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 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 | Jul 7, 2026 | Blog Articles, Covid-19, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Markets, USA
Few things symbolize the post-war American way of life better than the automobile and the freedom of the open road. And few things are better indicators of the financial health of the American household and economy as a whole than the industries which produce, sell...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jun 25, 2026 | Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Monetary System, Policy, Trump Administration, USA, War
In the Homeric epic Odyssey, the hero Odysseus navigates the storms of the “wine-dark sea,” seeking to return to his home and family after many years of war-fighting. He must first pass through a narrow strait of water, one with dangers on both sides. To...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jun 22, 2026 | Blog Articles, Finance, Markets, Technology, Trade, USA
SpaceX’s initial public offering stands as one of the most significant financial events in recent memory. Priced at $135 per share, the company raised a record sum of $86 billion in cash, channeling fresh capital directly into operations rather than providing...
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 | May 4, 2026 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Markets, New York, Politics, USA
The Biden Administration’s regulatory overreach—political performance theatre led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and enforced by the Department of Justice—neither protected consumers nor ensured fair competition. It weakened the discount airline industry, cost American...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 1, 2026 | Artificial Intelligence, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Economy, Politics, Technology, Trade, USA
Big Tech is Larger, More Profitable, and Spending More Than Ever Last week, Microsoft and Meta both announced significant reductions-in-force. Big Tech layoffs—sometimes tens of thousands of employees at once—make for attention-grabbing news. They portend imminent...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 21, 2026 | Artificial Intelligence, Blog Articles, Economy, Education, Finance, Inflation, Student Loans, Trump Administration, USA
The government sponsored student loan industry is a system structured to fail its borrowers and enrich university administrations at taxpayer expense. It should be profoundly reformed. When the Biden administration announced its student loan debt forgiveness program...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 11, 2026 | Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, NATO, Politics, Trump Administration, USA
During the past decade, a period in which Germany (Europe’s largest economy) was busy committing national energy suicide and France was trying to decide whether it wanted to remain French, Poland was steadily rebuilding what is now one of the strongest and most...
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 11, 2026 | Antichrist, Blog Articles, Education, Hamas, Islam, Israel, Politics, USA
The assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025 was not merely a political or personal tragedy. It was an assault on the very idea that young Americans could still be reached through reason, evidence, and constructive dialogue in the search for truth. Kirk...
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 | 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 16, 2026 | Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Trump Administration, USA
Nothing illustrates the disconnect between the financial economy’s (Wall Street’s) prosperity and the average household’s (Main Street’s) struggles than the increasing unaffordability of home ownership in America. In the post-war economic boom (around 1960) 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 21, 2025 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Immigration, Inflation, Trump Administration, USA
November’s job report, released this week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), sent mixed signals about the health of the economy. On the one hand, payrolls were up much more than expected at over 64,000, of which private sector jobs increased by 69,000...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 2, 2025 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Healthcare, Inflation, Insurance, Policy, Politics, USA
There is something terribly wrong with the way our healthcare system functions, and only a complete overhaul will save it. Sometimes anecdotes are more helpful than data and analytics, so I’ll relate a personal story. Three years ago, I needed an MRI for a shoulder...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 8, 2025 | Artificial Intelligence, Blog Articles, China, Crypto, Economy, Energy, Finance, Geopolitics, Russia, Technology, Trump Administration, USA, War
It is difficult to overstate the sea change that the world is facing as a result of the rapid acceleration of advanced computing technologies and their applications—especially in AI, robotics, quantum computing, and micro-nuclear power. Thanks to a generation of human...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 27, 2025 | Blog Articles, Economy, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Tariffs, Trade, Trump Administration, USA
This week’s release of September’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), a barometer of U.S. inflation, confirmed that inflation persists across the economy. Both CPI and Core CPI (which excludes food and energy prices), advanced by three percent on an annual basis. This was...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 13, 2025 | Artificial Intelligence, Biden Administration, Bitcoin, Blog Articles, China, Crypto, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Russia, Technology, USA
The United States government, unable to reach agreement on a budget for the new fiscal year, has been officially shuttered for well over a week. Since budgetary rows and the threat of government closure have become a more regular occurrence in recent years, we no...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 3, 2025 | Artificial Intelligence, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Economy, Education, Energy, Finance, Geopolitics, Immigration, Inflation, Politics, Technology, Trump Administration, Ukraine, USA, War
America is fighting a war on three fronts. The first is primarily external; a conflict waged against known foreign adversaries based outside our borders. The second front is against the domestic enemies of our nation, actors actively working as a fifth column within...
by Michael Wilkerson | Sep 11, 2025 | Antichrist, Blog Articles, Historical, Politics, Terrorism, Trump Administration, USA
Charlie Kirk represented everything that is good about America. He was kind, compassionate, and truly cared for the people he met from all walks of life. He was committed to open debate and free speech. He believed in vigorously defending the truth, but wasn’t...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 18, 2025 | Antichrist, Artificial Intelligence, Blog Articles, China, Economy, Technology, USA
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now mainstream. Over half of Americans use at least one AI tool, although daily users still represent less than 10 percent of the adult population. Nonetheless, twice as many Americans have a negative, rather than positive, view of AI’s...
