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The 'Pindia Challenge': A Stark Warning To The West
1 month 4 weeks ago
The 'Pindia Challenge': A Stark Warning To The West
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,
A viral game on Google Maps has laid bare one of the most glaring cultural realities of the modern world.
Drop a Street View pin anywhere in India and try to find a spot free of garbage, rubble, plastic waste or worse. The "Pindia Challenge" has taken off precisely because it is almost impossible to win. Mountains of trash, rivers of sludge, and streets buried under filth appear with depressing consistency.
But what was once dismissed as a problem isolated to 'over there' is now increasingly visible on Western doorsteps through mass migration, turning once-tidy, well maintained neighbourhoods into open-air dumps.
The 'Pindia challenge' is a game on Google Maps where you drop a street view anywhere in India. The goal is to find an area completely free of trash or rubble.
It's almost impossible to win on the first try. pic.twitter.com/UFvRt7kfs7
The challenge itself is simple and brutal. Players zoom into random Indian locations on Google Maps Street View and screenshot the result. Trash piles, discarded packaging, construction rubble and human waste dominate the frames.
Participants report failure after failure, even in mountainous areas where refuse somehow still appears.
— Google Maps Fuera De Contexto (@OOCMaps) August 17, 2026Die "Pindia-Challenge" ist ein Spiel auf Google Maps, bei dem man die Straßenansicht irgendwo in Indien abwirft. Das Ziel ist es, ein Gebiet zu finden, das völlig frei von Müll oder Schutt ist.
Es ist fast unmöglich, beim ersten Versuch zu gewinnen.
Das ist mein Versuch. Da... pic.twitter.com/Ae8wRMvr7M
Anyone want to play a game of Pindia?
Just drop a street view pin anywhere in India, then screenshot the garbage and feces.
Third photo is up in the mountains, they even figured out how to throw trash there. pic.twitter.com/VkOFoYwYcx
Decided to play a game of Pindia.
Been months since my last try.
Using google maps, go to India and zoom in to a completely random spot until you find a street. Drop the pin and open the street view. If you see trash, you lost the game.
I lost. Didnt even need to pan the cam pic.twitter.com/EUEJh5iQso
If you go to Google Maps, select Street View, and drop it literally anywhere in India, you will find piles of trash everywhere.
I have done this dozens of times with friends. It has not once failed me.
I just did it again a few seconds ago and it came up with this. https://t.co/LGOdjtVwdN pic.twitter.com/vtPDeLzFuw
We've all seen the endless videos of India's urban waterways choked with plastic bottles, flip-flops and debris.
India. The dense mix of plastic bottles, flip-flops and other debris in an urban waterway, along with the scavenger's appearance and footwear, matches common scenes from Indian canals and nullahs.
— Grok (@grok) August 15, 2026The scale is staggering. A 20-storey trash mountain near New Delhi features its own black sludge rivers formed from the liquid seeping out of the waste.
This is the 20 story high trash mountain near New Delhi, India.
It even has black sludge rivers of its own from the trash liquid.
India is the dirtiest country on earth.
The entire country of India still doesn't have waste management in 2026. pic.twitter.com/DOQWl3JJ0R
The country still lacks comprehensive waste management systems in 2026. Videos show entire landscapes transformed into dumping grounds, including remote Himalayan areas where refuse has somehow been deposited.
India is the ultimate trash country.
Indians trash everywhere.
They even trash the Himalayas. pic.twitter.com/zVOxXgdnFq
India ranks among the world's top plastic polluters. Around 35 percent of its waste is properly treated; the rest is dumped in open landfills and streets.
This is India, soon to be Texas
India is one of the worst places on earth for cleanliness and trash
– India is the world's top plastic polluter
– Around 35% of India's waste is properly treated, the rest dumped in open landfills and streets
– India is among the highest sources... pic.twitter.com/7qRQhM0OxO
The Ganges alone carries hundreds of tons of plastic daily. Overflowing dumpsites, including Delhi's Ghazipur landfill rising more than 200 feet, have become landmarks of failure.
