Skip to content

Join Us at the World Economic Conference in Orlando, Florida! Nov. 17-19, 2023

2014 War Cyclew 2011 Conference 300x173

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.

NEW BOOK Now Available : "Mark Antony & Cleopatra"

Mark Antony Cleopatra Cleopatra Proxy War

Now available at all major retailers!

The eBook will be available shortly.

"THE PLOT TO SEIZE RUSSIA - THE UNTOLD HISTORY"

The Plot to Seize Russia_3Dmockup_2 300x225

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.

PRIVATE BLOG – The Insane European Leaders & End of Western Civilization

PRIVATE BLOG

PRIVATE BLOG – The Insane European Leaders & End of Western Civilization


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/

Can the US Rein In the Eurodollar? If Not, What Should Trump Do?

Market Talk – September 18, 2026

Market Talk 2017

ASIA:
The major Asian stock markets had a mixed day today:
• NIKKEI 225 increased 882.70 points or 1.38% to 65,018.95
• Shanghai increased 36.267 points or 0.94% to 3,911.871
• Hang Seng increased 146.49 points or 0.60% to 24,750.78
• ASX 200 decreased 1.20 points or -0.01% to 8,731.20
• SENSEX decreased 19.63 points or -0.03% to 74,294.96
• Nifty50 increased 75.80 points or 0.33% to 23,346.40
The major Asian currency markets had a mixed day today:
• AUDUSD increased 0.00001 or 0.00% to 0.71108
• NZDUSD decreased 0.002 or -0.35% to 0.57110
• USDJPY increased 0.865 or 0.55% to 156.839
• USDCNY decreased 0.00591 or -0.09% to 6.69805
The above data was collected around 12:08 EST.
Precious Metals:
•  Gold increased 19.17 USD/t oz. or 0.44% to 4,360.56
•  Silver increased 1.091 USD/t. oz. or 1.67% to 66.283
The above data was collected around 12:11 EST.
EUROPE/EMEA:
The major Europe stock markets had a negative day today:
•  CAC 40 decreased 121.91 points or -1.49% to 8,065.02
•  FTSE 100 decreased 157.01 points or -1.45% to 10,659.13
•  DAX 30 decreased 412.65 points or -1.60% to 25,304.06
The major Europe currency markets had a mixed day today:
• EURUSD decreased 0.00062 or -0.05% to 1.14698
• GBPUSD increased 0.00194 or 0.15% to 1.33786
• USDCHF decreased 0.00117 or -0.14% to 0.82343
The above data was collected around 12:17 EST.

AMERICAS:

US Markets:

  • DJIA declined by 95.4 points (0.18%) to 51,682.64
  • S&P 500 advanced by 12.74 points (0.17%) to 7,650.5
  • NASDAQ advanced by 104.25 points (0.4%) to 26,522.545
  • Russell 2000 declined by 14.24 points (0.5%) to 2,860.393

Canada:

  • TSX Composite declined by 69.58 points (0.19%) to 35,804.68
  • TSX 60 declined by 7.37 points (0.35%) to 2,101.1

Brazil:

  • Bovespa declined by 687.32 points (0.37%) to 185,304.71
ENERGY:
The oil markets had a mixed day today:
•  Crude Oil decreased 0.513 USD/BBL or -0.50% to 101.397
•  Brent decreased 0.436 USD/BBL or -0.42% to 104.383
•  Natural gas increased 0.0119 USD/MMBtu or 0.41% to 2.9129
•  Gasoline decreased 0.0233 USD/GAL -0.66% to 3.4840
•  Heating oil decreased 0.036 USD/GAL or -0.70% to 5.0779
The above data was collected around 12:23 EST.
•  Top commodity gainers: Silver (1.67%), Palm Oil (1.70%), Orange Juice (1.32%) and Coffee (1.49%)
•  Top commodity losers: Oat (-2.22%), Lumber (-2.08%), Methanol (-2.33%) and Cocoa (-7.37%)
The above data was collected around 12:43 EST.
BONDS:
Japan 2.9890% (-0.72bp), US 2’s 4.75% (+0.062%), US 10’s 5.0040% (+6.7bps); US 30’s 5.34 (+0.044%), Bunds 3.5142% (+3.59bp), France 4.5740% (+12.18bp), Italy 4.4290% (+8.87bp), Turkey 32.62% (-21bp), Greece 4.2950% (+5.3bp), Portugal 3.8990% (+5.46bp); Spain 3.993% (+3.9bp) and UK Gilts 5.2885% (+5.28bp)
The above data was collected around 12:50 EST.

