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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Array September 2025

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

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

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

Doug

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anti-Ship & Coastal Defense

Harpoon missile coastal defense missiles
Harpoon repair and sustainment packages

Long-Range Strike Weapons

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

Anti-Tank Weapons

FGM-148 Javelin missiles
BGM-71 TOW missile systems

Artillery & Ground Systems

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

Drones & ISR

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

Tactical mission networking and ISR software

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

Earlier sales included frigates, torpedoes, and naval radar systems

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The government will never tell the truth about inflation because if they did, confidence would collapse. They always alter the formulas, revise the definitions, and pretend the economy is improving while the average person knows damn well something is seriously wrong. The April producer price numbers are simply confirming what anyone running a business already knows. Costs are rising across the board again and this time it is working through the production side of the economy where the damage becomes far more dangerous.

Producer prices jumped 1.4% in April, the largest monthly increase since 2022, pushing annual wholesale inflation to 6.0%. That is not some isolated blip the talking heads on television can explain away with clever slogans. This is the type of inflation that bleeds through the entire economic chain because producers cannot absorb rising costs indefinitely. Eventually they pass everything directly onto the consumer because survival comes first.

This is what people fail to understand about inflation. It does not begin at the checkout counter. By the time consumers notice prices exploding, the inflationary wave has already moved through energy, transportation, raw materials, warehousing, financing, and manufacturing. The disease starts deep inside the production structure itself.

Energy was once again the primary culprit. Gasoline prices surged over 15% during the month while diesel fuel climbed sharply as tensions in the Middle East continue escalating. Every war in the Middle East eventually becomes an economic event because oil remains the lifeblood of industrial civilization no matter how many politicians pretend otherwise. You cannot sanction major producers, threaten shipping lanes, attack fossil fuels, and simultaneously expect stable prices. That is fantasy economics taught by people who have never run anything except deficits.

Everything depends on energy. Food prices rise because transportation rises. Construction rises because machinery rises. Manufacturing rises because production costs rise. Diesel fuels the trucks moving goods across the country. Once energy spikes, inflation infects the entire system like a cancer.

The report showed rising costs in trucking, storage, wholesale trade, and machinery production. That is where this becomes serious because it proves inflation is spreading structurally through the economy rather than remaining isolated inside one sector. This is exactly how inflation behaved during previous monetary crises. It starts gradually and then becomes embedded.

At the same time, governments continue borrowing with complete abandon as if debt no longer matters. Washington is issuing debt at a pace that historically only appeared during major wars, yet politicians continue promising more spending programs while pretending deficits are irrelevant. Central banks are trapped by their own policies. Raise rates further and sovereign debt servicing begins spiraling out of control. Lower rates too quickly and inflation erupts again. There is no painless solution because the entire system has been mismanaged for decades.

People sense this instinctively even if economists refuse to admit it publicly. Families know their standard of living is collapsing. Insurance premiums continue rising. Grocery prices remain elevated. Utility bills climb. Housing costs are becoming impossible for younger generations. Yet the media continues celebrating tiny changes in manipulated inflation statistics as if the crisis has passed.

The real problem is that this inflation is no longer merely monetary. The world economy itself is fragmenting. War risks are disrupting trade routes. Sanctions are distorting commodity markets. Europe’s energy suicide has raised industrial costs globally. Governments are desperately trying to maintain welfare states and military spending simultaneously while drowning in debt. This is not normal cyclical inflation. This is systemic deterioration.

Once inflation enters the production chain, it tends to become persistent because businesses restructure prices permanently to survive. That is when inflation becomes politically dangerous. Small businesses disappear first because they cannot absorb financing and energy costs indefinitely. Consumers reduce discretionary spending. Economic confidence declines. Capital begins searching for safety elsewhere.

The politicians will continue insisting inflation is under control because admitting reality would expose the scale of the financial mismanagement. But the April producer price report is another warning sign that the underlying pressure inside the economy is building once again. The crisis never ended. They merely stopped reporting it honestly.

Europe is sleepwalking straight into another migration catastrophe, and the politicians responsible for destroying the continent still refuse to admit what they have done. Greek Migration Minister Thanos Plevris has now openly warned that roughly 550,000 migrants are currently waiting in Libya for the opportunity to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. Half a million people are sitting there like a pressure bomb waiting to explode while Brussels continues babbling about “humanitarian values” and “European solidarity” as if slogans can replace borders.

The insanity of this entire crisis is that Europe created it with its own foreign policy disasters and then criminalized anyone warning about the consequences. The destruction of Libya under NATO was one of the greatest acts of geopolitical stupidity in modern European history. Before the overthrow of Gaddafi, Libya maintained control over migration routes across North Africa. The moment NATO decided to impose its fantasy version of democracy through bombs and regime change, the entire region collapsed into chaos. Militias, traffickers, criminal gangs, and smuggling networks filled the vacuum immediately. Europe shattered the gate and now pretends shocked outrage every time millions begin pouring through it.

