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.

How desperate must a government become before it considers taxing pornography to purchase drones for a war it cannot win? Ukraine is now reportedly considering legalizing parts of its adult entertainment industry to generate additional tax revenue for the war against Russia. Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak estimates legalization could bring around $25 million annually into the government’s coffers, enough, he claims, to purchase up to 30,000 drones. The legislation has already passed its first reading in parliament and awaits further consideration. Zelensky has agreed that parliament should consider the proposal after a petition supporting reform attracted more than 25,000 signatures.

You cannot make this stuff up. Ukraine requires around $120 billion annually for defense, according to reporting on the proposal, and the government is scrambling everywhere it can for money. Its budget deficit exceeds $32 billion as Kyiv simultaneously negotiates with the IMF over additional financial assistance and new taxes. Europe and the United States have poured hundreds of billions into keeping this war machine operating, yet five years into the conflict Kyiv remains financially dependent upon outsiders.

The situation is even more outrageous because the government created this absurdity itself. Producing and distributing pornography remains illegal in Ukraine and can carry years in prison, yet tax authorities began demanding money from Ukrainians earning income through adult platforms. Pay the taxes and you effectively provide the government with evidence that you participated in an activity it criminalized. Refuse to pay and they can prosecute you for tax evasion. Zhelezniak himself described it as a “tragicomic situation.”

You cannot legislate human nature out of existence. Prostitution has survived emperors, kings, dictators, democracies, communism, religious prohibitions, and every law politicians have invented. The Romans tried regulating how prostitutes could be paid and people simply devised ways around the restrictions. Make an activity illegal and government frequently creates an underground market with multiple exploiters.

That is government in its purest form. First it declares something immoral and sends the police after you. Then it discovers you are making money, demands its percentage, and eventually considers changing the law because it desperately needs the revenue. Ukraine has simply added the insanity of war to the equation.

There is only desperation in reaching the point where politicians are calculating how many battlefield drones can be purchased from taxes on sex work. Every additional scheme to extract another dollar, euro, or hryvnia demonstrates the same underlying reality: this war has consumed Ukraine economically, financially, demographically, and socially. At some point, someone has to admit that destroying what remains of the country to finance an unwinnable war is not defending Ukraine.

Germany’s industrial empire is dying before our eyes. Volkswagen’s Osnabrück auto plant may be converted into a defense-production hub, with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems serving as the anchor partner. A factory that once manufactured vehicles for the civilian economy may soon produce components for air-defense systems as Germany abandons commercial prosperity for a war economy.

The Osnabrück plant employs roughly 1,800 people. The proposed arrangement involving Aurelius Capital and the state of Lower Saxony may preserve approximately 1,400 jobs, but the plans have not yet been finalized. The politicians will celebrate this as a victory because they measure success by whether a worker remains attached to a payroll. They ignore the far more ominous transformation taking place. Germany can no longer compete effectively in the auto market, so it will borrow money to manufacture weapons for wars its people never demanded.

Volkswagen possesses enough excess capacity in Europe to produce approximately 500,000 more vehicles annually than it can sell. The company has approved another 50,000 job reductions, on top of roughly 50,000 already underway, bringing total planned cuts to around 100,000. That is nearly 15% of its global workforce of approximately 650,000 people. VW also intends to cut its model lineup in half and is considering alternatives for four German factories as production programs expire.

The Osnabrück conversion is therefore not some isolated modernization project. It is a potential blueprint for recycling the remains of Germany’s automobile industry into the machinery of war. Volkswagen is shrinking because demand is weak, costs are excessive, and Chinese manufacturers are taking market share. Berlin will now redirect idle factories and skilled workers toward defense because military demand can be manufactured politically and financed without regard to profit.

VW’s after-tax earnings reportedly fell 30% during the first half of 2026. First-quarter net profit declined 28% to €1.56 billion, while revenue slipped 2% to €75.7 billion. Sales in China dropped around 20% during the first quarter as companies such as BYD continued taking market share from the German manufacturers that once dominated the Chinese market.

Germany surrendered that advantage through arrogance and political interference. The country built its postwar prosperity upon affordable energy, engineering, chemicals, machinery, automobiles, and exports. Berlin destroyed access to dependable Russian energy, closed its nuclear plants, imposed Net Zero costs, and allowed Brussels to suffocate industry beneath environmental regulations. The same politicians then expressed shock when production moved abroad and German goods became uncompetitive.