The Decline & Fall of Brussels

US withdraws Troops

QUESTION: Hello Martin,

NBC just reported – “Pentagon weighs pulling nearly a third of U.S. forces from Europe” (LINK).

Is this in line with your recent briefing where they told you Trump is going to try to get peace in Ukraine?

P

NATO ECM A

REPLY:  This is in line with the warnings of our models and the turning point that took place on September 2nd, 2026. The crisis stems from the decline and fall in process of the EU in Brussels. As reported, Meloni is insisting that sovereign over culture return to the member states. The EU needs an external enemy to survive. The play book since ancient times if the lack of an external enemy leads to domestic fragmentation and the ultimate fall of government regardless of what form the government takes from a dictatorship, republic, monarchy, or democracy. The outcome is always the same whenever a centralized government forgets it is not the sovereign, the people are.

Paine Common Sense

Brussels has violated the ver foundation. They have confounded the right of the people with the power of the government. As the fragmentation rises, as with the recent election of the AfD in Germany, the trend is seriously against them. This is why they need war.

It is also why I have stressed that USA MUST exit NATO ASAP!!!!!!  The time is running out!!!! The likes of Boris Johnson is pushing the UK to its destruction all, I allege, to fill his personal pockets. When he destroys London, I hope is his denied immigration to the United States.

radoslaw sikorski

As with every war, they assume they win an instant victory. They are always wrong! The Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski. Speaking at a conference in Kyiv in mid-September 2026, he said that if Russia attacked NATO, the alliance would “fight back with full force” and that he believed they could “defeat Russia quite quickly,” citing NATO’s air power advantage. Sikorski again like Johnson, have no regard for their people and assume instant victory as if there will be no losses.

As I warned, Hitler was at least respectful of history. He stole all the art and did not bomb Paris because he thought it was pretty. Ethnic Cleansing and war is a separate issue – kill the people, but leave the infrastructure. This war is indiscriminate and if you really think you can utterly destroy Russia, they are pushing the button and there go the monuments, art, and everything with the people this time. I do not understand why these are these types of people who just want war to settle personal grudges. 

Sikorski and Rumsfeld

It was Sikorski who publicly said: “The Polish-American alliance is worthless. It is even harmful because it creates a false sense of security for Poland.”  He has frequently spoken about modern Russian aggression mentioning a Russian missile falling 10 km from his home in 2024. That was a false flag created by Zelensky trying to claim Russia attacked Poland so it was time for NATO to join Ukraine and destroy Russia. Sikorski has routinely been anti-Russia during and after the fall of USSR. He has posted pictures with other Neocons like Rumsfeld and Hillary Clinton.

Cheney Dicj 1941 2025 weeks not months

Dick Cheney said that of Iraq. It would be just week, not months, and that turned out to be 8 years. The primary U.S. official who advocated for the war in Afghanistan and predicted a quick, decisive victory was Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The “quick” victory Rumsfeld predicted in late 2001 proved to be illusory.

Paul Wolfowitz (Deputy Secretary of Defense): Wolfowitz was a leading hawk who argued forcefully for early and heavy bombing of Afghanistan without waiting to build an international coalition. He also pushed to extend the campaign to Iraq, even before Afghanistan was resolved .

Dick Cheney (Vice President): Cheney was instrumental in convincing President Bush to begin the invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban following the September 11 attacks.

Iran 72 Russian Revolution

The Reality Behind the Prediction
Vietnam War was 8 years (U.S. combat role), Afghanistan War was 20 years, and Iraq War was 8 years. Each one ended in failure. When it came to Iran, this was NOT going to be a quickie. Netanyahu got Trump to bomb Iran when their cycle ended in 2025. They have now begun a new cycle and it looks no different from any other of these failed endless wars, except it will become more widespread over time if Netanyahu is reelected.

 

I will update the timing on the Private Blog

Now Even English Villages Want to Leave Britain

The tiny Oxfordshire village of Piddington has held a symbolic referendum to leave the United Kingdom after the government proposed housing up to 1,200 male asylum seekers at a former Ministry of Defense base roughly half a mile away. Piddington has only about 350 residents, yet 285 voted to secede while just 26 voted against it. Parish chairman Tim McNally declared that the community would henceforth call itself the “Principality of Piddington,” saying residents had sent a message not merely to the region or country but “to the world.” Obviously, Piddington has not legally left Britain, but anyone laughing at this as some village publicity stunt is missing what the vote actually represents.

