We have a small hoard of denarii from Trajan (98-117AD), who is famous for his conquest of Dacia – the Balkans. When the Trajan came to power in 98AD following the death of Nerva, King Decebalus of Dacia had become a threat to the Roman Empire, defeating several of Rome’s legions during the reign of Domitian (81–96AD). Trajan gained the people’s and the Senate’s support to wage war against Dacia (modern-day Balkans).

Trajan was known for his exceptional military abilities, philanthropic work, and his fairness during his reign from 98 AD to 117 AD. He was honored with the title of “Optimus Princeps,” meaning “the best ruler,” by the Senate. Nerva was old and had no heir, in addition to being highly unpopular with the public and the deep state bureaucrats. To ease the tension, Nerva chose Trajan as his successor. When Trajan ascended the throne, his military campaigns contributed to his celebrity status. As I have said before, Romans used the coinage as newspapers. We will have groups of 10 Trahan denarii, each with a different reverse illustrating various issues.

Trajan conquered the Dacians and launched three military invasions. Thus, under his reign, the Roman Empire reached its peak. Trajan performed many other social and political reforms that made him popular in his rival kingdoms, too. After a successful reign that lasted for 19 years, Trajan died due to an unknown illness. His adopted son, Hadrian, succeeded him.

Anyone who has been to Rome or the museums in London will undoubtedly gawk at Trajan’s column—a true masterpiece of art. This records Trajan’s conquest of Dacia

We will be posting on Monday Denarii of Trajan  VF or better $125.00 each.

Sets of 10 different Reverses illustrating how the Romans used the coinage as Newspapers …. $975

There is no question that Zelensky has become a ruthless dictator at the behest of the West. If Trump really wants to end this war, cut off EVERYTHING to Ukraine until Zelensky allows an election and then send in monitors to ensure the Ukrainian people get a real election. Sources in Ukraine have often questioned if he was actually elected. But that is revisiting history and who knows the truth? What is clear is that he ran promising peace and has done absolutely everything opposite of what he ran for election promising.

Vladimir Putin has raised this question about Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy as President of Ukraine to even negotiate on behalf of the Ukrainian people. Zelensky’s term in office actually expired in May 2024, which coincided with the attempted assassination of Zelensky by Ukrainian military officers. On our May 7th ECM target date, two Ukrainian colonels were arrested involving an internal attempt to assassinate Zelensky when he should have allowed free elections but used martial law to end the freedom to vote. This was no different from the military officers who tried to save Germany and also got caught trying to assassinate Hitler.

President Zelensky frequently replaced key figures in Ukraine’s security forces whenever they questioned his strategy. He is a comedian and has ZERO military training. They even allege that he didges the draft himself, refusing to show up when summoned.

There is a serious question if he can negotiate on behalf of the Ukrainian people. Sources make it clear if the war is over, he will eventually flee to Miami, which was the promise under Biden’s Neocons. Staying in Ukraine will most likely not be an option for him because, with over a million Ukrainians dead since he killed the peace deal on orders from Boris Johnson, he will not survive long out of office. He has destroyed his country, and his fame will turn into being notorious, no different than Hitler. Any peace deal will most likely find him fleeing the country.

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Total global debt has peaked to 326% of global GDP, adding an additional $12 trillion of debt in the last three quarters of 2024, according to the Institute of International Finance. This figure surpasses what we saw amid the pandemic and is expected to continually rise and governments continue to borrow with no intention of repayment.

The Big Bang of the sovereign debt crisis began in 2015.75, as indicated by the computers, around the introduction of negative rates and Quantitative Easing, which shifted the risk from the free market to the central banks. The 2015.75 date was also 26 years from the first break in Marxism in 1989. The bottom of the ECM from 2015.75 to 2020.05 was also 31.4 years from the start of the fall of communism that culminated in the final stages of the collapse of socialism. I repeatedly warned that our models indicated the central banks would become trapped by these policies and now we have a completely unsustainable situation.

If interest rates rise, their portfolios crash in value (price). Such an outcome would raise the question of will the private sector return to the government bond markets when they see there is a rising risk factor? Our model showed that this would not be the case. In other words, the Sovereign Debt Crisis has taken place and to prevent the PRICE crash, the central banks became the buyer to hold interest rates down and bond prices up. We have seen governments and institutions offload bonds and government debt since the Big Bang.

Emerging markets have reached 245% of GDP in debt, totaling $105 trillion. Poor nations are now spending more on their debt than infrastructure, health care, or education. These nations cannot afford to simply not repay and multilateral development banks have turned into lenders of last resort.

ALL government debt is in serious trouble because they just never fund a damn thing. The solution is to always borrow and there is no plan to ever pay anything back. The behind the curtain reasoning is they are burning money for fuel because they are always reducing the value of prior debt that is never indexed to inflation.