The numbers show a structural decline that can no longer be concealed. Energy-intensive industrial production fell 15.2% between February 2022 and March 2026. Total industrial output declined 9.5% over the same period. German industrial production in July 2026 fell another 1.1% from June and stood 1.6% below the level recorded one year earlier. Automotive production collapsed 9.2% in a single month, while capital-goods production declined 3.4%.

Germany suffered two consecutive years of recession, with GDP contracting in 2023 and 2024. The economy managed growth of only 0.2% in 2025, supported partly by household consumption and government spending rather than a genuine industrial revival. Germany may post stronger numbers in 2026, but even that recovery is increasingly dependent upon massive government expenditure.

The private economy is being replaced by the state. Berlin plans to spend approximately €649 billion on defense over five years. Military expenditure is expected to rise toward 3.5% of GDP for core defense, while the government has also established a €500 billion infrastructure fund and relaxed constitutional borrowing restraints. Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil now argues that Germany cannot defend itself without new debt. The government is preparing to borrow hundreds of billions because its productive base can no longer finance the ambitions of its political class.

They will count this military spending as economic growth. A missile manufactured at Osnabrück will increase GDP just as a vehicle once did, but the accounting disguises the economic difference. A car transports a worker, supports commerce, and provides years of civilian use. A missile consumes steel, electronics, chemicals, energy, and labor before being fired and destroyed. It creates no continuing stream of productivity. The taxpayer finances the weapon, pays interest on the debt, and receives nothing capable of repaying the obligation.

Germany was once feared because it could outproduce its competitors. Its automobiles, machinery, chemicals, and engineering were demanded throughout the world. That power came from productivity, not speeches in Brussels or military appropriations in Berlin. Today, Chinese electric vehicles can compete at price points European manufacturers cannot approach, German chemical plants face crushing energy costs, and the country’s largest automaker has half a million vehicles of unused capacity.

Volkswagen itself demonstrates the failure of Germany’s forced electric transition. Berlin and Brussels attempted to dictate the future of transportation through emissions rules and deadlines rather than consumer demand and technological competition. German manufacturers were compelled to invest enormous sums into electric vehicles while China controlled crucial supply chains, refined key materials, and built cheaper cars. Germany provided the regulations while China developed the industrial advantage.

Now the same government will direct capital into defense. It will promise guaranteed orders, subsidize facilities, relax debt restrictions, and call the conversion a strategic success. Yet shifting workers from unwanted cars to taxpayer-funded weapons does not repair the underlying economy. It merely conceals the decay beneath military spending.

The decline in civilian industry and the rise of defense production are not separate developments. They are the same event. Germany can no longer generate sufficient growth through the sectors that once made it prosperous, so the state is becoming the buyer of last resort. The government borrows, places the order, counts the expenditure as GDP, and hands the debt to the public.

Germany is not rebuilding its economic empire. It is stripping the machinery from its factories, borrowing against future generations, and preparing the production lines for war.

Malaysia is another country where people are beginning to see economic growth taking place around them rather than hearing politicians tell them that prosperity exists somewhere inside a government statistic. The economy expanded 6.0% year-over-year during the second quarter of 2026, accelerating from 5.4% in the first quarter. Growth for the entire first half reached 5.7%, compared with 4.5% during the same period last year. That is an impressive rate for an economy that has already moved well beyond the earliest stages of development.

The composition is even more important than the headline number. Manufacturing expanded 7.3% in the second quarter, accelerating from 5.9% during the first three months of the year. Electrical, electronic, and optical production surged 14.4%. Information and communications grew 8.3%, transportation and storage increased 7%, construction expanded 6.5%, and mining and quarrying jumped 9.2%. Malaysia is not growing because government bureaucrats moved money from one pocket to another. Production, technology, construction, logistics, and investment are all participating.

This is exactly the type of economy I have described when explaining why some countries are growing while others are collapsing in real time. Malaysia spent decades positioning itself inside the Asian electronics supply chain. Penang became one of the most important semiconductor manufacturing centers outside Taiwan and South Korea. Now the artificial intelligence boom is pushing another wave of investment toward the country as corporations seek semiconductors, cloud infrastructure, data centers, power capacity, and advanced electronics production.

Malaysia secured RM218.5 billion in approved investments during the first half of 2026, an increase of 11.7% from the previous year. These projects are expected to create more than 99,000 jobs. Foreign investment alone reached RM126.9 billion, rising 18.5%, with the United States, Singapore, Japan, and China among the largest sources. Domestic manufacturing investment also increased 23%. Capital is coming from both East and West because businesses care about returns far more than political rhetoric.

