by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 9, 2026 | Blog Articles, China, Finance, Geopolitics, Germany, Iran, NATO, Oil, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, Trump Administration, Ukraine, USA, War
The fact that China is America’s greatest geostrategic challenge is now so obvious as to have become cliché. Yet over the past five years, the United States has expended great effort and astronomical sums of resources—not to mention deficit spending—on two potentially...
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 21, 2026 | Blog Articles, China, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, Inflation, Iran, Israel, Markets, Oil, Russia, Trump Administration, USA, War
What the U.S.-Iraq Wars Can Teach us The U.S.-led Gulf War (1991) saw Iraq’s large but unsophisticated military decimated, its vast infrastructure obliterated, and its formal leadership structures shattered, all within a few weeks of initial combat. U.S. President...
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 | Mar 31, 2026 | Blog Articles, China, Economy, Energy, Inflation, Iran, Markets, Oil, Trump Administration, USA, War
Prices for retail diesel and gas have each risen by over one-third ($1.30+ and $1.00 per gallon, respectively) since the launch of Epic Fury. Americans learned in the 1970s that Middle East conflict means energy pain, and that lesson has been reinforced through every...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 28, 2026 | Blog Articles, China, Economy, Energy, Finance, Geopolitics, Inflation, Iran, Markets, Oil, Qatar, Russia, Trade, Trump Administration, Ukraine, USA, War
And How the United States and Russia May Benefit The global natural gas market is now in disarray, and this negatively affects everything in the modern economy … from agriculture to transportation to semiconductor manufacturing and beyond. The market did not just...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 21, 2026 | Armed Forces, Blog Articles, China, Geopolitics, Historical, Iran, Russia, USA, War
Consider the Iran War in the context of US military involvement in Vietnam. The Vietnamese regular army and Viet Cong guerrillas were able to keep fighting long after the US had effectively destroyed (by bombing) most all formal military and industrial infrastructure...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 6, 2026 | Armed Forces, Blog Articles, Economy, Energy, Finance, Geopolitics, Germany, Gold, Healthcare, Historical, Inflation, Iran, Monetary System, Oil, Politics, Trump Administration, USA, War
A wartime economy is no longer a hypothetical future scenario to contemplate. It has already arrived. This week, with U.S. forces launching what the Trump administration labeled “Epic Fury” against Iran, the question is no longer whether war will affect markets and...
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 | Jul 3, 2025 | Blog Articles, Geopolitics, Historical, Iran, Islam, Israel, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, Terrorism, Trump Administration, USA, War
For over 45 years, the people of Iran have been under the oppressive boot of the radical Islamic clerics who took over the country in 1979. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in power since the death of the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, has continued his...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 29, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, CBDCs, China, Crypto, Economy, Elections, Finance, Geopolitics, Iran, Monetary System, Russia, Sanctions, Technology, Trump Administration, USA
When then Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump pivoted in 2024 from crypto-skeptic to arch crypto-advocate, he successfully won over an industry of potential voters that, for the most part, hadn’t previously been active in politics or, in many cases, even voted at...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 14, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Covid-19, Crypto, Disinformation, Economy, Elections, Energy, Finance, Geopolitics, Inflation, Iran, Israel, Monetary System, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, Tariffs, Technology, Ukraine, USA, War
image credit: Getty Images Following Donald J. Trump’s election victory last week, the President-elect and his transition team have announced multiple cabinet-level and other appointments, outline both domestic and foreign policies, and set the stage for a return to...
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 | 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 | Jan 30, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Economy, Energy, Finance, Geopolitics, Inflation, Iran, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, USA
In a little noticed statement slipped out last Friday, the Biden administration pulled another plank out from under America’s energy security and future prosperity. Declaring the climate crisis “the existential threat of our time,” President Biden announced that his...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jan 16, 2024 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Geopolitics, Iran, Politics, USA, War
U.S. bombings of Yemen required Congressional approval Whether or not the US military should have bombed sixteen target sites in Yemen in response to repeated Houthi-led drone attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea is a topic worthy of debate. This is all the more...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 20, 2023 | Antichrist, Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Hamas, Iran, Islam, Israel, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, Terrorism, USA, War
Image credit: © Oliver Schopf, www.oliverschopf.com Iran’s official policy is the elimination of the Jewish state of Israel, and the hard-liners are determined to develop nuclear weapons capabilities to achieve it. The United States needs to reconsider its approach to...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 15, 2023 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Finance, Hamas, Iran, Islam, Israel, Politics, Sanctions, Terrorism, USA, War
In the summer of 1914, none of the Great Powers realized that they were sleepwalking towards disaster. A singular regional event, the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by a radicalized Serbian nationalist, would prove to be the proverbial spark...