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<\/a>In all my years of writing, I have never seen more economic pessimism than I am seeing right now.\u00a0 Over the past couple of months there has been a monumental shift in public sentiment, and now just about everyone realizes that we are heading into very troubled economic times.\u00a0 Of course there were still a few economic optimists that were searching for a ray of hope, but the Federal Reserve left no room for optimism when it announced\u00a0the largest interest rate hike in 28 years<\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday.\u00a0 When the Fed aggressively raised rates in the early 1980s, it resulted in one of the most painful recessions in American history.\u00a0 Unfortunately, many believe that what is ahead of us is going to be even worse.<\/p>\nFor example, legendary Wall Street investor Michael Novogratz is openly warning that\u00a0\u201cthe economy is going to collapse\u201d<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cThe economy is going to collapse,\u201d he told MarketWatch. \u201cWe are going to go into a really fast recession, and you can see that in lots of ways,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cHousing is starting to roll over,\u201d he said. \u201cInventories have exploded. There are layoffs in multiple industries, and the Fed is stuck [with a position of having to] hike [interest rates] until inflation rolls over.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Novogratz is correct, but I think that it would be more accurate to say that \u201cthe economy is already starting to collapse\u201d.\u00a0 The following are 18 signs that the economic meltdown we have been waiting for has already begun\u2026<\/p>\n #1<\/strong>\u00a0Stock prices have been plummeting in recent weeks, and that has resulted in\u00a0almost 3 trillion dollars<\/a>\u00a0being erased from retirement accounts in the United States\u2026<\/p>\n The U.S. stock market rout that has put U.S. equities in a bear market isn\u2019t just reducing the net worth of billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. It\u2019s also taking a toll on Americans\u2019 retirement savings, wiping out trillions of dollars in value.<\/p>\n The selloff has erased nearly $3 trillion from U.S. retirement accounts, according to Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. By her calculations, 401(k) plan participants have lost about $1.4 trillion from their accounts since the end of 2021. People with IRAs \u2014 most of which are 401(k) rollovers \u2014 have lost $2 trillion this year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n #2<\/strong>\u00a0The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell beneath the psychologically important 30,000 barrier for the first time\u00a0in more than a year<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday.\u00a0 If it cannot return to that level within the next few trading sessions, a lot of investors are really going to start to panic.<\/p>\n #3<\/strong>\u00a0The Dow is now down 19 percent from the all-time high.<\/p>\n #4<\/strong>\u00a0The S&P 500 is now down 24 percent from the all-time high.<\/p>\n #5<\/strong>\u00a0The Nasdaq is now down 34 percent from the all-time high.\u00a0 Just think about that for a moment.\u00a0 A third of the value of the Nasdaq has already been wiped out.<\/p>\n #6<\/strong>\u00a0Two-thirds of the value of all cryptocurrencies has already been wiped out since the peak of the market.\u00a0 Last November, the total value of all cryptocurrencies had soared past\u00a0the three trillion dollar mark<\/a>.\u00a0 As I write this article, that number has fallen to less than a trillion.<\/p>\n #7<\/strong>\u00a0This week we witnessed the fastest rise in mortgage rates\u00a0since 1987<\/a>.\u00a0 Needless to say, this is going to absolutely devastate the housing market\u2026<\/p>\n Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year loan this week rose to 5.78% from 5.23%, the latest in a series of rapid increases and the biggest one-week jump since 1987. The rate is well above the 2.93% recorded just one year ago and marks the steepest level since November 2008.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n #8<\/strong>\u00a0The\u00a0largest percentage<\/a>\u00a0of sellers ever recorded reduced the list price on their homes during the four week period ending June 12th.<\/p>\n #9<\/strong>\u00a0In some parts of the nation, home prices have already fallen\u00a0by as much as 20 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n #10<\/strong>\u00a0Compared to the same period a year ago, the total number of mortgage applications was down\u00a052.7 percent<\/a>\u00a0last week.<\/p>\n #11<\/strong>\u00a0We just learned that housing starts in the U.S. fell\u00a014.4 percent<\/a>\u00a0in May.<\/p>\n #12<\/strong>\u00a0The number of permits for the construction of new homes was down\u00a07 percent<\/a>\u00a0in May.<\/p>\n #13<\/strong>\u00a0Wholesale prices continue to accelerate\u00a0at a very alarming pace<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n Wholesale prices rose at a brisk pace in May as inflation pressures mounted on the U.S. economy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday.<\/p>\n The producer price index, a measure of the prices paid to producers of goods and services, rose 0.8% for the month and 10.8% over the past year. The monthly rise was in line with Dow Jones estimates and a doubling of the 0.4% pace in April.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n #14<\/strong>\u00a0The Atlanta Fed\u2019s GDPNow tracker is now projecting that economic growth during the second quarter will be\u00a00 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n #15<\/strong>\u00a0The Philadelphia Fed Business Index came in at a\u00a0negative 3.3<\/a>\u00a0reading for the month of June.\u00a0 This represents the first contraction since the early days of the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n #16<\/strong>\u00a0One recent survey discovered that small business owners are\u00a0\u201cfeeling their gloomiest in nearly five decades\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n #17<\/strong>\u00a0At this point,\u00a059 percent<\/a>\u00a0of manufacturers in the United States believe that a recession is coming.<\/p>\n #18<\/strong>\u00a0Bloomberg is projecting that the probability of a recession during the next 24 months is\u00a098.5 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n But this was not supposed to happen.<\/p>\n Last year, the talking heads on television assured us that a golden new age of prosperity was just around the corner and that the stock market could just keep going up indefinitely.<\/p>\n In fact, many of those talking heads were telling us things that now look\u00a0completely and utterly ridiculous<\/a>\u00a0in retrospect.<\/p>\n