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.

President Trump is recommending that chip manufacturers IMMEDIATELY move their manufacturing facilities to AMERICA. The conversations with Xi have confirmed how China will move to take over Taiwan. Chip manufacturing is essential for AI and technology in general. Taiwan is the world’s chip manufacturing center at the moment. That’s one of the main reasons China wants to take Taiwan, for it is also a geopolitical play.

Trump is saying that he would like to see everybody making chips in Taiwan come into America. He also expects that the USA will have 40% to 50% of the world chip business by the end of his term.

We saw May as a Directional Change and a Panic Cycle appears in July leading into August. Keep in mind that with the US tied up in Iran, I warned that this would be the time for a conflict over Taiwan. Macron visited China and told Xi they will NOT intervene with respect to Taiwan. The next major turning point in Taiwan is 2027.33.

From our staff on the ground, they have reported that Modi has gone through with what many were suspecting – a lockdown to save energy.  Modi has officially announced a partial lockdown asking people to work from home, commute as little as possible, and use less cooking oil too as India must save its FOREX reserves.

We will expect this to unfold in Europe eventually.

Singapore has become one of the clearest examples of what happens when global instability pushes capital toward safe and efficient financial hubs. While much of the developed world struggles with declining middle classes, inflation pressure, weak currencies, and deteriorating public confidence, Singapore is absorbing enormous inflows of wealth, businesses, financial firms, and highly skilled workers from across Asia and the West.

People inside the country can feel the difference directly. Singapore’s economy recently expanded roughly 4–5%, outperforming many advanced economies despite global instability. Private wealth inflows surged sharply over the past several years as high-net-worth individuals relocated assets, family offices, and businesses into the city-state. Singapore now hosts more than 2,000 family offices, up from only a few hundred several years ago, making it one of the fastest-growing wealth management centers in the world.

Money is pouring into the system from everywhere. Chinese capital seeking stability, Western investors avoiding political uncertainty, technology firms restructuring operations, and multinational corporations diversifying Asian headquarters have all contributed to the surge. Banking, finance, artificial intelligence, semiconductor industries, pharmaceuticals, logistics, and high-end services continue expanding rapidly throughout the country.

Unlike many Western governments, Singapore largely focused on maintaining competitiveness rather than overburdening productive sectors with excessive bureaucracy or energy self-destruction policies.

Changi Airport continues expanding aggressively as passenger traffic rebounds strongly. Luxury real estate prices surged as wealthy migrants relocate into the country. High-end retail sales remain elevated while restaurant, tourism, and financial sectors continue benefiting from rising international inflows. Singapore’s port remains one of the busiest on earth while the country continues strengthening its role as a global trade and shipping hub.

Ordinary Singaporeans are feeling this through stronger employment conditions, rising wages in high-skilled sectors, and long-term economic stability relative to much of the world.

Median household incomes continued rising while unemployment remained relatively low around 2%. Inflation pressures emerged after the pandemic, but they remained significantly more controlled than in Britain, Canada, or large parts of Europe. The Singapore dollar also remained comparatively stable while many global currencies weakened sharply.

In much of the developed world, populations increasingly feel governments lost control over inflation, migration, debt expansion, and living costs. Singapore projects the opposite image, order, efficiency, infrastructure investment, and financial discipline.

The government also aggressively positioned Singapore as a center for technology and AI investment. Semiconductor manufacturing, digital banking, biotech, and advanced logistics industries continue attracting billions in investment. Nvidia, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and major global financial institutions all continue expanding operations throughout the region.

Singapore benefits enormously from its geographic position as well. It sits directly at the center of Asian trade routes while remaining politically stable compared to rising tensions elsewhere in the region. As geopolitical fragmentation accelerates between the United States and China, companies increasingly want neutral and reliable regional hubs.

The city-state also avoided many of the structural mistakes visible across the West. Europe weakened industrial competitiveness through energy costs and overregulation. Canada and Britain inflated housing and debt bubbles while middle-class purchasing power deteriorated. Singapore maintained a long-term focus on attracting investment, developing infrastructure, controlling corruption, and preserving financial credibility.

