counter-ISIS' mission, the Pentagon further indicated.
Proposed Ceasefire, Efforts to Reboot TalksDespite what has been several days of running escalation, Iran has it has received mediation proposals to restart negotiations with the United States, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei on Monday. Baghaei told state media that the country will continue to defend itself resolutely.
"I emphasize once again that the diplomatic apparatus continues to pursue its tasks jointly and in line with the defenders of the homeland in the armed forces. The proposals submitted through mediators have been communicated to us and have been received," the spokesman said.
This as a new ceasefire proposal is said to be in the works, with the headline resulting in a drop in oil prices:
MEDIATORS PROPOSE 10-DAY CEASEFIRE BETWEEN IRAN, US: REUTERS
Miscalculation & 'Full-Scale War'According to more details of the fresh push for regional ceasefire via The Wall Street Journal:
Mediators were working to push the U.S. and Iran into a new ceasefire Monday, fearful the two foes could settle into a pattern where they keep conflict below the level of all-out war but disrupt regional economies indefinitely and run the risk of a miscalculation that escalates the fighting.
The efforts come after the U.S. carried out a ninth straight night of attacks, Iran retaliated against Arab allies including Kuwait and Bahrain, and another vessel in the Strait of Hormuz was hit by a projectile that started a fire and led the crew to abandon ship.
Qatar has floated the idea of a 10-day ceasefire and an end to restrictions on shipping in the strategic waterway, mediators said. It wasn’t clear whether either side was ready to accept a new halt to the fighting after the preliminary peace deal they signed in mid-June collapsed earlier this month, they said.
Joachim Klement, head of strategy at Panmure Liberum, has newly commented that investors "still think the US and Iran will go back to the negotiation table," and stipulated that "Only once the US is no longer willing to negotiate do we expect markets to price higher oil prices for longer."
However, statements out of Iran do not suggest de-escalation, with President Masoud Pezeshkian having said Monday his country is engaged in a "full-scale war" with the US and that Iranians must be ready accept the repercussions of the conflict.
"The reality is that today the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in a full-scale war. We must be realistic and accept the natural consequences of this resistance," Pezeshkian said.
A few days ago, the Qataris submitted a proposal to regulate the Strait of Hormuz.
A response from the leader was supposed to arrive yesterday, but it did not.
The proposal includes establishing a new, designated corridor through which ships could pass, while imposing a…
The situation on the ground does suggest this, amid reports that the US side is concealing or downplaying the true extent of damage on its regional bases as casualties mount:
Dozens of US military personnel were wounded and helicopters damaged during three Iranian strikes on American forces in Jordan last week, The New York Times reports.
Citing anonymous US officials, it said the Pentagon did not disclose the casualties and damage inflicted during the attacks, which came before Iran’s strike that killed two soldiers and left one missing on Friday in Jordan.
The total number of US personnel killed in the US-Israel war on Iran now stands at 17 with more than 400 wounded since the war was launched on February 28.
“Central Command is not required to release information about injured service members,” a US military official told the Times as part of the weekend report.
⭕️ Iran FM Araghchi: Wars End Either Through Total Victory or Negotiations…
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi:
🔹 A war must be ended precisely at the point when you hold the upper hand on the battlefield. Ending a war is possible either through total military victory or… pic.twitter.com/kHeYhShsXC
Meanwhile, Yemen's Houthi rebels have announced they are imposing a new maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia in response for a recent attack on Sanaa Airport, and after years of the kingdom leading a blockade of Houthi-controlled Yemeni ports. A military statement by Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said the maritime ban on all Saudi shipping will be effective immediately in what he declared as an "equation of 'an eye for an eye.'"
However, details of what this 'embargo' will look like, in terms of where or what chokepoints the Houthis might seek to blockade were not given.
Last week the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen attacked the Houthi-controlled Sanaa International Airport, threatening a fragile truce that has been in place since 2022. Saudi jets had prevented an Iranian passenger plane from landing there, after the US-Saudi recognized Yemeni government warned against any Iranian planes entering the divided country's airspace.
Within days of that incident, the Houthis reportedly sent missiles on Saudi Arabia - which was a first after years of relative peace. In addition to unveiling the anti-Saudi embargo, the Houthis spokesman warned that if the Saudi siege on Yemen is not lifted, then Houthi armed forces will move towards a full-scale war.
Overnight DevelopmentsAuthored by Rob Sabo via The Epoch Times,
The number of automobile owners trading in vehicles with negative equity continues to rise, with 29.6 percent of trade-ins in the second quarter showing more money owed on existing auto loans than the vehicles were worth, according to automotive insights platform Edmunds’s July 16 vehicle transaction report.
Negative equity also pushed average monthly payments on “underwater” trade-ins to $944 in the quarter, the highest figure on record, the report said.
That’s $167 more per month than trade-ins without negative equity considerations, and those higher loans are expected to account for an additional $16,270 in interest paid over the loan term—another record high that’s nearly $6,500 more than the average new-vehicle loan issued during the quarter.
“Consumers are incurring more debt than ever when trading in vehicles that are underwater,” said Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds.
“Buyers who financed at 2022’s peak prices are starting to come back to trade in, and they’re bringing thousands of dollars in old debt with them. With interest rates still elevated, this is creating a costly snowball effect for consumers.”
It’s the highest number of underwater trade-ins recorded in the second quarter since 2020, Edmunds researchers noted. Trade-ins with negative equity eased slightly from the first quarter, when they tallied 30.9 percent, but they were up 3 percent from the second quarter of 2025.
The average amount of negative equity—$6,884—was a record high for the second quarter of any year, though it pulled back from the $7,183 notched in the first quarter, Edmunds researchers noted.
As buyers roll over negative equity into new auto loans, the principal amount owed on their new vehicles swells, Caldwell added. Buyers often rely on longer-term loans to lower their monthly payments, but that coping mechanism only results in a larger total interest paid over the life of the loan.
Paying down negative equity also lengthens the time it takes for automobile owners to reach positive equity in their vehicles, or the financial position where their car is worth more than the principal amount owed, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) consumer advice portal noted.
It’s important for consumers to know their equity position in a vehicle before trading it in, the FTC added. Equally important, the FTC said, is to closely examine new automobile contracts for the amount of negative equity that may be rolled into new loans before signing documents at dealerships.
Negative equity positions have been on the rise since 2022, Edmunds said, when high used-vehicle prices caused by a global shortage of computer chips buffered consumers from rolling over debt from one vehicle to the next.
However, as vehicle prices normalized, more vehicle owners found themselves underwater on their loans as they attempted to upgrade their cars through new-vehicle purchases.
Vehicles with model years 2020 or newer showing the most negative equity include Toyota Tundra (-$8,929), GMC Sierra 1500 (-$8,566), Chevrolet Silverado 1500 (-$8,516), and Ram 1500 (-$,8347). However, Edmunds also lists a handful of sedans and sport utility vehicles with negative equity of $5,000 or more, including the Kia Sportage, Honda Accord, Toyota RAV4, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Nissan Rogue, and many others.
Often, negative equity is more about onerous financing structures than vehicle depreciation, said Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds.
“Some of the biggest dollar losses we’re seeing are on trucks and sedans that traditionally hold their value better than most,” Drury said.
“When historically safe residual value bets are showing up underwater, it’s clear this is a financing problem, not always a vehicle choice problem. These examples are a harsh reminder that a great vehicle choice can still be completely undermined by a punishing loan structure.”
Tyler Durden Mon, 07/20/2026 - 11:40