A year ago, Europe was involved in a ground war with tanks and artillery, the likes of which had not been seen since World War II. Putin was threatening to use nuclear weapons if NATO intervened. There were legitimate concerns about natural gas availability, food shortages, and a lack of fertilizer. Prices were rising as inflation roared, with food and fuel leading the way.
Most of those scenarios still exist. Some have even grown worse, but we’ve gotten used to them. An egg shortage, higher prices at Walmart, and even the continued nuclear rhetoric of the Russians have become part of the landscape. For those with short memories, they represent a revised baseline, the new normal.
Just as we get used to this new normal, we shoot down Chinese spy balloons, ratcheting up tensions with China. China meets with Russia and starts taking on a larger role on the global stage. We then threaten them with vague “consequences” if China provides weapons to Russia, despite the fact we are providing boatloads of weapons to Ukraine. North Korea is launching a record number of ballistic missiles and bragging about its new nuclear torpedo. War games in the region bring it closer to war than it has been since the 1950s.
In the Middle East, American personnel attacked and killed by Iranian proxies.
Russia flies nuclear capable bombers near the Alaskan coast and then knocks down a U.S. Reaper drone. We have B52s flying just a few miles outside the Russian border in Europe. Russia says it will put nuclear weapons to Belarus. Finland moves closer to joining NATO. Military activity in the Arctic ramps up. The U.S. sends more nuclear submarines out to sea. Poland sends fighter jets to Ukraine. The Chinese keep building missiles.
Let’s face it, the world is becoming a more dangerous place. Warring-nations dangerous. Scary-nuclear-weapons dangerous.
Domestic Problems
Meanwhile, back at home, things are growing more precarious, thanks in part to the collapse of several banks as the rising Fed rate finally takes its toll. Banking contagion spreads to Europe where Credit Suisse narrowly averted collapse thanks to a timely (and government prompted) bailout bid from USB. This weekend, Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest lender and their equivalent to our Bank America, is on shaky ground after its stocks plunged late last week. Investor confidence in the global bank is dropping with its share prices, which just makes its recovery that much more in doubt.
In the U.S., our largest banks are not yet collapsing, but if Deutsche Bank fails, it will be a cannon shot across the bows of our top ten banks. The echoes of that shot will herald more problems to come in Europe and the U.S.
The banking system problems occur just weeks after the government cut back on food stamps. Housing values are falling. These economic problems are taking place time when the Federal debt ceiling has been reached, and the government is using “extreme measures” to avoid a default.
In other words, the odds of the economy worsening are larger than the odds of it turning around. If that’s not enough to sink us, let’s throw in more political turmoil with the threatened arrest of Donald Trump. His use of social media to leverage a grand jury investigation into media attention intended to propel him forward in the race for president are getting a portion of America riled up.
And who can ignore rail car derailments and environmental disasters, floods and blizzards, stupid laws on green energy, unconstitutional attacks on the Second Amendment, and a Congress split between two warring parties unlikely to agree on anything.
What’s Next?
I predict a summer of civil unrest. I expect we will see more protests and more marches, many of which will see their good causes hijacked by ANTIFA and other parties sponsored not by Americans but by foreign donors who wish to undermine the country and create more division.
There are already protests around the world, but they barely make the news here in the U.S. Millions march in France to protest raising the retirement age. Many are marching in Israel to protest changes to the judicial system.
Here at home, Trump is calling for protests if he is arrested. People who didn’t learn from January 6 will respond. The same prosecutors and judges who release ANTIFA rioters with no bail will keep Trump supported locked up for months. The FBI will decide who is guilty and then start an investigation to substantiate their opinions.
Later this year, Americans will be marching to protest the economic collapse, bank closures, the loss of spending power, and the weakening of the U.S. dollar, the rising ate of home foreclosures and car repossessions, and the death of the American Dream.
Meanwhile, investigations into Hunter Biden and the “Biden Crime Family” will continue but achieve nothing, the Supreme Court will make more decisions governors and bureaucrats will try to undermine, our taxes will go up, and Washington will spend more money with little to show for it.
This is How a Collapse Starts
This, my friends, is how a collapse starts. It isn’t one event that results in a collapse, it is an overwhelming collection of bad news, dangerous events, economic setbacks, external pressure, internal rebellion, and an incompetent government that is run by a man who cannot string together multiple complete sentences or walk up stairs unaided.
War. Recession. A banking collapse. Inflation. Protests and unrest. A partisan Congress. Disasters. Floods. Division. A wakened dollar. A woke military. We don’t know what will break the camel’s back, but we know we are close to that point.
Let’s remember how the Soviet Union collapsed. One day, they were an evil empire that looked like a threat; the next day, the wall came down and the decay and rot became visible.
Are you prepared for that to happen here?
Don’t miss the follow-up article on surviving this kind of collapse.