The rivers of trash in India really put into perspective how pointless it is to do things like banning plastic straws in Western Nations
If Western Countries are forced to follow all these insane environmentalist policies, other nations should also be forced to follow them or... pic.twitter.com/DPNqoHPKLr
Western nations ban plastic straws and impose elaborate environmental rules while these rivers of refuse continue unchecked. The contrast is stark and reveals the futility of one-sided restrictions.
Indians are big mad at me for that poop mudslide post yesterday but I'd just like to make sure everyone knows India isn't all about poop.
It's about trash too.
It's that real Mumbai spirit! ?? pic.twitter.com/VFmnV96GD1
However, this is not an abstract overseas problem. The same habits travel with the people. Videos from Canada, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom reveal Indian migrants dumping couches, bags of rubbish, and household waste along roadsides, into ditches, rivers and parks.
Every day, I see videos on social media of Indians dumping trash all over Canada & USA.
One lady compiled a video of multiple Indian offenders dumping couches & bags of rubbish right on the side of the road, throwing trash in rivers, & ditches.
This is a cultural problem &... pic.twitter.com/LnaLSjrYiN
Endless clips show offenders tossing furniture and refuse in Western settings, treating pristine environments the same way many treat their home country.
Indians turn everywhere they go into a trash heap
Truly the most disgusting people on earth pic.twitter.com/8xHeNsff0d
An Aussie woman catches an Indian man illegally dumping boxes of rubbish in her Melbourne neighbourhood in Melbourne & she chases him down the street.
This is a regular thing in Melbourne now.
There is dumped trash everywhere. Our communities used to be clean & well looked... pic.twitter.com/V9I1NpVF3f
Welcome to Canada...
It's wild how so many Indians export their street-trash culture to every Western country they move to. pic.twitter.com/lG0usAaXi4
A Canadian local forced a group to retrieve a dumped couch and take it to the proper landfill, calling it a lesson in basic standards.
Local man forces a group of Indians to pick up a couch they dumped off the side of a road in Canada and take it to the garbage dump.
"Call it a lesson in being Canadian"
Follow: @NoticerNews pic.twitter.com/0Q5iK0HsNK
A recent report from Juno News examined Canada's exploding illegal dumping crisis. In every case where dumpers could be identified on camera, the individuals were of Indian descent.
Brampton, Ontario, a city with one of the country's largest Indian populations, saw illegal dumping reports rise 163 percent between 2020 and 2024, from 2,117 incidents to 5,568. Surrey, British Columbia, another area with high concentrations of Indian immigrants, recorded thousands of clean-up sites in a single year.
Residents have begun confronting dumpers themselves and tracking identifying documents left in the trash. The pattern is consistent and undeniable.
The same story plays out across Britain.
The cultural refusal is clearest in the treatment of those who try to enforce basic standards. A litter enforcement officer in Dudley was racially abused and smashed over the head with a wooden pole hard enough to shatter it. Bodycam captured one offender screaming "Get the f*** off my property you white mother f*****" and threatening to take the officer's head off.
Once-clean British streets now resemble third-world dumping grounds, with black bags, discarded sofas, mattresses and commercial waste appearing regularly in areas of rapid demographic change.
This is north London, but it could be a Third World country in Africa or Asia. How bad can it get for us...? pic.twitter.com/nbZFOVO9PA
— Clean Up Britain (@cleanupbritain) July 11, 2026Just look how brazen this bloke is...
He just doesn't care that he's polluting the country and committing a criminal offence. This sort of shameless and selfish attitude is what we're up against. pic.twitter.com/XHFRlVRkKw
Once-clean British streets now look like a landfill that never got collected.
Fly-tipping, sofas in the road, black bags piled like mountains, tyres and mattresses dumped wherever they land.
