Things haven't looked this bad for the U.S. economy since 2008.  We are in the midst of the worst inflation crisis in decades, the housing market has started to collapse, some of the largest companies in America have begun laying off workers, and economic activity is slowing down all around us.  Of course Joe Biden is telling us that our economy is "strong as hell", but that is just because he wants his party to do well in the upcoming elections.  Ultimately, anyone that takes a truly objective view of things is forced to admit that the outlook for the months ahead is incredibly bleak.  The following are 12 reasons why it is impossible for any rational person to be optimistic about the U.S. economy at this point…

#1 According to a recent Gallup survey, two-thirds of Americans believe that economic conditions are getting worse.  When such a large proportion of the population starts behaving as though an economic downturn is coming, that actually makes an economic downturn even more likely.  So many Americans are starting to hold on to their money more tightly, and that is having lots of ripple effects.

#2 The second largest auto lender in the United States just announced that it "saw charge-offs for retail auto loans quadruple in the third quarter".  We are also seeing credit card delinquencies start to rise.  We certainly aren't at 2008 levels yet, but we are moving in that direction.

#3 Cargo traffic at the Port of Los Angeles just declined to the lowest level that we have seen since the early days of the pandemic.  As I noted earlier, economic activity is beginning to slow down all over the nation.  One recent survey discovered that 98 percent of corporate CEOs believe that a recession is coming, and those CEOs are behaving accordingly.