None of this means life is perfect there. Housing costs remain extremely high. Competition is intense. Cost-of-living pressure still affects lower-income workers. The country depends heavily on global trade flows, meaning a severe international slowdown would still impact growth materially.

But relative to much of the developed world, Singaporeans increasingly feel they are living inside one of the few functioning economic systems left. The broader global pattern is becoming clear. Capital is abandoning politically unstable, debt-saturated, and overregulated regions while concentrating into efficient financial and commercial hubs capable of preserving stability and opportunity. Singapore has become one of the largest beneficiaries of that shift.

PRIVATE BLOG – The Update on Markets & Risk of Miscalculation

Private blog posts are exclusively available to Socrates subscribers. To sign-up for Socrates or to learn more, please visit Ask-Socrates.com.

https://ask-socrates.com/

COMMENT: Mr. Armstrong, I retired from Wall Street and from your favorite competitor. You earned the nickname “the legend” because you were the greatest of all traders. We always watched your plays. You would roll the dice, and you did inspire fear in everyone’s eyes. Many could not believe you had a computer that was that good. The word was always that you had more contacts than anyone else and were infallible. I just wanted to say you paid the price for your discovery, and as a subscriber to Socrates, your computer is light-years ahead of anyone else’s.

I was there as a young trader when you took on all the firms and systematically took down all the silver traders including Warren Buffett. That trade would have made a movie like the Big Short look as child’s play. You should hold a conference on how to trade. I would attend even being retired.

K

ANSWER: Yes, that trade I will always remember. The guys on the floor warned what was going on and that I would be taking on everyone. It was a lot of fun. I used Emerald Trading on the floor. That trade was legendary. They signed those bills when it was all done.

I will tell you a secret. I know what you mean when I rolled the dice I could see the fear in their eyes. That was the fun of trading in the old days. I shorted that market, took them all out, covered all my shorts, and actually went long. It was clear they assumed I was still covering shorts. I told the boys on the floor then to get aggressive in bidding to show them I was now long. I heard them scream on the floor, “He’s F–king long!” They then scrambled buying everything they could taking the market up. It was such a fun time. Forget the money. It was taking on all the bankers and watching them panic. As you said, the fear in their eyes.

Those were the good old days. I did my charts by hand. I framed this chart up to remind me of the good old days. But everything has changed. The ticks are just flashes on a screen now. I’m not sure if I could have learned how to trade in today’s world. I could see every tick, the quantity, and the sound.

I was probably the last to have a paper tape. I remember TransLux coming in saying they had to take it. With a paper tape, you never missed anything. The sound would sound like a machine gun when something happened. Otherwise it was slow tick, tick, tick.

I would plot tick by tick. That taught me patterns. Floor trading (also known as open outcry) for precious metals futures on the COMEX division of the CME Group technically still exists. However, it is no longer the primary method of trading. In practice, the vast majority of COMEX gold and silver futures trading has migrated to the CME Globex electronic trading platform.

Jesse Livermore’s legendary trading career began as a “board boy” in a Boston brokerage, where his job of posting prices on a large chalkboard led him to discover recurring patterns in stock movements. His early years perfectly demonstrate how systematic observation can lead to pattern recognition. At the age of 14, Livermore worked for Paine Webber, where he would listen for price quotes shouted out by the ticker boy and quickly write them on a large chalkboard covering the firm’s wall.

Jesse saw the patterns like I did from working with the data directly. On November 12th, 1923, Jesse turned bullish. Just like me, they attacked him because they did not like his forecast. The Wall Street Journal falsely accused Jesse Livermore of turning bullish on the market because he was friends with the president. The Journal accused him of trying to influence the presidential election. When the market broke out and rallied, all the other publications took swipes at the WSJ saying everyone reported Jesse’s comments “except” the WSJ. The press is always biased and interjects their views trying to influence markets.

