Warren Buffett, the legendary investor known as the “Oracle of Omaha” (and “Fireball” by his father), is famous for his smart investment choices. So when it was revealed that his company, Berkshire Hathaway, sold half its Apple shares, many investors were puzzled, trying to understand what it meant.

The number of Apple shares that Berkshire Hathaway has dumped is absolutely astounding.

It is being reported that close to 500 million shares were sold during the first and second quarters combined…

In the first quarter of 2024, Berkshire Hathaway sold over 100 million Apple shares, and in the second quarter, they sold an additional 390 million shares.

More recently, Berkshire Hathaway has been selling off Bank of America shares…

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), opens new tab has trimmed its stake in Bank of America (BAC.N), opens new tab once again, making the total sales since mid-July nearly $7 billion.

The conglomerate, run by one of the world’s most revered investors, disclosed late on Thursday it sold 18.7 million shares of the second-largest U.S. bank between Sept. 3 and Sept. 5 to rake in roughly $760 million.

Buffett’s moves look quite savvy based on what has been happening so far this month. In fact, we just witnessed the worst week for the S&P 500 since March 2023…

The S&P 500 dropped Friday, notching its worst week since March 2023, as investors assessed the fallout from a weak August jobs report and ditched leading technology stocks.

Will this week bring even more pain?

Right now, investors are concerned that the economy may be slowing, and those concerns were bolstered by Friday’s employment report.

As Zero Hedge has noted, that report told us that the U.S. lost a whopping 438,000 full-time jobs last month…

Starting at the top, while the number of employed workers did rise by 168K, looking closer at the composition of this increase is disastrous: that’s because it consisted of an increase of 527K part-time jobs, offset by a 438K plunge in full-time jobs.

This means that since last June, the US has added just over 2 million part-time jobs, and lost over 1.5 million full-time jobs.

If you want a low-paying part-time job, it is still fairly easy to find one. But good paying jobs have been rapidly disappearing.  The president of a firm that finds positions for white-collar workers says that the market is in “bad shape” at this moment…

Economists largely agree that the labor market is “cooling,” but one recruiting industry veteran says that is a significant understatement.

Brian Howard is the founder and president of the Howard Group, a boutique search firm located in Overland Park, Kansas, that has been in business for more than 30 years, which companies hire to recruit candidates in an array of white-collar positions.

He said the job market is in “bad shape.”

I would say that “bad shape” is quite an understatement.

Earlier today, I came across an article about a man with an MBA that has been unable to find work even though he has applied for more than 1,500 jobs…

Marcial Quinones, 48, used to have few problems getting jobs in the 1990s without a high school diploma. Now, after what he estimates is over 1,500 applications since the early 2010s, he can’t land any stable job in his field even with an MBA.

Quinones, a father of four who lives in rural eastern Pennsylvania, said he’s struggled to land a long-term job in tech or counseling. He has held part-time positions and built his own inventory software to sell to companies, though he rarely gets interviews, even after redoing his résumé two dozen times.

There are so many people that are looking for work right now. For many Americans, low-paying part-time jobs just won’t suffice because the cost of living just continues to go up.

Thanks to the rising cost of living, the percentage of U.S. households with children that are “food insecure” has risen to a very alarming level…

Now, the inflation crisis under the Biden-Harris administration has intensified this issue even more. It was especially families with children that suffered during Covid-19 as school lunches disappeared and they have been hardest hit again in 2022 and 2023.

As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, the USDA just published its latest report on the issue, showing that last year, almost 18 percent of households where children lived were food insecure, up from 17.3 percent in 2022 and 12.5 percent in 2021.

In a lot of those households, at least one adult is actually working.

But in many cases there simply is not enough money coming in to even cover the basics.

At this point, working Americans have so little discretionary income to spare that even dollar stores are really struggling…

Dollar Tree stocks plunged to a 9-year low earlier this week, after the chain delivered a disappointing earnings report.

Earlier this year, the company announced it would close 600 Family Dollar stores in 2024, after it struggled to integrate the chain into its business.