The government is proposing an asylum facility capable of housing more than three times the population of the village beside a community of roughly 350 people. Residents have raised concerns about safety, crime, property values, and the impact on local services, while the government insists the site will be largely self-sufficient to minimize the effect on the surrounding community. Refugee organizations have criticized the plan from the opposite direction, arguing that remote military facilities are also inappropriate places for asylum seekers and can damage social cohesion. Yet Westminster still expects everyone involved to accept a decision imposed from above.

The timing could not be more remarkable. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have just seen their nationalist leaders gather in Cardiff and declare that “Westminster’s time is coming to an end.” Scotland continues debating independence, Northern Ireland has a legal mechanism for eventual reunification with Ireland, and Welsh nationalism is gaining support among younger generations. Now, inside England itself, a village has overwhelmingly voted to symbolically withdraw from the United Kingdom because residents believe Westminster is imposing policies upon them without meaningful local consent.

Political fragmentation does not start with governments disappearing overnight or borders suddenly being redrawn. It begins when people stop believing that the central government represents their interests. I have explained for years that separatist movements are driven by economics and declining confidence in centralized authority. The Scottish independence movement was already appearing in our models long before the 2014 referendum shocked Westminster, and what politicians continually fail to understand is that confidence is never permanent.

Immigration has become one of the mechanisms accelerating that collapse across Europe because national governments increasingly make decisions while local communities absorb the consequences. Britain recorded more than 41,000 people crossing the English Channel in small boats during 2025, although crossings so far this year are reportedly down more than 40% compared with the same period last year. The government is trying to move asylum seekers out of expensive hotels and into alternative accommodations, but simply transferring thousands of people into military facilities does not eliminate the political problem. It merely moves the burden from one community to another.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham says he understands the strength of feeling and will examine the concerns raised by Piddington, while maintaining that Britain needs a fair system for distributing asylum accommodation. That is the government’s position, and there is a legitimate national problem that must be addressed, but governments create these political explosions when consultation comes only after communities discover that major decisions have already effectively been made.

When 285 people in a village of roughly 350 vote to “leave” their own country as an act of protest, they are expressing something deeper than opposition to one migrant facility. They are saying they no longer believe the political system gives them meaningful control over their own community.

Britain now faces constitutional pressure from Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland while resentment toward Westminster is appearing inside England itself. These movements are different and should not be confused with one another, but they share a common foundation in declining confidence that centralized government understands or represents local interests. The more Westminster attempts to solve national problems by imposing solutions upon individual communities, the more it risks feeding precisely the political fragmentation it fears.

Piddington will remain part of the United Kingdom, but the message from its residents could hardly be clearer. When a village of 350 people is prepared to declare itself a principality because it believes London will not listen, the real story is no longer about one asylum center. It is about how far confidence in government has fallen and what people will do when they decide that political authority has become too distant from those it supposedly represents.

Economic Illiteracy Is No Barrier to Public Office

Franchesca - lolol Angie Nixon has the boys at FOX News shaking in their  boots ?? someone please tell me what's wrong with these goals??

Apparently, understanding debt is optional when you are running for the authority to create more of it. Legal Insurrection reports that Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon complained about repaying taxes and student loans, including her statement: “I don’t wanna pay it back. Education supposed to be free.” There you have the promise that keeps politics in business. Declare something free, hand the obligation to government, and pretend the cost has disappeared.

Nixon said it is “crazy” to expect she repay $17,600 in outstanding student loan debt and $14,000 in back taxes. What is “crazy” is seeking a seat in the United States Senate while complaining that somebody expects you to pay what you owe. Once you seek the authority to vote on everyone else’s taxes and the government’s borrowing, you should be prepared to explain how your promises are financed.

Too many politicians treat debt as something they authorize and other people must manage. Borrow today, refinance when it comes due, and leave the next officeholder to deal with the consequences. Governments routinely roll over debt. But the ability to refinance has encouraged a political culture in which there is always money for another promise and never a convenient time to explain the accumulating expense. The politician’s career can end. The obligation keeps collecting interest.

angieforfl “Shut the fuck up. I'm on a payment plan like the rest of the  working class. This site just showed its hand. You prey on people  struggling to make it and

Then comes the lecture to the great unwashed. You must pay more because the government needs revenue. You must accept less because the budget is under pressure. You must tighten your belt because difficult choices can no longer be postponed. Where was this sudden devotion to responsibility when the commitments were being made? They collected the applause for spending the money. Now the people working to earn it are expected to shoulder the responsibility for keeping the arrangement afloat.

