Coming in Hot
At the present rate, the war would add about a half a trillion to the US deficit this year. If it goes on as long as the war in Afghanistan, it will add $10 trillion to the debt.
Friday, March 20th, 2026
Bill Bonner, from Youghal, Ireland
‘It’s amazing how much damage we can do...’
—Donald Trump, proudly
Many US households are beset by an almost constant disagreement. It goes something like this:
“Well, at least he stopped those illegal aliens from coming over to rob and rape us.”
“The crime rate for immigrants — even illegal immigrants — was always lower than it was for native born Americans. And you’re talking about killing people? Who’s killing people now, in the Middle East? Huh?”
“Not enough of them. They’re bad people. They want to kill us all; finally, we’ve got a president willing to do something about it.”
“And we should thank him, too, for bringing jobs back to America.”
“What jobs? Job growth is slower than under Biden.”
On and on, the argument continues...like a never-ending loop in a lunatic’s mind...rehearsing injustices, humiliations, and disappointments.
But while it goes on...the primary trends are ignored. Comes the National Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget with bad news:
Surpassing $39 trillion in gross debt is an embarrassing milestone that both parties have helped build over decades, and neither seems particularly interested in addressing it before we hit $40 trillion.
No matter what metric one chooses to examine our fiscal trajectory, we are clearly headed in the wrong direction. Gross debt is now $39 trillion; debt held by the public recently surpassed $31 trillion for the first time; deficits are approaching $2 trillion; and deficits as a share of the economy are twice as large as the 3% goal many economists and bipartisan policymakers believe we ought to be targeting.
Markets are paying close attention to our fiscal situation, and every time we hit a new milestone, we risk spooking them.
A nation this deep in the hole ought to be struggling to get out. Instead, the US brings in the earth movers. Too much debt? Too much military spending? Add more.
In this regard, the attack on Iran seems almost too perfect to be true.
At the present rate, the war would add about a half a trillion to the US deficit this year. If it goes on as long as the war in Afghanistan, it will add $10 trillion to the debt. But that’s just a tally of the immediate expenses — bombs, fuel, missiles, etc. But the longer the attack goes on...and the broader the fighting becomes...the more ‘second- and third-order’ damage we do.
This week, CNBC anchor Rick Santelli declared that producer prices were ‘coming in hot.’ The PPI showed a 0.7 percent increase for February, twice the expected number.
This too, along with bombed-out buildings and decomposing bodies, is part of the ‘damage’ that a war can do. But there’s more...
Unprovoked wars also alienate allies. Megatron:
CNN claims that since the start of the US war against Iran, the country’s popularity worldwide has fallen by 79%. The only country more unpopular than the United States is Israel.
And they also drive other nations to ‘gun up’ to protect themselves. Everybody wastes more money on defense because they feel threatened. The ‘rules based’ system of international relations has been replaced with a ‘might makes right’ ethos that favors the most powerful nations at the expense of lesser ones.
And it gets worse. In a campaign that was supposed to have something to do with eliminating terrorism, suddenly terror is back in style. Now, you can liquidate foreigners and feel good about it. Trump:
“They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”
Oh those playful gods...setting traps for the most powerful among us. No human could come up with something so elegant, so poetically dumbass. In a conventional fight, America’s ships, planes, bombs and tanks would win every time.
But the Trump/Netanyahu duo gave away the advantage. They’ve made assassination acceptable. And now even the most woebegone shithole fanatic, with a mail-order pistol, can gun down a patriot.
Stay tuned...
Regards,
Bill Bonner
From former Congressman David Stockman: "...we are dealing with what amounts to a war with 21st century technology of destruction based on religious fanaticism. And we do not mean that of the Shiite clerics who misrule the Iranian people.
The real fanatics are Bibi Netanyahu and the neocon warmongers domiciled in the banks of the Potomac. They have created a “47-Year War on America” narrative which is an utter, complete and unmitigated Big Lie.
This horrific Big Lie has become embodied in the most senseless war by far that the American Warfare State has yet launched.
And it is not only jeopardizing upwards of one-fourth of of globally consumed petroleum and LNG-based hydrocarbons, but the global food supply, too."
Here come the parade of Knowitall elitist academics and do nothing but complain blame and spew horse manure at those of us who either voted Trump or support the effort to rid the world of one of the most repressive evil satanic regimes in world history right up there with YOU KNOW WHO in Nazi Germany, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung. But here at BPR its all about skewed historical references, half baked ideas and getting click bait with molotov cocktail postings like this. Nonsense. Ignore it. or deplore it and push back like me. TRUE human rights activists should be up in arms about Iran...that REGIME, who yesterday hung a 19year old protestor, a world class wrestler and others, who did nothing but protest the killings of 30,000 BEFORE TRUMP EVEN STARTED BOMBING WITH BIBI. Getting a nuke categorically unacceptable to the world for Iran but they were defiant belligerent and adamant to do so. And ENDING 47 years of TERROR including over 2,000 american deaths, mayhem, meddling, assassination plots against Israel and TRUMP and treating women like chattle and cattle and taking all the money they earned on oil revenues for their MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX and NUKES in Iran and NOT the people to feed clothe and house them or normalize relations and trade, is a worthwhile wager and while War is HELL, it is often necessary for SELF DEFENSE (ample reasons here people) and to END A THREAT AND FIX THE MIDDLE EAST ONCE AND FOR ALL. The Saudis, Jordanians, Kuwaitis and Emirates quietly were SUPPORTING US. True, Iran has been firing off every missile in their arsenal in Armeggedon style, a state of being they DESIRE frankly in their SICK VIEW they go to Heaven, when they wont and DONT, and I am also disgusted at our NATO EURO feckless friends and cowards. I criticize Trump often when he deserves it. HERE IN IRAN HE DESERVES OUR GRATITUDE. LISTEN TO GEN JACK KEANE, retired Four Star, who is a FINE FINE MAN, and OUTSTANDING GENERAL who GETS IT AND IS TAPPED INTO IC and whats going on, BUT NOT BILL BONNER. And the people here who are isolationist, libertarian lunatics elected to NOTHING. Thank God.