The data center story is particularly important. Malaysia has emerged as one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing data-center markets as global technology companies look for alternatives and complements to Singapore. Land and electricity are cheaper, the semiconductor ecosystem already exists, and Malaysia sits beside one of the world’s most important trading routes. Johor has become an extension of Singapore’s digital economy, while Penang remains deeply integrated into global electronics production.

This is how capital flows actually work. Singapore becomes expensive because capital pours into Singapore, so some productive investment migrates across the border into Malaysia. China becomes a geopolitical concern for American and European companies, so manufacturing capacity is expanded elsewhere in Asia. The corporation does not care about ideological speeches from politicians. It asks where the infrastructure exists, where electricity remains available, where skilled labor can be found, and where the investment can produce a return.

Bank Negara Malaysia reported that gross fixed capital formation grew 9.6% in 2025, while private investment increased 9.4%. Investment in information and communications technology was heavily concentrated in data centers and cloud services. Data-center investment alone accounted for roughly half of Malaysia’s net foreign direct investment inflows. That is not some theoretical promise of future development. Buildings are being constructed, machinery is being imported, electrical capacity is being expanded, and workers are being hired.

Contrast this with Europe, where governments have deliberately made energy expensive and then express surprise when energy-intensive industries leave. Brussels taxes production, regulates technology, restricts energy, and then produces another subsidy when businesses begin collapsing. Malaysia is attracting the very capital Europe claims it desperately wants.

Malaysia obviously faces risks. It remains deeply exposed to global trade, electronics demand, and the semiconductor cycle. Agriculture contracted during the second quarter, and higher energy prices remain a threat. Rapid construction of data centers also places enormous demands on electricity and water infrastructure. Government intervention can easily become excessive if politicians begin believing they created the boom.

Nevertheless, Malaysia is benefiting from one of the most significant reorganizations of global production since the rise of China. India is expanding. Vietnam is building factories. Indonesia is developing its enormous domestic economy and processing its own natural resources. Singapore is attracting wealth. Malaysia is capturing semiconductor, electronics, AI, and data-center investment.

Malaysia is becoming one of those destinations, and the people living there can see the transformation taking place around them in real time.

QUESTION: Why do you appear on Russian TV in Moscow?

DF

ANSWER: First of all, it is the Neocons who always wants to prevent any dialogue because that might lead to peace. I go on RT and they do not censor me, it is always LIVE. Moreover, I find it imperative to understand their viewpoint which comes across by their questions. As long as I am free to say what the computer is projecting, then I have no problem.I find ironically more censorhip in the West.

When I was called in and asked to write the peace plan and to use my back channels to get it to Putin, they concluded the meeting and said:

“You know what we are asking you to do is what they killed Kennedy for.”

I was even shown the KGB file that Russia turned over on their investigation of the Kennedy Assassination. You cannot understand your opponent unless you get into their head. If people do not like that, go get a gun and volunteer for the Front Line in Ukraine. Put you mouth where your life is instead of cheering war and sending someone else’s children to fight while you watch it on CNN like a video game.

We have a crisis in refined energy products far more than crude oil. Nobody seems to wake up to that issue until it smacks them in the face. As far as the elections, it has nothing to do with my personal opinion. I do not see either party being able to prevent what our computer is forecasting. So, my comments are not political advocating either side.

Zelensky attacking the refineries in Russia is insane. He was behind blowing up the pipeline to Germany. He has no regard for what it would do to Germany or the EU. It  has destroyed the Germany economy and undermined the entire EU, yet all he cared about was cutting off Russian sales of energy. Here he has done it again attacking their refineries and in the process he is not just sending fuel prices up, he is creating a very serious crisis in refined products that will bring down the entire world economy into 2028. Washington does NOT listen to our computer or they would have done something about it. So we have a Panic Cycle in Gasoline for 2027. This is where Socrates becomes so important because it is not simply someone’s opinion.

PRIVATE BLOG – Britain Calls Up Troops for War & False Flag?

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

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COMMENT: Marty, no award could cover what you have accomplished. The forecast that AfD would win was outstanding and as impressive as your forecast back on Poland. I am still amazed at how your computer forecasts war years in advance, politics, and major market movements. What you have discovered is like the legendary Philosopher’s Stone. The euro and Dax all had turning points right of schedule.

Just amazing.

Friedrich

REPLY: The success of Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) in state elections is a warning sign to the madman of Ukraine, that the tide is turning against him. The AfD is now state’s largest party but short of a majority.