No economics examination is required to enter the Senate, although its members help make decisions affecting taxes, borrowing, businesses, and household finances. An examination would hardly guarantee good judgment, but the absence of any requirement to understand finance is striking when you consider the authority involved. A candidate can promise to tax wealth without explaining how it will be valued, promise new spending without identifying dependable revenue, and promise debt relief without discussing the cost. The public gets the sales pitch. The financing is somebody else’s problem.

There is an extraordinary arrogance in borrowing money and then acting offended when repayment comes due, as though your obligation became somebody else’s responsibility. That is the entitlement behind the socialist promise that somebody else should foot the bill. The person who worked extra hours, skipped the expensive degree, or spent years repaying a loan is now expected to accept another charge in the name of fairness. Fairness to whom?

Government can tax and borrow, but neither power guarantees that financing remains cheap or that the tax base remains healthy. Businesses can postpone investment. People can change where they work and where they put their money. Creditors can demand higher yields. When interest expense rises, more revenue is committed to servicing past decisions before anyone addresses present needs. That is how yesterday’s promises begin restricting tomorrow’s choices, regardless of what the next campaign brochure says.

If someone cannot explain how they intend to meet their own financial obligations, why should the public trust their judgment over obligations imposed on millions of others? Treating repayment as an outrageous imposition is idiotic. A balance sheet does not improve because you resent the liabilities. If the entire plan depends on somebody else always having enough money to cover the shortfall, there is no plan. There is merely a bill waiting to arrive.

Nixon believes she personally does not need to meet her debt responsibilities. She will appeal to voters who lack long-term vision and sound, logical minds. Socialists will always find someone else to blame, another wallet to pick through, before accepting responsibility.

The public does not need another speech about compassion from someone unwilling to discuss a balance sheet. It needs an honest account of the obligations being created in its name. Who pays? For how long? What happens if the projected revenue does not arrive? Those questions should come before the spending vote. Politicians can behave as though rolling over a debt means escaping it, but the interest must still be financed. They may be gone by the time the bill becomes unbearable. You will still be there.

AI Said She Was Guilty — So They Put Her in Jail

Why is Facial Recognition Search Crucial for Law Enforcement Today?

I wrote about Angela Lipps back in March because her case demonstrated exactly what happens when government begins trusting a computer more than basic human investigation. Now this 50-year-old Tennessee grandmother is suing the City of Fargo and a former detective for $10 million after spending nearly six months behind bars for crimes she says she could not possibly have committed. She had never even been to North Dakota before this nightmare began, yet facial recognition software identified her as a possible match in a bank fraud investigation and the government machinery took over from there.

Lipps was arrested at gunpoint by U.S. Marshals in Tennessee in July 2025 while babysitting four children. Fargo police were investigating a woman who allegedly used fraudulent identification to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from banks, and facial recognition technology produced Lipps as a possible match. According to the lawsuit, investigators then compared photographs from her driver’s license and social media and proceeded against her. She eventually faced eight felony charges, including offenses carrying the possibility of years in prison, while basic financial records later showed she was more than 1,000 miles away in Tennessee when the crimes occurred.

AI did not walk into her house and put handcuffs on her. PEOPLE did that. The computer produced a possible identification and human beings entrusted with the power of the state allegedly failed to perform the basic investigation necessary before destroying someone’s life. Technology gives government enormous power while simultaneously giving bureaucrats something else to blame when they get it wrong.

Lipps reportedly spent 108 days jailed in Tennessee before being transported to North Dakota and remained incarcerated for months until her attorney produced records supporting that she was in Tennessee when the thefts occurred. The charges were dismissed on Christmas Eve. By then, according to her lawsuit and attorneys, she had lost her home, car, possessions, and even her dog because she could not pay her bills while sitting in jail. She was released in Fargo during winter without a coat and with practically nothing to her name. No computer experiences those consequences because the computer simply produces another output and moves on.

Facial recognition poses a serious threat to privacy, and as I warned years ago, would eventually track ordinary people simply walking through public places. At the time, this sounded like something out of Minority Report. Now facial recognition is embedded throughout policing, airports, border systems, private security networks, and massive surveillance databases. I recently wrote about Flock’s network of more than 120,000 cameras spread across 49 states, where law enforcement agencies can search vehicle movements across jurisdictions. Add facial recognition and AI to that infrastructure and government gains the ability to identify, locate, categorize, and investigate people on a scale that previous governments could never have imagined.

The problem is that AI is not some all-knowing intelligence. It identifies patterns and probabilities based upon the information and methodology behind the system. A match is not proof that someone committed a crime, yet people have an extraordinary tendency to surrender their own judgment once a computer produces an answer.

