"Things which cannot continue, don't."
Those on this board know that Trump and his team are doing EPIC things to repair America -- judicially, militarily, socially (buh-bye, gov't-sanctioned DEI), and in other ways -- including ECONOMICALLY.
I never thought I'd see such single-minded, honest, and EFFECTIVE campaigns from an American president to Make America Solvent Again (and MAGA generally, of course).
But the Flood is going to hit soon, and the Ark is not yet ready. Trump can only do so much in the short time he has. Unwinding a CENTURY+ of malfeasance, theft, and other corruption cannot be done so quickly. A good start has been made, but . . . please do what you can NOW to prepare for bank failures, for loss of income, for whatever else you believe might come your way if the current situation turns to 1930's style depression.
I don't expect that to be long-lived, but it'll hurt. Believe me.
The most dangerous number in finance right now is 1.71%.
That’s Japan’s 10-year bond yield. Highest since 2008. Here’s why your retirement just got obliterated:
For 30 years, Japan printed infinity money at 0% rates and exported it worldwide. $3.4 trillion flowed into US Treasuries, European debt, emerging markets. This invisible bid kept YOUR mortgage cheap, YOUR stocks inflated, YOUR government solvent.
November 10th, 2025: The bid disappeared.
. . . Here’s the extinction event nobody sees coming:
Japanese pension funds are pulling $1.1 trillion OUT of US Treasuries right now because keeping money in America LOSES them money after hedging costs. The largest foreign buyer of American debt is becoming a seller.
When Japan stops buying, interest rates don’t stay flat. They explode. US 10-year yields will jump 40 basis points minimum from flow dynamics alone. Your 7% mortgage becomes 8%. Corporate debt refinancing costs spike 60%. Zombie companies holding $3 trillion in junk bonds start defaulting in waves.
The yen carry trade just reversed. $1.2 trillion in borrowed yen funding crypto, stocks, emerging markets must unwind. Every hedge fund, every momentum trade, every leveraged bet built on free Japanese money is getting margin called simultaneously.
This breaks in three places:
Stock valuations were built for 2% bond yields forever. At 3.5% yields, the S&P 500 fair value drops 35%. Emerging market currencies collapse without Japanese capital inflows. Europe’s debt crisis returns because Italy and Spain lose their silent buyer.
December 18th the Bank of Japan meets. 50% chance they hike again. If they do, sell everything not nailed down.
Your 401k doesn’t price this in yet. The Fed can’t stop this. No central bank can.
The world’s biggest piggy bank just cracked open and the money is flowing backwards.
This is by design. Its not just Japan but all countries. Let me explain. USD has always been the mode of financial control over the world. First it was based on Petro-Dollar - force countries to sell oil only in USD and boom, every country needs to maintain USD reserves to be able to survive. You create artificial demand for the USD you print. After 2008 it became far more complicated than just petro dollars. They motivated and induced many big countries to keep expanding their USD holdings - Japan and China the biggest two.
Japan esp. was forced to print money at 0% and use it to buy up USD. The Big Banks would buy up those Yens at 0% interest and invest them in Euros etc and make free money.
One of the ways they did this is by the trade deficit. Countries running surplus against US end up with large USD reserves. But this was also a powerful weapon. Countries got weaned into this system and could be hugely punished by "sanctions" if they did not bend to the will of the US.
This is basically the USD hegemony - controlling the world using USD, printed with the borrowing against future of American people, used to control the world. This is how Globalism spread its winds and the woke ideology, the Climate cult, the forever wars, etc etc got funded.
Trump is de-weaponising the USD. It will still be a world reserve currency, but without the world hegemony - without coercing and controlling the countries around the world.
There are two parts to this: Countries need to be able to safely unload the US treasuries AND US should be able to create demand to these treasuries so that USD would not collapse. USD would be expected to be devalued, and this is good news for American exporters, but it wont collapse.
The first part is done by allowing countries to calculate their gold holdings as reserves and so countries are moving to buy gold and divest USD.
The second part is where the GENIUS Act and the new stable coins will come into picture. This will allow US Treasuries to be held by any person in the world - billions of people holding it without Banks in the middle. They will also be backed by assets. When the Gold holdings of US are revalued to market price suddenly the US reserves will shoot up. There is more to this, but that is effectively what is happening.
TL;DR: USD is being deweaponised while still being able to act as a world reserve currency on its own merits without any hegemony.
That's nicely put and it's pretty much how I see it as well (although I'm not as comfortable with the crypto component as I wish I were). But getting rid of fiat and the fed, putting the dollar on a solid foundation including a large gold component, and ending the income tax in favor of tariffs and fees -- overturning most of the (corrupt) financial foundations of the past century -- that won't happen without serious disruption.
I suspect it'll be a rough ride for awhile. We'll see.
A year ago, I thought I had a good idea how this disruption was going to happen - like a collapse under Biden's watch - which sounded perfect on paper but in reality would have caused uncontrolled Chaos - exactly what the enemy wants.
From what I am watching Trump do, I feel might not be a serious disruption at all. The entire pathway has already been etched, and every country - even the ostensibly adverse ones - are following this path, (even though they make it sound like they are dumping USD and trying to crash US). I am starting to believe that there may be a final "switch" that coincides with the rest of the precipice but its only to grab people's attention.
😮 Genius Act indeed!
Good explanation. Thanks. And probably what POTUS was conspiring to do when he recently visited the new Japanese Prime Minister.
I think what Trump did with Japanese PM and also other countryies' leaders is outlining the change in US interaction with each of those countries - how US will give up the chains (USD hegemony) and replace it with handshakes (Trade deals), and I am sure some of the final points had to be discussed personally.