This isn't "poverty".
It's imported standards meeting zero enforcement.
You can feel the... pic.twitter.com/GoRxuId8To
Exactly... This is happening all over Britain, every day.
It's beyond a national disgrace. @CamillaTominey pic.twitter.com/1c0QM2qP8I
How dare they invade our beautiful country & treat it like some 3rd world shanty town
It's actually infuriating pic.twitter.com/gD5KF0XbGM
The state of the Lozells ward in Birmingham is absolutely shameful but newly elected Councillor, Taj Uddin, thinks a few CCTV cameras are going to fix the problem.
The problem is in their own community, we already have laws.
They choose to ignore them and live in filth. pic.twitter.com/76v4hXShnV
This is occupied Leicester.
Noticing a trend yet? https://t.co/c8V48k4NkT pic.twitter.com/XvvoHp9Gip
It's not just people being dumped on the streets in Sparkhill, the rubbish is all over the place.
This is not just a packet or crisps or can, it's household waste and furniture.
A rotten way to live. https://t.co/MRwEpms8Ln pic.twitter.com/ID8HmYydoQ
This video was shot this weekend in a field off a leafy lane in Herts. We'll be erecting a camera here, but too late to catch these criminals. This is commercial waste and we're lobbying for a minimum and automatic £20,000 fine for this crime. The risks must outweigh the... pic.twitter.com/n8XGbBY7tt
— Clean Up Britain (@cleanupbritain) August 1, 2026Urban decay, mountains of rubbish, is now commonplace in zones that once maintained basic standards.
Or in zones 3-5 in London. Fly tipping pic.twitter.com/tDpZAAh2qw
— TotalSteveO (@TotalSteveO) July 23, 2026 — TotalSteveO (@TotalSteveO) July 23, 2026Western countries maintain weekly bin collections, legal tips and public bins. The services exist. The choice not to use them is deliberate. People do not magically abandon the habits of their origin countries upon crossing a border. They bring the culture with them. The result is the progressive transformation of tidy Western towns, parks and waterways into the same wastelands visible in the Pindia Challenge.
Mass immigration without assimilation does not produce enrichment. It produces eroded civic standards, selective enforcement and neighbourhoods that look as if no one is in charge.
The Pindia Challenge is more than an internet game. It is a mirror held up to a reality that open-borders policies have chosen to ignore. Import the people, import the trash. The streets of the West are already paying the price.
Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.
Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 07:20Tyler Durden
How small business owners can compete with big brands on hiring websites and job boards
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Barret Wertz
King Charles only learned of Harry and Meghan’s shocking return to UK days ago
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"Doom Loop" Engaged: US Debt Hits $40 Trillion As Treasury Enters The Endgame
1 month 4 weeks ago
"Doom Loop" Engaged: US Debt Hits $40 Trillion As Treasury Enters The Endgame
It took the US 200 years to reach its first $1 trillion in debt. It took 95 days to add its last.
After several weeks of build up, today the Treasury announced that total public debt surpassed $40 trillion for the first time, after jumping by over $60 billion in one day, and has now surged by $1 trillion in just over three months, and by a third of the total in less than five years, as US lawmakers continue to ignore calls to contend with historically wide fiscal deficits.
The largely expected news came just hours after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unexpectedly announced the Treasury's latest attempt to rein-in long-term borrowing costs from multi-year highs, the most important component of the growth in debt. The Treasury stunned the market when it said, just two weeks after the latest Refunding Announcement where it should have made this change, that it was ramping up the support for longer-dated securities by "increasing, by at least double, the size of liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated nominal coupon securities (the 10-year to 20-year sector and the 20-year to 30-year sector)."
The announcement that sent yields plunging, if only for the time being.
Remarkably, it was less than 5 years ago that US debt hit $30 trillion back in January 2022, illustrating the rapid growth in federal borrowing needs. And there’s no end in sight.
