by Michael Wilkerson | May 24, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA
Let’s get one thing off the table. Putting aside the Biden administration’s fear mongering, the U.S. government will not substantively default on its debt in June 2023. The game of high-stakes chicken being played right now with congressional leadership will resolve...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 11, 2023 | Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Inflation, USA
This morning’s release of the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, showing annual inflation had fallen slightly from 5.0 percent in March to 4.9 percent in April, was an unpleasant reminder that price inflation, while down from last year’s highs above nine percent,...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 11, 2023 | Blog Articles, Finance
Image credit: Shutterstock Putting aside fraud or criminal activity, banks typically fail in one of two ways, either through insolvency or illiquidity (or both). Insolvency occurs when the bank doesn’t have enough assets to cover its liabilities. Insolvency tends to...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 5, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance
In the most recent failure in the banking sector, earlier this week First Republic Bank collapsed, was placed into FDIC receivership, and had most of its assets sold to JPMorgan Chase. With some $232 billion of assets, this marked the second largest U.S. bank failure...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 26, 2023 | Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, USA
The last few days have revealed just how bad the first quarter was for the banking sector. Credit Suisse, which in March collapsed into the arms of its main competitor UBS, recently reported that it had lost $69 billion of customer deposits in the first quarter,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 25, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, 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 15, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation
The rising cost of living, tightening credit, slowing consumer spending, along with declining real wages and retrenchment in the jobs market, are each conspiring and threaten to move the United States into recession later this year. Despite lower headline CPI,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 8, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Politics, 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 | Apr 4, 2023 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Covid-19, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA, War
After one year, ten increasingly stringent rounds, and over 14,500 specific sanctions imposed on Russian individuals, companies, and institutions, the U.S. led sanctions regime appears to be hurting Western economic and geostrategic interests as much or more than...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 28, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, Trending, USA
The banking crisis, which became visible to most Americans only with the sudden and unexpected collapse of Silicon Valley Bank two weeks ago today, has not abated. There are reasons to believe it is going to get worse. So, what should one do to get out of harm’s way?...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 21, 2023 | Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics
What happens when one zombie eats another? All the disgusting and fetid zombie parts of the consumed simply moves to the consumer. The same is true of zombie banks. When one zombie bank, full of death and corruption but better hiding it due to superior cosmetics, eats...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 20, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, USA
Banking regulators, along with the board of directors and management of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), each failed to see or prevent the problems that destroyed in less than a week one of the largest banks in the country. The regulators, whose mandate is explicitly...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 19, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, USA
One week ago Sunday, the Federal Reserve Board, alongside the FDIC and the U.S. Treasury, announced plans – in the wake of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) – to provide liquidity to U.S. banks in an attempt to “bolster the capacity of the banking system to...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 11, 2023 | Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, Inflation
In one of the most shocking developments to hit the banking sector since the global financial crisis fifteen years ago, Silicon Valley Bank, the country’s sixteenth largest bank with $209 billion in assets, failed on Friday. SVB’s claim to fame was its deep connection...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 7, 2023 | Blog Articles, Covid-19, Finance, Inflation, USA
I have often heard it said that the first step in recovery from addiction is to admit that one has a problem. Well, I’m not afraid to admit that over the years I’ve become completely dependent on Amazon Prime for the vast majority of my grocery and household goods...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 3, 2023 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, War
Following the launch of Russia’s “special military operation” and invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Joe Biden and EU leaders confidently asserted that Western sanctions would bring the Russian economy to its knees. A primary stated objective of sanctions was...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 19, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, USA
One of the most important disciplines in investing, whether personally or professionally, is to look back on investments made and take stock not just of how they performed, but why. What decision-making or other avoidable errors led to bad outcomes? What lessons can...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 15, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Florida, Politics, USA
