US debt will soon reach 39T. They are adding 200B just for this one phase of the war (Iraq added 1T in a few years only, and money back then was much more valuable). Right now, ALL federal income taxes goes to pay the interest on that debt.
Many people see oil hitting $150, $175, $200. This will increase the cost of everything. Let's not even talk about increased fertilizer cost, helium etc.
This would not be so bad, perhaps, if the economy wasn't running on fumes already. Look at the most recent "job creations." Look at the 0.7% "real" GDP growth. Look at what AI is doing; it looks like it could pop any minute. OpenAI (Chatgpt) is supposed to go public and wants to be valued at 1.5T. Yes, one trillion and a half, and openAI charges $20 a month for its premium plan while the real cost is in the hundreds.
NVDA, ORCL, MSFT, META et al. all depend on AI keeping an insane growth trajectory. This trajectory has been financed - partly - by the money printing. For instance, ChatGPT just announced it made a deal with the Pentagon for military and mass surveillance purpose.
Add in everything else - ICE and its camps (people are on edge), Europe self-destructing through immigration, huge debt loads, salaries stagnating, huge job losses (Oracle, meta, etc) and this feels like it's ready to explode.
Canada just announced massive cuts to its services because the deficit is too high. Services here are already trash so at some point, people will figure out their 46% in taxes doesn't really go anywhere. Let's not even talk of the umitigated disaster of mass immigration; we pay immigrants families $320 a day for instance for housing/food/etc. I don't even have $100 a day to live myself, and yet I have to pay for this.
Add in AI job losses that are coming, low wages, extreme inflation, loss of quality of life and you got the perfect recipe for an economic collapse. I mean it was going to collapse anyway, you can't really print 3-4T a year (the amount they admit to) and expect it to last forever. It's not normal that a house that was $200k a few years ago is now $850k. It's not normal that our dollar store doesn't carry dollar products AT ALL anymore, even chocolate bars are $1.25. It's not normal that unemployment just jumped (in Canada), that as a teacher (with a master), I need another job to survive, etc.
All this to say, I think the Iran BS might expose the whole scam. I think there won't be enough to buy $2500 iPhones and $45,000 entry level cars. With Trump deploying even more troops, the US is most likely stuck in this for years. How high will oil go? 10,000 marines are not going to control anything, and even if they do, for how long?
I think oil will rise and stocks will crash. With stocks falling, a LOT of pension plans, who promised way more than they had, will be in trouble. Social security for instance, but also our canadian plan, assumes they'll get 10-15% returns per year, forever. What if they get a -20% year? What if they get a -15% and a -20% year? What then?
What if young people refuse to contribute to it anymore? They'll start businesses, move, work under the table, or just work less. Prefer to enjoy life than feed the machine. I'm a teacher and I'm literally about to quit and check out of society, what happens when people are happy in houses just growing a garden, raising dogs, and living in small community? Who is going to pay their insane tax for DEI and "muh indigenous reparations"? What if people just say "no thank you, I don't want to pay $30 for a burger and fries. No, I won't pay $75 for a steak, or $50 to get a mcdonalds meal by ubereats"?
To be clear, I don't think this iran thing is going to have a massive impact on the economy of the world, but I think it might be the needle that pushes everything over the edge. People refusing to repay their loans, or just giving up on paying super high taxes (look at New York, for instance). People choosing health, and taking care of themselves, rather than finance a system that obliterates them.
Gas is at $8.00 a gallon in Quebec today. I remember I used to think $3 was too much, do you really think I could or want a car today? At this price?
I think oil will keep going up. Iran is going to keep fighting, destroy more oilfields, and eventually bring oil to $200. And then what? I think people just say outloud: "Trump got us into that. Fuck it, I'm done."
Trump will try to bail his way out by printing more and more money, but eventually, interest rates will go up. And so will inflation. Add in crashing stocks, and people will be left with very few options.