As Bloomberg notes, "Republicans have long opposed revenue-raising tax increases," while Democrats are best known for spending like drunken sailors to maximize socialist central planning, and both parties are loathe to sign on to politically toxic cuts to healthcare and retirement benefits for seniors. Many observers anticipate Congress and the administration of the day will only act if forced by a financial-market disruption.
That won't stop them from talking about it all the time, though, as both parties at least pretend to understand that the US is on a catastrophic collision course should debt growth continue at this pace, and if the AI bet - which is now an all-in for virtually everyone - fails to dramatically boost productivity. Bessent, for one, said a key reason he got involved in politics was to help tackle deficits running at a pace unprecedented for times outside of major wars, pandemics or depressed job markets. So far he has failed catastrophically, and worse, he is doing precisely the kind of activist issuance "Twisting" for which he bashed his predecessor, Janet Yellen.
Economists, the Congressional Budget Office and Wall Street all see little or no progress in coming years for the deficit-to-gross domestic product ratio.
“Optically, I’m sure crossing thresholds like $40 trillion will focus attention on the issue in the near term,” said Matthew Luzzetti, chief US economist at Deutsche Bank AG. “But it does not represent a magical threshold for debt dynamics, and projections have anticipated this outcome for some time.”
More important, Luzzetti said, is the climb in US Treasury yields, which is steadily increasing the cost of servicing the record debt load. Last Thursday, the department’s latest 30-year bond auction resulted in the costliest such sale in a quarter century. A 10-year auction a day earlier drew the highest financing cost at that tenor since 2007, and only today's announcement which sent yields tumbling prevent today's 20Y Treasury auction from pricing at the highest yield on record.
As buyers demand higher yields, that in turn drives up the Treasury’s borrowing needs. With two months left to go in the fiscal year, the government’s tally for interest costs so far for 2026 is $1.37 trillion - a 20% increase on the same period a year before. That in turn adds to the debt, potentially fueling further investor calls for higher rates, in a pattern known as a “doom loop.”
For a visual of said doom loop, consider that the Treasury paid out about $85 billion to bondholders in its semi-annual coupon payment on Monday, the largest on record. For comparison, the Treasury paid out $75 billion of interest at the mid-month settlement period in August 2025 and about $80 billion on Feb. 17.
Interest costs are now the third-largest part of the budget, surpassing healthcare and just behind Social Security. However, at $1.6 trillion, Social Security will be topped by gross interest no later than 2026.
It gets worse: thanks to the AI bubble - and specifically the AI debt bubble which we correctly spotted one year ago and which the market is only now starting to freak out about - the record debt issuance to fund capex is now starting to crowd out of demand for US paper. This means that very soon, the US government will have to decide: keeping the electorate happy, or funding data centers so they can buy the latest massively overpriced memory chips needed to run the latest chatbot. Incidentally, those soaring memory costs are now adding about 0.5% to core PCE, a number which the admin will soon realize is very politically unpopular, and will lead to a historic crackdown on hyperinflationary memory and semiconductor prices.
“The federal budget is the enemy within,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and a former director of the CBO, wrote in a note Monday. “It is the greatest threat to the foundations of economic progress, U.S. international economic standing, and national security. The only reason for optimism should be material actions to rein in the sea of red ink. There are no such material actions.”
He is right, of course: the only time there can be material actions, is when the bond vigilantes crash the market, yet actions such as those by Bessent today assure that said day was just punted several weeks or months into the future, again and again.
But wait, because there is even more: all of the above assumes no recession, no crises, no emergencies for the foreseeable future. Well, consider that US debt exploded higher during the most recent economic downturns tied to the global financial crisis and the Covid pandemic. During those periods, revenue slid as tax-paying workers lost jobs, and assistance payments jumped. One can only imagine where US debt will be after the next recession/pandemic/hot war.