The rapid rise and near dominance of the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) agenda in corporate board rooms and executive suites is one of the more remarkable business transformations of the twenty-first century. ESG requires that directors and managers look...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 14, 2023 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, 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 | Feb 14, 2023 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Politics, USA, War
I watch a lot of French news and other media in my ongoing and laborious attempt to learn a new language at midlife. I’ve learned something interesting in the process. While France and the United States are both democracies that ostensibly support freedom of speech,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jan 26, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics
There have been many sighs of relief exhaled across the United States in recent days as inflation continues to slow. New data shows that Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation has declined for the sixth month in a row, down from 9.1 percent in June 2022 to 6.5 percent...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jan 14, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, USA, Why America Matters Book
We’re at a turning point in history. This could be said of many things, but it is certainly true of the modern monetary system. Like most transitions in life and in history, the monetary system’s transformation is occurring slowly, then suddenly, in that the changes...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jan 10, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Politics, Stormwall Book, USA, Why America Matters Book
After a record-breaking fifteen rounds of voting, characterized by brief bursts of internecine warfare interposed with much tedium and the occasional late night pizza, California Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy was finally elected to the office of Speaker of the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jan 5, 2023 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
2022 was a year of surprises: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, persistent inflation fueled by energy costs, the collapse of FTX and crypto markets, the revelations of the Twitter Files, and one of the worst equity markets in recent history, to name but a few. 2023 is...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 30, 2022 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
While most Americans were busy preparing for holidays with family and friends, the retiring leaders of the Senate and House spent their final days before Christmas wrangling through Congress the $1.7 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. With the clock...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 19, 2022 | Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, New York, Trending
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 | Dec 17, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Inflation, USA, Why America Matters Book
As Americans anticipate the arrival of the holidays, it appears that many households may struggle to fill their family’s Christmas stockings this year. A new poll released on Thursday reveals that 82 percent of American likely-voter respondents have been negatively...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 16, 2022 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, Politics, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
With each passing day, week, and month, the U.S. is being drawn further and further into direct military conflict with Russia. We’re already engaged in a proxy war; and we are now tempting the dogs of war to slip off the leash well beyond our ability to control them....
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 14, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Finance, Inflation, USA
Some interesting recent data remind us of the importance of paying attention to what governments actually do, not just what they say. Central banks are on a gold buying spree, and they are using their U.S. dollar foreign reserves to fund it. According to a report by...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 5, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Florida, New York, Politics, USA, Vaccines, Why America Matters Book
“Why, after three decades of life as a New Yorker, did you move to Florida?” I’m often asked this question with a mix of wonder, as if I’d just traveled across Mongolia on horseback, tainted by Upper East Side disdain (“Did you retire early?” How was the hurricane?”...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 5, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA, Why America Matters Book
Americans are under increasing financial pressure, and the stress is beginning to show across multiple fronts. For well over a year now, inflation has ravaged Americans’ wallets. Despite October’s slightly lower CPI rate of 7.7 percent vs. 8.2 percent in September,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 29, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Florida, Inflation, USA
No sector of the U.S. economy impacts the American middle and working classes more than housing. Most Americans have the majority of their savings and new worth tied up in their homes. Housing is the primary asset that serves as a literal and metaphorical shelter in...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 18, 2022 | Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, New York, Trending, 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 | 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 | Nov 11, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Politics, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