I wrote about Jason Killinger in 2025 after facial recognition at a Nevada casino reportedly identified him as a “100% match” for another person. Killinger produced identification, vehicle registration, and other documentation, yet authorities still arrested him. The machine had spoken, so reality itself became suspect.

I am not the same woman I was. I don't think I ever will be,” Angela Lipps  said.

Angela Lipps is hardly the only person caught in this mess. The ACLU says more than a dozen people in the United States are now publicly known to have been wrongfully arrested after police reliance on facial-recognition results. Kimberlee Williams of Oklahoma was arrested because Maryland authorities were looking for somebody else even though she said she had never been to Maryland. These are not harmless glitches where Netflix recommends the wrong movie. When government plugs imperfect technology into the criminal justice system, an error can mean armed agents at your door, jail, extradition, lost employment, financial destruction, and months of your life that nobody can ever return.

This is why the expansion of biometric databases should concern everyone. Your face cannot be replaced like a password. Governments are increasingly collecting facial scans, fingerprints, iris patterns, location records, license plate data, financial information, and countless other identifiers. AI can connect those databases in seconds. Once that infrastructure exists, government does not need to follow you physically because the cameras, databases, banks, phones, cars, and computers can reconstruct your life for them.

People respond by saying they have nothing to hide, but Angela Lipps apparently did not need anything to hide. The entire point of due process is that government must prove YOU committed the crime rather than forcing you to prove that the computer picked the wrong face. When technology reverses that burden, we have abandoned one of the most fundamental principles of a free society.

Technology itself is not the enemy. AI can be extraordinarily useful, but it cannot become a substitute for evidence, investigation, probable cause, and human accountability. A facial recognition hit should be an investigative lead, not a conviction generated by an algorithm. The moment government begins treating probabilities as facts, every innocent person becomes one bad computer match away from having to prove who they are.

Angela Lipps lost months of her life because a machine allegedly pointed government in her direction and the humans involved failed to establish the truth quickly enough. Her $10 million lawsuit will now force the courts to examine who is responsible when technology gets it wrong, but the larger question is far more important. We are building the most sophisticated surveillance infrastructure ever created while simultaneously discovering that the machines watching everyone can identify the WRONG person.

Russian Elections – Zelensky & Boris Johnson

Russian Duma

Russia is holding elections for the ninth State Duma from September 18–20, 2026, making this the first national parliamentary election since the West Neocons instigated this war against Russia through Ukraine as their proxy, forcing Putin to come to the Russians’ rescue in the Donbas in February 2022. All 450 seats in the lower house are up for election for five-year terms. The election therefore comes at an unusually important moment: the Ukraine war has lasted more than four years, and Ukraine’s drone attacks have deliberately sought to influence these elections with the objective of supporting the Russia hawks.

We expect that United Russia will retain control of the Duma. The key here is not simply who controls parliament, but how large United Russia’s majority will be at the end of the day. The open question will be what turnout looks like, how the Communist Party and other parties perform, and what the Kremlin does after the election.

How the election works

The State Duma contains 450 deputies. Russia uses a mixed electoral system: 225 seats are elected from single-member constituencies, while another 225 are distributed through the nationwide party-list vote.

That distinction matters because United Russia’s strength does not come solely from its national percentage. Its organization and position in individual constituencies can allow it to win a considerably larger percentage of seats than its share of the party-list vote.

United Russia currently has a very large parliamentary majority. It has 310 seats and needs at least 300 seats to retain the two-thirds supermajority necessary to approve constitutional amendments without support from other parties. This is why Zelensky is not merely seeking to influence the election with his attacks, but is already claiming that the Russians in the Donbas should not be allowed to vote and that this should be rejected by the international community. I suppose he refuses to allow Ukrainian to vote, so what should Putin allow Russians to vote who were attacked by the Ukrainians to start this civil war in the first place.

Consequently, 300 seats is one number to watch when the results are released and you can bet that Zelensky will be screaming that any election in Russia should not be recognized by the world.

United Russia remains dominant

A late-August survey from the state pollster VTsIOM put United Russia at approximately 37% support among respondents, compared with about 11.6% for the Communist Party. Independent polling produces a substantially different picture. For example, an ExtremeScan survey conducted September 4–10 reported considerably lower support for United Russia among decided voters and substantial hypothetical support for Yabloko. Different methodology and Russia’s political environment make direct comparisons between these surveys difficult.