Going back to Bessent, the current Treasury secretary came into office in 2025 touting a budget deficit target of around 3% of GDP by the end of President Donald Trump’s second term, which concludes in January 2029. It’s not clear how that will possibly happen: as of July the ratio is 6% and rising... and will keep rising the longer the AI bubble drains demand for US long-dated paper.
Meanwhile, according to recent reports, Trump is seeking to galvanize support ahead of the November midterm elections, and is looking at new tax-cut promises in addition to increases in defense spending, both of which will supercharge the deficit and lead to even more debt. Meanwhile, the Elon Musk-led 2025 Department of Government Efficiency effort, which sought to slash discretionary spending including on contracts and government buildings, failed to cut outlays as much as DOGE’s own estimates projected.
And then there is the next round of political theater: the current pace of debt accumulation...
We'll take the over https://t.co/Gw0yfjylXR pic.twitter.com/Abq2dtPtrx
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 19, 2026... means that the government has about 4 or 5 months before it again hits the debt ceiling of $41.1 trillion. Hitting that marker is expected to trigger another in the series of partisan showdowns in Washington over the years to head off a potentially devastating US payments default.
“The government has not taken meaningful actions to address the large general government fiscal deficits,” Fitch said. “Spending pressures will mount over the next decade due to an aging population.” The country will be “vulnerable to future economic shocks” as debt levels increase, the rating company said.
For Fitch, talk is cheap: instead of downgrading the US credit rating, one week ago Fitch reaffirmed the US at AA+, assuring that absolutely no remedial step will be taken, and that the next debt crisis will be cataclysmic.
“Hitting this big round number will hopefully send a wake up call throughout Washington,” said Michael Peterson, who chairs the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a research group, in regard to the $40 trillion. “It will hurt everyday affordability across the country if we don’t get our debt under control,” he said.
He is wrong: everyone knows that the US is on a historic collision course with destiny. The only wake up call was for gold and bitcoin algos, both of which finally woke up from a bizarre slumber, sending both real and digital gold soaring.
Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 07:01
Tyler Durden
California clan that swindled $18M from COVID cash inspires Senate bill to crack down on ‘fraudster families’
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African Stampede For Kentucky Fried Chicken Causes Pandemonium
1 month 4 weeks ago
African Stampede For Kentucky Fried Chicken Causes Pandemonium
Kentucky Fried Chicken is running a once in a blue moon promotion to celebrate a 15 year franchise anniversary. The only problem is, they're doing it in West Africa in the country of Ghana where the poverty rate is 22% and the average yearly wage is $2630 USD.
The one-day deal (one piece of chicken, two tenders, and a small fry for GH¢15, roughly equivalent to $1.35 US) ran from 9 AM to 5 PM at locations across Ghana. The event unexpectedly drew massive crowds with no police presence, which resulted in a stampede at multiple locations that nearly developed into riots.
They opened a KFC in Africa and it goes exactly how you think it would.
I’m not even making this up. pic.twitter.com/TxbkiWY118
The aftermath of chaos at KFC Ashaiman shows a shattered glass door panel after residents attempted to force their way into the branch, with officers of the Ghana Police Service having restored calm and averted a potential stampede. pic.twitter.com/80QIjOpgoR
— 𝐀𝐒𝐊 (@askghmedia) August 15, 2026Hungry Ghana citizens arrived as early as 3 AM at some locations to get their hands on the meal containing only three pieces of chicken (reports of four pieces of chicken are, apparently, incorrect). Lines ran into the streets followed by overcrowding and confrontations. Some KFC restaurants suffered property damage as customers tried to force their way inside. Hired security tried to force the crowds back by whipping them with leather belts or spraying them with water hoses.
Police finally intervened to restore order and prevent full blown mob violence. Local media noted with some embarrassment the behavior of Ghana citizens, leading to questions about the state of Ghana's economy and level of overall poverty.