The following is an excerpt from the introduction to “Why America Matters,” published in October 2022 and available here. Many years ago, as a Gen X twenty-something and Rage Against the Machine fan, I would sing along to “Testify,” a song I recognized as referencing...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 10, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, USA, Why America Matters Book
Homes have historically served as the primary store of value and wealth creation for most Americans. Housing represented one asset class that was available to both working and middle class Americans, facilitated in part through government sponsored entities (“GSEs”)...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 10, 2022 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
While I wish it were otherwise, the unpleasant fact is that Ukraine cannot win the war against Russia. The Biden administration and the leaders of the UK and the European Union know this full well. The question is, how much longer will they persist in deceiving the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 29, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Trending, USA, Why America Matters Book
As we approach the end of October, the S&P500, a reasonable barometer of the broader equity markets, is up nearly 7% since the end of September. The normally more staid DJIA is up 11.5% over the same period. While still down 16% and 10%, respectively, since the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 28, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Trending, Uncategorised, USA, Why America Matters Book
As the Biden administration continues to drain the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a dangerous gamble to suppress gas prices and win votes before the mid-term elections, another fuel crisis is brewing. While gasoline prices have indeed come down from this summer’s...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 20, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Inflation, USA, Why America Matters Book
September’s CPI inflation result came in above expectations at 8.2 percent, marking the seventh straight month of consumer inflation above eight percent. Gone is any talk from U.S. Treasury or Federal Reserve officials of price inflation being “transitory.” If there...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 10, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, Trending, USA, Why America Matters Book
Image credit: American Greatness Gas prices are on the rise. Here’s why. Iran and Saudi Arabia have been implacable foes for centuries. Their competing brands of Islam get on no better than Brad and Angelina, and both nations contend for the same economic and...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 4, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, Trending, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
Image credit: American Greatness Who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, near the Danish island of Bornholm? The United States and Europe, along with Ukraine, insist it was Russia, while Russia and others point the finger straight back at the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 3, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Trending, Uncategorised, USA, Why America Matters Book
Image credit: Shutterstock While the fourth quarter has only just begun, the end of the year can’t come fast enough for Wall Street. 2022 has been disastrous for investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 22 percent, the S&P500 has fallen 25 percent, and...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 2, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, Trending, Uncategorised, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
Image credit: Unsplash Many Americans have been waiting and watching with expectation over the past two years for a dramatic, singular, and visible event signifying a putting to rights of the gross injustices going on in our country. They’ve looked for the lies to be...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 18, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, Trending, USA, Why America Matters Book
If you read no further than this first paragraph, in which I ask the rhetorical question, “Who pays?”—that is to say, who pays for the various Biden administration programs, whether it be student debt forgiveness, the Green New Deal, inflation, aid to Ukraine, or...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 14, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, Trending, USA, Why America Matters Book
Image credit: Shutterstock Money is like a battery in that it is a store of energy for future use. In the case of money, that stored energy is financial value. Money stored as savings is the purchasing power than Americans hope to eventually use to buy a home, provide...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 2, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, Trending, USA, Why America Matters Book
It has been more than a week, and there is still no coherent answer out of the Biden administration to the question of who will pay for student loan forgiveness, which may cost Americans anywhere between $300–500 billion by the time it’s all done. For background, the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 28, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, USA, Why America Matters Book
Following the drubbing of the crypto markets in June 2022, with Bitcoin and Ethereum prices down nearly 75 percent and 82 percent, respectively, from their all-time highs, many market observers predicted the early death of the crypto industry. Crypto detractors,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 25, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Trending, USA, Why America Matters Book
Image credit: Getty Images One of the first things a toddler learns to say is “That’s not fair!” It turns out that the idea of fairness, a concept related to justice, is intuitive from an early age. Even 3-year-olds understand that merit is fundamental to fairness....