Nevertheless, the Neocon Western Press that keeps pushing the false narative that Russia invaded Ukraine “UNPROVOKED” simply want war and to picture as many dead bodies in the headlines as was the case was the famous case of Pulitzer vs Hearst affair who manufactured the Spanish American War for profit.

Quite frankly, I do not know how these people can even look themselves in the morror. The press has become the cheerleaders of endless wars and dip their pens in blood to write the next line. They are spinning this as a win for Putin for they fear there may not be any blood that they can write about. They are reporting that there is “unbridled delight in Moscow” with the success of the AfD over the weekend.

The press only supports the Neocons – not the people.  They will constantly bash the AfD and do their best to derail them and slander everything they do. They will use their position to disrupt the politics of Germany and Europe pushing their narative at all times. I remember Margaret Thatcher once told me that if she walked across the Thames River, the press would report it was only because she did not know how to swim.

The Western Warmonger Press ignores the fact that the German youth see no benefit in war with Russia for Ukraine, which is by far the most corrupt country on the planet, which has been consistently documented over the years, not to mention the latest missing €70 million missing from Estonia. Then there was the revelation that Zelensky was sending $50 million Per Month to UAE preparing for the day he has to flee. Then they invested $1.5 billion creating a ski resort from war money?

Ukraine remains the most corrupt government in the world, and they are selling the Ukrainian people for personal wealth and greed with ZERO remorse for their nation or their people. Ukrainian politicians topped all other countries for corruption. Even in the Pandora Papers, 38 Ukrainian politicians have hides cash offshore – the largest number of corrupt politicians in any other country.  Zelensky’s office tried to justify his use of offshore companies for himself as protecting him against pro-Russian forces, following leaked revelations of pervasive corruption. Even Foreign Policy Magazine has reported that the clock is running out on Zelensky.

Merz has been absolutely braindead putting Germany in the crosshairs of Russia and for what? To keep the EU from collapsing? Let’s be honest here, a country that is supplying weapons to a nation at war during both World Wars I and II made the supplier a target, or at least brought it significantly closer to direct conflict.
During World War II, the US claimed neutrality but it began providing massive military aid to the Allies through the Lend-Lease Act of March 1941, effectively becoming the “arsenal of democracy.”

Though the US wasn’t an official combatant, this policy had significant consequences. This policy supported Britain and the Soviet Union becoming a major factor in Hitler’s decision to declare war on the United States on December 11, 1941. Hitler saw this aid as a direct threat to Germany’s war effort and believed that by declaring war, he could disrupt this supply line. This time, Germany is the supplier to Ukraine and has not been neutral in real terms.

Sweden’s most critical contribution was providing Germany with large quantities of iron ore, essential for its war industry. In return, Germany agreed to respect Sweden’s neutrality, provided this supply continued. Sweden also permitted German troops and military supplies to transit its territory. In total, over 2.14 million German soldiers and 100,000 railcars of military supplies were transported through Sweden to the front lines, particularly during the invasion of the Soviet Union.

Germany has closed the Russian consulate in Bonn and the Russian House cultural center in Berlin in response to an alleged attempted drone attack attributed to Russia. This action has led to Russia retaliating by closing the German consulate in St. Petersburg and all Goethe-Institut branches in the country. Germany’s closure of the Russian consulate is part of escalating tensions between the two nations. Merz takes his orders from the warmongering Neocons in control of NATO.

Europe is changing all because the leaders of the pack in Europe have been more interested in trying to preserve the European Experiment in Brussels than the people they pretend to represent when in fact they are simply moving to reestablish the Mideval Serfdom where they become the landlord promising safety from evil Russia building their castle walls and moving to total economic subjugation even pressing with CBDCs to eliminate cash.

In Spain, the law requires banks to report cash withdrawals exceeding €3,000 to the authorities for tax control purposes. They want to know what your are doing with cash. The potential fines are up to €150,000 for failing to report individuals or financial institutions withdrawing their own money. Obviously, they do not trust their own citizens.

Europe is indeed shifting to the right because Brussel has ignored their culture and flooded Europe with Muslims from some of the most anti-Christian states. This has led to some areas even in Sweden posting signs that Shira Law applies there, ignoring the culture of European countries. These people did not come to assimilate. They brought their culture with them. This has been the #1 reason that the people of Europe are turning to the right against massive immigration. We are seeing this in Austria, France, and Germany.

