Running On Empty

Posted on March 13, 2026 by MN Gordon

The opening bombardment of Operation Epic Fury on February 28 succeeded in taking out the heart of the Iranian regime. But it also triggered extreme geopolitical instability in the Middle East and severed the aorta of the global economy.

The massive barrage of missile strikes, the chaotic swarm of counter-drone attacks, and the succession of Mojtaba Khamenei offer sensational headline material. Yet the real destruction, the kind that reshapes civilizations, isn’t happening in the smoky ruins of Tehran. It’s happening in the empty shipping lanes of the Strait of Hormuz.

Skyrocketing oil prices are a noted precursor to declining economic activity. Higher gas prices are not just an inconvenient market fluctuation. They act as a regressive tax on every single human being who eats, moves, or buys things. When the price of gas spikes and the pumps run dry, the very foundation of the global economy crumbles.

As of March 12, Californians are already paying $5.36 per gallon to fill up their cars. That may seem like a lot if you’re living elsewhere. In the south, for example, we’re paying $3.22 per gallon. Continue reading →

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The Suffocating Fog of AI Generated Warfare

Posted on March 6, 2026 by MN Gordon

“War is the realm of uncertainty; three-quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. A sensitive and discriminating judgment is called for; a skilled intelligence to scent out the truth.”

– Carl von Clausewitz, On War (1832)

Wrong Lesson from Caracas

Do you get the sense that the world is being run by a menacing algorithm?

Between the capture of Maduro in January and the current war in Iran, we’ve moved from strategic operations to what feels like a high-stakes beta test for AI generated warfare.

In early January, the world watched as Operation Absolute Resolve snatched Nicolás Maduro and his wife from Caracas in a lightning strike. To the White House, this was the ultimate proof of concept. A clean, surgical extraction that decapitated a regime with zero U.S. casualties.

But Iran isn’t Venezuela. By applying the Maduro Playbook to Tehran – specifically the assassination of the Supreme Leader on February 27 – the Trump administration ignored the fundamental difference between a crumbling narco-state and a deeply ideological, regional powerhouse.

Capturing Maduro was a police action. Martyring the Ayatollah was a religious and geopolitical earthquake. Instead of a peaceful transition, the USA-Israel consortium triggered a phased retaliation from Iran that Alastair Crooke notes is designed to systematically evict the U.S. from the Middle East entirely. Continue reading →

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The Dutch Blueprint for the Global Middle Class Heist

Posted on February 27, 2026 by MN Gordon

“Meten is weten.” (Measuring is knowing)

– Dutch proverb

Taxing Phantoms

If you want to see the future of socialism and its rabid appetite to consume your life savings, you don’t have to look at the history books. Instead, look at the Netherlands.

On February 12, 2026, the Dutch House of Representatives passed the Actual Return in Box 3 Act (Wet werkelijk rendement box 3). On the surface, it’s promoted as a fairness correction to a system the Dutch Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2021. In reality, it is a financial suicide note that turns every investor into a tenant of the state.

Instead of returning to sanity following the Supreme Court ruling, the Hague doubled down. This new bill is the supposed correction. But it replaces the prior tax on assumed return with a rapacious system that treats your portfolio’s fluctuating value as a liquid ATM for the state.

This legislative overreach ignores the fundamental principle of private property, effectively penalizing success before it is even realized. It also signals a predatory shift where the fruits of your labor and risk-taking are no longer your own, but rather a communal pool for bureaucratic redistribution. Continue reading →

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Grinding the American Middle Class to Dust

Posted on February 20, 2026 by MN Gordon

The housing market, for much of the 20th century, was the bedrock of the American Dream. Home ownership, and the financial stability it represents, was a sure path to middle-class prosperity.

That dream turned to a nightmare for many American families during the epic real estate bubble and subsequent bust in 2008-09. What’s more, in the near two decades that followed, federal monetary policies coupled with restrictive local development standards have huffed and puffed an even more perilous bubble than the last one.

Now the crumbling façade of American real estate and the associated economic squeeze has become too great to ignore. To understand why the real estate market is falling apart, you must look at who’s expected to buy the houses. The arithmetic simply doesn’t work.

We’ve reached the point where discretionary income, the money left over after you’ve paid for basic needs, has effectively vanished for much of the population. When 67 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, saving for a down payment is impossible. Continue reading →

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