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 | 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 | Jun 6, 2025 | Blog Articles, Geopolitics, Historical, USA
The following is an excerpt from the Introduction to Puritans, Pilgrims & Prophets, Michael Wilkerson’s latest book in the Why America Matters series Why would an entire generation of English men, women, and children—an estimated 80,000 souls over twenty...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 20, 2025 | Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Policy, Politics, Tariffs, Trade, Trump Administration, USA
Tax Cuts are Revenue Cuts The U.S. financial markets and the American consumer are both expressing concern about the state of the economy. The impact of tariffs, downgrades, deficits, tax bills, and inflation are each being weighed. The U.S. has a severe spending...
by Michael Wilkerson | Apr 9, 2025 | Blog Articles, China, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Trade, Trump Administration, USA
Last week was the worst week for the U.S. stock market since the “COVID crash” of March 2020. Indexes such as the S&P500 and the NASDAQ are each down over ten percent since Wednesday. Friday saw the largest volume of shares traded in one day ever. Markets...
by Michael Wilkerson | Mar 5, 2025 | Blog Articles, Crypto, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, Inflation, Policy, Politics, Tariffs, Trade, Trump Administration, Ukraine, USA
Austerity has a price … worth paying The Trump administration came into office with an ambitious set of promises in tow. During his campaign, and among other things, President Trump committed to end the immigration crisis at the U.S. southern border, stop the war in...
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 | Jan 12, 2025 | Africa, Economy, Historical, Politics, Trade, USA, Why America Matters Book
How Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America, inadvertently planted the seeds of slavery in the future United States The first permanent English settlement in the New World was founded in 1607 in Jamestown. Set in the Colony of Virginia, Jamestown...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jan 11, 2025 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Trade, USA
2024 was a challenging year for U.S. retailers. Will 2025 be any better? U.S. retailers were happy to put 2024 behind them. With few exceptions, 2024 was one of the worst years on record for many retailers. Several well-known chains filed for bankruptcy and ceased...
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 | Dec 21, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Economy, Energy, Finance, Geopolitics, USA
China has upped the ante in the trade war with the U.S. by imposing stringent export restrictions on critical minerals essential to U.S. semiconductor and defense industries. Following the U.S. Department of Commerce’s announcement earlier this month of additional...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 8, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Geopolitics, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, Terrorism, Ukraine, USA, War
In the 2002 Hollywood thriller The Sum of All Fears (based on the 1991 Tom Clancy novel of the same name), protagonist Jack Ryan (played by a young Ben Affleck) races the clock to save the world from nuclear war. Ryan, a CIA analyst more interested in getting to the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 24, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Economy, Elections, Monetary System, Policy, Politics, Technology, USA
Last spring, I publicly predicted that the price of Bitcoin would hit $100,000 by the end of 2024. This was quite a statement given BTC prices were then trading in a range of $40,000 to $50,000. While the path would be volatile, I predicted that “the long-term...
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 | Oct 28, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Covid-19, Disinformation, Economy, Elections, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, USA
Could we witness something unprecedented which derails November’s vote? The 2024 Presidential elections are days away. Early voting has already started in many states. On Sunday night, GOP nominee and former US President Donald J. Trump spoke to a full house of over...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 22, 2024 | Blog Articles, China, Disinformation, Economy, Finance, Inflation, USA
Retail pharmacy sales trends indicate much higher price increases for prescription drugs than CPI indicates Walgreens Boots Alliance (Walgreens), the publicly listed, “integrated healthcare, pharmacy and retail” company, just announced its annual and fourth quarter...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 13, 2024 | Africa, Blog Articles, BRICS, CBDCs, China, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, Monetary System, Russia, Sanctions, USA
Will the gold-backed UNIT Challenge U.S. Dollar Dominance? Later this month, Russia will host the sixteenth BRICS Summit, bringing together its member countries for Head of State level discussions on trade, monetary policy, security, and other matters. This capstone...