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 20, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, Trending, USA, Why America Matters Book
Image credit: Pexels Now a new king arose over Egypt. He said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal craftily with them, or else they will multiply. When war eventually comes, they will join themselves to our...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jul 22, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
There has been much talk in recent years about the “crisis of democracy” afflicting the United States. Critics on the Left and Right—for different reasons, of course—seem to have on repeat the refrain that democracy faces an “existential threat.” Some (not all) of...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jul 20, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, USA, Why America Matters Book
The world is facing a looming food crisis. The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, said at the end of June 2022, “There is a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022. And 2023 could be even worse.” Even before this crisis, around...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jul 16, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, Trending, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
Lightning strikes above the Manhattan skyline after a summer storm in New York in 2014. (Photo credit: Reuters) Article published on July 15, 2022 by Bryan Jung of The Epoch Times To read the entire article, please CLICK HERE. War sanctions against Russia,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jul 11, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, USA
If we want to solve America’s current economic crisis, at least three things are necessary. These initiatives may only be possible after mid-terms and a new Congress, but it’s not too early to start thinking about solutions. First and foremost, we must unshackle...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jun 15, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Stormwall Book, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
If there is anything upon which the Western consensus has agreed in recent months, it is that the Russian government is evil and must be stopped. America’s preferred way of arresting Russian efforts has been the use of economic sanctions against Russian President...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jun 10, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Stormwall Book, Trending, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
The commodities traders sitting in Geneva and Houston who buy and sell oil and gas for their industrial clients have a stern message for us. We haven’t yet seen the worse of the fuel crisis. Bottlenecks will hit the supply chain, and prices will go much higher, later...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 22, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, Stormwall Book, Trending
Image credit: Getty Images I spent last week at Permissionless, a multi-day event touted as the “world’s largest DeFi conference” (DeFi = decentralized finance). With over 7,000 attendees, the conference focused on crypto-related topics like the metaverse, Web 3.0,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 28, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, New York, Politics, Stormwall Book, Trending, USA, Vaccines
Image credit: Getty Images I thought it might be time to follow up on my post from a year ago, which asked the rhetorical question, Are Masks Becoming a Class Issue?, and more recently “Let Them Eat Cake … But Make Sure They’re Wearing a Mask.” Last week witnessed the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 12, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Inflation, Politics, Stormwall Book, USA
In Aesop’s fable, a foolish grasshopper ignores the warnings from a prudent ant that the bountiful crop of summer food will disappear once winter arrives. The grasshopper plays and feasts while the ant labors and stores up reserves. When winter eventually arrives, the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 25, 2022 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Stormwall Book, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
Image credit: Shutterstock We are now in the fourth week of war in Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine after months of preparations and years of warnings, yet the world still seemed surprised. Western leaders and media have declared Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 4, 2022 | Blog Articles, Inflation
Image credit: Getty Images January’s headline inflation of 7.5% was the highest in the United States in forty years. Consistent with previous months, the biggest driver of higher prices was energy, rising 27%, but cars and groceries (especially proteins) also...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 13, 2022 | Blog Articles, Covid-19, USA, Vaccines, Why America Matters Book
Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images News It’s all happening now. After two years of tyranny, manifesting in authoritarian response from Statist bureaucracies around the world, citizens of democratic countries have said enough is enough. Tens of thousands of truckers,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 1, 2021 | Blog Articles, Covid-19, Election 2020, Politics, Uncategorised, USA, Vaccine, Why America Matters Book
Image credit – theamericanprospect.com Those who oppose the iron fist of the state security apparatus will be lumped together in slick, corporate news reports with the criminal underclass. – Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion These words were written by Pulitzer...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 1, 2021 | Blog Articles, Covid-19, Election 2020, Politics, Uncategorised, USA, Vaccines, Why America Matters Book
Image credit – theamericanprospect.com Those who oppose the iron fist of the state security apparatus will be lumped together in slick, corporate news reports with the criminal underclass. – Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion These words were written by Pulitzer...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 23, 2021 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, USA, Vaccine
Image credit: abc.net Here’s a simple way to think about vaccine mandates, using excerpts from political philosopher John Stuart Mill, writing in On Liberty: The object of this essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 23, 2021 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, USA, Vaccines
Image credit: abc.net Here’s a simple way to think about vaccine mandates, using excerpts from political philosopher John Stuart Mill, writing in On Liberty: The object of this essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 12, 2021 | Armed Forces, Blog Articles, USA, Veterans Day
The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month symbolically marked the end of World War I, the “war to end all wars,” in 1918. That description turned out to be not at all accurate. Nonetheless, Veterans Day in the United States, Armistice Day or...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 3, 2021 | Blog Articles, Covid-19, New York, Politics, Vaccines
Images source: Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue website I was in midtown Manhattan yesterday, my first trip back in three months. Having lived in NYC for most of three decades, the lockdowns – worse here than perhaps anywhere in the US – finally drove me out...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 26, 2021 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Energy, Inflation, Vaccines, Why America Matters Book
Photo by Sabina Music Rich on Unsplash “The inflation we’re experiencing is not transitory. It’s here to stay, and its effects will be horrific.” The inflation we’re experiencing is not transitory. It’s here to stay, and its effects will be horrific....