John Law’s contribution saw supply and demand before his eyes as a trader and they said he was a gambler. Academic sources confirm that Law held a “demand-and-supply theory of value” and was one of the first economic writers to systematically use the concepts of demand and supply in his analysis. He applied this framework to money, introducing the term “the demand for money” and analyzing inflation within a supply-and-demand framework. His major work, Money and Trade Considered (1705), presented these revolutionary ideas well before they became common. Adam Smith took his example of water and diamonds and never credited him.

David Ricardo was a highly successful stock trader on the London Stock Exchange, and his practical experiences in the financial markets directly shaped his economic theories. Contemporary observers noted his “extraordinary quickness in perceiving the turns of the market” and his ability to spot “accidental difference which might arise between the relative price of different stocks.”  These skills directly parallel the quantitative trading strategies used by modern hedge funds.

There is a common thread that runs through us all – TRADING. There are some things that cannot be taught. You have a “feel” for something or you do not. Some can see a face in a cloud and other see just a cloud and think you are nuts. There is a HUGE difference between being s TRADER and an INVESTOR who buys and holds. A TRADER looks at a chart and sees instantly a bull or bear market. You are engrossed and taught by the patterns.

Ending floor trading may prove to be the end of real trading.

Me 1985 With an IBM XT

That is what I sought to code into Socrates. Above all, how to deal with pattern recognition.

For decades, society pushed the idea that success only came through a four-year university degree while skilled trades were treated as second-class careers. That entire model is now beginning to reverse in real-time. The economy simply cannot function without electricians, welders, plumbers, HVAC technicians, mechanics, linemen, machinists, and construction workers, yet governments and universities spent years encouraging younger generations away from those professions. What we are witnessing now is the economic consequence of that social engineering experiment.

The average age of skilled trades workers across many industries is now approaching the late-40s to early-50s. Retirements are accelerating while too few younger workers are entering the pipeline to replace them. According to estimates cited by JLL, as many as 2.1 million skilled trade positions in the United States could remain unfilled by 2030, creating potential economic losses approaching $1 trillion annually.

At the same time, demand is exploding because multiple infrastructure cycles are colliding all at once. AI data centers require enormous electrical capacity. Semiconductor factories need industrial construction workers and technicians. Power grids are being rebuilt. Manufacturing facilities are returning to North America. Renewable energy projects, pipelines, battery systems, transportation infrastructure, and industrial automation all require physical labor that cannot simply be replaced by artificial intelligence.

The result is that wages are now rising aggressively across the skilled trades. Electrician wages alone have climbed substantially over the past several years as labor shortages intensify. Recent labor data shows the median annual wage for electricians reached approximately $62,350 nationally, while the top 10% now earn over $106,000 annually.

In high-demand regions tied to AI infrastructure and energy expansion, compensation has surged even further. Some electricians and specialized technicians working on major AI data center projects are reportedly earning between $240,000 and $280,000 annually once overtime and premium project rates are included.

Construction workers tied to data center projects are now earning roughly 32% more than workers on traditional construction projects, averaging nearly $82,000 annually according to recent hiring platform data.

This is where the mainstream economic narrative completely failed. Governments assumed everything would become a digital service economy where everyone sat behind screens while production moved overseas. But once globalization fractured under sanctions, trade wars, and geopolitical instability, countries realized they could no longer rely entirely on foreign supply chains. Capital is now flowing back into domestic manufacturing, energy infrastructure, and industrial rebuilding.

The irony is that many skilled trades now pay better than white-collar office jobs requiring massive student debt. Experienced welders, industrial mechanics, elevator technicians, and plumbers are increasingly earning six-figure incomes while many university graduates struggle under student loans and face growing AI displacement risks in administrative office work.

Even major technology leaders are openly acknowledging this shift. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently stated that the AI boom will create enormous demand for electricians, plumbers, steel workers, network technicians, and construction workers because AI infrastructure requires “the largest infrastructure buildout in human history.”

