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 | 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 | 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 | Feb 8, 2026 | Blog Articles, Geopolitics, Historical, Immigration, Israel, War
And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Avva and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities. —II Kings 17:24 When Satan wants...
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 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 | 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 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 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 | 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 | 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 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 | 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 | 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 3, 2023 | Africa, Armed Forces, Biden Administration, Blog Articles, China, Energy, Finance, Inflation, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, Ukraine, 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 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 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 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 | 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 | 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 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 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 | 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 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 | 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 | 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 | Apr 22, 2021 | Banks, Blog Articles, China, Monetary System, War
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is playing the long game to establish its dominance and supplant the US as global hegemon. This is not conjecture but the stated policy objective of the CCP. The application of this overarching strategic objective for China’s...