Austria ??: The right-wing Freedom Party is leading at almost 40%
France ??: Marine Le Pen leading the polls to be President
Germany ??: Polls show AfD consistently the largest party.
Norway ??: The right-wing/Libertarian party leading massively at 33.4%

As we head into 2032, this is the most intense part of the wave. The EU is tearing Europe apart at the seams all for its own centralized power. All we can hope for is that the EU breaks up ASAP. But I suspect that they will stage a false flag to desperately create war with Russia ASAP. Beware of October. That is the ONLY way the EU itself can survive or the individual states will break apart because of their authoritarian policies that made less sense than the WOKE Agenda.

In the US, the Progressives will win the House and try to push their insane agenda. That is what is needed for 2028 where we may see the Democratic Party split and the people rise up against this progressive movement.

No matter how many times people throughout history try this same Marxist agenda that constantly fails, they will keep trying no mater what. Mandami has fulfilled our computer model right on target. JP Morgan now has more people in Texas than NYC. Goldman Sachs has ordered many of its top people move to texas or resign. The New Texas Exchange will surpass NYC. Mandami has set in motion the decline & fall of NYC as even the financial capital of the United States. I will write on that subject for the model points to 2029 when NYC will completely lose its status.

Even James Carville has declared he is no longer a Democrat. The Progressives need to impose their agenda and once and for all the people will see what communism really was all about. EQUITY was achieved not by raised the lower class, but by eliminating the upper class. There went investment, IPOs, venture capital etc. This will be how the political system self-destructs. The Apple is consumed and not even its seeds will survive.

When the Democrats take the House, they will be waging war on Trump. They will impeach him again and probably going after even members of his family, probably Kushner, even for criminal allegations. Trump may retaliate and go after Obama. The next two years is going to be politically crazy. Hence, 2027 will start the volatility like we have not seen before.

The American people are not merely dissatisfied with Washington. They have concluded that the government itself is corrupt. A new Gallup poll found that 89% of American adults believe corruption is widespread throughout the government, the highest reading in the 20-year history of the survey. This is no longer a fringe position dismissed as a conspiracy theory. Nearly nine out of every ten Americans now look at their government and see an institution serving someone other than the people.

The 89% reading rose by an astonishing 10 percentage points in a single year. Perceptions of widespread government corruption had remained between 72% and 79% from 2010 through 2025. The public was already deeply cynical, but something has clearly broken. When almost the entire population believes its government is corrupt, the political system has lost more than popularity. It has lost legitimacy.

Gallup found that 91% of Democrats, 90% of independents, and 83% of Republicans believe government corruption is widespread. Americans cannot agree on immigration, taxation, abortion, foreign policy, health care, or the definition of a woman, yet they have reached near-unanimous agreement that the people running the government cannot be trusted.

The partisan movement reveals how voters process corruption. In Joe Biden’s final year in office, only 57% of Democrats said corruption was widespread. That figure rose to 76% during the first year of Donald Trump’s second term and reached 91% in 2026. Democratic concern exploded by 34 percentage points once the opposing party controlled the White House. Republicans have been more consistent, with approximately eight in ten describing corruption as widespread during the past two years, compared with 87% in 2024.

Both parties recognize corruption most clearly when the other side controls the government. Democrats ignored abuses under Biden and suddenly discovered systemic corruption under Trump. Republicans condemned the Deep State under Biden but became more willing to defend Washington when their party returned to power. This is precisely how the two-party system protects itself. Each side treats corruption as a partisan weapon rather than an institutional disease.

America now has the highest perceived level of government corruption among the 38 nations belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The median across those advanced economies was 59% in 2025, down from 69% in 2009. The United States stood at 79% last year, already 20 percentage points above the OECD median and higher than every other member country. The new American reading of 89% may widen that gap dramatically once complete international figures become available.

Since 2023, Gallup has asked the question in 132 countries, and only four recorded readings nominally above America’s current 89%: Lebanon at 92% in 2024, Peru at 92% in 2025, and Ghana and Nigeria at 90% in 2024. The self-proclaimed guardian of global democracy is now viewed by its own citizens as nearly as corrupt as governments struggling with chronic instability and institutional failure.

Corruption in the United States rarely resembles a politician accepting a suitcase filled with cash. Washington legalized much of its corruption and gave it respectable names such as lobbying, campaign contributions, consulting, public-private partnerships, speaking fees, book deals, foundations, and regulatory cooperation. The transaction is hidden beneath lawyers, nonprofit organizations, political action committees, government contracts, and a revolving door between regulatory agencies and the industries they supposedly regulate.