Meanwhile, many white-collar entry-level jobs are becoming increasingly vulnerable to automation. Artificial intelligence may replace administrative work, but it cannot physically labor. Civilization itself still depends on physical infrastructure functioning properly. Past generations flocked to the classroom, wound up with debt, and now youth unemployment is through the roof. The economy needs blue-collar workers immediately. The labor shortage has become so severe that companies are now directly recruiting high school graduates into apprenticeship programs. Apprenticeship enrollment has risen sharply across many states after years of decline as younger workers begin realizing the trades may offer greater financial security than traditional university paths. Trump even came out and said that his administration would begin funding such programs to fill the gap.

The younger generation is starting to recognize this opportunity. A degree no longer equates to a solid financial future. Economic security may no longer come from chasing unstable corporate office jobs, but from acquiring practical skills tied directly to infrastructure, manufacturing, transportation, and energy. Those sectors cannot disappear because modern civilization depends entirely on them operating properly. I’ve noted the value of apprenticeships. Real-world experience is far more valuable than what one could learn in academia. Traders on the ground level know far more about the markets than someone who’s never had money on the line. It is something that absolutely cannot be taught in a classroom.

What we are witnessing may ultimately become one of the defining labor shifts of this decade. Capital is moving back toward tangible production. People capable of physically building and maintaining society are indispensable.

Europe is now openly discussing restricting Microsoft, Amazon, and Google from handling some of its most sensitive government data, including financial records, judicial files, and healthcare information, and this marks a major turning point in the relationship between Europe and the American technology sector.

According to reports surrounding the European Commission’s upcoming “Tech Sovereignty Package,” Brussels is preparing measures that could limit how foreign cloud providers manage sensitive public-sector workloads, specifically targeting the dominant American firms that currently control most of Europe’s digital infrastructure.

This is Europe effectively admitting that it no longer trusts the United States to control the infrastructure storing its most critical national data. There are other private corporations handling public data in Europe; privacy is NOT the concern.

For years, European governments handed enormous portions of their digital systems to American corporations because the infrastructure was cheaper, faster, and more advanced than anything Europe could build itself. Health systems, court records, tax systems, financial databases, government communications, and institutional records all migrated onto cloud systems controlled primarily by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

The core issue revolves around the U.S. CLOUD Act, passed in 2018, which allows American authorities to compel U.S.-based companies to provide access to data regardless of whether that information is physically stored overseas. In practical terms, this means European government data sitting in a Frankfurt or Paris data center operated by an American corporation may still fall under U.S. legal jurisdiction.

That completely destroys the illusion of sovereignty. Europe spent years lecturing the world about privacy protections through GDPR while simultaneously outsourcing enormous portions of its digital infrastructure to foreign corporations operating under foreign legal systems. The contradiction was always unsustainable. Now the geopolitical environment is deteriorating and suddenly “digital sovereignty” has become an emergency priority.

American firms dominate roughly 70% of Europe’s cloud infrastructure market because Europe has failed to build competitive alternatives, focusing on regulation rather than innovation.  Now they are attempting to reverse that dependency through policy. People still think globalization is expanding when, in reality, we are watching the beginning of technological nationalism.

Whoever controls the data controls intelligence, financial systems, communications, and eventually political leverage itself. That is why governments are suddenly panicking about cloud dependence. Data is POWER, perhaps more so than gold or oil. Government knows this fact and is keen to work with Big Tech to upsurp as much data as they can.

American firms are already scrambling to adapt by creating “European sovereign cloud” structures physically and legally separated from U.S. operations. Amazon alone announced more than €7.8 billion in investment into a European sovereign cloud system based in Germany. But many European officials no longer believe structural separation is enough because the parent corporations remain American entities subject to American law.

The world economy is fragmenting into competing blocs where trust disappears and every nation attempts to secure control over capital, resources, manufacturing, and now digital infrastructure.

The British consumer is beginning to crack under the pressure of rising costs, war fears, and collapsing confidence. New data from Barclays, which processes nearly 40% of all UK credit and debit card transactions, shows household spending fell 0.1% in April compared with a year earlier. That may sound small on the surface, but this was the first annual decline since November 2024 and the sharpest pullback in roughly 16–18 months.