The opposition

The Communist Party, LDPR, A Just Russia and New People provide alternatives on the ballot, but the major parliamentary opposition parties broadly support the Kremlin on the Ukraine war and frequently support the government on major national-security issues.

The liberal Yabloko party, which opposed the war, the Russian Supreme Court removed from the nationwide party-list contest. Individual Yabloko candidates can still contest some single-member constituencies. Zelensky knows this, so his attacks inside Russia have intensified all the more to ensure that the war continues, supporting the hawks – not the anti-war crowd.

Ukraine Attacks Moscow

Ukraine has changed the political environment

The 2026 election is taking place under circumstances that did not exist during the 2021 Duma election. Ukrainian drones have increasingly attacked refineries, logistics facilities, and other targets inside Russia. These attacks, along with concerns about fuel supplies and another possible mobilization, have contributed to public anxiety, and Zelensky knows he has turned up the heat on the hatred of Ukrainians. He takes his marching orders from Boris Johnson, who wants war with Russia.

A voter can support Putin or the Russian state while still being unhappy about inflation, economic conditions, mobilization, casualties, or the war’s duration. They realize that Putin did NOT start this war and that the West simply hates Russians. Consequently, the election should not automatically be interpreted as a straightforward referendum on whether Russians support every aspect of the war in Ukraine.

Post-Election Draft

One particularly sensitive issue is speculation about another military mobilization. Even Reuters reported that some Russians had left the country temporarily because they fear another call-up after the election. Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly denied that another mobilization is necessary, saying Russia has sufficient manpower. There is currently no basis for treating a post-election mobilization as established fact. Zelensky has been putting that in the press to disrupt politics in Russia, trying to instigate some sort of revolution.

Nevertheless, what happens after September 20 may ultimately prove more consequential than the parliamentary arithmetic itself.

If there were a major change in manpower policy, military spending, taxation, capital controls or economic mobilization after voting concludes, analysts would inevitably examine whether the election had served as a political dividing line. Conversely, continuation of current policies would weaken the argument that the Kremlin had been postponing unpopular measures until after the vote.

The economy is another pressure point

The election is also occurring against a more difficult economic background. AP describes recessionary/stagnation pressures, weaker living standards and damage from Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure as part of the environment surrounding the vote.

That matters because prolonged wars often shift domestic political concerns from the initial geopolitical issue to wages, prices, taxes, manpower, and living standards.

Ukraine Map

Voting in Donbas

Zelensky has made this a major issue, arguing that the Russians, whom he hates with a passion, living in the Donbas were entitled to vote under the Minsk Agreement, which Ukraine has refused to honor. Zelensky is trying to make this another major international issue. Russia’s decision to conduct voting in Crimea and Russian-controlled portions of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.

Ukraine Attacks Donbas 4 23 2014

Ukraine rejects Russia’s annexation claims despite the Minsk Agreement they signed in bad faith and has called on foreign governments and international organizations NOT to recognize voting conducted in those territories. Russia considers the territories part of the Russian Federation and rightfully so after Ukraine started this civil war, attacking the Donbas on the orders of the Neocons by the installed “interim” unelected government.

The election results from these territories will therefore remain internationally disputed regardless of the national result. This is further evidence that Zelensky takes his orders from Boris Johnson and NATO, praying for war, and could care less if any Ukrainians are still standing at the end of the day.

What the election can actually tell us

Zelensky is deliberately trying to get Russia to attack aggressively so he can claim some violation and drag in all of NATO into this war to destroy Russia, the same as Netanyahu has used the United States to fund and carry out his war, also constructed on sheer hatred of Iran. In both cases, these psychopaths are trying to drag the world into war for their personal vendettas.

The election will not transfer parliamentary power. United Russia is expected to remain dominant. However, the more revealing information will come from the margins: United Russia’s national vote share, whether it remains above 300 seats, Communist and other systemic-opposition performance, turnout, regional differences, and evidence of protest voting.

We expect the real story to unfold in the post-election period through the first quarter of 2027. What is very clear is that people like Johnson are pulling the strings in Ukraine and have blocked every peace deal, rushing to Ukraine to order Zelensky to reject peace. Moreover, he insisted that Zelensky move the signing of the deal on resources to the White House to embarrass Trump and keep the US funding the war. That backfired.

Boris Johnson’s hostility toward Russia is a deep personal grudge, in addition to a historical political calculation. The tension between Britain and Russia has deep roots. From the “Great Game” rivalry of the 19th century to the Cold War, the UK has often viewed Russia with suspicion and as an enemy. In the post-Soviet era, this “Rusophobia” (as Russia’s Foreign Ministry has called it) has remained a structural feature of British political and media discourse, often portraying Russia as a persistent threat.

