Major retailers in the United States are shutting down hundreds of stores, and shoppers are reporting alarmingly bare shelves in many retail locations that are still open all over the country. It appears that the retail apocalypse that made so many headlines in 2015 has gone to an entirely new level as we enter 2016. As economic activity slows down and Internet retailers capture more of the market, brick and mortar retailers are cutting their losses. This is especially true in areas that are on the lower portion of the income scale. In impoverished urban centers all over the nation, it is not uncommon to find entire malls that have now been completely abandoned. It has been estimated that there is about a billion square feet of retail space sitting empty in this country, and this crisis is only going to get worse as the retail apocalypse accelerates. (Read More...)
Retail
45 Signs That China Is Colonizing America
Just because you were once the most powerful nation on earth does not mean that you will always be the most powerful nation on earth. Every single year, hundreds of billions of dollars leaves the United States and goes to China. This enormous transfer of wealth has had a dramatic effect on both countries. In case you haven’t noticed, many of our formerly great manufacturing cities such as Detroit are rotting away while shining new factories and skyscrapers are going up all over China. If you go into any major retail store today and start turning over products, you will find that hundreds of them have been made in China and that very few of them have been made in America. As a nation, we buy far, far more from China than they buy from us. As a result, China is absolutely swimming in cash and they have been looking for things to do with all that money. One thing that China has done is loan the U.S. government over a trillion dollars and this has given the Chinese a tremendous amount of leverage over us. China has also started to buy up businesses, real estate and natural resources all over America. This kind of “economic colonization” is similar to what China has already been doing in Africa, South America and Australia. The formula is actually very simple. We send them our money and then they use it to buy us. With each passing day China’s ownership over America grows, and it is frightening to think about where all of this could end. (Read More...)
The Dark Side Of Halloween: The Kind Of Stuff That Real Life Nightmares Are Made Of
On October 31st, tens of millions of Americans will celebrate Halloween by going trick-or-treating or by attending costume parties. For most people, Halloween is a fun evening of dressing up and eating too much candy, and it is a holiday that is becoming more popular than ever. According to a recent report from the National Retail Federation, seven out of every 10 Americans plan to celebrate Halloween this year. That is the highest level that the National Retail Federation has ever recorded. This year, it is being projected that Americans will spend $6.86 billion on Halloween. Every year Halloween just keeps getting bigger and bigger. But there is also a dark side to Halloween. It is not “politically correct” to talk about this, but the truth is that the way that many people choose to celebrate Halloween is the kind of stuff that real life nightmares are made of. (Read More...)