What matters is where the declines are appearing. Travel spending collapsed 5.7%, airline spending plunged 8.3%, and retail sales dropped 3% year over year. Consumers are not cutting essentials first. They are cutting discretionary spending because they are preparing for harder times ahead.

The Iran war is playing a major role here because energy prices are once again feeding directly into household costs. Fuel spending in the UK surged 10.4% annually as oil prices climbed sharply amid fears surrounding the Strait of Hormuz and broader Middle East instability. The Bank of England has already warned that energy bills could rise another 16% by year-end while food prices may climb 7%.

This is exactly what I have warned about regarding war cycles and inflation. Wars are inherently inflationary because they disrupt energy flows, transportation, supply chains, and confidence simultaneously. Europe is especially vulnerable because it deliberately weakened its own energy security through Net Zero policies and dependence on external supply.

Barclays found that 72% of consumers believe the Iran conflict will worsen their cost of living, while nearly half say they feel pessimistic about non-essential spending. Once consumers begin building “savings buffers” instead of spending freely, economic momentum slows quickly. Meanwhile, the financial side of Britain’s economy is also deteriorating. UK government borrowing costs have surged to their highest levels since 1998, with 30-year gilt yields briefly approaching 5.8%. The pound has weakened while markets increasingly fear both inflation and political instability surrounding Keir Starmer’s government.

Consumers are cutting spending. Government borrowing costs are exploding higher. Energy prices are rising due to war. Businesses are facing higher labor and financing costs. Britain is particularly vulnerable because the economy has become heavily dependent on consumption and financial services, while productive industry has steadily declined. When consumers retreat, the broader economy weakens very quickly because there is no strong manufacturing base underneath to offset the slowdown.

Government continues pretending this is temporary volatility while simultaneously pursuing policies that increase structural costs. Wrong. Energy remains the foundation of the economy, yet Europe continues pushing policies that restrict cheap and reliable supply. Then when war erupts and oil prices surge, politicians act shocked that inflation returns immediately.

Consumers understand the situation far better than policymakers do. People know instinctively when conditions are deteriorating, which is why spending patterns change long before official recession declarations appear.

Array September 2025

QUESTION: Marty, I confess, I have no idea how your computer projects these events so far ahead. At the WEC you were warning about May 2026. There was a Directional Change in China for May and a Panic Cycle in August. Even the stock market you said a high in Jan/Feb, a March correction, but no crash. I can see that correlating the entire world is the only way to look ahead.

What is baffling, is that Trump meets in Beijing but brings his tech boys and this seems to be ignoring the elephant in the room, Taiwan and Iran. According to what I read, Xi warned trump we are headed into war, which is exactly what you said. The neocons keep you at a distance and believe that they will always win. They do not want your forecasts because they project that they are losers.

My question is why do you think the computer can project such things like May events a year in advance? Is this going to heat up after this trip?

Doug

ANSWER: I have come to the conclusion that there are simply economic pressures within the system. Politicians do not act randomly for no reason out of thin air. The economic pressures cause them to respond and looking at history, that response is always similar when confronted with the similar events. The war cycle kicked in for 2026 and we had a Panic Cycle so this is not over just yet.

I was told directly from sources in DC that I was correct, we would not be at war with Russia, it will be China. At this meeting, Xi has made it very clear that Taiwan is a key issue that can lead to direct war between China and the USA. That was set in motion by the Biden Administration and Nancy Pelosi flying to Taiwan to tell them to resist. As long as we had the One China Policy, there was no need for an invasion. The Biden Administration and Nancy Pelosi slapped Xi in the face. Then you need to step in because it is a loss of face. Pelosi said in a statement.

 “Our congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom.”

I do not know if any of my warnings have been taken seriously. Rubio has said he does not seek and change in the current status. But Xi is concerned about selling arm to Taiwan.

