French President Macron is correct that the EU needs their own national military! Unfortunately for Macron the EU is up to their eyeballs in debt and withdrawing from their international military (NATO) would require a nationalistic political will that does not exist. The EU can do one or the other, it can’t do both. Eventually the USA will come to this same conclusion. America can either defend itself in the East or the West but not both. Over time the US will continue to move its increasingly limited military assets to the Pacific. Ironically the sooner the EU embraces military nationalism the safer it will make the world for Democracy!

In the 19^th Century, Europe lead by the British Empire was on first base. In the 20^th Century, America lead by the US was on first base. In the 21st Century, Asia lead by China will be on first base. As the USA moves to second base WHAT kind of global role it plays remains to be seen but one assumes that it will be increasingly a Pacific driven strategy. As for who will be on 3^RD base during the Chinese Century will it be the EU or will it be Russia?

                                                             I DON’T KNOW!

Any future economic collapse in the US will drive the usual guns versus butter political debate. Only this time around we will have a much higher percentage of our population (60%) who will be largely dependent on government largesse. For the military this debate is made even more challenging given its conversion from a citizen soldier to a professional soldier. This disconnection of the armed forces from the vast majority of Americans who did not serve will make it even more likely that any future political decision will favor passing the fat* over passing the ammo!      

*If the voter’s choice comes down to Grandma living on her own (butter) or Grandma living in their basement (guns) then bring on the cholesterol

Western style socialist democracies are using increasing quantities of debt to sustain their citizen’s standard of living. In the USA we are running a huge deficit with Medicare health costs and even the interest payments on our national debt* could outstrip Medicare debt. If the West fails to fix this you should expect a global economic collapse within the next decade. This will be a long term depression as the West will be unable to borrow its way out of it as it did with the Great Recession of 2008. Banks and others that were saved by TARP will fail this time around exacerbating and accelerating this crash. Asia lead by China will then become the Economic world leader and as they say “He who has the gold rules”.  

* The almost 3 trillion dollar Social Security surplus is being applied against the national debt and as that is paid out to retirees our debt will increase accordingly!

Beginning this year, Social Security will pay out more money from their trust fund than they will take in to the fund. Unless things change they will deplete this fund by 2034. What that means for people born after 1968 is that every single dollar YOU have put into Social Security for YOUR retirement will have been given to someone else*. Perhaps another reason why there is a pyramid on the US dollar….

* Assumes you are not disabled during this time period.

Just like the Pharaohs of Egypt we are building our version of the Pyramids. These Pyramids are getting larger and larger for Presidents who are accomplishing less and less. And we are literally burying our presidential pharaohs inside them as well. I can’t wait to see the Trump Tower Library!