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 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 | Sep 2, 2024 | Blog Articles, Elections, Geopolitics, Politics, USA, Why America Matters Book
Labels of liberal/Left and Conservative/Right no longer mean what they used to. The ideals of the traditional Left and Right are now inverted. It is not the conservatives of the Right that are the reactionaries, but the so-called “Progressive” Liberals. It is the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 23, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA
In another indication that the U.S. may be near—if not already in—a recession, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) just released its Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey. The results are troubling. The CES benchmark revision reveals that previous government...
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 | Aug 3, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Economy, Finance, Inflation, USA
If anyone still believes that the U.S. economy is doing just fine, they should take a closer look at what is happening to the retailers that depend upon the faithful American consumer to “shop, shop, shop” to keep the economy afloat. American consumers are rapidly...
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 | Jul 23, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Election 2020, Elections, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, Terrorism, USA
When one pulls on a loose strand of cloth, one never knows where it will lead or how much of the entire fabric will unravel. So it seems to be going with the official narrative of the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump. It is coming undone,...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jul 13, 2024 | Blog Articles, Economy, France, Geopolitics, Inflation, Politics, USA, War
America’s revolution was the inspiration for France’s. Occurring within the same generation, the outcome of the world’s two most famous revolutions are starkly different. Today, July 14, is National Day in France (Fête nationale française), the rough patriotic...
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 | Jun 4, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Elections, Finance, Politics, Technology, USA
Even if you care nothing about crypto, it is important to recognize that crypto voters have now mobilized into a powerful and increasingly unified political force that is likely to significantly influence, if not outright shape, the outcome of 2024’s presidential and...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jun 2, 2024 | Blog Articles, CBDCs, Crypto, Elections, Finance, Monetary System, Policy, Politics, Technology, USA
I had opportunity to participate last week in a private round table at Consensus 2024, the digital assets and blockchain technology conference, on the tension between CBDCs (central bank-issued digital currencies) and privacy. Under the U.S. Constitution, Americans...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 20, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Tariffs, USA
Apparently, most Americans cannot. With the easy money fueled asset bubble of the past two decades, home ownership, and the cost of shelter in general, has been one of the sectors most impacted by inflation and rising prices. What happens to a society in which its...
by Michael Wilkerson | May 14, 2024 | Blog Articles, Covid-19, Economy, Finance, Florida, New York, USA
Much will be debated in the years to come about the efficacy of lockdowns, travel restrictions, vaccine passports, and other steps put in place to combat COVID-19. Evidence continues to mount showing these measures were largely ineffective in achieving their...
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 20, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Economy, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Monetary System, Politics, USA
The last few days have produced a bumper crop of disappointing news on inflation. First, we saw that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew at 0.4 percent in February, the highest monthly increase since September of last year, resulting in a higher than expected 3.2...
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 | Feb 28, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA
Usually when someone starts to talk about taxes the eyelids grow heavy and the attention wanes, so I’ll keep this short. The Biden administration’s tax policy proposals are a disaster for U.S. competitiveness, for families and the employers who hire them. While the...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 21, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Monetary System, Politics, USA
Home ownership has been a foundation of the American dream for generations. Home ownership has been an attainable aspiration that has enabled capital accumulation and wealth preservation. It has traditionally facilitated both a comfortable retirement for homeowners...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 13, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Student Loans, USA
American households seem to have short financial memories. Either not having learned—or perhaps just not remembering—the lessons of the global financial crisis, many U.S. households are repeating the same mistakes made nearly twenty years ago. Specifically, they are...
by Michael Wilkerson | Feb 1, 2024 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Monetary System, Politics, USA
The last time the phrase “soft landing” was this popular on the internet was on the eve of the largest financial crisis the world has ever seen. The idea behind an economic soft landing is that the central bank (for the U.S., the Federal Reserve) is able to bring...
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 23, 2024 | Africa, Armed Forces, Blog Articles, China, Finance, Geopolitics, Politics, USA, War
Working in Africa through much of the past decade, I saw signs of Chinese imperialism everywhere. The investment company I ran, mostly funded by US and Canadian investors, would face off against CCP-backed entities in business dealings and financing transactions. This...
by Michael Wilkerson | Jan 23, 2024 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Economy, Finance, Geopolitics, Inflation, Monetary System, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, USA, War
While the United States is ostensibly not at war with anyone, our government is spending taxpayers’ money as if it were. This year, the budget for the U.S. Department of Defense is $844 billion. The U.S. spends nearly three times more on defense than does China and...
