This Is What the Early Stages of a Severe Recession Look Like

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—It is definitely starting to look a lot like 2008 and 2009 again.  Those years were such a painful time for our country, and in many ways we still haven’t fully recovered from the damage that was inflicted upon us during that era.  Unfortunately, so many of the exact same things that we experienced back then are starting to happen in our time.  For example, the Great Recession brought us the greatest foreclosure crisis in the history of our nation, and now foreclosures are really starting to spike here in 2024.  In fact, the number of new foreclosure filings in the U.S. just jumped 10 percent in a single month…

Home foreclosures are on the up across the US as Americans continue to battle against soaring interest rates and rising costs.

Last month, 37,679 properties had a foreclosure filing, according to fresh figures from real estate data provider ATTOM – up 10 percent from the month prior.

According to the pundits, that wasn’t supposed to happen. But it did.

Interestingly, Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware actually experienced the fastest increase in foreclosure filings last month.

Nevada was second, and that was due to the large number of foreclosure filings in Las Vegas…

Nevada’s position in the ranking is largely due to foreclosure filings in Las Vegas, where many people lost their jobs when tourism crashed during pandemic lockdowns.

According to ATTOM, Las Vegas had a foreclosure filing on one in every 1,923 housing units in January.

This is a really troubling sign.

When the economy is booming, Las Vegas is booming even more. But when hard times arrive, times are even harder in Las Vegas.

So let’s watch and see if this trend continues.

Meanwhile, it is also being reported that the number of completed foreclosures in the U.S. was up 13 percent compared to the previous month.

In Michigan, the number of completed foreclosures actually shot up by “a huge 200 percent”…

Michigan saw the fastest rise in completed foreclosures – up a huge 200 percent. This was largely down to high rates of foreclosure filings in Detroit.

I remember writing articles about how some homes in Detroit were literally selling for one dollar when things were at their worst.

Has another housing crash begun? We are certainly ripe for one.  Thanks to painfully high interest rates, buying a home has become out of reach for most of the population.

Unless interest rates go down dramatically, home prices have got to fall, and that is going to cause all sorts of problems. Of course a horrifying commercial real estate crisis is already here.

Prices have crashed all over the nation, and now many office buildings that were once worth millions of dollars are simply being torn down. In fact, in Los Angeles there is a plan to tear down a very large office building in order to build just 30 EV charging stations…

This is absolutely crazy…

An owner of an office building in LA is seeking approval to tear down the building and construct 30 EV charging stations

I don’t know what’s crazier…this headline or seeing office properties drop 80-90% in just a few years

The commercial real estate recession (primarily office) has gone from scary to a meltdown in many cities across the US and it seems as though the damage is permanent

If we really are heading into a major economic slowdown, we would also expect retailers to be shutting down stores all over America, and that is precisely what we are witnessing right now.

Incredibly, even Walmart reduced the number of stores that it operates by 102 last year…

Walmart last year closed 23 stores across the US, eight of which were in Illinois, it emerged this week

Overall, its total number of stores fell by 102, from 4,717 in January 2023 to 4,615 a year later.

That’s because in addition to the 23 closures, Walmart sold a combined 79 Moosejaw and Bonobos locations after selling the two retailers.

If even Walmart sees a need to batten down the hatches, that is a really bad sign. On top of everything else, large employers continue to conduct mass layoffs from coast to coast.

Last week, many were saddened to hear that Vice Media Group is laying off hundreds of workers as it continues to spiral toward oblivion…

Vice Media Group plans to lay off hundreds of employees and stop publishing on its flagship news website, the company’s chief executive said in a memo to employees Thursday — a stunning setback for a digital media pioneer that ascended to cultural prominence more than a decade ago.

“It is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously,” Vice CEO Bruce Dixon said in the memo, which was seen by NBC News. Vice Media did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment on Thursday’s news.

Everyone knew that Vice was in dire straits, and so those layoffs are not exactly a shock.

But why has Google suddenly decided to give the axe to thousands of workers?…

Google has initiated significant layoffs across its various teams, including the Voice Assistant, hardware, engineering and ad sales teams, marking a continuation of the tech industry’s trend towards reducing workforce expenses. The layoffs have affected hundreds of employees within the Voice Assistant unit; hardware teams responsible for Pixel, Nest and Fitbit products; and a considerable portion of the augmented reality (AR) team. This move is part of Google’s broader effort to streamline operations and align resources with its most significant product priorities​​.

According to The Verge, the total number is in the thousands. This comes at a time when Google parent, Alphabet Inc., reported record profits in late January. The company reported $20.4 billion in net income in Q4.

Google is one of the most successful companies in the entire world, and they are swimming in cash.

If they feel the need to ruthlessly cut workers, what kind of sign is that for the rest of the economy?

Sadly, the truth is that it has become quite apparent that big trouble is ahead.

2024 is going to be such an important turning point for the economy, and it is also going to be such an important turning point for the nation as a whole.

The state of the economy will certainly be a central issue during the upcoming election season, but there are no easy answers for the problems that we are now facing.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.