Join Us at the 2023 World Economic Conference in Orlando, Florida!

? Dates: November 17, 18, and 19 ? Location: Orlando, Florida, USA (or tune in from home with our virtual ticket options)

Are you ready to unlock the future of economics and finance? Prepare for an unforgettable World Economic Conference experience in sunny Orlando, Florida! This premier event is your gateway to insights, networking, and valuable resources that will supercharge your understanding of the global economy.

?️ What’s Included for In-Person Attendees:

1. Event Admission: Enjoy reserved seating assigned based on the order of ticket sales, ensuring you have a prime view of every presentation.
2. Presentation Slides: Gain access to the presentation slides from all speakers, allowing you to delve deeper into the topics discussed.
3. Video Recording: Can’t make it to a session? No worries! You’ll receive access to video recordings of all conference presentations, so you can catch up at your convenience.
4. WEC Event App: Connect with the conference on a whole new level. Access presentation slides, bonus reports, recordings, and more via the official WEC Event App.
5. Bonus Conference Materials: Get a package of bonus conference-related materials, including exclusive bonus reports and videos (as provided by Martin Armstrong).
6. Morning Information Sessions: Don’t miss out on important morning information sessions, screened on-site in the meeting room on Saturday and Sunday.
7. Networking Opportunities: Exclusive access to the Event App Networking Feature allows you to connect with fellow attendees, both in-person and virtual, fostering valuable professional relationships.
8. Culinary Delights: Savor delicious breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday, prepared to keep you energized throughout the day.
9. Cocktail Reception: Kick off the conference in style at our Friday evening cocktail reception. Meet and mingle with fellow attendees while enjoying refreshing drinks.
10. Swag Bag: As a token of our appreciation, each in-person attendee will receive a swag bag filled with goodies, including an Armstrong Economics notebook, pen, and an event collector’s mug!

Unable to travel? We also have two different ticket options for those wishing to attend virtually! 

Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of a global gathering of economic and financial minds. Secure your spot at the World Economic Conference in Orlando, Florida, and gain the knowledge, connections, and resources you need to thrive in the world of finance and economics.

Space is limited, so act now and reserve your seat! Visit our Events page to register and join us in sunny Orlando this November.

Now available at all major retailers!

The eBook will be available shortly.

The second edition of “The Plot to Seize Russia – The Untold History” is now available for purchase in paperback and hardcover on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The ebook will be available shortly.

Book description:

“Take care of Russia,” Boris Yeltsin said as he departed his presidency in August 1999. These words were directed at current Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Yeltsin specifically picked Putin as his predecessor to prevent the takeover of Russia.

So, who was Yeltsin warning against? Newly declassified documents from the Clinton Administration prove that there was a plot to rig the Russian election of 2000. These never-before-seen documents confirm numerous attempts to implement pro-Western policies using the Russian oligarchy headed by Boris Berezovsky.

On the other side were the communists who desired a return to the glory days of the Soviet Union. As one of the largest international hedge fund managers, author Martin Armstrong found himself in the middle of perhaps the greatest espionage, or attempt at a regime change for Russia, in modern history.

The Plot to Seize Russia pulls back the curtain to expose the most extraordinary attempt to seize power in modern history, but with the pen rather than armies. These declassified documents reveal a plot that has altered our thinking about the relations between the United States and Russia. The thirst for power comes seething through every line of these papers that alter our perception of reality, change the course of history, and now threaten us with World War III.

@reasonmagazine

On his first day in office, Mamdani appointed Cea Weaver, a tenant activist and one of his campaign advisers, to lead the city’s Office to Protect Tenants. Reason spoke with Weaver in 2021 for our story on the victims of the eviction moratorium. She told us about her vision of “a world in which the housing is owned by a collective” and said “the federal government prints money” so they “can provide money for this.” #NewYork #NYC #housing #socialism #home

♬ original sound – Reason Magazine

Socialist NYC Mayor Zohan Mamdani appointed Cea Weaver to lead the city’s Office to Protect Tenants. Weaver believes that homeownership is inherently racist and must be reformed into “a world in which the housing is owned by a collective.” According to Weaver, the US can simply continually print money to support government spending.

The claim that a government can simply print money to support endless spending is one of the most dangerous myths ever sold to the public. When politicians have exhausted every honest means of funding government, they are left with nothing but deception. This line of thinking is precisely why the government shut down at the end of 2025. Politicians believe they can increase spending indefinitely with no regard for the ticking time bomb that is government debt.