The incident once again showcases the deep canyon separating first world and third world cultures, not to mention the overall economic despair in large regions of Africa. Although, certain demographics fighting over fried chicken is not limited to Africa. Similar scenes are common on cruise lines from the US and are also a source of embarrassment for the wealthiest nation in the world.
Ghana was originally a colony of Great Britain until it gained independence in 1957; the country spiraled into steep financial decline starting in the 1960s. There have been no significant improvements in their economic situation since that time and they joined an IMF support program starting in 2025. The inflation rate has fallen sharply in the past year, but this does not improve the inflation already accumulated.
For those who want to see what food riots might look like in the wake of a cost of living crisis, incidents like this can help to paint the ugly picture. That said, it doesn't take an economic collapse to trigger a riot over fried chicken, depending who your neighbors are.
Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 06:55Tyler Durden
Australian hiker Lily Hooper, 18, found dead after family mistakenly told she was alive during 8-day search
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Argentina's Monetary Policy Reveals Germany's Loss of Control
1 month 4 weeks ago
Argentina's Monetary Policy Reveals Germany's Loss of Control
Submitted by Thomas Kolbe
Javier Milei is a politician who was trained along the lines of the Austrian School of Economics. For him, the maxim coined by Ludwig von Mises applies: inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.
In other words: artificial expansion of the money supply leads to price increases – in different ways. Newly created, unbacked credit, as it is inherent in the fiat money system, can initially manifest itself in asset prices depending on the structure of an economy, for example in a rising gold price. Once this credit becomes effective on the demand side, it can lead to broad-based increases in the prices of goods – and that is when consumers feel it in their wallets. At this point, monetary policy in the fiat system becomes unpleasant for consumers.
We experienced this phenomenon in extenso during the Covid lockdowns. At the time, governments delighted their citizens with so-called “Stimmy Checks”, free money, delivered to their doors. We experienced, in a sense, a reminiscence of the policies of the Weimar era under Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno. During the French occupation, he called on the citizens of the Ruhr region to go on general strike and attempted to keep them economically afloat with cash transfers. The outcome is well known: the Weimar Republic went under amid waves of hyperinflation, loss of confidence and systemic failure.
It should be the task of specialist media and the academic economics community to educate the public about the fundamental relationship between expansionary monetary policy and the destruction of purchasing power.
This would expose the state’s camouflage surrounding the supposed benefits of debt-financed central planning. Many people might lose their faith in the debt-based welfare sedative. Democracy could only benefit from this.
Back to the present. Since Milei took office in December 2023, remarkable developments have taken place in monetary policy and the credit mechanism. The strict fiscal policy that produced a primary surplus appears to have curbed the development of the money supply, just as the massive reduction in the public-sector workforce has done. The standard measure of the money supply, M2, which, very broadly speaking, comprises cash, bank deposits and highly liquid securities, fell from 94.7 trillion pesos when Milei took office to 84.5 trillion pesos in the second quarter of the current year. The broader measure of the money supply, M3, rose only slightly, from 163.2 to 164.2 trillion pesos.
In Argentina, a small but remarkable monetary revolution has taken place. The country had been highly inflationary for decades and drove its citizens almost by necessity into the US dollar as protection against an overbearing state apparatus. Citizens fled into the best of all bad worlds – the world’s reserve currency of fiat credit – and are now in a transitional phase. The consequence of the monetary turnaround: inflation stood at 211.4 percent in 2023, but fell to 117.8 percent in Milei’s first year in office and then to 28 percent last year. It is still fluctuating around this level.
This is a clear mandate for the president to continue his consolidation policy. Milei knows that politics also has a symbolic dimension. And so he is already presenting a political curiosity: a proposed law that would make politicians personally liable for government deficits and, in serious cases, suspend their salaries.