If a businessman hands a government official cash to obtain favorable treatment, everyone recognizes the bribe. If a corporation contributes millions of dollars to political organizations, hires former regulators, funds policy institutes, and helps write legislation benefiting its industry, Washington calls it participation in democracy. The outcome is often the same, but the paperwork makes it legal.

Members of Congress have access to information capable of moving markets while debating whether they should be permitted to trade individual stocks. Defense contractors finance politicians who approve military spending. Pharmaceutical companies influence agencies that approve and purchase their products. Banks help design regulations governing banks. Technology companies cooperate with government agencies while lobbying against restrictions on their power. Foreign governments and their representatives spend fortunes attempting to purchase influence over American policy.

This is why the public distinguishes between government and business. Gallup found that 71% of Americans believe corruption is widespread in business, an increase of eight points from last year. That is certainly high, but it remains 18 percentage points below the government figure, the largest gap recorded in the American survey. Between 2006 and 2025, perceptions of government corruption averaged 11 points above business corruption. Americans increasingly believe government has become the greater problem.

A private company must generally persuade someone to purchase its product. Government does not require consent. It taxes, regulates, fines, licenses, prosecutes, surveils, borrows, and spends through force of law. Corruption in business can destroy a company, but corruption in government can destroy the rule of law because the people benefiting from the abuse also control the institutions responsible for investigating it.

The national debt is another monument to this system. Washington spends trillions of dollars it does not possess, directs the money toward politically protected interests, and transfers the obligation to taxpayers who had no meaningful influence over the decision. Politicians purchase votes today with borrowed money and leave future generations with the interest bill. Both parties complain about debt while in opposition and expand it when in power because neither side is willing to dismantle the patronage network supporting Washington.

Americans have watched trillions disappear into wars with no clear objective, emergency programs with little oversight, failed infrastructure promises, corporate subsidies, foreign aid, government contractors, and agencies that can never pass a serious audit. The Pentagon has repeatedly failed comprehensive financial audits, yet Congress continues approving larger military budgets. No private corporation could admit that it cannot account properly for its assets and then demand even more money without consequences.

The public also witnessed how government behaved during COVID. Officials imposed lockdowns, closed businesses, censored dissent, issued contradictory directives, and protected pharmaceutical companies while insisting that every decision followed “the science.” Small businesses were destroyed while politically connected corporations expanded. Government officials violated restrictions they imposed upon everyone else, and few faced any accountability. That period taught millions of Americans that emergency power protects the institution before it protects the citizen.

The weaponization of law has deepened the collapse in trust. Each political faction now believes the other uses prosecutors, intelligence agencies, courts, tax authorities, and regulators as political instruments. Justice is no longer perceived as blind. The public increasingly assumes that the outcome depends upon the identity, wealth, connections, and political usefulness of the accused.

This is extremely dangerous for a republic. The rule of law survives because most people voluntarily accept the legitimacy of institutions even when they dislike an individual decision. Once the population believes that laws are selectively enforced and government acts primarily for itself, obedience becomes based upon fear rather than consent.

Elections cannot repair this when the bureaucracy, debt structure, lobbying apparatus, intelligence agencies, regulatory state, and government contractors remain largely untouched regardless of which party wins. Voters change the elected management, but the permanent machinery continues operating. Every president campaigns against Washington and eventually discovers that Washington is larger than the presidency.

The bureaucracy protects itself because its survival does not depend directly upon performance. A business that continually fails eventually loses customers and capital. A government agency that fails demands a larger budget, more employees, and broader authority. Failure becomes evidence that it was not given sufficient resources. Success is defined internally, and accountability disappears into committees, reports, and investigations that rarely punish anyone with power.

Americans finally see the system for what it is. The question is no longer whether government corruption is widespread. Nine out of ten have already answered that question. The issue is how long a republic can survive after its citizens conclude that the government no longer represents them.

Argentina is perhaps the most fascinating economic experiment taking place anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. This was once among the wealthiest nations in the world. Generations of political corruption, socialism, currency destruction, defaults, subsidies, and government intervention turned that enormous potential into repeated economic crises. Javier Milei came to office attempting something politicians almost never do voluntarily: reduce the size of government instead of expanding it.

