The truth, of course, is that everything is not fine. We are witnessing a pattern similar to what we saw back in 2008. Back then, Chinese stocks and other major stock markets started crashing first, and then U.S. stocks followed later.<\/p>\n
And it appears that we may have entered the next leg down for markets in the western world this week. The Dow was down another 252 points on Thursday, and all of the major stock indexes in the U.S. are now negative for the year except for the NASDAQ. Unless there is a major turnaround in the coming weeks, the six year winning streak for U.S. stocks is likely over.<\/p>\n
But when you step back and look at what has been happening globally, a much more ominous picture emerges. I spent much of the afternoon looking at stock market charts for the largest economies all over the globe. What I discovered was financial carnage that was much worse than I anticipated.<\/p>\n
It turns out that there are 27 major global stock markets that have fallen by more than 10 percent from peaks that were set earlier this year. If you want to verify this information for yourself, just go to Trading Economics<\/a>. As you can see, many of these stock market declines have been quite impressive\u2026<\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> China: down more than 30 percent<\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Saudi Arabia: down 26 percent<\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Germany: down about 13 percent<\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> United Kingdom: down close to 12 percent<\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> Spain: down 15 percent<\/p>\n 6.<\/strong> Brazil: down more than 22 percent (13,000 points overall)<\/p>\n 7.<\/strong> Malaysia: down 17 percent<\/p>\n 8.<\/strong> Turkey: down 16 percent<\/p>\n 9.<\/strong> India: down close to 12 percent<\/p>\n 10.<\/strong> Chile: down 11 percent<\/p>\n 11.<\/strong> Columbia: down about 30 percent<\/p>\n 12.<\/strong> Peru: down more than 40 percent<\/p>\n 13.<\/strong> Bulgaria: down more than 20 percent<\/p>\n 14.<\/strong> Greece: down more than 30 percent<\/p>\n 15.<\/strong> Poland: down about 19 percent<\/p>\n 16.<\/strong> Malaysia: down 10 percent<\/p>\n 17.<\/strong> Egypt: down 32 percent<\/p>\n 18.<\/strong> Indonesia: down 18 percent<\/p>\n 19.<\/strong> Canada: down 12 percent<\/p>\n 20.<\/strong> Ukraine: down 45 percent<\/p>\n 21.<\/strong> Morocco: down 13 percent<\/p>\n 22.<\/strong> Ghana: down 17 percent<\/p>\n 23.<\/strong> Kenya: down 27 percent<\/p>\n 24.<\/strong> Australia: down 13 percent<\/p>\n 25.<\/strong> Nigeria: down more than 30 percent<\/p>\n 26.<\/strong> Taiwan: down 15 percent<\/p>\n 27.<\/strong> Thailand: down 20 percent<\/p>\n We have not seen numbers like these since 2008, and trillions of dollars of stock market wealth has been wiped out globally. So the \u201cnothing is happening\u201d crowd is simply dead wrong. Stocks are already crashing all over the planet. Just because the big U.S. stock market crash has not happened quite yet does not mean that a major global financial crisis is not happening.<\/p>\n But do you know what is crashing here in this country?<\/p>\n Junk bonds.<\/p>\n At this point, yields on the riskiest junk bonds have risen to levels that we have not seen since the last financial crisis. As I have discussed repeatedly, yields on junk bonds spiked dramatically just before the stock market crash of 2008, and now it is happening again\u2026<\/p>\n This is precisely the kind of behavior that we would expect to see if a major U.S. stock market crash was imminent. Personally, I watch the junk bond market very, very closely because it is such a key leading indicator. And according to\u00a0Jeffrey Snider<\/a>, it appears that \u201csomething\u201d is starting to cause junk bonds to sell off at an alarming pace\u2026<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t much as far as confirmation, but it increasingly appears as if \u201csomething\u201d just hit the triple hooks (CCC) in the junk bond bubble<\/strong>. At least as far as one view of it, Bank of America ML\u2019s CCC implied yield, there was a huge selloff that brought the yield to a new cycle high (low in price) above even the 2011 crisis peak.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But just like in 2008, a lot of people will not heed the warnings because they don\u2019t have the patience to watch long-term trends play out.<\/p>\n We live in a society where we expect constant instant gratification. We have instant coffee, video on demand and 48 hour news cycles. If something does not happen immediately, most of us quickly lose patience.<\/p>\n On my other website<\/a>, I include a lot more stories about things that are trending in the news. For example, earlier today I wrote about the horrible shootings in San Bernardino, California<\/a> and I explained why I believe that Islamic terror is now more of a threat to the American people than ever before.<\/p>\n But on this website I like to take a broader view of things. For months, I have been warning that conditions were perfect for another major global financial crisis, and since that time events have been unfolding in textbook fashion.<\/p>\n And as you can see from the numbers above, we have already entered a new global financial crisis. If you tried to tell someone in China, Brazil or Saudi Arabia that a financial crisis was not happening, they would just laugh at you. We need to start learning that the world doesn\u2019t revolve around the United States.<\/p>\n Of course the U.S. is heading for tremendous difficulties as well. This is something that I covered yesterday<\/a>. All of the fundamental economic numbers are absolutely screaming \u201crecession\u201d, and yet most of the \u201cexperts\u201d are still forecasting good things for the coming year.<\/p>\n Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. None of the problems that caused the crisis the last time around have been fixed, and most of our \u201cleaders\u201d seem blind to what is happening at this moment even though the exact same patterns that played out in 2008 are playing out once again right in front of our eyes.<\/p>\n If you have been waiting for the next global financial crisis, you can stop, because it is already here.<\/p>\n As we move toward the end of 2015, let us hope for the best, but let us also get prepared for the worst.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Yield](\"http:\/\/theeconomiccollapseblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Yield-On-CCC-Bonds-Chart-from-Federal-Reserve-460x306.png\")
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