Dollar General, which is the biggest dollar store in the US and is located mostly in low-income, rural areas, also reported dismal sales last month and saw its stock plummet.

This is where we are at now.

And since our leaders simply refuse to stop wildly spending money, it is inevitable that the cost of living will just continue to go up.

Our standard of living is being absolutely eviscerated, and it is because of decisions that have been made by those in positions of power.

If our leaders had made different decisions, we could have gotten different results. But now tens of millions of U.S. households are deeply hurting, and much more pain is on the horizon.

Warren Buffett is clearly concerned about the short-term future. He has been dumping hundreds of millions of shares, and it appears that this could end up being one of the best moves of his entire career.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Meanwhile, some of the smartest guys in the financial world are making moves that would only make sense if the economy was headed for big trouble.  Earlier this month, I wrote about how Michael Burry has bet 1.6 billion dollars that the stock market is going to crash.  He made a ton of money in 2008 by being on the correct side of the financial crisis, and he plans to make even more money this time around.

This week, speculation has been growing that Warren Buffett also believes that a major downturn is coming.  In fact, Business Insider is warning that Warren Buffett “may be bracing for a recession” because he has been selling off stocks at a staggering pace…

Berkshire sold a net $8 billion of stocks and slowed its pace of buybacks last quarter, sparking a 13% rise in its money pile to a near-record $147 billion.

The sprawling conglomerate has now disposed of a net $33 billion of stocks over the past three quarters, fueling a $38 billion increase in its stash of cash, cash equivalents, and Treasury bills during that time.

Buffett’s second-quarter moves “are consistent with the anticipation of a recession and the fact that stocks are currently pricey,” Hanke told Insider.

Burry and Buffett are both extremely sharp, and they clearly understand what the economic numbers are telling them.

At this moment, most U.S. consumers are struggling to make ends meet from month to month and millions of them are absolutely drowning in debt. And the latest consumer confidence figures are downright dismal…

Consumer confidence cratered in August, falling from a downwardly revised 114.0 last month to 106.1. The projection was for a slight increase to 116.

Americans don’t think the economy is doing well currently. The Present Situation Index—based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions—fell to 144.8 from 153.0.

And they don’t think the economy is going to do well in the near future. The Expectations Index— based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions—declined to 80.2 in August. That reversed July’s sharp uptick to 88.0.

An Expectations Index below 80 generally signals an impending recession.

So that means that we are almost to the level that “signals an impending recession”.

Of course other numbers suggest that a major downturn has already arrived.  When the economy is booming, FedEx and UPS have to schedule more flights because they have so many packages to handle.  But at this point the number of package flights is falling precipitously…

The number of package flights operated by FedEx Express and UPS significantly declined month over month in July, underscoring how far the overall air cargo market has sunk since the spring of 2022 and the effect of efficiency initiatives the companies have undertaken in response to lower express volumes.

FedEx (NYSE: FDX) flew 9% fewer domestic flights last month than in June following small sequential gains the prior two months, with year-over-year flight activity down 14%, according to an analysis by investment bank Morgan Stanley. The year-over-year decline in UPS’ flight activity accelerated to 13% from 10% in June. UPS (NYSE: UPS) reduced July flights by 14% from June. Flight activity in May and June, by comparison, was relatively stable.

At the same time, big companies all over America continue to lay off more workers.

Right now, we are seeing a lot of large financial institutions let people go as turmoil in the banking industry continues to spread…

BMO Financial Group, Wells Fargo, and USAA have reported hundreds of layoffs to state officials in recent weeks as the U.S. banking industry continues to downsize.

The job cuts come as banking executives express caution about the industry’s growth prospects in the second half of the year, and as some banks divest certain parts of their businesses.

Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There will be many more layoffs in the months ahead.

Needless to say, the second half of 2023 will not be a particularly good time for retailers.

In fact, Best Buy is already projecting that sales will fall this year more than originally anticipated…

U.S. shoppers have continued to pull back on tech spending, according to the latest earnings report from Best Buy.