Printing money is another form of taxation, albeit a far more destructive form because it is hidden. Inflation will rise when the money supply expands beyond productive output. Governments print to fund their spending and dilute the currency. Politicians have lost all discipline because government continually votes to raise budgets and prolong the problem. The debt crisis has been rapidly snowballing in magnitude; those in power have zero intention of paying it off, but the time will come when the bill is due.

The irony is that those advocating unlimited money creation claim it helps the poor. In reality, it does the opposite. Inflation destroys savings, raises prices beyond reach, and transfers wealth to the elites controlling the money. It widens inequality while pretending to fight it. Hence why Venezuela went from one of the world’s top economies to poverty-ridden nation in a short period of time. These people are extremely dangerous. Voters propel them into power on the basis of lies, and then they have the ability to begin altering policies. Mamdani may be limited to his city but no economy can be viewed in isolation and voters refuse to see the mirage of easy solutions to complex problems.

What we are seeing with China’s nearly $1.2 trillion trade surplus in 2025 is not merely a statistic to be cited in passing. It confirms the trend that China is On the Rise. Capital, production, and power are migrating East. The raw data shows exports climbing about 5.5% even as imports showed little growth, marking a widening imbalance of historic proportions.

A trade surplus of this magnitude does not arise from a single policy, tariff, or administration’s rhetoric. Decades of economic reconfiguration have led China to become an economic powerhouse. China has integrated itself into the global supply chain and is crucial to the global economy at large.

A friend recently spoke of their business trip to China during the 1990s. Cars were outdated, roads were unpaved, and farm animals were running alongside the roads. The landscape has changed dramatically in an impressively short amount of time. People may claim that China is communist in nature but in actuality they switched to a capitalistic model.

China’s manufacturing base was built during a rising confidence phase when globalization expanded and capital flowed freely. Now, as confidence fractures domestically, that same capacity is being pushed outward at almost any price. This is why we see export volumes rising even as margins compress and global tensions rise.

Exports from China to the US fell by 20%. China’s strength relative to the US indicates that It is supplying the world with goods rather than merely one isolated market. Sanctions and tariffs are not placing a chokehold on the Chinese economy because it has a plethora of outlets and trade partners who are eager to conduct business.

China’s consumption and property sector have struggled to maintain rapid growth. But weakened domestic demand leads to heightened exports as a simple economic cause and effect. A thriving economy ideally has robust domestic consumption, investment, and saving. Surpluses as large as $1.2 trillion tell us that China’s exports are propping up the economy.

China has been experiencing capital flight by its own citizens, tighter capital controls, and declining foreign direct investment. Policymakers should not view this data as a sign of stability, but heavy export reliance often peaks before contraction when global demand weakens.

Governor Gavin Newsom fears losing voters ahead of a likely presidential bid. The proposition of a billionaire tax has caused a massive amount of capital to flee California. The Democrats had banked on redistributing the funds generated from that tax to pay for their ever-expanding welfare state. Suddenly, Newsom is strongly against the billionaire tax proposal.

“The evidence is in. The impacts are very real — not just substantive economic impacts in terms of the revenue, but start-ups, the indirect impacts of … people questioning long term-commitments, medium-term,” Newsom said. “That’s not what we need right now, at a time of so much uncertainty. Quite the contrary.” The eat-the-rich governor then stated he will fight to defeat the liberal bill. “I think people understand what it does versus what it promotes to do.”

Instead, Newsom believes the tax should be imposed at the federal level to prevent smart money from fleeing his state. “It’s one thing to have a [tax] of the [nation], and you can talk about all 50 states,” he explained to The New York Times, contrasting this with the current scenario where “you’re [competing] against all the other states.”

Socialist bureaucrats focus on redistribution instead of economic growth. No nation has ever taxed its way into prosperity, no government budget has ever been covered by advancing taxes when spending continues indefinitely. Smart money moves quickly. A federal wealth tax may not cause the rich to flee the United States, as it is the last safe haven, but it would cause capital to move underground.

Europe abandoned wealth taxes not because the rich complained, but because the tax base collapsed. Investment stopped. Entrepreneurs left, jobs disappeared, and governments collected less revenue than before. The models show this repeatedly because capital is mobile, and confidence is everything.

