by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 29, 2023 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA, War, Why America Matters Book
The U.S. Federal government appears to be headed towards a shutdown on Sunday. Payrolls will be missed, employees with be furloughed, recriminations will abound. Observers will scratch their heads and ask, how can this much disfunction exist in the government of the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 20, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA
Much of the commentary on the motives behind the expansion of the BRICS trading alliance announced last month has been centered on the anti-American bias of the coalition. Specifically, that behind the smiley-faced façade of an ostensible economic cooperation...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 13, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA
Anyone who filled up their gas tank in the last couple of months could see this coming. Having hit a low in December 2022, U.S. retail gas prices have been on the rise ever since. The increase started slowly, then in August, more rapidly. This week, this average U.S....
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 24, 2023 | Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics
When in 2018 then U.S. President Donald J. Trump warned Germany’s political leadership of the dangers their energy policies posed for the future of their nation, he was scornfully mocked and laughed at by the arrogant and self-satisfied representatives of the European...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 22, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA
Wall Street and the wealthy complain about rising interest rates, yet they are finding ways to benefit from them, while ordinary Americans suffer in multiple ways. For the first time since before the global financial crisis, the Federal Reserve’s target interest rates...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 18, 2023 | Blog Articles, Politics, USA
In the years following the Second World War, the leaders of a victorious and confident United States exchanged the God of their Puritan forefathers for the gods of fortresses, war, and imperial ambition. These they would serve — though their fathers knew them not —...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 15, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Election 2020, Politics, USA
Many supporters have long advised Donald J. Trump, as 2024 presidential candidate and presumptive Republican Party nominee, to stop talking in his campaign speeches about the “stolen 2020 elections” and instead focus on the country’s current pressing needs: the China...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 8, 2023 | Blog Articles, Crypto, Politics, Why America Matters Book
We live in an era in which bots regularly masquerade as humans online. Ours is an age in which identity theft and fraud plague online interactions, and where one’s right to privacy and sanctuary are regularly violated with impunity by both government and corporate...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 1, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA
Have you ever been in a hotel or office building where the fire alarm is blaring, but everyone ignores it and goes happily about their business? Every few minutes, a recorded voice chimes, “Fire! Please exit the building!” but the warning is disregarded. In fact, the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jul 26, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, 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 | Jul 18, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA
There was much rejoicing last week as June’s headline CPI came in at three percent, the lowest level of overall price level growth since March 2021. Financial media declared that the U.S. has entered “disinflation mode” and that the season of post-pandemic inflation...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jul 5, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA
Bank failures, an AI-led bull market, persistent inflation, Euro area recession, France engulfed in riots, and perhaps the biggest U.S. presidential corruption scandal ever. Looking back on the first half of 2023, it is hard to believe the extraordinary events and...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jun 22, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA
On the longest day of the year, the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services welcomed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to address its concerns around inflation and weakness in the U.S. economy. Powell warned Congress that the fight against inflation is far...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jun 9, 2023 | Blog Articles, Florida, Politics, USA, Why America Matters Book
June 10, 2023 marks the sixtieth anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s famous commencement address at Washington DC’s American University. This speech—among JFK’s finest—laid out out a vision of how to save America and humanity from the mutually-assured...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jun 7, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Finance, Politics, 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 | 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 | 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 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 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,...