The retailer on Tuesday lowered the high end of its full-year revenue outlook amid declining sales, and now expects to make between $43.8 billion and $44.5 billion in revenue during fiscal year 2024, down from its prior guidance of up to $45.2 billion. Comparable sales from stores, websites and call centers open at least 14 months are expected to dip 4.5% to 6% this year, compared to the previous estimate of 3% to 6%.

And we have just learned that Rite Aid is suddenly on the verge of filing for bankruptcy…

Philadelphia-based Rite Aid’s stock price dipped more than 50% Friday after the reports on the pending bankruptcy filing were published by The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.The Chapter 11 filing would allow the company to restructure its more than $3 billion debt load and help it address lawsuits alleging the company filled hundreds of thousands of opioid prescriptions unlawfully.

Every day, we hear of even more retailers that have gotten into trouble.

Stores are being shut down all over the nation at a frightening rate, and this is particularly true in many of our core urban areas.

For example, the following is from an article about downtown San Francisco that CNN just posted…

In many ways, San Francisco’s downtown is in dire straits. The city’s Union Square neighborhood — once bustling with shoppers, diners, and tourists — has suffered from declining foot traffic and shuttered storefronts.

Stores in the area now have papered-over windows and “Retail for Lease” signs, according to Google Street View, which was last updated in June.

But downtown San Francisco still seems relatively prosperous compared to downtown Oakland.

One man recently took a camera down there, and he discovered that so many stores have closed that it literally looks like a ghost town right now…

This is what communities all over America are going to look like during the very harsh economic environment that is ahead of us.

We have been warned for a long time that this crisis was coming, and now it is here.

Our leaders just kept making one self-destructive decision after another, and now we are in the early chapters of an economic nightmare.

Michael Burry and Warren Buffett are positioning themselves for what is coming. What about you? I hope that you are ready for the approaching storm, because it is really going to pack quite a punch.

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here. Article cross-posted from The Economic Collapse Blog.

The ejected nonprofit leader’s criticism Saturday included Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ travel with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Pete Flaherty, chairman and CEO of the National Legal and Policy Center, was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing by police in Omaha, Nebraska, even though his name was on the list of attendees for the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting.

“I apparently touched the third rail of billionaire politics when I mentioned Jeffrey Epstein’s name,” Flaherty told The Daily Signal on Monday. “I’ve been involved in shareholder activism for 19 years, and I have never before had my mic cut and I was never before arrested.”

Epstein is a convicted sex offender whose 2019 death in a New York jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges was ruled a suicide. He had close ties to elites in politics, business, and entertainment.

Buffett, the billionaire chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is well known for taking political stances on the Left, often for higher taxes for the nation’s top earners.

Berkshire Hathaway, a multinational conglomerate holding company based in Omaha, did not immediately respond Monday to phone and email inquiries from The Daily Signal.

“We all know how much bill gates loves children, he’s been with Epstein…” at berkshire hathaway annual meeting. pic.twitter.com/q6KgjSKrLX

— Tykoo (@0xTykoo) May 6, 2023

The National Legal and Policy Center, or NLPC, was the sponsor of Proposal No. 8 at Saturday’s shareholder meeting in Omaha, which would “require hereafter that two separate people hold the office of the chairman and the office of the CEO.” Buffett holds both jobs.

At the meeting, Flaherty said that under the proposed change, Berkshire “would be less identified with Mr. Buffett’s personal political activities,” and pointed to Buffett’s support for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among other factors.

Under the meeting rules, shareholders have three minutes to speak for a resolution. A Berkshire Hathaway employee interrupted Flaherty shortly after 1 minute, and then someone cut his microphone.

In his remarks, Flaherty talked about the Gates nonprofit’s funding of left-wing causes such as critical race theory, gender politics, and defunding the police. However, it was only when he brought up Epstein that several in the audience booed and hissed.