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 25, 2021 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Election 2020, Inflation, Politics
Biden image credit: Pool/Getty Images “The majority of Americans, including many Democrats and Independents, are suffering from buyer’s remorse over the Biden presidency.” By the end of 2021, the majority of Americans, including many Democrats and Independents,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 14, 2021 | Blog Articles, Politics, Trending
Photograph credit: Warren Wong We should never underestimate the politics of fashion. The pandemic-era dad joke goes something like this, “I never imagined I’d walk into a bank wearing a mask and demanding money.” Antifa, always on the avant-garde of social trends,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 21, 2021 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Trending, Vaccines
Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty Images, Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue, Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images The Metropolitan Museum of Art held its annual fund-raising gala last week, a conclave of the rich and famous drawn from New York’s...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 14, 2021 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Vaccines
Let’s run a thought experiment and imagine ourselves back in 1986. I tried to get Elon Musk to provide a time machine, but apparently he’s waiting on spare parts from China. So instead, let’s just close our eyes, put on some Lionel Richie or Pet Shop Boys, and have...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 20, 2021 | Blog Articles, Trending
After a long season of doldrums, the gold market finally began to show signs of life over the course of last summer. Gold prices had barely moved from a decade low of around $1,100 at the end of 2015 to $1,300 by early 2019, an anemic annual growth rate of...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 10, 2021 | Blog Articles, Energy, Trending
A warm war continues against the United States US critical infrastructure has once again come under state-sponsored cyberattack. This reveals another facet of what I described in Stormwall as an imminent danger from antagonistic states seeking to undermine our economy...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 22, 2021 | Blog Articles, China, 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...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 19, 2021 | Blog Articles, Election 2020, Trending
The question of election integrity is not going away. As Justice Clarence Thomas recently pointed out, addressing weaknesses and opacity in election processes and voting laws isn’t just about 2020. The efforts being undertaken currently across the substantial...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 8, 2021 | Blog Articles, Inflation
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has made some interesting statements in recent weeks about the Fed’s view of inflation. In summary, Chairman Powell has stated that overall inflation remains below the Fed’s...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 7, 2021 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles
The second most striking feature of Biden’s so-called infrastructure plan, after the eye-popping figure of $2 trillion (Washington isn’t interested in billions these days), is its relative lack of capital investment in actual, tangible infrastructure. The American...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 31, 2021 | Blog Articles, Trending
As COVID-19 restrictions ease and economies reopen, masks are becoming highly symbolic of our ongoing cultural and class divisions. Red states are (for the most part) acknowledging that masks have done little to “stop the spread” and are rolling back regulations. ...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 21, 2021 | Blog Articles, Stormwall Book
I’ve been distraught over the past few months to see the rising incidence of violence towards Asian-Americans in what are clearly racially motivated assaults. These race-based attacks, whether in the form of verbal insults and harassment, or physical intimidation and...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 5, 2021 | Blog Articles, Inflation
The prospect of inflation in the United States has moved quickly from a fringe idea to become the consensus among the financial literati. With a proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus package following unspent previous rounds, the Federal Reserve is forcing excess liquidity...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 22, 2021 | Blog Articles, Energy, Trending
It was less than a month ago, but well before the blizzard that savaged Texas’s electrical grid, when I wrote that the Biden Administration’s efforts to cancel Keystone XL were: … symptomatic of a greater folly. For the first time in decades, America finally regained...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 16, 2021 | Blog Articles, Inflation