The latest numbers show that the transformation is far from complete, but Argentina is no longer moving relentlessly in one direction toward collapse. GDP expanded 2.3% year-over-year during the first quarter of 2026 and increased 0.7% from the previous quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis. Economic activity has remained uneven, but June strengthened sharply, with growth exceeding expectations and most major sectors expanding from the previous year. Argentina is beginning to show signs that an economy suffocated for decades may finally be attempting to breathe again.

Inflation remains painful at 33.8% YoY, with prices rising 2.1% during July alone.  Argentina entered the Milei era after inflation had exploded into triple digits. Inflation is still destroying purchasing power, but the government is no longer financing every political promise by endlessly expanding the deficit and then pretending money creation has no consequences. Through July, the national public sector accumulated a primary surplus of roughly 0.9% of GDP and a financial surplus near 0.1% of GDP after interest payments. July alone produced a primary surplus of nearly 3 trillion pesos and a financial surplus of about 245 billion pesos. Compare that with Washington, London, Paris, or Brussels, where politicians cannot even discuss balancing the budget without claiming civilization itself will collapse. Milei infamously stood at the podium with a chainsaw while campaigning, making good on his promise to cut down Argentina’s public sector.

Milei understood one basic fact that Keynesian economists refuse to accept. Government cannot permanently consume more than society produces. Eventually, the debt becomes the economy. Taxes rise to service the debt, borrowing costs increase, productive capital leaves, the currency weakens, and politicians respond by printing even more money. Argentina spent decades trapped inside that cycle.

Argentina and Chile recently revived their cross-border mining framework, opening the door to more than $20 billion in potential investment across major copper projects. Argentina has enormous reserves of lithium, copper, gold, silver, oil, and natural gas that were historically trapped beneath political instability and hostile investment policies. If investors begin believing contracts will be respected and capital will not simply be confiscated whenever government needs money, those resources suddenly become economically valuable.

The Vaca Muerta shale formation could prove even more important. YPF and international partners have submitted a proposed LNG project under Argentina’s new large-investment incentive regime with potential investment eventually reaching $51 billion. Argentina possesses one of the largest shale gas resources in the world, yet political incompetence forced a country sitting on enormous energy wealth to repeatedly struggle with energy shortages and foreign currency problems.

That is the insanity government creates. You can have oil and still import energy. You can have fertile farmland and still destroy agriculture with export taxes. You can possess mineral wealth and prevent anyone from developing it. Resources do not make a nation wealthy. Confidence and the rule of law determine whether anyone will risk capital developing those resources.

Private companies are beginning to notice the change as well. Chinese ride-hailing company Didi plans to invest more than $200 million in Argentina during 2026 after investing around $160 million the previous year. Uber has separately announced plans to invest hundreds of millions over several years. These may seem insignificant compared with enormous mining projects, but they demonstrate the same principle. Capital begins with small commitments, observes whether the rules remain stable, and increases exposure when confidence rises.

Argentina is still nowhere near being fixed. Unemployment remains elevated, industrial production is inconsistent, poverty remains serious, infrastructure needs enormous investment, and inflation is nowhere near acceptable. Anyone proclaiming victory already does not understand economic cycles. You cannot reverse a century of political destruction in two years. But Argentina is providing an important contrast to the direction of much of the West. Europe believes every problem requires another government program. Britain believes the solution to excessive taxation is another tax. Canada expands government while productivity deteriorates. Washington runs trillion-dollar deficits even during economic expansions.

Whether he ultimately succeeds will depend less on speeches than on whether confidence returns. If domestic capital stops fleeing, foreign investment continues rising, energy and mining projects move from announcements into actual construction, inflation continues declining, and the government maintains fiscal discipline, Argentina could enter a very different economic cycle. That is what makes Argentina so important to watch. India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore demonstrate economies rising through industrialization, demographics, manufacturing, and international capital flows. Argentina offers another possibility entirely: whether a nation that destroyed itself through government can recover by finally getting government out of the way.

COMMENT #1: North Korea bombing Kyiv
Dam your dates are good. Www3

Brent

COMMENT #2: I could not believe the comment of Alex Plitsas om Raw Story about how uninformed he is calling Putin a war criminal and ignoring everything from the Merkel using the Minsk Agreement to buy time for Ukraine to build an army as you said negotiating in bad faith. What planet is this guy on or does he read the prewritten script from the Institute for the Study of War?

Jeffrey

COMMENT #3: You are right. Trump gave up on just bombing Iran; he is now attacking their tankers. That should help oil even more.