We have seen larger economies begin the snowball effect of borrowing after World War II and the repercussions are now arising. Now we have a serious crisis that has shifted from the free trading bond markets exclusively to the central banks. This is part of the crisis unfolding in the repo market. There does not appear to be any recovery on the horizon. Politicians are undermining the confidence in government, to begin with, and that will influence bond buyers.

The astounding debt crisis has fanned the flames of war as initiating a global conflict is a way, politicians believe, to continue delaying debt payments. The majority of nations are simply too far gone in debt to ever properly repay. Who would buy if there is no guaranteed return?

Total global government debt is now $98,000,000,000,000 ($98 trillion) and is forecast to reach $130 trillion by 2028, which is also when the computer has predicted that the world will feel the aftershocks of a global recession.

Around 20,000 American troops stationed in Europe are set to return home after new orders from the commander-in-chief. Trump plans to reduce the American military’s overall presence in Europe by 20% and insist on “financial contribution” for any American troops stationed in Europe.

As I said, Trump is a business man. He has also warned Taiwan and others that American protection will come at a cost. America has been expected to act as the world police because of its military and financial power, but what benefit has that been to America? Why should US tax payers be on the hook to protect foreign nations when past administrations have blocked any funding to protect US borders?

There are about 100,000 American troops stationed throughout Europe. NATO believes America must continue to finance its alliance and insists that protecting Europe equates to protecting America. Yet, NATO members have repeatedly failed to fund the alliance with the required 2% of GDP. Trump is now insisting that members contribute 5% of GDP and reaffirmed his stance that Europe must protect Europe. Now he is putting his words into actions.

The neocons insist this is a massive blow to NATO and America’s alliance with Europe. But the alliance has been more of a reliance on America and the conditions have not been mutually beneficial. NATO has taken full advantage of American protection and has had years to reallocate funds toward the alliance. America has been bankrolling other nations since World War II and has been stretching its military presence across the world, promising protections to everyone from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Middle East, various naval trade routes – the list goes on and on. Now Europe, a conglomerate of nations, is expected to take care of one conflict front but refuses to do so.

President Donald Trump implemented a widespread freeze on federal loans and grants, ordering all agencies this week to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.” He was forced to back off after a federal judge halted some of the freeze. The public sector has been multiplying in recent years to the point that there are thousands of agencies whose true purpose are unknown. While many view the act as extreme, public sector growth has become detrimental to our economy and one must determine what exactly the government is funding.

As Adam Smith wrote in “Wealth of Nations”:

“Like an improvident spendthrift, whose pressing occasions will not allow him to wait for the regular payment of his revenue, the state is in the constant practice of borrowing of its own factors and agents, and of paying interest for the use of its own money.”

The wealth of a nation is composed of more than money or gold, for the original idea of “money” did not embrace the concept of true wealth. Money is merely our mental measure of wealth. Cultures in different parts of the world all conceive of money but it is merely how they measure this universal concept of wealth.

There is only one constant and that is the greater the size of government, the lower the production of national wealth. Therefore, the higher the percentage of a nation’s work force is employed by the public sector, the lower its real national product. We saw this in Argentina as of late. Of course, government wishes to include itself in the GDP calculation and it counts government workers twice in many countries. It adds total government spending and adds that to total personal income. By doing this they count all government employees twice for they do not back it out of the total government spending. So we have bogus statistics in GDP as well for the economy appears better when government hires rather than the public sector. That is why we will see unemployment rise under Trump but in all actuality that figure will not be indicative of the overall health of our economy.

Now, Trump specifically is asking for more information on 2,600 programs to determine their legitimacy. Biden implemented a slew of DEI iniatives and programs that do nothing but TAKE from our economy. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent the aforementioned companies the following questions:

• Does this program provide funding that is implicated by the directive to end discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities, under whatever name they appear, or other directives in the same EO, including those related to “environmental justice” programs or “equity-related” grants?
• Does this program promote gender ideology?
• Does this program promote or support in any way abortion or other related activities identified in the Hyde Amendment?

“It means no more funding for the green new scam that has cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday at her first news briefing. “It means no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness across our federal bureaucracy and agencies.” The new press secretary, who actually responds to questions, said it is “the responsibility of this president and this administration to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.” Welfare aid programs are not vanishing, rather, the government is reevaluating its spending to best direct dollars.

Organizations promoting woke gender ideology, DEI, and the green new deal will be the first to go but a significant cut is needed to restore some order. The fear mongering about Trump eliminating Medicaid and food assistance programs are unfounded. The new administration must determine what agencies are legitimate and eliminating services that do not add to our society in any meaningful way is the first step.

