by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 21, 2026 | Artificial Intelligence, Banks, Blog Articles, Economy, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Markets, Trade, USA
The current AI-related bubble in financial assets increasingly echoes warning signs from the global financial crisis (GFC), precipitated by excesses in residential housing, and the spectacular collapse of Enron, “the world’s leading energy company,” whose executives...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 3, 2026 | Artificial Intelligence, Banks, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, Inflation, Iran, Japan, Markets, Technology, USA, War
I’m on vacation. I decided to check the credit markets as a reprieve on a scorching hot Sunday afternoon when Outside was no longer an option. Here is what I observe: Liquidity: On Friday, the BIS (Bank for Internation Settlements, the global bank for banks) published...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 18, 2026 | Banks, Blog Articles, Economy, Energy, Finance, Geopolitics, Inflation, Iran, Markets, Oil, Politics, Trump Administration, USA, War
If the economy were represented by a dashboard, the warning lights have been switching on one by one over the past month. Each week brings not an alarm announcing an emergency, but discrete indicators quietly turning from green or yellow to red across multiple areas...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 12, 2026 | Banks, Blog Articles, China, Economy, Finance, Gold, Historical, Monetary System, Trump Administration, USA
With all the attention of late on the remarkable price moves in gold and silver, it is surprising that the question of a comprehensive audit of the U.S. government’s gold reserves, a headline issue one year ago, has been conveniently memory-holed. For a time in early...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 4, 2026 | Banks, Bitcoin, Blog Articles, Crypto, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, Gold, Historical, Markets, Monetary System, Trade, Trump Administration, USA, Venezuela
Investors have been rightly impressed by gold’s remarkable run, which in dollar terms has doubled in price over the past year. This performance vastly outpaces the stock markets (which are also sitting at all-time highs) and Bitcoin (trading sideways for months), the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jan 7, 2026 | Artificial Intelligence, Banks, Bitcoin, Blog Articles, China, Crypto, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, Gold, Inflation, Iran, Markets, Russia, Tariffs, Technology, Trade, Ukraine, USA, Venezuela
Let me get to the punchline of my view on the financial markets for 2026. The remarkable equity bull run of the past couple of years is unlikely to stall, at least not in the first half of 2026. Corrections are inevitable, and we are indeed likely in an asset bubble....
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 31, 2025 | Banks, Blog Articles, BRICS, China, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, Gold, Inflation, Monetary System, Russia, Sanctions, Trade, Ukraine
2025 was an extraordinary year for precious metals. Gold, silver and platinum each outperformed other asset classes, including equities, Bitcoin (2024’s best performer) and even indexes tracking artificial intelligence (“AI”), one of 2025’s favorite investment themes....
by Michael Wilkerson | Jun 16, 2025 | Banks, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Policy, Politics, Tariffs, Technology, Trump Administration, USA
The Trump administration (and the President himself) have been pressing hard on the Federal Reserve (and especially its chairman, Jerome Powell) to further reduce interest rates. President Trump argues that inflation is under control, and that by prolonging higher...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 29, 2025 | Africa, Banks, Bitcoin, Blog Articles, CBDCs, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, Monetary System, Sanctions, Technology
It used to be that if you lived in a remote village in Africa, or for that matter, Southeast Asia, Latin America, or even behind the Berlin Wall in Eastern Europe, you had desire and need for U.S. dollars, but no easy way to access them. You couldn’t readily exchange...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 22, 2025 | Banks, Bitcoin, Blog Articles, BRICS, CBDCs, China, Crypto, Economy, Energy, Finance, Geopolitics, Inflation, Tariffs, Trump Administration
Precious metals prices are on the move 2025 has started off with a golden hue. Gold and silver have been among the best performing asset classes in 2025, up 12% and 14%, respectively, year-to-date. Over the past two months, these precious metals have outperformed...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jan 31, 2025 | Artificial Intelligence, Banks, Blog Articles, China, Economy, Finance, Politics, Technology, Trade, Trump Administration, USA
Only time will tell whether the threat is real During the nineteenth century, the industrial revolution was facilitated by a new form of technology: railroads. By 1890, an estimated $10 billion ($347 billion in today’s value) had been raised for the industry in public...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 28, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Covid-19, Economy, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Tariffs, USA
U.S. Net International Investment Position Hits All-time Low What is a rich country? In relative financial terms, it is a country whose net investment position is positive. The net investment position reflects how much one country owns of all other countries’ assets,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 26, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Covid-19, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, Inflation
In the wake of a rapidly deteriorating domestic economy, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), China’s central bank, has just announced a blizzard of monetary stimulus policies designed to fend off a potential financial crisis. Regulatory authorities are taking a raft of...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 20, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, USA
The U.S. Federal Reserve has just cut its target interest rate range by half a percent (50 basis points), a large jump by historical measures. This unusually large move by the Fed signals the economy is worse off than has been widely reported, and that the central...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 11, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Covid-19, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Policy, Sanctions, Tariffs, Technology, USA
With equity markets, real estate, and other financial asset values at or near all-time highs, that small minority of citizens which primarily benefit from the Wall Street economy have never been more well-off in financial terms, at least on paper. On the other hand,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 7, 2024 | Africa, Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Covid-19, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Japan, Monetary System, Politics, USA
One of the surprising things I repeatedly observed as a CEO of a public company investing in financial services in Africa was that banks there—and in many emerging markets—don’t actually lend, at least not to businesses or people. Rather than provide much needed loans...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jul 29, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, CBDCs, Crypto, Finance, Monetary System, Policy, Politics, USA
Image credit: The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images How the world turns. It was just over three years ago that former U.S. President Donald J. Trump called Bitcoin a scam and a threat to the U.S. dollar’s position as the world reserve currency. As...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jun 22, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Covid-19, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Iran, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, USA
