Can the Economy Collapse?

Sometimes, economic forecasts can be all over the place. For example, consider a one-week period in January 2026. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported a 4.4 percent surge in the U.S. gross domestic product during the third quarter of 2025. Such a figure “is a strong sign that an economy is expanding and prospering,” according to the Corporate Finance Institute.

Good news, right?

Well, just six days later, Fox Business interviewed economist Peter Schiff, who pointed out that central banks around the world are buying gold rather than U.S. Treasury bonds.

As a result, he believes the United States is “headed for [an] economic crisis, again, that will make the 2008 financial crisis look like a Sunday school picnic.”

Whom do we believe?

And what about the rest of the world? Can the global economy collapse?

Understanding economics

Modern economics is complex and full of paradoxes. For instance, when a nation’s currency is strong, its citizens can more easily purchase goods and services from other nations. Its businesses, on the other hand, struggle to compete with their foreign counterparts.

The same type of conundrum exists for tariffs, which may be seen as a way to protect domestic workers, but put domestic consumers at a disadvantage. Ironically, those workers are the consumers.

Interest rates present yet another set of contradictory objectives. Low interest rates make it possible for more people to purchase homes, which is seen as a way to make societies more stable. However, the influx of new buyers to the market drives home prices up. And low interest rates hurt savers when prices are going up.

In many ways, economics is a balancing act. Poor policy decisions can easily lead to unintended consequences. Add competing national interests to the mix and the world economy becomes that much more difficult to analyze, and impossible for governments or corporations to fully control.

Can the economy collapse?

The short answer to this question is yes, the economy can collapse. It has before.

It came close during the global meltdown in 2008, triggered when the U.S. housing bubble suddenly burst. Risky loans and overvalued real estate brought a critical mass of financial institutions to the brink. The domino effect was only stopped by unprecedented government intervention.

Far worse was the stock market crash of 1929, which resulted in a worldwide depression lasting for years.

The question behind the question might be, Will the economy collapse? Although no expert can truly and fully understand the global economy, and economists disagree on many things, there are some key indicators we should watch.

The World Economic Forum, in its Global Risks Report 2026, highlights the most alarming trends that have an impact on world stability and, therefore, the economy. The first chapter summarizes the findings of a survey of more than 1,300 experts across the globe.

Half of these experts expect to see “a turbulent or stormy outlook over the next two years.”

Ranking the risk factors

These experts ranked 33 different factors by the level of threat each posed. At the top of the list is “geoeconomic confrontation,” which might be viewed as the weaponization of economics.

The interconnectedness of the global economy provides opportunities for nations to use economic levers to put pressure on each other. The EuroAmerican Education website includes the following examples:

• U.S. tariffs imposed on China.
• Sanctions on Russia, particularly oil and gas exports.
• EU probes of Chinese state subsidies for their electric cars.
• Efforts by some nations to trade in local currencies rather than the U.S. dollar.

Geoeconomic confrontation is only the first risk factor considered. Other top-ranking risks include “state-based armed conflict,” “extreme weather events,” “societal polarization” and “misinformation and disinformation.”

How the economy could collapse

Understanding the risk factors is one thing, but projecting the way in which the global economy could collapse is another. FuturesPlatform.com, a website operated by a group of “professional futurists,” outlines four potential scenarios that take the risk factors a step further:

• Hyperinflation leading to global famine.
• Deregulation resulting in an asset bubble and financial crisis.
• Demographic issues causing labor shortages and economic stagnation.
• Global economic volatility leading to stagflation.

In some ways, the third scenario is one of the most frightening. In the developed world, birthrates have plummeted below the threshold of 2.1 live births per woman necessary to replenish and sustain populations, resulting in smaller populations with a growing proportion of older individuals.

The shrinking and aging population inevitably results in labor shortages, as the Futures Platform points out.

What was not included in this scenario is the strain on government retirement programs as fewer workers have to support more retirees.

What can we do?

Many of us can feel powerless in the face of such staggering forecasts. Many struggle just to make ends meet now. In fact, as Investopedia reported in late 2025, two-thirds of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

We may not be able to control all of our personal circumstances, but we can choose how to move forward. Biblical principles show that two of the most important choices we, as individuals, can make are to reduce our debt and to begin saving more of our income.

These choices are not easy in our materialistic society, but they are not impossible. (For more on getting out of debt, read “Drowning in Debt.” For more on saving and wise financial management, read “Six Biblical Personal Finance Principles.”)

We must also realize that what is happening in our world today is not something that has somehow escaped God’s attention. Not only is He aware of world conditions, but He also warns us, through Scripture, about future troubles, including economic collapses.

On top of that, God tells us in no uncertain terms why this will happen in the end times. It will occur because our world has rebelled against Him, choosing sin rather than righteousness.

A picture of the end times

The prophet Ezekiel warned his own people, and the people of our time, of horrible days ahead, days of war and terror, but also days of economic collapse.

The people, he prophesied, “will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be like refuse; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD” (Ezekiel 7:19).

See more in our online articles “Ezekiel and His Prophecies” and “The Wrath of God: How to Survive.”

Preparing for those days

What’s interesting is that the same chapter in Ezekiel touches on the concept of preparation. Today we hear stories of individuals who, seeing that trouble lies ahead, are actively preparing for those times.

Their prepping may include building up huge stores of food and water, constructing secret refuges far from congested cities and stockpiling weapons and ammunition for defense. A prepper’s intent is to survive, regardless of what happens to other people.

Ezekiel’s warning, however, lets us know that prepping—if it is only physical and material—will accomplish nothing. He proclaimed that “no one will strengthen himself who lives in iniquity” (Ezekiel 7:13).

What matters to God is whether we listen to Him and seek His will, whether we care about our neighbors, and whether we responsibly manage what He has given us. He knows our individual circumstances, and He is fully capable of protecting us and providing for us, no matter what happens to the economy. See our online article “Can You Really Prep for Doomsday?”

Yes, the economy will collapse!

The last book of the Bible reveals that there are at least two more global economic collapses in the future. One will occur when the four horsemen ride (Revelation 6).

The third horse, which is black, symbolizes scarcity and famine (verses 5-6). This famine is widespread, as indicated by the fact that it is a major contributing factor to the death of a fourth of the world’s population (verse 8).

Clearly, this level of collapse is unprecedented in recorded history. Even so, it will not be the last economic meltdown. That will occur after the beast power first reestablishes economic stability for those who take the mark of the beast (Revelation 13:16-17).

The beast power and its “economic miracle” will collapse as God begins to wrest control of the world from these demonic forces (Revelation 18:11-19).

Should you fear economic collapse?

What about you? Do you fear economic collapse?

The state of the global economy is not an insignificant issue. It is not something Christians should ignore. There is much we can do to set our individual houses in order, in material and especially spiritual terms.

But economic uncertainty is not something that should be a source of terror to anyone who has a real relationship with God. He knows our needs (Matthew 6:32), and He has promised to provide for us if we seek His Kingdom and His righteousness (verse 33).

For more, see our online articles:

• Is a U.S. Economic Collapse Coming?
• Inflation, Economic Instability and Bible Prophecy
• Trade Wars, the U.S. National Debt and the Dollar Crisis