Argentina is an excellent example of how quickly an economy can recover when we remove socialistic programs. There were 341,477 people in the public sector on government payroll when President Milei took office, and his aim is to eliminate 70,000 needless positions. From December 2023 to October 2024, Argentina reduced the national administration was reduced by 10% and state-run firms decreased by 12.6%. Reducing the national administration alone saved the government $3.82 billion in the short-term, not accounting for future payouts, additional staffing, or pensions. Yet he began by eliminating services that were simply unnecessary.

Milei first eliminated useless agencies such as the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor, and Ministry of Social Development. In his words, Argentina WAS a poor country that could not afford these departments that do absolutely nothing to improve the nation’s economic conditions. No one noticed when he reduced the cabinet by 50%, but the economy certainly took note and posted its first budget surplus in 123 years this December.

“The deficit was the root of all our evils — without it, there’s no debt, no emission, no inflation. Today, we have a sustained fiscal surplus, free of default, for the first time in 123 years. This historic achievement came from the greatest adjustment in history and reducing monetary emission to zero. A year ago, a degenerate printed 13% of GDP to win an election, fueling inflation. Today, monetary emission is a thing of the past,” Milei proudly announced.

Yes, other factors contributed to Argentina’s recent success, but moving away from socialism and ever-growing social programs was paramount. Socialism NEVER works but world leaders refuse to learn from the past.

Under Biden, we saw manufacturing flee the US. The jobs reports often looked promising but they failed to recognize the rising public sector that can never contribute to GDP. We have seen what happens when governments grow to disproportionate figures and it never ends well. The longest reigning empire, the Roman Empire, fell as a direct result of an oversized public sector that bankrupted Rome. The private sector produces economic growth, while government is a public servant consuming the wealth generated by others.

The Deep State is more than a swamp; it is an ocean. It is so deeply rooted that I wish Trump all the best, but I am not sure he will be able to root out the core corruption. That will probably take a sovereign default, and history warns that a revolution will often follow. This time, the government is entrenched in bribing the people to retain power, giving them free food and circuses, and they will be the government alone, as they used to say in Rome.

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. made it clear what Free Speech was in Schenk v. U.S., 249 U.S. 47 (1919) (1919), ruling that a restriction is legitimate only if the speech in question poses a “clear and present danger”—i.e., a risk or threat to safety or to other public interests that is serious and imminent. Yelling fire in a crowded movie theatre is not free speech. There have been many cases involving freedom of speech and of the press over the years, and what is taking place in Europe is a rejection of free speech. In Britain, they sentenced a man to 20 months in prison for saying he was tired of paying taxes to support migrants who then raped their children. They are defining much that simply disagrees with government policy as “hate speech,” which is expressing a political opinion.

In Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947), Justice Hugo L. Black on the Supreme Court traced the origins of the First Amendment to a bill establishing religious freedom that Jefferson drafted and introduced in the Virginia General Assembly in 1779, but was finally passed only in 1786 demanded by James Madison. This had three main sections prohibiting compulsory religion requirements of any kind, maintaining that men were free to express their opinions on religion and choose how or if to worship. That was a fundamental right as citizens and it was the foundation as a natural right of mankind. Justice Black wrote:

“Yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that, if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.”

Justice John Marshall Harlan, whose grandfather had been on the Supreme Court from 1877 to 1911, delivered the decision in Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971) where the state criminalized the word “f–k” being used in political protests against the government. He made it clear that the State may not, consistently with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, make the simple public display of this single four-letter expletive a criminal offense. Starmer in Britain imprisoning people for merely saying migrants raped their children was a criminal offense and sentenced a man to 20 months in prison.

Freedom of speech includes the rights to:

• Not to speak (specifically, the right not to salute the flag).
  West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).
• Of students to wear black armbands to school to protest a war (“Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.”).
  Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503 (1969).
• To contribute money (under certain circumstances) to political campaigns.
  Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976).
• To engage in symbolic speech (e.g., burning the flag in protest).
  Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989); United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990).

What you MUST understand is that the EU is collapsing. The failure to ever consolidate the debts has led to (1) disparity among members, and (2) the Euro has never been able to replace the dollar, lacking a unified debt market to attract capital. The more desperate the financial crisis unfolds in Europe between war and debt, the more authoritarian the government will become. This is why Scholtz has the audacity to claim Germany has free speech as long as you are not their opposition. You cannot have free speech and ban the political speech of your opposition.

With all the talk of war in Europe, we are starting to see a massive exodus of European investment by foreigners. The Japanese dumped a record $53 billion worth of Euro investments, and we see the same from European investors trying to get out before capital controls coincide with the first bullet fired. The European leaders are braindead. They cannot grasp that the harder they beat their war drums, the more smart money will get out of the EU before it is too late. The Euro has been in an overall bear market decline since 2008.