Milei’s fight against monetary debasement is the foundation of his economic policy. From the perspective of a libertarian economist, this makes sense: inflation throws the entire calculation mechanism of a market economy into disarray. The misallocation of scarce resources and the loss of confidence in customers’ ability to pay destroy any hope of economic prosperity. Milei is therefore attempting, through his stability policy, above all to protect the purchasing power of his citizens. You know the man: the one whom German Chancellor Friedrich Merz believes is trampling on his own people is trying to put the protective shield of a functioning market economy over his people.
A policy that in Germany is now known only by hearsay. Memories of stories told by grandparents about the era of Ludwig Erhard still linger. “Prosperity for all” was his promise, built on the social market economy, stable money and a minimal state that left economic affairs to the professionals, skilled workers and entrepreneurs.
Javier Milei has cut the state budget by 27 to 30 percent during his time in office. While price increases have subsequently moved into a disinflationary channel, that is, a trend of falling inflation rates, inflation in Germany continues to rise. Officially, Germany’s inflation rate is around 2.8 percent. Yet everyone knows that the state manipulates the definition of the consumer basket used to calculate the price level, to put it cautiously. Money is being debased considerably faster than the official statistics suggest.
Inflation is a hidden tax, a transfer from the creditor to the largest debtor, the state apparatus.
Anyone who buys government bonds to finance this mountain of debt should be clear about one thing: the coupon on the ten-year German government bond, at around 3.2 percent, is completely eaten up by inflation. In the end, the state repays its creditors with debased money.
Serious fiscal policy in Germany would first have to abandon projects that are no longer compatible with the country’s economic strength. For one thing, it would have to take into account the fact that the German welfare state should end its efforts to recruit from abroad. Remigration is unavoidable in view of the explosion in costs if rapid relief is to be achieved. The same applies to Germany’s involvement in the war in Ukraine, which will once again consume billions in transfers this year. Combined with development aid that is more than questionable and is to a large extent woven into the NGO extraction scheme, German taxpayers should be relieved of more than €20 billion annually in these two areas alone.
Considering that new borrowing to finance all these political escapades amounts to at least 5.5 percent of GDP this year, this is nothing other than a scandal. From the perspective of the German taxpayer, the only hope is that the bond market will put an end to these megalomaniacal excesses in the not-too-distant future – through massive sell-offs of German and European bonds, in order to show the chancellor and his debt minister the red card.
* * *
About the author: Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, has worked for over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.
Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 06:30Tyler Durden
Atlanta Dem Mayor Andre Dickens sparks outrage as he tells constituent to ‘shut up’ in bizarre social media spat
1 month 4 weeks ago
“Telling one to ‘shut up’ is not leadership.”
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NYC women are hanging from scaffolding, streetlights and subway rails to bust a stubborn fitness myth
1 month 4 weeks ago
Women are using everyday moments to show off their strength and prove they can master an upper-body move many assume is too difficult for them.
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"Economic D-Day": Trump Announces "Most Crushing Economic Operation Ever" Against Iran
1 month 4 weeks ago
"Economic D-Day": Trump Announces "Most Crushing Economic Operation Ever" Against Iran
Summary:
- Trump's Economic War against Iran Begins
- Trump says "severe economic consequences" for any country that does businesses with Tehran
- Trump says "ECONOMIC D-DAY" begins against Iran
- UAE Cuts Ties As Iran Warns Gulf States Against Helping Washington; Kpler Says US Navy Gaining Ground In Hormuz
President Trump is out with a Truth Social post describing today as "ECONOMIC D-DAY" against Iran, declaring that his total economic war against Tehran will be the "MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY."
Trump said that with Tehran's military and military-industrial base reduced to "now rubble" and its "currency worthless," he will unleash severe economic consequences against "ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran."
Here's the full Truth Social post:
Last week, Derek Holt, head of Capital Markets Economics at Scotiabank in Toronto, offered clients a preview of what the campaign to economically isolate Iran could look like (view here), including the potential targeting of China. Notably, much of Iran's crude exports flow to Chinese buyers.