People are often cheering class warfare for they fail to understand by imposing a billionaires tax in California on UNREALIZED gains of 5%, will necessitate dumping stock to raise cash to pay the tax. Those companies will be in shock and specs will jump in front and sell those companies knowing that massive liquidation will follow. Yet additionally, it will require EVERYONE to file to state under penalty of perjury that you are not a billionaire. The third disaster is they always get such taxes through promising a minimal tax rate. Then, at anytime in the future, they can just raise the rate whenever they need money. When the US Income Tax was installed, the rate on the hated rich was just 1%. That was minimal.

We can see that proposed 1% reach 77% for World War I and the 94% for World War II. The Democrats have shut down the government over Trump’s tax cuts and the top rate is 37%. But worse still, the play with the definitions to get more money.

They also have constantly changed the top tax rate. During World War II it stood at $5 million. Then it came down to $250,000. But it got worse. When the modern income tax was established by the 16th Amendment in 1913, it taxed individuals on their own income. There was no concept of a joint return for married couples.

The First Major Shift from individual to household income came with the introduction of the Joint Return (1948). This is the most significant change that moved the system toward considering household resources. If the husband was in a high income tax bracket, his wife, with even just a part-time job was now taxed at his rate. Many began to see this as a major reason there were stay-at-home-moms for it did not pay to get a simple job to stay busy.

Prior to 1948, they assumed passive income from investments could be shared with each spouse filing separately, reporting only their own income. This created a major disparity because residents of community property states (where income is legally considered jointly owned) could split income between two returns, lowering their total tax bill compared to identical-income couples in common-law property states. This drove the Democrats delirious. OMG, they could beat us out of some money.

Revenue Act of 1948 was intended to resolve this inequity or loophole and also to provide a benefit to married couples is how they sold the idea. Congress created the joint return. This allowed a married couple to combine their incomes, be taxed on the total, but use a tax schedule with brackets exactly twice as wide as those for a single individual. This is known as income splitting. It effectively created a “household” tax unit for married couples, though it was still an option (they could still file separately).

Consolidation of the “Household” Concept (Post-1948)
The 1948 law established married couples as a tax unit. Subsequent changes refined how different household structures are treated:

1969: The “marriage penalty” emerged. To address the fact that two single individuals could sometimes pay less tax than a married couple with the same combined income, Congress created a new tax schedule for single filers that was less favorable than half the married brackets. This formally established different tax treatments for different household/filing statuses (Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately, and later Head of Household).

1970s onward: The introduction of provisions like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in 1975 truly brought “household income” to the forefront. Eligibility for many credits and deductions (like the EITC, Child Tax Credit, IRA contribution deductibility) is based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI), which is often calculated on a household basis (e.g., combining income of spouses and sometimes dependents) for the purpose of phase-outs.

Today, the U.S. system is best described as a hybrid:

The Tax Computation Starts with the Individual: You are taxed on your individual income. Filing status then determines the rates and brackets applied to that income.

Household Structure Determines Filing Status. In other words, your household situation (single, married, with dependents) dictates your filing status (Single, Married Filing Jointly, Head of Household, etc.), which applies different tax rates and standard deductions. I know elderly people who got married simply because of the taxes.

Many Benefits are Household-Income Tested. For example, key benefits, subsidies (like for the Affordable Care Act), and deductions phase out based on the total income of the tax household (e.g., combined income on a joint return).

Around 2015, a group of clients asked me to join in buying a bank in Switzerland. They wanted me to design a gold-backed bank which did not lend in an unsecured manner. I designed the bank and how it would even issue a credit card and allow Giro Banking (transfers between accounts) all based on cash as well as precious metal deposits. The idea was not to avoid taxes, it was to avoid possible banking failures. Between 2009 and 2016, about 45,000 U.S. taxpayers, had taken advantage of IRS tax amnesty programs to pay more than $6 billion in back taxes and related penalties for having offshore accounts to avoid taxes.

Switzerland already has an International Wealth Tax which is a levy on the total value of personal assets, including bank deposits, real estate, assets in insurance and pension plans, ownership of unincorporated businesses, financial securities, and personal trusts. You have to declare everything you own around the entire world. Then, because Switzerland is part of the CRS, they will share that with every other country. Typically, liabilities (primarily mortgages and other loans) are deducted from an individual’s wealth.

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a global standard for the automatic exchange of financial account information between tax authorities, designed to combat tax evasion. It was developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2014, it has been implemented by over 100 jurisdictions worldwide. Unlike previous systems that required specific requests, CRS mandates the routine, annual exchange of financial information. In other words, if you were under investigation, they would request all info on you. Today, they transfer data on everyone just in case.

