The Emperor is naked, and the world can't unsee it.
Last week, in this very space, I wrote about how a bunch of goat herders from the Arabian Peninsula had halted world trade.
As I sit here on Wednesday night, one of Zero Hedge's headlines reads, "US Warship Directly Targeted In ‘Largest Ever’ Houthi Red Sea Missile Attack."
I don't know what's funnier: these tribesmen showing up the world's allegedly most potent military or the media trying to pin it on Iran to draw the US into World War III to save Israel's (turkey) bacon.
And if I'm writing about Yemen, what does Russia have to do with it?
Strap yourself in; we're going for a wild ride.
Paging Lloyd Austin... Paging Lloyd Austin.
The US SecDef managed to get a four-day stay in a hospital without President Biden knowing anything about it.
But then again, if President Biden were in the hospital for four days, he wouldn't know it.
The USG is rudderless, leaderless, and listless amid a possible world war into which the bureaucratic Deep State, sitting safely behind their desks, is riding pell-mell.
NATO the US, really is getting its ass kicked in Ukraine. Russia is grinding down, ever so slowly, what's left of the Ukrainian army (and its male population).
And what happens next?
Hamas gets drugged up and commits atrocities in southern Israel that would make Attila the Hun blush.
This tragic mistake Hamas doesn't think it was a mistake, of course allows Israel to open the throttle on the Palestinian population. Or so they thought...
The court of public opinion stepped in. Ludicrous Ivy League graduates called for not just Israeli but for Jewish blood. Their fellow students' blood, no less!
But this isn't isolated. Other than the notable exception of India, the Global South sides with the Palestinians. And many in the West, not just spoiled brat Harvard students, also side with them.
The US and Israel look increasingly isolated.
That wasn't how this was supposed to go. But it seems that the only place you can find a "coalition of the willing" is on the back of a milk carton.
And then, out of absolutely nowhere, the Houthis – as in, and pronounced like, "Who these?" start firing rockets at any ships carrying anything to Israel, blocking the Bab Al-Mandeb strait and choking off the Suez Canal.
Next, shipping companies, at the behest of their London maritime insurers like Lloyd's, canceled Suez routes, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope like a moonwalking Vasco da Gama.
Egypt reels from the lost revenue, nearly 2% of its GDP.
Prices rocket for shipping, the extra time, and the extra fuel.
Inflation grins down on us like Arnold in The Terminator, saying, "I'll be back."
Now, the US has to send in carriers to scare off the camel riders. Does that work?
Nope. Just reread today's headline.
We really must be thankful China doesn't want to invade Taiwan.
Because the Emperor isn't just naked. He's playing naked Twister without having showered for weeks.
Reader, I'd like to welcome you to the new Europe.
The US is no longer the master of a collection of vassal states here.
Russia now holds all the cards.
Europe could never really afford US liquified natural gas (LNG) at 4x the cost of Russian pipelined gas.
The sanctions the EU mindlessly imposed on Russia are the direct cause of Germany's deindustrialization and Italy's nearly quadrupled energy costs. Other European countries similarly suffer.
Sure, it's nothing compared to Ukrainian lives, you may think. But this war was unnecessary and unwinnable from the beginning. I wonder if Boris Johnson feels guilty for stopping a peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine in 2022.
And this stupid war hasn't just cost Europe money. It cost America its empire.
Once the USG seizes the $300 billion of Russia's currently frozen assets, its prestige and reputation for honesty and fairness will also be gone.
As reported by The Duran, negotiations between Russia and the West involve Russia’s demand for the four regions of Ukraine and solid protections for Russian speakers. Putin will likely insist on the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine, leading to a potential future without a Ukrainian state and a disastrous outcome for Ukraine.
In other words, the Russians are playing hardball, while the US just wants to save face.
Putin is Europe's new master now.
Take a bow, Rick Rule.
He was long uranium and uranium stocks long before this announcement. But he saw it coming.
As seen in Reuters:
The U.S. is seeking bids from contractors to help establish a domestic supply of a uranium fuel enriched to higher levels for use in a next generation of reactors, a fuel currently only available in commercial levels from Russia, the Department of Energy said on Tuesday.
I'm sorry. From where?
Russia.
Did you say "Russia?"
Yes. Yes, I did.
Again, from Reuters:
“It’s a chicken-or-egg sort of process,” Jon Carmack, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for nuclear fuel cycle, said in an interview. Carmack said the government needs to invest enough money to show initial demand for producers, so they will build capacity, apply for licenses and get HALEU plant design and construction projects underway.
Do you mean to tell me that the US was dependent on Russia for its enriched uranium?
Yes. If you read this Rude Awakening piece from nearly two... friggin'… years... ago, you knew all about this.
Hilariously, according to The Wall Street Journal in an article from 2022 cited in the Rude above,
The U.S. has met Russia's assault on Ukraine with economic penalties targeting Russia's financial sector and a ban on oil imports into the U.S., but so far, uranium has avoided sanctions.The U.S. relied on Russia and its allies Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for about 46% of its needs in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Your country is run by smooth-brained dipsticks who majored in basket weaving.
Yes, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
But don't sell stocks, gold, or crypto right now.
Really?
Here's where we get positive.
You can be right. Or you can get rich.
Choose the latter.
Sure, Seanie. But how?
One fantastic way to start is to learn how to trade from a genuine pro.
My colleague, Greg Guenthner, is an expert trader and chartist. He can teach you how to read a chart and interpret it.
Matt Insley, our fearless leader here at Paradigm Press, interviewed Greg, or "Gunner," as we call him, about crypto and AI stocks.
You can watch the video on the Paradigm Profits YouTube channel by clicking below...
And make sure you're subscribed by clicking here.
It's amazing. I even wrote it up in the Rude yesterday.
Gunner covered Bitcoin and Bitcoin miners like MARA, RIOT, CLSK, and HUT.
He then turned to AI stocks, discussing industry rockstar NVDA, SMCI, ANET, AMD, and my favorite, PLTR.
He went over all the charts step-by-step. I can't encourage you to watch the video enough.
If you decide you "got the Mott's" to be a sound, competent trader, then head here to sit for a 2-minute assessment. (Sean: I just took the test. It literally takes under two minutes.)
Gunner's looking for 50 newbies he can raise to trader status. Maybe that's you. Maybe not.
There's only one way to find out.
You got the Mott's? Or what?
Accept the challenge.
The Daily Reckoning