When dealing in such negotiations, you MUST put on the glasses of your opponent and see the issue from their side of things, NOT just yours if you hope to achieve any sort of a deal.

The closest point between the island of Taiwan and mainland China is approximately 80 miles (130 kilometers) across the Taiwan Strait, from the coast of Fujian Province to Taiwan’s northwestern shore. The closest point between Cuba and the United States is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Key West, Florida, to the northern coast of Cuba. There was no way the US would allow Russia to set up nukes in Cuba.

This is what Xi is concerned about. Taiwan intends to station HIMARS launchers on Penghu and Dongyin, shifting from a defensive to an offensive deterrence posture. The deployment puts Chinese coastal bases, ports, and airfields within rapid strike range, potentially delaying or deterring invasion plans. The move follows major U.S. arms sales, rising PLA activity, and Taiwan’s calls for stable U.S. support ahead of the Trump–Xi summit.

Here is a lit of weapons the United States has sold or approved a very broad range of weapons and military equipment to Taiwan over the years, especially since 2019. Major categories include:

F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets (including 66 new F-16V variants approved in 2019)
Air Defense Systems

NASAMS medium-range air defense systems
Stinger missile MANPADS
Patriot missile system support and upgrades
Hawk and Chaparral SAM systems historically

Anti-Ship & Coastal Defense

Harpoon missile coastal defense missiles
Harpoon repair and sustainment packages

Long-Range Strike Weapons

ATACMS ballistic missiles
Guided MLRS rockets (GMLRS) for HIMARS launchers

Anti-Tank Weapons

FGM-148 Javelin missiles
BGM-71 TOW missile systems

Artillery & Ground Systems

M109A7 Paladin self-propelled artillery
Ammunition carriers and recovery vehicles
Precision-guided artillery kits

Drones & ISR

MQ-9 Reaper drones
ALTIUS-600 and ALTIUS-700 loitering munitions/drone systems

Tactical mission networking and ISR software

Helicopters & Naval Systems
AH-1W Cobra helicopter parts/support

Earlier sales included frigates, torpedoes, and naval radar systems

Missile & Aircraft Munitions
AGM-88 HARM missiles
AIM air-to-air missiles for F-16s
Maverick air-to-ground missiles historically

The overall trend has shifted toward what the Pentagon calls “asymmetric warfare” — mobile missiles, drones, air defense, and dispersed strike systems intended to make a Chinese amphibious invasion far more costly. This is what Xi has made a pointed address.  The Question becomes if the economy is turning down into 2028, who has the incentive for confrontation as a political distraction? That tends to be Taiwan, which is taking the form of moving to an offense posture rather than defensive.

When we looked at this back in 2023, it appears that this would heat up between 2026 and 2027. The Panic Cycle the computer forecast for 2025 indeed picked a major shift politically. The major change in 2025 was the move away from a traditional, centralized command structure. The new “decentralized warfare” strategy empowers individual military units to act autonomously in a crisis as we have see in Iran. I believe that Taiwan adopted Iran’s strategy.

If communication links to central command are severed during a sudden attack, units are expected to execute combat missions without waiting for orders, ensuring operational continuity. The Ministry of National Defense (MND) framed this as building an “agile and resilient” military focused on “multi-domain denial” to deter enemy forces.

This is when Taiwan adopted a deliberate effort to bolster defenses on its east coast, which was a response to increased amphibious exercises from China. Thus, the navy has established a new coastal operations command on the east coast, which was intended to deploy mobile anti-ship missile launchers and radar units.

Taiwan also enacted domestic legal changes in 2025 aimed at protecting against external interference. The Executive Yuan approved amendments to national security laws that impose severe penalties (including long prison sentences) for organizing or financing activities on behalf of hostile forces. These legal changes are a defensive measure to counter perceived “foreign hostile infiltration.”

I do not believe that Taiwan developed or deployed offensive weapons systems like ballistic missiles for striking mainland China. Therefore, I believe Taiwan looked at Iran and adopted a military restructured layered system (decentralization). Thus, the Panic Cycle of 2025 saw a tactical evolution in how Taiwan defends itself—moving to decentralized control like Iran and strengthening coastal defenses. They did not adopt an offensive posture to invade China or something stupid like that.