There was a legal case that became the seminal beginning of the American Revolution known as Entick v. Carrington and Three Other King’s Messengers (1765), reported at length in 19 Howell’s State Trials 1029. This case was the start of the American Revolution and was also based upon abuse of the king’s agents. The action, dated November 1762, was for trespassing and interfering with the plaintiff’s dwelling by breaking open his desks and boxes and searching and examining his papers.

After George III became king in 1760, by February 1761, Parliament enacted the Writs of Assistance that was challenged in court in Boston, Massachusetts. These were writs that empowered the king’s agents to search anything they suspected, like the NSA today at their discretion. The defending lawyer James Otis (1725-1783) pronounced these writs as “the worst instrument of arbitrary power, the most destructive of English liberty, and the fundamental principles of law, that ever was found in an English law book.” Otis warned that the king placed discretion in the hands of every agent to act as he desired. Nothing has changed, for our current government can do whatever it desires today, and it is always the burden of the citizen to prove he has any rights whatsoever. This was the source of the 4th Amendment and the requirement of a search warrant with specific details what they are looking for. Here, they assumed you were guilty and looking for anything they could charge you with. This is the basis behind FACTA in the USA and CRS of Europe.

John Adams (1735–1826; 2^nd President 1797–1801) was in the audience at that hearing that day, and the four-hour speech of James Otis so moved him that he declared:

“Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there, the child independence was born.”

The CRS and the US version of FACTA were inspired by this very same distrust of the population. Everyone is a criminal and the Writs of Assistance allowed the King’s agents to enter your house and rummage through everything to see if they could prosecute you for something. This is the very same issue. You have money that they want and they are out to get it for we are all criminals and just economic slaves to support the state.

Needless to say, I declined because of the wealth tax. I was told its minimal – progressive but very low (0.1% to 1.0% effective). If it is so minimal, then why bother? The problem is always clear. It may be minimal but so was the Income Tax proposed to be 1% in 1913 and rose to 94% by 1945. This taxed UNREALIZED GAINS, and with war on the horizon, it was far too dangerous to get involved. They can say your house is worth whatever and you now must pay a wealth tax on it in Switzerland even though it is on the beach in Florida where you pay property taxes.

How do you ever retire voluntarily or because of health? Then you still must pay taxes on its value and if the market is in a downturn, you may not be able to sell it to pay all the taxes every government is demanding.

Just as the billionaires are fleeing California which was demanding a 5% one-time tax, this illustrated these Progressive Democrats do not understand the economy and what would be the impact of forcing these people who may be billionaires on paper (NOT CASH) to start dumping shares to pay the tax. We have the MOST incompetent herd of politicians worldwide. After dealing with governments around the world for nearly 50 years, I can honestly say it certainly appears to be a conspiracy to inject the worst possible candidate globally.

I get people asking is there a conspiracy theory from elites to utterly destroy the United States and turn it into a Marxist Utopia like Europe? I cannot confirm that nor deny it. I have dealt with many politicians over my years. I have found that the decline and fall has been systemic on a global scale. It does make one ask yourself, how many coincidences does it take to make a conspiracy? I have tried my best to open the door where LIBERTY and JUSTICE for all actually exists. It is impossible. Those in power constantly need money to retain their job and the LEFT continually promotes robbing Peter to pay Paul. They do not know how to win an election without Marxism.

We will do an update to forecasts for the 2026 Midterm Elections. Many have written in and asked I have offered advice to the Trump Administration/Republicans. I believe there are plants in some of these people’s staffs and they are deliberately giving bad advice that does not support them for the 2026 midterms. It just appears very strange. As far as the Trump Administration directly, I believe there are some players who actively try to prevent me from offering advice. The NEOCONS want want. Miller is advocating just seizing Greenland for the natural resources and publicly states nobody will stop us.

So, is this all a coincidence or a deliberate conspiracy? The LEFT is in a battle to take no prisoners. Going into 2028, we should expect a most aggressive attempt to seize power. This idea of the LEFT where individual liberties is just an illustion is their central theme. They are Marxists no matter how many times it has been tried it has failed. They will NEVER change and there is no discussion. This is a war for raw power. Since the Day of Sparta, and the Thucydides Trap, which is a concept in international relations that describes the heightened risk of conflict when an emerging power challenges an established ruling power. This is what is playing out on a global scale. We are at great risk of war internationally as well as civil war domestically as there is no compromise. This is all about one side suppressing the other.