Libya became the primary staging ground because there is no functioning state left capable of controlling the coastline. Estimates now place the migrant population inside Libya somewhere between 700,000 and 2.5 million people depending on the source. Think about the madness of that situation. Libya itself only has a population of roughly 7 million. Entire regions are now controlled by trafficking operations making fortunes moving people into Europe while European taxpayers fund the NGOs picking them up offshore like ferry services.
And still the European establishment refuses to secure the borders because migration was never simply about humanitarianism. It became an ideological project tied directly into the destruction of national identity, sovereignty, and social cohesion. Anyone objecting was immediately smeared as “far-right,” “racist,” or “extremist” while governments ignored the obvious reality visible to ordinary citizens walking through their own cities.

The 2015 migration crisis permanently changed Europe politically because populations realized their governments had completely lost control. Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Britain, all saw nationalist and anti-establishment movements surge because the public understood something fundamental. Once a government cannot control its borders, it ceases functioning as a sovereign state.

The establishment constantly tries reducing this to economic statistics and labor shortages because admitting the truth would destroy the entire political narrative. Migration at this scale transforms societies structurally. It impacts housing, crime, wages, healthcare systems, education systems, cultural identity, and political stability simultaneously. Europeans increasingly see entire neighborhoods transformed beyond recognition while governments lecture them about tolerance from behind gated security barriers.

Greece is once again standing directly on the frontline while Brussels contributes little beyond speeches and empty promises. Greek islands and coastal regions were overwhelmed during the last crisis, yet nothing was actually fixed afterward. Europe merely buried the problem temporarily under media management and political intimidation. The infrastructure was never secured. The smuggling routes were never dismantled. The political divisions were never resolved.

Europe is amid a sovereign debt crisis, industrial decline, energy instability, collapsing birth rates, rising unemployment, housing shortages, and falling living standards all at the same time. Then governments intend to dump another massive migration wave directly into that environment and somehow expect social cohesion to survive. These people are completely detached from reality.
What makes this even more infuriating is the hypocrisy. The same elites demanding open borders for Europe surround themselves with private security, gated communities, and insulated political districts while ordinary citizens deal with the consequences. The political class never pays the price for its own policies.

Europe’s leadership still believes this crisis can be managed through censorship, propaganda, and media manipulation. It cannot. Once populations lose faith in the state’s ability to enforce borders and maintain order, political radicalization accelerates rapidly. History is filled with examples of governments collapsing because they ignored public anger until it was too late.
Half a million migrants waiting in Libya is not just another headline. It is another warning sign that Europe is heading deeper into fragmentation, instability, and political confrontation because the people running the continent are either too arrogant or too incompetent to reverse course.

The rumors are that both the EU and India are contemplating using this new virus for lockdowns to force the price of oil back down. Oil during COVID fell to $6.50. Is this the new agenda to deal with an energy crisis?

Americans now owe roughly 1.3 trillion dollars in credit card debt, and the average household carrying balances owes more than $11,000. People are no longer using credit cards for luxury spending. They are using them to survive.

A recent survey found that 42% of Americans believe they will carry credit card debt until they die. Think about what that means psychologically. Nearly half the country no longer sees debt as temporary. They see it as permanent. That is not a sign of prosperity. That is a sign of systemic economic decline.

This is exactly what happens when inflation outpaces wages for years while governments continue pretending the economy is healthy because stock indexes remain elevated. The average person does not live off the S&P 500. They live off monthly cash flow, and that cash flow has been destroyed by rising costs across every category, housing, food, insurance, transportation, and energy.

What is especially dangerous is that interest rates on many credit cards are now above 20%, with some consumers paying closer to 25–30% once penalties and fees are included. At those levels, debt compounds faster than many people can realistically pay it down. The system effectively traps consumers into permanent repayment cycles where they are covering interest rather than principal.

I have warned many times that once society shifts from productive borrowing into survival borrowing, the economy enters a completely different phase. Borrowing to build a business or buy productive assets creates future growth. Borrowing to buy groceries or pay utility bills simply delays the collapse temporarily while making the eventual outcome worse.

The broader numbers are staggering. Americans are simultaneously carrying roughly 1.7 trillion dollars in auto debt, over 12 trillion in mortgage debt, and trillions more in student loans and personal borrowing. Household debt across the board has reached historic highs.

This is why the middle class is disappearing. People are working simply to service debt obligations while the purchasing power of their income continues to decline. That creates enormous social frustration because the official narrative claims unemployment is low and the economy is expanding, yet people feel poorer every single year. Both things can technically exist at the same time if inflation and debt servicing consume real disposable income.

We are already seeing early signs of that stress emerge. Delinquencies on credit cards and auto loans have been rising sharply, especially among younger borrowers and lower-income households. Once defaults begin climbing broadly, banks tighten lending standards, which then reduces liquidity throughout the consumer economy.

The irony is that Washington itself is operating exactly the same way as the average overleveraged consumer. The federal government now runs trillion-dollar deficits routinely while interest payments on the national debt are approaching levels historically associated with sovereign debt crises. The population simply mirrors the behavior of the state.

This is why confidence becomes the key issue going forward. Once consumers lose faith in their financial future, spending patterns change. People stop planning long-term. They delay families, home purchases, investment, and entrepreneurship because survival overtakes expansion. That transition slowly erodes the entire economic structure from underneath.

Credit card debt at 1.3 trillion dollars is not just a statistic. It is evidence that millions of people can no longer maintain living standards through income alone.