Rick

REPLY: These attacks have come right on target to the week and even the day. I do not see any resolution for Iran or Ukraine. Iran knows it has a shot at influencing the US and Israeli elections just ahead. I doubt that they would surrender before then. This is not my opinion. I do not have that luxury. The computer projected the only possible shift in the Iranian government would come during the first quarter 2027 – not before.

With Ukraine, I couldn’t believe the question to Kushner by the Kyiv Press how could he even negotiate with Putin they claim is a war criminal. The computer shows Ukraine will not exist as a country. Perhaps that is karma. I find it really hypocritical that Ukraine complains North Korea sends missiles to be used by Russia while Zelensky pleads for missiles from everybody else. As they say, what goes around, comes around. Everyone has blood on their hands and they seem to be licking their fingers. They do not even wash their hands like Pontius Pilate.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general just said on Monday he had offered his resignation citing political reasons, in the latest sign of disunity in the senior ranks of the Ukrainian ruling elite. Resistance toward Zelensky is running wild.

Ukraine engaged in ethnic cleansing to kill anyone who wasn’t Ukrainian so they could create their country by sheer ruthless force killing Jews, Russians, Polish, and Hungarians for starters. Hitler promised to give them their own country if they followed him. That they did. They killing anyone not Ukrainian and became the motherland of ethnic cleansing.

What they did to people even horrified the Nazis. They cut babies from the womb and put in a live cat. Here they would kill a Jewish mother but throw the children in to be buried alive not to waste bullets.

I have videos that are too horrible to even post captured from Ukrainians where they nail Russian soldiers to crosses and burn them alive. But Putin is the war criminal. The Western Press is in the hands of the Neocons. They cheer war. They will NEVER report the truth! EVER! There are numerous accounts from returning mercenary soldiers about what is really going on. Ukrainians slaughtering Russians who surrender. I have videos so horrible what they do to Russian soldiers they are sickening. Zelensky then wants to put out the bullshit that Russia is committing war crimes?

Anyone who dares to criticize Ukraine they call a Putin supporter. This is their standard tactic so that they can do as they like, paint Russia as evil, and lead the world into complete destruction making sure nobody looks at Ukraine too closely. Everything we have achieved since World War II is being destroyed from a civilized perspective. People have to start demanding their stupid world leaders stop supporting this insanity and simply HONOR the Minsk Agreement. Ukraine was NEVER a nation. The People in the Donbas and Crimea are Russian and they have always been Russian and have a basic human right to decide their own fate.

There are numerous foreign soldiers who volunteered for Ukraine and then have returned shocked at the extent of the war crimes carried out by Ukrainians. You have no idea of the seething hatred of all Russian-speaking people in the Donbas or in Russia. A significant number of Ukrainians have no problem killing and torturing Russians.

They do not teach what the Ukrainian Nazis did in Ukraine because it was too horrible. One report stated:

“Some Ukrainian educators believe the Holocaust is not an appropriate topic for
teaching because in a Holocaust course a professor would need to let Ukrainian
students know that some Jews were betrayed to the Nazis by Ukrainian neighbors. In
addition, the OUN and UPA took part in the annihilation of Jews in western Ukraine,
and this knowledge can shock young Ukrainians. ” id/pg 205

At Babi Yar, during the Ukrainian Holocaust of WWII, the Ukrainian Nazis murdered 33,000 Jews in the ravine over just two days. July 11th is the day of remembrance where the Ukrainian Nazis slaughtered 100,000 Polish and to this day, Ukraine has refused to issue a formal apology. The documentation is extensive. The sheer hatred of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis is unprecedented in history. They make the German Nazis look like boy scouts.

The Polish Association of Memory of Victims of Crimes of Ukrainian Nationalists documented 135 methods of torture and murder practiced by Ukrainian Nazis. Poland officially called the Ukrainian actions genocide. The Ukrainians have been protected by the CIA for decades ONLY because they hated Russians. They continue to protect the Ukrainian Nazis only because they are waging war against Russia.

The Ukrainians were unprecedented in their war crimes during WWII and the sheer outright cruelty one would expect only exists in some B-Rated horror movies. This included:

• Running children through with stakes
• Cutting a person’s throat and pulling their tongue out through the hole
• Sawing a person’s torso in half with a carpenter’s saw
• Cutting open the belly of a woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy, removing the fetus, and replacing it with a live cat, before sewing up her abdomen.
• Cutting open a pregnant women’s abdomen and pouring in broken glass
• Nailing a small child to a door.

These are the people we now support. We have crossed over to the dark side.

History will not reflect on this war with the same rose-colored spectacles used today to support genocide