Australians could face up to 15 years imprisonment for comments deemed offensive by the government. The Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill introduced this month establishes federal offenses for “publicly promoting or inciting hatred.” Speech, writing, or “other forms of public gestures” will be monitored and controlled.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the prop “I encourage you to read the Old Testament and see what’s there and see if you outlaw that, what would occur,” he said. “I encourage you to read the Old Testament and see what’s there and see if you outlaw that, what would occur,” he said. “So we need to be careful — we consulted with faith groups, not just with the Jewish community. We want to make sure there’s the broadest possible support for this legislation but we also want to make sure that there isn’t unintended consequences of the legislation.”

“Unintended consequences” come down to losing voters, but for citizens, their freedom is at risk at every turn. The Old Testament example is quite interesting as that would chalk up Judaism and Christianity to “hate speech” for questioning the LGBTQ community.

The law will also further prevent the public from accessing firearms. Intelligence agencies will have the ability to reconsider gun licenses. “The terrorists at Bondi Beach had hatred in their minds but guns in their hands. This law will deal with both, and we need to deal with both,” the prime minister said.

Courts will look at three items to identify criminal hate speech: public incitement, superiority claims, and serious vilification. The Reasonable Person Test is the official standard courts use, which broadly allows anything to be taken out of context. In fact, Australian legislators believe that NO VICTIM IS REQUIRED! Prosecutors do not need to prove that anyone was harmed or felt intimidated. Context will be considered over intent. The government will now have full range to claim that any “reasonable person” of a certain group would feel intimidated or harassed by direct or indirect comments.

“Let me be clear – once these laws are passed, they will be the toughest hate laws Australia has ever seen,” Michelle Rowland, Attorney General, said. “They will specifically target those who seek to spread hatred and disrupt social cohesion in our community. And it will send a clear message that this conduct will not be tolerated.”

The government has full control over speech. Religious leaders, especially Christians who are unprotected, are especially vulnerable to this new law. They may quote religious scripture only for teaching or discussion, but any additional commentary or sermons could result in federal prosecution.

The Minister for Home Affairs can cancel or refuse visas to anyone deemed a “risk of harm” for promoting hate speech. Social media platforms will be scanned and monitored by the government. Anyone involved in a “hate group” will face 15 years imprisonment, and anything deemed “offensive to a reasonable person” will be considered a hate group. Will Australia ban religion next? Will political opponents be considered “hate groups?” Can people freely speak out against open borders or other policies that they disagree with?

If you say or type anything deemed offensive, the government will charge you with “racial vilification” and throw you in prison for five years. Australia showed the extent of its authoritarian brutality during the COVID crisis when it prohibited citizens and journalists alike from questioning the narrative. The government is providing itself with legal grounds to round up the disobedient who will serve as an example to others. Self-censor, obey, comply—the path toward the new world order will be treacherous.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for December 2025 has been released, and although it may appear uneventful on the surface, it confirms the broader trend. Headline CPI rose 0.3% last month and 2.7% year-over-year, matching November’s pace and forecasts. Core inflation, excluding food and energy, rose 2.6% on an annual basis. The reality is that the Federal Reserve’s 2% target has not been attainable.

Price pressures have remained persistent since 2020. The basic necessities for survival continually increase. Shelter accounts for over one-third of CPI and is up 3.2% on the yearly and 0.4% monthly. Food prices are up 0.7% monthly and 2.6% annually, with energy coming in at 0.3% and 2.3% respectively.

Every time inflation rises, the same two culprits are dragged out by the press and politicians: tariffs and the Federal Reserve. Prices rise, and immediately we are told tariffs are “taxes on consumers” or that the Fed “printed too much money.” Both explanations are simplistic, politically convenient, and fundamentally wrong.

Tariffs have not caused food and shelter to continually rise. Inflation is born on the fiscal side of government, not the monetary side. This is the critical distinction that most economists either do not understand or deliberately ignore.

The Federal Reserve does not create inflation. It creates debt instruments. When the Fed expands its balance sheet, it is not dropping money out of a helicopter into the hands of the public. The Fed is merely swapping one asset for another. Inflation emerges when the government, the largest borrower, spends beyond its productive capacity.

Printing money without spending it does nothing. Borrowing money without spending it does nothing. Inflation occurs only when government deficits are monetized through fiscal policy, where money is injected into the economy to cover political promises, wars, social programs, and bailouts. This is why inflation exploded after 2020 when governments worldwide unleashed trillions in direct spending while halting productive output to zero.

