Thank you for your service!
Wednesday, January 21st, 2026
Bill Bonner, from Rancho Santana, Nicaragua
Hey... here’s a new use for that tariff duct tape: forcing the foreigners to join his shammy Board of Peace. The Mirror:
Trump threatens wild 200% tariff on French wine after Macron refuses to join proposed Board of Peace
“I’ll put a 200 percent tariff on his wines and champagnes. And he’ll join. But he doesn’t have to join,” Trump stated, speaking about the French leader. “No-one wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon,” he added in a swipe at the President of France.
We have great confidence in our president’s team. Their historical mission — of which they are unaware — seems to be to speed up the decline and fall of the US empire.
And they’re doing a great job. Let us count the ways...or let’s let John Dienner do it for us:
He has grabbed the President of Venezuela (kidnapped), seized multiple foreign owned oil tankers (piracy on the high seas), dropped bombs on Iran’s nuclear development site, Somalia, Nigeria, and Syria (acts of war), threatened Iran’s and Colombia’s political leaders with military attack for their drug dealing, corruption, and violent suppression of protests (”war mongering”), threatened the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank with criminal charges for his reluctance to lower interest rates as demanded (intimidation) and threatened to seize Greenland, the protectorate of a NATO ally. His belligerence toward and tariff attacks on Canada push his neighbor to the north into the welcoming arms of China, the US’s major antagonist. He proposes price controls of 10% on credit card interest rates evidently unaware that millions of people with low credit scores will have their credit limits reduced, if not their cards cancelled.
You’ll recall, the empire rested on three pillars — the most dynamic economy in the world...reliable support for the rules (rather than pure force)...and the world’s strongest military.
As to the first pillar — the economy — the US is now being upstaged by China’s larger post; China is the world’s biggest exporter. The US economy is also being knocked down by Trump’s policies — notably tariffs, deficits, and the weaponized dollar. BBC:
A manufacturing company has said it is pulling out of investments in the US, losing $400,000 in revenue over Donald Trump’s tariff uncertainty. The US president has recently doubled down on his threat to take control of Greenland, insisting he will impose tariffs on several countries, including the UK, if they oppose any takeover.
CNBC:
Bond selloff accelerates as Trump ramps up tariff threats
U.S. Treasurys and other countries’ government bonds continued to sell off on Tuesday, as the White House’s rhetoric on tariffs fueled fresh fears of a trade war between the U.S. and Europe. By 6:10 a.m. ET, yields on U.S. Treasury yields had spiked, particularly at the long end of the maturity curve. The yield on the 30-year Treasury jumped 9 basis points higher to trade at 4.93%, taking it closer to the crucial 5% threshold.
Reuters:
‘Danish pension fund AkademikerPension said on Tuesday it would sell off its holding of U.S. Treasuries, worth some $100 million, by the end of this month, blaming weak U.S. government finances.’
Meanwhile, yesterday, the value of the dollar — in gold — sagged below 4,700 of them to a single ounce of gold. The Dow/Gold ratio is approaching 10 — down from over 40 in 1999. And still falling?
Let’s see. Our dearest friends have become enemies. The Independent:
Canada prepping response to hypothetical US invasion, report says.
Foreigners are dropping the dollar. Global Media Watch:
Dollar Collapse Warning: 10 Countries, 45% of the World Just Ditched the USD
And since the US president didn’t get the Peace Prize, he’ll start putting America first. BBC:
“I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper’ for the US.”
What was he doing before? We don’t know.
But…thank you for your service!
Regards,
Bill Bonner
Japan’s 10-year bond yield has gone ‘parabolic’ in recent trading, reaching a mutli-decade high of 2.34%. Is the global government debt bubble bursting, driving bond yields higher and spurring even more accumulation of safe haven assets like gold?
Does anyone else find it ironic that at the same time the Trump administration rails against the lack of democracy in Venezuela and Iran they also threaten to takeover of Greenland without giving the Greenlanders a say in the matter? I've seen polls indicating that 85% of them do not want to become a colony of the US.
Trump and a large part of the American public still believe that tariffs are paid by China or France or whomever, but they are paid by us; the consumer. I’m a manufacturer; and have been for 40 years, I have sourced everything I can in the US. Some things I cannot, because they aren’t made here mostly due to onerous environmental laws on foundries. Now I pay an 85% tariff to import parts. Tell me how that helps.