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 | Dec 27, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Economy, Finance, Inflation, USA
It has been nine months since the spectacular and sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. After witnessing three of the four largest bank failures of all time in 2023, the attention of the media and the markets has turned elsewhere. Banking crisis? It is as though it...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 23, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Economy, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Monetary System, Politics, USA
2023 caught the experts by surprise. Economists and market analysts alike started the year on a pessimistic note, anticipating recession, market declines, and overall weakness in the face of inflation and high interest rates. Yet the much anticipated recession never...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 11, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Crypto, Economy, Energy, Finance, Geopolitics, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, Technology, USA
Asking the CEOs of the U.S.’s largest TBTF banks their opinion on crypto was like asking the wolves to vote on whether the fences should be removed from around the sheepfold. The Biden administration continues to work tirelessly to undermine the U.S.’s energy...
by Michael Wilkerson | Dec 5, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Economy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Ukraine, USA
Low quality economic growth is masking the looming debt crisis. It is a chimera that enables us to pretend that everything is fine, at just the moment when it clearly isn’t. One year ago, the prevailing consensus among economics and market analysts was that the U.S....
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 27, 2023 | Argentina, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, France, Geopolitics, Germany, Netherlands, Politics, USA
Image credit: Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images Conservative movements are on the rise around the world, and increasingly taking political power in predominantly liberal, Leftist, and socialist leaning countries. While often labeled in the mainstream media as “far right,”...
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 | Nov 14, 2023 | Armed Forces, Blog Articles, Inflation, Politics, USA, War
This month marks the sixtieth anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963. Is it possible that in the second decade of the twenty-first century, America is still paying the price for this unresolved national crime from six decades...
by Michael Wilkerson | Nov 2, 2023 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Russia, Sanctions, USA, War
The Biden administration has fallen into a dangerous trap. While some of the catastrophes and pits fallen into by the Biden administration have been self-made, this particular trap has been intentionally laid by America’s primary geopolitical and economic adversary....
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 30, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, CBDCs, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, Politics, USA, War
Bitcoin (BTC) hit its all-time high of over $65,000 two years ago in November 2021. Since then, it has been a bloodbath for the entire cryptocurrency market, and Bitcoin has not been spared. Most of the so called “alt-coins” trying to ride the crypto wave led by...
by Michael Wilkerson | Oct 19, 2023 | Africa, Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Russia, Sanctions, USA, War
The United States needs to get serious about the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its primary geopolitical tool, the BRI. This week China hosts its third international conference focused on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the development...
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...
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 | Africa, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, BRICS, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Sanctions, 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, Sanctions, 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 | Sep 5, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, USA, Why America Matters Book
We’re living in a death cult. When official corruption runs rampant and whistle-blowers are imprisoned and assassinated, we are living in a death cult. When systemic lies are loudly proclaimed while truth is quietly strangled, we are living in a death cult. When...
by Michael Wilkerson | Aug 22, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Student Loans, 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 | Africa, 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, Finance, Inflation, USA
There is a concept in aerial navigation called “the point of no return.” As the phrase implies, the point of no return is the distance beyond which a flight’s return to the point of departure is no longer possible due to dwindling fuel supplies. More generally, the...
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 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 | 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 | 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, BRICS, 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 20, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Finance, Inflation, USA
Those of us who have returned to frequent air travel appreciate just how unpleasant the process has become. Perhaps this simply reflects an overly sentimental view of what the experience was like pre-pandemic, but surely it has become much worse since. Outrageously...
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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | Apr 4, 2023 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, BRICS, China, Covid-19, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Sanctions, Tariffs, Ukraine, 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, 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 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 7, 2023 | Blog Articles, Covid-19, Finance, Inflation, Technology, 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 | Feb 19, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, Sanctions, 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, 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 | Feb 14, 2023 | Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Finance, Politics, Sanctions, Ukraine, 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 14, 2023 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, CBDCs, China, Crypto, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Sanctions, 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 | Africa, Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, BRICS, China, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Sanctions, 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 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, Russia, Sanctions, Ukraine, 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 | 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 | 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, Sanctions, Ukraine, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, J6, Politics, Stormwall Book, 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, Student Loans, 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, 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, Student Loans, 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, CBDCs, 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, Student Loans, 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, 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 | Africa, 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 | Africa, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, Stormwall Book, Tariffs, Ukraine, 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 | Africa, 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, 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 | Apr 28, 2022 | Biden Administration, Blog Articles, Covid-19, New York, Politics, Stormwall Book, 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, Energy, Geopolitics, 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 | 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, J6, Politics, USA, 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, 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...