Gross domestic product is the yardstick of economic activity. U.S. GDP growth has been decelerating for three quarters. The revised first quarter figures showed only 1.3 percent real (i.e., after inflation) GDP growth. Expectations for the remainder of the year are...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 1, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Covid-19, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, Japan, Monetary System, Politics, USA
Last week, Japan saw its currency, the Yen, rapidly depreciate against the U.S. dollar and other world currencies to record low levels. This drew the attention of financial markets and other observers, and—in some quarters—led to panic. There was concern that Japan, a...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 28, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Monetary System, Politics, USA
Various U.S. government agencies announced some surprisingly disappointing economic indicators and other news this week. The data revealed that the U.S. economy is not doing nearly as well as expected. First quarter 2024 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth came in at...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 17, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Crypto, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, Hamas, Inflation, Iran, Israel, Monetary System, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, Ukraine, USA, War
On Friday (April 12), intraday prices for gold hit an all-time high of $2,445 per ounce before closing the day at $2,360. For a normally sleepy asset, gold’s ten percent rise in three weeks is remarkable. Gold is up 14 percent year-to-date, but most of the price...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 28, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Monetary System, Politics, USA
Named after American economist Hyman Minsky, the idea behind a Minsky moment is that a financial markets crisis (especially in credit markets) is caused by a sudden and systemic collapse in asset prices, usually after a sustained period of speculative investment,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 25, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, Monetary System, Politics, Sanctions, USA
When a powerful interest holds a profitably monopoly, it will fight tooth and nail to defend it. So, it is no surprise that the Biden administration and its allies have gone on the offense against the nascent cryptocurrency industry though a coordinated effort of...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 12, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, CBDCs, Crypto, Economy, Finance, Monetary System, Politics, USA
There have been many legitimate concerns raised about the potential tyranny and abuses that would result from the U.S. government’s issuance of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). CBDCs have been rightly criticized as providing governments with a nearly perfect...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 8, 2024 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Crypto, Economy, Finance, Monetary System, Politics, USA
In the ancient Roman calendar, the Ides fell around the middle of the month, specifically the 15th of each March. Made famous by Shakespeare’s dramatic reenactment, the prophetic warning “Beware the Ides of March” speaks of the day in 44 B.C. when the Roman emperor...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 2, 2023 | Banks, Blog Articles, CBDCs, Crypto, Finance, Technology
Sam Bankman-Fried, commonly known as SBF, goes on trial later this week for his role as founder and CEO in the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, in what prosecutors allege was a $40 billion fraud. Some sympathetic observers, such as Michael Lewis, the author of The Big...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jul 26, 2023 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, CBDCs, Crypto, Finance, Politics, USA
The war on conservatives and traditional values has expanded to a new and threatening front. Commercial banks, which should be narrowly focused on the business of protecting your money and providing credit, have instead entered the cultural wars. Banks have turned to...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jun 7, 2023 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, CBDCs, Crypto, Finance, Politics, Technology, USA
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has just filed complaints in Federal court against two of world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance and Coinbase. Binance, the largest exchange globally with several billion dollars of daily transaction volume,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 25, 2023 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, Monetary System, Politics, USA
The Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives met earlier this week to conduct an oversight hearing on the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). While many topics were covered in this marathon session, by far the most important, and the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 8, 2023 | Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, CBDCs, Finance, Politics, Technology, USA
On Sunday March 5, 1933, just one day after his inauguration, newly ensconced U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared a banking “holiday,” closing all U.S. banks for four days. By the time the first banks began to reopen, financial regulators had scoured the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 14, 2023 | Armed Forces, Banks, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, CBDCs, Covid-19, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, Monetary System, Politics, USA
Like many governments around the world, the Biden administration seems determined to limit Americans’ monetary freedom by taxing it away, and by manipulating and controlling how they store and spend their money. Here are a few examples of how this is happening. Let’s...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 19, 2022 | Banks, Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, New York
After weeks of speculation as to whether former billionaire now hapless adolescent actor Sam Bankman-Fried would be arrested for fraud surrounding FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange he ran into the ground, the mystery is over. The man widely known as SBF surrendered to...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 18, 2022 | Banks, Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, New York, Technology, USA
When I wrote last week about the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and the fall from grace of its founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (“Falling Meteorite FTX Scorches Crypto Landscape”), it was already apparent that this multi-billion dollar swindle was going to go down...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 12, 2022 | Banks, Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, USA, Why America Matters Book
Cover art/illustration via Financial Times After several months of calm in the crypto industry, characterized by a role reversal in which equities were highly volatile and cryptocurrencies flat and boring, a familiar if tragic drama reminiscent of Icarus is now...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 22, 2021 | Banks, Blog Articles, China, Monetary System, War
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is playing the long game to establish its dominance and supplant the US as global hegemon. This is not conjecture but the stated policy objective of the CCP. The application of this overarching strategic objective for China’s...