Let’s settle one thing up front. We’re clearly witnessing a speculative bubble in the financial markets. This time is no different. This mania will end the same way they all do: in tears. I started banging the gong in mid-2020 about the imminent risk of financial...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 12, 2021 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Election 2020, Trending
In Mid-December 2020, I wrote that the incoming administration would face a legitimacy crisis if it did not take steps to address the plurality of Americans of all stripes who did not believe that the elections were free and fair. Whether Republican or Democrat,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 23, 2020 | Blog Articles, China
Every child is taught that there are wolves in the woods, but that preparation can keep them at bay. Today, America is faced with new challenges both from within and outside our borders. One of the biggest threats is the rise of China and her growing alliances with...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 19, 2020 | Blog Articles, Trending
As soon as news broke on Thursday morning of a cyber-attack against the US Treasury and other institutions, it was quickly asserted and widely disseminated by the media that this attack came from Putin’s Russia. This claim has been repeated ad nauseam without...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 17, 2020 | Blog Articles, Stormwall Book
I’ve recently had the opportunity to chat with various media and podcast outlets about my book Stormwall: Observations on American in Peril and my thoughts on the path forward for our country. Add these to your podcast queue, and let me know what you think about...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 10, 2020 | Blog Articles, Inflation, Trending
The late historian Barbara Tuchman, in her work The March of Folly, chronicles how governments throughout history have regularly and repeatedly pursued policies contrary to their self-interest. Looking as far back as the ancient Trojans, who imprudently took the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 3, 2020 | Blog Articles, Covid-19, Inflation
Following the Thanksgiving weekend, the US is experiencing a spike in daily recorded COVID-19 cases well above the summer’s previous highs. Hospitals and medical facilities are once again showing signs of extreme strain. Yet given the massive impact to the economy and...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 2, 2020 | Blog Articles, Inflation
I recently spoke with Newsday about the risks of inflation in the near future and what that could impact. From the article: What could fuel higher inflation “The market has been signaling the risk of inflation for months,” says Michael Wilkerson, author of...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 18, 2020 | Blog Articles, Inflation
Come January, the president will face the daunting challenge of sustainably reviving the US economy following what has been a most difficult year for American business. Four “D” challenges: deficits, debt, disease and defaults, threaten to derail the administration’s...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 6, 2020 | Blog Articles, Inflation
The Following is an excerpt from a recent Op-Ed in The Hill The market has, for months, been signaling the risk of inflation. Reflationary asset trades have been among the best performers. The price of gold, the classic inflationary bellwether, is up by nearly a third...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 12, 2020 | Blog Articles, Covid-19, Election 2020
It has been called the most contentious and controversial US presidential election ever. The nation never seemed more divided. Throughout the campaign, the Democrats called the Republican candidate everything from a liar, to a madman, a cheat, a traitor, an enemy of...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 4, 2020 | Blog Articles, Inflation
For economists, tales of hyperinflations are the academic equivalent of a reading of the Apocalypse in the book of Revelation. They are for the monetarily-minded a campfire story of the horrible wraith beyond the woods, or the morbid fascination of an automobile...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jul 1, 2020 | Blog Articles, Election 2020
“Winter is Coming” is a widely recognized phrase from the popular TV show Game of Thrones. It is also the title of an important, if polemical and somewhat finger-wagging, book by Garry Kasperov on Putin’s rise to power and the West’s ongoing complacency in the face...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 11, 2020 | Blog Articles, Covid-19
When Shakespeare had King Henry IV sleeplessly mutter, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” the Bard was speaking a human truth that resonates across centuries and cultures to anyone in leadership whose responsibilities entail decisions that affect human lives....
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 7, 2020 | Blog Articles, Covid-19
In The Fortunes of Africa, author Martin Meredith describes a Dutch sailing ship that dropped off a load of laundry for the Khoikhoi, the local inhabitants of the southwestern cape of Africa whom Europeans called Hottentots. The year was 1713. The Khoikhoi washed the...