“The Gates Foundation bankrolls the teaching of critical race theory around the country, including that math is inherently racist,” Flaherty said at the shareholder meeting Saturday. “The Gates Foundation offers a Gender Identity Toolbox which asserts that gender is the result of  “socially and culturally constructed ideas. This is a lie. Gender is not a cultural construct. It is a genetic and biological fact. … We know how much Bill Gates cares about children. He met and traveled with Jeffrey Epstein many times after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes.”

Two security officers then stood in front of Flaherty and told him that he would be arrested if he continued.

Flaherty recalled responding that he would leave after finishing his statement. He said he didn’t know at the time that his microphone’s audio had been cut.

Next, an Omaha police officer told Flaherty that he was under arrest and escorted him from the meeting at CHI Health Center Arena. Police transported him to the Douglas County Correctional Center in Omaha, where he was searched, handcuffed, and charged with criminal trespass.

NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty is Arrested During #BerkshireHathaway #Shareholder Proposal Presentation https://t.co/E5YjXrp3f8 #BerkshireHathaway2023 #Buffett #WarrenBuffett #censorship #BillGates #BillGatesFoundation #JeffreyEpstein @WarrenBuffett @BillGates

— NLPC (@NLPC) May 8, 2023

Police detained Flaherty for about three hours, not waiting in a cell but on a bench with others who had been arrested. He paid a bond of $2,500 to be released.

Flaherty, a resident of Arlington, Virginia, is set to appear May 22 in Douglas County Court in Omaha.

Since 2004, Flaherty and other NLPC staffers have attended and spoken at annual shareholder meetings held by various corporations, including Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, Home Depot, PepsiCo, Salesforce, Visa, Alphabet, Amazon, Boeing, Citigroup, Facebook, Procter & Gamble, and Walmart.

“I was treated like any other criminal, fingerprinted, handcuffed,” Flaherty told The Daily Signal. “I’ve always been courteous with decorum at the annual shareholder meetings. I didn’t raise my voice. I was not disruptive.”

Flaherty said he is asking for an apology from Berkshire Hathaway, and that the charges be dropped.

He was on the schedule to speak at theshareholder meeting, Flaherty noted. Both Securities and Exchange Commission regulations and Delaware state law require that publicly traded companies hold annual meetings to hear shareholder input. Although based in Nebraska, like many major corporations, for tax reasons Berkshire Hathaway was incorporated in Delaware

Below is a transcript of the exchange Saturday:

Flaherty: I am Peter Flaherty, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center. If we had an independent chair, the company [Berkshire Hathaway] would be less identified with Mr. Buffett’s political activities.

He’s donated tens of billions to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As Bill Gates explained when the couple was still together, “although the foundation bears our names, basically half our resources have come from Warren Buffett.”

If woke culture is a disease, then philanthropy is the virus. The Gates Foundation bankrolls the teaching of critical race theory around the country, including that math is inherently racist.

The Gates Foundation offers a Gender Identity Toolbox which asserts that gender is the result of  “socially and culturally constructed ideas.” This is a lie. Gender is not a cultural construct. It is a genetic and biological fact.

[At this point, a Berkshire Hathaway employee interrupts.]

Flaherty: You are not going to censor what I say, Ma’am. I’m very sorry. And I appeal to the chair that I be allowed to continue. Sir?

Buffett: You may continue, but under the three-minute limitation.

Flaherty: Of course. 

We know how much Bill Gates cares about children. He met and traveled with Jeffrey Epstein many times after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes. The Gates Foundation had a huge influence over the COVID response fiasco.

Bill Gates defended China’s COVID policies and still discounts the possibility that the virus originated from a lab [in Wuhan, China], even though U.S. intelligence agencies disagree.

The Gates Foundation may be the largest single donor to the dark money machine known as Arabella [Advisors.]

[Buffett gestures from the stage and makes inaudible comments.] 

Flaherty: It funds causes like defunding the police that are making American cities unlivable. Money goes, too, to groups conducting— 

[Flaherty’s microphone is cut at the 2:04 mark; the rest is inaudible.]

Article cross-posted from Daily Signal.