Poisoning of Spy Litvinenko

From the Plot to Seize Russia

For Johnson, taking a hard line against Russia also served clear political purposes, creating the media image that being tough on Russia has long been a point of cross-party consensus in the UK. This made it a politically safe and popular position to adopt, especially after incidents like the 2018 Salisbury poisoning of Litvinenko, which they blamed on Putin, but I found was false to begin with. That too involved Berezovsky who was the only one with the motive – not Putin. That was the nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy in the UK, which Britain blamed on Russia, plunged relations to “freezing point” and set the stage for Johnson’s subsequent hostility. My research established that it was Berezovsky and his own bodyguard who said that he was killed by British MI6 when he wrote his begging letters apologizing to Putin and asking to please allow him to come home. He would have provided the truth, and MI6 took him out.

Then there was the laughable “Missile Threat” Call of 2022, that appears to be a political stunt by Johnson. Indeed, he claimed that in a pre-invasion phone call, Putin threatened him with a missile strike, saying it would “only take a minute.” The Kremlin denied this, calling Johnson a liar. Johnson used this narrative to paint Putin as unpredictable and dangerous.

Johnson is a vocal supporter of Ukraine and imposed heavy sanctions on Russia following the 2022 invasion, cementing his role as a leading critic of the Kremlin on the world stage. Yet, he has now admitted that sanctions will not work and advocates military action.

The most direct conflict of interest involves a £1 million donation Johnson received from Christopher Harborne, a businessman who owns a 13% stake in QinetiQ, a UK defense firm that supplies drones and demining robots to the Ukrainian military. This donation was reportedly recorded as a personal benefit to Johnson’s company and did not appear in the UK’s Electoral Commission database, which tracks funds for political activity, suggesting it was a personal commercial contribution rather than a political one.

Harborne accompanied Johnson on a visit to Ukraine in September 2023, where he was listed as an “advisor to Boris Johnson’s office” and a closed-door meeting with a “Military Technology Research Center” was on the schedule. This connection suggests Johnson has a financial incentive to keep the conflict going, as the longer the war continues, the more business companies like QinetiQ do.

 

 

Since leaving office, Johnson has built a lucrative career as a speaker and media personality. He earned over £1 million ($1.2 million) from paid speeches alone in the months immediately after stepping down, with individual engagements paying between £215,000 and £277,000. By 2024, his speaking fees had reportedly totaled around £5 million.

Maintaining a high-profile role as a leading advocate for Ukraine keeps him in the international spotlight, which is essential for his commercial success as a speaker, columnist, and documentary maker. He recently produced a documentary about his trip to the frontline and wrote a column for the Daily Mail about his experiences, both of which generate income and publicity.

Johnson’s opposition to peace deals is not new. In November 2023, David Arakhamia, the head of President Zelensky’s parliamentary faction and Ukraine’s chief negotiator at the Istanbul peace talks in 2022, stated that Johnson visited Kyiv after the talks and told Ukraine to “just continue fighting” rather than sign any agreement with Russia. This intervention is widely credited with derailing a potential early ceasefire.

Boris_Johnson_We_are_in_a_proxy_war_against_Russia_

His public rhetoric has remained consistent. In a 2023 speech, he said “A peaceful solution with Putin cannot be achieved,” and called for Ukraine’s fast-track NATO membership. In his recent Daily Mail column, he argued that the West is not doing enough and that Ukraine must win on the battlefield. He made the front page of the Norwegian press, publicly stating that Ukraine was Britain’s proxy war against Russia. He advocates for the destruction of Russia with ZERO forethought of what comes next.

British Pound Corruption

I would not put it past Boris to also have a big stake in the defense contractors or perhaps being paid to make sure they retain their endless profits funded by the United States milking American for every dimes they can squeeze out of the American taxpayer while pushing the world into World War III. They are joining the Merchants of death.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has dismissed Johnson’s recent frontline visits as “another PR show on bones.” She accused him of personally participating in “canceling the negotiation process and escalating the conflict,” calling him “a villain who returned to the crime scene.”

My own discussions with members of Congress reveal the same view of Boris. I was told they see him as a serious threat to peace.

While Johnson frames his involvement as a moral commitment to Ukrainian victory and to fulfilling the UK’s promise under the Budapest Memorandum, his financial entanglement with a defense contractor and his reliance on Ukraine-related publicity for income make the conflict of interest hard to ignore.