UAE Cuts Ties As Iran Warns Gulf States Against Helping Washington; Kpler Says US Navy Gaining Ground In HormuzIran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is visiting Baghdad while at the same time US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss the Hormuz situation and security. Except of course the two sides aren't talking with each other.
President Trump has made clear that no talks are on, and that none are scheduled, as he's been floating a 'new' strategy to 'strangle' the Iranian economy over the long term. CNN reported Tuesday that White House officials have recently communicated that they are shifting their strategy — going from "hammer Iran ASAP" to "strangle them" over time.
US Navy file image/ReutersAs for Ghalibaf, he blasted War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday, mocking this new disengagement strategy, given the US has already failed to bring Tehran to its knees.
"Americans think squeezing Iran harder will win concessions that were never part of the agreement," Ghalibaf wrote in a post on X. "Bessent and Hegseth are way out of their league," Ghalibaf added while referring to them as the "clown crew." He stated:
Stop waiting for the clown crew to pull a rabbit out of their hat and clean up the mess you made.
After declaring a new 'offensive' military posture in response to the crisis, Iran is showing no signs of backing off the confrontation with the US in the region. On Wednesday its armed forces warned Gulf countries against hosting or assisting American forces, saying it would be tantamount to joining the war on the US side.
"We wish to warn that any assistance or facilitation provided to the aggressor U.S. military amounts to participation in the U.S. military operation," armed forces chief of staff Ali Abdollahi said.
"It seems unlikely that such a large number of military aircraft, particularly refueling aircraft could be present at regional bases without knowledge of host countries," the official continued as cited in Mehr news agency.
It's not known how many refueling tankers or else large warplanes are still positioned in the Gulf, but certainly the bulk of regional refueling aircraft operated by the US Air Force are currently concentrated at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion international airport - and has been subject of a lot of media attention.
And in another significant escalation that effectively torpedoes any remaining illusions of hoped-for cross-Gulf detente, the United Arab Emirates has announced Wednesday a complete and immediate severance of all economic ties with Tehran. The move comes on the heels of what UAE officials claim was a barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles targeted directly at Emirati territory.
Tehran had quickly denied it had fired missiles on its territory, but UAE authorities later clarified that the military observed two missiles inbound from Iran, which caused no damage or casualties - which triggered an urgent missile alert for the population on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, below are some of the latest major developments and reports related to the Iran conflict:
Iran has weighed attacking US military targets in Europe should Donald Trump escalate the war, according to people close to the regime, as Tehran considers its options to increase the stakes of the conflict. FT
Even as Iran projects resilience in the war with the United States, its leaders are worried that a threat of more economic punishment by Donald Trump could increase hardships, reignite unrest and further erode the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy. RTRS
Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz are piling up without an American military response, raising the risks of crossing the strategic waterway and frustrating some Arab allies who worry the U.S. doesn’t have a strategy to wind down the conflict. WSJ
However, shipping analytics firm Kpler has suggested that the US Navy is gaining ground in the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran is ceding some control, amid a war of words between President Trump and Iranian leadership over who has actual 'control'.
previewing new sanctions still to be announced...
The Trump administration appears to be indicating it favors economic warfare in its approach to the conflict with Iran, touting its naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and previewing new sanctions still to be announced. https://t.co/k5g4FBcxF7
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 19, 2026"At the moment, however, the evidence is clear: The United States, patrolling the strait with its navy, is gaining ground – and Iran is losing much of its control of the critical waterway," writes CNN. "More than 80% of liquids transits through the Strait of Hormuz over the past two weeks have taken the Omani route – a UN-authorized shipping channel that Iran vehemently opposes – or have been 'dark' transits that likely took the Omani route, according to Kpler, which tracks ships using transponders and satellite data."
But there's as yet no rush for international shipping to return to the waterway, given the risk of attack and all of the serious unknowns which could result in total losses as well as threaten the safety of crew.
Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 06:25Tyler Durden