I genuinely believe this is another 2007/2008. I sold all my stocks a few weeks ago. It sucks, because I'll be stuck with a huge tax bill for this year, but I do not want to hold through another crisis; it nearly killed me last time.
Thank you for listening
I think that ZOG-USA agreeing to invade Iran for jews actually buys ZOG-USA a few more years.
Basically they were bent over a barrel by the bankers, did what bankers asked, and now buy ZOG-USA a few more years before jews have greater success in the next phase of a ScamDemic or other manufactured crisis.
Eventually jews will rug-pull the currency. But in the meantime jews still need us as their "enforcement arm" for world domination. As soon as jews automate the military (less need for ground troops) then they will gradually discard of us and initiate further destruction of "edom" or "magog" or whatever the fuck the death cult zealot rabbis call America today.
It is very difficult to find a safe haven for your wealth. Land ownership is very risky, especially if you are taking out a loan for it. Also i've recently learned about Adverse possession. And i saw video of cops coming on a man's private property and basically shooting him to death, without a warrant, because he had chased off some trespassers on his land. So basically no private property rights and cops can come on your land and shoot you to death for trying to remove trespassers off your own land. And demanding police come back with a warrant doesn't work. They just escalate and reach for firearms if you dont lick their boots.
Inflation is projected to be over 5% this year which means holding cash it loses value while you hold it. The stock market probably will end the year down this year so you can't make money in normie stocks. Gold and silver prices are heavily manipulated by rigged COMEX exchange and ETFs and futures contracts and other fiat mechanisms to manipulate the market price for gold or silver. Bitcoin might be a digital fiat scam for all we know. Crypto is basically just casino gambling. How do you save money or get ahead?
I did buy a few oil stocks in December and January but kept most of my positions in gold and silver in physical and miners and i got crushed last week with over 10% unrealized losses in one week.
I can sustain some increased cost in gasoline since i own my truck and have extra parts and it is very low insurance and low tax on my truck. So fuel is basically my only cost outside $100 a month insurance. I've been combining trips since the Biden high gas prices in 2022 and 2023. I also accelerate slow and avoid times of heavy traffic to save on fuel and avoid stress, stop and go traffic, excessive red lights, etc.
I think that if i were a bachelor i'd become a good hiker and camper. If you have a good hiking pack, like i do, then with my hiking pack i can survive just about anywhere, even in a patch of brush on the side of a road. I carefully made a spreadsheet of everything i need in a bug out bag and check mark it off as I pack. I've stayed many overnight camping trips on marked and unmarked trails. All my stuff is camo and made to blend in with the trees and nature.
You are right. 2026 looks to be another economic/financial shit show of a year with wars, huge debts, struggling economy.
The job numbers are fake, the inflation numbers are fake, the debt is fucking huge, the justice system is broken, bureaucracy in many ways has stopped working.
The FED is trapped. They can't raise rates, can't lower rates.
Your gut is telling you something and I think you are right and should listen to your gut and instinct and intuition. Very smart move selling your stocks. I held on to mostly mining stocks and i got crushed last week. I think I'm down $6000 from the peak high. Fortunately i had reallocated to some high dividend oil stocks (exxon, chevron, etc) and i tried to buy the dip in SAAS stocks (adobe, salesforce, now, etc) so there wasn't much more room for those stocks to go down. That helped offset some of my losses. I hold on to AMD, MU, and some other tech stocks and they are still doing fairly well. I think i picked up an extra share of AMD on a dip.
You might want to get back in the market. Now that you feel like there's blood in the streets and this is maximum fear, this might be the time to bottom pick some stuff or shop for deals. Or you wait a little bit longer until it is more evident things are recovering a bit.
Later this week or the next, I'm most likely putting 100% into bitcoins. FBTC or something.
Never go all in on one thing and always keep cash as dry powder since the fiat bucks are still liquid and exchangeable
I have level of cash I don't let myself get below. As much as I hate fiat bucks I still keep enough to sustain few months in emergency or to take advantage of a real good deal
I can always sell off gold or silver but I give myself 30 days to fetch the right price.