Humpty Dumpty Falls

Boris Johnson has destroyed the world order for he has so prejudiced the West against Russia, I fear that there is no putting the world economy back together ever again. This may in fact simply now require the crash & burn outcome.

The Crash Burn 2 1

Market Talk – September 17, 2026

Market Talk 2017

ASIA:
The major Asian stock markets had a mixed day today:
• NIKKEI 225 increased 213.25 points or 0.33% to 64,136.25
• Shanghai decreased 15.996 points or -0.41% to 3,875.604
• Hang Seng decreased 109.49 points or -0.44% to 24,604.29
• ASX 200 increased 35.90 points or 0.41% to 8,732.40
• SENSEX decreased 21.86 points or -0.03% to 74,314.59
• Nifty50 increased 53.00 points or 0.23% to 23,270.60
The major Asian currency markets had a mixed day today:
• AUDUSD increased 0.0025 or 0.35% to 0.71125
• NZDUSD increased 0.00169 or 0.30% to 0.57299
• USDJPY decreased 0.176 or -0.11% to 156.086
• USDCNY decreased 0.00863 or -0.13% to 6.70367
The above data was collected around 13:18 EST.
Precious Metals:
•  Gold increased 97.49 USD/t oz. or 2.29% to 4,361.26
•  Silver increased 2.421 USD/t. oz. or 3.83% to 65.662
The above data was collected around 13:22 EST.
EUROPE/EMEA:
The major Europe stock markets had a green day today:
•  CAC 40 increased 46.34 points or 0.57% to 8,186.93
•  FTSE 100 increased 127.67 points or 1.19% to 10,816.14
•  DAX 30 increased 178.96 points or 0.70% to 25,716.71
The major Europe currency markets had a mixed day today:
• EURUSD increased 0.0011 or 0.10% to 1.14759
• GBPUSD decreased 0.00295 or -0.22% to 1.33516
• USDCHF decreased 0.00084 or -0.10% to 0.82493
The above data was collected around 13:30 EST.

AMERICAS:

US Markets:

  • DJIA advanced by 316.14 points (0.61%) to 51,778.04
  • S&P 500 advanced by 85.95 points (1.14%) to 7,637.76
  • NASDAQ advanced by 439.87 points (1.69%) to 26,418.298
  • Russell 2000 advanced by 15.83 points (0.55%) to 2,874.637

Canada:

  • TSX Composite advanced by 382.99 points (1.08%) to 35,874.26
  • TSX 60 advanced by 17.52 points (0.84%) to 2,108.47

Brazil:

  • Bovespa advanced by 557.09 points (0.3%) to 186,104.75
ENERGY:
The oil markets had a mixed day today:
•  Crude Oil decreased 0.382 USD/BBL or -0.37% to 102.048
•  Brent decreased 1.145 USD/BBL or -1.08% to 104.685
•  Natural gas increased 0.0258 USD/MMBtu or 0.89% to 2.9168
•  Gasoline increased 0.0468 USD/GAL 1.34% to 3.5318
•  Heating oil decreased 0.1403 USD/GAL or -2.67% to 5.1062
The above data was collected around 13:34 EST.
•  Top commodity gainers: Silver (3.83%), Gold (2.29%), Copper (2.28%) and Zinc (2.03%)
•  Top commodity losers: Rhodium (-3.14%), Orange Juice (-3.60%), Sugar (-2.97%) and Cocoa (-6.06%)
The above data was collected around 13:45 EST.
BONDS:
Japan 2.9960% (-0.4bp), US 2’s 4.70% (-0.046%), US 10’s 4.9540% (-6.9bps); US 30’s 5.30 (-0.065%), Bunds 3.4905% (-1.93bp), France 4.4520% (-2.34bp), Italy 4.3480% (-2.58bp), Turkey 32.83% (+59bp), Greece 4.2480% (-2.96bp), Portugal 3.8450% (-3.44bp); Spain 3.955% (-1.7bp) and UK Gilts 5.2479% (-9.62bp)
The above data was collected around 13:51 EST.

WECimage

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!!

Visit our Events page for more information, or click the Register Now button below to go directly to the 2026 WEC Registration Page to learn more or purchase your ticket today! 

For those who aren’t familiar, our long-running, highly anticipated annual World Economic Conference is a unique event that brings together like-minded individuals from around the world, from different backgrounds and professions, to explore how capital truly moves across borders, markets, and cycles.

After a record-breaking ticket presale event, don’t wait to get your ticket!

To see what past attendees say, CLICK HERE!

Register Now