Taiwan is also buying more advanced weapons, extending military service, developing systems like the “T-Dome” missile shield, and training for asymmetric warfare against a possible invasion.  From Beijing’s perspective, Taiwan under President Lai Ching-te has taken a more confrontational role.  Taiwan is becoming less accommodating politically toward Beijing. Our computer warns that Taiwan may be reaching a major high in the share market and economy. Hold on. It looks like next week is a critical target.

The Canadian government is trying to sell the public a fairy tale about patriotism, NATO, and defending democracy, but the recruitment surge inside the military has far more to do with economic decay than national pride. Whenever governments cannot provide economic opportunity, they suddenly rediscover the virtues of military service. This has happened throughout history because when civilian economies begin breaking down, the military becomes one of the last remaining employers offering stability, housing, benefits, and a paycheck that arrives on time.

Canada’s Armed Forces just recorded their strongest recruitment numbers in more than 30 years. Over 7,300 Regular Force members enrolled during fiscal year 2025–2026, surpassing official targets while applications reportedly exploded from roughly 21,700 to more than 40,000. The politicians immediately rushed out claiming young Canadians were responding to threats from Russia, China, Trump, or global instability.

Youth unemployment in Canada has climbed toward 14% to 14.6%, levels not seen consistently since the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse outside the pandemic distortions. Full-time employment has been deteriorating while temporary and part-time work increasingly dominate the economy. Canada lost more than 111,000 full-time jobs during just the first four months of 2026. Entire generations are now graduating into an economy where the old social contract no longer exists.

Young Canadians cannot afford homes. Many cannot even afford rent without multiple roommates despite holding degrees that were sold to them as tickets into the middle class. In Toronto and Vancouver, housing prices have become completely detached from reality. The average young worker understands they may never own property under the current system no matter how hard they work. Meanwhile, food costs rise, debt burdens climb, taxes increase, and wages fail to keep pace with the actual cost of living.

Then the government acts confused when military recruitment suddenly surges. This pattern is as old as history itself. Recruitment rises when economic opportunity collapses. Government never admit this publicly because it destroys the heroic propaganda surrounding enlistment. During economic booms, militaries struggle to recruit because young people have alternatives. During periods of economic stress, enlistment rises because the military offers something increasingly rare in the modern economy: predictability.

The military now offers stable income, subsidized education, housing assistance, healthcare, pensions, and long-term career structure. For many younger Canadians, that has become more attractive than trying to survive inside an economy increasingly dominated by contract work, inflated housing, and financial insecurity.

Ottawa continues flooding the country with immigration to artificially maintain labor force growth because domestic demographic trends have collapsed. The government itself has admitted immigration now accounts for nearly all labor force expansion. That places enormous downward pressure on younger workers already struggling to compete for jobs, housing, and wages in oversaturated urban markets.

The establishment refuses to discuss this honestly because the entire economic model has become dependent on population growth masking structural weakness. Canada’s GDP numbers may look respectable on paper, but GDP per capita growth has stagnated while living standards deteriorate for large parts of the younger population. That distinction matters enormously because governments manipulate aggregate statistics to conceal declining individual prosperity.

Politicians created one of the least affordable housing markets in the developed world while simultaneously producing a labor market where stable employment is disappearing. Then they celebrate military enlistment as if it were some spontaneous wave of patriotism instead of a warning sign that civilian economic opportunity is deteriorating.

When younger generations lose faith that hard work will produce home ownership, financial security, or upward mobility, societies begin changing structurally. Family formation declines. Birth rates collapse. Private debt rises. Institutions like the military then become economic escape valves for populations that increasingly see fewer alternatives.

The Canadian government wants the public to believe this recruitment surge reflects patriotism. The truth? Large numbers of young Canadians are turning toward the military because the civilian economy is no longer providing the stability that previous generations once took for granted.