The Federal Reserve reacts to inflation, but it does not create it. Trump is wrong for demonizing Powell and attempting to pin criminal charges on him. Removing the Fed chairman will not somehow tame inflation or reduce it by a single basis point. If anything, arresting the head of the central bank would only further erode confidence. The FOMC could drop rates into the negatives but it would not erase the trillions in deficits or offset reckless spending.

? BREAKING — In Iran, massive crowds of anti-Islamist-regime, pro-@PahlaviReza protesters are taking to the streets in Tehran’s Haft-Hoz Square, chanting “Death to The Dictator,” directly targeting Khamenei and his terrorist regime. Share these videos so the world can see. pic.twitter.com/w8zcyOUu6t

— Shayan X (@ShayanX0) January 4, 2026

An estimated 12,000 people in Iran have been killed in a severe crackdown on nationwide protests, accompanied by a near-total communications blackout designed not only to suppress dissent but to conceal the truth of what is happening on the ground.

Economic exhaustion and a collapse of public trust have converged with political stagnation and foreign policy missteps to create a pressure cooker within the Islamic Republic. Analysts have noted that Iran’s 2026 may represent one of the hardest years the regime has faced, where internal pressures intersect with external constraints such as sanctions, isolation, and military attrition will cause the republic to lose control.

Eliminating citizens’ ability to communicate is the first course of action for a crumbling government. The regime shut down the internet and blocked all communication channels to prevent the people from communicating, but the public refuses to be silenced.

The value of the Iranian rial collapsed to historic lows, reaching 1.45 million rials per USD as of late December 2025. The currency has lost 40% of its value since the most recent clash with Israel. Inflation in Iran surged to 42.2%, with the public unable to purchase food or necessities. The regime attempted to introduce a “new rial” where one equals 100 old rials, but it simply does not matter as the people have lost all confidence in government. The currency is worthless in their eyes. President Pezeshkian attempted to offer citizens the equivalent of $7 USD per month, but they waited too long to calm the masses with cash. The people now demand a complete regime change. Longstanding mismanagement, chronic deficits, and archaic behavior caused the nation to dwindle into financial ruin. No one is benefiting from the current leadership, and the people have nothing left to lose.

The USA is seizing the opportunity. President Donald Trump took to social media to urge Iranians to “KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS,” promising that “HELP IS ON ITS WAY.” Neocon Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, warned that the regime could survive the protests. The computer model accurately noted that a new conflict would be underway around the second week of January. What is happening in Iran right now is not a spontaneous uprising. It is a late-stage confidence failure.

European Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius believes a unified European army should replace American troops amid geopolitical tensions. “How will we replace the 100,000-strong American regular military forces that form the backbone of military power in Europe?” he asked, later answering his own question by proposing the creation of a permanent continent-wide joint armed force.

Kubilius believes there must be a European Security Council, a centralized control hub. “The European Security Council could consist of key permanent members, as well as several members on a rotational basis—around 10 to 12 in total—whose task would be to discuss the most important defense issues,” he emphasized, adding that the United Kingdom may be barred from entering due to Brexit.

The idea that the European Union now seriously considers replacing American troops with a European army is the culmination of decades of shifting global power, economic cycles, and the EU’s structural failure to sustain its own sovereignty. NATO became permanent precisely because European nations could not muster the political will and economic unity to defend themselves independently. It is easy to talk about replacing 100,000 U.S. troops with a European force when Europe has yet to solve its own sovereign debt problems and cannot even harmonize a defense budget.

“Would the United States be militarily stronger if they would have 50 armies on the States level instead of a single federal army, 50 state defence policies and defence budgets on the states level, instead of a single federal defence policy and budget? Kubilius questioned. The United States is a unified nation (for now); the European Union model expects each member to abandon its national identity, which is simply not possible.

Defense policy would require a unanimous agreement among all member states. Yet each member state faces distinct security threats shaped by trade and geography. Spain will not have the same concerns as Poland, for example, as you cannot broadly paint Europe with one brush. It has become increasingly apparent that each policy issued from Brussels benefits some members while disadvantaging others. Trade, war, and migration — every nation faces unique challenges that cannot be solved by broad solutions. Each nation can only survive if it maintains its structural and economic integrity, which is why I have warned that the very design of the euro was flawed from the beginning. It is extremely unlikely that 27 independent nations could continually agree on ever-changing policies in the event of war. A centralized authority would need to assume control of the proposed army, make decisions unilaterally, and trust that soldiers would collectively follow orders.

The European Union coerces members into prioritizing European interests. The union was destined to fail, and these overhauls will only spur the cycle in motion—Europe is in the process of separating.